This Sunday I visited Manor Farm Leisure for their open on Island and Windmill pools. This match was winter fishing at its hardest. 2 degrees and heavy snow, sleet and rain for the whole day. 

I drew on Island 6 and throw out the bomb with bread at the all in. I caught a small F1 in the first 20 minutes. But after an 1 hour that was my sum total of fish. So time for the pole at 13 metres. I’d been feeding maggots during the time on the bomb but I was just catching the odd small Roach and Perch. Things weren’t really going to plan. I decided two feed a new pole line with micro pellet, fishing a 4mm expander over the top but I never had a bite. So I went back on the bomb and bread but a little further out but the rod still never pulled round.

So I decided to go back to the maggot line. At least I was getting the odd small fish. The other anglers were all struggling, so it was a case of putting a few fish in the net, even though they were small. This time I decided to feed the maggots heavier and this did start to produce a better stamp of fish and I was catching better sized Roach. So I continued the feed the maggots heavier hoping to draw in a Carp. I caught a good Skimmer next about 2lb so the heavier feeding seemed to be working and I still hoped for a carp to come.

After an hour doing this I caught some nice Roach but the angler on the next peg had now caught 3 good sized Carp. So these silvers weren’t going to get me anywhere. So will 45 minutes left in the match I picked up the Bomb rod, changed to a 6mm hard pellet and throw it out even further out, having only 45 minutes left. Would the gamble work? 

Well after 10 minutes the rod pulled round and 5 minutes later I had a carp around 7lbs in the keepnet. I throw out again and then a had a small tap on the tip and then then a drop back bite. I lifted into the bite and the rod arc’d round which resulted in a small F1 around 2lb. 

With 30 minutes left in the match I was finally catching fish. A low winning weight was on the cards because of the horrible weather so I hoped for a couple more carp and during this time a caught a big F1 and another carp round 4lb. So the gamble paid off today with the late Carp but the 5lb of silvers during the mid part of the match were very important as they got me over the line today.

Bomb rig – 10ft Preston mini plus bomb rod and 2508 Daiwa TDR reel loaded with 6lb Daiwa XT mono to a 10g Preston ICS inline match cube with a 15 inch 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge hook length with a size 16 Guru QM1 hook banded with a 6mm hard pellet