Well, that's unusual for a Bank Holiday weekend - the sun shone for most of it!
I missed the Sunday open with other commitments, but a quick text Sunday evening told me my pairs partner had won the match from peg 72 with 56lb, but the other back-up weights were quite far behind. With that form in the draw bag I told him he was drawing our pegs on the morning, and low and behold he came out of the bag with 37 on the new lake, and peg 72 again! Peg 72 was to be mine for the day, as he didn't want to sit on it two days running. All that time I can't draw away from the island and as soon as someone else picks my peg they get me out there! I'll have to get someone to pick my pegs more often until my drawing arm returns to form....
I have to admit, I was a bit wary of being on the previous days winning peg. Had the lake been fishing well it wouldn't have bothered me, but as it was patchy and out of sorts nothing was assured. Despite the reeds being stuffed with fish my partner had told me he couldn't catch there - as has been the case in recent weeks. The "one foot deep" rule means your bait is under where the fish are, and they're just lazing in the sun in the reeds. Much like I would be had I been in that cold water for the last six months of a very long winter!
Rig-wise I had four up - a shallow rig for out at 13m as there were quite a few fish milling out there. They'd all gone when the whistle went though, so I only briefly picked it up. I had a shallow rig for the reeds, using a small Preston Pink in-line dibber. I like these for the reeds as they don't snag if pulled through them due to there being no eye to catch. I was going to fish caster here, while the long shallow rig had a hair-rigged pellet band and a longer line above it (the shorter line gives better control over hooked fish in the reeds), hence the need for two rigs. The other two rigs were one for 5m with corn, and a margin rig for my right where my partner had caught the day before.
One the whistle I fed the 5m line with a quarter of a pot of hemp and corn before going in to the rushes hoping for an early mug fish. Two other people had early fish dobbing, but it took me until about twenty minutes in before I managed to trick a fish - a little baby of about 2lb. No more bites were forthcoming for a while as the day became very frustrating for pretty much everyone I could see. There were fish milling about everywhere, but nothing and nobody seemed to be able to get a bite from them!
It was on the two hour mark before my second fish fell, and that was in my right hand margin to meat not long after I'd started flicking a few cubes in there. I had a little golden spell after where I took a fish from my 5m line before tricking three in pretty quick succession from the edge of the reeds where some of the fish had moved to. They then moved right back in the reeds where you couldn't reach them. I can honestly say I've never had so many fish in front of me that I couldn't get a bite from!
Coming away from the reeds and back at 5m I had two fish here before that faded away. The last two hours were bite less until about half an hour before the end when I lost a big fish down the edge to my right that snagged me behind the sleeper on the next swim! I had a carp not long after, and had I had another thirty seconds I probably would have added another as the tail just started wafting around my float as the whistle went. Every bite I'd had that side I'd seen a fish doing that, but this one had poor time-keeping, in my opinion anyway!
My nine fish were pretty small and went only 23lb which was third on the lake, with 25lb from peg 49 and 28lb from peg 68 beating me . My partner managed 5th on the other lake with 17lb which left us as fourth pair, just one point behind third and two points behind second. I just needed one more fish!
In hindsight I think I got it quite badly wrong - I think I went at it too positive on the day and should have won the lake off the peg. Seeing so many fish I was sure they'd drop and feed at some point but they just didn't want to know. I re-fed the 5m line after the flurry of fish which I think was a bad move - I should have just carried on dripping corn there by hand. I also should have at least had a brief try out long on the deck. Last of all in the right margin I should have fed less (I didn't fill it in) but the pegs either side of me were big potting so I upped my feed a little too not wanting them to draw fish. I saw a couple of fish definitely spook from the fed area and should never have used the big cup there. I prefer to feed by hand when it's like it is, but a tree in the edge prevented me doing that accurately. I should have just fed tiny amounts via toss-pot and sat over it and waited. I won't dwell on the lost fish as those things happen - and it may have been foul hooked. I should have guessed it'd be one of those days when I nearly managed to take my eye out before the match started, getting a thin sharp stick jab me just 6-7mm under the eye when I went to pick my cool bag out of the bag on my shuttle. It bled a little, and is a little swollen and sore now, but could have been a lot worse. Still, the next time someone says "it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick" I'll be able to offer them a fair opinion on the matter!
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