The peg I drew is 12m wide with reeds on the far side, normally I would feed a couple of caster lines across at 13m up and down the peg but today that was out of the question. After nearly having my pole blown away whilst plumbing up tight over common sense prevailed and i decided to feed two joker swims at 9m left and right into 3 1/2ft of water ( tangerine sized ball of raw on each line) and a golf ball at 11m( 2 1/2ft) in case the wind dropped, i also fed my usual perch line at 6m (5 ft)with an experimental peat and joker mix. I would like to tell you that this "peat mix" was a well thought out plan to get the joker to the bottom whilst creating a cloud to entice the fish to feed, however in reality what had happened was the little un had taken it upon herself to feed 1/2 a kilo of joker with a few spadefuls of peat out of one of daddies flower beds whilst mommy was pegging the washing out...thankfully i had some in the bubbler that was either unnoticed or was considered to be well nourished. I also fed a caster line down the track to try while i rolled a fag.
Rigs were the usual 4x12 PB14's for the 9 and 11m lines, 0.3 gm Dufils at 6m and a Bill Deakin dibber with a number 8 backshot and 3 number 13 shot down the line in 5 ft of water (might sound light but its essential)
My hopes were not high when I went over 1/2 hr without a bite on my 6m and 9m lines while Fred Bedford two pegs the other side of the bridge was netting fish on a regular basis taken close in, my enthusiasm was raised when I started getting a few bites at 11m but the fish were small (30 to the lb), two drops down the track on caster boosted my hopes with a 4oz roach on each drop before the canal started pulling and the first boat of the day went through.
As the boat went past I think it's bow must have come into contact with the feeding button because within 5 minutes of it going through I was catching a better stamp of fish on all my lines, not fast but on a now regular basis, even with a peg that had come alive it was still important that once the stamp showed a sign of decreasing you had to switch lines otherwise the better fish took a lot longer to return. After catching for about an hour a top up was required and another foray on the caster got me a bonus perch the shape of a rugby ball that was the right side of a pound and half, on the next chuck the float sailed away and i found myself bringing a bream that looked over 2lb coming across the surface only for the hook to pull just out of reach of the landing net. Question for everyone. Why is it that when you pull out of a bream over the top of the shoal he goes straight down and tells all his mates but when you pull out of one just out of reach of the landing net he stops there and looks at you for a while before laughing at you then going and telling his mates?
By constantly swapping lines I was able to keep putting odd joker fish in the net right up until the final whistle and with a few around the 4-6oz mark I was confident I had over 6lb in the net but with no news of how anyone else was doing would it be enough. With Sladey's dad writing down the weights ( Thanks Steve) i walked down to weigh in.
