I drew C5 which was 5 pegs to the right of Burrington road Bridge (C9 and C10 either side of bridge), i asked Steve Dudley for info and he told me it was crap and that all i could hope for was a few small perch,when i sat down everybody who walked past told me i was sat on the worst part of our 18 peg section along with the two pegs to my left and the peg on my right which was at the start of the narrows.
With this in my mind i decided to set up four bloodworm rigs to cover the 9 swims i intended to fish.
Swim 1 was at 5m at the bottom of the near shelf in 5 foot of water.
swims 2 & 3 were on the same line but with a section added on to fish left and right.
These were fed with a tiny bit of joker in a double leam mix squeezed as hard as i could.
The rig on these swims was a 0.4grm desque with an olivette 24 inches away and just two number 13 droppers and a size 24 PR31 hook to 0.06 silstar match line, i have found when fishing for perch that by trying to get the bait to fall as slow as possible in the last foot you can usually get a few more bites.
Swim 4 was at 7m where there was 4 1/2 foot of water as it started to go up the shelf.
swims 5 & 6 were on the same line but with another section on to fish up and down the peg.
swims 4 & 6 were fed the same as swims 1,2 and 3.
swim 5 to the left was fed with a golf ball of joker bound with a touch of grey leam and 30 casters.
Rigs for these swims was a 4x12 preston PB14 with 20 number 13 shot in the bottom half to a size 24 PR31 to 0.06 SM.
i also set up a caster rig with a 4x8 dibber with a size 16 B511 to 0.06 SM to put over the line to the left to try while i roll a fag.
swims 7 & 8 were at 9.5m at the bottom of the far shelf in 3 foot of water slightly left and right, the left one was fed with a golf ball of raw and the right one was fed with the double leam mix again with very little joker.
Rigs for these swims was a 4x12 preston PB14 with 20 number 13 shot in the bottom half to a size 24 PR31 to 0.06 SM.
swim 9 were fished slighty to my left at 11.5m into 2 foot of water and were fed with a tangerine size ball of raw joker just in case a few roach decided to have a look, the rig for this was a 4x10 Maver ice with the usual hooks and line.
I started on the inside lines and had a perch of about an ounce after twenty minutes from the left swim, after another 10 minutes without any more bites i tried the 7m lines for ten mins but never had a bite,first put in on the 9.5m line over the double leam mix produced a roach of 1oz first chuck on the drop, oh baby i thought,on with a joker and a perch after 30 seconds then nothing.
The next 30 mins was spent searching swims 1 to 8 with just one bite from the 7m line which was a roach of half ounce.More out of desperation than anything else i tried the 11.5m line and was rewarded with a 1oz roach straight away, this was then followed by 6 more in quick succession so i put the plummet back on, added a section and pushed it down the peg until i found the same depth and fed a tangerine sized ball of raw joker for when they backed off.i then went back onto the 11.5m line and caught a few more before they went a bit funny.
Time to roll a fag....on with a caster, pole between the legs and sit on it, i had hardly got a paper out when the float dipped then went down the hole, at first i thought i was stuck on bottom then it started to move, about 2 mins later i was staring at a perch about 2lb in the bottom of my landing net
....jobs a goodun!
.
Back onto the 11.5m line and i was catching a few but i was having to keep swapping between the two lines to keep fish coming, something just didn't seem right...had i overfed it,had the fish gone.
I then started to really struggle for a bite, i refed the 11.5m line but nothing happened, i kept resting it and coming inside and catching odd little perch, i decided to put three jokers on the 11.5m rig and jig it about to see if there was another big billy there,5 mins later i had a bite only to be met with solid resistance, Was it a big perch? was it Fcuk...a pike well into double figures (they dont count) had decided it was fed up with eating roach and would prefer a joker, luckily for me he decided to go into the next peg before seeing me off....unluckily for me the roach never really returned until the last 5 minutes when i had 7 fish.