18/07/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 55lb 5oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather - Hot & sunny, slight breeze
Match - Wiltshire Angling Evening Series - 3rd out of 8 (2nd out of 4 - section)

So far this series I have found it tough going against some very good locals, however I never let this get the better of me, because I still want to learn. Speaking to some other anglers recently, it amazes me the blinkered approach some have to angling.

This year my shallow carp fishing has certainly improved from a few years ago, my meat fishing is gradually getting better, but margin fishing at the moment seems to be getting the better of me. Watching the International Fisho on Sunday, seeing Will Raison plunder his margin in the last hour was an incredible bit of fishing, pulling the England pair (with Alan Scotthorne) from 5th with 90mins to go, to win very convincingly.

Back to today, I found myself on the top left hand corner, which isn't great, however there was a NE breeze blowing towards this end of the lake, so I was hopefully of a few fish. The tree lined left hand bank looks very tempting, however those in the know, know that the right hand margin is the place to catch.

I started at 13m along the tree line after feeding a cup of 6s, pinging 6s over the top, but after an hour I only had 1 carp. I had also tried the pellet waggler casting into the ripple. There was definitely fish milling around, but just didn't want to feed, which was proving frustrating, although I wasn't the only one.

So far I had left the right hand margin alone, letting it settle. 5mins after switching I had a carp, followed by another 10mins later.

Mark turned up with his 8yr old Lucas as I landed my 3rd carp and passed on some useful tips, as well as some mickey taking!

There now seemed to be a few fish down the margin, but too many liners meant fishing the paste wasn't right, so set up a pellet rig and fished tighter to the bank in 10inchs of water. Trying 8mm pellet and 10mm JPZ, the JPZ seemed to be better. Some of the bites where ripping the elastic out of the pole, which is always nice and I thought I could start putting a decent weight together.

Unfortunately the fish backed off for 30mins, returning after potting in 1/2 cup of pellet, which I should have done earlier instead of kinder potting or catapulting feed into the margin. My last fish was a 9lber, so a decent finish.

Lessons definitely learnt today and on reflection I should have perhaps won. Overall the lake fished surprisingly hard, with many complaining about seeing plenty of tails showing in the margins but few proper bites. Tony won our section with 66-6, but Stuart won the match from the far side with 67-8, leaving Ian to collect the default section money with 28lb!

1st 67- 8 - Stuart White - p5
2nd 66- 6 - Tony Gilbert - p3
3rd 55- 5 - Ken Rayner - p4
4th 37- 6 - Rich - p1