boggy boyd

with the promise of plenty of bites from roach and skimmers if the carp never fed , boyd lake was to be the venue for the weds match this week , much to the delight of boyd regular and expert mr nicholls. i think the reason he likes the place is mainly due to the fact he only uses
5 pence worth of fuel to get there. shame they are only allowed 12 pegs on there when there is room for 20, i think some of the locals who live along golden valley lane thought the increased traffic might be to much so pete was only allowed 12 pegs, after spending a day there the lane is a proper rat run so i dont think a few extra anglers cars would have been a problem.
back to the fishing and i drew peg 6 which i was told is about the deepest on the lake, and bob the bread had snared 17 lb of skimmers just recently, so three rigs were assembled , a 4x12 with strung out shot with a 20 808 to .10 for roach up in the water, a .50 rig same hook and line to fish on the deck at 4 mtrs under the up in the water rig and a 1 grm rig to fish at 9 mtrwith an 18 to .10.
at the start i cupped in 5 balls of g bait with some soaked micros at 9 mtrs for skimmers(hopefully). then started on the up in the water rig feeding 4 or 5 casters regularly over the top. 15 mins later and without a bite i went out with the .5 rig and missed a bite then 5 mins later a 3 oz roach was my first fish. by now mike nicholls and chris davis who were on 3 and 2 had begun to get small roach, so back on the shallow rig to find some small roach had arrived, by the halfway stage i was going nowhere fast with about 3 lb in the net it was time to look over the g bait line, and i soon started getting skimmers from about 2 to 10 oz and by dotting the float down and having 2 no 10 shot just off bottom most of the bites were proper lifters with the bristle coming right up , virtually unmissable i had a good one and a half hours before the swim started to die and even the odd ball of g bait wouldnt restart it so by the end i was back on the inside roaching. both mike and chris had caught well but i thought mike had just edged it as he had snared 3 late carp on mags over micros giving him 4 carp to chris,s 2 , although the carp werent large , only up to about 3 lb it was enough to give mike the edge with 26.1 peg 3 see his blog for tactics
2nd chris davis 23.1 peg 2 on worm and caster at 10 and 14 mtrs
3rd john smith 14.10 peg 10
4th tony rixon 13.8 peg 6
5th pete sivell 10.12 peg 9
6th dean malin 8.14 peg 7
and apart from the kenn in the winter when its run off it is probably the muddiest place around with red silty mud clinging to everything. but to be fair the sport is very good , the only real drawback is the bankwalkers you have to endure. cos as you are trying to catch close and up it does tend to unsettle your quarry , even though the water does look heavily coloured it is clearer than you think . next time i go there i think i will pray for frost so the mud is nice and hard