Monday, 4 July 2022

03/07/22 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 76lb (6lb 8oz - silvers)
Catch - 16 Carp, 8 Skimmers
Weather - Sunshine, showers, cloudy and variable breeze.
Match - Open (24 fished) - 9th overall, 5th on lake

Back to one of my favourite venues and 24 of us were spread between the Old Match Lake (14) and Willow (10). I was more than happy with p8. Although the pegs either side were in you still have some space and it has been a form area. That said it was likely the winner would come off Willow.

On the all-in I started at 16m fishing a 6mm pellet tapping 4s and just had a few knocks from silvers, and soon switched to slapping a shallow rig over the top as there were a few carp showing themselves. I managed a 7lber but couldn’t get another and switched again to a small 20g method cast to the island with sludge boosted micros and a 6mm yellow gofter, which resulted in 2 quick carp before they disappeared.

This was the pattern of my match, chopping and changing to try and put some fish in the net. Every time I went back to the feeder, I would catch 1 or 2 fish quickly before having to change again.

On the pole line I couldn’t get a clean bite on hard pellet and foul hooked a couple of carp; they just didn’t want to feed on the deck. Possibly because the peg is a little deeper than most and there isn’t much shallow water to attack.

In the end I set up a swim feeding micros and corn at 13m to catch some skimmers, but that was slow going as well, and it didn’t matter if I used corn, expander or worm on the hook.

Although I could see a couple of anglers catching on Willow, it looked like I was doing the best at my end of lake, but I couldn’t see the anglers further down.

With 2hrs remaining I hoped my 7m line would come to life, after feeding pellet for most of the match, but I never had a bite either on pellet or paste which a real surprise. In the meantime, I had started feeding 4s down both margins and finished the match switching between the margins and the feeder.

Down the margin I had a couple of skimmers and 2 carp on paste (kriller : blue ice), before it went quiet. Dumping a lot of micros helped bring the fish back and with 30mins left I caught the 1st of 3 fish for 20lb and then nothing for the last 15mins.

All in all, a bit of a frustrating day where the fish just didn’t seem to settle. I had the best weight at my end of the lake, but all the better weights came from the other end and as expected the winner came from Willow.

1.    209- 8 – Phil Godding – p23 (Willow)
2.    173- 6 – Mark Poppleton – p20 (Willow)
3.    170- 4 – Steve Waters – p18 (OML)
4.    139- 1 – Craig Taylor – p16 (OML)
5.    115- 2 – Gary Knight – p22 (Willow)
Silvers
1.    30- 4 – Sid – p2 (OML)
2.    16-12 – Billy Ockwell – p14 (OML)
3.    13- 8 – Lennie - p7 (OML) 

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