18/11/23 - Ivy House - Old Match Lake

Weight - 32lb 3oz (4lb 3oz - silvers)

Catch - 9 Carp, 12 Roach, 7 Skimmers

Weather - Grey and blustery

Match - Open (9 fished) - 2nd overall

As my rotation for the Winter League put me on the Old Match Lake I booked in for a practice. Over the last few weeks either end of the lake seemed to be the place to draw, so I wasn’t sure when I drew p5 in the middle, however it is 1 of my favourite pegs, so I had fingers crossed.

The tea bag has continued to frame and feedback received suggested not a lot was being caught close in. Having previously tried the tea bag with limited success, I decided to try the pellet cone using fishery micros flavoured with Uzit P-Nut cloudy which added a bit of stickiness to the pellet.

Casting between the islands I netted 3 carp on triple dead reds and a skimmer on corn during the first 90mins. This I felt put me 2^nd behind Richard ‘Tea Bag’ Rogers on p10, so a good start.

As I couldn’t catch anymore on the tip I switched to the pole, where I had fed groundbait with micros and dead maggot at 13m but caught very little. Then I tried 14.5m just tapping in a few micros and fishing a 4mm expander and had a skimmer first put in, but it was a loner as I could only catch roach.

Back to the 13m line I had a few more skimmers, but it was slow going. I did try the pellet cone periodically to see whether the carp had returned and kept feeding the swim with small balls of micros whenever I was fishing the pole.

During the last 90mins the carp returned with 6 fish, losing 2 all on triple dead reds sprayed with Uzit P-nut to finish 2^nd overall.

1.    39-  7 – Richard Rogers – p10

2.    32-  3 – Ken Rayner – p5

3.    25-  4 – Stu White – p12

4.    17-  7 – Dave Strafford-Way – p9

Silvers

1.    20-12 – Stu White – p12

2.    12-  4 – Phil Gooding – p2

3.      7-15 – Dave Strafford-Way – p9