Thursday costcutter at huntstrete bridge pool

Back with the over 55,s again today, (of which I am one), went out to load the van and was greeted by a minus 3 frost, and with the rain from the previous day it was a bit of a struggle to get into it. Any way locked and loaded and it was off to the local cafe in belland drive for a breakfast roll to go, and it was ok (4).
A nice short drive (15 minutes) to be greeted by 16 other hardy souls , a noticeable absence was Mike nicholls, who it transpired had been in hospital for a week being treated for suspected lepto spyrosis, (wheils disease) he's out now and hopefully on the mend,  but the rat may not have been so lucky, lol.
Mr Rolf got the draw underway, and I was early in and pulled out peg 11, spot on, it's a peg I have wanted to draw all year but have never managed it, and the best part of drawing these good pegs is the look of disbelief on Paul barnfield,s face, it's a double result lol.
With the water being so clear we all expected a bit of a hard day, and it was clear as you could see the bottom of the nets.

Still someone was going to win, I set up three rigs, a dobbing rig for 16 mtrs just short of the island in about 3 foot of water, a caster rig for 4 foot of water at 14mtrs, and a skimmer rig for 13 mtrs in the deep water, 7ft.
For company I had the silent silvers assassin Dave wride on 9 , and John fry on 14.
I couldn't wait to start as it's a peg which is equally good for silvers and carp.

And it's about the only peg on the road side which affords you a good bit of space for unshipping.
Chris blew his whistle at 10 and I began by feeding two lines at 13 mtrs on  two angles , 11 and 1 o,clock, I never fed any caster on the 14 mtr line.as I felt it may be to close to the island and affect the dobbing line,
Then I went straight across to the island, dropped a piece of  bread in set at  2 1/2 foot, and the float settled and went straight under, carp on, safely in the net, back out and another one on and in, I don't think anyone else had had a bite yet and I've got 6lb in the net, third drop and another one . This was to good to be true, then an f1, then some missed bites, so I shallowed up another 6 inches, but changed to triple maggot on the hook and never looked back really, catching fairly steadily till the last 90 minutes when it got a bit harder, with only a couple more in the time, I must say the fish in the lake look really good especially this time of year with the colours of the fish really standing out.

Darren canning, this fish is called a CARP, remember !!!!!!
By the end I new I had over 100lb,  and I did as I had 122lb for a win, I did give the skimmer line about 20 minutes and have a couple, and I did have some fizzing over the groundbait line to the right but no signs of life in the left hand swim.

I will be honest and say I never fed a thing across to the isalnd, it was just a case of swinging the rig along the island , just dropping it in here and there, never staying to long in one spot, these fish weren't feeding fish, just swimming round the island and sucking in the bait as it falls past the nose  or they just bump into it, I didn't have to fish light, a strong  18 hook on .16 line, no finesse needed, and it's a method that works well  on lots of venues at this time of year, is it difficult, no not really, the hardest part is not to feed anything, and for me that very hard, I find it helps to throw in some bait short just to feel I am doing something, all you need are some fish in the swim or be on the winter route of a few as the mooch about, off to Landsend on Sunday for the start of the winter league, and most of the weights seem to coming to the same.method, and with all bread banned there meat has been the rest bait, just need to keep my hands out of the bait box LOL.
Today's weigh sheet below.