Gold Valley Open 9 Jun 13

For a spot of fun I had decided to book into an open match at Gold Valley lakes near Hampshire today, I have not been to this complex since I won a Match Fishing magazine Club Angler southern qualifier a few years ago off Syndicate Lake so I was interested to see how it had changed. The answer was a lot, there were very few trees around the complex and it looked almost like a new fishery, but not to be perturbed I went in to the shop, got some pellet and then had a brew whilst waiting for the draw. There was a plethora of stars at the fishery for this match, Will Raison, Steve Saunders and Tommy Hillier to name but a few that I recognised, so I knew that I would need to draw on some fish to stand a chance. Peg 51 Gold lake was what stuck in my hand  not where I had wanted but it stood a chance of a few fish so off I went.

I decided to split the swim down into 4 areas and try to find out where the fish wanted to be, there was the middle of the lake next to the rope for the method and BIG waggler, 25m out for the bomb and pellet wag, the 5m line for meat and then finally I had a spare platform to my left so I decided to put a margin line in down there for good measure.

At the all in I fed half a pot of hemp and meat on my 5m line before starting on the method, with an 8mm pellet as hookbait with a 50/50 mix of groundbait and pellet around the feeder. I was aiming for a buoy on the rope but due to a little rustiness only managed to hit it a few times in the opening 45 minutes, in this time I had 2 liners whilst the guy on the peg to my right was casting tight to the island and had managed a couple of carp already. I had a couple of quick chucks on the big wag but to no avail so I tried an early look on my 5m line, this resulted in an almost instant reaction and a skimmer of nearly a pound was soon in the net. I thought that if there were a few of them there then I might have been in with a chance but it was not to be and I was soon rotating around my lines looking for indications. The feeder was that good that I started to use the groundbait mix down the edge but this did not work either, the only carp I caught were 3 of the smallest carp in Gold lake on the bomb and I also managed a couple of skimmers and perch on 8mm meat at 5m.

I did not even bother the scales at the end and tipped back around 20lb (if I was lucky) of fish, John took the quid with 4 odd pounds from middle lake, he was still the lowest of the 3 weights that were recorded from the lake. I learnt a few things, such as the fact that I need a 12 foot rod for fishing the big wag, and that I should have had Robin Red Pellets with me but other than that it was a windy day art Gold Valley.