Well, on my last update I finished by hoping it would be a bit warmer and more spring-like. I put the mockers on that one, didn't I! Thankfully we haven't had anywhere near as much snow as most of the country and quite luckily (or not!) the winter league was able to go ahead.
True to my current (lack of) draw bag form I found myself sitting on peg 56, so I'm not moving too far around the lake at the moment! I knew the peg only had a very slim chance of giving me a carp - in fact I was about as far away from where I wanted to be as possible. On the plus side, I was out of the worst of the wind.
I had three rigs up for the day - a rig for across where I had 3ft of water tight to the point in front of me. With that bank being under cut I did think there was a chance it may give me a rouge carp. I also had a corn line fished at 11.5m at an angle away to my right at the bottom of the slope. Both these rigs were matched to .125 hook-links and fished on 11h lakky. Lastly, at 6m to my right there was some straggly brambles hanging in the water with near 4ft of water on the edge of them. I could clearly see in the last match that this was the only place the angler who had it last time could get a bite (from roach), so I set up a lighter rig here. I hoped that a solid no8 lakky matched to a .10 hook-link and an 18 hook would give me a chance with a carp in the cold.
On the whistle the snow started again (and carried on for most of the day, thankfully not settling) and I fed a tiny pinch of hemp and caster in the edge, while the track line got three grains of corn and a tiny pinch of hemp. I tried across on punch off the deck without feeding and had nothing for the first ten minutes or so before I started getting knocks off roach.
A change to caster didn't work as the fish must have been tiny, so I fed a tiny pinch of hemp and caster across and went to the full depth. Odd bites started coming to this, albeit from roach of less than an ounce. Still, I was off the mark and the three others I could see hadn't caught anything.
On the hour mark, with perhaps half a dozen micro roach I decided to have a drop on the corn line. I'd been in no more than a couple of minutes before the float blinked away, a better 2oz roach being the culprit. I plugged away at this line for a while, dripping odd grains of corn and hemp in. I carried on catching the odd roach, all a bit smaller than the first one. I was missing half the bites, even when cutting bits of corn in half, but I plugged away simply because I didn't want to be catching tiny roach at 13.5m, plus I figured plugging away on corn would be my best bet for a bonus.
I kept having odd tries on the closer line but surprisingly, I couldn't get a bite there on the lighter gear. On the two hour mark I was perhaps hitting one in four bites now, and the roach were getting smaller. I decided to make a change and get my head down for the roach. I swapped the top-kits and put the softer no8 lakky, and changed the hook-link too, with a .10 to an 18 B611 going on. I also started another line at 6m in front where the depth was the same as at 11.5m.
Back out on what was the original corn line with caster on the hook I started most of my bites. The roach were small, mostly around an ounce but an odd 2oz fish came. It was steady rather than fast, but I was getting then quicker than the others I could see who were now all fishing for roach. I kept trying the closer line but it wasn't until just over an hour before I had my first bite there.
The last hour the fish came nice and steady at 6m. It was a case of feed a pinch of hemp and just 4-6 casters and fish it out. When the fish got tiny it was time to feed again! The average size was perhaps ten-to-the-pound, but an odd bigger one came with one perhaps going a huge(!) 4oz.
I actually really enjoyed the last part of the match, and I even stopped caring that the odd gust of wind resulted in me getting pelted with snow off the trees behind me! I actually wish I'd gone for roach from the off, starting long and trying to feed them closer, but never mind!
I knew a couple of people sat in the open had caught fairly well, and two pegs sat next to each other and the last two to weigh put weights of 44lb and 42lb on the scales, with 17lb good enough for third. I had a little more than I thought when my roach went 5lb 4oz, but it wasn't until someone said after that I'd done well off the peg that I looked and saw that I'd done enough for 5th, just one ounce off 4th! They'd had a couple of pasty carp in with their roach. It's a shame I didn't switch to them a bit earlier, just for that extra point as a lot of people have had poor results and blow-outs and a top 5 place may (just) be achievable with a very good result in the last round. I think overall there is a clear winner now who will struggle to be caught with two 2nd places, a 4th and a 5th, but everyone who has won a round has suffered very poor results. I must have been a bit of a draw-bag the last few winter leagues I fished, but I'm certainly paying for it this year!
I'm not sure what my plans are for next weekend with it being Easter, but if I am out it wont be until the Monday in all likely hood. Looking at the weather forecast, I'm tempted to have the weekend off and have a good few rig making sessions and re-lakky some tops instead. We'll see.
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