6/11/22 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 52lb 8oz

Catch - 23 Carp, 20 F1s

Weather - Sunny start, heavy rain, then dry later.

Match - Open (20 fished) - 5th overall

A full house on Heron today, which would be a useful sighter for the start of next weeks Winter League. Since my last visit 2 weeks ago Andy has topped up the lake, meaning the marginal shelf is no longer exposed. It also meant no one knew how well it would fish.

I was happy with p10 as it’s a peg I have done well off it in the past.

I decided to start on a mini method to the island, but never had a bite on pellet or dead maggot, although to be fair I only gave it a couple of casts. A quick look over my short line didn’t produce either and looking around everyone else seemed to be struggling.

After an initial slow start, I eventually started catching some decent F1s and carp at 16m as it starts to shelf up towards the island on 4mm expander toss potting 4s with micros. I was catching well until the heavens opens and it rained hard for nearly 90mins or so. It was so bad I was struggling to see the float and had to take a shot off.

I had been pinging pellet to my right at 13m and caught 3 quick F1s, before they backed off and my short line didn’t produce, so I spent most of the match at 16m. However, it was fading a little towards the end and I retried the shallow line without success. A switch to maggot produced a couple of quick fish but I couldn’t keep it going.

I only needed a couple more fish to claim 3^rd overall, although I didn’t help myself when I missed the net with a decent F1. I really needed to have caught better on the shallow line, as the top 2, both caught well either on pellet or maggot late on.

Overall, the lake fished well, and it was nice to have a few bites, particularly after yesterday.

1.    74- 8 – Simon Dukes – p11

2.    60-12 – Jamie Dixey – p7

3.    58- 8 – Kev Hillsden – p22

4.    58- 0 – Mike Etheridge – p13

5.    52- 8 – Ken Rayner – p10