Saturday 02/05/2015 - Ivy House open - Match Lake

Son Steve and I decided to go to the Saturday Ivy House Open. However, I wasn’t expecting a great turn out because Andy had organised a two day event for the Sunday and the Spring Bank Holiday Monday. But I thought it would be a good introduction to the venue for Steve.

I was right only seven fishing that said Andy was paying the top overall and one in the Silvers, plus you can win both which is still enough to fish for to pay for the day out.

After a bacon sandwich it was time for the 09:30 draw. Andy had pegged the match so that we were all out of the bitter cold easterly blowing across the venue, so any peg would do today. In to the sack and out comes peg 35 on the island. Steve drew peg 3 outside the Café. I said to Steve it should be an OK peg for either the Carp or the Skimmers, which ever showed up, or rather Skimmers if the Carp didn’t show up.

By the time I got near my peg I had forgotten the number so Steve went in the Café to confirm I was on peg 35 – age doesn't come alone.

Finally arriving at the peg I realised that I had left my cap at home which is one of the most important items of tackle as it’s needed to stop the glare. Luckily for me Gentleman Alan Oram came to the rescue with none other than his “Angling Times Drennan Cup Winner” cap (pictured right). I must say that it was a privilege to wear it, plus Alan said it was a lucky cap – he could be right! These caps are as rare as hen’s teeth (less than England International caps I think!) and are very hard earned –Thanks Alan.

I thought it wouldn’t take much to win the Silvers because they are in the stages of either spawning or recovering from this event. That said the first rig I set up was a 4x16 Jolly, heavier than normal for the venue due to the depth and the wind blowing the rig out and away from me. The only other rig was a 0.5 gram PC paste float for the RH side on the top set in 3 foot of water – not really the margin as I was 4 metres from the bank.

I started on the semi hards over some kindered wetted micro for the Skimmers. First put in I had a small Carp. I then had a run of hand size Skimmers plus a couple of bigger versions. I had also started feeding the short line with hard 4’s for later in the match. After the short spell catching Skimmers it was soon obvious that it was going to be a Carp day – the question was the Carp feeding up prior to spawning? All I could catch on the pellet was Carp most of which were foul hooked. So decided to do it properly and set up a deep paste rig.

The way the match went from this point with four hours left was to feed a kinder pot of micro then fish over the short line with paste, catch a 8 to 10 lb fish then switch over the longer line and catch two quick fish to 15lb before kindering again, whilst still loose feeding the short line with hard 4’s. During this time I put twenty Carp in the net. The last fish on the paste was a welcome 2lb Tench as by now I was knackered.

For that later stages of the match I had a Chicken sat under the bait tray feeding of the dropped bait. Talk about Free Range this Chicken was "Long Range!

My Silvers weighed 17lb 12oz for third in the Silvers and my Carp 151lb 14oz for a match winning total of 169lb 10oz (pictured right).

Luckily son Steve (pictured right with the match winner) won the Silvers with 20lb from peg 3, Steve caught on 4mm expander over wetted micro.

Like me Steve was impressed with the Silvers fishing on the venue – oh yes and the huge quantity of large Carp.

We both went for a curry straight after in the Eastern Spice, Kingswood, very nice food and drink!

Weigh Sheet and Result: