Sunday July 21st

With the up-turn in form of the old lake I was looking forward to fishing it - especially as there are no arm- achingly 17m wide pegs on there!

I had a walk around and wasn't really too fussed with where I drew. However, when peg 62 came out I was pretty happy as looking at the draw sheet I was an end-peg with plenty of room. Can't complain at that!

I had three rigs up for the day - one for across, one for 5m and one for 13m down the margin to my left, just behind the reeds laying over just visible in the picture. Standard rigs really - .15 hook-links to size 18 Fox Series 2's on the far-bank and 5m line. A small .1gr XTM was for across in a little over a foot of water, where as the 5m line had a .3gr NG Decker in about 5ft of water. I used 15h for across and black hydro on a puller for 5m. For the margin I had about 2.5ft of water and the rig was a .2gr XTM. Hook-link was .17 to a 16 Series 2 and matched up to Preston 17h.

On the whistle I fed across with about twenty 6mm pellets, while the 5m line had a whole pot of hemp and corn. Knocks and indications were slow coming across to start with and my first bite came after about twenty minutes - a common of about 4lb. In the next half an hour two more about 3lb each fell before the line faded, I think in part due to someone walking past to go use the fishery toilet!

I plugged away on the line and started getting an odd small 4oz pastie on banded pellet - all the while regularly feeding at 5m by hand. I was just toying on giving it a go on the ninety minute mark when I had a carp of about 2lb across so I plugged away on it for a bit longer.

On the two hour mark I decided to drop in after no more better fish across. Odd signs led me to plug away on it and in the next hour I had three carp off it. Not big fish, but I was putting something in the net! When the next fish was a roach of about 12oz I decided to top-up with half a big pot, but first dropping a half a pot of corn down the edge.

Dropping in the margins on double corn it took about two minutes to get a bite - a reasonable mirror of about 4lb. Two more followed in quick succession, both about the same size before a lull led to me topping it up. Twice more the top-up worked for two carp at a time, albeit fish of about 3lb but they were coming steady.

When the third top-up led to just a missed bite I decided to leave it be for a bit and drop back in at 5m. For the next hour I managed to rotate the two swims, only ever managing one carp at a time, but with two lines working I carried on.

With an hour to go I started getting snagged up down the edge - whatever it was hadn't been there previous as I was using the graphics on the butt as a marker and was fishing in the same place - fishing just before and beyond also led to the same. After three lost hook-links and a tug of war with the plummet trying to find a clear spot I decided to re-feed across before dropping in at 5m.

As it turned out, re-feeding across was a waste of time as I plodded along steadily at 5m for the last hour, going from nineteen carp up to twenty five. For the most part they were quite small (just under 3lb), but the last one was a better fish of about 5lb.

I'd had a pretty enjoyable day, but had no real idea how I'd done as I couldn't really see anyone, although I'd heard a bit of splashing! When the scales got to me 56lb odd was the top weight. I comfortably topped that, with my fish going 85lb 11oz on the scales, and while the remaining frame places were close I finished comfortably first.

Did being the end peg help? I've no doubt it did! It was nice to draw one for a change, and it was nice to get plenty of bites. It was by no means stupidly easy fishing, but enjoyable having to work and rotate to keep bites coming. The 5m line in particular needing constant tweaking to keep the indications hittable.

There's no blog planned for next week as I'm busy elsewhere. However, I have seen a carp or two in the river again on my travels, including a familiar old friend who'm I have a picture of with me holding him/her, taken back in 2005! I may be able to wangle just an hour or two after them in the next few weeks... perhaps!