30/11/23 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 53lb 14oz 

Catch - 25 F1s, 11 Carp

Weather - Overnight frost. Cold & grey.

Match - Open (5 fished) - 1st overall

I booked a day off to fish the Thursday open on Heron to practice for Sunday’s winter league. However, due to the freezing conditions only 5 turned up, although I was pleasantly surprised to see the lakes weren’t frozen.

It probably didn’t matter where we drew, but I was happy with p10 which is my favourite winter peg as you can reach the bottom of the far shelf at 14m. Also, the F1s seem to migrate into this area for the winter.

I started on the lead and bread cast to the island and caught an F1 on my 2^nd cast. Over the next 90mins I would catch a couple of fish and then have to cast a bit further along the bank to stay in contact with the fish catching a further 11 fish.

When bites dried up on the lead, I switched to the pole at 15m over crushed expander flavoured with Uzit bubblegum, toss potting maggot over the top. To keep the fish coming I had to set up new swims right and left, moving out to 16m, still feeding a little crushed expander and toss potting maggot over the top.

Other than a 30min spell when I couldn’t get a bite, I had a lovely day despite the freezing conditions.

1.    53-14 – Ken Rayner – p10

2.    31-  8 – Tim Hadland – p8