Post by tompo on Jan 7, 2011 15:06:40 GMT -5
Went fishing for first time for over a month last Sunday.
Fished a small open on a complex that I plan to fish quite a lot between now and spring.
There are three lakes on the complex. The original lake which is a specimen lake. A small lake match lake and a new 40 peg snake.
Before last Sunday I have fished the new lake twice.
I won the first match held on the lake in April 2010. At the end of November (my last match) I was second.
About 20 turned up for Sunday’s match.
I drew a corner peg which was next to the peg that I came second from in November. The two pegs being separated by a bridge.
Maggot/pinkie is my preferred bait when it is as cold as it has been but I still feed “B” soaked micros and will have the occasional look on a 4mm pellet or corn.
I plumbed up 6 or 7 lines but only fed three at start.
One at 6mm at bottom of near shelf, one at 13.5m straight in front of me next to the bridge and at 13.5m at 11 o’clock next to the central island.
The deeper rigs (depth was about 5’) were on 0.4gm floats on 0.12 mainline with 0.10 hook lengths. Hooks were size 22 Middy 6313’s. Set up for the shallow swim next the island was the same except that the float was a 4x10.
At the start I Fed all three lines with a few micros and pinkies and started at 6m. This line can produce lots of silvers and a few carp. After 10 mins without a bite I switched to the island swim. I had 4 or 5 very small carp on single red maggot. I was feeding about 20 micros and a handful of pinkies after every bite.
After about an hour I switched to the bridge swim and had a bite first put in. Must admit it took me by surprise and I missed it. Back out and I had a small carp.
I started to catch small carp of about 12ozs regularly.
I could see quite a few pegs from where I was sat and most were struggling.
The guy on the end of the island had a few better fish and the guy to my left had had an 8lb fish first put in but nothing since.
I caught OK until someone walked over the bridge. That slowed things right up and with an hour to go I fed a new line near to the bridge about 3-4m to the left of the original one.
I left this to settle for 15 minutes while I had another look by the island. This only produced one fish and so for the last 45mins I committed to getting as much as I could from the new line.
To be honest I wasn’t too optimistic because one of the guys sat on the island and who was blanking packed up and made several trips over the bridge taking his kit to his car.
Luckily, the fish on the new line didn’t seem too bothered and I had a few up to the whistle.
The guy on the end of the island had been catching better quality fish than me but not as many. I don’t think I had a fish over 1lb. He was first to weigh and I would be last.
I heard his weight called as being 29-9. By the time the scales got to me the 29-9 was still top weight with 25 lbs second with a couple of 13lb weights third and fourth. I wasn’t sure of my weight but was confident that I would be third at least.
As it happened I weighed 32-6 for the win. 90% of fish were caught on single red or fluoro maggot. I also had a few on fluoro pinkie.
Never had a bite on corn and the only fish I hooked on pellet was a lump that I lost when it straightened the hook. To be honest I should have changed the hook. It had got bent when unhooking a fish and rather than change I bent it back into shape with pliers. As it turned out the lost fish didn’t cost me but it could have.
Fished a small open on a complex that I plan to fish quite a lot between now and spring.
There are three lakes on the complex. The original lake which is a specimen lake. A small lake match lake and a new 40 peg snake.
Before last Sunday I have fished the new lake twice.
I won the first match held on the lake in April 2010. At the end of November (my last match) I was second.
About 20 turned up for Sunday’s match.
I drew a corner peg which was next to the peg that I came second from in November. The two pegs being separated by a bridge.
Maggot/pinkie is my preferred bait when it is as cold as it has been but I still feed “B” soaked micros and will have the occasional look on a 4mm pellet or corn.
I plumbed up 6 or 7 lines but only fed three at start.
One at 6mm at bottom of near shelf, one at 13.5m straight in front of me next to the bridge and at 13.5m at 11 o’clock next to the central island.
The deeper rigs (depth was about 5’) were on 0.4gm floats on 0.12 mainline with 0.10 hook lengths. Hooks were size 22 Middy 6313’s. Set up for the shallow swim next the island was the same except that the float was a 4x10.
At the start I Fed all three lines with a few micros and pinkies and started at 6m. This line can produce lots of silvers and a few carp. After 10 mins without a bite I switched to the island swim. I had 4 or 5 very small carp on single red maggot. I was feeding about 20 micros and a handful of pinkies after every bite.
After about an hour I switched to the bridge swim and had a bite first put in. Must admit it took me by surprise and I missed it. Back out and I had a small carp.
I started to catch small carp of about 12ozs regularly.
I could see quite a few pegs from where I was sat and most were struggling.
The guy on the end of the island had a few better fish and the guy to my left had had an 8lb fish first put in but nothing since.
I caught OK until someone walked over the bridge. That slowed things right up and with an hour to go I fed a new line near to the bridge about 3-4m to the left of the original one.
I left this to settle for 15 minutes while I had another look by the island. This only produced one fish and so for the last 45mins I committed to getting as much as I could from the new line.
To be honest I wasn’t too optimistic because one of the guys sat on the island and who was blanking packed up and made several trips over the bridge taking his kit to his car.
Luckily, the fish on the new line didn’t seem too bothered and I had a few up to the whistle.
The guy on the end of the island had been catching better quality fish than me but not as many. I don’t think I had a fish over 1lb. He was first to weigh and I would be last.
I heard his weight called as being 29-9. By the time the scales got to me the 29-9 was still top weight with 25 lbs second with a couple of 13lb weights third and fourth. I wasn’t sure of my weight but was confident that I would be third at least.
As it happened I weighed 32-6 for the win. 90% of fish were caught on single red or fluoro maggot. I also had a few on fluoro pinkie.
Never had a bite on corn and the only fish I hooked on pellet was a lump that I lost when it straightened the hook. To be honest I should have changed the hook. It had got bent when unhooking a fish and rather than change I bent it back into shape with pliers. As it turned out the lost fish didn’t cost me but it could have.
