21/05/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 139lb 7oz

Catch - 65 F1s, 33 Carp, 1 Chub, 1 Gudgeon

Weather - Warm and sunny

Match - Tackle Den (19 fished) - 1st overall

I decided to join Tackle Den club as they regularly have 20 or so attending their matches and to be honest, I’m getting a little fed turning up for opens with only a handful anglers attending.

Today we should have had a full house of 20, but match organiser Steve Venn snapped his Achilles trying to get his van started this morning!

I was happy with p4, as it provided some space and a good left-hand margin. The weather forecast was for warm and sunny conditions, which hopefully meant a day’s shallow fishing.

On the all-in I started on paste at 2+2 whilst priming a shallow pellet line. After 40mins I had 7 fish before it faded. Switching to the pellet line feeding 4s, fishing a hair rigged 6mm I had to start at 14m and after a slow start caught steadily.

Within an hour the swim was fading, so switched to feeding caster. Before trying the caster, I moved back to the paste line, which quickly produced 7 or 8 fish before slowing.

Back to the shallow caster line and I spent most of the match on it, gradually pulling the fish from 13m to 8m. At the halfway point I was up to 42 fish and the swim just got stronger, catching some big F1 up to 2lb.

With an hour remaining the F1s were becoming tricky to catch, I could see them on the surface, but in the bright conditions they were starting to shy away from the pole.

A switch to my margins where I fed groundbait and micros fishing worm proved to be disappointing, not catching as quickly as expected, so I ended back on the shallow caster. The rest had helped but I had to keep changing the rig and presentation to keep the fish coming.

Those F1s really are tricky buggers, however they are really enjoyable to catch. It was also nice to feed a bit of bait, getting through 3pts of casters, plus a pint of 4s.

1.    139- 7 – Ken Rayner – p4

2.    108-10 – Dan Barnett

3.      87- 0 – John Pearce

4.      85- 8 – Cliff Dutton

5.      82- 4  - Ian Barker 

20/05/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 17lb

Catch - 4 Carp, 6 Skimmers, 1 Crucian, 1 Roach

Weather - Cool start, but warm and sunny.

Match - Open (7 fished) - Last!

A week of warm weather (at last!) and the question was – are the fish spawning? Well on arrival it didn’t look like it, which raised hopes for a good day.

 
There were only 7 of us today and I drew peg 3, which is OK, but at least I had plenty of space.
 
On the all-in I started at 16m tapping in a few 6s, fishing a hair rigged 6mm. After 30mins and no bites, I tried the method to the island and again no bites. Fair to say it was slow.
 
I eventually caught a skimmer after an hour at 13m on worm over groundbait and micros.
 
A few fish started to show themselves shallow, however I couldn’t mug any of them as it looked like they were pairing up ready for spawning. In an effort to make something happen I decided to keep pinging pellet at 16m and I did catch 2 carp shallow, plus a further 2 fishing worm on the deck over the pinging line.
 
At the halfway point I was doing OK and expected a few more later in the match, but it just never happened, and I didn’t catch another carp. I tried paste at 6m and corn/mircos down the margin but caught nothing except for a few skimmers.
 
In hindsight, I probably pushed the peg too hard, although I would probably do it again as I knew I was falling behind Mick opposite. Have to say I love this lake, but at the moment it is fishing much harder than expected.
 
1.    51- 6 – Mick O’Brien – p15
2.    43-14 – Phil Gooding – p10
Silvers
1.    15- 8 – Phil Gooding – p10
2.    13- 4 – Baggy – p13

14/05/23 - Todber - Whiteposts

Weight - 82lb 4oz

Catch - 22 Carp, 1 Roach

Weather - Foggy start, mostly cloudy and sunny later

Match - Wiltshire Angling Open (7 fished) - 3rd overall

Only the one match this weekend and as I write this blog I realise I forgot to write about last weeks match at Ivy House, which to be honest was quite forgettable coming 8^th out of 11 on a very wet day.

I was also supposed to fish a pairs match at Ivy House on the Monday; however, Mark messaged me Sunday morning saying a reoccurring shoulder injury meant he couldn’t fish. I could have got another partner, but to be honest the weather wasn’t looking great for Monday, whilst Sunday was warm and sunny. As it was too late to book in anywhere, I decided to fish the afternoon/evening at my club water, fishing Merritts Lake hoping to catch some units. Well, I caught 17 fish for 189lb, mugging a few early fish before catching on 8mm meat down my margin, including a PB of 20lb 2oz.

When I booked into this match, I expected both lakes to be in, however when I turned up there were only 7 of us, all on the top lake. At least we would have plenty of space, but I was disappointed to draw end peg 12, a boom or bust peg.

As I was setting up, I realised I forgotten my tip rod and waterproofs, so thanks to Pete for lending me a rod and Phil who had a spare bib & brace. 

I fished this peg last year and struggled and thought today might be a repeat, particularly as the westerly breeze was blowing right to left down to the other end of the lake.

At the start I fed some meat at 3+2 and micros down the end bank. Whilst that settled, I started on the method to the far bank with a 6mm wafter and soon netted a carp. With no further bites I switched to the 3+2 line where I caught 7 carp over the next hour and then nothing for an hour.

I tried down the end bank which produced a single roach, and another try on the feeder didn’t produce, which confirmed my fears about the peg.

In the meantime, I saw Banger on p8 catching on paste and with nothing happening I set up a paste rig to fish at 11m. Fortunately this line proved to be quite productive, although I had a few hook pulls at the net, which suggested the fish weren’t really feeding confidently.

Back on my meat line proved fruitless, so I converted this to a paste line reasoning I would catch quicker, but it never happened so I had to go back out to 11m.

I had hoped my margin would kick into life, but the fish just wouldn’t settle regardless of whether I fed groundbait, micros, meat or any combination. I eventually caught 2 on paste and speaking to others hardly anyone caught down the margins. 

82lb was a little more than I expected, and 3^rd was better than expected on what turned out to be a tricky day.

1.    112-10 – Pete Neate – p3

2.      97-14 – Banger – p8

3.      82- 4 – Ken Rayner – p12

01/05/23 - Rood Ashton

Weight - DNW

Catch - 1 Carp

Weather - Mostly cloudy, cool NW breeze

Match - Wiltshire Angling Open (20 fished)

With the improving weather I was hoping for a decent day. This was tempered a little when I drew p7 which hasn’t been great recently, but when I arrived there were a few fish crashing around.

After 2 hours I hooked a carp on the method at 40m, only for it to snag me after a few seconds and I lost the lot. I kept switching between the feeder (either fishing just micros, just groundbait or a mixture of both) and the straight lead at 16m over loose fed 6s fishing either meat or pellet, hoping (and expecting) the fish to turn up. They never did.

With an hour remaining I netted my 1 and only carp on the feeder. I couldn’t believe how poorly it fished. Gary Etheridge was next to me on p8 had 1 carp early, got bored and caught 8lb of roach on a top kit, before foul hooking a carp at the death.

I don’t think I did much wrong, as everyone struggled, even the form pegs on the opposite bank. As for my section Ady McTiffin won it with 2 early carp, followed up with 29lb of roach on the whip!

I didn’t hang around for the full results.