A very wet and windy day was in store at Orchard's Match lake on 13/02/11. I arrived at the venue early and seeing the wind blowing down the the lake, the favoured pegs were definitely going to be those at the entrance end, Orchard is windy at the best of times and these pegs seem to offer some sort of calm water. I made my way into the dry of the hut where a warming cup of
tea was the order of the day before venturing out into the abyss! The golden peg was up for grabs and with it being won from this venue last year from one of the favoured end pegs. After everyone had arrived suitably dressed in various waterproofs, the draw was done for the golden peg. Peg 33 was drawn out of the hat, one of the favoured end pegs! A good chance with the conditions that it could go! I stuck my hand into the hat to draw for the peg for today, and pulled out peg 33! I made my way to my peg, along with the other hardy ( fools! ) souls and couldn't help thinking about the comfort of my nice warm bed, and now it was my intention to sit out in the wind and rain for 5 hours! I got to my peg and my thoughts turned to my peg, the golden peg! My first impressions was it looked nice despite the rain hitting off my face! I decided to put all my eggs into one basket and to fish down to my left next to the reeds, and to not bother fishing across to the island, my back was aching and I didn't fancy battling with the pole in the wind! Plumbing up I found that I had good depth next to the reeds at 9m, about 3 foot, not tight as there was some rubbish and roots there, about 18" from the reeds. I set two rigs up, nice and simple, one on yellow hollow which was 0.12 - 0.10 18 hook. And a green hollow which was 0.14 - 0.12 16 hook. Two rigs to cover the same line. Bait was nice and simple too, corn, some meat, and micros and 4mm pellets mixed. I was going to fish corn on the hook and feed a little corn and pellet mix through a toss pot.
The all in sounded, and I slipped a grain of corn on to the hook and a few into the toss pot before lowering the rig in, after a few seconds the float shot under and I lifted into a small carp of 1/2 lb. The bites and fish were coming thick and fast, most of the fish were on the small side, with the odd bigger specimen thrown in for good measure. I could see Dave catching on the other end peg flier and judging buy the elastic he had out he was catching fish of a bigger stamp than I was, the thing was I seemed to be catching a lot faster than him, I was just hoping it would be quick enough. About 3 hours had past and Mike came walking past on the way to a comfort brake, ( I think he wanted out of the rain for 5 minutes! ) He asked how I was getting on, and I said I had 60 fish, mostly still small. The wind and rain had not eased at all, in fact it seemed to be getting worse, the thing was my hands were getting that cold I was struggling to hook the bait and to unhook the fish. Going into the last quarter of the match and the bites were slowing down, so I put another section on, this seemed to do the trick as the fish had just backed of a bit. I was still getting plenty of bites, mostly small still. The all out came and I had 102 fish on the clicker, so putting all the effort into 1 swim had paid off, but would it be enough to beat Dave? At the scales I weighed in 121lb 8oz, a cracking weight and I was hoping it would be enough for the golden peg. Dave was next and he put 127lb odd on the scales! beating me into second, and the golden peg survives for another day! I don't think I did anything wrong as I caught plenty of fish, Just that Dave caught a better size stamp of fish than I did! On the whole we all had a good day's fishing despite the foul weather! De-robing and the rain had found it's way in slightly, and I was a bit damp in the nether regions! Along with most others! It will take a week to dry everything out! I must order some sun for next time!
tea was the order of the day before venturing out into the abyss! The golden peg was up for grabs and with it being won from this venue last year from one of the favoured end pegs. After everyone had arrived suitably dressed in various waterproofs, the draw was done for the golden peg. Peg 33 was drawn out of the hat, one of the favoured end pegs! A good chance with the conditions that it could go! I stuck my hand into the hat to draw for the peg for today, and pulled out peg 33! I made my way to my peg, along with the other hardy ( fools! ) souls and couldn't help thinking about the comfort of my nice warm bed, and now it was my intention to sit out in the wind and rain for 5 hours! I got to my peg and my thoughts turned to my peg, the golden peg! My first impressions was it looked nice despite the rain hitting off my face! I decided to put all my eggs into one basket and to fish down to my left next to the reeds, and to not bother fishing across to the island, my back was aching and I didn't fancy battling with the pole in the wind! Plumbing up I found that I had good depth next to the reeds at 9m, about 3 foot, not tight as there was some rubbish and roots there, about 18" from the reeds. I set two rigs up, nice and simple, one on yellow hollow which was 0.12 - 0.10 18 hook. And a green hollow which was 0.14 - 0.12 16 hook. Two rigs to cover the same line. Bait was nice and simple too, corn, some meat, and micros and 4mm pellets mixed. I was going to fish corn on the hook and feed a little corn and pellet mix through a toss pot.
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