Catch - 11 Carp, 8 Perch, 1 Tench, 1 Gudgeon
Weather - Rainy start, bright later, but breezy
Match - Airsprung - 4th out of 13, 1st out of 6 section
When I originally booked in I thought we were on Merritts Lake which, however this lake has been partially drained in order for maintenance work could be carried out.
I fished Ellis once 5 years ago and was informed it was full of fish, but can fish hard in matches. Nick Merry and Tom Ince fished it earlier in the week and caught well mostly on pellet shallow. The lake itself was dug about 10 years ago and its a classic case of digging a lake without any thought about how to fish it. Its a rough rectangle shape with a central island, however its 10-11ft deep with no shelves. Have to ask what were they thinking?
With 13 fishing there should have been plenty of space. Walking around with Hippy and Nick pegging the lake, we had different ideas. However, not having any experience of the lake I deferred Hippy's knowledge which on balance was right, but you are never going to please everyone!
As for me I didn't fancy one of the island pegs, because that would mean giving the method rod an airing. What I did fancy were the bottom pegs at the car park end with the blowing into it, so I was pleased to draw 27, which put me on the end peg on the right hand bank. It looked very fishy, but plumbing up revealed a deep margin of 4ft, which started to slope away straight away. At 4m it was already 8ft deep and only getting deeper.Plan of attack was to focus on the margin fishing paste (redneck 0.2g > .17 > 12 carp feeder), fishing shallow at 13-14m (I had 2 rigs set up for 1ft and 3ft deep) and finally a silvers rig to fish at 5m at an angle to my left feeding groundbait (soft balls so they don't roll away) and 4mm pellet, because I was told there were some very good bream in the lake.
Starting in the margin I had a carp straight away on paste, shortly followed by a tench and then another carp, after 45mins. A switch to the shallow rig eventually produced a carp on 6mm pellet, plus another which I lost at the net. Back in the margin and it was slow going, which died completely when a fish which judging by the jagging fight was a good tench snagged me in the reeds.
Onto the silvers rig produced a small perch on worm, re-feeding only brought more perch, plus a gudgeon. This was getting harder and harder. Tom was pegged next to me and couldn't believe how hard it was, because his last 3 pleasure sessions resulted in over 100lb, including 50lb of silvers.
Hippy and Nick were on the other 2 pegs at this end of the lake and were also struggling, which was a real surprise because were expecting a good day. Steve Musitano, Mark Poppleton and Kev Hanson were all catching from the far bank opposite the island on the method to the island.
I kept working my 3 swims, but at the half way stage only had 4 carp and my silvers. I had left the feeder rod in the car, but a quick chat to Tom who said I could fish the end of the island if needed. Nick opposite was doing the same, using his waggler rod because he didn't expect to be fishing the method either, but only had 1 carp thus far.
After retrieving the rod from car, I had a carp 2nd cast fishing tight to the boards on a bright orange pellet. Another 2 followed over the next 20mins and started to think I might be able to push for a framing position, but the fish soon backed off.
I got the feeling the fish were backing off too much feed down the margin as well, so instead of cupping feed in, found it best to either throw in a small handful of pellet or cup a few pellets in with paste and started to get a few more indications. The fish in this lake as well as Merritts have very small mouths, which means they have to suck very hard on the paste, which resulted in a couple of missed bites or hook pulls.
I managed another carp on the feeder and a couple more from the margin including a 6lber with 5mins to go which was my biggest of the day.
By the all out it was obvious where the bulk of the fish where and Tom confirmed that was were most of the pleasure anglers fished. As for me I had hoped for a better days fishing, but in the end pleased to have at least claimed the section which fished poorly by comparison to the other side of the lake.
1st 78- 2 - Mark Poppleton - p5
2nd 70-10 - Steve Musitano - p4
3rd 42- 6 - Kev Hanson - p7
4th 39-12 - Ken Rayner - p27
5th 22-14 - Andy Fox - p23
6th 22- 7 - Steve Ince - p6
Silvers
1st 18- 0 - Steve Ince - p6
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