weather was spot on a balmy 10 degrees ....jeez it felt like the med after the last session.
i arrived at 11 am to discover the pegs under the trees were occupied by a match......bloody typical, so i surveyed the lake and decided to stay on the near side on the first peg next to the digging work thats going on, bait was the same as drummersdale on tuesday, pinkies maggots hemp and worm, only this time liberal helpings of dark groundbait.
the chosen peg
there was a breeze blowing from right to left and quite a strong undertow but i persisted with a smallish float carrying 3 number 11 stotz and fishing at 11 metres
the bailiff arrived and told me things were very slow in the match....the best pegs on the lake were struggling to get a bite, i knew the feeling id been there an hour and hadnt had a touch, i set up a tip rod with a small cage feeder and lashed it out about 50 yds to see if there was anything in the deeper water, but after45 mins of chucking feeder fulls of bait out .......nothing.
on went the kettle....and i took a little time out and had a think and a sausage butty then put about 6 catty fulls of hemp out and mixed a sloppy groundbait mix, which i started to feed in walnut size balls laced with pinkies, hey presto a bite...and a plump roach of about 10 oz...happy days, ive had my share of luck when fishing like most guys have, but i guess i was touched by the roach fairies wand this week, cos they just kept coming one after another, i could hear the match blokes discussing my rate of catch, which brought a wry grin to my face, i was catching so fast i didnt have time to roll a fag, and had to take a short break after an hour, so back on went the kettle and i fed the swim again wondering if id lose the fish by taking the break in the middle of the frenzy;
back in after my brew and fag and my first fish was a 2lb bream....then 4 really good size bream (i mean all about 5lbs ) were lost when the hook kept pulling out of them before i could net them. cant expect more when fishing on size 20 hooks and 1lb bottoms tho.
the bailiff returned to tell me the match was won with 3lbs of fish.....wasnt it lucky i didnt get there earlier
i finished with 21 lbs of roach chub hybrids and a single bream,
you dont get a feel for the size of the roach until you look at them next to the bream
really enjoyed the drive home and the anvil cloud sunset too
