I was looking forward to fishing the new lake again, so after helping out with a bit of swim repairing on the old lake (nothing like a bit of digging on a Sunday morning!), I had a wonder around to have a look at where I fancied drawing. The later numbers looked favourable to me - anything from 18 upwards, but particularly pegs 20, 25 and 37. I wasn't lucky when my hand went in to the bag mind, with peg 5 coming out - only one peg in before me so I was a bit away from where I wanted.
It's not that it's a bad peg, but it is a peg that's much better in the warm - and it hasn't been that! Still, I set about having four lines of attack; two margin swims, a 5m line and a far bank line. Starting with the far rig, it was a standard set up for me really - a small NG floats XTM on .17 line to a .15 hook-link and a size 18 Fox series 2 hook. The depth here was about 20in. I was going to fish worm on this line, so I hoped I'd get away with the heavy-ish gear! lakky was Preston 13h on a pull-bung. The 5m line was at an angle to my left in about 6.5ft of water, as it was sloping up slightly here. A .4gr Ng Decker was the float for this, with the rest of the terminal gear being the same as the far rig. I decided to fish two margin swims, but feeding them only after a couple of hours. The same rig for both, but I was going to loose-feed one and try groundbait on the other. Terminal gear was again the same, but the float was a 4x12 Preston Somo doctored to take a plastic tip, and the depth was about 2.5ft. Lakky was Preston 15h here, as hopefully I'd get a few munters down there!
On the whistle I fed a smallish amount of worm and caster across, with a few pellets mixed in. The 5m line had a pinch of hemp and corn, and I would flick a few grains of corn and the odd cube of meat here. Starting on the worm I was expecting bites, if not from carp then perch! They didn't come though, so I put a small cad-pot on and started dripping in small amounts of worm mix. It took an hour before I saw a fish caught - a couple of pegs up by dobbing bread.
I had a quick try on the 5m line with no joy, so fed my right hand margin with a bit of meat and corn, and started flicking odd cubes of meat here too. Odd fish were cruising, and I couldn't believe how slow it was. It was a full two hours before I had my first bite, which I missed! Lowering the worm back down the same hole it didn't take long to go again, and no mistake with this one as the lakky streamed out. With very little caught by others (I'd only seen three carp caught) a 5lb common was a welcome start. I loaded the cad-pot up and started to ship back across only to have two geese decide to have a fight in my swim - the second week running! I think the next addition to my rod holdall may be a shotgun.....
The next two hours were dire, and I couldn't raise an indication from anywhere. It was only when I started topping off the pot with a small amount of groundbait I started to get a very occasional liner/knock. I'd dumped a bit of groundbait in the other margin, as the end peg to my right had caught a decent fish in the edge. It could be that this coincided with the sun being on the far bank mind, I'll never know!
It wasn't until just under an hour to go before I had another bite, again from the far line. It was a good fish too at about 7lb. I hoped it would be the start of a last hour bonanza, but the only other action I had was a bite on worm down the edge from a 2oz perch. Even the liners faded away.
In the end the whole lake had fished hard, with four carp for 24lb winning, and 21lb second and 20lb third. My 12lb odd was enough for fourth and quite a few people blanked - very hard for the time of year, even with the bizarre (and very wet weather). In hindsight I think I fished to positive - I didn't feed a great deal but perhaps fishing a little lighter across (and maybe on caster) would have got me an extra bite or two. Maybe even a rig for punch fishing too, but I'd hope not to have to resort to that at this time of year. Realistically, I only wanted two more fish which perhaps could even have been enough for a win. Still, looking at the weather I may get a chance to test out the lighter fishing trick on that lake - it doesn't look like changing much!
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