The info on the place I had managed to find out was that the place was stuffed with skimmer bream and plenty of carp that had grew to a large size.
Once the lads had turned up it was time for the draw hand in and out and out came peg 12 which meant naff all to me and off I went to grab my kit and walk up to my peg.
Having dropped off my kit I had a good look at the peg, the first thing that hit me was the wind it was really blowing now and I couldn't see me holding the pole for the whole 5 hours at distance let alone 4-5 meters out. The first plan of attack was the method feeder to the far bank around 16-20 meters away for this I set up my Browning 8" wand, a small rod that is ideal for small chucks to far banks when the wind is up and more than capable of dealing with the resident munter carp.
Method feeder of choice was a 20 gram kobra inline feeder attached to a 4 inch hook length with a PR 36 size 18 hook finished of with a quickstop.
Bait of choice would be corn hair rigged on the hook and micro pellet softened up with Grandprix Detonator. I tend to use the Grandprix Detonator a lot when fishing with pellets in the summer not only does it dye the pellets bright red which I believe catches more fish due to it being a sight bait but also the flavourings within detonator make it a fish pulling additive which they cant resist come the warmer months.
My next plan of attack would be the pole line to my front having had a good look round the swim when plumbing up the lake bed seemed to be very flat at just over 2 and a half foot I settled on fishing 9 meters out.
Rigs of choice would be two first would be a 0.3gr Mick Wilkinson pellet float with browning Cinex 0.16mm main line and a 0.14mm hook length a bulk shot of no9 6 inches from the hook with a no 11 as a dropper. Hook would be a b911 size 16 this would be my positive rig. My next rig was the same except the shot would be spread out along the line to slow the bait down.
With the all in being called it was time to get to work out went the pole cup with a ball of pellet to kick start the swim. Then straight over to the far bank on the method to see if any carp were already there. It didn’t take long before the rod wrapped round and fish number 1 was in the net (great start!) Out went the method again hitting the same place as before and sure enough it went round again. Looking down the lake not much was going on so felt quite positive that I could do well in the match but being the first hour it was still very early days yet. With the wind picking up blowing down the lake from my left to right I decided to stay on the tip as I saw this my best plan of attack and could see fellow anglers struggling holding their poles. It was a matter of wait out and see what comes into the swim. For the next 4 hours I caught steadily throughout the match from carp to skimmers getting snapped a few times by the muter carp that patrol the far banks. The problem is with the lake being quite shallow once you hook one of these resident carp they bolt off down the lake and with no depth there is no where to go other than left or right.
With the pole line I didn’t quite spend enough time on it due to the wind and couldn’t quite get the presentation I wanted so even though I kept feeding it and going over it and mugging a few 1-3lb skimmers it wasn’t a line I concentrated on.
With the all out being called I felt I might have done enough for third place as the lads that I could see hadn’t really had much fish due to the weather and the carp just not being there.
It wasn’t long before it was time for my weigh in and managed to put around 47lb on the scales which was good enough for 2nd place beating my brother by 2lb which was a bonus as well.
So from having a bad start back in the Midlands it wasn’t long before I was back to winning ways which is always nice to see. I intend on going to more matches down Mill On The Soar in the very near future as I find it a interesting lake that I want to crack and get the most out of and with the silver fishing on offer its nice to have a quality bag of silvers every now and then.
