Area 52 Angling: Going Red In The Sun At Greenridge.

Peg 17 on Lake 2 at Greenridge.

lake 2.

A blistering hot day was in order for the final round of the Challis Tackle spring series at Greenridge farm, Lakes 1 & 2. At the draw I didn't really want the middle numbers on lake 1, and after the rush I pulled out 17, middle of lake 2, not to bad. With Paul and Keith leading the series both on an end peg, ( they don't draw to bad do they! ) it looked like they were fighting it out for the spoils. Three lines of attack was the plan for today, one tight across at 14.5m next to the small gorse shrub, one slightly staggered at 7m, and the two margins either side. Across I set up carpa cubes on 0.16 straight through to 911-16, one shallow ( about a foot deep ) and one at dead depth, both were attached to Green Garbo hollow. A garbo dc 4 at 7m 0.16 straight through to 911-14 attached to green garbo, I also set up a paste rig to cover the same line, 0.18 straight through to 911-12 to orange garbo, and finally a durafloat on 0.18 straight through to 911-14 attached to orange garbo for the two margins. I had luncheon meat, paste, corn and some 6mm pellet as well as 4 pints of maggot. I had clean forgot about the caster and how well it avoided those troublesome minute gudgeon and minnows, ( another lesson learned ! ) having not fished the venue since last year.

At the all in I fed a medium cup of corn on the 7m line, and started to feed the margins by hand with maggots, and went across on the meat, feeding meat through the toss pot. The heat was building and you could see carp swimming about following each other, and it looked like they were getting ready for spawning. The float was dipping and dancing all the time ( pesky minnows!) as they wouldn't leave the hook bait alone, but after 15 minutes and a few toss pots later I managed to hook a nice 3lb carp. A few more minnow bites followed before another carp on the meat. Then nothing for an hour, except for the pesky minnows! It was slow around me with just a few fish being caught, but Jocky to my left was beginning to catch shallow on the caster, so I decided to leave it for a bit and to start pinging maggot across whilst fishing another line. I went onto the 7m lime with the paste, after a couple of minutes I striked the paste off and re baited, half an hour had past and still no indications, so I had a quick look in the margins. No indications there except minnows and gudgeon so out with the shallow rig across. Half way through the match and not a lot to show except sun burn! Out with maggot on the shallow rig, after a few minutes of minnow bothering, the elastic streamed out of the pole and a nice fat common was in the net. This continued for a bit, with the maggot being pulled around by the gudgeon and minnows, before the carp would nearly pull the pole in! Jocky was catching well to my left, and James catching a few two pegs down, the lake seemed to be switching on a bit. I then had a large 8lb fish that was trying to make it into Dave's peg on my right, it did give me a bit of hassle but eventually I beat it. Into the last 45 minutes and the carp bites had stopped across, so it was time to have a look on the other lines. By now Dave to my right was beginning to catch in mid water on the corn ( surprise, surprise ! ) so I followed suit, and had a couple as well as foul hooking a few. The last few minutes I had a look in the margins which can be so productive at Greenridge, but no big fish had moved in on the feed. The all out sounded and I followed the scales on lake 1 first. Mike was 1st with 72lb, 2nd was Paul with 67lb odd, and third was Mayo with 47lb odd. On to lake 2 my lake, 1st was Keith with 93lb, second was Jocky with 85lb odd and third was James with 55lb odd, I weighed 46lb for 4th on the lake. Keith took the series by weight, over Paul second and Mike third. Overall a very enjoyable series for me, with some good results, but the blow out at the beginning, and a match missed due to holiday had cost me dear. With the Andover match calender starting in a couple of weeks, I think I need to tie some rigs!