Monday, 20 December 2021

19/12/21 - Ivy House - Willow

Weight - 42lb 14oz (6lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 18 Skimmers, 2 Roach
Weather - Foggy & misty all day. Felt colder later.
Match - Christmas Open (50 fished)

This match was fully booked with 50 anglers over the whole complex, but a tough day was expected as it was cold and foggy, and it felt like it got colder throughout the day.
 

I drew p20 on Willow, which meant I would be looking for a few big carp. P23 and p34 are usually the better pegs in the winter as they are deeper, however as I was setting up Andy walked round and told me the mid-week match was won from here and 80lb was likely needed to win.

I had been playing around with the idea of setting up a silvers rig, but todays pay-out would be section winners only and the top 2 on each lake receiving a hamper. Therefore, I decided against the silvers rig to concentrate on the carp.

Plumbing up revealed it was only 2.5ft to my right and 4ft out in front. Despite what Andy had told me I wasn’t expecting much to my right as it had turned colder. However, as the all-in was called I noticed the mud turning over at 14m to my right, so decided to toss pot a few micros with corn on the hook. 10mins later I landed a 7lber.

I tried fishing the straight lead & corn and a small banjo feeder to the island, but never had a bite.

After an hour only 2 carp had been caught on the lake and the predicted 80lb was looking very unlikely. I was getting bored staring at a motionless tip and decided to set up a soft pellet rig to fish for skimmers, but had an 0.12 bottom just in case. By feeding nuggets of BMG boosted micros and fishing a 4mm BMG expander at 16m I caught skimmers up to 12oz, whilst keeping an eye on the rest of the section. 

With 2hrs remaining, p23 & p34 had a single carp, but felt I needed to get back to targeting carp in the closing stages of the match. I had been feeding micros where I had caught my first carp and managed an 11lber on corn, plus a further 2 carp on the straight lead and double corn cast further right down the island. P34 also finished with 4 carp, but those weighed 20lb, so I picked up the section money. I also came 2nd on the Willow/Old Match Lake which meant a big hamper and plenty of goodies.


1.
    64- 8 – Des Shipp – p33 (moorhen)
2.    47-14 – Elick Payne – p34 (moorhen)
3.    47- 6 – Chris Timms – p5 (old match lake)
4.    44- 8 – Allan Oram – p41 (kingfisher)
5.    42-14 – Ken Rayner – p20 (willow)
6.    34- 2 – Jamie Dixey – p14 (old match lake)

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