Got to say I was really looking forward to fishing a match this weekend. I am very busy at work and was not going to be able to take a day off in the week to fish, I was therefore quite jealous reading all of the reports on Facebook / blogs of anglers match reports. Of course the weather was just fantastic for most part of the week so nice for the anglers to not be out in the cold / wind and rain. I ended booking in for a match at Hillview, Mark Jefferies kindly booked me in and we would meet up there. I would have really like to have picked Mark up and travelled together, but we have to wait a bit longer for that.
I spent some time on Good Friday tying rigs so that I was covered for both canal and lakes, mainly deep rigs for the lake were needed, but I did renew many 4x12 rigs that would do for the canal and the margins of the lakes. I checked my top sets of my XS90 pole and found the 9 to 12 hollo elastics I had were all still in great condition (well they haven't been used for 3 months lol). I also tied plenty of hooks, I tied some 18 SFL-B to 0.12 Accu Power and 16 GPM-B to 0.13, I felt these would be strong enough at this time of year and would give me enough finesse to trick the F1's and land the odd bonus carp. No hair rigs, or bands as I was going down the expander or corn hookbait route, the last thing I did was put some Sonubaits soaked 4mm pro expanders in a bag in the fridge.
Saturday morning, up and ready and it was just a pleasure to load the van with my gear easily, rather than try and squeeze into a car.
I arrived at the fishery at 9am a full 30 minutes before the draw, time to get the gear out, get a sausage sarnie, some feed pellets and have a chat with Mark. I remembered that I had some lovely expander pellets, still in the fridge, oh bugger! Bait options were now corn and corn... so I decided to wait until I knew my peg to decide on further bait options. Keith did the draw and it was a little confusing as there was another Tim fishing, he was called out just before me as peg 31, but then it was Tim Ford peg 30. Peg 30 is on Heron lake, and it is on the far bank and is a corner peg, the other Tim on 31 was on the end bank with another angler. I went into the onsite tackle shop and spoke to Huggy for some advice, he suggested I take some caster for the right hand margin, and some maggot for just in case, also I bought a pot of Sonubaits 6mm soft pellets.
The view from my peg today.
And the right hand margin that I was hoping would be worth a few fish later on.
I wasn't sure what would be better today the canals or the lakes, but some locals I spoke to said the canals had been fishing well and expected them to be best, Mark was on the third canal peg 72 which is usually a good area. I was concerned that the water temperature would have dropped a bit after the early week warmth, and I was going to approach the match cautiously despite the Wednesday match being won with 200lb on this lake fishing shallow. My rigs today were not going to have anything to do with shallow fishing or slapping, the wind was cold. I set up two rigs for the deck for fishing top set plus two and anywhere further out as it was the same depth, a 0.25 with 16GPM to 0.13, and a 4x14 to 16 SFL-B to 0.12. I did a similar thing for the margins, with a couple of 4x12 rigs just hook and line differed, though really I only wanted to use the heavier line here. I plumbed both left and right margins, I opted for a depth of just over 2 feet deep which was about 2 1/2 feet out from the bank.
My neighbours today were "Tim" on 31, and on my left on 28 Neville Groves, oh dear, Nev is one very good commercial angler and has an enviable record at Hillview, without doubt he was my target today. The all in was called just as I was putting my nets in, and by the time I sat back on my box Nev was landing his first carp / F1 from his short line. I went in at top set plus 2, fed a few 4mm fishery pellets and put a soft pellet on the hook, Nev landed another fish. I followed suit by catching a F1 first drop, and after missing a couple of bites had a second F1, but then bites stopped for me and Nev. We sat on this line for another 15 minutes expecting fish to return but they didn't, it was 4 fish to Nev and 2 to me at this stage.
I decided to go out to 11m and shipped out and checked the depth, noticing that Nev was off his box getting more sections out of the holdall. I was out at 11m a little before Nev, but once again he was into fish much faster and more frequently than I was, but he was fouling a lot of fish whereas I hadn't. I caught a small chub then a couple of nice 3lb F1 and similar sized carp. It was not fast for me and I had to wait for bites, but at least I would get a bite unlike the close line. I had used the lighter line and rig at 11mm since I could see it was fishing hard all round the lake, and it seemed to me Nev was easily out in front of everyone else. I have a feeling he fed a lot more than me initially, hence more foulers, where I only had 2 foulers after 2 hours fishing.
I think it was about 3 hours in, around 1:30pm that I decided to try my margins, I had fed the right with the odd toss pot of caster at top set plus two, and the left with maggots. Looking left I had a pound skimmer but then two small roach, no carp in there yet so fed it heavier and went to the RH side. My first put trying red maggots over the caster got me a 3lb F1, a bit of a wait but then another, but then nothing bar a little roach. Back out long and a nice F1 of maybe 5lb but that was it, Nev was still catching odd fish long and I was a long way behind I was sure. I tried my margins again the maggot line was no good and sadly never threw up anything despite me upping the feed. The RH line began to show signs of more fish, and one time I was talking to Glenn Bailey on the phone when I dropped the rig in and the float went under as it settled. The fish fought doggedly and said to Glenn it was either fouled or a barbel, in the net went a 3lb barbel, nice. Next drop and the float buried again on the drop with the double caster taken by a lovely F1. Thoughts of a bagging last 2 hours though went as soon as I thought about it, and I rest it again. This RH margin became the main focus of my match now, but it was all about how much caster I put in the pot, where I put the rig in, and when to rest it. What I mean is it wasn't easy but it was rewarding as I could not catch elsewhere. I had mostly F1's here and a couple of carp, biggest about 9lb, landing an F1 just as the all out was called at 4pm.
I had realised after talking to Mark that the canals were fishing much better than the lakes and so my only chance of getting money was to win the section, but Nev was admitting to 80lb, whereas I had clicked 76lb. We had a long wait for the scales, a sure sign of lots of fish caught, but finally it was my turn. Well I am embarrassed to say that I weighed in 98lb 8oz, yes 22lb more than I clicked!! Obviously the F1's weighed a lot more than I thought they did. Nev had a moan at my estimate, and then put 104lb on the scales, hmmm, pots and kettles!! Lol think that was a sign of being off fishing for 3 months.
I've put the weigh sheets on below, the first shows the weights on the two lakes, Nev was the best weight and I was second, getting beat by him by 5 1/2lb I think was not too bad in the end, had him worried for a while I think, he told me he had 3 carp in the last 20 mins on maggots in the margin which helped. As you can see on the second sheet the canal weights were much higher, with Mark getting a 109lb and only beating one person on his canal.
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