Last Saturday, I guested for a team at Gold Valley, it was the last round of a very successful series of matches. This was the first round I had fished due to other commitments.

I drew old peg 6 on the canal bank of Gold lake, not a draw I was dissatisfied with, I have seen some big weights of carp come off the peg, mainly during warmer weather.
This peg you are fishing to the point of the first island and you are casting into shallow water, something that is very hit and miss at this time of the year, sh*t or bust as the saying goes.

When the match started I fed some joker in fishmeal at 14.5m, 4 balls of thatchers fishmeal, as this doesnt kill the joker like other fishmeals.

At this time of the year it is standard practice to start on the method feeder and cast to the rope, and sure enough everybody on Gold lake did this, after an hour of fishing you generally get a good idea of where the carp are and who is going home with the coin, and so it proved, I never had a bite and the anglers in a small area to my right were catching steady, thats winter carp fishing for you, or should I say Aqua Bingo, not that I am complaining as I have had my share of luck recently.

Two hours gone not a bite, three hours gone not a bite, despite regularly trying the pole. It wasnt until three and three quarters hour into the match that I got my first bite on the pole, then I had a lovely hour and a bit until the end of the match as I caught 6 bream and six perch for nearly 16lb, what a shame they didnt turn up earlier or I just needed a couple of early pulls on the tip as 28lb was second in the match.

The match was won with 50lb, not the biggest weight but it is winter and on the day all the lakes were single banked and when it is pegged like this the carp soon learn that it is safer on the the side of the rope where you cant cast, despite the low weight the fishing is quite fair for the time of the year as there were quite a few areas where it was possible to frame from, unlike the days when you need 150lb+, then the weights look good in the paper, but you need to be bang on.