I was keen to fish this match on the Ghost pool rather than the regular Sunday open because Ghost doesn’t normally go in for the opens and I’d only ever fished it once before.  

So this Brookfield’s AC match was ideal. Some really big weights can come off this pool, especially from the early pegs on the car park side of the pool. I drew on the right side of the pool but sadly peg 8 which was the other end of the pool. However it was an end peg with a bit of room so I felt confident of doing well. 

On plumbing up I found it to be a quite shallow peg with only 3 foot of water at 13 metres and the same on top2+2. So being summer I was happy to draw a shallow peg, thinking the fish will want to be in the warmer water. I decided to really attack the peg with pellets, starting at 13 metres and working back to my short pole line and the margin for the second half of the match. 

The all in came and I cupped in half a 250ml pot of 6mm hard pellets in at 13 metres and left it for 20 minutes while I threw around the bomb and pellet hoping for a bonus early carp. No Carp came so I shipped out a full cad pot of 6mm hard pellets to the 13 metre area I’d baited up earlier and fished an 8mm hard pellet over the top. This was a little slow, I caught 3 carp and had a couple of foul hookers in the first hour so I came onto my short top2+2 line where I’d been loose feeding 4mm pellets for a hour. This produced one carp but after 20 minutes I felt the carp hadn’t moved in yet and I returned to the 13 metre line, re-fed it with 6mm pellets every put in and I caught several more carp with the 8mm hook bait. 

A couple of anglers had now moved into their margins now and a few carp had been caught. I fed corn into my right hand margin. I was on an end peg and so had plenty of room and I expected to catch there. After 10 minutes I spotted a swirl and I went straight in. I caught a good carp after 5 minutes, re-fed some corn and then I had another. But that was it. At the moment the carp at Woodland View don’t come it and stay in the margins. So after a bite less 20 minutes I needed to do something else. 

There was now 2 hours left in the match and I’d been feeding my short pole line with 4mm pellets since the start of the match. It was time to go on it now. I started with a 6mm hard pellet as hook bait and after 5 minutes I began catching a few carp. The next 30 minutes was good and I was starting to build a framing weight. I’d fed 4mm’s up to now but I now began to feed 4’s and a few 6mm’s. Feeding the 6mm’s would hopefully keep the fish on the bottom. 

The last hour was good I was landing a fish every 5 minutes. Mainly Carp and the odd Skimmer. My margin had now become my throw away line just in case the bites on the short pole line dried up. 

Come the weigh in I had 76lb on my clicker. I was the last man to way in. Watching the weigh in, the two flyers at the other end of the pool had put 122lb and 111lb on the scales, where as the other anglers had 50-80lb nets of fish. I felt I could still frame. I weighed in 96lb 0oz which was enough for 3rd on the day.   

Long pole Rig – 0.3g NG XT Finesse Power pole float set up on 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge main line with a bulk of no.9 stotz and two no.10 dropper shot above a 6 inch 0.15mm size 14 Guru SLWG banded Ready rig. set up on a Nick Gilbert 14-18 Ambercore Hollow elastic.   

Short pole (2+2) Rig – 0.2g NG XT Finesse Power pole float set up on 0.17mm Guru N-Gauge main line with a bulk of no.9 stotz above a 6 inch 0.15mm size 14 Guru SLWG banded Ready Rig. set up on a Nick Gilbert 14-18 Ambercore Hollow elastic.  

Margin Rig – 0.2g NG XT Edger pole float set up on 0.19mm Guru N-Gauge mainline with a small bulk of no.9 stotzs above a 6 inch size 14 Guru 0.17mm XS Carp Ready rig. Set up on Purple Hydro (14-18)