Greenridge Farm. 16/01/2011

Having not been out for a couple of weeks due to work/snow ice/ Christmas etc. I was looking forward to the match which was on lakes 3 & 4. I had heard that a few fish had been coming out in the regular Saturday matches, but it was patchy. Whilst taking my gear down to the lakes prior to the draw I managed to tread in some dog dirt, hmmm nice! Time would only tell if this was a good sign, or I was going to have "one of those days! ". At the draw I pulled out peg 36 on the middle of lake 4, not quite what I was hoping for as it is quite narrow and shallow. The end pegs had been quite kind to me on lake 4 in the past, and was hoping for a nice end peg! I did have the next best thing as peg 35 to my left hadn't been put in, so I had a nice margin to fish, if they were to come in.

I was going to fish three lines, tight across at 11.5m, down the middle at 6m, and to my left just before peg 35's platform. Whilst plumbing up I had forgotten how shallow it was and couldn't find much more than 2ft anywhere in the peg, actually it was pretty even, which made it easy as far as rigs would go. I set up 3 rigs, an image dibber on 0.10 to a barbless 611-20, to a pink hollow. A slightly heavier image dibber on 0.12 to a pr32-18, to a yellow hollow, and a heavy rig which was a Carpa cube on 0.14 to a 911-16, to a green hollow, for the margins. As the depths were similar I could use any of the rigs on any swim. I had corn, maggots, micro pellet and some 4mm expander's, At the all in I cupped a few grains of corn to my left into the margins, and half a small pole pot of micros and corn at 6m. I was going to feed the far swim with a toss pot. My intentions were to have a look on the corn first off, before switching to the maggot if the corn didn't work.

I slipped a grain of corn on the 0.12 rig and a few in the toss pot and had a look at the far bank swim, after 5 minutes the float dipped and the first small carp of a 1lb was heading it's way to the net, a good start, perhaps the dog pooh was a good omen! Ten minutes later and number 2 of a similar size to the first was in the net. Then almost instantly number 3 this time slightly bigger. Then nothing! For a good 20 minutes or so. Stu to my left on peg 34 had had a couple and Simon to my right on peg 37 had had one. I had a look on the 6m swim but there was no bites there to be had, so I went back to the far swim, this time on maggot. There was not sign on the far line except by small fish towing the bait about. By now Stu was fishing in the margins and almost instantly he had a lump on, I kept an eye on him whilst trying to get the far line to come back to life. Stu then had another couple of lumps out of the margins, so i fed the far line with some corn and micros and decided to have a go in the margins myself.

A few minutes had passed before the float wobbled before burying, and a nice fish of 2lb had graced my landing net, not the size of fish Stu was catching, but welcome none the less. I had a few more reasonably sized fish, before I hooked one of Stu's lumps, which I promptly lost underneath the platform! This sort of killed my margins for a bit, I so re-fed and went back over to the far line. Stu was still getting the odd lump in the margins, and by now was well in front on the lake, and as far as I could tell I was second. Back out onto the far swim with corn and a small dip in the float resulted in a 1lb carp. Another couple followed before it died again. Back onto the margin line, again a small carp of a 1lb or so, followed by another couple, again nothing like the size Stu was catching! After having a look on the 6m swim, again with no bites, I went back onto the far line. After a bit the float dipped and I hooked into a fish of a decent size, I played it carefully across the lake before messing about to much and it dived under my net and I lost it ! Total Clampetry! The two best fish hooked and both of them lost!

The last 45 minutes of the match and swapping from the margins to the far line kept some fish coming, nothing big and not frequently enough to catch up Stu. At the all out I had 18 carp, not to bad, I think I had more fish than anyone on the lake but they were all of the small size! The scales came round and I weighed 29lb 14oz good enough for second on the lake and another nice pick up, Stu Weighed 52lb lump fishing, I think I cleared the small fish out of the way for him! Now where's that DVD on catching big fish....!