Not sure if anyone will be reading this blog as they may think I'm recovering from my operation, well things didn't quite go to plan last week.... Thursday before last I ended up in A&E with a blockage and as my bowel stopped working I ended up staying in a ward on a drip for a day, never mind they said I should still be able to have the op on Wednesday as long as I rested. I didn't feel well enough to go fishing Sunday and so rested as they said, Tuesday night get a call from hospital, no beds so can't do op, oh great! Therefore I then decided to go fishing this weekend and Saturday looked the better weather day.
I was going to go to Acorn, but Mr Rixon suggested Ivy House and as I have never been before I thought that would be a good shout. I roped Warren Bates into going and he said he would drive, nice. From my house it is a 40 min drive at most to Ivy House, although on the way we missed a turning and took a little detour, ahem! I could see straight away all the work new fishery owner Andy Lloyd had been doing, new pallets going in, trees and bushes felled or trimmed back. Sadly I had a complete mind block and forgot to take any photos today, sorry. Saw some faces from the past, as well as Alan Oram, Matty Toomes, Martin Lendahand (lol) and Gary Etheridge. I got in the draw queue, and Warren somehow got in front and pulled 27 which had won the previous match so he was happy, I drew 44 which was not bad I think but as it turned out the fish thought it was bad! Warren was actually pegged behind me so I could easily tell how he was doing.
I set up a cage feeder (twice as I cast the first one off) with 0.14 to 18 PR36, and two pole rigs, a 0.4gm diamond jobby with 20 to 0.12, and 0.75g with the same gear in case the wind got bad. I fed 3 pole swims (as per instructions) one at 11.5m, and two at 14.5, all with a little micro and maggot. Started at 11.5m and after 10 mins I had a dink and hit fresh air, and then 15 mins later bumped one. The lad to my right had 1 little carp on the pole further out so I tried my longer line in front and after about a minute I had a good bite and a 1lb stockie. I never had another bite on any of my pole lines until the last hour, despite ringing feeding changes and trying gbait.
One and a half hours into the match I had a look on the feeder and had a small carp on red maggot. Two more casts had liners so I guessed some fish were near, but sadly despite sitting on my hands it didn't happen. Meanwhile behind me Warren had been steadily catching stockies from his margin fishing 14m, he hadn't had a bite in open water. The guy opposite him in the other corner had a lump on the feeder, and a lump on the pole. Three hours into the match I had another pull on the tip and a 1lb skimmer was the culprit. Sadly after this the only thing I had was 5 roach on one of my long pole lines, I spent the last 15 mins behind Warren and "coached" him to catch another 3 carp and a tench. I threw back my fish as I knew I had no chance of any coin.
As it turned out Warren won the match and came 2nd in the silvers (double bubble here) with a total of 49lb. He had a couple of barren spells but when the fish were in the margin he caught well, he caught on caster. The lad opposite Warren had just 3 carp, but they weighed 41lb and he came 2nd. Peg 10 (corner) had 5 carp for 37lb 8oz, and opposite him on peg 49ish was 5 carp for 37lb and that won my section. These weights were all caught on maggot. Sadly the weights tailed off severely after this, but I know the venue is full of fish and having a netting done on it Tuesday probably unsettled the fish. I'm sure once the weather warms up it will be a cracking place, but you need to be prepared to catch carp from 1lb to well over 15lb!
Right, I assume this is my last blog on actual fishing for a while and I hope the operation will happen this week..... who knows!
Good luck with the op mate
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