It seems (this weekend at least) that the start of autumn has bought a little touch of summer with it!
I dipped in the draw bag earlier than I normally do this week, and was happy enough with the result - peg 46 was sitting in the palm of my hand. It's not every body's favourite peg but I like it as you have options. Along with the deeper open water it has nice shallow margins which allow you to get tight in to the bank. It'd do me for the day!
I had three rigs set up for the match, and the first up was a shallow rig for 13m. Realistically this would only get used for the first hour to nick an odd fish until the other lines settled, else I may have set one up for deeper. It was fished 12in deep to comply with the fishery rules, with the float a small NG Floats Extra Tough dibber on .17 line with a .15 hook-link. The hook was a 16 Kamasan animal tied knotless knot style with a pellet band on the hair. Lakky was Preston 15h, and all the shot was under the float to let the bait sink slowly. The next rig was for the 2+2 line. This did start as a .3gr NG Decker, but was later stepped up to a .4gr with the wind. It was on the same lines as the shallow rig but with a size 18 Fox Series 2 hook. The lakky was black hydro on a pull-bung and the swim was about 5ft 6in deep. Last up was a margin rig for the right-hand side at about 5m. In 2ft of water a .2gr NG XTM was fished on .19 line to a .17 hook-link tied to a size 16 Fox Series 2, with the lakky being 17h.
I went for quite a positive start on the 2+2 line, giving it a whole medium pot of hemp and corn before picking up the shallow rig. I'd only had one flick of the catapult before the elastic pulled out - I call that a good start! It was only a small fish of about 2lb, but I was off the mark. Unlike the last time I fished shallow on the lake, I wasn't besieged by bitterling out long, so could flick a few pellets out in an attempt to make something happen rather than just trying to mug cruising fish as others were.
It was only about ten minutes later when I had my next bite - just a very slow but deliberate pull down of the pole tip. A slow, almost breamy fight saw me net a big old crucian that was probably 2lb! After this the cruising fish seemed to vanish, and the next bite didn't come until the 45min mark, just as I was going to leave the swim. Again, this fish was only about 2lb, but it led me to give the swim another twenty minutes which didn't produce.
Just after the hour saw me pick up the 2+2 rig, after first giving the margins it's first pot of bait as others had started to catch odd fish in the edge. It's perhaps worth pointing out that albeit early in the match, we didn't start until midday so it was after 1pm now. The 2+2 didn't take long to start getting indications and I was soon plodding away on the line quite nicely, albeit again the fish were very small average size. Two and a half hour in to the match saw me up to ten carp, but not one was bigger than 3lb. I was getting nearly every bite by lowering the rig slowly through the potted in corn with strung shotting. If I didn't get a bite after a few minutes I re-potted some corn and did the same again and it was working nicely. Others were catching faster (pegs 44 looked to be, as was peg 70 opposite to the left, who was fishing under a tree in the edge)
The steady run wasn't destined to last forever, and actually, it died a very rapid death! I bumped a fish at the same time as the louder jet planes started their aerobatics over the nearby Duxford airfield. The two combined was like a switch was flicked, and I couldn't get a bite! It's not the first time it's happened, and while the older prop planes don't seem to bother them much (and I quite like watching the Spitfires that are regularly seen over head even when there isn't a display), having F15's and Eurofighters low flying over the airfield really does. I wouldn't mind, but I couldn't see them most of the time! Even a low flying C47 direct over head and a Catalina Flying Boat that looked like it was going to land on the lake didn't upset them, but they absolutely don't like the jets!
A while later the Red Arrows meant a finale to the show with just over an hour of the match left, and odd bites started to happen again. Carp number eleven was my first bite in the edge and a touch bigger at around 4lb, but no more followed and the bitterling moved in! I came tighter in to the edge in about 14in of water in an attempt to avoid them, re-feeding before going back to the 2+2 line.
I was getting odd bites but not as fast as before, albeit the next few fish were bigger than it had been producing at around 3lb. I was on fourteen fish with forty minutes left and saw some tails in the edge - time to have a go for them! I harboured brief thoughts of a late bag-up when an 8lb ghostie was followed by a 4lb'er, but they proved to be the last fish I had as the bitterling came up to the bank and shredded everything in sight. Damn things! I tried upping the feed in an attempt to get the carp to push them out, but in hindsight that was the wrong thing to do, and made them worse!
I finished up with sixteen carp and a crucian. I knew I didn't have what peg 70 did - they had around twenty carp from what I'd seen. Peg 44 was admitting to eighteen carp but said they were all small, while I could see others with a couple less fish than me, but bigger. Still, I'd get to see them all, as I was on the scales!
First up was peg 44, and their fish totalled just over 50lb by a couple of ounces - it was going to be tight. I totalled just over 53lb, and we held of a few high 40lb weights until we were pushed down by peg 70 who we knew had more. I can't remember the exact weight, but they totalled just over 80lb and that's the second win in a row for that peg - something that doesn't happen often in the warmer months on the venue.
I was quite happy to make the frame in the end - I wasn't sure I was going to at one point. The phenomenon of the air display affecting the fishing is one I've had before, and it was the same for others in open water swims. It's the last display of the year mind, so it's not something that'll bother us again until next year anyway!
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