Last Spring League match
This year’s spring league has been a little different due to a new member that has been winning every match he fishes. I will refer to him as “the man”. He is outstanding when using the pole to catch mainly Ide. Good match weights are now possible because the Ide have really put on weight this year.
I have learned a lot from his appearances and it has spurred me on to do things that I would normally avoid namely pole fishing and targetting lots of smaller fish. This has lead to some very enjoyable pleasure sessions and I have enjoyed having to think more about my fishing and work harder at it.
That said, I knew that it would be a struggle to beat him at his own game. I therefore hoped that I would draw a good Carp peg once they got their heads down in the belief that a few sizable fish were the only way to win.
Peg 17
It was the last match and the weather had been good for the last few weeks. This had raised the water temperature nicely. This has two beneficial effects; firstly the Ide were not as widespread or ravenous as they had been in cooler temperatures and secondly the Carp were now on the feed.
Luckily I drew peg 17. This is a notable Carp peg but is surrounded by water lilies so requires strong tackle. Fortunately I had just changed my strong lines ready for the imminent river season so I set my stall out to fish for them and nothing else.
A slow start
I was able to see several other anglers including “the man”. As usual, he was off to a quick start catching fairly regularly in the first two hours. I was being plagued by a string sideways wind that was making it hard to get the float and bait near the lilies and to stay there. I tried baiting up a few areas where the wind would be less of a problem but had no interest there.
Bites at last
I could see the lilies moving in one of the areas that I had been feeding. Unfortunately it was into the headwind. It took many attempts to get the float into the correct position and, even then, it would not stay there long. Thankfully, when bites came they were quite quick so didn’t give the float/bait chance to move much. I managed my first Carp, a mirror of about 5lb at about 11:30.
A few surprises
Despite using big baits (mainly luncheon meat) and loose feeding pellets, I still managed a few Ide and a couple of 2lb-ish Bream. The Ide were of a better stamp than I had caught on maggots and worms.
Bites slowing elsewhere
As is often the case on this lake, bites started to dry up around the lake. Even “the man” was struggling after lunchtime. I did see him hit into a nice fish that he played for quite a while but it turned out to be one of two Pike that he caught and these are not included in match weights.
Thankfully, for me, the continued introduction of pellets had got fish feeding fairly consistently. If only that wind abated then I am sure I would catch more.
The result
I ended up with 5 Carp, the smallest being a Mirror of about 1.5lb which was caught with 2 minutes of the match left. This gave me a total weight of 25lb 4oz and “the man” had 24lb 4oz. That last small Carp made all the difference.
I had finally managed to get a few Carp in a match but felt I could have had many more had the wind been lighter. However, I can’t complain as I finally won a match on the Lake. The best I managed last year were a couple of second place finishes.
