Sunday August 21st

No complaints about the weather today, it was pretty nice this morning! Not so happy about the spiders though, why do they always have to weave their webs at face height near the shed so I get a sleepy face full of web in the morning?

Walking round and the fish seemed to be all round the lake, but more so on the earlier numbers. On queuing at the draw-bag the person in front of me walked away from the bag as peg 64 was still in and they'd struggled off it last time. My hand goes in the bag and out comes 64.... I didn't really want it either! They promptly drew after me and got 66 and moaned about that too, some people are never happy!

I had four rigs up, two for across, one for 5m and one in the margins to my right at just 4m. The bankside vegetation doesn't allow you to fish much further on either side but the right was against some reeds and a touch shallower than the left. The far bank rigs were at about 13.5m, one to fish in 14in of water and one right up the bank in about 9in of water. Both were identical otherwise, being NG XTM's on .17 to .15 and an 18 Fox Series 2. Both were on Preston 15 hollo. The 5m rig was a .3gr NG Decker in about five and a half foot of water. Terminal gear was the same and the lakky was black Hydro. Last up was the margin rig. In about two and a half foot of water the float was a .2gr DC5 on .19 line to a .17 hook-link to a size 16 Series 2. Lakky was purple Hydro.

There were a few fish moving so I was confident I could catch a few fish. On the whistle the far line was fed with a palm-full of pellets, while the 5m line had half a pot of hemp and corn. I didn't feed the margin to start with as I could easily do that by hand at any point, plus experience told me that if that line goes it'll be very late - no point wasting bait feeding the small fish!

As per usual I went across on a 6mm expander which immediately gave me a roach. Not the usual micro one, but about 2oz - better, but not what I was after! A switch to a banded 8mm pellet and the float did it's dancing trick before vanishing. This gave me a little carp of about 4oz, so the right species, but the wrong size! I had two more carp of the same size in the next twenty minutes before I saw some movement very tight to the bank. I had been feeding pellets via a catty and some bait was going tight, so it was on with the very short rig!

Going tight over gave me a few knocks but no proper bites, and the tail I could see had gone as I shipped over. With no joy I decided to feed tight over with the pot and leave it, so a quarter of a pot of 6mm pellets went across before I had a quick try on the 5m line, but this gave no joy.

On trying up the island I had nothing there either, so I went back on to the original rig for a short while but all the happened here was the float danced around while the roach played head tennis with the pellet. When I shipped back in the pellet was round in the band!

On the hour and a half mark I decided I'd need the margin sooner rather than later. I could see those pegged on the opposite bank in the open water catching well. I'd had odd bubbles start on the 5m line and was fishing here on a cube of meat when I started to feed the margin by hand. I gave it one big handful of hemp, and just as I gave it one of corn the pole yanked as a carp hooked it's self! Off the mark with regards to proper carp, a lively ghostie mirror of about 5lb was the culpret.

Despite that one carp I couldn't raise any more bites off that line, but I was at least starting to get indications off it. On the two hour mark I decided to have a go in the margins where I'd been flicking about a dozen grains of corn every five minutes. A bite strait away saw me attached to a decent fish that charged out of the swim before pulling off! I fed it and rested it, going back to the 5m line. Here I hooked a decent mirror on corn that looked a good 7lb, and that pulled off just as I went to net it and fired my rig up a tree. A new hook-link was required after!

I couldn't get any more bites off the 5m line after so I dropped back in on the margin on double corn. A quick bite here saw me land a small common of about 3lb, and feeding just after I hooked it saw me hook a fish almost strait away after dropping in again. This did the same as the first fish I hooked down the edge and charged off and the hook pulled. This was not amusing and I have to admit I was rather peeved. I changed the hook-link, even though there was nothing wrong with the hook, but the bites stopped after.

I had a brief try over, where I had still been feeding via the catty but even the roach had got bored of mullering the pellet - probably they had a jaw ache! The match was passing by and frustratingly too. I fed a big pot of corn on the 5m line to try and boost it, as I could get odd indications on it. It worked to a degree as the float buried with a single grain of corn as bait, but the result was a crucian of about a pound. I carried on plugging away, changing the shotting to try and make hittable bites from the odd knock. I did manage to nab another small carp of about 3lb off the line, fishing well away from the feed but with two hours to go I had just three carp.

I found myself back in the margins and was getting odd bites but could not connect with them. I'm not sure if the missed bites were smaller fish or because the wind was blowing the rig back towards me a touch, as I do find then that having the float closer to you than the pole tip seems to result in missed bites for whatever reason. Still, the increase in movement was encouraging!

With an hour and a half to go I had a try on the 5m line again, and thought I had it sussed when when I managed two fish in a row, each taken by moving the shot well away from the hook in a much less positive spread-bulk and two droppers pattern, and then lowering the float in very slowly. It didn't work for a third time though! In fact, even the knocks lessened after.

With an hour to go I dropped in the edge on double corn and the float was away instantly and soon a slightly better fish of about 5lb was in the net. In fact I found myself going from relative inactivity to motoring! By feeding after I hooked a fish bites came very steadily. I'd like to claim it went like a dream and I hit them all but but I did still miss a couple. With just under an hour to go when I put carp number six in the net I found myself putting carp number fifteen in the net about twenty seconds after the whistle - what a complete change of a swim! The average stamp was good too. I did have two smaller fish, going about 5lb the pair of them, but the others were bigger and the best being number thirteen, a common of about 8lb.

When the scales got to me the other bank had fished very well, with weights of 92lb and 70lb being top and a couple of 40lb weights too. My fish went 61lb 2oz in total, and in the end that was good enough for third place, with nobody else challenging the frame after me.

In the end I was pretty pleased, as while the lost fish cost me second I got a result off a peg that nobody really likes. It's just a shame I packed all the action into one hour rather than spread it out!

Next weekend brings the August Bank Holiday, and while I won't be out on the Sunday I shall on the Monday, so the next update will be a bit later. Tight lines until then!