05/10/08 - Bullock Farm - Carp Lake

Weight – 26lb 0oz
Catch – 7 Roach, 4 Carp.
Weather – Heavy rain to start, later cloudy
Water temp – 12.5c > 12.5c
Match – Veals Winter League – rd 2 (15th overall, 4th in section)

It’s the 2nd round of the Winter League and its absolutely hosing it down. The forecast was for the rain to stay all match.

I wanted to draw Rushcombe or Match Lake, but definitely not Carp Lake, so it was no real surprise when I drew peg 19 on Carp Lake. 3 out of the last 4 years I have been on carp lake and frankly getting a bit fed up with it.

When I arrived at my peg, Clayton Hudson who was fishing peg 6 on Match Lake had already set up his pole rollers in my peg. This is the only problem with the venue, it is a little tight.

I fancied my peg for a few carp. I had the end of an island to target, some open water and the pallet in front of peg 20. The recent heavy rain had an obvious effect on the water, being 2c less than last week, so a cautious approach was required.

At the start I cupped a pinch of 4mm expanders and micro pellet on the end of the island and then fished different areas of my swim hoping for a mug carp, which unfortunately never materialised.

Tim Clark (peg 21) and Steve Fouracre (peg 6) had both landed carp quite quickly either side of the reed bed, but other than that not much was being caught.

I also fed a small ball of groundbait at 4m, plus regularly loose fed caster, hoping for some silvers, if the carp didn’t show. When I switched to this line I started to catch the odd roach on caster, before it went quite and I hooked a carp of about 3lb. After 10 minutes I managed to land it, which was a real bonus. Although I periodically tried to reignite this line it didn’t take off again, probably because there wasn’t enough open water for the roach to settle.

By this time the rain was coming down hard and the wind had increased. Fortunately the forecast rain stopped all together after 2hrs and the wind and dropped away. I had been sparingly cupping caster, micro pellet & 4mm expanders, into my island swim and my open water swim, whilst catapulting 4mm expanders into the left hand pallet swim.

My float was set to a mere dimple and by feeding via toss pot, rotated my open water and island swim, I managed a couple of carp on 6mm expander, as well as losing 2 when the hook pulled.

The last hour was the most frustrating, I thought I needed 1 or 2 more carp to guarantee good points, but it never came. I even tried up the right side of the island, where there were fish moving around up there and I had a few liners, but they simply weren’t taking the bait, despite trying paste, worm, corn, caster & pellet.

Tim Clark on peg 21, managed to hook 18 carp, but landed 2! He should have walked the match, but the fish kept diving into the reed bed. To be honest he was pulling too hard.

In the end I thought I had about 18-20lb and as we were weighing in, there were a few people who had 5/6 carp for 20lb or so and I thought I would finish ½ way in the section. As it happened my 4 carp were closer to the average stamp and went 23lb 9oz, plus my 7 roach (2lb 7oz), meant I finished 4th in the section, as well as winning my 5 peg mini section and collecting £40.

Maver Veals Red finished a disappointed 10th on the day and lay 8th overall. In the individual league I am currently 3rd overall.