Well, what another scorcher! I have to admit that in the past I used to grumble at these sorts of temperatures, but after a winter that seemed to last forever I'm quite enjoying it at the moment.
This Sundays match was back on the new lake due to a booking on the other lake, although I have to say I wasn't fussed, and if I were pushed to say I'd have preferred it for two reasons; there's more shade - and with a Duxford air show on too the low flying aircraft seem to have less of an effect on this lake as it's more enclosed.
At the draw peg 8 came out of the bag in my hand, and I have to admit I didn't really fancy it. The back of the lake looked more coloured (pegs 14 to 29), but never-the-less I was going to give it a good go! First rigs up for the day were for across - an arm aching 17m in the heat, and slightly awkward with a high bank behind. First was a .2gr NG Ghandi in just under 2ft of water. The second was a dibber rig to fish at 1ft as the water was 2ft right in tight and I suspected that the fish may not want to go down. Both rigs were matched to 15h elastic and .15 hook-links. Next up was a margin line. I had a nice long margin to my right (as shown) so my swim was literally lowering my float to within inches of the next sleeper. Depth here was about 2.5ft. The rig was stepped up as per usual for the margin - .17 hook-link to a size 16 Fox Series 2 and matched to Preston 17h elastic. Last up was a throw-away 2+2 line but as I never had a bite here you don't need to know about it. With a bit of time to spare I also plumbed along the right margin and found the same depth at the same distance as before. Handy, but again I'd not had a bite here by the end!
On the whistle I fed a about a dozen 6mm pellets and a pinch of loose groundbait, while the 2+2 line got a decent pinch of hemp, meat and corn. I elected to leave the two margin lines for a bit. With it being a long way across and an awkward bank behind I elected to start on a worm which stays on well. However, the micro perch and small roach were such a pain I quickly swapped to a 6mm expander. I waited slightly longer before a 2oz skimmer fell so I tried an 8mm cube of meat but got exactly the same result.
After finding the small fish such a pain I cut out feeding any crumb and the slivers faded away. The perch were still a problem and ruled out fishing worm or even meat as the pesky "wasps" even munched that! I plugged away with pellet or corn but with no joy. I could see peg 11 catching steadily to my left although the carp didn't look big. I had a brief try on the shallow rig but the same happened. No response on pellet, and perch on caster or meat!
On the two hour mark I needed something to start working and gave the left margin a small amount of meat and corn. I went back across and started seeing odd carpy signs. A missed bite boded well on pellet, especially as the next drop produced a small common of about 1lb. However, no more bites were forthcoming. A slight movement to my right a little, at the full 17.5m caught my eye so I dropped my shallow rig over it. Bingo! No sooner had the float settled than the elastic came streaming out. Not a big carp at about 3lb, but not a bad result when the next drop was followed but a 4lb'er and then shortly after one about 6lb! A slightly longer wait ensued and it looked as though the fish had back away. A brief rest while I had a bite-less try elsewhere got me a little baby ghostie of about 12oz but then it totally died.
With two hours to go and a now barren swim I decided to give the right margin a good helping of ground bait - I had nothing to lose! I could see peg 11 still catching, while peg 14 was also catching down the edge too. I started to feed small amounts more often down the left margin but all I could get down the edge were small perch - they were even taking double 8mm meat on the hook!
With an hour to go I had a small common of about 3lb down the edge - maybe it was about to come good? No bites came for a bit so I had a brief try across, but apart from one missed bite on the shallow rig nothing else showed.
I could see odd signs down the edge and decided on a kill or cure measure with half an hour to go and slapped in half a pot of corn noisily (no meat, I didn't want to feed the perch!). With fifteen minutes to go it paid off as a brace of 5lb'ers fell before the indications faded. With little more than two minutes to go I gambled on feeding again - much less but hopefully enough to get a bite. With no more than ten seconds left the float was away and the lakky followed it at the same time! A cry of "fish on" came from me on the whistle as a slow, sluggish fish chugged away on the end. Five minutes later I was looking at a chunky sparsely scaled mirror every bit a double! A result, and maybe enough to haul me in to the frame....
When the scales go to me just 12lb odd was top weight. My fish plonked the scales round to just over 39lb and when peg 11 only put 30lb on the scales I began to wonder being as they were tipped to win. As the scales got round it was obvious it had fished hard and the best weight to go on the scales after were just shy of 30lb.
So, a win from a peg I didn't really fancy wasn't a bad result, even if it wasn't won until the last ten seconds with that last-gasp lump! Perhaps just rewards for the arm-aching work at 17m in the heat earlier. I know I certainly felt it when I got home!
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