Hmm, the weather seems a bit confused now, it really doesn't seem to know if it's summer or autumn!Walking round the lake before the draw and I wanted a peg round the sides or the back of the lake (from 13 round to 33), although lately I always seem to draw along the front. When I went in the bag pretty much all the pegs on the front of the lake had gone, so my hand goes in and out comes peg 5! Still, at least I didn't have to walk far.
In all honesty, while I didn't want a draw round the front of the lake (it's not the form area), if I had to choose one swim in that area in warmer weather it would be peg 5. It couldn't be any worse than the last time I drew it anyway, when I had just one perch off it in the second round of the winter league.
The rigs that went up were pretty standard really - a small Nick Gilbert XTM on .17 to .15 for across, finished with an 18 Fox Series 2 hook and matched to Preston 15h lakky. I was very pleased when I managed to find about 18in of water almost right against the bank, which is a non-existance on most pegs due to the low water level at the moment. Fishing tight to the bank stops the liners from fish swimming behind your float. It also meant that if I wanted to feed with the catty any over-shot the pellets would either be right up the bank out of the way (feeding the moorhen) or would drop off the steep bank onto my float! The other rigs up were a .4gr Nick Gilbert Decker for fishing the 2+2 line. After catching late on this line not that far away last week I was quite confident of nabbing a fish or two on it. Terminal gear was the same as the far-bank rig, fished in about 6.5ft of water, but matched to Preston 13h lakky on a pull-bung. Last up was the margin rig. This was 0n .19 to .17 and a 16 Fox Series 2. Float was a .2gr DC5 fished in about 2ft of water, and was matched to purple Hydro. If fish show on this line they're animals!
On the whistle the far line was fed with a small pinch of pellets and some loose crumb, while the 2+2 line and the margins had half a pot of bait each, a mixture of hemp and corn with a small amount of meat. Going across with a 6mm expander on the hook it was about ten minutes before I started to get any signs, and I'm sure they were from small fish. Given that I was getting small knocks I started to feed about ten pellets and a small pinch of crumb across to keep some bait going in. There were a few carp milling about so I was sure some would have a munch at some point.
It was on the 45 minute mark when I had my first bite. I was re-filling the toss-pot and could actually see a fish feeding across, so I lowered the bait slowly down and it was away instantly, and I tapped the bait out of the pot as the fish swam out of the swim. Isoon had a 4lb common in the net, and had a liner not long after that but then the swim faded away and I couldn't buy a bite.
On the hour and a half mark I decided on a try on the 2+2 line which I'd been feeding by hand but couldn't get a bite here. I decided to start introducing a few casters across, and tried half a worm. This got a bite strait away from a tiny perch, not really what I was after! At this point, of the five anglers I could see I'd only seen the angler on peg 39 (the end peg and the golden peg) hook a fish, although it turned out that they'd lost it. I tried caster across but couldn't get a bite off any line. I had one liner on the 2+2 line but nothing else ever developed, even though I could still see a few fish cruising.
It was on the half way mark of the match when I had a bite out of the blue, and this gave me a ghostie of about 4lb. I had another bite next drop which gave me a mirror of about 5lb. I'd started to feed with the catty but nothing more came after that brief flurry so I topped it up via the big pot, giving it about twenty pellets, the same of casters plus some loose crumb.
I was still dropping in on the other lines but couldn't raise a single indication from them. I fed a couple of pots of loose crumb down the edge, as I figured I had nothing to loose. Plugging away across I could get an odd liner so I spent most of my time here as at least odd fish seemed to be present.
With just over an hour to go I tried half a worm across and had a bite not long after lowering it in, with the resulting fish a common of about 6lb. The next drop produced another bite to the worm, with this fish a touch bigger at around 7lb. No bites followed next drop so I topped up with the big cup again but the next bite saw me bump a fish. I thought I'd got away with it when I had a 3lb ghostie soon after but my thoughts of a last hour bonanza were done with and I had no more indications until the last few minutes of the match when the fish came back but I didn't have enough time to nab one.
For the second week in a row I was on the scales so everyone had to wait while I packed away, although it was apparent there were a few DNW's. Peg 31 was supposed to have caught a few, but depending on who you listened to it varied from 6-9 carp, and they're not always the most honest at saying what they have either!
With me the first to weigh in (the angler on the peg to my right blanked, as did the one to my left) my fish totalled 29lb 4oz. Peg 11 was the next to put anything of note on the scales, with 11lb of pasties and one 8lb'er which turned out enough for second, pipping peg 15 by just a few ounces. A few double figure weights followed, but also a few DNW's and peg 31 then put a weight of just over 18lb on the scales, but was less than what peg 15 had so had to be content with 4th. The last to weigh in was peg 37 who put one fish of 11lb 4oz on the scales, probably one of the most perfect commons you'll ever see.
So, a win from an area I didn't want wasn't bad on what turned out to be a hard day for all on the new lake. Next weeks open is back on the old lake, and a club booking on that lake was won with 104lb so it's fair to say most are looking forward to being back on there!
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