21/08/22 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 232lb 8oz

Catch - 149 Carp, 59 F1s

Weather - Cloudy, sunny periods.

Match - Open (6 fished) - 3rd overall

I fancied a change and booked into the open on Heron Lake, although I was out of touch with the lake, I fancied a few bites. Unfortunately, only 6 had booked in, which was a surprise and one of those was Glen Picton, so we were all fishing for 2^nd!

At least we all had plenty of space and I found myself on peg 23, which is probably the one peg I least wanted, but I still expected a few bites. As with many venues the water levels were down revealing the marginal shelf.

The intention was to catch shallow for F1s and small carp. Whilst priming the shallow line at 7m feeding 4s, I started on paste (choc orange) at 2+2 to my left, catching straightaway and had to move into shallower water to keep bites coming.

By the first hour I had 25 fish, all carp except for 1 F1. Switching to the shallow line I caught more F1 which tend to be slightly heavier than the carp, averaging 1¼lb-1½lb, compared to 1lb-1¼lb for the carp.

As I was catching shallow, it was noticeable there were a number of fish moving in the margins, so I threw in a few pellets by my keepnets, and fish came in instantly.

So, a pattern soon emerged where I would have a run of F1’s shallow. When the carp returned or the fishing slowed, I would switch to the top kit fishing next to my keepnets fishing a 6mm pellet. I was able to catch much quicker on the top kit than the shallow line, although I had fewer F1s.

In the end only Glen had more fish than me with 216, so I was pleased to have got close as Glen is really good at this style of fishing. As expected, Glen won despite being knocked back for going over in one of his nets, however I was disappointed to finish behind Jason who had 186 fish, but they were mostly F1s caught shallow.

A few lessons learnt and with a few refinements 240-250lb should have been possible.

Regardless an excellent day’s fishing and a PB for the venue.

1.    247- 8 – Glen – p6

2.    241- 0 – Jason – p10

3.    232- 8 – Ken – p23