A very cold spring
What a strange spring, we had very little rain, freezing nights - even into May and the occasional sunny day. However the cold nights did nothing to raise the water temperature of the pond. This meant that the fish were very docile and not ready to spawn. Even the bankside vegetation and lillies were held back.
Pleasure Sessions
The cold temperatures resulted in having the best fishing in the very deep pegs (11, 12 etc). As the water slowly started to warm and the warmer days arrived (still freezing nights), I decided to try the mid-depth pegs (25 - 27). I had some successful sessions there with lots of bubbling Bream, some caught on the waggler. I also tried a day of fishing two feeders, one on a method feeder with pellet as bait and the other on a cage feeder with normal groundbait and natural baits (caster, sweetcorn, worm). On this occasion, the natural baits were definitely better. I retried the same experiment a few weeks later (when it had warmed more), this time the pellet feeder was the better choice with soaked 2mm pellets in a cage feeder and trout/coarse pellets on the hook.
In peg 26 I also managed to get the Ide feeding near the surface in the warmer afternoons (still cold nights). I had a good bag fishing shallow and even managed a couple of skimmers near the surface.
Once the weather properly warmed up and the nights warmed too - the pond exploded with life. Lillies seemed to be popping up before my eyes and I could watch Carp cruising in the margins and at the surface further out. On one occasion I tried a pellet shallow but got a 5lb Bream rather than the Carp that I expected.
Unfortunately the warmer weather co-incided with a lot of willow fluff on on the pond making several pegs unfishable.
Carp Sessions
I decided to try peg 15 which had done really well in threee consecutive matches with large catches (40 - 50lb of small Mirror Carp). By now the lillies were up and this peg was completely surrounded by sunken bushes and lillies. I kept firing pellets to the edge of the lillies and it wasn’t long before they started moving as Carp turned up. I used my Carp rod and 10lb line so that I could bully them through the lillies. I ended up with a few nice fish for over 30lb. This practice was to come in handy in the last match (see below).
Matches
As previously posted, I was 2nd in the 1st match of the season. I then drew peg 6 twice in succession which is apparently very good in summer but wasn’t much good in our dire spring. I then drew peg 19 which is where I had success with the pellet feeder in a practice session. This is also a fancied Bream peg. However, it failed to produce on the day. For the last match I drew peg 16 which was next to peg 15 where I had practiced. This was also very shallow and surrounded by lillies. I used the same tactic of heavy gear and pellets, sight fishing to moving lillies and managed 3 Carp for 13lb and 2nd place. I lost 2 more, either of which would have won me the match.
New Seatbox
I have never owned a seatbox. When pleasure fishing this isn’t much of a problem because you can choose a peg where you can get your chair and bankstick in and you know where you are going and what you are targetting so can just take the gear that you need. However, match fishing changes all that - you might get drawn in a peg with a concrete base (not good for banksticks) or on a smallish peg or very sloped bank (not good for a chair that has splayed legs).
I had done a fair bit of research into the different seat boxes and wanted one that was flexible enough for both pond and river work and had wheels good enough for rough river banks. I had also watched what several anglers used on YouTube and seen their reviews.
I finally chose the Octbox - a very versatile and sturdy system. Unfortunely it was out of stock and there was a waiting list of several months. I put in my order and then waited. It finally arrived just before the last pond match giving me time to have a practice session first.
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