An overcast dry calm day forecast which would make a nice change.
At the draw we all wanted a peg down at the far corner of the lake or failing that then in the 20s somewhere as that is the right side of the lake which usually seems to produce better, I drew 14 which was near the far end on the left side of the lake.
After struggling a bit down the soggy bank with my mountain of gear to my peg I began setting up. I mixed some black F1 groundbait for the pole line, wetted some micro pellets and pumped some 4mm expanders.
I set up a light pole rig as per our previous visit to fish for the silvers, this time at 11m. The same rig could also be used at 5m for roach where I was to loose feed casters.
To start the match I potted in 6 balls of groundbait containing micros, pinkies and a few dead maggots on the 11m line, half a pot of hemp went in at 5m and out went the bomb and bread to the island in the hope of snaring a couple of carp while the pole line settled.
I had also set up a light waggler rod to try 2-3m from the island, I started feeding a few expander pellets here by catapult.
After an hour trying a few spots along the island with no fish on the bomb I tried the 5m line, a chunky hybrid first drop was encouraging but bites did not come regularly after that so time to try the 11m line.
To my surprise this did not really get going like on the previous visit, having to work the bait and wait some time for bites which were sometimes tiny roach. I kept going on this line for about an hour but it remained a struggle and most of the fish were small skimmers or roach. I then tried the 5m line for a while and this produced a better stamp of roach with the odd skimmer but certainly not as good as expected.
Time to try something different, I picked up the waggler rod and with expander on the hook out it went. After a few casts the float dipped and my strike met with resistance, it was not very big but it was a very colourful bright red goldfish and on the next cast his bigger brother came to the net but after that I could not get another bite on expander.
Due to the lack of bites on expander I decided to start feeding some hard pellets and a few grains of corn on the waggler line whilst trying the 11m and 5m lines for a time. After a while I went back on the waggler, using corn on the hook and it did not take long to start getting bites.
I ended up staying on the waggler until the end of the match as it was producing some chunky F1/brown goldfish and an occasional carp and in the last 30 minutes it was very good with almost a bite a chuck.
The scales started a few pegs to my left so I would be nearly last to weigh in, I knew Roger in the corner to my left had been catching well down the edge and was likely to be 1st in the match.
When the scales reached me the top weight so far which was from the other side of the lake was 32lb 15oz, I thought I had around 20lb so was very surprised when my weight was called at 35lb 8oz. Roger then weighed 46lb 12oz so I was 2nd again, a good result from the unfavoured side of the lake and it had been enjoyable fishing the waggler for a change.