Catch - 21 Carp, 3 Perch
Weather - Showery, gusty wind, cool
Match - Ivan Marks Memorial - day 1 - 11th out of 81, 1st in section
I haven't fished the Glebe for nearly 2 years and was looking forward to getting back to this fabulous fishery, just wish it was a little closer.
This weekend was the first day of the Ivan Marks Memorial, where the winner was decided my the angler with the biggest single weight over the 2 days. Whilst the winner could come from most lakes, everyone really wanted pool 1. So into the draw and pulled 114 on pool 8, which is effectively a stock pond and not normally included in matches. Although I wasn't likely to win the match from here, I still had the section to go for.
The pool has 10 pegs on a rectangle lake, 5 on each side and there were 5 of us, 4 in the corners and 1 in the middle. The only information I could get regarding the pool was it was full of small fish and there were some proper lumps up to 20lb.
My peg put me in one of the corners and the first job was to clear all the rubbish from the corner! Well I had plenty of time, because we had 2.5hrs to set up, not even I need that long.
The first rig out of the box was a long line pellet rig to target the many fish showing themselves on the surface. However as we got closer to the 11.30 start time, the weather closed in, becoming more cloudy, the wind picked up and a rain shower shortly before the start pushed the fish down.
Other rigs were 2 margin rigs to accommodate the differing depths, to fish expander's or corn. Finally I had a rig to fish the bottom of the slope at 11m where it was 5ft deep, although I hoped I wouldn't need it, because I wasn't convinced the fish would want to feed on the deck..
On the all in, hemp and corn was deposited in the right hand margin and I started on my left
at 4 sections on 6mm expander over 6mm amino+ pellet and corn. With no bites after 10mins, I switched to the right hand margin and was immediately rewarded with a double figure carp. However this was my only fish during the first hour, which was a surprise bearing in mind the lake was suppose to be full of small fish. The other anglers had all caught, but generally it was a quiet start.
Time for a change of tact, so cupped in 4 & 6mm amino+ pellet at the bottom of the slope and feed 6s & corn down the left bank at 13m. By swapping between the 2 swims, I started to catch, with the margin swim being the most productive catching on 6mm expander.
With 2hrs of the 5 hour match remaining, I started to struggle which coincided with the weather really closing in with heavy winds and rain. Ideally I wanted to go further down the end bank to follow the fish as they backed off, but the wind meant that would be difficult. Instead decided to pot in some caster and corn, fishing worm over the top. 3 perch later, I had no choice but to suck it up and fish longer down the end bank, potting in some 6s and corn at 15m.
With an hour to go I had a few more fish from the bottom of the slope, but they really didn't want to be in the deep water and other than the big carp at the start of the match I never had another bite down the right hand margin.
As suspected fishing 15m down the end bank was difficult in the wind, which fortunately eased a little and I found it best to pot in 6mm pellet, fishing corn over the top. Although I had to wait a little longer for bites, the stamp of fish was better.
Throughout the match I couldn't tell who was winning the lake, because it was nip & tuck with the 2 corners to my right. With 3 fish in the last 10mins I thought I may have enough, since both anglers had a quiet last hour. However with only a minute to go one them was attached to a rather large carp, which turned out to be a 15lb ghostie.
Fortunately a last good hour where I caught some better stamp fish, proved enough to win the section. As suspected the better weights came from pool 1, but generally the venue didn't fish as well as expected, but the weather has horrible at times.
1st 167- 0 - Andrew Williams - p22 (pool 1)
2nd 145-12 - Mark Fox - p47 (pool 3)
3rd 111-10 - Dave Doane - p17 (pool 1)
4th 106- 6 - Jon Preedy - p10 (pool 1)
5th 101- 2 - Steve Porter - p16 (pool 1)
6th 98-11 - Russell Shipton - p4 (pool 1)
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