Greenridge Farm MCC 1. 13/06/10

Lake 1 at Greenridge.


Greenridge Farm's lakes 1&2 was the venue for the first of Andover's MCC matches, the weather was warm and I was hoping for a better day than I had at Greenridge a couple of weeks earlier. At the draw I didn't really fancy the middle of lake 1, as it is not a noted "flier" area, unfortunately I pulled peg 5 ! Smack bang in the middle of lake 1 ! When I got to my peg I had an empty peg either side of me, which hopefully would aid me . The water in the lake seemed to be down a bit, which would make fishing the margins tricky as they would be very shallow.



Peg 5.


I set up two rigs tight across at 14.5m, one on the deck but as the lake was down a bit, I only managed to find about 18 inches of water, both rigs were KC carpa cubes on 0.16 to 911-16, one set at depth and one at half depth, both were attached to green hollow Garbolino elastic. The next line was at 5-6 meters, at the bottom of the near slope, I decided to plumb here as the margins were shallow and I felt that the fish wouldn't come in to the inside. This was a 0.3 gram DC6 0.16 911-14 to Orange garbolino. I did set up a rig for the margins either side of me, this was a 0.2 gram durafloat on 0.18 to 911-14 to orange Garbolino, it was a similar depth to that across, although I am happy to fish in that across I felt it would be to shallow for the margins to work well, if they did move in I would see them as they would certainly stir the bottom up. On the bait table I had three pints of caster, two of maggots and corn, the caster was mainly for across and in the margins, the maggot would also be loose fed in the margins and the corn was for the 5m swim. At the all in I fed half a pot of corn on the 5m line, and half a pot of caster and maggot on the two margin swims. I went across on the depth rig with caster on the hook and a toss pot full of caster, it took about 15minutes and a few tosspots later before I had my first fish, it wasn't that big but it did give me a scrap. A few minutes past before I had another bite, this time I lost it at the net, not a brilliant start but Greenridge is notorious for starting slow, although Paul in peg 3 was catching the odd one or two, I could see fish milling about against the far bank in his swim and not in mine, which was a bit ominous. I could see most of the lake and no one else was doing allot so I wasn't to perturbed. About an hour had past and no more bites so I picked up the catapult and stated to ping in the caster at the far bank, a couple of foul hooked fish later was enough to convince me to use the shallow rig, this resulted in a couple of good size carp. In the mean time I was loose feeding the 5m with corn every few minutes, and the margins with caster and maggots. One more fish on the far side on the shallow rig and that was it for the far swim it died completely. Half way through the match and as far as I could tell I second behind Paul who was beginning to empty his peg, and not content with catching fish he catches a terrapin as well! After having a look in the margins, which resulted in no bites I switched to the 5m line. Slipping a couple of grains of corn on to the hook and dropping the rig in resulted in an instant bite, which I missed. Out again this time a foul hooker which I pulled out of. I knew there were a few fish on the 5m line and I couldn't work out the best way to feed for a proper bite. After a couple of missed bites I finally hooked one in the mouth, a good sized fish of 5lb. I decided to feed the peg with just 6 grains of corn in the toss pot, and not feed again until I hooked one properly. I was still missing good bites and foul hooking a few but I was beginning to hook a few more properly, which was building the weight slowly. Into the last hour and I could see fish being caught further up the lake. I carried on catching, missing bites and foul hooking fish until the all out. It was clear that Paul had easily won the lake, but I wasn't sure how I had done against the rest of the field. In the end I weighed in 36lb 10oz. good enough for 3rd on the lake, not to bad but to many missed bites and foul hooked fish had cost me, but that's fishing!


My 36lb 10oz. catch.

Hard Work At Billhook.

Billhook Lake.



Billhook Lake at Odiham was the venue for the opening match of the Andover Angling Club 2010/11 match calender. It looked lovely, warm, overcast with a gentle breeze, and fish moving all round the lake, we were all hoping to get close to the huge weights that had been coming out, how wrong we were! At the draw I didn't really mind where I drew as the lake has a lot of features and the fish seemed to be moving everywhere. I stuck my hand in and pulled out peg 27, when I arrived at my peg it looked quite nice with some Lillie pads out in front and an empty peg to my right.

Peg 27.

I decided on 4 lines of attack, one at 14.5m about a meter short of the Lillie's, two at 7m, 10 o'clock & 2 o'clock, and a margin line too my right. The depth was pretty consistent all the way across at about 2 feet, which was handy as I could double up on rigs. The 14.5m line was a shallow set up, a big dibber on 0.16 to a 911-16 to green garbo, set about a 8-12" deep. On the 7m lines I set up a paste rig, kc carpa 4x12, 0.18 to a 911-12 to orange garbo. The second was a 0.3 gram dc6, 0.16 to a 911-16 to green garbo. The margin rig was a 0.3 gram durafloat 0.18 911-14 to orange garbo. All of these rigs could be used on all the lines as the depth didn't alter much. The plan of attack was to pot in pellets on one of the 7m lines, meat on the second 7m line, and feed the margin by hand, whilst feeding the up in the water line with a catty. The all in sounded and I fed 2 large pots of pellets on one of the 7m lines, a half a large pot of meat on the second 7m swim, and stated to ping pellets at the far swim. Straight out onto the 14.5 m line with an 8mm soft pellet on the hook, there were plenty of fish milling about but most of them were hanging very close to the Lillie's, I was hoping with constant feeding I could lure them away from there and perhaps after a bit could get them closer still. After about half an hour and no bites things were looking a bit slow, no one else as far as I could see had caught anything. I left that line but carried on feeding regularly, and had a look on the other lines. After spending twenty minutes or so on the other lines without even so much as a tremble on the float I went back to the far swim. This time I put the 16m extension on and fished it tight to the pads, to try and get a few bites, as there still wasn't anything much being caught! Constant feeding eventually resulted in elastic pouring from the pole as a carp decided to feed on my 8mm pellet and hook itself! A nice carp of 2.5lb. Feeding all the time and lifting and dropping the rig eventually resulted in carp number 2 roughly the same size. 2 1/2 hours gone 2 carp and three pints of pellet lighter! The strange thing was no one was catching anything, apart from Phil who had a few. Talk from round the lake was just the odd fish being caught, a bit grim. I persevered with the far line but by now the wind was getting up a bit and my back was giving up a bit! In the next 1/2 hour I hooked carp number 3 ! Again a similar size. I left the far line for a bit to rest my arms and back ( when I win the lottery I must buy a stiffer pole ! ) I had a good look on the other lines for a good hour, but with no success, I even set up a tip rod and had a chuck to the Lillie's just for a change, but the fish seemed to be in spawning mode and not very interested in feeding. Into the last hour and I decided to go all out on the far swim as I had three fish from there. After battling with the wind I eventually hooked carp number 4! Again about 2 1/2 lb ( consistent if nothing else !) I did loose a couple in the last hour, but the wind was making it very difficult to control the rig. The all out sounded and that was it! 4 fish, 6 pints of pellet lighter and aching arms and back! A few fish were caught late in the match by some, but it was a bit of a grueller for most anglers, myself included! My 4 fish weighed 9 lb 10 oz. In conclusion I don't think I did anything wrong, it just seemed the whole lake was off, ah well there is always next week.........!

Not Much To Show!