03/05/26 - Harescombe - Match

Weight - 23lb 3oz

Catch - 5 Carp, 3 F1, 3 Skimmers

Weather - Sunshine & cloud

Match - Pole Masters Final (18 anglers) - 12th overall

So, the final and I drew p11 which didn’t qualify yesterday, however I still fancied it and hoped there would be a few more carp around, rather than F1s. I was drawn next to Andy Pollard again and I had Gary Etheridge the other side.

On the all-in I tried paste against the island, hoping for an early carp, but had no bites.

I had been feeding maggot over a short line and this produced a couple of F1s and skimmers, but this swim soon faded.

I really expected to catch in the shallow water by the island and did net a small carp on meat, but surprisingly I couldn’t get another. I tried dead maggot over tosspotted groundbait pushing the rig tight against the island to minimise foulhookers but I just couldn’t get a bite and still managed to foul hook a fish.

My best run of fish was at 14m to my left where I had been pinging 4mm Baninion pellet, with a hair rigged 6mm pellet.  Catching 4 carp in a 30min spell had me thinking I might push for the section. Alas, the swim died on me, not least helped by me pushing it too hard trying to encourage more carp to feed.

I had a really disappointing match, I think it was a case me trying to fish the match I wanted to fish rather than fish the match I should have, which was maggot, as the top 3 all caught using maggot.

Well done to Luke Seabrook for winning.

1.    67-10 – Luke Seabrook – p17

2.    51-  1 – Elvis Randall – p19

3.    48-12 – Andy Pollard – p12

4.    48-  2 – Dave Romain – p23

5.    45-  5 – Mick O’Brien – p15

6.    41-  4 – Mick Gale – p25