First time in the café at Shipham for a long time and it wasn't too bad, so fuelled and ready it was off to the fishery. Only the main lake in today and I drew 13A, so close to where I was on Tony's Float Only a couple of weeks back.
No pics of the peg, not sure why, just getting forgetful I think, maybe it's an effect of fishing these old codgers costcutters!!! It has a short margin to the RH side, which I did set up a rig for, but not with much hope, as I have never had much success in the margins in my previous few visits to this lake. An island chuck was tempting, although it is about 45 - 50 yards and the wind, whilst light was pushing away from the island. So a 8g Drennan pellet waggler which reached the island easily and a middy fat boy for full depth, not quite getting to the island with it, so would see how it went before I decided on what to do with that.
I did have a few method feeders with me, so set one up in case the wind worsened and while I was at it, a straight lead as well. Finally 4 topkits, the one previously mentioned for the edge, a shallow rig, a full depth pellet rig and a paste rig. Bait tray was simple, pellets, hemp and paste, 8mm Coppens for pinging to the island and Skrettings for an 11m paste line.
On the all-in I fed the 11m line with a mix of pellets sizes and hemp, then out on the waggler, expecting an early fish or two, the new Tournament waggler rods I bought were casting well and I could get the float tight to the island (new line on the reels after Sunday's breakages) I was somewhat surprised when it didn't go under, I dropped short of the island, still nothing and I had the feeling that it wasn't going to get any better, at least in the near future.
A switch to the 11m line and paste saw a 7-8lb fish in the net, then I hooked a better one, that I had to shout down to the guy on my left as I was unable to stop it heading into his peg, I got it turned and down onto the topkit, virtually in netting range and the hook inexplicably pulled, some choice words and back out, I had two more to complete the first hour with 19lb on the clicker. The carp bubbles stopped and the fizzing was that which is probably small skimmers, much smaller bubbles and over a large area, rather than the bigger bubbles in circular or a moving pattern that give the carp away.
Back on the waggler, but still no bites, the wind was now pushing the other way - for a while - it was switching direction and strength every few minutes, the heavy waggler wasn't dragging around, but I wasn't convinced it wasn't too heavy, but I wouldn't have got a lighter on out there.
Time to pick up the method, Mike Owens next door was getting a few on the method and I did manage two carp and two skimmers on it, but there were no other indications and the fish I did have came by winding a few turn on from the clip (which was tight to the island) and catching a couple of metres off the island. I manged another on the pole, but it was slow going and after 2 1/2 hours I had just over 60lb in one net. the next 2 1/2 hours were spent trying all the lines, starting a new one halfway to the island with the depth waggler, all to no avail, I didn't have fish in that time.
At 15:30 with an hour to go I had to get up for a wee, I thought Mike Owens was beating me by a long way, so wandered down to see what he was catching, just pellet on the hook and GB/micros on the feeder, nothing different than I'd tried, he said he had 11 carp. I went back and refed the 11m line and after 10 minutes the bubbles changed, from the regular fizzing, to the individual blows of carp back in the peg, the last 50 minutes of the match saw me putting fish in the net again, 5 of them for 64lb, too little too late as it turned out, as I ended the match with 130lb dead and one out of the money in 4th place. I switched to feeding hemp and micros once the fish arrived and they seemed to be following the bait down, as several of those last 50 minute fish were hooked as the float settled and then buried.
Going back over this match, I do wonder if it might have paid to keep feeding the island, as I let that slip towards the end and Titch on peg 3 was catching well to it at the end, but I had my own run of fish then, so maybe it was just time of day.
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