A quick look at the lake before the draw and there were odd fish topping and every peg was easily accessible with no issues stopping easy shipping, Andy has even provided an area behind each peg covered in wood chip, to save walking on the bare earth, to set up rollers etc. I kept meaning to take some pictures, but didn't actually get round to it.
As the lake has been stocked with small carp and F1's, I was going to stick to one simple approach, fish 4mm hard pellet. I did have a couple of pints of casters, so took it along, but the hard pellet approach was going to be my banker and focus.
Draw time saw me pull out 20, meant nothing to me, but a couple of people suggested it was a decent draw. I had a pair of waggler rods, set up 3 topkits and as I had time, a pellet feeder. The waggler rods had 2.5lb maxima on one and I have just started trying the Preston sinking feeder line in 3lb on the other, first couple of matches with it and I am quite impressed with how it fishes, not lets see how it stands up to the rigours of constant casting. The topkits had a rig to fish banded caster at 2+2 where I could throw them by hand. another to fish banded pellet hard on the deck at 13m and another with a more strung out rig for the same bait.
I started on the waggler and it soon became obvious that the fish were in quite shallow water, so switched the float to a small Middy Fat boy, this fished about 20" deep. I had a slow first hour, getting the right waggler and having a look on the 13m pole line, as the waggler was fairly slow. Round on the other bank, one of the guys had landed 3 decent fish, whilst my fish were 2-3oz apiece.
I had a spell of more bites on the waggler in the 2nd and 3rd hours, but was by now well behind peg 21. The lake narrows up slightly between 20/21 and the fish seemed to be happier sat slightly further across in 21, whilst my fish were coming and going, giving me spells with far too few indication.
Fourth hour saw things slowing down again and I did have a cast or three with the pellet feeder, I only had one bite on this and it was the best fish of the day for me, a ghostie about 2.5lb. I had a scrabble round in my bait bag and found a bag with about 1/4 pint of maggots in. I switched to maggot on the hook and started getting bites again, including some F1's (which are bigger than the carp).
I had a couple more looks over the 11m line and the short caster line, but I didn't have a bite on any pole line, the fish were across by the island and moving around. My stubborn plan to fish banded pellet was a mistake, I was pegged next to the winner who caught consistently all day, feeding pellet and fish maggot on the hook. That definitely cost me, as I weighed 33.12, which was 6th on the day and those quiet spells and maybe the chance of a few more F1's on maggot were a lesson to get some local info, as several people said after that maggot has been the best bait on there. Unusual - in my experience anyway, as new lakes, stocked with new fish are usually pellet dominated for at least a few months.
I'll be back for another go, but it's not something I'd want to do every week, its certainly being developed into a nice fishery, in case anyone hasn't heard, from 1st march there is a new Fishery Pellet Only rule I can understand its a business, that developing and growing it isn't cheap, luckily its not a venue where huge amounts are needed.
Well done to the framers, its certainly a busy day catching that many fish on the waggler (winner said he had 147 fish on his clicker).
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