Mal Talbot
(Kamasan)
Peg 34 - 85lb

Yesterday Rolf noticed that there was a good number of Carp in the shallow half of the lake. He responded today by putting a few pegs from the area into the draw bag with good results. A peg in the shallows in January is not always popular draw but there is a few acceptable pegs that would hold there own in any match, namely Pegs 34 & 37, and it was exactly those pegs that took first and second place today in the Rolfslake Sunday Open.

Kamasan backed matchman Mal Talbot had drawn the short walk from the car park to Peg 34 in the corner near the roped off lilly pads (obviously not visible in winter!) and made no mistake by taking an 80lb 4oz weight that nearly doubled second place. Fishing sweetcorn and bread on the hook, Mal chopped and changed between a bomb rod (last match for the bomb) and the pole to take a number of good carp.

Norman Youldon sat on Peg 37 on the 'Bar' and found a few fish feeding but the going was much slow than that of Mal's in the corner. Norman fished very similar tactics to Mal and made good use of the underwater features within the peg to secure the runners up slot with 44lb.

With the water temperature at 38 Deg, elsewhere the going was very slow with bites harder to find than hen's teeth. Sweetcorn seemed to produce about the same amount of fish as large punches of bread, but Rolf has now banned bread as bait - bread was only allowed as punch and be able to police what is a punch and what is a flake was getting increasingly difficult with the production of 'flake punches.' Once again the few wreck the fun of many......... at least the Carp might get a few expander pellets again.

Once again, after the match Rolf fed the fish and the lake was alive with Carp feeding up in the water. I wonder how many anglers that struggled all over the UK this weekend actually came off the bottom with there baits? Having had the chance to watch the fish feed by way of a fish finder I can say I've seen the light. In winter you can see how reluctant the Carp are to go into the bottom foot or so of water; they hate the cold just like us, preferring to stay in the warmer thermals at 3/4 depth. Only the odd fish will drop down, feed, then go back to mid water. Rarely have I seen a good number of fish on the bottom in water less than 40 Deg. Go on, next time you struggle - pump a little CSL into some expander so they sink slowly and trickle them in a few ever 30 or so seconds.. come off the bottom and see if you don't get a fish or two? At worst you'll just waist an hour that was going to be unproductive anyway...