Match Fishing Scene, FLE Fishery (formally Greenridge Farm Fishery) 25/03/2012

I had been looking forward to this match for ages and it was well worth the wait. The pre match buzz was of big weights on meat from Canal 2 so when I drew peg 20 I was well happy as it is an end peg with bags of features, it was made better when the peg to my left was actually blank as well. I asked for local advice at the beginning and got told that the day before 60lb ish had come off it but he had lost alot more in the snags down to the right.

I decided on a 3 pronged approach and plumbed a rig up for across that consisted of a 0.1g Scone zone Wellardz on 0.2mm mainline and a 0.16mm bottom to a size 16 B911, due to the snags I used a length of medium elastic through just the number 2 of my Z9 to try and drag the fish out of the corner. I also plumbed up in the corner to the right down the inside with a 0.3g FP800 with the same lines but a size 2 Tubertini 175, this was rigged on 17H elastic through a heavy tension puller. I plumbed up a meat line at 5m into the open water to my left with a Drennan carp 2 on 0.18mm to 0.14mm and a 16 B911, this was rigged with yellow reflex elastic.

For bait I prepped a pint of 4mm hard pellet, 4 pints of 6mm meat, 2 pints of 8mm meat, a few 4mm and 6mm expanders and some hemp. The plan was to feed pellet across and fish 8mm meat or pellet over the top for a start and feel my way into the match, so at the all in I shipped the rig across and within a minute had lost a foul hooker. This happened again on the next put in and then Eureka I figured out how to lay the rig in and I stopped the foul hookers instantly, around 10 carp up to 5lb made their way into the landing net in the first hour and then a few more before the line died off. I rotated through my margin and meat line for a while but after 30mins I was back across and the carp were waiting again and another good run saw a smile return to my face.

That swim slowed again and the other 2 lines never really took off and I suffered a slow spell until the last 15 minutes when I went back across and caught regularly again.

At the all out I knew it would be quite close on my lake as a couple of the guys further down started motoring in the last couple of hours. As it turned out (after weighing in 2 lakes) my 139lb 2oz was enough for second on the lake and 4^th overall. The craic had been brilliant and I can’t wait till the next one.