During the summer the Sunday matches on there have a 12pm Draw with fishing from 1pm until 6pm. This is the first one of the late draws that I had fished so was looking forward to it fishing well.
There was a fair turn out as well, with around 30 anglers fishing the match that was spread on front and back deans. My fellow Browning West midlands Team mate Jordan was also fishing it, so had a cuppa and a chat with him and pappa Holloway before the draw. I did decline on the Chicken Burger and Chips that was on offer from Woodlands excellent cafe.
At the draw I drew front deans peg 17, which is an area that I am becoming very familiar with! I haven't been on this peg before but frequent the section regularly. It was a corner (ish) peg so was pretty happy in fairness and there was one or two fish rolling as I was setting up so was looking forward to getting going. Jordan also drew a corner peg, but was on 48 on back deans.
The plan today was a pellet wag, then three pole lines, one at the bottom of the shelf, one margin rig and one shallow. Bait wise was fishery 6mm and 8mm feed Pellets, a tin of Corn and some 6mm Bait Tech Expanders pumped with CSL.
On the all in I cupped in a generous helping of the feed pellets onto the 2+2 line and went straight over that with an expander on the hook.
Whilst I was fishing this line I kept firing a few pellets over the pellet wag line and throwing some corn and pellets into the edge swim ready for later.
It was a very slow start however, not just for me but the entire lake. The Carp just didnt want to feed for some reason. It as a bit worrying as after the first hour I had only a few skimmers in my silvers net. This was despite switching to all the swims and rigs, no bites off Carp were to be had.
this pattern continued and despite regular feeding nothing apart from Silvers seemed to want a bit of food.
It was decision time a few people were nabbing the odd fish shallow, but not in any numbers. Do I follow or do stick to my guns and keep plugging away at my 2+2 line and edge in the hope that it comes to life.
Well in the end I decided not to waste time trying to mug the odd fish here and there (and they were few and far between) and I kept going on the pole line.
All of a sudden with about and hour and a half to go the swim came to life as if someone had flicked a switch. It didnt start too good though as the first Carp I hooked I think was foul hooked as it came off! this was followed by another two missed missed bites. I added a bit of depth to the rig then and layed on by a good 6-8 inches and before I knew it was playing a fish that this time ended up in the net.
As if by magic the fish had switched on and although they weren't big I was catching steadily.
Literally in the last hour and a half I had 50lb to go with my 5lb of silvers which although wasn't anywhere near the other end of the lake weight it was enough to pick up a section win.
Jordan weighed in 62lb and won his section too, so all ended well.
I am glad that I stuck to my guns and kept going on the 2+2 line rather than chasing fish around the pond as do think it was the right decision to have made.