18/03/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 58lb 12oz (5lb 13oz - silvers)

Catch - 11 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 1 Hybrid

Weather - Mostly sunny.

Match - Open (10 fished) - 1st overall

After spending 4 enjoyable nights in Iceland, I was looking forward to today’s match at Ivy House and drew p9 which meant no island chuck.

The recent mild weather seemed to be having an effect as I noticed a few fish moving down the end bank as I was setting up. So, on the all-in I fished double corn over toss potted mircos and had an 8lber within 10mins. As it happened this was my only fish from the end bank despite trying a couple of times throughout the match.

After an hour I had only added 1 skimmer on expander at 14m, however the sun had brought a number of carp to the surface, which prompted me to set up a mugging rig and 6mm pellet. The fish didn’t really want to feed and were a little spooky, but I managed to catch 7 carp all to my left as they drifted between an empty peg 8 and me.

In between chasing the ‘cruisers’ I had a few skimmers on expanders at 14m.

The last 90mins proved to be a lot slower than I expected. I had hoped the fish would get their heads down. Instead, the wind picked up and the fish seemed to drift out of the swim. I did catch 1 carp at 16m on 4mm pellet and 2 on corn over micros down the left-hand margin, but I didn’t think it was enough to beat Chris Timms on p7.

To be honest I was a little surprised to have won as I thought Chris had comfortably beaten me, however I think a combination of smaller stamp fish and a couple of loses allowed me to win.

It was also nice to feel like spring was on its way.

1.    58-12 – Ken Rayner – p9

2.    53-14 – Chris Timms – p7

3.    51-15 – Mark Poppleton – p3

4.    38-  6 – Neil Richards – p5

Silvers

1.    24- 0 – Neil Richards – p5

2.    12- 9 – Matt Tainton – p10

3.      9-11 – Phil Gooding – p14