This week I travelled over to Woodland View for their Sunday Open match with a good turnout spread over Front and Back Deans. 

The weather was horrible, wind and rain was forecast all day but the temperature was up a little from last week so I hoped some fish would be feeding. I drew peg 5 on Front Deans an area that hasn’t produced in recent weeks so I though it would be tough going this time. No Carp had been caught in this area the previous week. However this was a end peg and I had plenty of room so I was a little hopeful. 

I setup a light rig for fishing maggots or corn on the drop. This was Preston 4×14 F1 Fine pole float as it has a thin 1.2mm bristle to show up the smallest of bites and also a carbon stem to follow the lightly spread shotted no.10’s and no,11’s though the depths of the swim. Main line was 0.13mm to a light size 18 Preston SFL hook on a 6 inch 0.11mm Ready rig. Elastic choice was a Preston 11 Dura Slip which would give me half a chance of getting Carp on a light hook length out but also soft enough for silvers which would probably come into play this week. 

I also set up a heavier rig for soft pellets and corn as the temperature was warmer this week and a margin rig for fishing down the self in the deeper water. If things didn’t go to plan or if the wind became to bad for the long pole I had bomb rod on stand by for fishing bread or corn out into the middle of the pool. 

I started on the long pole at 14.5 metres fishing maggots and cad potted in several maggots and waited for a response. I began to catch very small Roach and the odd small Skimmer but this wasn’t going to win anything. So hoping to attract a Carp I began to cad pot in small balls of fishery micro and alternated between 1 and 3 maggot on the hook. This didn’t make any difference I was still catching very small fish. So I came in short at 6 sections again fishing maggots and balls of fishery micro. This made no difference to my catch rate but it was easier to fish short because of the wind. So I stayed on this short line for the next half hour. 

An angler down the other end of the pool had now caught a carp and a re-think was needed. I decided fishing with maggots for these small fish wasn’t the way forward and I changed to corn on the hook, still feeding micro’s and a few grains of corn between these two pole lines. First ship out on the long line with corn snared a carp on the drop around 4lb. This took the pressure off and I stayed there for the next half hour but no more bites followed. Maybe it was a rouge carp? I came in short and caught a 2nd carp here again on corn and then after a while another. This persuaded me to stick with the corn hook bait as the odd carp was feeding and not many had been caught around the pool. I was doing OK with my three carp and a few silvers. 

As time progressed sitting it out on corn hoping for another carp after trying different places long and short, Silvers began to come into my thoughts. I was doing well, not many carp had been caught on the pool and I had three. Maybe I should now fish for silvers to boost my weight to give me a better chance of framing. It was going into the last hour now. I’d tried pellets and corn short and even the margins for no reward. My float was towing a lot today and it was difficult to fish over my few loose offerings that I was cad potting in but I felt the carp would feed in the last hour as despite it being windy and raining the actual temperature was good. I began catapulting maggots out to 13 metres spreading out my bait trying to trigger the carp to feed but also knowing there were still plenty of small silvers to be caught if the carp didn’t show up. So I began to feed maggots though the catapult heavier. I caught some silvers as expected, then the elastic pulled out with another carp. The heavier feeding at the right time worked! 

I went on to have a good last hour adding another five Carp with a few Roach and small Skimmers feeding the maggots via the catapult and catching on the drop. I felt I would push for a section win as not much else had been caught by the other anglers on the pool. However the angler at the opposite end of the pool had caught a few. I was first to weigh in and placed a dead 39lb on the scales and then packed away all my gear as it was raining rather than going to look to see what everybody else had caught. So I didn’t know the result until the end when Mick the fishery owner pulled up back at my peg as I was loading up the car with a brown envelope for me. I thought I’d won the section but actually it turned out that I had actually finished top weight on my pool and 2nd overall in the match between both front and Back Deans.

So this was a difficult days fishing with the tow on the water and the windy conditions making it hard to fish over my feed. I felt the best chance was feeding with the catapult and spreading out my bait. This worked well in that last golden hour and a nice brown envelope to go home with this week from an unfaniced peg!! 

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