So this Saturday I had a match on Rayne lodge top lake, I've been looking forward to this seeing as my last few matches have been completely silvers, it would be nice to catch a bag of commercial carp again, although with the cold weather I really didn't know what to expect.
I drew peg 14 on the day, not normally a good peg this time of year, but i did have a lot of room and signs of fish topping in my peg were promising.
I kept it simple on the day, with a long pole line at 10 meters, a margin line, and a bomb line for pop up bread, this is something that can be devastating on the right day and you can literally get one a chuck in the coldest conditions!
I started the day by feeding about 20 grains of corn and a pinch of hemp on the long line, and the same in the left margin, the right margin was going to be trickled with corn all day to see if one feeding method would be more productive than the other. I then chucked the bomb out, after 2 bite less minutes I recast, still nothing.
I then went on the long pole line and had a few skimmers then a small carp, not too productive for 15 minutes into the match. I saw the person opposite me catch a carp down the edge so I thought id give it a go, I was into a small carp straight away, with a slightly better one following it up. I spent the next hour catching odd carp here, mostly small ones around the 1lb mark, I was catching the odd fish on the right that was around the 2-3lb mark, but they didn't keep coming, id get one and then they would back off and that was it.
I decided to try and dob a bit of bread about 2 meters past my left margin, as i had a bush in the water here and i felt as though this was where the fish were backing off to, this worked a treat and i spent a good couple of hours going through my lines in a nice rythm, catching one or 2 carp on the left hand corn line, then catching one on the right before dobbing some bread and catching a better 4-5lber on the end of the bush. Staying on one line was not an option today as the fish just kept backing off, probably to do with the frost we had the night before. Every time i had a quiet spell I quickly chucked the bomb out for a couple of minutes just to let the pole lines re-settle, i managed to sneak a couple of 6-8lbers this way throughout the day, but yet again it wasn't possible to get more than one at a time!
Id had quite an interesting day, found out a few things id not learnt at this lake before, and had a good weight of 117lb with 67 carp, which is certainly not bad for this time of year! I had to work for it, which you don't normally have to do down here, but I prefer it that way as I always feel as though I work harder than the rest, which in turn I believe puts more fish in my net.
Unfortunately my 117lb was only good enough for 2nd Place and a section win. Someone in a corner peg had managed a colossal 158lb, he caught mainly down one edge, and his fish were probably twice my average size! So I still felt as though id done well on the day, if I had worked out the dobbing bread slightly earlier I think I could have managed about 130-140lb, but certainly not 158. So all in all a good Saturday!
Onto Sunday, the bottom lake at Rayne. This was the match that mattered to me the most this weekend, as im leading all the championships in my club, and couldn't afford to have a disaster here. Under the conditions I knew there could be some real poor pegs on the day, where you may struggle for 10lb, while someone else will probably bag up with 100lb. The previous week id had a practice here and had 100lb of skimmers and carp, superb fishing, all down the edge and short pole, the pop up bread hadnt really worked on the day but I know its a devastating tactic down here so had a loaf Warburton toasty of bread with me.
At the draw i really fancied peg 6, I felt as though this was where the fish may hold up, unfortunately I drew 8, which isn't too far away, and I still had a gap in the islands, all be it a small gap.
I set up a margin line, 6 meter line and the bomb again today, my left margin was about 2 and a half feet deep, which is deep for this lake so felt this could produce, my right margin was only 1 and a half foot so i completely discarded this option.
I started the day by feeding my pole lines with a pinch of corn in each, and continued to feed by hand on these as i always find little and often is key to this lake, large amounts just kill it. I then continued to chuck the bomb in-between the islands, as I was sinking the line I felt a tug and out came a 8oz skimmer, not a carp but these skimmers can be weight builders! Next 3 put ins produced 3 carp all 4lb+ which is a good stamp for here, but then nothing. I tried the pole lines with no joy, just to go back onto the bread and catch another 2 carp in 2 chucks. Id not seen anyone else catch a fish at this point, so i decided to try the pole lines quick, and if they didnt bring no joy I was going to scrap the long pole and just keep the margin line and concentrate on the bomb.
As the day went on i found i was getting 2 or 3 carp one after the other, then nothing, so i was trying the margin line every 30minutes just to give the fish a chance to come back to the bomb line, unfortunately on the day i didnt catch anything on the pole, but it was the same for everyone, the fish had just backed off.
I was still struggling to keep the fish coming on the bomb line, so i was playing around with the hooklenght size and how much bread i was popping up. in the end i decided popping up 2 10mm punches of bread at 12 inches was optimal, and stuck at this for the remainder of the day. The fish did back off later on and i had to take a couple of turns off the reel and clip back up, this required extremely accurate casting as i was going inbetween 2 overhanging trees into about a foot gap, fortunately it was worthwhile as I didn't hit the trees once and I was catching one a chuck!
I finished the day with 31carp for 122lb, an awesome average for this lake, to my right the top weight was 9lb, and that was peg 6! To my left the top weight was 30lb which was peg 9 right next to me.
Id well and truely sacked up on the day, there were the usual comments on how id sat on the fish, but id seen plenty of fish in peg 9 and 10 so they wernt just bundled into my little gap in the islands! My gap was about 4 meters wide with overhanging trees to make things tricky, whereas pegs 9 and 10 have about 10-12meters, which to me would make a better swim surely?
So id extended my lead in the championship as id won the match, and my main competitors hadn't won their sections or placed in the match, couldn't have gone any more to plan really!
Next week sees me going back to lake-lands front lake, where its fishing hard at the moment with fish being fairly tightly huddled in the open water pegs, im hoping to continue my lucky drawing streak and good form, and hopefully catch some carp, ide, bream and every other fish that lives in lakelands!
I look forward to posting my report next week,
Tight Lines,
Reece Hearn
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