Well, a Sunday without the wind... And no rain too! The forecast for the day was for it to be bright sunshine and hot so I was hoping for a bit of shade. Putting my hand in the bag and out came peg 70, with absolutely no shade at all!
When I got to the peg there were quite a few fish cruising around so my plan was to start on the deck at 13m, but to come up shallow. The two shallow rigs covered from just a few inches deep to about 2ft, both on quite long lines. The shallowest had a Korum Blob on it, while the deeper one was a Nick Gilbert XTM. Both rigs were finished with size 20 Fox Series 2's to .15 line and matched to Preston 15h lakky. The deck rig was in about 6ft of water and was a .3gr Nick Gilbert Decker float on .17 to a .15 hook-link and a size 18 Fox Series 2. Lakky on this was black Hydro. This rig was also for my 2+2 line fished at about 11 O'clock where it was about two inches shallower than out. Last up was my margin rig for 6m to my right under a tree. In two foot of water a .2gr DC5 float was on .19 to a .17 hook-link and a size 16 Fox Series 2 hook, matched to purple Hydro.
On the whistle I fed the long line with a decent pinch of 6mm pellets, while the 2+2 line got half a pot of hemp and corn. I didn't feed the margin as behind the tree the reeds were solid with carp, and I anticpated that as the angler on the reeds caught some fish would back away and hopefully sit there feeling safe.
Starting on the deck rig it was plainly obvious that nothing was on the bottom so after ten minutes I started to rotate the shallow rigs and flick them towards any fish that looked interested in the loose-fed pellets. At this point both pegs to my right had carp (the end peg had four in the first half an hour!) It took until about forty minutes into the match before I hooked my first fish, and by this time everyone I could see had caught. I wasn't best pleased then when it came off at the net!
On the hour mark I'd found that feeding bigger pouches of pellets less frequent seemed to spark more life from the cruisers, and with polariods on I could see odd fish stopping under the surface to eat. This led to me getting off the mark with two carp in the next twenty minutes, both taken by slapping the shallowest rig infront of them. Neither were big, the first about a pound and a half, the second about 3lb. I plugged away on this line until the two hour mark, but the cruisers seemed to have backed away and despite changing the feeding about it was plainly obvious they weren't going to have it.
I'd heard a fair bit of splashing in the two pegs to my right (I couldn't really see them due to the tree) so I baited up the margin rig with double corn and dropped under the tree, feeding just a toss-pot of hemp and corn there as I'd seen movement. Ten minutes with just a liner led to be giving it a hit of bait with the big pot before leaving it alone and trying the 2+2 line which I'd been loose feeding by hand.
I had ten minutes without joy here when, just as I was about to go on the shallow line again I missed a bite. Next drop in I started to get an odd liner then eventually had two fish in two drops, both from mirrors that would have been about 5lb each were it not for they fact they looked as though they had just spawned, and they probably went about 7lb the pair. Some tails waiving under the tree led me to try here on a cube of meat, and the float went instantly with the culprit a common of about 2lb, but after that the bait was getting mauled by roach.
The next hour was slow, adding two carp about 2lb each from the 2+2 line. With two hours to go I decided to be a bit more positive on that line, changing the spread bulk shotting to a more positive tight bulk just a foot away from the hook, fished with a cube of meat. This did the trick as the next three drops all produced positive bites, giving me two fish about 5lb each, plus one of about 3lb. Bites then went iffy after this so a change to a bulk and one dropper and going back to corn gave me two more carp, leaving me on twelve fish with an hour to go.
After that run of fish the line went off again, so I left it alone and had a brief try in the margins which I'd been topping up every 30-40 minutes. There were always carp in the swim but bites were impossible to come by and I can only assume that they were fish that had backed away from the next peg who'd been catching there, and they were frightened rather than famished!
Going back on the 2+2 and I started to loose-feed more by hand again, as the last hour the bulk of the bait had gone in via a toss-pot while I was catching. This produced odd fish, but they were of a reasonable stamp (3-4lb) so I plugged away. Quite often I'd get two fish before a change in shotting, or fishing else where around the feed was needed to get another bite. With ten minutes to go I was on sixteen carp and changed back to fishing with just the bulk a foot from the hook with a single grain of corn. I netted carp number seventeen with six minutes to go, a mirror of about 5lb, and thought to myself I'd have time for one more. Lowering the float through the loose corn and the float was away instantly with number eighteen, and with a minute to go I was out and the same trick repeated and number nineteen was duly netted a couple of minutes after the whistle!
It's not often while catching I'm pleased to hear the whistle but the heat was so fierce it was nice to find a bit of shade before packing up. As the third from last to weigh I was comfortably packed away and joined the scales two pegs to my left where I was enjoying my last bottle of cold drink under the shade of a large tree! At this point 31lb odd was top weight, and when the scales got to me I put 65lb something (I can't even remember my own weight, how bad!) on the scales to take the lead. I'd heard splashing from the reeds pegs but couldn't see them, so had no idea what they had. The first to weigh put 41lb on the scales, while the last had less than that and gave me the win.
You may have noticed that I've got a little piece on the left called tackle box now, and I just thought that every month or so I'll give a little write up on some of the bites and pieces I use. I'd like it to look a bit better than it is, so it may well get fiddled around with again. Oh, and you can feed those fish too, just left click over them with the mouse!
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