06/12/09 - Ivy House - Little Lake

Weight – 20lb 8oz
Catch – 6 Carp, 4 Roach, 2 Perch
Weather – Mostly sunny, occasional showers. Gusty wind
Match – Club Christmas Match - 1st overall

I drew peg 12, only to find myself on permanent peg 13! Not sure why, but cards had been used to peg the lake, because some of the permanent peg marking had worn away. My peg was in the corner of the lake with the wind blowing into it, which I wasn’t too disappointed about, although I was sharing the corner with Jim and we were a little too close. Personally would have preferred to be on permanent peg 12, because you can fish into the corner, with the wind off my back, plus you had more open water.

Anyway, I had a job to do. The last time I was here was 12 months ago, but reports suggested it had been fishing OK, so I fed a pinch of 3mm pellet at 13m at 1 o’clock (I couldn’t go any longer due to the awkward wind). I also wanted to set up a short line for roach, feeding caster, but plumbing around suggested my swim was bowl shape without any shelves, so I decided to feed at 9m and hoped to catch the roach on the drop. My final 2 swims would be 6m to my left in the corner and under the pallet of peg 12.

After feeding my swims, I started on the tip with hair rigged corn. After 15 mins I was getting liners but no bites. The 13m line didn’t produce a bite, so it was time to try the 9m line after I had kept flicking caster in. After waiting for bites, I managed 2 small perch & a roach, which wasn’t a good sign.

Back on the 13m line I waited it out on double maggot and the float eventually went under. A 3lb carp was very welcome and with just over an hour gone I was the only 1 to have caught a carp, so the lake was fishing hard. Heavy overnight rain probably didn’t help and the wind was making presentation difficult.

By this time, my headache was really kicking in and having the sun shining directly in front wasn’t helping. With no more bites on the pole, it was time to try the lead again, whilst I search for some nurofen plus. Fortunately the car was parked directly behind me and tablets where duly found. When I got back to my peg I was fiddling with some of my kit and my rod nearly got dragged in as carp no.2 found its way in the net.

Another carp on the pole soon followed on triple pinkie, but the wind was becoming a problem. I had initially set up a 0.5g rig in the 6 foot swim, but really a 1g rig would have been better. My headache meant I couldn’t be bothered to set up a new rig, so I lobbed the lead over the pole line and soon had carp no.4.

The 4th hour of the match was extremely slow. It was close between Graham Millard on peg 15, Brian Stockham on peg 11 and me. Brian was aided by a foulhooked 7lber up the arse!

My margins only produced a single roach and a new swim 12m in front proved fruitless. It seemed everyone had stopped catching and I felt the fish had probably moved further into the middle of the lake, so I cast at an angle into peg 12. 2 casts and 2 carp on double hair rigged corn definitely put me in the lead, but I never had a bite for the rest of the match. Fortunately neither did Graham or Brian.

To be honest this was a bit of boring match, having made the decision to ignore the silvers after an hour, it was just a case of waiting for a carp. Fortunately the nurofen did its job, so I felt better by the end of the match

At the weigh in Graham weighed 15-4 for 2nd and Brian was 3rd with 15-1 for 3rd, so those last 2 carp were needed.

Congratulations to Ian who won the Individual Championship, admittedly courtesy of me missing 1 match.