Sunday 28th April

It's hard to try and keep a blog updated at the best of times, but when you're not catching a lot it's actually even harder - nobody wants to revisit a hard or bad day. For that reason, this is going to be another brief update!

Typically for a Sunday of late, the morning bought quite a sharp frost (it had dropped to -2 overnight). Walking round the lake showed a lot of fish moving in the open water, but yet again my drawing hand disappointed me and plucked out peg 51 - just along from where I was two weeks ago, and where I seem to have spent the best part of the winter sitting!

I did hope that as it's the shallowest part of the lake a few fish would move in there as they did a fortnight ago, but it wasn't to be. I caught some small carp on the long pole and meat against the island early (palm sized fish), but then the wind got up, the cloud increased and the day seemed to get cooler. I picked up a few decent roach on closer lines, but even when the wind allowed I couldn't get bites across. In the end I admitted defeat and actually started packing away early - unusual for me but in all honesty I was fed up.

The weather is set to pick up a bit during the week, so hopefully the fish will spread out a touch more in time for the pairs match on May Bank Holiday, which is the next time I'll be out. I do have a plan - I'm going to do my best to get my partner to draw this time!

Sunday April 21st

Sorry for the late update, and it'll only be a brief one!

Despite the weather being on the up, typically Sunday morning greeted us with quite a sharp frost. This was followed by a bright sunny day - not great conditions for fishing.

I drew peg 31 on the new lake, which is a very hit-and-miss peg, and more often miss! I struggled for a few small perch off it for a dnw but the lake on the whole fished hard. Just 28lb was good enough for the win, with 9lb and 7lb making up the rest of the frame. There were plenty of fish seen by all, but they were simply in the upper layers warming up.

Perhaps struggling with a trapped nerve in my shoulder all week should have been enough to tell me to stay at home, but with the sun out it wasn't a bad day out considering what we've had over the last few months!

Two Hundred Not Out!

Well, post number two hundred it is! That time has soon gone as it was back in September of '08 when I started this blog - time flies when you're having fun, as fishing generally is!

With the Winter League now finished (I did just manage to scrape 4th place, on weight) the weather has decided to finally pick up, and forecast has predicted highs of perhaps 20 degrees C - a world away from the snow of the penultimate W/L round just a few weeks ago.

A wonder around the lake before the draw showed lots of basking fish - quite predictable really, and the pegs in the open water seemed to have the most in, as they benefit from more of the sun. I was hoping that I'd be able to end my run of island draws but it wasn't to be! I had a bit of a moan about peg 49 - it's seldom in (the sun bought the solar powered anglers out and a higher attendance!), and I drew it twice in a row a couple of years back and really struggled. On the plus side, it's in the shallowest part of the lake and a few fish may move in as the day warmed up. That said, with the closer pegging those pegs are normally hard work.

I had three rigs up for the day; one for across, one for 5m and one for the margin. I had about 16in of water tight to the bank about 13.5m away and a .1gr NG Floats XTM was for there. Finished with a .13 dia hook-link and a size 20 Fox Series 2 hook (I still have a bit of a stash of those!) and matched to Preston 13h lakky. The 5m line had the same terminal gear, but with the depth of about 4ft the float was a 4x14 Preston Chianti which I'd changed the tip for a plastic one. Last up was a margin rig. To my right there is a small inflow pipe, and I plumbed up to fish about two foot past it and the same out from it. Proper gear for here (well, it was considering what I have been using!) with a .2gr XTM with a .15 hook-link, size 18 Fox 2 hook and finished with 15h lakky. I have to admit, after a long winter that rig seemed brutal!

I started the match by just feeding the 5m line, giving it about a dozen grains of corn and a pinch of hemp. I then went across with a small cad-pot on the pole and fed just a few pellets and two pieces of meat. There were signs of odd fish moving, and the peg to my right had a carp after about 15 minutes. I carried on across, occasionally coming back to drip a few pellets in, and on the half hour mark I had my first bite on a 6mm expander. After a lively scrap I was off the mark with a ghostie of about 5lb.

I plugged away for a bit across, swapping between meat and pellet on the hook, but I felt something wasn't quite right with the feeding so I picked up the catapult to flick a few pellets across. It seemed to bring increased signs and just after the hour mark carp number two fell - a 3lb'er on a cube of meat. About fifteen minutes later I had it's twin brother and I was hoping the swim would start improving but all signs of life inexplicably vanished.

I dropped in on the 5m line, and had already started to flick odd cubes of meat in the edge. I had a liner at 5m so plugged away at it for a bit, but no joy came from it. I had a quick drop down the edge but I thought it was a bit early for that, and I assumed correct!

I went back across and odd fish were moving over, but they were not coming to the feed and shied away from any movement. It seemed that what fish were there were just moving in the upper layers warming themselves - I suppose I'd have been doing the same.

After the barren middle part of the match with just under two hours left I saw a fish move down the edge. I baited with a single cube of meat and lowered the rig in. After a short wait the float slipped away and a nice ghostie of perhaps 7lb was the result. I'd flicked four more cubes of meat in while playing it, so I baited up and went strait back over it. Again a short wait and then a common of about 4lb fell. I managed to repeat the trick two more times before the next peg decided they wanted a bit of the action, and promptly put a whole pot of bait down the edge at the limit of their peg in my direction. Either that, or they thought they'd just kill my peg - you decide!

Indications vanished from the edge pretty quick, so I had a drop in on the 5m line, again with meat as that's what the bulk of my bites had fallen to. I didn't wait long for the float to slip away and a common of about 3lb was the result, but my hopes of lining them up here were false as after that I couldn't even raise a liner from there.

Back down the edge and I had occasional signs of life with an hour to go - nowhere near what it had been though. I decided to try double meat to see if a stand out bait would nab me a fish and it did, but it happened to be my smallest of the day at about 2lb! That proved to be my last bite of the day, and I spent the rest of the match looking for bites that wouldn't come.

I couldn't see many pegs in the open water, but they had been catching and there were two people admitting to around twenty fish each. When the scales got to me 61lb was top, with 37lb next. My nine carp totalled 39lb odd and turned out to be the top weight from the island pegs by nearly 20lb. It turned out to be just good enough for third overall as peg 72 put 70lb on the scales - I didn't see the board  after but with what some people were admitting to they must have been close to me.

In the end it wasn't a bad day, and I'm not sure that I could have done anything to nab any more fish from the peg. It's a shame the person next door felt the need to fill the edge in - it definitely had an effect on my margin but that's beyond my control. It may well have slowed anyway, but it would have been nice to have allowed it to take it's own course! I do think I would have pushed at least second place closer though. Still, it was nice to be out on a gorgeous day - I spent much of it in a t-shirt as the temperature topped 20C, and it was nice to have to work at the correct feeding to catch some fish. Things look on the up!

Winter League Final Round (7/4/13)

Well, after what seems an age the weather seems to just be turning a corner! That said, despite the nice days we were still getting snow as recently as Thursday, plus the nice sunny days with temperatures just in to double figures were punctuated by nightly sharp frosts - not very good for fishing.

I was hoping for a good result as a top five finish was possible as the points were very close. It looked set to be a hard match with last weeks open on the lake being won with just under 4lb - and no carp were caught. For what seems like the first time in an eternity I was quite happy with my draw with peg 14 coming out in my hand. I wasn't in the flyer 20's, but I fancied I could catch from it.

It's quite a wide peg, with a half-butt needed in the 16m section to tuck up tight to the island in front of me (I also got out my old Superlegion extension which goes up the back of my G-Maxx 800 to allow me to try further down the bank) There is a good depth tight to the island here, with a good 3ft right in tight. I didn't plumb up here, I just put up two rigs to dob punch along the bank - one to fish between just off the bottom and 2ft, and one to fish between 2ft and 18in. With the sun warming up nicely (the pic was taken after the match) I figured that shallow would be the way to go with the sun being on the far bank most of the day. I also set up a rig to fish at 13m at a slight angle to my left towards a weed bed, with 6ft of water here. Last up was a margin rig. Peg 14 has a very long margin with a corner of the lake to my left, so I set up a rig here for fishing in about 3ft of water. It was purely a gamble for a lump or two, but worth a go. I had a feeling the water wasn't quite warm enough for that yet though! All the rigs were finished with .14 dia hook-links and matched up to Preston 13h lakky.

On the whistle I fed a tiny ball of softened micro pellets and three grains of corn down the track before baiting up the deeper dobbing rig with punch - I was going to wait until midday to feed the edge when the day had got to it's warmest. It took a while before I started to get any signs, and my first fish was a small dumpy roach. I could see peg 11 (last weeks winning peg) catching roach, and they also had an early small carp of about 1lb 8oz, but nobody else I could see had caught.

It was just over half an hour in when I had my next bite, taken on the shallower rig pushed as tight in to a small bay in front of me as I dared. A small carp of about 1-12 was the culprit, but very welcome as it was the first carp I've caught for about six weeks! No more followed, and I just carried on catching an odd small roach.

Midday arrived and I decided to feed the edge - nothing ventured, nothing gained! A pinch of caster with two grains of corn and two pieces of meat were introduced. I had a drop in at 13m with a 4mm expander pellet and had a small roach instantly, but no more bites followed so I topped it back up with a tiny ball of micro's and went back across.

With the 17.5m section on I tried a little further down the swim, at first to my left (with no joy) and then to my right. Getting to the limits of my peg to the right I missed a bite, and with the bait still on I lowered the rig in again and it sank away. Carp number two sleepily chugged it's way in to the waiting net, again only a baby at around 2lb, but still welcome. A liner next drop led me to drop in on the shallower rig and a much more lively 3lb ghostie was the result.

After the two-fish flurry I went back to getting just an occasional roach. I had fruitless tries on the other two lines, with a even a switch to worm failing to get a bite from a perch. Back out long and a slight breeze had picked up, taking the edge off the temperature of what was a very pleasant day (I'd taken my fleece of before the match started, and my Thinsulate hat was replaced by a baseball cap!) so I tried the deeper of the two shallow rigs again. A bite saw me connected to another carp for a few seconds before it kited round and picked up a sunken stick and came off - a disaster on a hard day! I thought I'd gotten away with it next drop when I had a small common of about 1lb 8oz, but that proved to be the last I saw of any carp in my peg and the last hour was spent nabbing just an occasional roach on punch, while watching as others started to catch an occasional carp late on, and it looked like a good place may just slip away from me.

When the scales got to me end peg 5 was top weight, with four carp and a bream for 21lb. My four baby's and bits went 9lb 12oz, which in the end turned out just enough to be third, beaten my the other end peg (40) who had two late carp for 13lb.

A slightly better end to the league after my poor middle part, but at least it was a cracking day to be out in! A quick check on the board and my third on the day should be enough to get me in to fifth overall, and may just be enough to scrape me in to fourth - I'll let you know for certain next week. In the end it was a respectable finish considering my draws have been pretty appalling away from drawing an okay peg on the right day in the first round. With us set to lose the frosts now hopefully the water temperature will start to rise and the fish start waking up and spreading out - it'll be nice to be able to influence things a little with feeding as opposed to playing aquatic bingo!

Winter League Rd 4 (24/3/13)

Well, on my last update I finished by hoping it would be a bit warmer and more spring-like. I put the mockers on that one, didn't I! Thankfully we haven't had anywhere near as much snow as most of the country and quite luckily (or not!) the winter league was able to go ahead.

True to my current (lack of) draw bag form I found myself sitting on peg 56, so I'm not moving too far around the lake at the moment! I knew the peg only had a very slim chance of giving me a carp - in fact I was about as far away from where I wanted to be as possible. On the plus side, I was out of the worst of the wind.

I had three rigs up for the day - a rig for across where I had 3ft of water tight to the point in front of me. With that bank being under cut I did think there was a chance it may give me a rouge carp. I also had a corn line fished at 11.5m at an angle away to my right at the bottom of the slope. Both these rigs were matched to .125 hook-links and fished on 11h lakky. Lastly, at 6m to my right there was some straggly brambles hanging in the water with near 4ft of water on the edge of them. I could clearly see in the last match that this was the only place the angler who had it last time could get a bite (from roach), so I set up a lighter rig here. I hoped that a solid no8 lakky matched to a .10 hook-link and an 18 hook would give me a chance with a carp in the cold.

On the whistle the snow started again (and carried on for most of the day, thankfully not settling) and I fed a tiny pinch of hemp and caster in the edge, while the track line got three grains of corn and a tiny pinch of hemp. I tried across on punch off the deck without feeding and had nothing for the first ten minutes or so before I started getting knocks off roach.

A change to caster didn't work as the fish must have been tiny, so I fed a tiny pinch of hemp and caster across and went to the full depth. Odd bites started coming to this, albeit from roach of less than an ounce. Still, I was off the mark and the three others I could see hadn't caught anything.

On the hour mark, with perhaps half a dozen micro roach I decided to have a drop on the corn line. I'd been in no more than a couple of minutes before the float blinked away, a better 2oz roach being the culprit. I plugged away at this line for a while, dripping odd grains of corn and hemp in. I carried on catching the odd roach, all a bit smaller than the first one. I was missing half the bites, even when cutting bits of corn in half, but I plugged away simply because I didn't want to be catching tiny roach at 13.5m, plus I figured plugging away on corn would be my best bet for a bonus.

I kept having odd tries on the closer line but surprisingly, I couldn't get a bite there on the lighter gear. On the two hour mark I was perhaps hitting one in four bites now, and the roach were getting smaller. I decided to make a change and get my head down for the roach. I swapped the top-kits and put the softer no8 lakky, and changed the hook-link too, with a .10 to an 18 B611 going on. I also started another line at 6m in front where the depth was the same as at 11.5m.

Back out on what was the original corn line with caster on the hook I started most of my bites. The roach were small, mostly around an ounce but an odd 2oz fish came. It was steady rather than fast, but I was getting then quicker than the others I could see who were now all fishing for roach. I kept trying the closer line but it wasn't until just over an hour before I had my first bite there.

The last hour the fish came nice and steady at 6m. It was a case of feed a pinch of hemp and just 4-6 casters and fish it out. When the fish got tiny it was time to feed again! The average size was perhaps ten-to-the-pound, but an odd bigger one came with one perhaps going a huge(!) 4oz.

I actually really enjoyed the last part of the match, and I even stopped caring that the odd gust of wind resulted in me getting pelted with snow off the trees behind me! I actually wish I'd gone for roach from the off, starting long and trying to feed them closer, but never mind!

I knew a couple of people sat in the open had caught fairly well, and two pegs sat next to each other and the last two to weigh put weights of 44lb and 42lb on the scales, with 17lb good enough for third. I had a little more than I thought when my roach went 5lb 4oz, but it wasn't until someone said after that I'd done well off the peg that I looked and saw that I'd done enough for 5th, just one ounce off 4th! They'd had a couple of pasty carp in with their roach. It's a shame I didn't switch to them a bit earlier, just for that extra point as a lot of people have had poor results and blow-outs and a top 5 place may (just) be achievable with a very good result in the last round. I think overall there is a clear winner now who will struggle to be caught with two 2nd places, a 4th and a 5th, but everyone who has won a round has suffered very poor results. I must have been a bit of a draw-bag the last few winter leagues I fished, but I'm certainly paying for it this year!

I'm not sure what my plans are for next weekend with it being Easter, but if I am out it wont be until the Monday in all likely hood. Looking at the weather forecast, I'm tempted to have the weekend off and have a good few rig making sessions and re-lakky some tops instead. We'll see.

Winter League Rd 3 (10/3/13)

Well, I had to open my mouth last week and say about the weather improving, didn't I? I should have known that was only during the week! After a glimpse of spring I woke up Sunday morning to find (as much of the country probably did) a dusting of snow. Deep joy.

Still, the winter league continued, as did my bad run in the draw-bag! I was not best pleased to find peg 53 in my hand again. There was no need to take a picture of the peg as it's the same one as last week.

I had a secret weapon this week after only being able to catch roach last week - after seeing the rapid temperature change I had a clutch of my leftover squatt rigs from the Div 2 national in the summer, plus a top-kit that still has a no3 lakky in it. It's just as well I did, else I fear it would have been a DNW next to my name.

Unlike last week when it was quite pleasant after a cold start, this week it was just cold! I had the wind pushing occasionally in at me (when we had it) and with it wet snow blowing in at me for much of the day. I struggled to eek out five tiny fish on small bits of punch for a massive 1oz! (two tiny roach and three even smaller bitterling). The only place I had a bite was long down my right margin where there were a few roots and sticks in the edge.

The day was finished up nicely when the next peg started packing up noisily with ten minutes to go. They chucked their made up bomb round down the middle while they stood up packing their pole away and had a last-gasp carp on it. The highlight of my day was finding I hadn't drank all of my flask so I could have a coffee while I was packing up..

I actually fared slightly better than the last round of the winter league beating two anglers who never had a bite all day, and tying with the peg to my right who also eeked out a few tiny fish to stave off the dreaded DNW.

In terms of winning the winter league my chances are all but over now (unless others start drawing as bad as me in the last two rounds!), as even with a change in fortune I've still a bad result to carry.

There's no blog next week, looking at the weather for the week I've decided on an early birthday / St Patricks day celebration next Sunday instead (my wife is Northern Irish, so it's a legitimate excuse for me!), and it seems a better prospect than sitting in the cold catching nothing. Hopefully given that it'll be near April the weather will be at least a little more favourable next time!

Sunday March 3rd

I always see March as the beginning of spring (the Met Office tell us the same too), so it's about typical that after a pretty settled week with a few milder days I wake up on Sunday morning to find a sharp frost and that it's -2 degrees outside!

Walking around the lake there was no signs of life - normally a sign that the open water is the area to draw as opposed to an island peg. Most of the island pegs were gone when my hand went in, apart from 53 that is - and that's what had came out when I looked in my hand!

Long term readers will know I have a love/hate relationship with the peg, and it's more of the latter on the whole. It's really a summer peg, but it does occasionally fish in the cooler months during mild spells as it's shallow. I guess the morning of a sharp frost isn't the time to draw it.

Still, with a task still to do I set up three rigs - one for the long margin to my right at 12m in 3ft of water, one for 8m down the track in 4.5ft of water, and one for just under 3ft of water pretty tight to the far bank at 13m. The floats were Preston Chianti's on the deeper lines (a 4x12 and a 4x14) with a small Preston PB2 for across where I planned to search the peg with punch. All the rigs had .125 hook-links, with size 16 hooks for the near and far rigs, and an 18 for the track. All the rigs were matched up to Preston 11h elastic.

On the whistle I fed a tiny pinch of bait down the track (hemp and corn) before starting across on punch. I decided to leave the margin to my right until later - there was quite a high attendance but I had a lot of space here where the corner is. I hoped by leaving it quiet a few fish may move here out of the way. Optimism, eh!

The peg to my left had a carp pretty much strait away (their only fish), where as I could only get the occasional knock on the punch before I managed to get of the mark with a tiny roach of less than 1oz. How the hell do they take a 9mm bread punch? I tried a small bit of corn on the deck across and had a proper dig on it almost strait away but missed it. I never had another bite across all day after that!

I chopped about trying to get a bite on corn or punch, both across (where I'd started to drip odd bit's of feed too) and down the track but it wasn't happening. On the half way mark in the match I tried down the edge, hoping against hope really. I managed two small roach there, one on a tiny piece of corn and one on a caster which I hadn't even fed there.

With two hours to go I decided that it wasn't going to happen with carp so I started feeding odd caster on the 8m line with the intention of catching a few roach. It wasn't a winter league match but I figured it was better to get a few bites and at least have something to keep me interested - there was no football on until 4pm to listen too!

Initially, the roach were tiny and I was missing a lot of bites. Even with the dotted down float I had to watch it after it went under and wait until it moved sideways - if it went under out of sight nothing was there when I lifted! The fish were all under an ounce for the first hour, and I had to keep changing the depth to even get regular bites. I had odd quiet spells which I hoped were carp, but none materialised, and feeding a small pinch of hemp again bought the roach back.

In the last hour I found it was better to feed a reasonable pinch of hemp with six casters in an fish it out rather than drip odd casters in. The average size of fish got to an ounce, with an odd two ounce fish thrown in too. I was getting less bites than I started with, but was hitting more of them. Fishing away from the feed slightly helped too. I finished the match with about thirty-five roach which went 2lb 8oz on the scales for absolutely nowhere, but I actually quite enjoyed it! I wish I'd tried it earlier to see if the size of roach carried on increasing - they are in there.

I wish I'd got of my box and set up a lighter roach rig - I've put a top in my holdall with a soft single no8 elastic in (not ideal for small roach, but a lot better than the 11h I was using, and would still give me a chance with a carp in the cold). Hopefully it doesn't come to that for next weeks winter league with the weeks weather looking quite promising. The lake on the whole fished hard with just 30lb winning and two 18lb weights making the frame - weights taken from in the open water. Come on spring, get rolling in!