27/07/23 - Lavington - Ellis Lake

Weight - 69lb 10oz

Catch - 11 carp, 2 Roach, 1 Tench

Weather - Muggy with sunny periods.

Match - Club (5 fished) - 1st overall

Only 5 this evening due to some being away and holidays. I drew p9, which doesn’t have an island chuck so kept the feeder rod in the car.

Plumbing around revealed a weed bed slightly to my right at 6m. I managed to clear out some that was a little closer and down my right margin, however the weed bed proved to be a pain.

Instead of my usual plan of fishing 3+1 left and right left in 5ft of water, I had to go 4+1. Any fish hooked to my right I hoped I could pull around the weed bed, although a small tench did manage to bury himself in it! There were also lily pads to my left and I decided to stay clear due to the risk of fish snagging me up.

On the all in, I fed both swims with ½ cup of mostly 8mm meat and 6mm pellet. First drop in on the right swim and the float

had barely settled before I hooked and landed a carp. This was quickly followed by a second and I thought we would be in for a mega evening.

Unfortunately, I lost the next 2 fish, which I think were foul hooked, although I think 1 of them was a proper lad hooked under the chin.

So, I finished the first hour with those 2 early fish, the second hour only produced a further 2 carp, although I had a couple of lovely looking roach.

In previous matches I have kept both swims topped with regular small amounts of bait. However, it was obvious there were a number of silvers/tiny carp in the swims and I found it was best to

cup in a ¼ cup of bait to feed off the silvers. As a result, I needed to open a fourth tin of meat.

Going into the final hour I abandoned the right-hand swim and instead started feeding my right margin, simply because I didn’t have a left margin to target. I had 5 fish from my original left swim and only 2 from the right margin although I lost 2 from the margin due to the weed.

So, a frustrating evening due the weed, but I caught some lovely fish including a 10lb ghostie.

1.    69-10 – Ken Rayner – p9

2.    63-  8 – Terry Fell – p18

3.    34-  3 – Steve Musitano – p23