Catch - 22 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 3 Tench
Weather - Bright and breezy, with one heavy shower.
Match - Marukyu Open - 48 fishing
With the forthcoming pairs competition in 2 weeks I was keen to see the new lakes and get some practice, so booked in for this match.
The new lakes are as you expect a little barren, but they will mature over time and being able to park behind most pegs will surely prove popular. The lakes are also a big change from those used to fishing Park Lake (which has now been redesigned and converted to a specimen lake) and Whiteposts. With the exception of Ash which is a strip lake, Hill View and Home Ground are open waters with central islands.I managed to get quite a bit of information on tactics and pegs. The one thing I was told, was to avoid the bottom end of Hill View because for what ever reason it is a poor area of the lake. Well I drew smack in the middle of the poor area, peg 37. A text from Mark said it was the worst peg on the complex and I should go home! Well that is a nice way to start your day.
Anyway I made the effort to drive here, I wasn't going to simply turn around and go home, however when I got to my peg I wasn't confident of a good day. The wind was blowing left to right and I really fancied those pegs at the windward end of the lake.
After plumbing up I was a little surprised at how deep it was. From the margin it simply slopped away to about 6ft at 2+3. I had initially considering fishing at 13m, but soon binned that idea as a non-starter due to the depth and gusting wind, deciding instead to fish at the bottom of the slope, feeding pellet and corn.
With an island opposite a method was also setup feeding gonut micros and a banded pellet on the hook. On the all in and 2nd cast on the method I landed my first fish, a 4lb carp. 2 more smaller fish followed, losing another at the net during the first hour.
In fact there didn't appear to be much happening on our side of the lake. A look over the short line produced a stockie carp first put in, but no more followed. I tried fishing shallow, but after 2hrs of pinging pellet at 13m I never had a touch, so that was binned.
Back on the method would produce a couple of fish then nothing, which meant coming back on the short line which was also slow. In the meantime, the anglers at the windward end of the lake started catching.
Out out of desperation, I had some dead maggot in the bag so started fishing that over the short line and at last started picking up some skimmers up to a 1lb and a few more stockies up to 2lb. A switch to corn later produced a couple of better carp, which was progress but knew I was falling behind the anglers to my right.
If I left the island alone for 30mins I would normally get a carp straight away but no more, before coming back on the pole. I also tried down my left margin, purely because that was were the spare peg was, feeding 6s. Unfortunately this line didn't produce a bite, although I wasn't the only one struggling to catch in their margins.
I wasn't unhappy to hear the all out. My fish weighed a little more than expected thanks to those stockies. I beat the 2 locals either side of me, so job done in some ways and from what I understand I didn't stand a chance of doing any good from the draw, so cant be too disappointed.
Overall our lake fished hard by comparison with the other lakes. Dave Roper won our lake from p42 at the windward end. Well done to Nick Merry for winning the match overall and I'm looking forward to the pairs starting in 2 weeks.
1st - Nick Merry (Colmic) 144lb 8oz (Peg 86 Homeground)
2nd - Gary O'Shea (Preston) 121lb 6oz (Peg 78 Homeground)...
3rd - Matt Skyme (Todber) 109lb 4oz (Peg 67 Ash)
4th - Nick Chedzoy (Preston) 108lb 9oz (Peg 77 Homeground)
5th - John Candy (Todber) 105lb (Peg 72 Ash)
6th - Alex Murray 104lb 12oz (Peg 81 Homeground)
Section A Hillview - Dave Roper 91lb (Peg 42)
Section B Hillview - Howard Kaye 89lb (Peg 53)
Section C Ash - Simon Diment 100lb 14oz (Peg 71)
Section D Homeground - Nick Ewers 99lb 3oz (Peg 84)
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