11/10/26 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 38lb 1oz

Catch - 6 Carp, 3 Roach

Weather - Cool & cloudy

Match - Tackle Den (17 fished) - 2nd in section, 5th overall

Originally, we had a full house of 21 booked in. Fortunately, a couple of late drops out reduced the field to 17, but it still meant there would be a few poor pegs in the bag and the fishing would be tricky.

Peg 14 for me and I wasn’t happy, as it’s a peg I’ve had a few times and since the water levels were still down about a foot, I knew today would be a struggle.

Plumbing up revealed 16in down the margins, but everywhere else was only a foot deep, plus the water temperature was only 12c which confirmed my fears.

Setting up I was little more optimistic as there were fish moving around, although mostly to my right. After 30mins I caught my first fish on a tea bag and 8mm pellet (covered in Top G Smog) casting slightly to my right, halfway to the island.

I tried the method cast to the island, but the feeder plugged in the silt, so I didn’t bother doing that again.

After 4hrs I added another 2 carp on the straight lead and 8mm pellet, which was on par with others in the section, although Pete and Steve to my left had yet to catch.

As I expected a hard day, I had fed maggot over a short line, hoping for some roach, but I only caught 3. To make something happen I had also been feeding maggot at 13-14m, fishing a light bomb over the top and maggot on the hook, and despite a few fish showing themselves I couldn’t get a bite.

A switch to pinging micros, ably assisted by the wind over the 13-14m line, fishing corn or meat also failed to produce a bite.

With an hour to go, I noticed the silt turning over down the left margin where I had fed baninion micros and 4s. I immediately switched, fishing Top G paste and caught an 8lber. Surprisingly I never had any more signs down either margin.

Back to the 13m line, I decided to try fishing paste and fortunately caught 2 more carp before the end.

Stuart won my section also with 6 carp, but his were definitely bigger than mine, so I had to be content with 2^nd in section.

1.    82-  8 – Matt Greaves – p4

2.    49-13 – Stuart Sutton – p12

3.    48-  2 – Andy Burns – p2

4.    44-10 – Darren Hibbert – p21

5.    38-  1 – Ken Rayner – p14