After a dreadful winter's fishing from a personal perspective, I had taken two weeks off, partially work induced, partially because I thought it might help revive some enthusiasm. So I was looking forward to this weeks round of the winter league, especially as I was on Campbell, so with a chance of a few fish.
This week I obtained a virtually brand new ZT-PRO hook tyer, it is a nice bit of kit and does tie tidy knots with no line damage, although I am struggling a bit with 0.08 fluorocarbon, more practice needed I think.
Back to today and as a team we take it in turns to draw, this week it was Paul's turn and he pulled 4 reasonable pegs and one that no one would want, unfortunately Mark Broomsgrove was on that one, peg 21 - telling someone that they are on there, is akin to delivering news of a death in the family. 132 for me, 102 for himself, 71 for Glenn and Fred had 52.
I would rather have 132 in the summer, but a few fish have come off it recently, so hopefully they'd still be there. If it wasn't an end peg, I think the pole would have stayed in the bag, the lead and the waggler have been much more successful recently. But, with the end bank in easy reach, it would be remiss not to set up a dobbing rig. So whilst it was out, I also set up a topkit for 14m, to fish meat, I didn't think they would come closer, the water is no longer gin clear, but it remains far from coloured.
Two waggler rods set up, one for straight in front and one shallower for fishing up to the pallet of 134, both on Titan 2000 rods, with 4lb reel line, 0.14 hooklengths and 18 LWG hooks. I have pretty much switched all my hooks to Guru patterns now and they have yet to let me down - although. admittedly, they haven't exactly had a ruthless testing this winter. Two lead rods, one with a small bomb and a 12" hooklength of 0.16 with a 16 QM1, this bomb stopped with a feeder stop, so the popped up distance can be adjusted, second rod with a Preston in-line bomb, 14 QM1 and 0.20.
Starting on the waggler, a couple of chucks to get my range and 3rd chuck towards 134 with a waggler and fish on, after a spirited tussle, that was 10lb in the net after 5 minutes - that's nearly as much as I caught in the last 3 rounds put together. The wind then started to get up and made getting the waggler to the pallet very difficult, as it was picking up the line and blowing it into the overhanging tree on my right. A look on the lead with bread brought a fish about 8lb, but that was it, I think the waggler with no shot down the line would have been better but just couldn't get it there - I hadn't brought any pellet wagglers, maybe one of those would have cast better in the conditions.
Picking up the pole I had a dob with some bread along the end bank and hooked a fish about 6lb that leapt from the water 4 or 5 times like a salmon, the water might be cold, but the fish were fighting harder than they do in the summer. I managed one more on the waggler before a 3 hour quiet spell - not just quiet it was dead, no liners, no indications, nothing. Mash on 131 was getting odd fish and plenty of indications and foulers, whilst my float or tip remained motionless, frustrating....
Last hour I had a couple more on the waggler, as the fish started moving again and the last 20 minutes I was getting plenty of indications and had two fish on punched meat on the lead. I feel I was sat just off the main ball of fish and only picked up the odd ones and then at the end, they started to spread out a bit, shame they didn't do that with 90 minutes to go. Ended up with 60lb dead, for 7th on the lake, beaten mainly by those in the hotspot area around the aerator.
13 points from 19 for me, team was 6th on the day with 60 points, so we are staging a belated and too late resurgence after a poor start. Mark managed 8 points from his peg from hell and maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel after this long and winless winter. next up Silver match at Viaduct on Wednesday.
