Sunday 19/09/2021 - Ivy House Open - Old Match Lake

Had my Flu Jab Saturday and my arm was slightly sore this morning. A steady drive up taking 45 minutes via the M4. Nice to be having breakfast with "Bubba" Bela haven't seen him for a while. I was upset when he told me he's not fishing the Westerleigh winter league this year, hopefully he will come round.

Into the draw tin and ball 5 jumped into my hand. Once again I found myself next to Stu Foale's on peg 4. Peg 5 had won the match the day before.

The intention was to fish for Carp short on paste. So set up two paste rigs a 0.3 gram Nude for out in front top set plus one and a paste Bullet for the RH margin. I also set up a 4x13 MR for out in front for either worm of corn.

Started out in front with the paste over micro kindering hard 4's and was soon getting indications from small fish. Fed the margin with micro and switch to corn out in front and similarly was getting indications from small fish. I did have three tiny Skimmers. It looked as if the Skimmers weren't feeding which was confirmed by Ryan Shipp walked past with a bait tub to Vince. Ricky Mills was doing well on peg 1 as was Gareth on peg 9. I could only see one angler on the opposite bank and he appeared to be struggling. SO, I decided to switch to the silvers and target the Ronnie's. Firstly, I tried the long rig which was a bit slow. So switched to the short Ronnie rig down the RH side in 30 inches of water (this side of the lake appears to much shallower than the other) with single LR over loose fed LR's and was getting a 2 oz fish every put in. I do enjoy this sort of fishing. Unfortunately, I had the occasional incursion of some rather large carp. I did land three (eventually) on the rig losing loads either through breakages or foulers. I fed some GB to see if I could catch some bigger stamp which proved to be a mistake as tails were soon wagging at me - bugger. Head down and by careful feeding carried catching to the end.

My three carp weighed 18 lb 4 oz and my circa 240 silvers weighed 30 lb 8 oz for second in the silvers once again. I'm still getting to grips with this lake. The pattern at the moment appears to be that the big Skimmers are on pegs 16 to 12 and the opposite side is full of small fish. It's also notable that the corner pegs appear best for Carp and some bigger Skimmers.

The match was won by Adrian Davis (pictured with the silvers winner) with 127 lb from peg 16. Adrian fished the method throughout using micro feed with a banded 6mm hard pellet. Well done matey.

The silvers was won by Ryan Jordan of RJ floats with 43 lb from peg 12. Ryan caught on worm hook bait fished over chopped worm mushed with dry GB.

It was back to the pub with Bela (not done this for a while) and Willy for a nice end to another good day out.

Fishery closed next weekend.

Weigh Sheet and Result: