03/12/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 10lb 10oz

Catch - 4 Carp, 2 F1

Weather - Light rain to start, cleared later.

Match - Winter League rd 3 (48 fished) - 19th overall and 4th in section

The 3^rd round of the Winter League and my turn for A section (top and bottom bank) on Heron Lake.

Yesterday’s freezing conditions had been replaced overnight by rain, but I still expected the fishing to be tough going. That said I was still confident of catching a few, as I really like this lake in the winter, although I was really disappointed to draw p17 as it has come 7^th & 8^th in section in the first 2 rounds, so not a great draw.

I had also arrived without my bib & brace, so a big thank you to Abi for driving over with it, plus a dry pair of trousers and some lighthearted abuse!

Back to the match, I started on the usual lead and bread without any bites, so tried maggot over a little Uzit crushed expander, flavoured with bubblegum for no bites. This wasn’t going well, and another hard match was on the cards.

After an hour I eventually caught a 3lber on the lead & bread, which is a good size fish for the lake and other than Roy Booth next to me who had a tiny carp no one else had caught along my bank!

The rest of the match was simply a struggle, I just picked up the odd fish on maggot over crushed expander at various points along the bottom of the far shelf at 16m.

I finished with the best weight along my bank, but unfortunately got beat by 3 pegs along the bottom bank to only come 4^th in section, which is the best I could have hoped for to be honest.

1.    46-  1 – Jason Crump – p46 (kingfisher)

2.    41-12 – Gary Herman – p21 (heron)

3.    38-  8 – Jamie Dixey – p10 (heron)

4.    34-  0 – Graham Spiller – p37 (kingfisher)

5.    33-14 – David Stafford-Way – p10 (old match lake)

6.    32-  4 – Steve Waters – p22 (heron)