12/06/22 - Todber - Hillview

Weight - 233lb 10oz

Catch - 65 Carp, 4 Roach, 3 Skimmers

Weather - Sunny with a strong breeze

Match - Steve Martin Summer Series rd 3 (19 fished) - 3rd overall, 2nd in section

It was a sad day last week when Andy said he was no longer producing So Simple baits, as the physical demands of the job of keeping pace with the orders had taken its toll, although falling off a ladder at Christmas didn’t help! On a personal level I would like to say thanks to Andy who has always been generous with his support of his regular customers, and it has always been greatly appreciated.

Back to today which was the 3^rd round of Steve Martins summer series and we were all on Hillview, split over 2 sections. P47 put me in with the better pegs and I thought 2^nd or 3^rd in section would be a good result.

There was a strong breeze blowing off my right shoulder, but it was quite flat in front of me, so I decided to start on the method towards the island with sludge boosted micros and an orange 6mm gofter. 25mins later I only had 2 skimmers! Not the start I was expecting.

A switch to the 2+2 line where I fed micros and 4s, fishing paste (kriller : blue ice) produced 7 carp before that line faded. Switching back to the feeder finally produced some carp and at one point I thought this line might take off, but sadly not. Had I stuck with it I am sure I would have caught more, but the fish weren’t coming quickly enough, and they were a smaller stamp.

Back on the paste line and it was slow going. A quick look down my margin where I had fed 4s fishing paste over the top, only produced bites from the hordes of roach! So back to the 2+2 line and I just kept at it, feeding a handful 4s.

With 2hrs remaining (of 5hrs) I was up to 25 carp for about 85lb and fortunately the fish turned up, catching 40 fish over the remaining 2hrs, mostly from the 2+2 line. It may have helped that the wind shifted slightly creating more ripple in front of me. I did try the margin, catching 3x 7lbers straight away before the roach returned. It was then just a case of rotating both paste lines in the final hour. I finished 2^nd in section as my slow start cost me the section win, missing out by 8lb, however the result pulled me up to 4^th in the league.

1.    312-  8 – Tony Gilbert – p44

2.    241-15 – Pete Ball – p58

3.    233-10 – Ken Rayner – p47

4.    198-  8 – Matt Banks – p57

5.    184-  7 – Andy Eagle – p48