Well, this was another extremely hard day at the lake and the weather wasn't going to help at all!
Went to to the draw and got one of my favorite pegs on the venue, number 39 (The little lilies - or were). I like this area of the lake as its got a lot of options, its not to shallow nor is it to deep and you generally will always get the fish in this area no matter what time of year.
The Peg
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I'd only be setting my feeder rod up today as generally its only a feeder fishing area, though it can be productive for tench and bream on the waggler, but only on the night's and evening sessions.
Yellow Marker - This is basically were the little set of lilies appear. This can be a very good feature to fish to or slight off them in the evenings in the summer months!
Red Marker - This would be my line for the day. Its probably around 50 - 60 yard chuck and is the deepest area of the peg. Its a position to try first and adjust to suit if you get any liners.
Green Marker - This marker indicates a section of still water. If i were struggling i'd certainly give this ago. Still or should i say flat water is typically warmer, so if you can chuck to or on the edge of this area you can possible get your self an edge.
Blue Marker - I wouldn't normally even attempt this line but on the day i saw a few nice carp jumping about early on in the match!
I wouldn't be trying the island or the still water areas today as i didn't have access to longer rods until a few days ago! Its around about 100 yard chuck and i would of struggled with my 10 footer!
The Bait
I'd opted for the same mix i use throughout the year which is Bream 3000 from sensas. I believe its one of the best bream ground baits on the market and mixed 50/50 with brown crumb can get great results indeed. I've also been experimenting with a certain additive to my groundbait's for the last couple of weeks and i'm pretty sure its making a difference, especially at the lake or it could just be luck? I dont tend to put any particles into my mix at this time of the year so its just purely the crumb and the ground bait.
I'd be fishing with red maggots in variety's of live and dead, as well as different additives i'm currently testing.
10:00
The all in. No rushing just get it in the right place first time. I generally don't feed a lot of bait before i see fish. So for the first 5 minutes i cast in every minute or so with just a medium drennan ground bait feeder, just to get a littler introductory bed of bait down there.
I'll only introduce more when i see or get signs of fish.
12:00
Well, the weather really turned for me about 11/12 ish! It was absolutely terrible. I have never been to cold when fishing in my life! I'd set up with the wind coming right round my side and it then started to rain and even snow!
I did half a couple of decent skimmers in the net by now though!
14:00
Now we were into the last couple of hours left of the match and i hadn't really seen anyone get anything yet so i was on my way to another win, so i thought. I'd now started to really struggle getting the bait were i wanted it. I'd lost a few feeders pushing the casts to much as i had a really strong head wind, so i wasn't fishing in the placed i wanted to!
16:00
Well the shout for time came and it couldn't of come sooner! I'd been sat on the bank in the rain, snow and horrible wind with no body else to talk to as everyone else were on the other side.
I'd no idea what other people had got and how they'd gotten on so i was looking forward to the weight in. As i looked a cross i was shocked to see just 2 anglers left on the lake from starting numbers of around 15. I was even more shocked when i saw the other 2 remaining fellas get there nets in!!
As it turned out i was the only person in the match to catch anything!! That's a definite first for me
The weight turned out just below the 8lb mark with a small tench added to that in the last ten minutes.
I reckon the next match will fish a lot better now we know were the bream are. That's half the struggle with shoal fish. If anyone would like to attend any of the matches your are very welcome. Just email me on the above address and i'll give you directions.
Catch you later.
Nathan @ Fish4thought
