As seems to be the norm in January, the forecast was for another day of blustery wind, although the temperature was to be an unseasonal 10 degrees!
And the forecast was right on both counts, but with the wind blowing from the south west, it looked like the Island pond would be reasonably sheltered.
At the draw I pull P24, which has produced consecutive blanks in the B Division and the Sunday open , which doesn't auger well - but no matter, I plan to try something a bit different today, so let's see what happens.
Today's plan is to feed from the all-in (higher temps) - Bait wise I have my usual Oxo pellets and the Thai fish sauce pellets that worked so well last Wednesday. For feeding I will use Magiscroft's own micro pellets.
I have plumbed up my 2 lines - the far shelf and I found a sort of trench around 12M out, so that's the other one I set up for. After Sunday, I also setup a mid water rig for silver fish - just in case.
My first round of casts take me through both carp rigs without any indication of fish, so I stop the planned feeding. The second round completes with the same result. To my left Alan Hird has had much the same, and is now targeting silvers, with some success, but I decide to stick to plan.
At around 12:15, after 1hr 45mins, I get my first bite and a nice mirror carp of around a pound, which is followed by another of similar size 10 minutes later. I hoped that these would be the start of a run of fish, but it stops there. So as per plan, after another 15 mins I go back to the far side where I manage to get a very positive bite which results in a 6oz 'stockie' carp.
It's now 13:00 and I'm a bit puzzled - normally fish move in shoals, but the lack of bites suggests that they are either not feeding much or the fish I've caught are in small groups. As it is I've had 3 bites/3 fish…
So I go back to the 12M line and get a couple of F1 carp around 1.5lbs in the space of 40 mins. But I'm now starting to get few tiny indications which I think must be small roach, so I adjust the mid-water rig to cover the depth at 12M and pick up 5 small roach in 10 minutes - but the bites are really positive, so I'm now thinking (hoping!) that the tiny indications may well be larger F1s.
I've had a few folk ask me , what's an F1?
F1's can occur in nature but in this instance these fish have been bred as a cross between a common and a crucian carp. This gives a very hard fighting and hardy fish that wont grow much above 5 pounds and is ideal for commercial fisheries. The F1 is also immune to the Koi Herpes Virus (KHV) which can destroy a carp population in a matter 15-20 days.
Back with the carp rig for the 12M line, I re-plumb and adjust the depth by around half an inch so that the float shows around 2mm with the pellet touching the bottom. This works well when the strengthening wind isn't producing a choppy surface, and/or pulling my pole and rig all over the place.
And it gets me fish! From around 14:15 I get maybe 8 tiny indications and from those manage to land another 5 F1's up to 3lbs , all taken from the area I fed at the start of the match. I'm pretty sure that with calmer conditions, I'd have managed a good few more.
There were only 7 of us today but I managed my 3rd win of the month with 16lbs - 4oz, with Colin Williamson second on 11lbs and Alan Hird third with 4lbs - 8oz of roach.
Full results can be found here.
So today's lesson, fish to the conditions and don't' panic if things don't go to plan easily on.
I spent a fair bit of time getting my pole rollers set up correctly - it makes a big difference as I managed to land every fish I hooked today.
It looks like I'll be working both days this weekend so I may have to wait a full week for my next 'fix' :-(
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