Steady Start

First round of the Acorn winter league, this is the first year I have entered this league, I was hoping to get off to a steady start. Arrived at the fishery to another lovely calm December morning.

I was drawn in C section on peg38, this was going to be the toughest section today, with the lowest weights, but it would also prove to be the fairest and closest section.

I was thinking 3rd in section might be a good result from my peg, as I was up against 3 pegs with bridges and peg 31 which had been fishing well.

I started by feeding a small ball of liquidised bread on my top and 2, then went straight over to dob about with bread in the deep water, over the far bank. Had a couple of roach and a small carp, indications were few and far between.

After 35mins I dropped on to the liquidised bread line, waste of time really with 4 or 5 roach all I could muster.

The alarm bells were ringing as if I can't catch on the liquidised bread line then the lake must be fishing very hard.

I went back across this time tighter and shallower with maggot, had a small carp and a few indications, there seemed to be two spots where I could get indications and that was it.☹

I felt I needed a line to gi on when not dobbing, the short bread line was useless so I setup a line 13m at the bottom of the far slope, I set this up to the extreme right of my swim, so as not to disturb any fish across that I might be able to dob at.

I fed a small pole pot of loose groundbait (super sweet) and a pinch of maggots and pinkies.

I went back over the far bank fishing very tight on the bottom with maggot on the hook, had another small carp straight away, then it was a case of moving around the far bank looking for fish. I did feed a couple of dead maggots on areas where I had indications.

Stuck at dobbing for a while with odd indictations a couple of foul hookers and the odd small fish.

After about 45mins I went over the GB line and had some bites on maggot, a roach and a skimmer were netted, lots of signs but not hooking much.

I topped it up with a soft small ball and a pinch of maggot.

Back over dobbing had another fish straight away, but it was hard to put a run of anything together.

Another look over the GB line produced a 2lb tench a couple of skimmers and a gold fish.

I felt like I was way off the pace i hadn't put much in the net i thought i needed a big bonus fish to get me out of jail, so I fin

ished last 10mins in front of peg 37 pallet, with corn on the hook, I had 3 liners in the last 10mins, I will never know if there was a big fish there? (Perhaps I should have gone half depth on bread???)

Somehow I managed to finish second in my section with 16lb 6oz, the lake had fished quite hard. Next round is Jan 9th, I will be on A section, this is the strongest section but it also has some definite flyers that are hard to beat.😊