06/05/24 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 21lb 8oz

Catch - 3 Carp

Weather - Bright start, rain later.

Match - Wiltshire Angling Open (20 fished)

I didn’t fancy travelling too far on a bank holiday and booked into the Wiltshire Angling open and it was fully booked with 20 anglers.
 

Like last week, everyone wanted to draw the far bank, so I was really disappointed to draw p4. I did win from the peg last year, deepdown felt I would be fishing for section only, as this area has been fishing hard.
 
Whilst I expected it to be hard, I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it turned out. Based on last week’s match I thought the feeder would dominate again, although there were a few fish showing themselves close in and I hoped to catch on the pole late.

I caught my first fish after nearly 3hrs on the straight lead and meat, at 20m where I had been pinging 6s. At this stage 4 carp was winning the section and thought if I could get a run of fish I would catch up.
 
However, it never happened. Unbelievably, I couldn’t get a bite on the method, yet last week it was the only method I could catch on!
 
At the halfway stage I started feeding my margins, pellet and paste to my left, and meat and micros to my right. I eventually caught 2 carp on meat late on to conclude a really difficult day. At least I had plenty of time to top up my hooklength box.
 
I didn’t hang around for the full results, but I knew my section was won with only 50lb. I used to enjoy fishing here, but it is becoming obvious that there are not the same volume of fish compared to a few years ago.