With the temperature a chilly 2 degrees C when I first ventured out in to my back garden in the morning, I definitely made good with the promise from the end of last weeks blog to take my fleece!
Despite the cold night, the lake looked good and still held a very good colour. By the time I dipped my hand in the draw bag the pegs I wanted were all gone, and peg 27 was in my hand. In the winter it's a very good peg, but in the last match on the lake that was in a line of pegs which had been very hard. I was expecting a struggle!
With the peg being about 19m wide fish the pole over was a complete no-no, so the first thing out of my bag was a 10ft Carbonactive Mini Carp, set up with a small 30gr in-line Preston method feeder. I had a two options for hook-links by using a quick-change bead - either a quick stop for fishing corn or a Sonubaits S-Pellet, or with a hair rigged pellet band so I could use try a Sonu Band 'Um. These were tied on .15 line to a size 16 Kamasan Animal. I also had two pole rigs up, one for 14m where the bottom started to slope up where I intended to fish meat and corn, and a margin rig just in case, fished at 6m to my right.
On the whistle I fed my track line with a small pinch of hemp and meat before casting across on the method. It wasn't long before I had a stonking drop-back which led me to pick the rod up, fully expecting to wind back in to a fish - but I didn't! I wasn't happy with my next cast so I wound it strait back and re-loaded the feeder. It landed spot-on this time round, so much so that I still had the rod in my hand as the tip went round! A plump little ghostie of about 2lb gave a good account of himself before being netted.
That great start didn't last long, and despite getting a few liners no more bites developed, while the pegs either side of me also had a quick fish, both bigger than mine! I topped the track line up on the forty-five minute mark, and then started sprinkling a few soaked micro's in to the groundbait (Sonubaits Krill groundbait, yes, even I've got on the band wagon a touch with that!)
On the hour mark two fish in two chucks kept me on the tip, and when the fourth carp feel a couple of casts later it looked like the slight warming of the day was bringing the fish on, as the sun started to burn off the mist. All of the fish had fell to corn hookbaits, but the biggest was perhaps about 3lb! The pegs either side had one less fish each than me, but theirs were bigger!
I topped the track line up, and then started to feed the margin as the pegs either side had both caught from their margins. I didn't put a lot in, about twenty casters plus four or five bits of meat and corn too. On the first cast after doing that I had another carp pretty instantly, but this was only about a pound and a half and found it's way in to the silvers net with the ghostie. A few bite-less casts and with nearly two and a half hours gone I decided to have one quick cast with just pellets on the feeder to leave some grub over. With a Band 'Um on the hair I gave it five or six minutes, then just as I checked the time to see if it it's allotted time was up the rod wrenched round good and proper! After a hefty tussle which saw the carp pretty much tail walk at one point, decent common of about 7lb was panned. After that I gave it two more cast's, but with no more joy I gave it a rest.
I'd seen the odd bubble coming up from the track line, so was pretty confident there were a some fish about. The peg to my right was now down the track and had caught there (including a bream of about 4lb!). I baited up with a cube of meat and lowered the rig in, and it didn't take long to get a slow liner. A minute or so later the float slipped away and the lift was met by the sight of the 13h lakky streaming out! After a bit of persuasion from the pull-bung, a common the twin of the last fish I'd had on the method was panned. I had a quick drop in with no signs so I risked topping up with a small pinch of bait. A bite a few minutes after saw me briefly hook a fish which nodded like a bream for a couple of seconds before coming off.
After losing that fish I had a brief try in the margins with no joy, so found myself back on the method. The liners and signs of fish I'd been getting had slowed up, and I sat and watched as the pegs either side caught odd fish (mostly from their margins) while I couldn't get a bite. It was as I was contemplating picking up the pole again that a bite from the blue which gave me a 4lb mirror, which led me to plug away at it a bit longer, but with no joy.
On the ninety minute mark I had a quick try in the edge but that didn't give me so much as a sign of life, so decided to try cupping in two pots of loose groundbait down there (it works everywhere else, so I read!) and then picked up the track rig again. As per the first time it didn't take long to get a bite here and a common of about 4lb was the result. And again, as per the first time I'd tried the track line line I topped up and lost a fish shortly after!
With a little over an hour to go and the temperature started to drop and the fleece was needed again! Back on the tip and I had a very savage liner. I decided to re-clip up the method a touch closer to drop it down the slope a touch more (just once round the spool, perhaps only 15-20cm) I also decided to see if the pellet / Band 'Um combo would pick up a bigger fish again. It didn't take long to tell me it worked as the rod wrenched round after a couple of minutes. It was a decent common too of about 8lb, but disaster struck as it picked up a branch close in (well, a small tree). The fish was still on for a few seconds before a "bump" feeling came up the line telling me I'd lost it. With such a short amount of line between tree and fish it broke the hook-link off against it. I got the tree in mind, that was probably 4lb....
The next cast was made using corn and the predominantly groundbait mix while I quickly tied up another method hook-link with a band on the hair (I don't like having too many banded hair-rigs tied as the bands tend to deteriorate, and I'd bent the other hook pulling in a branch from across). It took me two casts to complete the hook-link as both time the rod pulled round pretty quick, giving me a brace of 4lb'ers. I gave the corn one last chuck as it'd worked but no bites saw me back on the Band 'Um and pellet combo. As had been the case, a slightly longer wait saw a bigger fish fall as a common of about 5lb was soon panned. With the method having been the most productive line I decided to stay with it and not pick the pole up in last half hour or so. I only had one more bite on it (on corn) and another fish of about 3lb was put in the net about seven minutes before the end. I finished on eleven bigger carp, plus the two small ones. I never found out if feeding that crumb down the edge worked!
When the scales got to me 30lb was the top weight from the peg to my right. I totalled 47lb 15oz before the peg to my left fell just short of the weight to my right. The danger peg I thought was the next along who I'd seen playing a few fish, but they totalled 37lb odd to take second, but evidently they'd lost quite a few fish too.
In the end the top four weights were all in a line, and it looks like the fish are moving in to their winter haunts with the advent of the water cooling. That said, considering the weather in the lead up to the Sunday (a lot of rain two nights in a row, followed by a frost) that's hardly surprising, and it didn't fish too bad. We can't expect too much now it's October - those leaner times are just around the corner!
No comments:
Post a Comment