I was back at Rayne Lodge again and the match again took the "silvers" or "carp" option with an equal pay out in both pools. I'd not really caught a bag of carps in months, so a good carp peg would have been my preferred option, however I would finally decide after I drew my peg. I dipped into the draw bag hoping for the top lake peg 4 and guess what I drew ......... middle peg 3. Not a bad carp peg this one as I had chuck towards the island in the middle of the lake, but after my success with the silvers the previous week I was in two minds on the best way to approach things. Conditions were more pleasant than the previous week with pleasant sunshine and a light breeze.
After arriving at my peg it was time to see what others were doing in close vicinity. Next to me on peg 2 was my pal Danny Grimsey, this peg had actually chucked up a 90lb weight of carp a couple of weeks earlier, however generally I wouldn't class it as a carp flyer. After much soul searching "Grimos" decided to roach it. On the other side of me on peg 4 was Image's Keith Grieve and he had also decided to go down the silvers route. This left me with the easy choice of going for carps for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to catch some carp! and secondly if I went for silvers all three of us would be sharing fish.
Bait for the day was exactly the same as the previous week, however the castors, worms, groundbait etc would remain in the bag. All I put on my bait tray was a tin of corn, a tin of meat and a quarter of a pint of maggots.
Tactics were to be centred around the rod and line as I expected the carp to be balled up in the centre of the lake somewhere. I set up a straight lead, incorporating 3/4's of an ounce of bomb running on a six inch loop connected to a 2 foot hooklength of 0.17 powerline. My hook was to be an ultra reliable size 18 knotless knotted Kamasan Animal. A waggler was also set up to fish the same line in the middle of the lake. My only slight reservation with "the wagg" being the breeze blowing in my face, this would hinder presentation as the float would be moving back towards me. The waggler was a 3AAA Dennan Peacock insert, locked with all the weight around the float and with just two number 11 stotz as droppers. I expected to catch most of my fish on the drop as the fish snatched at the bait falling past their noses. I set this at the depth of my pole rigs (I'll come to these in a minute) and would move the float up and down to try to work out the killer depth. Rod was a 13 foot Daiwa Connoseour Z and reel was an old Shimano 3000 size reel loaded with 2.5lb maxima. At the business end was 18 inches of 0.14 Browning Cenitan tied knotless style to a size 18 B911. Two pole rigs were assembled, one featuring 0.12 line and a 4x12 KC Carpa Chimp, tied direct to an 18 808 for fishing corn, this was to be fished at 16 metres. My other rig again featured a 4x12 Chimp but was tied to 0.14 and an 18 B911. This was to fished at 6 metres and I would regularly feed 2 grains of corn here. I didn't really expect to catch here as it was still a bit early in the year for this line to "go".
At the all in it was clear I would be sharing the centre of the lake with Jonny Bell on peg 7 and Alan Lee on peg 15 as they both launched bombs towards the middle. However before mine went out I cupped in six grains of corn at 16 metres and chucked a couple of grains at 6 metres. I hair-rigged a large punched bit of meat on the hook and chucked towards the middle. The rod went on the rod rests and I was free to give Grimos some advice on his roach fishing! I couldn't really tuck into him as my concentration was soon broken by the the tip arching round. A carp of a pound was soon in the net, a small fish but the perfect start none the less, especially as all the other "pie catchers" hadn't moved. I hoped this would be the start of some regular pulls on the tip, however a biteless 20 minutes ensued with Alan Lee being the only other person to sample some carp action with a fish similar in size to mine.
Despite the wind not being particularly favourable it was time for the wagg. I baited up with a hairigged piece of corn and feathered the float into my peg at about 25-30 metres. Just as the float was dotting down it flew away and I was into a 4lber which I safely netted. Surely I had found the method now, the fish wanted the bait presented on the drop and not hard ont deck. However, the next hour was frustrating with three more carp landed, about twenty missed bites and a lost foul hooker. The missed bites occurred due to the wind pulling the float towards me as soon as it landed therefore when I struck I was not hitting the float until the rod was behind my head. I also tried cutting the hair off and just putting the corn on the hook, alas this did not improve my bite to fish ratio. A wind knot in the line, meant I had to retackle and tested my patience further. However, none of the carp anglers on my lake were catching anything, but 50lb had to be my minimum target to have any chance of winning.
It was now time for pole and I kindered 3 pieces of corn on the 16 metre line before lowering the rig in, 15 minutes later I had caught a 3 ounce skimmer and despite dropping around my feed it was clear all the carp I was likely to catch were on my wagg line. The silver fish match was not going very well for Grimos and it was clear they were not feeding nearly as well as last week.
It was back on the waggler and first chuck back out I nailed a small carp on the drop which I landed. A pattern seemed to be emerging, most of the bites I hit were the ones on the drop, perhaps the ones which came when the float had settled were mostly liners? After 3 hours I was up to 11 carp for about 25lb all coming on the wagg except for the first one. I had also caught a few on maggot, which I think was slightly better than the corn. A look back on the bomb didn't even produce a liner which was unbelievable as I felt my peg was solid with fish despite them not really feeding.
Hour four was to be my worst of the match and despite changes of depth on the waggler, another look on the pole and even a half hearted attempt at six metres I couldn't string together any bites, which was weird as my waggler line had been providing me with non stop indications throughout the day. I only added a couple of small 'uns in this hour, however I was still winning the lake so that was some consolation at least. It also gave me time to tell Danny that there was 20lb of silvers in every peg on this lake to a decent silver fish angler!
The final hour was to see my peg re-awaken and I must have had a bite (the float went under anyway!) nearly every cast and I was actually hitting a few bites, even catching two in consecutive chucks. Maggot was my bait of choice now, basically because it didn't come off the hook thus saving time. It was noticeable that when the wind dropped my presentation felt much better and I was hitting more bites. In the end I ended up with a further 9 carp 2 lost foul hookers giving me a total of 22 fish.
The scales confirmed my weight as 43lbs 8ounces, unfortunately I couldn't get in amongst the larger stamp carp which would have boosted my weight further. However, this was good enough to win my lake with the second carp weight being only 25lb. Overall Steve Tyler anihalated the match on top lake peg 3, with 70 odd pound of bomb caught carp, which left me with second in the carp pool. The top lake took the roach pool as well, with Danny being disapointed to record just shy of 10lb next to me. However, everyone struggled for roach on the middle.
It had been a hard match with a lot of "zorro" like swishing from me as I missed bite after bite, but I felt with a more favourable wind it could have been a different story. Overall, it had been nice to fish a method seldom used these days which made for an enjoyable match.
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