Into the draw tin and out pops 11, I would rather have been on the opposite bank, but it seems as far away as the dark side of the moon, unattainable for me. Made my way to the peg and had a chat with Rod Wootten who was making his way round to 13. I decided on 4 topkits, one for banded pellet across to the island, a rig to fish soft pellet at 13 and 5m, a meat rig for 5m the other side and a margin rig.
Plumbing up to find decent areas to fish proved tricky, the peg is up and down, hardly any flat areas, I guess the aerator is the cause of that. Finally found enough flat spots to settle on and on the all-in fed some micros and 4mm at 13m and 5m, as well as pinging 4mm pellets to the island. A few cubes of meat into the 5m line and shipped out. Little dink first put in was a good sign......... or so I thought!!
Seconds later, the float buried and nigh on 2lb skimmer was safely netted, that was a false dawn, as two small roach were the only other fish taken from that line all day.
After 25 minutes I had to go out to the island and in the next 35 minutes put 27lb on my clicker, great, on for a big weight here....... then the wheels came off, no more bites, no liners, no indications at all. Rod over on 13 had suffered the same fate, the fish had vacated our end of the lake, indeed, I could see them frolicking with carefree abandon in the vacant peg 9. The large gap between me and Nicky Ewers on peg 7 gave the fish a great area to back off into.
A switch to the meat line and first put in the float settled and then dipped, a skimmer nearly 3lb, would this be the kickstart to a good day on the silvers? No is the short answer, one more bite from the meat line and that was a plump 12oz perch. The middle four hours of the match were dire, a real struggle, I added one more perch, a rudd and a F1. Then with an hour to go, fish started coming up the lake, Rod could see them, I managed two more from the island and the had 3 from the RH margin, although they were small, frustratingly I lost a fish I estimated to be 16 or 17lb, it ws reluctant to surface and tried to get under the pallet, I put enough pressure on it to stop that happening, but the hook pulled for whatever reason, the dead maggots weren't much use, 8mm pellets seemed to be the best bait down the edge today.
Too little, too late, both myself and Rod started catching, although Rod had a nightmare as his landing net split, depositing a big fish back in the lake. I guess it was just one of those days, as I won my bank and managed 4th overall, but just couldn't compete with the 3 pegs on the opposite bank that threw up fish a bit more consistently. I might even leave the casters at home next time as well!!
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