Weight – 23lb 0oz
Catch – 25 Carp, 10 (goldfish, brown goldfish, F1)
Weather – Sunny, but windy
Water Temp– 19.0c > 20.5c
Match – Glenfall – 1st overall
There were 14 for today’s match and it would be on the island part of the lake. I had my concerns, because the island doesn’t get fished that much, except in matches. Most who fish the lake prefer the parts where you can park behind your peg, so with not as much feed going in would there be the any fish?
Ideally I wanted to draw the bottom end of the island near the bridge (when I say bridge I mean a few wooden sleepers!), plus the wind was blowing strongly down that end. As it happened I drew the top end, which at least meant I was out of the worst of the wind, but it was still going to be troublesome.
I started on the far side hoping for the carp to show straight away, but nothing. I wasn’t expecting the sort of session I had yesterday but this was poor. After 20 minutes I switched to the paste rig down the left hand side and as I looked around to see how everyone else was doing, my pole was yanked down as a big carp (well big for this lake) tried to snag me in the bush. A few minutes later a 4lb carp was safely landed, which was an excellent start, considering the average size of fish.
Unfortunately that carp was a false dawn and I only managed 1 more carp from the far side during the 1st hour. This was ridicules, I couldn’t believe I was struggling so badly! I kept feeding the far bank with 4mm and eventually a few carp started to show, but I wasn’t hooking many.
Time for a quick rethink. I stopped feeding the 4mm and tried fishing paste tight across to provide a target bait. It worked and I started to catch, not quickly, but at least I was catching. However going into the 3rd hour the wind was becoming troublesome, buffeting the pole, pulling the hook out of the paste. In hindsight I persisted a bit too long trying to keep on the paste, although I couldn’t catch on corn or pellet either.
At the half way stage the grapevine suggested my 12 carp was leading the way, which I found hard to believe because I was struggling badly. I needed to start catching again, so I fed further along the far bank, hoping the fish had simply moved. The problem with Rushcombe Lake, other than the lack of depth was the far bank is covered with overhanging vegetation, so you have to fish a short line, which was difficult in the wind. So I decide to try double maggot, which the fish were more willing to accept when it’s blowing.
This worked and I started to catch again, admittedly the average size of fish had dropped, but at least I was catching. When the wind dropped I caught a few more fish on paste, but I had to keep rotating swims and baits to keep them coming. The near margin only produced a couple of fish, which was surprising.
During the weigh in it became obvious the fishing had been hard for most. The wind had made things difficult, but I’m convinced there wasn’t that many fish in this part of the lake. As it turned out I had won very convincingly, with Graham coming 2nd with 10lb 7oz and Ian was 3rd with 10lb 1oz.
In the individual league, I moved slightly further ahead
1st Ken Rayner 93pts
2nd Ian Pople 89
3rd Graham Beevor 87
4th Andy Lord 84
5th Chris Davidge 79
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