Well, we definitely had a taste of what's to come yesterday morning with a touch of ground frost, which developed in to quite a sharp looking frost as we got out of the town and to the fishery. The water on the old lake still held a fair amount of colour mind, and with the changing of the weather I really didn't know where I wanted to draw!
In the end I took my customary place late in the draw queue and dipped my hand in with just three pegs left, and out came peg 70 - that'll do, it's a good peg year round and has a few options. The peg has a small island in it, but I knew the bottom is very irregular near it, plus I couldn't get tight to it with the reeds hanging over. In the end I elected to fish the near slope at 5m, and on the slope up to the island at 13m. The depths were roughly 5ft (the far line was about 2in deeper). I put up near identical rigs for the two lines, with the only difference being a heavier .4gr NG Decker used long as it caught the breeze a touch more. Terminal gear was .17 line to a .15 hook-link and a size 16 hook, with the lakky Preston 13h. I had small tree over hanging to my right at 6m, where I had a margin rig up to fish there in 2ft of water. Float was a .2gr NG XTM, while the terminal gear was the same as the other rigs, except the lakky was Preston 15h. I did also put up a shallow rig to try, but never picked it up in the end!
On the whistle the 5m line got about a quarter of a pot of hemp and corn, and I then put just six grains of corn and a small pinch of hemp in the small Toss-Pot and went out to the long line. I had a liner pretty quick, and I started to see odd fish cruise as it got quite warm in the sun - which I was nicely sat in! Peg 42 started off like a train (they had six fish in the first hour!) while pegs 46 and 48 also had a carp early.
I'd topped up the swim for a third time with the small pot as I was getting signs of fish (I'd came back every five minutes to do so) and as I lowered the rig in the third time the float went within seconds of it settling! A lively scrap saw a small common of about 2.5lb in the net pretty quickly. By the end of the first hour I had three carp all around the same size, and each fish fell to a bait that had been worked - nothing came by sitting and waiting. As well as peg 42, pegs 46, 48 and 53 were all catching and had more than me, but I was happy to be plodding along getting bites - it's a marathon, not a sprint!
With just over an hour gone I decided that with the warm sun on my bank (it was in my eyes for the first two hours or so, and the glare meant the pic had to wait until after the match) that I'd start flicking some bait in the edge by hand, hoping that some fish would come in. I was still picking up odd fish from the long line, and again every bite was taken either as I lowered it in through the loose feed, or after lifting and dropping. Interestingly, despite there being no tow of note, my bites were coming either side of where I was feeding, lined up with a light coloured reed on the small island.
I put my sixth fish in the net dead on the two hour mark, but had no big fish with them all being 2.5/3lb fish. Peg 42 was still catching, albeit slower, and 46 was one fish ahead of me but theirs were bigger. Apart from those two the other two I could see catching had slowed and there was little to chose between us in terms of numbers, but I couldn't tell how big their fish were.
Carp number seven was the first bite I had directly over my feed, and was also the biggest fish I'd had so far at about 4lb. I was starting to miss odd bites, which I think were roach (they were topping, and the pegs opposite were catching odd ones while I plugged away on corn. It was noticeable that my bites were starting to get less frequent, so I upped the feed a little. It worked to an extent bringing me two fish in two drops (the only time that happened on that line) before fading away.
At the three hour mark I decided to top up the long line and rest it, coming in to the 5m line where I'd been feeding corn by hand. I had a fish off that line pretty instantly, but didn't get a bite in the five minutes after so decided to leave it. I had a quick try in the edge, but there were only small fish present and after a few minutes of getting little dib's I left it. As I swung the margin rig in two small bubbles came up from my 5m line, so I picked that rig up and lowered the corn down over them - I think I must have lowered the corn in to it's mouth as the float simply carried on going! After netting the 3lb'er no more bites came, so I decided to risk topping it up (just a pinch of hemp and ten grains of corn) before trying out long.
With two hours to go, peg 42 seemed to have dried up, while 46 was still catching and had probably caught them up. Most people I could see were catching now, but they'd had to wait for their bites and hadn't caught in the first half of the match. The rest seemed to have to done the swim some good, and I had another three carp from it at ten minute intervals, before it went off as though someone had flicked a switch. For the next hour I rotated the swims but couldn't raise a bite from anywhere. I decided to change the rate of feeding on my 5m line, putting half the amount in, but a little more often. I'd been in the sun most of the day (it was clouding up) so I figured my best chance of a run of fish was from there as it had warmed up. Bizarrely, the margin under the tree was carp-less, and I got bitted out when I dropped in so I discarded it!.
With twenty minutes to go I had a small 2lb common from the 5m - the only bite I had so far that hadn't come from the bait being worked. No more followed, so I had a brief try long but that had never recovered. With ten minutes to go I decided to drop in on the 5m line using the heavier rig. I adjusted the depth (I'd plumbed both areas with both the .3gr and .4gr rigs, and marked both on the top-kits) and lowered the heavier rig in. The float settled nicely, then blinked away! The lift was met with more resistance than I expected, and after a few minutes netted my best fish of the day, a common of about 5lb! With just a few minutes left I had a liner, so I lifted the float clear of the water and then slowly lowered it back down. It sat there for a few seconds before sailing away, and the lift saw planty of lakky plod out! A lively fight saw me net a ghostie mirror of about 4lb. I hoped I'd have time for one last one, but just as I lowered my rig in the whistle went.
From what I could see the other bank had fished well, while the peg to my right had caught a few late. Peg 42 was the first to weigh and they fell just shy of the 50lb mark - I figured it was close between us, but guessed I'd just pip them when asked by the angler on 72 - I figured on having about 52lb, but as I was the third from last to weigh I'd have to wait! When the scales got to me I wasn't surprised to see peg 46 comfortably in front, having a shade over 70lb. Behind that there was peg 42's 49lb odd, plus a 42lb and a 41lb with a few 30's too. Not bad considering the sharp frost in the morning! My two weighs totalled up to 51lb 14oz to give me second, and a bit of kudos for admitting to my weight near on the dot!
In the end I was happy with the second placing. I'd worked hard to keep the fish coming, and in my book that makes for an enjoyable days fishing! I'm not sure why the late rig change at 5m worked (the lighter rig behaved perfectly well in the conditions), but it's one of those things. Trying it earlier may have worked, or perhaps those fish just showed up at that time and it'd have made no difference. Who knows? Still, I'd had an enjoyable day, worked at it and caught a few fish (eighteen carp in total), while sat in quite pleasant sunshine for most of the day. Can't knock that!
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