Well, it's certainly a bit blowy of late! Apologies for the lack of pictures - in the rush of getting things sorted for Christmas I forgot to give the batteries in my camera a proper charge. And before anyone suggests I could have used my phone, my "smartphone" is apparently smarter than my ageing laptop and the two really don't seem to get on very well together!
Anyhow, along with the wind yesterday morning it also decided to rain as I was leaving the house too, although thankfully it stopped before the draw. I'd not walked round but could see the wind was blowing down the lake and slightly off the back of the lower number pegs on the right side of the lake as you look at it from the car park. It was about right then that I found myself right at the windward end on the left-hand bank - peg 62 was to be my home for the day.
People who know the venue will know it's a corner peg on an island, and you can just fish to the up the side of the point without leaving your own peg. Fishing across was going to be fun with the wind, but on the times it abated a little I had a small area of calmer water where the point of the island protected it a little. I had two rigs up for here - a .3gr Nick Gilbert Power Finesse for fishing on the deck in just over 3ft of water on the slope, and a 4x10 Preston PB2 for fishing punch shallow. The deeper rig also doubled for my margin rig at about 12m to my left near some straggly reeds. Last up was a .4g Power Finesse set to fish in about 5ft of water at 12m angled to my left (downwind). all the rigs had .125 Garboline hook-links, with the two deeper rigs fished finished with a size 18 Drennan Wide Gape Match hook. The shallow rig had a size 16 B611 on as it was only going to be used with punch. All the rigs were matched to Preston 11h elastic. I also put up my 10ft CarbonActive Mini Carp with a small strait lead, just in case the wind increased any more!
I only fed the deepest swim from the off - giving it just three grains of corn and a tiny pinch of hemp. I plugged away with either the shallow punch rig or the slope rig when the wind allowed, or on the bomb otherwise for the first hour with nothing to show for it. With other people having caught odd carp that I could see I risked a bit of feed across, and give it just three grains of corn.
A fruitless try on the other two lines saw me back across but had only one tiny roach on a 9mm punch to show for my efforts. At times the wind was outrageous but I plugged away, occasionally using the bomb to get through the worst of it. On around the two hour mark, during a slight lull in the wind I lowered my punch rig down and the float simply went with it. I was quite surprised to see that my lift saw several feet of red lakky come out! The wind chose that time to start blowing again, and I was thankful for the nice forgiving elastic as the wind buffeted the pole around as I gingerly shipped back. A nice looking common of about 4lb was my reward.
With one carp in the net my efforts didn't seem so much in vain, and about forty minutes later - again when the wind allowed me to fish the pole - I had two carp in as many drops. I was like bagging-up, for those two drops! Both were again about 4lb each. For a while after the wind didn't allow my to try across on the pole, while the tip remained steadfastly motionless.
The last hour loomed and the temperature started to cool a bit. Any signs of life across had gone now and I plugged away mostly in the deep water. My faith in a line that had not given me a bite was rewarded with about twenty minutes to go when the float dipped with a grain of corn on the hook. After a few minutes a carp that looked nearer 6lb than 5 was in the net, but sadly I didn't get any more.
My four carp in the end weighed in at just under 18lb and was good enough for third place - 28lb won and 25lb was second. Both those weights were taken from the end pegs on either bank nearest to the car park - and off the wind for pretty much all but the worst gusts! It was hard work, but at least I had some reward for it. It's just a shame that the worst of the wind eased away while packing up - when the scales came round there was barely a ripple, as usually seems to happen!
Right, must be off - things to sort out before Christmas, but all being well I'll be back out next Sunday and will have a blog for you the following Monday or Tuesday. Have a good Christmas all who read this, and may Santa bring you lots of nice fishing related goodies! If not, do as I most likely will and go buy your own!
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