Last Sunday it was back to Woodland View for the Open. Another good attendance saw 34 anglers spread over Back Deans, Hay and Arles pools. I quite fancied Hay pool. I’ve not fished it many times before and this time Mick actually drew me peg 6 on Hay from the Car Park, as per the Covid restrictions.

It’s a little walk to Hay and I’d forgotten my shuttle this week but with the large amount of anglers fishing we were given an hour and a half to get to our pegs and set up for the match.. So I had plenty of time.

On arrival at my peg planned long and short pole lines with hard pellets on the bottom, margins left and right and a 2+1 line with micro and corn. Being a canal/snake style pool I also set up a small pellet feeder for throwing over to the far bank which was about 20 metres away and out of pole range.

Weather wise is was overcast and mild with a gentle breeze. I’d seen a few small fish topping but with no carp cruising around I left my shallow kits in the holdall. But being already set up I could easily get them out if needed. Talking to the other anglers on the bank before the all-in it appeared the big carp were down the other end of the pool but I still hoped for a good day.

Starting on the Pellet Feeder

I started on the pellet feeder fishing a small 30g Preston ICS pellet feeder loaded with fishery micro and a 6mm pellet on a 4 inch size 16 0.17mm Preston KKM-B Banded Ready rig. I began to catch a few small F1’s straight from the start. But no Carp. The angler to my left had also started well but he was on the pole half way across. I wanted to continue with pellet feeder approach as it’s a method I don’t fish that often but it soon began apparent more fish could be caught on the pole so reluctantly I switched to the pole next.

Long/short Pole lines

The angler next to me was catching a few small F1’s on the pole at 13 metres on the bottom so I copied him next! I opted to fish a banded 6mm fishery pellet while feeding a few 6mm’s via a cad pot hoping for a better stamp of fish than the other angler was catching. I felt feeding 4mm’s would only draw in small fish. The set up in approximately 5 foot of water was an 4×14 Carp Pellet pole float on 0.17mm Guru N Gauge mainline with strung out shotting on the bottom half of the rig with a size 16 Guru 0.13mm SLWG banded Ready rig, set up on Preston Red 15 Dura Slip. (love this elastic). Plumbing around my long and short poles I had the same depth of water. So I plumbed up to the body of the pole float for fishing dead depth. I caught a few on the long line but these were only small F1’s so I began to prime my short line, again with 6mm’s hoping for a better stamp of fish closer in but I could only catch small F1’s. I need some carp!

Time for the margins

Two hours in to the match I had a look short in the left and right margins and my short 2×1 line. I’d been feeding big pots of corn and micro every half hour since the start of the match hoping to give the fish confidence before fishing here. The right hand margin with double corn hook bait proved to be the best. I caught a 8lb carp, a couple of big Skimmers and two small Carp. But that was it and I probably stayed on this line for two long. The fish weren’t coming on to feed. The margin rig was a 4×14 Preston Edge pole float (ideal with it’s 2.5mm bristle) on 0.19 Guru N Gauge with a bulk above a 4 inch cut down Size 14 Preston XSH Ready Rig. set up on 19 Hollo and the 2+1 line was a 4g Guru Diamond which gives the rig good stability over a pile of bait again with a size 14 Preston XSH Ready Rig.

The fishing wasn’t great though and I thought the fish weren’t coming on to the top shelf of the margin so I tried my short 2+1 line at the bottom of the shelf next, again with double corn but this only produced a couple of small F1’s.

Back to the Hard pellet short line

With a hour of the match left it was clear the big carp weren’t feeding. Just small F1’s and the odd small Carp. So I returned to the short hard pellet line to pick off what I could and try for a section win. I’d still been feeding it with the 6mm’s and sometimes the bigger carp can show up late here. I began to catch again but still only small carp and F1’s. But at least I was catching a few. I finished the match of here weighing in 51lb which was just the one big carp from the margin and the rest were small F1’s and carp. I just missed the section win finishing 2nd in the section this time, for just a days fishing.

Really looking back on the day and should have stayed on the short hard pellet line catching the small F1’s and carp and building a weight. The time spent in the margins hoping for the big fish to turn up cost me a brown envelope this week as it turned out the big carp didn’t feed on this day and most anglers struggled to build big weights this time.