24/02/12 - Plantations - Main Lake

Weight – 59lb 6oz (20lb 14oz – silvers)
Catch – 24 Skimmers, 20 Roach, 10 Carp, 2 Crucians, 1 Tench
Weather – Mild, but grey & cloudy. Westerly wind.
Water Temp – 10.1c – 10.3c

Sapphire had her stiches removed today and she looks a lot brighter and is moving around more freely. So following the visit to the vets, I decided to have the rest of the day off and practice at Plantations for the forthcoming series.

I haven’t fished here for 18 months, so felt I needed to do some sort of reccy. When I arrived there was already an angler on peg 39, who was also fishing in the series. Due to the wind I decided to fish the far bank, which was more sheltered, however there were 2 carp anglers in peg 27 and thought it best to stay clear of them, so I settled on peg 32, which offered me plenty of open water and a chance to try a few things and sort some rigs.

I eventually got started at 11.15, fishing at 6m for roach on caster, but after an initial burst of fish struggled to keep them coming quickly, fishing on the deck seemed best, whilst fishing half depth only produced small roach. Since this was only going to be a backup line, I didn’t concentrate on it, deciding to focus my attention on the skimmers.

2 swims were set-up at 13/14m left and right, initially potting 3mm and a few 4mms in my left hand swim, followed up by toss potting a pinch of pellet every put in. The right hand swim was feed with 4mms by catapult.

After spending 40mins at 6m, it was time to try the left hand swim, using a 0.4g SZ munkeez and 4mm expander. Almost immediately I started catching skimmers, plus a couple of carp and 2 1lb+ crucians.

The reaction from the right hand swim was a little odd. I expected to catch a few carp, but the roach were proving to be a problem, completely ragging the expander and fishing corn only produced 1 skimmer. I continued catapulting pellet, hoping to draw a few carp from the island. When I went back to the swim, fishing 4mm hard pellet produced a better a response as well as being more resistant to the attentions of the roach, but I did pick some more skimmers, a small carp and a near 2lb tench.

As for my margins, I had being feeding to my right by a partially sunken tree, periodically trying with various baits, but again the roach were in attendance. Towards the end of the session, I dumped ½pt of caster, which produced 2 carp on double caster, including a proper fish of 11-11.

Speaking to the angler who had fished p39, reckoned he had about 50lb, mostly carp from the margin on meat and corn. It appears the lake has been fishing hard, particularly on the pole, with most weights coming to feeder, so a pole only match on Sunday should be interesting.

Anyway an enjoyable day and more confidence gained using soft pellet.