Monday, 16 March 2026

08/03/26 - Hillview - Canal 2

Weight - 88lb 4oz
Catch - 30 Carp, 15 F1s, 2 Ide, 2 Tench
Weather - Cloudy, mild but cool breeze at time.
Match - Tackle Den (21 anglers) - 6th overall, 2nd on lake

There were 21 of us over canals 2,3 and 4. I was first into the bag hoping to avoid canal 2 as I’ve been on it a little too often recently, however I pulled p64 on canal 2.

As the weather has been milder, I decided to take a punt and focus on fishing meat, although I did bring some maggot and pellet just in case.

Starting by the aerator I caught a couple of carp and an F1, before switching to fishing tight to the far bank tapping in 4 cubes of 6mm meat and fishery micros. After 45mins I was up to 7 fish, before suffering a ‘dodgy’ period where I struggled to get a proper bite and the fish I was catching were on the small side.

A switch to fishing 4mm expander a metre off the far bank, tapping in micros resulted in a run of mostly F1s after a slow start.

After about 2.5hrs, Alistair on p68 was admitting to 45lb, whilst I had about 25lb and to be honest I thought I was fishing for 2nd on the lake.

When the pellet swim faded, a quick look over a short meat line, only resulted 2 small carp. So back to the far bank and I still couldn’t get a proper bite, however by reducing the amount of meat to only 2 cubes and a few micros I started to put a run of fish together.

In the meantime, I started feeding meat and mircos down each margin, where I could use the same rig as I used across down the left side, but I needed a shallower rig for the right margin.

The right side started off the better, but soon faded, prompting a return back to the far bank, before trying the left margin. I managed 25lb in the last hour thanks to a better stamp of fish to finish 2nd on the lake, behind John who fished maggot most of the day.

1.    155-12 – Steve Broadhurst – p83 (canal 4)
2.    122-11 – Andy Dixie – p92 (canal 4)
3.    120-  4 – John Pearce – p74 (canal 3)
4.      98-  4 – Terry Arnold – p95 (canal 4)
5.      92-15 – John Brady – p62 (canal 2)
6.      88-  4 – Ken Rayner – p64 (canal 2)

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