Monday, 28 October 2024

20/10/24 - Ivy House - Kingfisher

Weight - 25lb 4oz
Catch - 12 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 F1
Weather - Rainy start, sunny later and very windy
Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 12th overall

After a weekend up north visiting the in-laws, I was looking forward to getting back out on the bank. However, during the week I came down with a heavy cold and was feeling very rough on Friday. Fortunately, I felt a little better for Sunday, although I was given a wide berth at the draw!

Todays, match was over both canals and having not fished either for quite a while I wasn’t sure which one I would prefer. I wasn’t disappointed with p41 on Kingfisher as it’s normally in a good area although with nearly every peg in, I knew it would be tricky.

With rain and heavy winds forecast, I thought I would start at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding micros and 4 to my left and groundbait (black bubblegum : Crushed Expander) and micros to my right. The intention was to leave the short lines for later.

Starting off on the left-hand swim with a hair rigged 4mm pellet, I caught a number of branches and debris on the bottom, which was frustrating, particularly as Matt Greaves to my left started catching short.

Moving to my right-hand swim feeding small nuggets of micros and groundbait, fishing a 4mm expander I only caught 2 skimmers, whilst Matt was still picking on the odd carp.

The forecast wind was blowing, but fortunately it was mostly from behind me, so I decided to try fishing the far bank at 16m, fishing a 6mm expander. I managed 3 small carp but couldn’t catch another after losing a foul hooker. There just didn’t seem to be any volume of fish in front of me and even my short line failed to produce whilst Matt continued to pick up the occasional fish.

As I was struggling and with nothing to lose, I started pinging 4s and eventually I started to catch on hair rigged 4s, netting 8 carp and an F1 in the last hour.

Overall, a frustrating and disappointing match. I couldn’t work how to catch early, although everyone to my right struggled as well, but either way felt I should have caught more than I did.

1.    67-11 – John Brady – p34 (Moorhen)
2.    62-  3 – Andrew Black – p45 (Kingfisher)
3.    53-  1 – Pete Phillips – p28 (M)
4.    49-11 – Alistair Tilney – p27 (M)
5.    46-  9 – Matt Greaves – p42 (K)

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