This week I returned to Hillview for their regular Saturday open held over Moorhen, Heron and one of the canals. I won the match with my first tonne+ catch of 2019 

The match saw 26 anglers spread over Moorhen, Heron and one of the canal pools. I really wanted to draw on the canal pool but home for the day was Moorhen 17. 

I was happy with Moorhen 17 as it has a small island to throw to. So I started the match on the maggot feeder after feeding 3 pole lines with micro pellet. The maggot feeder didn’t produce as expected and after a bite less 40 minutes it was time to try the pole lines. 

The angler to my left had caught several carp and F1’s from the margins while I’d been on the feeder, so I tried fishing where I’d fed in front of the next pallet next, but no bites came. So at this point I re-fed this line with another pot of micro’s and left it.

It was now 2 hours into the match and I was fish less, and well behind in the match. I needed to start catching so I began feeding maggots short over my 2+2 line. I began catching fish at last!  I was catching small Barbel and the odd Skimmer which was good but I wasn’t going to complete in the match even though it was a fish a chuck on this short line.

The margin needed to produce. I’d now put plenty of bait into the left margin and I tied it again with a 6mm expander pellet. The guy on the next pallet was still catching well from both this margins left and right so I was positive that I’d catch in the margins as the wind was blowing into the bank side. But no it wasn’t working. 

Something wasn’t right, I thought the fish were there but they were not taking the expander pellet. So I tried a grain of corn on the hook next. This worked, I caught a couple of good carp in the next 10 minutes. So I began kinder feeding 4mm pellets and a few grains of corn rather than the micro’s with corn on the hook. 

I thought I was now back in the race and there were still 3 hours to go in the match there was still plenty of time to catch all the another angers up. The 4mm pellet/corn attack was now working well I was catching some nice carp. Feeding a kinder cup of pellet and a few grains of corn every 10 minutes. It was just a case of feeding and sitting and waiting for the bites to come. These margin carp were a good stamp of fish so it was worth staying on the same line for the rest of the match. The last hour proved the best and I gradually increased the amount of corn I was feeding as the bite/fish ratio got faster. At the end of the match I felt I’d overtaken the angler on the next peg who’d caught well all match so I felt pretty confident of framing. 

I was 2nd to weigh in and placed 115lb 8oz on the scales. I was pretty confident off winning the pool when the angler next to me weighed in 105lb. It was a bit of a wait to hear the results from the other pools but I was delighted to hear I’d won the match. My 2nd win at Hillview since Christmas.   

Margin Rig – 0.3g Nick Gilbert NG XT Edger pole float on 0.19 N-Gauge mainline with a small bulk of no.8 shot above a 0.13mm LWG size 16 Guru Ready rig. Set up on Black NG Amber Core elastic.