Sunday 4th September

With the two days before today being nice and warm I was quite optimistic that the lake would fish well, and the weather this morning was even nice with it being mild, overcast and with a slight breeze... looking good!

Walking round before hand I didn't really know where I wanted to draw, apart from 64 that is - I fancied a change of scenery! Thankfully, when I dipped my hand in to the bag that number was gone but I managed to get the same two numbers on my ticket, with 46 coming out in my hand. I was pretty happy with that!

There were a few fish cruising about so I set up two shallow rigs for long, one for between 1-2ft and the other for less than that. My 2+2 line was only about two inches shallower than it was long, so I could use that for trying on the deck here. That rig was a .3gr NG Decker on .17 to .15 and an 18 Fox Series 2 in about 6ft of water. Terminal gear was the same for the two shallow rigs and lakky on all was Preston 15h. Last up was a margin rig for 6m to my right along the bare bank. In about 2ft of water the rig was a .2gr DC5 on .19 line to a .17 hook-link and a size 16 Fox Series 2. Lakky was purple Hydro.

On the whistle the 2+2 line had half a pot of hemp and corn, while I decided on a positive attack for the margin giving it a whole pot of the same. I started on the deeper of the shallow rigs and started pinging a few pellets in. I didn't expect to bag off this line, I was more hoping to get a few early mug fish before the other two lines hopefully came on. An odd fish started to look a little interested and I came up on to the shallowest rig. After about forty minutes I briefly hooked a fish but I'm not sure if it had just rolled in to the line.

On the hour mark without a fish I decided on a quick try on the other lines (I'd topped up the 2+2 line by hand, while I carried on attacking the margin with half a pot every half hour). I had no signs on the deep line so I baited the margin rig with double corn. It didn't take long for the float to vanish and I was in to my first fish.... which then came off! Not the best start, and with no more indications I topped it up and left it alone.

I had a brief try on the shallow line again, but now the pellet was getting knocked by roach so I gave that up and came back on the 2+2 line. I think by this point practically everyone I could see had caught, and peg 66 had five or six carp. With no joy I rotated between the two lines and it was just after the two hour mark when I had my first bite on the 2+2 line, which I missed! I didn't miss the next two mind and was off the mark, albeit with two small fish for about 4lb. The third came after stopping to top-up the margin line and was probably bigger than the other two put together! However, just as I was thinking of lining up a few fish the line died on me.

Dropping back in the edge I was pleased to get a bite strait away and from a decent fish too, a common of about 5lb. By now it started to rain, just steadily at first before increasing to a monsoon! I found that instead of toss-potting it was better to feed half a cup of corn and catch two fish before feeding again. Despite the rain (and a very noisy F15 jet doing aerobatics over the top for the Duxford display) I was putting a steady run of fish together. Bites were by no means fast but I was catching up on everyone I could see. I had to fish double corn to get a bite (and I was missing odd ones) and the one bite I had on a 10mm cube of meat gave me a mirror of about 1oz!

With an hour and a half to go I was on fifteen carp, with a few decent fish up to 7lb in the net too. Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and the wind dropped and I couldn't buy a bite! Fish would still come in down the edge, but they wouldn't settle properly. A spell on the 2+2 line gave me one small carp of about 2lb, but it seemed that everyone had stopped catching! I guessed that the only person I could see now with more fish was peg 70 opposite, but they looked smaller.

The last hour was hard work, I had one more fish down the edge of about 7lb again, but after that the only line I could get a bite off was an occasional one well away from the feed on the 2+2 line, and they were small fish of about 2lb each. I finished the match on nineteen carp, although perhaps I could have had an extra fish or two had I not kept chasing the odd fish that came in the edge to feed, but they always melted away when you put the pole near them!

I was the third person to weigh in, and when the scales got to me the two weights were 53lb 8oz and 49lb 12oz. My fish went just over 74lb, while those coming back from round the island were only admitting to four or five fish each. I carried on packing away (I was doing it slowly and leaving stuff in the sun behind my peg to dry!) and walked up just as the last angler weighed in. I was right about my fish being bigger than peg 70's as theirs totalled 54lb 3oz, leaving me clear at the top! The rest of the weights were close mind, and a few people were cursing lost fish who'd just missed out.

I think next week is back on the same lake again, so here's to hoping it keeps in good form and the fish are after a good feed up before the winter, which doesn't seem so far away now....