09/01/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 15lb 0oz

Catch - 1 Carp, 7 Skimmers, 2 Roach

Weather - Blustery, sunshine and showers

Match - Winter League rd 4 (50 fished) - 3rd in section

The penultimate round of the Winter League and it was my turn for the Old Match Lake. With an outside chance of getting into the paying top 8 places I was happy to draw peg 7.

Following yesterday’s heavy rain, it was noticeable the water levels were up a bit and combined with a stiff wind blowing left to right into my end of the lake I wasn’t sure how it would fish.

My plan of attack was to look for an early carp, concentrate on the silvers mid match, which after last week I was confident of catching a few, then hope for a few carp late on.

Well, it didn’t go according to plan. Due to the wind, I couldn’t fish beyond 11.5m which is where I deposited 2 balls of groundbait (Black Lake & Black Intelligent) with a few micros, pinkies and caster. Whilst that settled, I cast the straight lead and double corn into the gap between the islands.

I left the rig for 30mins. Despite a couple of liners, sadly no pulls, but so far I hadn’t seen anyone catch.

Switching to my silvers line was really disappointing. I thought I might had fed too much, so set up a 2^nd swim more negatively, but only caught 2 small skimmers and 2 roach. The wind was making presentation difficult and I thought a light cage feeder might work, so I walked back to the car to get my light feeder rod, which I didn’t expect to use and once back at my peg the wind had dropped!

I could at least now fish longer and caught a pound skimmer from the aerator to my right. Although the wind was still problematic, I could at least fish 16m towards island with the aid of a bump bar, where it was a little shallower.

I fed a few micros and maggot with a single maggot on the hook and with 70mins remaining hooked what was a decent carp on .10 bottom and 8 elastic. It took me 10mins, but I eventually netted a 10-11lber.

Hoping for a few more carp I switched to a .12 bottom and a slightly heavier elastic, fishing double maggot and caught 5 skimmers – where were they earlier in the match?

I also tried the straight lead and corn again, as well down my margin without success.

With a few seconds remaining Jason on p5 hooked a carp, which denied me 2^nd in section in what turned out to be a very tight section.

Overall, relieved to finished 3rd in section which leaves me 11th in the league and hoping for a flyer in the final round. A tricky day, but nothing compared to Andy who was rushed to hospital with a bleed on the brain, so fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

1.    45-  8 – Dave Parmenter – p23 (willow)

2.    40-  8 – Andy Dixey – p8 (heron)

3.    38-  4 – David Strafford-Way – p41 (kingfisher)

4.    37-  8 – Jamie Durrup – p10 (heron)

5.    34-  4 – Mark Poppleton – p4 (heron)

5.    34-  4 – Rob Guppy – p24 (heron)