26/05/22 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 132lb 4oz

Catch - 58 F1, 53 Carp

Weather - Cool, cloudy and windy

Match - Open - (10 fished) - 3rd overall

With the next round of Steve Martins series due this Sunday on Heron lake I decided to book in for the mid-week open. It was also an excuse to have the day off work – not that I need much of an excuse!

With only 10 of us booked in we all had plenty of space, so I was not too concerned where I drew. P10 was OK and I hoped for a day catching shallow, setting up 3 shallow rigs to cover my options, although I thought the cool wind might have a negative effect.

I started at 2+2 on the deck with 6mm pellet and struggled to catch, only landing 3 fish after 20mins. I noticed a few swirls over my loose fed 4mm pellet at 10m, catching a couple of F1’s straight away, however it was really tricky trying to gauge how much to feed and the best depth to catch. As a consequence, I only had 10 fish in the net after an hour.

Fortunately, the 2^nd hour was better landing a further 16 fish, finding it best to cut back on my feed and really having to work the rig to get a bite.

Moving into the 3^rd hour I was struggling to get into a rhythm, snapping 2 pellet bands, a hooklength and losing fish, but still managed to add a further 19 fish. In the meantime, I started feeding pellet and corn down both margins, and by swapping between the margins and my shallow line caught another 19 fish.

So far, I felt I was some way behind those to my right, however my margins really kicked into life during the last 2hrs, catching 50 fish, only swapping to the shallow line when I felt it needed a rest and nearly stole 2^nd place from Gary.

1.    153-10 – Stitch – p16

2.    136-10 – Gary Etheridge – p8

3.    132-14 – Ken Rayner – p10

4.    127- 0 – Tim – p23