31/10/21 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 84lb

Catch - 56 Carp, 26 F1

Weather - Rain to start. Sunny and windy later

Match - Open (15 fished)

After last week’s match I decided to go back to Heron Lake and with the clocks going back an hour, the match times were reduced to 5hrs.

On the drive down I really questioned my sanity as it was chucking it down and the roads were flooded in parts. Fortunately, shortly after the match started the rain stopped and it remained mostly sunny for the rest of the day.

I drew p4, which would mean the forecast strong wind would be blowing straight into me, but the real concern was the number of leaves in the swim which at the moment were mostly in p2 and p3.

Starting at 1+2 feeding 4s and fishing a 4mm expander, I was soon foul hooking fish, so quickly switched to feeding a small ball of micros flavoured with BMG boost juice. After a slow start, I started to catch well and with 3hrs gone was up to 60 fish.

However, those leaves were causing me problems, as I struggled to get the rig in and my margins which were my back up line were completely choked.

The 4^th hour of the match was a nightmare, putting only 6 fish in the net, I couldn’t really fish the pole, so tried a small banjo feeder tight to the island and a maggot feeder at 14m. Fishing the pole would have been a struggle, not least because of the wind, but because the glare from the sun was blinding.

Come the 5hr hour mark the leaves shifted slightly, although the margins were still blocked, but I started to catch on the short line again until the end of the match.

Speaking to Glyn on p2 after the match we both felt we missed out on 20-30lb due to the leaves. So, I was disappointed to finish 5^th, as I should have come 3^rd, or possibly 2^nd, but no one was
going to beat Dave today. Still great fishing for the time of year.

1.    141- 6 – Dave Willmott – p24

2.    108- 8 – Andy Dixey – p15

3.      99- 0 – Matt – p7

4.      94-12 – Mick O’Brien – p11

5.      84- 0 – Ken Rayner – p4