2/6/22 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 81lb 8oz (7lb 8oz - silvers)

Catch - 33 Carp, 2 F1, 5 Skimmers, 1 Crucian, 1 Perch

Weather - Warm & sunny

Match - Open (11 fished) - 2nd overall

Originally, I was booked onto Heron Lake, however as this was the Jubilee weekend, 23 were booked in some of whom were practicing for the Southern Qualifier on Sunday. As a consequence, another open was set up on Kingfisher and to be honest having fished Heron twice recently I fancied a change and switched lakes.

I wanted to avoid the willow fluff which was quite thick in the high numbers and fortunately drew p39.

On the all-in I started across tight to the far bank fishing paste (blue ice : kriller) catching 2 carp in 30mins. Action was a little slower than I expected, however no one seemed to be running away with it.

A switch to fishing the bottom of the far shelf, toss potting sludge boosted 4s fishing a hair rig 4mm kriller pellet and I had a bit of a nightmare as I pulled out of the first 4 fish! I am trying some new elastic and I had to switch to a light one which was much better.

Occasionally I switched back to the far bank catching a couple of carp before they went iffy again. Looking around I seemed to be doing OK, however the middle part of the match was a struggle and a change to feeding a little BMGX groundbait with baninion boosted micros, fishing worm resulted in a couple more carp and some skimmers.

Back to the far bank and a couple more carp including a 10lber which was bonus as up to this point, I had nothing bigger than 2lb.

With 2hrs remaining it was time to try my margins which had been fed with micros and 4s, fishing paste over the top, with the right margin being better, as the left margin plumbed up like an egg box! Instead, I fed corn and pellet in the deeper water a metre off the left-hand bank.

Whilst not manic I caught steadily from the right margin where the average stamp had improved. When it needed a rest, I had a couple of carp from the left deep margin and from the bottom of the far shelf on pellet or corn.

As always, an interesting match trying to work out the best way to catch as well as trying to find the better stamp of fish and I was pleased to finish 2^nd overall, maintaining my good run of results at the venue having picked up 8 from the last 10 matches. It's fair to say the venue suits me, but it has probably taken 18 months or so to work it out.

1.    95-12 – Terry Malloy – p42

2.    81- 8 – Ken Rayner – p39

3.    79- 0 – Karl – p38

4.    75- 8 – Jamie – p50