How things change"

We have all had those days when we dip are hand in the drawbag and out pops the peg everyone is raving about (Not normally me may I add") or even a peg you may well fancy yourself for various reasons which brings me to a recent match held on Shiplate farms Hawthorn lake.

There was only 9 of us due to family ties over the Xmas period but never the less we were all keen to win some shillings back and try are best to make the most of are pegs , Into the hat and out pops peg 1 Hawthorns a peg which I had drawn less than ten days before and won off, with 40lb odd, The conditions hadn't changed much with more wet and windy weather and the wind was still blowing down my end of the lake, To be honest I felt sure the fish would be in the same areas as they were before and that the peg being in the corner did hold the odd resident fish so I was confident I could do well off it again and planned to approach it the same way.

I started the match the same as before feeding around 40 maggots down the edge to my left and this time the same amount of casters to my right to give me another option if I needed it, Starting on maggot over a minimum amount of the same and a few micros in 3ft of water I wasn't expecting to catch from the off although after 45mins and no signs on anything I put on the hook I was a little surprized, A quick re-plum a meter or so to my left saw me start a new line feeding just a few pinkees via a toss pot and fishing two floros on the hook, Another 45mins and all I could muster was a daddy ruff which fell off and a foul hooked carp despite ringing the changes depth wise so a search along the far bank without feeding a thing on the shallower 2ft rig was soon the next gambit.

There are two spots towards the corner around a metre apart I was confident it would give me my long awaited first fish" NOPE! I searched the whole length of the far bank again with various baits without so much as a dip of the float although Darren Greenwood on next peg 3 Had two carp on maggot right over in the shallower water in the first hour but was also struggling to add to his total. I had been drip feeding maggot and caster by hand down my inside swims and now I felt it was my banker line so it was time to rest my far bank swims" lol and give it ago.

Starting at half depth again I fully expected to have a bite on maggot or some sort of movement but it wasn't happening even trying the caster at the same depth to my right had me really scratching my head as most of my fish in the previous match had come off these lines, So a switch to my bottom rig was in order and finally  I had a fish in the net" a carp of around 4lbs, I tried this line for the rest of the match on and off but dispite adding another carp slightly bigger from my right hand swim I couldn't find any fish over and only had one more bite to my left margin even though I tried the rig at all depths they just didn't seem to be in the peg today.

Darren on peg 3 ended the match with 4 carp for 16lb odd and 18lb was second on the day so three more carp would have put me in the coin although with the water being slightly clearer than the previous match I just couldn't entice the bites needed to add to my two fish total, maybe I was right the peg held two resident fish and I'd caught them in an area they were happy to be in on the day,  We all go home wondering how we could catch more tho I believe if you have confidence in your methods on the day and if the fish are willing to feed then you get your rewards , I'm sure we've all draw what we would expect to be (A Good Un") on its day but sometimes it turns out to be the opposite and fish have fins so just because the peg has form" or it looks fishy its certainly worth bearing in mind , After all there's always the next HOT" peg to look forward too.