Hillview Fishery Open

 I did not have any fixed plan of where to fish this weekend, but one thing was for sure the match weights on all fisheries were dropping like a stone compared to a week ago. No surprise given the plummeting temperatures due to the Northerly flow of cold air. Got wind mid week that there was going to be an open on Hillview just on the 4 canals, that was nice as it would mean a straight forward approach for rigs etc. In the end 6 of us from Bristol were booked to go, Kev Winstone, Gordon Cannings, Mark "Podge" Jefferies, Joe McMahon and Martin Rayet. I didn't have to do any prep as I had done all of that the week before and canal rigs were not used last time out of course.

Up and about on Sunday and loaded the van and thought it looked a bit airy, just me not used to all the extra space I thought. Got up to the fishery nice and easily with a trouble free journey, other than scraping some ice off the windscreen in the first place. Grabbed a sausage sarnie and a cuppa and sat outside on the benches with the lads. Kev asked me if I had remembered everything today, he said according to your blog you always forget something! Not today Kev I remembered everything! Just then Martin mentioned that he was one keepnet down already as Podge had accidently run over one of his, lol! This triggered an immediate thought in my head, I've forgot to bring my keepnets I told Kev. Not sure if he believed me at first but then he pissed himself. Luckily the guys rallied round, Podge and Joe gave me a net, and Martin gave me the broken net which was just about useable. Thanks guys.

My name was first on the draw sheet and Keith did the draw and called out peg 62 for me, 2nd canal right in the middle of it. Not sure it was the best place to be but should get plenty of bites as there are lots of little carp in here as well as the F1's and standard size carp. However, Keith Warned although weights were good yesterday on the venue they had a 2 hour snow, sleet, hail storm which would have chilled the water even further. I bought some maggots and casters just in case things were hard.

My peg has an aerator opposite it which in the winter can be a good fish holding feature, so that might come into my plans but to be honest I was hoping to be able to catch close today.

First rig set up was a Preston 4x12 F1 pellet for fishing soft pellet at top set plus one section, 16 SFL to 0.12. A same size float for fishing in the margins, but with 16 GPM to 0.13. Finally a rig for mugging / slapping in case the sun came out and brought the carp up. I was the only one of the Bristol contingent on the 2nd canal, Podge was on the first, Kev, Gordy and Joe on the third and Martin on the 4th, Joe was actually right behind me.

I began the match on the top set plus one line, feeding fishery micro pellet and had a 4mm Sonubait pro expander on the hook. It wasn't too long before I was watching the speck of a bristle dart under, first fish an F1. Back in again and a bit of a wait but then another bite and another F1, next drop in a carp of a pound. It wasn't bites as soon as the float settled, it was a bit of a wait, and I was playing around with how much micro I fed to try to speed things up, but it was tricky and I just tried to make sure I came back with a fish most drop ins. The angler on my left had started in his RH margin and he had caught right from the off at a similar pace to me I thought, above him on end peg 53 Matt Davis appeared to be fishing shallow and was also catching well. I had a nice steady first hour on the pellet, and was getting signs of fish with the odd blow showing over the feed. It then went iffy and I came off this line and went into the LH margin where I had been feeding caster and maggot, with double maggot on the hook the float was gone within 30 seconds, I landed my best F1 of the day near 3lb. Back in again and I missed about 5 bites before catching another F1. I think I had 5 fish here but then the indications stopped, so move line again.

Back onto the soft pellet and I had another little run of fish but then it stopped again. LH margin, 1 fish, RH margin no fish! In fact I fed corn in the RH margin and all I had was a gudgeon all day here. I had a few more fish on the soft pellet but then it was gone and it did not come back to life. The margins were poor and so I had to try something else. Seeing Matt catching shallow I had decided to fire pellets across to a bit or bare bank 20 minutes earlier and there were signs of fish over there. I went over with a 4mm pellet in a band and thought the flaot would bury, it didn't. I managed to catch two fish here a foul hooked carp and an F1, then the fish swam off it seemed. Hmmm OK, after a good start I'm now struggling, so next plan was try to the soft pellet approach to the side of the aerator. Not much of a plan unfortunately as I never had a bite here, I was a tad shocked by that. However, looking around everyone on my canal were now struggling and there was not much splashing at all.

Next plan, I took my margin rig and plumbed the same depth across, which was about 3 feet off the far bank. I was going to try feeding pots of maggots here. It was a slow start with a few pesky rudd, i pushed the shot down the line further and then caught a carp. In fact this line produced a few fish for me at time people were struggling. I did have to rest it, and when I went back I caught a few more including a 6lb carp. Another rest and then just lost a fouler, and with 2 1/2 hours to go the swim went really tits up. I just could not get any indications or bites from any of my lines, meanwhile Matt on the end peg was mugging or slapping and catching for fun again, it seemed a big ball of fish had come up to him, think most of my fish lol. I couldn't mug anything, though I didn't have many fish to go out and those I did see were motoring. It just became a complete dead peg, and all I managed was a couple of carp in the last but one hour, and one carp in the last hour, my neighbours were no better, it just seemed the end pegs were catching. It was painful watching as I saw my early lead taken away and was not sure I would get any money now.

The scales started weighing on canal 4, top weight was 82lb on 84, just beating Martin who had 76lb. Joe won canal 3 with 73lb just beating the guy on his left by 1lb! Matt won the match on peg 56 on my canal with 114lb, and I weighed 74lb, this just beat the other end peg who had 68lb so I got the section win by default. The first canal was won with 105lb from peg 42. Full weigh sheet in the picture. 

I know a lot of anglers struggled today, not catching for the full time of the match, and it does seem that other than the third canal the end pegs were the place to be today. Had I been able to catch for those last two hours a ton was possible for sure, but there is not much you can do when the fish switch off / swim to the end of the canal.

It was a day of not bad weather mostly, but as we were packing up the sky darkened and down came some sort of icy / snow stuff and the temperature dropped as it fell. I took a little video of this stuff falling.

Next weekend I am fishing the Bob Warden Charity match on the K&A canal out at Claverton. I am not sure how this will fish, as who knows if the roach will be there and how many boats there will be. However, it is for a good cause, MS, and I for one would like to support this match and see Bob's boys too. Fingers crossed I can change all of my gear over ready for this and not forget anything lol.

Hillview Fishery Open Match

 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.

I have to say it was great to fish a match again, and to catch very nearly 100lb of big F1's a few carp and a barbel was really enjoyable. I don't think I was too rusty, my mind was thinking all the time how to trick the F1's, but I do think I should have fed a line somewhere a bit more positive with pellets, and perhaps chucked corn in the LH margin instead of maggot. Still it is why I like fishing matches, always trying to work out what to do and how to improve. I won't be fishing again until next weekend, spending Easter Sunday walking, gardening and cleaning the van. Think Monday I will stay in doors it looks like being cold! Hope you have enjoyed your first match back fishing as I have.