Sunday the 28th February and day that turned out to definitely be a day of 2 halves! I had never been to Croft before so didn't really know what to expect other than it was clear, deep and not too dissimilar to Coppull Mill in that respect. I had also been told that there was a dam wall which was the deeper end, and it shallowed up to the far bank to around a foot - needless to say I wanted somewhere near the dam wall for a bit of depth. The weather was mild (ish) but with sporadic winds that were bleedin' cold and heavy showers blowing all over the place. The draw was made at 8:00am, and I put my hand in and drew out 13 - unlucky for some. I am not superstitious, so this didn't concern me in the slightest. I made my way to the peg and had my first view of Croft Lake number 1. I must say I rather liked the venue, however the pegging was incredibly tight with only around 15' between some pegs, and the peg I had was on a towpath between the lake and a stock pond around 8' wide which I knew was going to make shipping the pole in and out a real ballache!
I am still without a pole, as it is taken an eon to get a new number 5 for my Exage BX, so I am very grateful (again!!!) to Ray for the loan of his Exage AX! I assessed my peg and noticed quite a few fish topping throughout the lake, so decided on 3 approaches. I would fish at 13.5m on the deck giving me an extra metre should the fish back off a little. This swim (swim 1) had around 9' of water, so I chose a 1gr hand made float dotted down, to 0.14 main line and an 0.12 hooklink to a B711 size 19 hook. Swim 2 was going to be at around 6m and would again be on the deck. I had just over 7' of water here, so chose a 4x16 diamond pattern hand made float dotted down to the same line and hook. As there was sight of fish on the surface, I also decided on a small 4x12 margin float on a 6' rig allowing me to fish anywhere from 1' with a long line right down to 5 and a half foot in both swims. I had brought a selection of baits including maggot, pinkie, pellet and worm so was satisfied I would be able to snaffle at least 10 points.
The all in sounded at 9:15 and my immediate approach was to cup in a small cup 3/4 full of wetted micro, a few casters and 4mm expanders into swim 1, followed by 1/3 cup of maggot, caster and pinkie into swim 2 and begin to fish swim 1 on the deck with a 4mm expander on the hook. After 30 minutes, I hadn't had a sniff, and hadn't noticed anything come out. Mick Peet to my left was striking furiously on the feeder at what later turned out to be gudgeon but other than that it seemed quiet. A few were opting for the pellet waggler or large loaded crystal - a method I really want to get to grips with this year as it’s a method I have never fished and after my 3 year sabbatical from fishing it looks like if I expect to frame in any match over summer I need to know this. After around 50 minutes I switched to double red maggot on the deck in swim 1 and got my first bite, a very (VERY) shy bite saw a small skimmer around 10oz come to the net. Meanwhile, a few were beginning to catch on the waggler, notably Bernard who seemed to be getting one a chuck and a few smallish lumps (if that makes sense!) seemed to be coming his way, and Matt looked like he was beginning to take a few opposite. Around me things were quiet, with Ray 2 pegs down taking a small F1 and a couple of bits but at least he seemed to be getting bites. To my right in the corner, Noah and Mick Cole seemed to be struggling. After an hour and a half and only one bite and one fish, I decided to cup in some more pellet to swim 1 and then rest it and give swim 2 a try.
I started on swim 2 with a single red maggot and missed a completely unmissable bite which by the way it went under and the few I had later of the same kind were pairs of eyes - not going to get me any points. I continuously flicked 3 or 4 maggots around the float every couple of minutes when I got a small dip and was into something that took off like a jet. Careering toward Mick's peg to my right it felt a lot bigger than the tench around 2lb that finally came to the net - but what a fight it put up! By now looking around the lake that I could see, I thought I might be lying 3rd behind Bernard and Matt who was catching more steadily and also possible behind Martin who I think had a couple of carp in the net. That one bite proved to be my only bit in swim 2 so at 12:45 I tried back out on swim 1 but there was nothing doing and by now Matt was steadily catching and Martin too seemed to be hitting a few alternating between pole and waggler. Norman was also into the fish on the waggler and gave me a right chuckle with some of his strikes. I'm convinced he almost lost an eye at one point when he looked like he was trying to set the hook into a great white at a range of 300 yards and 200' deep. I just saw a loaded waggler heading like a bullet in his direction...without a fish on the end. I tried my shallow rig on my main swims but couldn't get a touch.
I now realised that the fish seemed to be in an area from Matt round to Ste Leather on the dam wall as these seemed to be the only people catching. I decided to open a new swim (swim 3) 10' to the left of swim 1 and cupped in micro pellet and put a small worm head on the hook. Immediately a dip brought me a nice bream of around 2.5lb - a welcome addition to boost my net. But again, nothing followed it at all. With an hour to go I opened another new swim around 2 sections short of this new swim and fished a foot off the deck and 3' off the deck but could only hit small roach about 1oz. Around this point, Dave Matty hooked what looked to be a large carp and was playing it for around 10 minutes with elastic halfway across the lake. Then a bit of jiggery pokery between him and Tel and a landing net met with plenty of abuse from my side of the bank followed by uproar of laughter as the next time I looked up either Dave's carp had scaled the tree next to him, or it had come off and fired him straight into the tree - selfishly at least I thought he hadn't overtook me :-) but did feel a bit (a tiny bit!) of sympathy for him. With 30 minutes to go I went back to swim 3 and decided to stick it out on double red maggot and was rewarded with 10 minutes to go with a chub about 1lb.
The All out sounded at 2:15pm and by my reckoning I had sixth. Matty was first with 35lb 1oz, followed by Martin with 19lb 12oz followed by Bernard with just over 18. I was delighted to find my net topped that of Bob (who coincidentally missed 10oz off my total when recording it to give me and him joint fourth tut tut) and Norman to give me 4th place leaving me 3rd in the league table and had me leaving Croft a happy man! This happiness ended a few hours later when Wigan were narrowly beaten (but slightly outclassed) by St George in the World Club Challenge! Oh well, there's always next year...and next week at Martin Hall, in Preston. Another new venue for me.
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