I arrived at the fishery around 0730 and although it had just opened I was the first to arrive. I decided to wait to see who turned up before dipping my nets, because the previous week only 5 turned up. Slowly a few others turned up and with 5 again turning up I dipped my nets.
We were fishing Pines Lake, which this year has fished really well. I was there a couple of weeks ago and the water was gin clear, but today it had a bit of colour and with only 5 of us we could spread out a bit. Over a cup of tea we decided on pegs 6, 8, 15, 17 and 19 and with monies paid it was soon draw time. I let everyone else draw first and had the last peg in the bucket, peg 8.
Josh had drawn peg 6 and would be fishing stinky corn, Mick was on peg 15, where the lake record fell a few weeks ago, Carpet Roy was on 17 and Roy Makins on 19. The only two pegs I could not see were 15 and 6. At least Mick won't intimidate me today.
It was a little ironic as before the draw both Josh and myself walked up to peg 8 and he explained where he caught over 300lb from previously, it was now my home for 6 hours.
With this little snippet of information I tackled up to fish top twos both sides in the margins and top two straight out. I had 2 foot straight out and I set up a MW Dinky to .18 Stroft and a size 14 PR36 with a strung shotting pattern consisting of no10 Stotz. Down the edge I had around 12inches and Set up a couple of NG Edger floats to again .18 Stroft but one with a size 16, the other size 14 PR36. Bait would be corn over corn, no Stinky Stuff today as I have run out and they had none in the shop.
At the all in I threw out around a dozen grains of corn to all the lines and start pinging 4 grains of corn onto each line in rotation. I was soon into fish and although they were on the small side, after half an hour I had around 16 fish for 15lb. However they soon moved off and the stamp were getting better, so much so that after the first hour I reckoned on 25 fish for 40lb. I was still catching and feeding the other swims for later and getting bites as it fell through the water or as soon as it hit bottom. If not bite then I went back out again. This is probably due to the feeding pattern I have adopted. The second hour flew by and with around 50 fish in the net I reckoned I had close to a ton. However bites were tailing off and I would have to make at least 3 or 4 put ins before a proper bite materialised. I plugged away for another hour, as I did not want to go down the edge too early.I tried upping the feed during this hour and to some extent it worked but I also suffered a lot of foul hookers. I was still getting a few fish and was now on around 70 fish for 160lb.
After the half way mark had passed I decided to have a look inside. Josh was catching small carp but lots of them, Both Roy's were catching well and I could hear a lot of splashing in Micks peg, so it was a case of head down and go for it. Fishing around a foot away from the overhanging bushes in 12inches of water to the right I started off well catching 6 proper fish for around 40lb in successive put ins. This was followed by the stamp fish to 3lb and although I was waiting for a bite a little longer than on the line in front, they were bigger and worth the gamble. I still kept feeding that line but did drop the left hand line. So with 4 hours gone I was on about 100 fish for 240lb and was confident of beating my previous personal best from the lake of 242lb.
Hour 5 saw me back out to the top two line and still catching, although the fish were still in the 2lb mark. It was at this time I broke a top kit on a fish, probably trying to bully it in rather than take my time. The rig was still intact so it was a case of swapping top kits over. But I did lose around 10 minutes whilst I tried to repair the broken one. Still I was catching and this time the fish were back taking on the drop. I managed another 20 fish in this hour and another 50lb in the net so was thinking of 300lb. Hour 6 was a frustrating one for me, I started off well catching 4inches off the deck straight out but it died after 1/2hour with no bites coming, so I spent the remainder of the match to the right and put another half a dozen fish in the net. I honestly did not have a clue what I had caught and had a quick chat with Josh before packing up. He reckoned that he had broken the lake record of 385lb so was looking good for the win. Carpet Roy was claiming that he sussed it too late. Mick was looking smug as we walked around with the scales.
Roy Makins was first to weigh in and place 319lbs on the board to take an early lead and a new Personal Best match weight. Carpet Roy was next and managed to break the lake record with 390lb 4oz and another Personal Best. Mick was next up and his four keepnets set yet another Personal Best, 279lb 9oz. I was up next and was surprised with my catch, after a few weighs the total on the board read 393lb 11oz. I am not sure if it is my best match weight( I might have beaten it at Arrans or Rockells) but it is certainly is for Pines Lake. Last to weigh was Josh. After what seemed an eternity the scales read a massive 529lb 4oz. An awesome weight.
1st Josh Blavins 529-4
2nd Keith Ashby 393-11
3rd Carpet Roy 390-4
4th Roy Makins 319-0
5th Mick Wright 279-9
Next set of matches are at Stafford Moor, so will report on how I fished it on my return. Good or Bad.
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