Today would see me lining the bank with 6 other anglers on the Specimen Lake at Alders Farm. I avoided the travelling exodus from Milton Keynes and left nice and early to get to the venue. A quick chat with Trevor and Terry Lancaster (fresh from his medal winning excursion to Rome with the England Veterans Team) at the shop and nets dipped. A cup of tea and the draw was being made.
Paul had drawn peg 1, Trevor was on 2 with "Kerbcrawler Dell" on 3 with Jim Stubbings, making a welcome return to fishing on peg 4, Phil "Madd" Young was on peg 5 with Owen Smith on peg 6 which left myself on peg 7.
I had the main island in front of me, but had left the rods at home so that was a non starter. I opted for a line at 12m and both edges fishing 4m. I had some nice looking margins which needed a bit of pulling back to make them fishable but after a couple of minutes it looked ok. Rigs were a .6 MW Diamond to fish in 5ft of water at 12m with a bulk of no8s and 2nos10 droppers to a size 16 PR36. I was expecting skimmers, small carp and maybe an odd lump on this line. My margins were around 18inches deep and for this I set up a couple of NG Edger floats to a size 16 PR38.
I knew that groundbait was working well on the other lakes on the complex and with this in mind I decided to mix some up on the day. I also had around 6 pints of fishery micros and a kilo of corn with 4 tins in reserve, just in case.
At the all in I cupped in 2 balls of GB onto the 12m line along with a pot of micro balls and around half a pot of corn. In the edges I fed a ball of GB and around half pot of corn and pellet to my right and just corn to my left.
I decided to start off at 12m and baiting the hook with a single grain of corn, I had my first bite instantly and a small Rudd had taken the bait of the drop. Out again and a similar story. A switch to double corn produced the first carp around 12oz. Out again and another. At this point and after around 20 minutes in I noticed a swirl over the right hand margin. A quick look and a fish around 3lb graced the net, out again and for the next hour I managed around 10 carp ranging from 2lb to 6lb before I was waiting too long for a bite. I re-fed the line and switched to the left hand edge and had a couple of smaller carp before again I was waiting too long. Back out to 12m and after a few small carp I hooked and landed a lump around 8lb but this was the death knoll for this line. No bites at all from either the left or right hand edges of the swim. I decided then to concentrate on the right hand edge.
I could see Trevor and Dell catching well and regularly on pegs 2 and 3, albeit small fish but lots of them. Pete on peg 1 had broken a topkit but was getting a few fish, I could not see Jim but word was he was catching well. Madd was very quiet so must have been catching and Owen was bagging with an estimated 70lb in the first 2 hours.
We were now 2 1/2 hours into the match and by adding another section and fishing just past the feed I managed to extract another couple of carp. In fact I was having to switch between 4 and 5m regularly to keep in touch with bites. I could see fish coming in and out of the peg and the odd one would have a munch on the corn. I was now fishing double corn with Gellit Pineapple over it but although I was still catching odd fish I had to keep switching hookbaits, singles and double both with and without the Gellit. It just goes to show that the Gellit will get a few extra fish, and I tend to start off on the standard or Stinky Corn before switching to the Gellit when things go quiet. I did try GOT Rippers and 8mm banded pellet on the hook a couple of times throughout the match but with no bites on them I was back on the corn.
At the all out I estimated I had around 100lb and was happy with the way I fished. I had attacked the peg and felt that I had caught what was there to be caught. In hindsight I think the 12m line should have been a lot closer and perhaps my normal 2+2 line would have been better suited on the day. The lake had fished well.
Overall
1st Jim Stubbings Peg 4 137-00
2nd Owen Smith Peg 6 125-14
3rd Del Smith Peg 3 112-11
4th Trevor Price Peg 2 112-07
5th Keith Ashby Peg 7 100-03
6th Phil Young Peg 5 89-02
7th Paul Peg 1 48-04
A few lessons learnt and a few mistakes on the way but overall a good solid performance I was happy to walk away from. A shorter line may have got me a few more fish and something I will try next time.
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