24/10/21 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 68lb 2oz

Catch - 50 Carp, 19 F1

Weather - Bright start, then rain.

Match - Open (20 fished)

Sunday and it’s the first time on Heron for a couple of months and p11 for me. Starting short (2+2) on 4mm expander, feeding 4s and it wasn’t long before I caught, but also started foul hooking. By feeding a small ball of micros, it resulted in better bites and fewer foul hookers, but after an hour the swim was slowing.

I had started pinging 4s long, hoping to catch shallow, but when I switched it was hard going and I really struggled to catch. In fact, the middle part of the match was proving difficult. Fishing a small method to the far bank produced a few fish, as did fishing down the margin and long on the deck under the shallow swim, but I just couldn’t get a run of fish going, which was frustrating.

In the end I stopped trying to force the peg, putting the catapult and set up a new swim at 14m slightly to my left and simply toss potted 4s. After an initial slow start, I started to catch properly in the last hour probably putting nearly 20lb in the net.

Have to say I was kicking myself a little, as I should have binned the shallow line sooner and concentrated on catching on the deck, as in hindsight I should have come 3^rd.  Pleased with the start and the end of the match, but it was just that middle bit that I wasn’t happy with, which I put down to being out of touch with the lake.

1-   92- 6 – Jason Crump – p13

2-   83-10 – Rinaldo – p9

3-   78-14 – Jeff Rogers – p15

4-   74- 0 – Steve Water – p14

5-   68- 2 – Ken Rayner – p11