10/10/21 - Woodland View - Front Deans

Weight - 75lb

Catch - 14 F1s, 10 Carp, 8 Skimmers, 5 Perch, 1 Rudd

Weather - Cool start, sunny and breezy

Match - Teams of 4 (44 fished)

Steve Martin asked me to guest for the Haines team in the teams of 4, as Cosmo couldn’t make this round. I have only fished the venue once before and I was on Front Deans which I haven’t fished before.

P2 put me in the corner and to be honest with the wind blowing in I quite fancied it. The wind however was a bit of an issue in as much as it would limit how far out, I could fish, although that wouldn’t be an issue as most advice was to fish short.

A number of rigs were set up as I wasn’t sure what would or won’t work.

Starting at 2+2 with corn, didn’t produce and neither did hard pellet, although the wind was creating a fair bit of tow. A switch to a 0.5g chimp sat better and I caught a tiny F1 on maggot. Staying with maggot only produced

small perch or skimmers and I could hear and see some better fish being landed so didn’t stay too long fishing the maggot.

After 30mins and only a couple of pounds in the net, I decided to cast a small method to the aerator on the end bank, loaded with fishery micros pellets, flavoured with Blue Ice boost juice. (There is a no groundbait rule at the fishery so I could only use micros) I started catching a mixture of carp and F1s, finding it best to use a 6mm pellet, adding about 20lb in an hour, before it slowed down.

In the meantime, I tried to prep a shallow swim as I noticed a few F1s topping, but after catching 1 Rudd, this was soon binned.

The rest of the match was spent catching 1 or 2 fish on the feeder up to 8lb, before they backed off and fishing a 4mm BMG Janner pellet over micros on various short line swims, catching more F1s than carp, plus a few better sized skimmers.

After the 5hr match I was fairly sure I had beaten the anglers I could see and felt I would get good points. The only disappointment was I didn’t catch down either margin, whilst the angler opposite caught some proper units. I just think I may have gone a bit gung-ho with my feed but I knew I could always retreat back the feeder swim.

In the end I finished 4^th on the lake, picking up the section money as the winner came

2^nd overall. The top 3 weights on the lake surprisingly came from the sheltered end of the lake, so I was pleased with my efforts against the locals.

1. 170- 4 – C. Hopps – p34 High Pool

2. 136- 0 – R. Green – p12 Front Deans

3. 121- 4 – M. Taylor – p50 Back Deans

4. 105- 2 – Ash – p24 Front Deans

5. 104- 0 – K. Parry – p58 Back Deans

6.   97-14 – M. Westley – p26 High Pool