18/10/14 - Ivy House - Match Lake

Weight - 64lb 6oz (7lb - silvers)
Catch - 7 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 5 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy and breezy
Match - Open - 4th out of 17

With no match at Lands End, I didn’t fancy fishing Acorns and decided a trip to Ivy House was overdue. The last time I was here was 3 years ago and always felt the venue had loads of potential if someone took the time and investment. Well as we all know Andy now owns the venue and the transformation so far is quite dramatic with new platforms, loads of trees cut back and a remodelled café/shop.
Having not fished here for some time I fully expected to have my arse handed to me, but I intended to enjoy my day. I fancied a draw where there would be some ripple, but peg 46 put me on the causeway and the sheltered end of the lake. Andy told me he caught late down by the p47 platform, but a couple of others said they don’t come down into this corner that often. 

Anyway because I wasn’t sure what to expect I set a rig to fish for silvers (SM Chimp 0.4g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet) and carp (carrat 0.3g > .14 > 16 B911) at 13-14m and a margin rig.

On the all in micros/groundbait/4s was deposited at 13m and the same again at 12m to my left at a 45 degree angle. After an hour I only had 2 small skimmers, but by regularly toss potting micros/4s I started to get more regular bites, landing a 2lb mirror. Unfortunately the next carp hooked was an 8lber, but the 6-10 hollow elastic let go at the puller bush, which meant I lost everything. Fortunately a couple minutes later I saw my orange elastic running along the end bank. After catching hold of the elastic from the middle of the end bank, I managed to pull the fish back to my peg, landing the fish by hand lining. It’s amazing how little pressure you need to apply. 

Well at least by retrieving the rig completely intact saved me setting up a new one. Over the next couple of hours, saw me catch carp up 18lb on maggot and chimp rig, but only a couple carp on the heavier carrat rig. Most of fish came from the 13m line, only catching a couple of skimmers from the left hand 12m line.

 

I lost a couple fish, but think they were foul hooked, but no dramas and with 2hrs left felt I was up with the leaders. A brief look down the margin where I had been feeding caster/4s only produced a couple of roach so far.

 

My long lines seemed to have dried up, although there was still the odd bubble coming up, so not sure what was happening. Having said that Dick Young on p44 who roughly had the same as me had also slowed up, but I felt I needed at least another carp. Frustratingly my margin line wasn’t producing and time was slipping away as was my chances of framing.

 

On the long line I fed a section longer and with 20mins to go I hooked a carp. Knowing how important this fish could be, I took my time only for the hook pull out of a 6-8lb fish - gutted. The last 10mins it was back down the margin with 4 maggots on the hook. With a minute to go the float dipped, but nothing was attached expect for a bit of weed – another chance missed?

 

Well come the weigh in I was left pretty disappointed to miss out on framing by a 1lb, but I could have won had I landed that last fish. At the moment I seem to having that sought of run, just missing out by a single fish, although Sue thinks stress from work is having an effect.

 

Anyway, I won’t hesitate to come back to Ivy House. It’s not easy fishing, but I certainly enjoyed it (except for those last 30mins) and I can only see the venue getting better.

 

1^st 70- 8 – Chris Davis – p41

2^nd 69- 2 – Vince Shipp – p16

3^rd 67- 8 – Dick Young – p44

4^th 64- 6 - Ken Rayner – p46

5^th 61- 9 – Andy Gard – p10

6^th 49-14 – Simon Stacey – p5

 

Silvers

1^st 17- 2 – Rob Terry – p32

2^nd 13- 9 – Vince Shipp – p16

3^rd 13- 0 – Chris Timms – p29