Emerald Pool Fishery (Speci Lake).

Deciding to stay off the sauce' on new years eve this time around so I was able to fish this knock-up held on a lake neither good mate Darren Greenwood or myself had fished under match conditions so were both looking forward to it, No chance of breakfast today so the kind wife sent us on are way with a sandwich before hand, It was surprisingly mild when we arrived with little wind but the forecast was for that to change, Only ten of us fishing today so the pegs would spread around this quite large open lake & after we had a quick look before the draw we fancied anywhere from pegs 2-6 as it would be in the main part of the lake where I felt the best weights would come from, Not knowing really what to expect but new the lake held a good head of smaller skimmers & hybrids with the talk of some big bream present.

Into the draw & I found myself on peg 8 which was at the top end of the lake a peg which turned out to be the first peg going back into an arm, I would of took some pictures but by the time we arrived at are pegs it was already peeing down so left the camera in the dry", I knew the lake was around 6ft deep so set up a 4x12 & 4x14 wire wonder floats on 0.11-0.09 with 18 & 16 F1 maggot hooks, plumbing around I found 5ft of water off to my right at 13mts back in-front of me it was slightly shallower at the same distance but if I came any closer or went to my left it shallowed up by 18" inches" I didn't really want to fish this far if the fish were only going to be small but I didn't expect to catch in the shallower water as it was quite clear? I had Martin Heard next to me on peg 9 facing out into the main lake & Glynn Wickham opposite me on peg 7 but also further into the main lake.

On the all-in I fed three balls of fishmeal G/bait & dead red maggots 13mts to the right as far as I could go & just a small amount of micros & hard 4mms in-front of me. This is where I started the day with 4mm expander on the hook, Despite the rain their was no wind so with the float dotted right down after around 10minutes I started to catch the odd hybrid from 3-6oz. The fish didn't seem to keen to settle thought & I had to keep topping up with small amounts to keep some bites coming, In the first hour a reckoned on having around 3-4lb all being smaller size hybrids, I could only see what Glynn & martin were catching but at this point had me slightly ahead, After nearly an hour bite over the micro were dying off so switched to dead red maggot over the G/bait line, This saw my catch rate speed up a little but again they were on the small side so I switched back to expander on the hook, I had a better hybrid around 12oz & a few more to 6oz before things slowed so decided to top it up with another ball & switch lines again, I had been feeding a 11mt line in the shallower water & was really hoping to get bites here but I couldn't get a sniff on it, Back out to 13mts over the micro gave me another run of fish for 20mins or so & by now Glynn had started to catch quite well on his longer line Including a bonus 4lb bream".

Back over the G/bait & it was regretting topping it up with another ball as I now struggled to get a bite over it" The micro fed line seemed to be the best option so I added a cad pot & began to feed a few micros each put-in still fishing 4mm expanders on the hook. This seemed to work quite well for a while then approaching the halfway mark things took a turn for the worse" I had only mentioned on my end of year blog yesterday how much it had been a pleasure to fish with little or no wind for the last few months' Well he must of heard me as today Mark & Myself took the full brunt of it! The last couple of hours were a nightmare, I had to have the brolly up to try & keep the bait dry as well as myself but it managed to take off twice whilst I was holding the pole" & when it did stay attached it was bouncing around all over the place!, Just trying to hold the pole was a task let alone trying to feed it'.

It appeared we were the only two effected which was really frustrating as I new their were fish to be caught, We just had to put up with it for the last couple of hours, the G/bait fed line became impossible to fish as I couldn't see it, And I keep trying the 11mt line but didn't have a bite in the shallower water, I keep pugging away over the micros catching the odd hybrid but couldn't catch any skimmers, Glynn really caught well in the last few hours when he started to feed with the catty over the top of his G/bait line but we had no chance of following suit with the wind straight in are chops", Mark had caught better in the final few hours but it appeared most of his fish were better size skimmers rather than the smaller hybrids I was catching, In the last 20mins the wind dropped & I was able to present the rig properly again, It made a difference as I estimated I added another three & a half pound of fish including a 1lb hybrid' At the all-out I didn't have a clue what I had, Nor did Mark so we had a quid on it for the hell of it, No fun packing up today as everything was wet & cold' When the scales arrived Big Bird' (Darren) was the top weight from peg 3 with 27lb odd, Mark went on to weigh 19lb odd before I managed 25lb 12oz so at least I had the quid", Further around to Glynn on peg 9 & he ended up having a great day to finish with 40lb odd, A mix of decent size skimmers & one bream on either casters or corn over loose fed caster & Groundbait, & next to him his brother Nigel ended the day with 33lb to take second on the day, Glad to get the kit back in the van & heater on' Organiser Mark Leahay spread the monies around today so I did end up with £20 back for all the hard work, Shame the weather spoilt it for the two of us at this end of the lake as we would surely caught more but look forward to having another go on this lake as it appears to be full of silvers which makes for a good days fishing, Sometimes" Lol.

Full Result -

1st Glynn Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 9, 40lb 7oz.

2nd Nigel Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 10, 33lb.

3rd Darren Greenwood (Weston) peg 3, 27lb 9oz.

4th Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 8, 25lb 12oz.

5th Mark Lehay (Summerhayes) peg 4, 22lb.

6th Martin Heard (Tiverton) peg 7, 19lb 5oz.