16/07/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 93lb 0oz (12lb - silvers)

Catch - 17 Carp, 15 Skimmers, 5 Roach

Weather - Blustery, sunshine and showers

Match - Open (25 fished) - 1st overall

A good turnout of 25 split between the Old Match Lake and half of Willow. P5 for me, which is a peg I like, as you can reach the bottom of the island shelf at 16m, although it hasn’t been great recently. I also expected it to be little harder fishing following the recent rain and cooler weather. In fact, today, felt like a typical day in April rather than July.

I started on the feeder for the 1^st half an hour and then paste short without success. As I couldn’t catch any carp, I decided to switch to catching a few silvers. Fishing with expanders were too easily nibbled by small silvers and I ended up fishing a hair rigged 4mm pellet at 5m & 11m, just feeding 4s.

With 2.5hrs left (6hr match), I had 12lb of skimmers and 2 carp. The skimmers had been replaced by roach and the carp had become more active, so I decided to try paste and immediately caught over the 5m and 11m line. I even tried at 16m where I had been pinging pellet, which produced a couple fish but that was hard work, particularly with the blustery wind.

I had also been pinging 6s to the right-hand tree for 3hrs and surprisingly all I got was indications from silvers.

The carp I was catching were a small stamp, mostly 3lbers, however I thought I had caught up with those anglers I could see. Fortunately, by feeding my left margin heavily with 6s the better carp eventually turned up. As I couldn’t catch by the right-hand tree, I decided to throw 2 handfuls of micros down the right margin on my top kit with 30mins remaining, which immediately brought in the fish. I lost a couple of fish, but those last 45mins produced 7 carp for 47lb all on paste.

Come the weigh I knew I had the best weight on my side of the lake, but it wasn’t until I got to the car park that it was confirmed I had won.

It’s a bit strange to say I struggled, but I did and it wasn’t until the last 45mins that I felt I was in a chance of a pick-up, let alone win. It is one of the reasons why I like Ivy House, it can be a frustrating and hard venue, but you are never truly out of the running and whilst there are good areas of the lake, the winner can come from anywhere.

1.    93-  0 – Ken Rayner – p5 (OML)

2.    83-  8 – Ryan Brushneen – p21 (W)

3.    76-12 – Ricky Mills – p27 (W)

4.    74-  0 – Jason Robinson – p24 (W)

5.    72-  8 – Vince Shipp – p7 (OML)

Silvers

1.    31-  4 – Ricky Mills – p27 (W)

2.    19-  0 – Lionel Legg – p15 (OML)

3.    16-  0 – John Hewson – p26 (W)

4.    12-  4 – Dave – p12 (OML)

5.    12-  0 – Ken Rayner – p5 (OML)