Today would be my last fishing trip for the next 4 weeks, so I wanted to cram in as much as possible. I was undecided as to where to go, but didn't feel this was the time to search out a new venue. I decided to head back to The Oaks and back to Cedar Lake.
To anyone not familiar or fresh to my blog - Cedar is a snake type `canalised` lake approx 13-15m wide. Due to the way the lake twists and with the lush vegetation on the banks and islands, most pegs feel very secluded and can give you a real sense of peacefulness if not heavily fished. In fact I didnt see or hear another angler all day. So much for holes in the ground !
Chris and Rob in the shop had said anywhere was as good to fish on the lake so I chose peg 5 on a relative straight. Firstly this peg had won the last 2 opens IIRC and secondly I had my back to the easterly wind that was forecast to get stronger as the day progressed. The trees behind me gave some shelter but there was still a nice gentle ripple from left to right (not that it would stay gentle for long !). In fact the day was red hot at the moment and getting hotter.
I`d brought the following for the day :-
2 pints of red maggots with a few whites mixed in
Micro and 4mm fishery feed pellets
A pint of hemp
2 tins of cubed 4/6mm meat
2 tins of corn
I also pumped up some 4 and 6mm expanders for the hook on arrival at the peg.
Finally, the night before I`d mixed up some groundbait - Dynamite green Swim Stim and Bait-Tech Sweet Fishmeal mixed 50-50.
So as per usual I'd covered most options and had to decide which way to start.
The peg had 2 bushes over on the far side with 8 feet inbetween but the stand out feature was 5m to my left, the margin had a cut out about 2 feet square in the reeds with an overhanging bush on the far side of the 'hole' from me. Getting a rig in if the wind increased could take some manouvering.
I spend a good 20 minutes plumbing about. The cutout was only 8-10" deep which worried me a bit but a visit from Chris to collect the ticket money confirmed this would be the spot to target. I also had around 18" tight across at 14.5m and found a nice little hole 2" deeper than the surrounding water at the base of the near shelf at 45 degrees.
I wont go into all the minutae of my rigs as they are similar to previous posts but I did set up the following.
I would start off at 14.5m on a 4 or 6mm expander over some loose groundbait and a few micros using a ND 0.2G mini gimp.
I fed 4 cups of groundbait plus a pot of hemp and corn combined in the margin swim and leave for a few hours or until I noticed fish movement. For here I had a 0.2G NG mini-diamond with a fatter bristle for bigger baits.
On the '5m' line I threw in a handful of hemp and 6 cubes of meat. I wanted to give this line at least an hour to settle so would throw in a few cubes every 5 mins. This would be approached with a NG Decker to fish starting dead depth.
Lastly at about 8m to my left I'd rigged up another 0.2G mini-gimp to fish shallow and would ping in 4mm pellets every minute to fish over with a 6mm.
I started on the long line. Checking the response before deciding whether to refeed or not. I had the float dotted right down in true F1 style and was getting dips straight away on a 4mm expander. Annoyingly even trying to lift into the bite was usually dropping the expander off but I did catch a roach before refeeding via a kinder pot and catching an F1 of a pound.
I decided to try a hard banded pellet to get over the soft pellet fun but this just led to unhittable bites. Trying a bought hooker pellet seemed less appealing to the fish and I knew I couldn't continue as before. I'll admit that I'm no expert with using soft pellets and need to really develop this side of my fishing. Combined with fishing at 14.5m for virtually the first time was not good. I decided to keep on feeding micros and some 4mm but with corn added.
This did the trick and after a chunky ide I was getting some more F1s. By now the glorious heat wave was replaced by rain and the wind had swung 180° to be in my face before settling on blasting down from left to right.
I refed and tried the short meat line but this only produced 2 skimmers in the entire day, despite feeding it for the whole session and trying shallow as well which surprised me a bit.
I'd already noticed tails up in the margin and couldnt resist. Corn brought me a roach before a little mirror was added. I added another carp then nothing. Dead. I tried a variety of baits but couldnt get a touch.
I was worried I'd blown the swim for good so decided to refeed a pot of groundbait every half hour and leave for a while. I would look over every now and then but it really seemed dead.
This is when the local ducks decided to try and clear out the swim. Every time I looked away they were in, 3 of them upside down gorging on corn and groundbait. Now I'm a real animal lover, I'm happy to feed birds on the bank and take in nature around me. But these ducks were the most persistent I've ever known ! Usually if they see a pole nearby they'll politely swim off. These ones would retreat 10 feet and stare at me waiting for ne to look the other way. It was becoming a battle of wits. I needed to nurse this swim to catch some fish and I couldnt see even the most greediest carp out muscling Huey, Duey and Louey in 8" of water !
Whilst the duck stand off continued the wind was now ripping across me. Id gone back onto the long line but with corn and was catching some nice F1s and carp. The fish were pretty switched on though and would try and bolt into the LHS bush when hooked. 2 of them managed to snag me but the rest I generally landed once in open water. But by now the wind was getting dangerous to hold the pole in. I changed the feeding pattern to catapulted 4mm pellets and corn and when the wind dropped I'd try going back over.
I dropped onto the shallow swim when the afternoon fishing lull kicked in. I'd gone through the soft pellet frustration again so converted the swim a bit by starting to feed maggots instead. This brought plenty of roach and rudd plus a large ide which I lost. But generally very small. I tried on the deck on this line but with very happening.
Eventually, in late afternoon the carp were back vying with the feathered trio for my bait. It was tricky negotiating the bait into position with the gusting wind and I had to fish with a bit of line above the float as the pole would spook the carp if too short. Corn brought a tiny roach before I changed to paste and started getting some more fish. At one point I had 2 in 2 drops for a combined 10lb. But I was now inevitably getting foul hooked fish. Some leading to inevitable hook pulls whilst others I would land. Trying the slighty deeper water away from the edge just wasnt productive. The fish were where they and I wanted them just catching them cleanly was difficult.
I ended the session with about 40lbs give or take 5 and had plenty to think about. Id had a frustrating but good day. I managed to lose 2 floats in the foliage (though my own ham fistedness...not due to them breaking) and lost easily twice what I landed.
Perhaps a heavier float in the margins would have caused less far hookers and a method feeder on the far line im sure would have caught once the wind got up and I certainly need to learn more about the art of pellet fishing.
As I packed away a solitary white goose swam around the margins hissing at me for not clearing away quickly enough. The birds obviously knew this was when they and the carp still wallowing in the margins could finally get to that bait without interference !
Thanks for reading as ever.
Please leave any comments, thoughts or advice. Its very welcome.
Tight lines
Robin
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