The fancied pegs on this lake in these conditions are always 20 and 21, these pegs can cast right into the bowl area where the fish hold up in winter, and you can catch really well on pop up bread, 3,4 and 8 are also good pegs as they can also cast near the area.
At the draw I pulled out peg 3, not a bad peg, and also a peg id drawn the previous winter and won the match from with 94lb. I had a good angler on peg 4 to my left, and a good angler on peg 20, so I had my work cut out!
Id decided to fish a long pole line, a margin line about 2 meters out, and also a bomb rod with pop up bread. The plan was to start on the Bread in the hope that I could nick a few fish quickly, then after an hour or so hope to find some bigger fish on the long pole, and if it was really good then maybe the margins would produce a couple of lumps.
I started the match by popping up 3 punches of bread 12inches off the bottom, this is always my starting point at this lake and if it works you can stay at this depth all day, unfortunately my tip didn't go round! And after 3 chucks and 15minutes id had nothing, but nor had anyone else. I decided to try 2 punches instead of 3, as I had done on the bottom lake a few weeks back, I cast out and as I was sinking my line I felt the rod go, Carp number one was in the net. I cast out again with 2 punches only to miss a bite, possibly a skimmer I thought, so I went down to a single punch and had 2 carp in 2 chucks, but it just didn't feel right as i was getting a lot of indications and normally fishing bread your tip will whack round or drop back. I decided to try 2 punches of 6mm bread instead of my usual 10mm, this was bang on the money and the tip went round 5 times in a row, by this time the fish seemed to be a bit more confident and i was able to go back to 2 punches of 10mm bread, bites came quicker and I was hooking into everything, by the time id had 20 carp, I hadn't seen anyone else get more than about 5 or 6, so I was miles ahead at this stage. Unfortunately things began to slow, and my catch rate dropped, I decided to try my pole lines, but not with too much confidence as I hadn't seen a fish caught on a pole, I didn't get anything on the pole so it was back on the tip.
The only problem with this peg is that you can only chuck to the end of the island, and not into the bowl, so I had no way to follow the fish to where they had backed off to, fortunately it would prove to be too little too late for my competitors as they could only seem to catch at my pace even though I was now struggling.
I finished the match with 34 carp, managing to pick up a few more fish on the bread, and one on the long pole! Id tried changing depth and bait sizes for the last few hours, but it didn't seem to matter what i did, 12inches off the deck with 2 pieces of 10mm punch was the most productive, I feel this was best as its big enough to provide lots of visibility but also small enough for the carp in this lake to easily suck up as they swim along.
My final weight was 76lb 8oz, which was more than enough to beat 2nd place peg 4 next to me with 50lb, there was another 50lb weight and also a few in the 30s and 40s, so the fish were still slightly spread out, just seemingly most had made the move to the bowl area.
So a good start to the weekend! Another good result and match win on a water that I just keep growing in confidence!
Sunday was a bit of a nightmare to be quite honest! Id drawn 80 on hobbs croft, which is a good perch peg in the winter, the only issue I had was that the perch didn't want to feed! I don't think a single person caught one on the lake. Another problem i had was that bloodworm and joker was banned for this match, so unless by some kind of miracle the silvers were in my peg, I was going to really struggle!
I ended the match with 32 small fish for 1lb! A lovely half ounce average :( nothing whatsoever worked on the day, and I feel I have some good experience on this lake, especially in winter as i fish here often. The lake was won from a peg in the shallow water off peg 67, he caught 14lb of skimmers on pellet, I believe the fish were here because the sun was shining on this area all day, and obviously shallow water warms up quicker than deep water! Another good weight came from behind the island on peg 74, this can be a great winter peg, in the summer we don't put this peg in as its a waste of time, you just cant compete, but in the winter for some reason the better silvers hold up here, the angler in this peg managed 13lb of quality roach and skimmers, at least some people had caught some fish and had a days fishing! The next best weight was 8lb from another shallow peg mostly skimmers as well. 99 times out of 100 id be happy with peg 80, unfortunately today was that 1 in a 100 day where is just wasn't meant to be! its about 5-6ft deep here, the shallow pegs are about 2-3ft, mind boggling, but that's winter fishing for you!
As you can see above i have poorly edited this overhead image so you can see where the winning weights came from, as expected, on ash grounds in the bowl area, the winning weight consisted of one carp, 8 f1s and a bream, the eventual winner was Dickie Carr so well done to him on a hard day.
Next week I am back on hobbs, fortunately I have a match-pack of bloodworm and joker ordered as it is allowed next week, so I should have something to talk about next week! I hope! I will be hoping that I draw one of the 3 pegs that had the best weights this week, or even the shallow bank along the right hand side. the only reason this wasn't in on the match this week is because it was iced up! But I fully expect this area to hold some quality roach that will feed on the bloodworm.
Thanks for reading this week, I look forward to posting next week,
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
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