As is usually the case when I fish a match with Nick, I got drawn next to him but his platform projected about 2m further into the lake than mine which I thought could be a problem for me. I therefore decided on a 13m line to draw fish from the distance he was likely to be fishing and also an 8.5m line for loose feeding by hand. I set up rigs for fishing over-depth with corn and maggot at 13m, over-depth with maggot at 8.5m and also a shallow maggot rig.
When Nick called the all-in I stood up holding my pole and balled-in 4 jaffas at 13m. I then began flicking maggots over the 8.5m line and fished double maggot for a while but without much joy. Both sides of me were catching skimmers and small Roach steadily so maybe I had spooked my peg with the jaffas but I was sure things would settle down for me. I changed to single maggot and the reaction was surprising as I was now getting quick bites but I bumped the first 6 fish. Maybe the B611 hooks I was using were too tough but I was hoping for a few of those big Chub!
Eventually I started to connect with the bites as I waited for them to develop more and soon I was catching up with my neighbours. After about an hour I decided to take a look on the 13m line as Mike the owner had passed by and mentioned that he had put a load of Bream in the lake up to around 6lb. 10 minutes later I had a bite and a 12oz Crucian came to the net but that was it so I went back to the maggot line.
By constantly flicking out a few maggots every 10 seconds and tweaking my rig I managed to increase the catch rate and also there were now some nice sized Roach and skimmers showing. By the third hour I was sure that I was ahead and Nick’s swim seemed to die off so he chucked in some groundbait to try and spark some life into it. Shortly after he hooked into something big and although we were both hoping that it would be one of those nice Chub, it turned out to be an F1 of about 4lb. He soon had another and then finally a nice 2lb Chub came out for him.
At around the start of the fifth hour I started picking up some nice sized skimmers and decided to up the anti as I thought I might have fallen behind. I had 4 pints of maggot with me and had fed 2 pints in the first 4 hours. I decided that I would feed the remaining 2 pints in the last hour to see if I could get those bonus fish buzzing. So in went about 30 maggots every 5 seconds and out came the shallow rig. I was determined to get me some nice fat Chub!!!
Now I have to admit that although my intention was to get those bonus fish feeding franticly and coming up in the water, my target was Chub, big Roach and maybe some skimmers but my first ‘bonus’ fish turned out to be a 2lb bronzed back skimmer otherwise known as a Bream (at 30 inches deep)
I’m sure I heard someone complaining that if 4lb F1s don’t count then catching Bream shallow don’t count either :-)
During this last 1 hour period I had a couple more proper Bream and a few large skimmers having shallowed up to 2’ and this added significantly to my weight. It was a shame that the all-out was called after 5 hours because this is probably the most enjoyable days fishing I have had this year, a nice change from catching Carp even though the weight would be low by comparison.
Nick grabbed the scales and various weights were recorded around the 10lb mark, Nick took his net out (and ditched the 4lb F1s) and his weight then registered 16lb 3oz. My little encounter with those Bream and one or two dog Roach settled the needle on 22lb 8oz for a great day’s fishing and a couple of traditional pound coins to add to the kitty.
This place is great and I hope we can have another silvers match here again soon!
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