16/03/25 - Hillview - Canal 2

Weight - 50lb 9oz (11lb 11oz - silvers)

Catch - 16 Ide, 8 Carp, 7 Ide, 1 Perch, 1 Roach, 1 Rudd, 1 Gudgeon

Weather - Sunny with cloudy periods. Cold northerly breeze.

Match - Tackle Den (18 fished), 1st in section, 8th overall

After packing away the woolly hat following last weekend’s warm weather, I had to get it out again as it was -2 overnight and a cold northerly breeze.

Todays match was over Canal 2,3 & 4, and I drew p56 on Canal 2. Not normally the end you want, however 90lb came off it yesterday, so no pressure.

I started off fishing the bottom of the far shelf tapping in maggot and a few micros with maggot on the hook and almost immediately got snagged on something, snapping the rig just above the hooklength! I then tried fishing tight across on maggot as I saw a couple of anglers further down catching but couldn't get a bite.

After sorting out a replacement rig, I was back down the bottom of the shelf, slightly to the left of the ‘snag’ and eventually caught my first fish after 45mins on maggot. I then had a run of fish (Ide, small F1s and a couple of Carp up to 4lb) over this line, before it dried up.

I tried the far bank again but only caught an Ide and a Perch.

A switch to fishing next to the p55 platform where I had fed maggot from the start, initially proved a bit tricky, but by tapping maggot and a few micros I started to catch a few Ide, before the F1s and Carp turned up. It was slow going but at least I was catching.

I tried other areas of the swim, but the only place I could catch properly was by the p55 pallet.

With 90mins remaining I felt I needed some of the better stamp of Carp to make up for my slow start, so started feeding the end bank with meat and micros. Although I had to wait for bites, I managed 3 Carp, plus a few more F1s/Carp from the pallet swim on maggot.

In the end I managed to win the lake by only 1lb, however the other 2 canals fished much better.

1.    102-  6 – Andy Bartlett – p88 (C4)

2.    100-15 – John Brady – p79 (C3)

3.      85-13 – Matt Greaves – p72 (C3)

4.      84-  3 – Andy Burns – p84 (C4)

5.      74-  5 – Andy Black – p91 (C4)