09/05/13 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 45lb 4oz
Catch - 16 Carp
Weather - Gales & rainy - typical spring evening really!
Match - Float only evening series - rd 1 - 6th out of 10

I decided to fish this evenings float only series run by Wiltshire Angling. In previous years the series has been solely fished at Rood Ashton, however due to dwindling attendances and poor fishing it was decided to include Leech Pool, alternating each week with Rood Ashton. As such I decided to book in, because had it all been at Rood Ashton I wont have bothered.

12 booked in for the league, although there was only 10 fishing today, however there was some good quality anglers in attendance, fishing from 6-9pm.

Well after a week of warm weather, back on with the thermals and wet weather gear! Those that know Rood Ashton, know there isn't much in the way of shelter and everyone wanted a peg that at least offered some relief from the gale force wind.

I was disappointed to drew peg 1, which didn't offer any shelter from the wind that was blowing mostly over my left shoulder. For company I had Tony Gilbert on peg 2.

With the aid of a bump bar I could just about manage 12m, about a metre off the reed bed, where I fed meat & hemp via a toss pot. My second swim was into the corner, again feeding meat & hemp.

On the all in the wind was really strong and it was proving difficult to keep the rig in the water. After 20mins I managed my first fish and by the end of the hour I was up to 8 carp, mostly on 8mm meat, whilst Tony was up to 6 fish. Unfortunately I couldn't catch for 30mins, losing 3 fish. I eventually had 4 fish by the end of the 2nd hour from the corner.

The third hour proved to be a bit of struggle. The wind dropped to a more manageable level, but the fish seemed to stop feeding. Initially I thought I had overfed, but speaking to others it appears most struggled to catch.

By the end Tony & I both had 16 carp, although mine were a smaller stamp. If it hadn't been for the wind I'm confident I would have caught more.

1st 69- 8 - Pete Neate - p10
2nd 65- 7 - Mark Poppleton - p4
3rd 62-13 - Tony Gilbert - p2
4th 56- 8 - Nat - p9
5th 54- 6 - Stuart - p5
6th 45- 4 - Ken Rayner - p1