Sunday 02/01/11 - Hillview Open

Well, it’s now been 34 days since I have been fishing. I really couldn't get any enthusiasm for braking five inches if ice that was most likely to refreeze during the match. That said I have become “stir crazy”. I over heard the Special One telling her friends that she felt if she has a strange man in the house (right there). Over this period I have been watching films most of the time as the weather prevented me doing the things I love to do. One film worth a watch is “Finding Eric”.

I knew they have been breaking the ice at Hillview so I anticipated that it would be reasonably clear. Bela was also up for it. As the draw was at 09:30 and as Keith does a decent breakfast on site it was a late start for us at 07:30. The match was scheduled for 11:00 start to 16:00 giving us chance to rearrange the ice!!

I was amazed to find that 24 had paid their pools. Keith decided to peg one section split across the two lakes plus three sections on the first three canals. I was hoping for the second or third canal. I didn’t fancy the lakes or canal 1 as it doesn’t fish that well in winter – good in summer though. So in to the smelly woolly hat and out comes peg 50 on the 1st canal – not a good draw in the summer, usually on a hiding to nothing. That said it does seem to hold small fish which might be the order of the day. Arriving at the peg it was evident that Keith had been out with the digger and had cleared out to 4 metres, leaving great chunks of ice (see video below of the tail end of the ice arranging - not quite what I was expecting). It was a good job I brought the new ice breaker and Bela!!

We broke the ice out to 7 metres which was enough for me. Plumbing up with my one rig a 4x12 Jolly had 3 foot down the track and 6 inches less at 7 metres. That a do. I started by kindering in a small amount of micro and a similar amount of Pinkie. I started on a single red maggot down the track but the swim kept bubbling due to the ice breaker stirring up the bottom so I soon switched to double Pinkie at 7 metres up to the edge of the ice. It took an hour before I foul hooked my first Brown Gold fish which came off against one of the ice bergs. I then had a run of two brown GF followed by a gold GF and a fat Silver GF. Bela walked up to pinch some pinkies and reported the only one other fish had been caught on our canal. For the rest of the match I could only add four small Ronnie’s and two small Perch. I weighed 3lb 10oz which easily won the section and believe it or not was enough for 4th overall and my first pick up of the year – a good start bur especially great to be back in the saddle.

Bela blanked today and is now starting to worry that the Black Cat is to blame.

The match was won by Richard Ahern (pictured right getting his coin from Keith Hill) from peg 58 with 19lb 15oz. Richard started fishing 4 mm expander over micro later switching to bread catching Gold Fish and in the last half hour added Carp to 3lb using 4mm punched bread over the micro. Richard fed a small hand full of micro all through the match only feeding once it was fished out.

Full Result:

1. Richard Ahern 19-15-0 peg 58
2. Dave Rudge 17-02-0 peg 74
3. Jon Newton 7-01-0 peg 70
4. Mike Nicholls 3-10-0 peg 50
5. Matt Taynton 3-04-0 peg 58
6. Gary Clark 3-03-0 peg 67