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The Plan
Peg 10 graced my hand today and so my plan was to be a three pronged attack, as this has served me really well in previous visits. My main line of attack was at a top 2 plus 3 distance, as this is one of the shallower areas of the lake I had around 6 feet of water at this length.
My second line was a shallow line at 13 meters. I planned to fish this as their are plenty of fish showing shallow.
For my third line I used a margin line to my left hand side, as the margins are reed lined this is usually a great place for big fish late on in the match.
Bait
This was as simple as it gets -
For the top 2 plus 3 line I fed fishery 4 mm expanders and fishery micro's as well as applying the same expanders for the hook; this is an approach I have utilised for many years at this venue!
On the shallow line I fed 6mm fishery feed pellets and used the same pellets on the hair rigged band.
For the margin line I fed loose groundbait and fish sweetcorn over the top.
Rigs:
Top 2 Plus 3 Rig
- Pole - Browning Z12
- Elastic - Yellow Browning Cenex Reflex
- Main line - 0.14 Browning Hybrid Power
- Hook length - 0.12 Browning Hybrid Power
- Hook - Size 16 Kamasan B911 F1
- Float - Middy Styrex 4 (4x14)
- Shotting - A bulk plus 2 droppers
Shallow Rig
- Pole - Browning Z12
- Elastic - Yellow Browning Cenex Reflex
- Main line - 0.14 Browning Hybrid Power
- Hook length - 0.12 Browning Hybrid Power
- Hook - Size 18 Kamasan B911 Eyed, tied with a knotless knot with a hair rigged micro band.
- Float - Shep Special 0.2 gram Chianti Style
- Shotting - Bulk, set just above the hook length.
- Pole - Browning Xtreme Margin
- Elastic - Solid 22
- Main line - 0.18 Browning Hybrid Power
- Hook length - 0.16 Browning Hybrid Power
- Hook - Size 14 Kamasan B911 Extra Strong
- Float - Shep Special Diamond 0.3 gram
- Shotting - Bulk, set just above the hook length
The Session

For the next drop in I loaded a pole mounted kinder pot with expander pellets, this is what I planned to do after every fish. I shipped out, tipped the expanders in and lowered the rig in slowly over the top. The response is again was instant, this time a Skimmer was soon safely in the net. The following 2 hours were pretty hectic with small Crucians and Skimmers coming a rate of knots.
I had a quick look on the shallow line as I had been regularly feeding this from the off by feeding 6 pellets via a catapult every 40 seconds or so. Unfortunately this line only produces 2 small Roach in 10 minutes, so I abandon the line to concentrate on the 2 plus 3 line.
I put a third of a pot of micros and expanders in again to keep the fish grubbing about. The proceeding hours are quite steady; I am still catching every drop in, but not at the same rate as the first 2 hours. Crucians and Skimmers were still the main stay of the catch.
I then coasted an eye over the margin line, as I fed 3 full pots of loose ground bait plus a few grains of corn probably 20 minutes beforehand. 3 big Crucians in 3 drops was a welcome bonus before I latched into a "Big Zoo Creature" that dragged me straight through the reeds and left me with my hook stuck into the root of a reed.... Bugger!!!
I re baited the margins with a couple of pots of ground bait and switched back to the 2 plus 3 line. I caught a few more Crucians before the urge to have another look down the edge got the better of me!
After a couple more Crucians and Roach, I again ended up getting dragged through the reeds; this time the fish snapped my hook length off, therefore I opted to see out the rest of the match on the top 2 plus 3 line. At the end of the match I enjoyed a cracking days fishing and weighed in 57lb, which was enough for 4th in the match....Happy Days! :-)