I wasn’t looking forward to this one although the weather was a lot better than forecast. Les and Steve Bush drew their usual corner pegs and Janders was on consistent peg 13, for my sins I drew peg 7 which hasn’t got a lot of form.
I set up a 0.6 gram Drennan carp float to fish at 11 metres and scaled down slightly to 0.12 mm bottom and finer wire Fox Match carp hook. I also set up a 0.10 gram Trabucco rig to fish down the margins on either side. I mixed up some Sonubaits groundbait and was ready well before the off. On the whistle I cupped in three balls at 11 metres and hemp, 4 mm pellet, chili hemp and corn on both inside swims. Starting on the longer line with double red maggot on the hook I was quickly into fish landing two skimmers and a roach in quick succession. I was hopeful the better bream might move in but then all I could catch was tiny roach. Still at least I was ahead of Janders who was opposite me. I looked up to see him land a good bream that was foulhooked and all of a sudden I was behind again.
I gave it an hour on the longer line but only added a a couple more small fish so I cupped in another ball and came in on my right margin swim. No bites here or from the other inside swim and once again I was all out of ideas. From all the splashing coming from Bushy on peg 10 it was obvious he was bagging and Tommy Lee opposite on peg 11 (my peg from last week!) was also getting a few including a 12lb bonus. From the comments around the pond it seemed, once again, as if nobody apart from the corner pegs was catching much.
After seeing some carp cruising near the surface I flirted with fishing shallow but only added a couple more tiny roach. Swopping between all three swims proved totally unproductive and I was right royally fed up. With two hours to go I was fishing the left hand margin with corn on the hook when I started getting some indications. I hooked my first carp only for the hook to pull out nearly straight away, I then hooked a good fish and had done all the hard work and shipped down to my long top two when it snagged me solid just in front of me in an unseen snag and I had to pull for a break. This just wasn’t going to be my day yet again. I hooked a third but the hook pulled out of this one as well. Janders had landed a couple of small carp and I knew another pound would be heading his way.
With ten minutes to go I actually got one out and it was a decent fish of around 5lb, I just had time to go back in but no more bites and Les called the all out. I packed up and took some of my stuff back to the car and it became apparent the pond had fished poorly. Les on corner peg 1 had just over 15lb and was the early leader. Mr Consistent (Chris Haines) had 11lb 2oz which looked like being a good weight on the day. My fish went 5lb 12oz and after four matches that’s my top weight on this ‘bagging’ venue. I’ve fished four matches (24 hours in total) for four carp so far – not good.
Bushy weighed a tad under 50lb for an easy win, Tommy had 35lb odd for second and Les was third and Chris fourth. Janders weighed 9lb 2oz to win his five peg section by default and take another pound off me. Picky also duffed me up again and deprived me of a pound. Some good anglers had struggled today including Alan Dunn who had 3oz and Steve Bishop who didn’t weigh, so it’s not just me. Well lets hope the weather warms up a bit as I’m back here again next week – great!
