Sunday 11/03/2018 - Ivy House Winter League - Match Lake, Moorhen and Kingfisher Canals

I needed a match so rang Andy Lloyd at Ivy House. It was the last of his winter leagues and had some spare spaces; I suppose it was the last match “I’m not doing any good” effect. Three sections Kingfisher, Moorhen and the Match Lake which appears to have been converted to a Carp Slayers venue, which I was hoping to avoid.

Into the draw box and out came white ball 32. End peg on Moorhen Canal (pictured right). I was told it was a good Skimmer peg with very few Carp, so that appealed. However, the more anglers I spoke to about the peg the lower the appeal became! On next peg 34 was Ryan Shipp who said that the two times he’d fished it resulted in a blank and one Skimmer. Umm. Surely the advantage of an end peg would help?

I set up the one rig a 4x12 F1 Winter to fish at top-set plus three. Skimmers or nothing it was then. GB laced with red maggot was fed out in front and with a single on the hook it took 30 minutes to get my first bite a 1lb Skimmer. Perhaps they had roll-up. Not - I struggled adding just a few small Ronnie’s. I opened another line at the same distance at 10-o clock again with maggot and GB. This resulted in another 1lb Skimmer and one Ronnie. I struggled for most of the match for bites and it wasn’t until the last 30 minutes that I added two better Skimmers and a few more Ronnie’s. I did foul hook a big Skimmer which pulled free.

I weighed 7lb 8oz for last but three on the Canal. That said I did enjoy it. The peg certainly kept me thinking which helped with the enjoyment. I think come warmer weather there will be some good weight of Skimmers from this end of the Canal.

Jon Clarke (pictured upper right with his catch) won our Canal with 33lb 2oz of small Carp caught mainly on corn over corn at 13 metres.

The match was won by Dave Fox (pictured right) with 103lb 2oz from Carp Match Lake peg 7. Dave caught on the lead fished over to the opposite margin using Waffters fished on a 6 inch hook length. Dave landed fourteen Carp losing two.

Result:

1. Dave Fox 103-02-0 peg Match 7
2. Matt 38-08-0 peg Match 9
3. Jon Clarke 33-02-0 peg Moorhen 26
4. Ian 26-10-0 peg Kingfisher 49
5. Chris 25-08-0 peg Moorhen 34
6. Jason 18-08-0 peg Match 4

Weigh Sheet: