Telling's Times: Rolfs Lake 6/11/10

Silvers Only

Peg 18
26lb 10oz
70 roach for about 10lb
16lb of bonus fish, 3 perch and 6 skimmers
2nd overall

26lb 10oz.... not quite enough

With only nine people fishing, we were spread across the lake and had every other peg, which was always going to help. The lake was flat calm, not a single ripple and leaves all across the lake. To make matters worse, they were drifting up towards me..............awesome!

I was disappointed to draw peg 18 and felt that I would struggle to catch and wouldn't compete with pegs 32, 30, 28, 9 and 13. As the fish do tend to shoal in this area, especially the roach. So I felt the odds were against me. But as always I was going to maintain a positive approach, dispute me having a little moan!!

I had half a kilo of frozen joker which was going to feed in groundbait, well did have half a kilo, but my mate Jon Walker got his "mints" on some. I plumbed up carefully, and felt 8 meters would be the minimum I would fish due to the cold weather and 13 meters been my main area of attack. So I cupped in one soft ball of groundbait and 5 big balls at 13 meters packed with almost all my joker, 1/2 pint of caster. This was an awful lot of bait, but I planned that once the fish settled on that, I wouldn't stop catching, well that's the plan. I also fed to the right by the bush at 4 meters, but didn't expect to catch there, and I didn't. Also cupped two balls at 8 meters.

The Match

So after a few minutes of potting in a load of bait. I started at 8 meters hoping to catch straight away, but didn't have a bite after 10 minutes. So went out on 13 meters, never had a bite.... oh s**t, I have blown the peg and then I decide to feed a line at 13 meters at 45 degree angle towards peg 19(3 balls this time), where it is 4 inches shallower. I would rest this line for 30 minutes. I sat there like a" muppet" for forty minutes, and caught 4 tiny roach on my positive line, oh dear. Looking down the lake, they were catching but not crazy. Eddie super star Taylor had had a "big billie" (big perch). After an hour and twenty minutes I began to catch decent roach about 2-4oz a piece. This was much more positive, things were now looking up!! I begin to get the odd blow, and then caught a skimmer about 1lb 8oz, which was very welcome.

I found that resting the lines, and by feeding a ball of groundbait and resting it for fifteen minutes, I would caught these skimmers or a "big billie" Also fishing three inches over depth with single red maggot was better. I did catch a few fish on double maggot, but single was far better! Also never caught on caster, even after feeding almost two pints.... The caster was the key to catching this better fish, as it is a good holding bait, but didn't make sense why I couldn't catch on them???

The last forty minutes was an nightmare, as there was carp everywhere, and they did mess up my silver lines. I hooked three and lost all three, one of which was a huge fish..... one of them twenty pounders maybe. I will get my first twenty pounder out of this lake, yet to have one, but not much chance on 0.09!! It was a surprise though how much it took to finally break me, with balanced tackle it's amazing what you can get away with!

I was surprised to way in 26lb, as I thought I would be knocking 20lb but not that much. I knew the fish were good quality, and I believe that 50lb-60lb is achievable on the right peg and conditions. I honestly felt the lake fished well, as it was flat calm, bright and cold!!

In reflection, I think I would fish two lines at 13 meters, one would be raw joker with caster and few dead red maggots. The other line would be groundbait with joker and caster. I would start on the raw line, as this would normally work instantly and therefore catch these early fish, whereas the fish took longer to settle over the groundbait. Once I started to rotate lines, I would feed groundbait on top on the raw joker line. I would hope to catch for an hour on the raw line.... I think the fish will be smaller, but hopefully I would do 4lb-6lb in the first hour, and then more over the groundbait line. However, if the lake goes clear due to the cold weather, then I would only feed it raw. I think joker is a good holding bait, I think you will catch a lot of fish on maggot and caster. But joker is such a good holding bait and for the sake of tenner you could really improve your day!!