Well, post number two hundred it is! That time has soon gone as it was back in September of '08 when I started this blog - time flies when you're having fun, as fishing generally is!
With the Winter League now finished (I did just manage to scrape 4th place, on weight) the weather has decided to finally pick up, and forecast has predicted highs of perhaps 20 degrees C - a world away from the snow of the penultimate W/L round just a few weeks ago.
A wonder around the lake before the draw showed lots of basking fish - quite predictable really, and the pegs in the open water seemed to have the most in, as they benefit from more of the sun. I was hoping that I'd be able to end my run of island draws but it wasn't to be! I had a bit of a moan about peg 49 - it's seldom in (the sun bought the solar powered anglers out and a higher attendance!), and I drew it twice in a row a couple of years back and really struggled. On the plus side, it's in the shallowest part of the lake and a few fish may move in as the day warmed up. That said, with the closer pegging those pegs are normally hard work.
I had three rigs up for the day; one for across, one for 5m and one for the margin. I had about 16in of water tight to the bank about 13.5m away and a .1gr NG Floats XTM was for there. Finished with a .13 dia hook-link and a size 20 Fox Series 2 hook (I still have a bit of a stash of those!) and matched to Preston 13h lakky. The 5m line had the same terminal gear, but with the depth of about 4ft the float was a 4x14 Preston Chianti which I'd changed the tip for a plastic one. Last up was a margin rig. To my right there is a small inflow pipe, and I plumbed up to fish about two foot past it and the same out from it. Proper gear for here (well, it was considering what I have been using!) with a .2gr XTM with a .15 hook-link, size 18 Fox 2 hook and finished with 15h lakky. I have to admit, after a long winter that rig seemed brutal!
I started the match by just feeding the 5m line, giving it about a dozen grains of corn and a pinch of hemp. I then went across with a small cad-pot on the pole and fed just a few pellets and two pieces of meat. There were signs of odd fish moving, and the peg to my right had a carp after about 15 minutes. I carried on across, occasionally coming back to drip a few pellets in, and on the half hour mark I had my first bite on a 6mm expander. After a lively scrap I was off the mark with a ghostie of about 5lb.
I plugged away for a bit across, swapping between meat and pellet on the hook, but I felt something wasn't quite right with the feeding so I picked up the catapult to flick a few pellets across. It seemed to bring increased signs and just after the hour mark carp number two fell - a 3lb'er on a cube of meat. About fifteen minutes later I had it's twin brother and I was hoping the swim would start improving but all signs of life inexplicably vanished.
I dropped in on the 5m line, and had already started to flick odd cubes of meat in the edge. I had a liner at 5m so plugged away at it for a bit, but no joy came from it. I had a quick drop down the edge but I thought it was a bit early for that, and I assumed correct!
I went back across and odd fish were moving over, but they were not coming to the feed and shied away from any movement. It seemed that what fish were there were just moving in the upper layers warming themselves - I suppose I'd have been doing the same.
After the barren middle part of the match with just under two hours left I saw a fish move down the edge. I baited with a single cube of meat and lowered the rig in. After a short wait the float slipped away and a nice ghostie of perhaps 7lb was the result. I'd flicked four more cubes of meat in while playing it, so I baited up and went strait back over it. Again a short wait and then a common of about 4lb fell. I managed to repeat the trick two more times before the next peg decided they wanted a bit of the action, and promptly put a whole pot of bait down the edge at the limit of their peg in my direction. Either that, or they thought they'd just kill my peg - you decide!
Indications vanished from the edge pretty quick, so I had a drop in on the 5m line, again with meat as that's what the bulk of my bites had fallen to. I didn't wait long for the float to slip away and a common of about 3lb was the result, but my hopes of lining them up here were false as after that I couldn't even raise a liner from there.
Back down the edge and I had occasional signs of life with an hour to go - nowhere near what it had been though. I decided to try double meat to see if a stand out bait would nab me a fish and it did, but it happened to be my smallest of the day at about 2lb! That proved to be my last bite of the day, and I spent the rest of the match looking for bites that wouldn't come.
I couldn't see many pegs in the open water, but they had been catching and there were two people admitting to around twenty fish each. When the scales got to me 61lb was top, with 37lb next. My nine carp totalled 39lb odd and turned out to be the top weight from the island pegs by nearly 20lb. It turned out to be just good enough for third overall as peg 72 put 70lb on the scales - I didn't see the board after but with what some people were admitting to they must have been close to me.
In the end it wasn't a bad day, and I'm not sure that I could have done anything to nab any more fish from the peg. It's a shame the person next door felt the need to fill the edge in - it definitely had an effect on my margin but that's beyond my control. It may well have slowed anyway, but it would have been nice to have allowed it to take it's own course! I do think I would have pushed at least second place closer though. Still, it was nice to be out on a gorgeous day - I spent much of it in a t-shirt as the temperature topped 20C, and it was nice to have to work at the correct feeding to catch some fish. Things look on the up!
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