I have to admit September is probably my favourite month of all for fishing, as nature has a habit of making everything look at it's best as yellow, orange and gold starts to mingle in with the greenery. I think the fish are at their best too, with spawning a distant memory and a summers worth of feeding they are full, fit and healthy - what better time to catch them?
I have to admit that when I went in to the draw bag all the pegs I really wanted were gone, but was fairly happy with peg 23 in the corner as it's had good recent form (I think second in the last two matches on the lake). Also, being too wide for the pole makes it a simple peg to tackle!
Set up for the day was simple - a 10ft feeder rod to fish the method to the island, and two pole rigs. One for the open water at 13m, one for 14m across the bay to my left in the margin. Nothing complex! The open water line was about 6ft deep and had a .4gr Nick Gilbert Decker on .17 line to a .15 hook-link and a size 18 Fox Series 2 hook, and this was matched to black hydro on a pull bung. The margin rig was a .2gr XTM on .19 to a .17 hook-link and size 16 hook. This was matched to Preston 17h lakky. I had a variety of hook-links tied up for the method (all 4in of .17 line to a size 16 Kamasan Animal hook) so I could try a mixture of baits - either hair rigged hard pellets, corn or some Sonubait's Band-Um's that I'd bought recently to try. I had both soaked 2mm pellets and groundbait (Sonubait's Krill) to try in various percentages on the feeder.
I didn't feed the margin initially, and gave the 13m line a pot of hemp, meat and corn before starting on the feeder. It took around twenty minutes before I started getting the odd liner, and my first bite wasn't until the forty-five minute mark which gave me a skimmer of about 1lb which fell to a grain of corn. It was dead on the hour mark when my first carp fell to the feeder, and only a small one at about 3lb in weight. Again, this one fell to corn, and on the first chuck when I left the bait visible on the top of the feeder.
It didn't take too much longer for my second carp to fall, and a proper rod-wrencher gave me a common of about 8lb which again fell to corn. After that it was a case of getting just odd liners, so I switched to one of the Band-Um's which got me a bite pretty quickly - although a bream nudging 3lb wasn't what I was expecting!
After that flurry the swim seemed to fade, so on the 2hr mark I fed the margin with a pot of bait before having a drop on the pole line in the open water. I was pretty surprised to not get any bites here, as I'd seen a few bubbles from over the feed. Never the less, I topped it up with half a cup as I had been doing every forty minutes of so, and then went back on the feeder.
Up until this point I'd been using a mixture of pellets and groundbait on the feeder, so decided to try cutting out the pellet to see if that slowed the liners. This led to a little flurry of activity with three fish falling in the next eight or so casts. All the bites were pretty quick in coming, so I started to leave the feeder in for no longer than about three minutes. Two fish fell to corn, and one to a Tigerfish Band-Um. No real big fish, but all decent stamper's of about 4lb. Unfortunately, my little bagging spell came to an end when I lost a fish after the hook-link parted in the middle. I can only assume it was damaged or cut under the water as it wasn't under any more pressure than the other fish had given.
I plugged away for a bit on the feeder, and went back to putting a few pellets in the feeder too, to keep some bait in the swim. After a dozen or so fish-less casts I came off the feeder to try the pole lines. I could see peg 29 catching a few down the edge (now the tree's are gone!) but I couldn't get a bite from my margin. A switch to the open water line saw me miss two bites on meat in quick succession. I tried corn as a change, which didn't work! Going back on meat and nothing came, so I topped the swim up again.
Back on the feeder and the rest gave me an instant bite while the line was still tightening up, this one on one of the Sonubaits Band-Um's (a dumbell shaped boilie/pellet). Incidentally, I couldn't get a bite on a normal pellet! Again, it wasn't a big fish, but a decent weight builder at about 4lb. No more bites came and I was chopping and changing things again in an attempt to bring a bite. With a little over an hour left carp number seven fell, a touch smaller this one at about 3lb, before the next cast saw a proper rod wrencher which I thought I'd missed! It turned out to be a roach of about 3oz!
Going in to the last hour the feeder had faded away dramatically, so I plugged away on the pole lines, spending longer on the open water line as I'd at least had bites there. With about forty minutes to go I had a small mirror of about 2lb, but no more bites followed. I topped it up with a small amount of bait, and had a brief try in the margin but it was lifeless. Going back on the feeder brought a liner but I'm sure it was from a fish well away from the island, and it just didn't have the feel that it was going to go.
With a little under half an hour left I decided to plug away on the open water line, and was rewarded ten minutes before the end with a ghostie of about 3lb, and then with just five minutes to go a plump common of about 5lb. Both fell to a single cube of meat. Despite liners after, I didn't quite have enough time to nab another!
Packing away and I wasn't sure quite how well I'd done - I'd well beaten the anglers either side of me who only had two carp a piece, but peg 29 had a few and I was led to believe that peg 14 had caught well, as had peg 11. I got to the scales as peg 7 was weighing and they put just over 47lb on the scales - I didn't think I'd quite have that. Peg 11 then put 43lb on the scales, which is about what I thought I'd have. Peg 14 had a fair few fish, but not so many proper carp and they had a weight somewhere in the 30's. The next couple to weigh didn't trouble the frame weights and then it was my turn. With 4lb odd in the silvers net I lifted the carp out and it was obvious it was going to be close. With 45lb in there I had just enough to take the lead with a total of just over 49lb.
I finished packing away and met the scales again as the last person weighed in. Peg 29 who I thought was going to have more than me turned out to have less than I thought, and had a mid 30's weight, before the end peg had an upper 30's weight.
In the end it was hard work for the win, as the lake didn't fish as well as many of us thought it was going to. I think I was guilty of over feeding the pole lines - the open water line had bubbles for most of the day, but my bites came on it as I cut back on the feed late on. It could have just been the case of they fed better (as they tend to everywhere), but I wasn't the only one who felt that they'd perhaps over done it a little.
The method perhaps showed that lot's of feed wasn't best - just crumb on the feeder proved to be best on the day, as did a visual hook bait (both in terms of left on top of the feeder, and colour, due to corn getting the most bites). I quite like the idea of the Band-Um's, and am going to seek out some of the other flavours which have nice bright colours! The Tigerfish ones I have are a nice subtle brown. I think they may be useful as bright single hookbait's in the winter too.
I think next week is back on the old lake, and with the weather forecast to get quite hot also I think Autumn may be put on hold for just a short while. It's also the last Duxford air display of the year, so if the water isn't worth watching, the sky may well be!
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