12/07/14 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 81lb 0oz
Catch - 22 Carp, 5 Roach
Weather - Mostly sunny & breezy
Match - Open - 9th out of 15 (4th in section)

As mentioned in last week’s blog, Saturday opens have started at Rood Ashton for 15 weeks, following the closure of Ridgeway.

15 turned up which is an improvement from last week’s 11, but it was helped that Mark, Nick, Hippy and myself bolstering numbers, which also meant pegs were spread around the lake. I had to smile when I drew the same peg as last Sunday and thought it would be good to put into practice what I learnt from last time.

Today I included a pellet waggler rod, but with the wind again towards me and across I wasn’t sure whether I would catch on it. More importantly for me, I really wanted to make the margins work, because I don’t think I got it quite right last week. On the all in the left margin was fed with 6s & meat, whilst the right margin was feed with just 6s. Each margin was regularly top up. I also fed the 13m line with pellet, but like last week proved to be pointless with just a few roach.

Starting on the waggler looking for a few of the cruisers, but never had a bite, so switched to the lead & meat, which proved successful last week. Unfortunately only 2 carp after an hour suggested otherwise. I wasn’t too worried about the slow start, but a text from Mark on the other side of lake, behind the island said he already had 10, as did Nick Merry 3 pegs to my right and I think Hippy had a few next to Nick, which meant I was already falling behind.

The angler to my  right was also struggling, only catching a couple on the feeder. I kept feeding 8s at 25m in the hope of catching late on, but it never really happened. The margins were also proving disappointing with only a couple carp from the left margin, plus more roach.

So after 4 hours and only 9 carp in the net, I needed some proper fish from the margins. The angler to my right had already caught a few down his edge towards me over groundbait, whilst I struck with feeding 6s. It was noticeable the fish were coming quickly to the groundbait, although so far we had the same number fish from the edge, however when he got a couple of fish ahead of me, I felt I needed to try something different, so quickly knocked up the ½ bag of green swim stim I had in my carryall. The response was almost instant I had some proper fish on double meat.

The left hand margin was still causing me headaches. I had begun feeding more heavily with pellet & meat. I would have like to have tried groundbait, but simply didn’t have enough with me. I did manage a few fish, but still got pestered by roach, despite all the loose feed.

I had also kept feeding 8s at 25m and whilst resting the margins managed 3 carp on the pellet waggler, but they were half the size of the margin fish, so stayed with the margin, hoping to pick up the section money. I knew Nick in particularly had caught consistently on the feeder, although they tend to be much smaller fish.

The last 2 hrs proved to be the most productive putting 13 carp for 51lb in the net. It was just a shame I couldn’t catch during the first 4hrs. I only needed another 20lb to claim the section and do wonder what the situation would have been had I come armed with more groundbait.

Overall the lake fished very well, with 1^st and 2^nd coming from behind the island and 7 weights over a ton.

1^st 201- 6 – Jamie Dixie – p12
2^nd 156-10 – Mark Poppleton – p11
3^rd 136- 8 – Frank Donachie – p1
4^th 108- 8 – Andy – p14
5^th 105-14 – Carl – p15
6^th 100-12 – Phil – p6