20/06/21 - Todber Manor - Homeground

Weight - 230lb 0oz

Catch - 68 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 Tench, 1 Perch

Weather - Drizzle to start and cool, later cleared.

Match - Wiltshire Angling Open (14 fished)

This match was originally on Ash and Homeground, but a few drop-outs due to Father’s Day, meant we were all on Homeground which I was pleased about. At the draw I drew p89, which is the right area, although you are in the corner with no island chuck, plus on arrival the wind was blowing out of the corner towards the opposite end of the lake and it was still quite cool.

Starting on pellet short 2+1, produced 4 fish in 30mins, but it didn’t feel right (or I still haven’t quite got this short pellet line sorted). Anyway, a switch to the Blue Ice paste at 3+1 at a slight angle to my left, over Bananion boosted micros, produced a couple more carp, but I felt the fish were not settled and an early look down my margin again on paste only produced a few more carp before backing off, resulting in a poor 2^nd hour.

In the meantime, Joe on p90 had started well, as had Matt Skyme on p87 and Terry Green on p88.

Fortunately, my paste line came to life by feeding a small ball of micros with the paste and I started to catch some of the slightly bigger stamp of fish resulting in a really good hour. At the half-way point I had 28 carp and my margin was also improving and by rotating between the 2 swims I kept the fish coming. In the last 2 hours the long paste line started to fade and I switched to feeding meat on my top kit and swapped between this line and the margin.

At the weigh in, I was left to rue losing a couple of fish, but the loss of a proper lad on the meat which snapped the elastic at the connector, definitely cost me 3^rd and possibly 2^nd overall.- 

The top 2 today caught mostly on the feeder, which is a sure sign the fish weren’t properly at it. Even Matt on p87 struggled to catch on maggot shallow until the 2^nd half of the match. As for me, I think I would have caught more had the wind been blowing in, as the bigger fish tend to follow the wind. That said you can’t be disappointed catching 230lb.

1st - 285-  4 - Joe Sheppard - p90

2nd - 238-12 - Ian Willetts - p85

3rd - 232-14 - Matt Skyme - p87

4th - 230-  0 - Ken Rayner - p89

5th - 202-  7 - Pete Neate - p84