With the week off work I was able to visit Manor Farm Leisure for their Thursday affordable open, held on the Boundary pool this week.I fancied a rod match with the Method and Bomb for a change. But it turned out to be a framing pole match in the end. 

I’d not had a session on the Method or the Bomb for a while and Manor Farm Leisure is one of those venues where these two methods work well. Plus I wanted some more F1 practise on the pole shallow before this coming Saturday’s Supercup semi final up at Tunnel Barn Farm so I set up Method and Bomb rods plus 3 pole rigs, a bottom rig, a shallow rig and an edge rig. 

I started on the Method fishing a 30g Preston Dura feeder loaded with micro pellets and a 6mm pellet on the hook half way across the pool. I had a pull round first chuck which was a small F1 in the first 5 minutes. I thought a good day on the rods was ahead of me. I cast out again and also fed a couple of pouches of 8mm pellets onto a short bomb time to my left just in case the method didn’t produce. But after 45 minutes with no more pull rounds on the rod despite several hook bait changes I threw the rod up the bank and picked up the Bomb rod a cast over the feed area I’d primed earlier.

Nothing happened which is pretty strange for this pool it normally responds well to the pellet and bomb approach. So with an hour and a half already gone in the match, was the pole going to get me some bites? 

I’d been feeding my 13 metre pole line via a cup a couple of times since the start of the match and I went out on the pole line with a banded 6mm hard pellet. After a few minutes I hooked and lost a good carp but I felt there were now some fish in the peg and sure enough after another few minutes I caught a couple of small F1’s. 

I carried on feeding this pole line via a cataplut pinging in 8-10 6mm hard pellets in every few minutes with the veiw of keeping any carp on the bottom, catching a few and then cutting down the feed to hopefully bring them up in the water for the last half of the match. 

My next fish was a big Carp around 8lb in weigh. As I hooked this carp I took my time with it, letting my No.12 Hollo elastic take the strain. I didn’t want to get broken like the first big carp. I was fishing fairly light with a 0.13mm hook lenght so I took my time this time!! 

The next 40 minutes proved to be good and I caught some small Carp and F1’s on the bottom in this period. The bites began to slow down now and I was missing a few bites. So had the fished moved up in the water?? 

I went out with a shallow rig and began slapping for a few shallow feeding F1’s. But as a back up I began feeding the left margin with corn for the last hour if required. The Shallow session proved fruitless I never had a bite for 30 minutes and then I saw a big carp swirl in the margin. So I tried this next.

I was fished the margin for 5 minutes hoping to catch that big carp I’d seen. However the carp in my Keepnets began splashing and this spooked the Carp it also broke the water with a big splash seconds after the carp in my keepnet had splashed. The angler on the next peg then caught a big carp after 5 minutes. Maybe it was the same one?? Anyway I carried on with the margin and I caught a couple of Skimmers. 

This margin was very shallow, only 6 inches deep and after 15 minutes I’d not had a Carp bite and there was only 20 minutes left. So I gave up on this margin and returned to the 13 metre pole line, but back on the bottom and I cataputed in some feed pellets hoping to bring the carp back. 

This worked I hooked a landed another Carp around 8lb after a few minutes and then a couple more F1’s before the all out. 

I ended the match with 42lb which was enough for 4th place in the match. an enjoyable days fishing even though I’d fancied a rod match at the start it was nice to catch some nice F1’s on the hard pellet. 

The bottom rig acounted for all the fish apart from the first Method F1 at the start of the day. 

Bottom Rig – 0.5g Nick Gilbert NG XT finesse HD Carbon pole float set up on 0.15mm Guru N-Gauge main line. a small bulk of no. 8 stotz’s with 2 no. 10 droppers spaced out in 6 inch gaps above a 6 inch 0.13mm hook lenght tied to a size 16 Guru Super LWG banded hook. Set up on a No.12 preston dura hollo elastic.