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I started on the heavy gear 4lb hook length to a 16 B911 at 6 metres into 5 foot of water and used a large kinder cup potting in pellet and caster. Took a little while for my first fish an Ide of around half a pound.
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Meanwhile Tony was struggling for a bite and only had 1 ide. >:(Colin was persevering on paste but hadnt managed a fish on it.
Time for a change so on went a light rig of a 4x12 chianti 2 1/2lb Fox Micro plus hooklength with spread shot and an 18 B611. First drop in the float settled and a gentle bite resulted in a small ide, I carried on feeding but this time with a few grains of hemp and some maggot every minute or so, and the bites began to flow, much to Tony’s disgust as he still hadn’t added to his 1 ide.
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After a while Colin came round for a chat and I said to him “ my bites have died in the last few minutes, you know whats going to happen next as Im on the light gear don’t you!”
Sure enough as he turned round to talk to Tony the float dipped and the strike met with a firm resistance followed by yards of black hydro flowing out the end of the pole. Shoving the tip under the water worked, as the fish slowed and turned back towards me. Several minutes of careful playing assisted by loads of abuse advice from Colin and Tony ended with a nice 5lb carp in the net.
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Shortly after Tony , by now beginning to tear the rest of his hair out , switched to a light rig and sure enough first chuck the float slid away on the drop for him to hook his second fish. Only briefly it turned out as a carp proceeded to try to reach the middle of the lake and breaking him.
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His misery was complete when Colin switched to a maggot rig and then tried to empty his side of the lake of fish. My bites then got harder and harder to attract and despite nicking a few more fish from 2 different areas on my right hand margin I couldn’t get back to a decent catch rate.
We packed up at just before 4 pm and the result was around 18lb for me made up of 28 fish. Colin had 7 1/2lb of silvers while Tony didn’t add to his 2 Ide and proceeded to ring the local home for depressed anglers to book some treatment for the next few days.
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