November

Things didn't get much better this month.

Rookery Waters, Pidley, Magpie Lake, Peg 34

First four hours without a bite. I tried everything I knew. Again a poor decision possibly cost me a frame. I was opposite the end of an island. I spent the first four and a bit hours fishing the pole in various spots and casting a feeder to the end of the island. With around 45 minutes to go I cast at the island dropping the feeder a few feet short. Four carp resulted for a weight of 11lb. 2^nd last on the day. It can't get worse than this surely? Read on …..

Decoy Cedar, Peg 8

This day wasn't so bad as I at least ended with a few fish. Started well fishing the margins and taking four fish for around 12lb in 35 minutes. I then struggled until the last hour when I started catching at 2+2 and feeding micros & maggots negatively. I was also allowing the float to drift with the tow and catching some distance from where I was feeding. I added around 30lb in that time for a total of 52lb, fifth place on a day that was won with 86. The nearly blank middle hours cost me.

Holmes Farm, Peg 24

I was actually happy with this draw at first. Five hours later I hated it.

Two fish in five hours. One on hard pellet/bomb. The other on boily and bomb. Apart from that it was a poor day all round with 28lb winning. One lad had his only two fish of the day in the last half hour for 19lb and third. My two were 5lb and put me 2^nd last to a DNW.

I was now ready to throw my gear in the lake.

Decoy, Six Islands, Peg 19

First round of our Winter Pairs series. The wind was blowing a hoolie right to left so any long pole work was out. This peg is probably the second narrowest on this odd shaped lake. 18 is probably a metre narrower.

I made the mistake of thinking that the recent mild spell may make the fish want more feed. I think I killed swims by overfeeding. I started OK with a couple of fish on pellet at 2+2 then got broke by a foulhooked fish. This line went dead and never revived. I ended up taking odd fish from the botttom of the margin shelf which came quite close in. But as I said, I tried to force matters by feeding. I may have been better doing as I had on Horseshoe last month.

One thing I discovered was that I could catch the odd fish using a rig for the bottom of the margin slope that was about two inches short of full depth.  Double red maggot seemed to be the best bait on this rig.
 

Final score was 27lb and way down the list. Unfortunately my partner wasn't able to do much better.

Still a chance to make amends next week when our club fur & feather is on the same lake. But that's December.

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