Sunday 24/02/2019 - Ivy House Open - Heron Lake

Once I heard that they were catching F1's on the waggler on the new Heron Lake at Ivy House I wanted to have a go. So having a free Sunday booked in. Got the car packed and removed some slush/ice from the windscreen and took a steady ride to the fishery having to keep to 40 mph due to some dense fog. I arrived just as Keren started cooking breakfast, so first to be served. Very nice it was too.

I had a walk around the fishery with matey Adrian Jeffery. It was a bit foggy to fully appreciate the work that Andy and Karen has done to this fishery (pictured upper right). No doubt a lot of investment has been put into this fishery in recent months.

Into the draw tin and out comes peg 2. I had no idea what the peg was like, but as per usual there are plenty of anglers willing to tell me - the consensus was not good. For company I had big Al Oram on peg 3 and believe it or not Adrian Jeffery on peg 1 (pictured right in full concentration). Great company - but not all Bristolians. The corner pegs of the Lake are arranged such that they share the far bank in terms of space, with peg 1 having a narrow point to fish to and peg 2 back in a bay.(see pegs layout pictured right). I named them space-saver pegs!

I started to set up a waggler but soon relised I was under a tree so the choice of waggler was changed from a light to heavy so I could side swipe the cast - not very elegant. Also I was actually facing peg 1 which meant I had to cast at 10 o'clock to my peg which wasn't great for the wind as I immediately had a bow in the line. I set up a 4 x12 Winter Titan to fish at 11.5 metres at full depth which is about 5 foot.

On the all in I fed some LR's over and was content that they were landing more or less in my peg - thanks to Al for his patients. I also fed some micro on the pole line. I started on the waggler and had a good run for about 1 1/2 hours catching F1's. That was until the sun came out and finding difficult to see my yellow topped float I changed to a red top which I had nail varnished so it glistened in the sun. I had a few more F1's but the swim just gradually died. In between I tried the pole and didn't have a bite on either soft pellet or maggot. With 2 hours to go and unable to revive the peg and with the sun unbearable blazing from the reflection on the water, I decided to have a walk round to get a feel of what the other pegs were fishing like. Six anglers were doing reasonably well and with only one person I could find had caught anything on the pole at 16 metres. Back to my peg and with only two more F1's in the net and half hour to go I decided to pack up ealy and help Karen weigh in.

I weighed 27 lb 4 oz for joint second in the section with matey Alan Oram and a defaut pickup. And I only hooked the tree once.

The match was won by Jason Robinson (pictured right) with 47 lb of small Carp and a few F1's from peg 21. Jason likewise caught on the waggler and because he had a problem reaching the far bank with loose maggots fed some hard 4's with maggot hook bait.

I did enjoy the day and will definitely be back, Even though there are no Silvers in the Lake I love this sort of fishing. Andy said he would trim the tree branches back which would help in future.

As can be seen the framing weight were very close, which is always good.

Result:

1. Jason Robinson 47 -0-0 eg 21
2. Billy Ockwell 45-02-0 peg 17
3. Mike Etheridge 42-06-0 peg 8
4. Andy Lloyd 40-04-0 peg 14

Weigh Sheet: