Well, it's back to business as usual! The river carping didn't go too well, with someone nobbling a carp from my swim one day when I had to leave early (and I know had I stayed I'd have had one) and I also had a stalking opportunity ruined when a black lab (it's always one of those misbehaving too!) jumped on top of a low double common I had grubbing around my bait!
Arriving at the lake and with the wind blowing down the lake I fancied a draw around the back of the island - it was at the windward end but sheltered, and also with the temperatures forecast to reach the mid 20's it's also fairly shallow. Alas, it wasn't to be when I drew peg 47, although I don't particularly mind the peg it is in the deepest part of the lake and can therefore be a challenge on bright, hot days.
I had just the two rigs up for the day - a rig for 12m in to the open water which also doubled for my 2+2 line (which was just 2in shallower) and a rig for the margin to my right at 5m. Pretty standard summer rigs went up, with a .4gr NG Decker for the deeper rig, finished with a .15 Reflo Power hooklink, and the margin rig was a .2gr NG XTM with a .17 hooklink. Lakkys were black hydro and Preston 17h respectively.
With a lot of fish cruising about looking as if they wanted to spawn I was worried that my deep swim would perhaps be a struggle until those fish that wanted to feed would come in to the edge, and I was proved correct! Pretty much everyone I could see was catching odd fish early while I remained biteless.
With the wind being a bit of a mare after an hour I abandoned the longer swim - I always think if it's going to be a worthwhile line you'll catch their fairly early before the fish move closer. It proved to be a fair wait until they did, as it wasn't until three hours in before I had my first fish - a common of about 4lb from the 2+2 line.
For a bit I managed to alternate between the 2+2 line and the edge and pinch odd fish. With an hour to go I'd had seven carp - four from the edge and three out, which were smaller than the margin fish. With the fish seeming to respond in the edge to me feeding noisily (slapping the feed out of the cup) I risked pushing the swim by upping the bait, and the result was that although odd fish still came in I couldn't get a bite! Wrong move.
The sum total of my last hour was a 2oz roach on corn from the 2+2 line, and a carp of about 5-6lb which I lost at the net, hooked from the margin right near the end after I backed off on the feeding.
The gamble of upping the bait proved to be quite costly in the end as I finished fourth with 33lb, with the weights ahead of me being 36lb, 37lb and 43lb winning. The lost fish alone cost me a place or two, but as I seem to have developed a knack of doing this year I didn't quite get it right again. Frustrating, but we can't have it all ways, and there is always next Sunday! Hopefully I'll find the time to do my write up a bit earlier, while things are a bit fresher in my mind!
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