30/03/24 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 52lb 8oz

Catch - 31 Carp, 11  F1s

Weather - Mostly sunny, cool westerly breeze.

Match - Arthritis Charity (20 fished) - 6th overall

Only the one match this Easter weekend and it was back to Ivy House on Heron Lake for a charity match run by Louise for Arthritis.

There were 20 booked in so every peg was in except for the 4 corners and I drew p21 which is normally a good area. It’s been 2 months since I fished the lake when maggot was dominate and recent reports suggested pellet was starting to work, so that was my main focus.

On the all-in I started on a mini method with micros and Uzit green Re-Act groundbait and dead maggot on the hook, cast to the island. After 45 minutes I had 3 carp and its fair to say it wasn’t the start I wanted, however it seemed everyone was having a slow start, probably not helped by the cold night.

A switch to tapping in fishery 4s covered in Uzit P-nut oil at 16m, fishing a hair rigged 4mm pellet, resulted in me catching mostly small carp. It was slow going, but at least I was catching more than those around me, although I had noticed a few anglers on the opposite bank starting to catch.

My 16m line was proving tricky. I had expected the swim to improve, but I found I had to keep re-starting new swims slightly left or right to keep the fish coming. The stamp of fish was also frustrating, as I would get a couple of better fish, before the 8oz fish returned and fishing a 6mm pellet didn’t improve matters.

I must admit, I lost my way a little during the middle part of the match, when my catch rate dropped as I tried to work out how to improve the stamp of fish, fishing a lighter rig through the water and a shallow rig which only produced another small carp.

I had been feeding a short line with pellet, which produced a couple of better stamp fish, but the swim wasn’t as good as I hoped. This just left my right margin by the reed bed. By fishing corn over micros or 4s, I caught carp and F1’s averaging 2lb, but I felt it was too late to catch up with those opposite and that’s how it turned out.

My bank was exposed to a cool wind, blowing right to left and the more sheltered pegs proved to be the place to be. Although I came 6^th overall, I had the best weight on my bank, so I can’t be too disappointed.

There was a raffle back at the café, which helped add more money to the charity pot and Lou has raised over £700.

Lou’s dad also took some photos from a drone, which were interesting to see.

1.    93-12 – Jamie Dixey – p15

2.    79-  0 – Paul Giddings – p17

3.    70-10 – Mick Lane – p10

4.    67-  2 – Andy Dixey – p11

5.    53-  6 – Ross – p9

6.    52-  8 – Ken Rayner – p21