26/06/16 - Lavington - Ellis Lake

Weight - 98lb 8oz
Catch - 21 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather - Bright sunny start, and surprise, surprise rain later.
Match - Airsprung - 1st out of 12

Breakfast in Devizes with Mark & Nick was a nice way to start the day, just a shame the egg was crispier than the bacon, but the sausages were lovely.

With 12 of us, it meant we all had at least 1 space peg and my draw put me opposite the island, with the wind blowing left to right. The lake is very deep and when I fished it last year I caught very little fishing on the deck, so decided not to bother with any deep rigs. The plan was to target the island with the a small hybrid feeder, feed 6s at 13-14m to fish shallow later and then come down the margins late on.

Starting on the method with a band 'um pellet, initially feeding 4s I didn't have a bite until I switched to groundbait and an orange band 'um after 30mins. Unfortunately I had the clutch set too tight and the fish broke me.

55mins into the match I was about to switch to the shallow rig, when I netted a 5lb fish and felt obliged to have another cast. The tip went round again and carp no.2 was soon netted.

A switch to the shallow line didn't produce, so back on the method and I had a 3rd carp, losing another which just dropped off. The carp in this lake have small mouths and fish loses aren't uncommon.

Back on the shallow line, the slapper rig didn't produce, so switch to a more conventional shallow rig set at 2ft deep and I started to catch on 6mm pellet. It was never hectic, just feed, lift and drop, feed, give it a quick slap, feed.

At the half way stage I was up to 8 carp and with 90mins left I progressed to 17. However the shallow swim was fading on me which coincided with the wind dropping and the rain starting.

I had been feeding my right hand margin from the off with meat, but never had a bite, so started feeding groundbait down to my left. In the last hour I hooked 6 carp on 8mm meat, landing 4 including my biggest of nearly 12lb.

On the all out I knew I had won, because no one was admitting to as much as me. Weighing 98lb was a little more than I thought and I was really pleased to chalk up my 3rd win in 3 days.

I didn't take note of the overall weights, but I think Nick Merry was 2nd with 78lb, which included a 16lb carp. Tom Ince had 60ish as did Andy Fox. Mark Poppleton snapped his 14m section (I know how that feels) and Craig Knight tipped back 20-30lb which would have won the section by double de-fault - oops.