25/02/24 - Harescombe - Match Lake

Weight - 32lb 6oz

Catch - 11 Carp, 4 F1, 4 Roach, 1 Skimmer, 1 Gudgeon

Weather - Breezy, mostly cloudy

Match - Teams of 3 (36 anglers) - 2nd in section, 7th overall

Today was the next round of the Teams of 3 and my turn for Match Lake. After Thursday’s practice match, I really wanted to draw the bottom end of the lake and was happy to be handed p14.

On the all in I started on 6mm meat, which was given a dose of Uzit A-Krill cloud, toss potting a couple cubes with a few 2mm Uzit p-nut pellet. After 5 mins I had my first carp, however I persisted a little too long on this line, thinking I would get a run of fish, which didn’t happen. Unfortunately, after an hour I only added 1 more fish and fell behind the anglers around me.

The next hour was a bit of struggle as I tried to work out how to catch. There were quite a few fish being caught short, but I only managed 1 roach and I felt I had missed the boat by not starting here.

I then tried fishing a 4mm expander over micros at the bottom of the far shelf and didn’t have a bite. I was beginning to think I was heading for a disaster and then tried double maggot instead of pellet and caught an F1 plus a few silvers.

As the match progressed, I had to keep rotating swims, as I could only catch a single carp or F1 from any swim, but I was at least picking up carp off the point of the island, still on meat and the occasional fish on maggot from the bottom of the far shelf, but nothing from the short line.

There were a few fish topping to my right in front of the spare p15 and swimming along the island, so I decided to start pinging maggot to the island and managed 1 F1 shallow. I missed a few bites, but only had the one fish and didn’t wish to waste too much time.

I had also been feeding meat and micros by a clump of sedges in my right margin. In the last 90mins I had my first look and caught a small carp straight away. Again, I had to rotate swims to keep the fish coming and 2x 3lbers in the last 10mins from the margin proved really useful as I managed 2^nd on the lake by 1oz and missed winning by 2lb.

To be honest I should have won as that first hour cost me due a lack of venue knowledge. That said I was happy to have come 2^nd, which was tempered some what when my car broke down due to electrical issues as I was leaving the venue and I eventually got home at 9.30.

1.    63-  0 – Ricky Mills – p1 (Field)

2.    44-  8 – Andrew Black – p10 (Field)

3.    44-  1 – Harry Hytle – p6 (Field)

4.    43-  0 – Luke Seabrook – p2 (Meadow)

5.    40-  4 – Allan Oram – p12 (Meadow)

6.    34-  6 – Jamie Baron – p16 (Match)