After last weeks 2nd place and full of confidence, off to Hillview I went for this weeks Sunday Open. This week numbers fishing were slightly down and the match was split between canals 3 and 4. In went my hand into the draw bag and last weeks peg 81 stuck into my hand. So it was game on again and I ran to my peg.

So the sent up was identical to last week, Two maggot rigs for down the track, a bulk and two droppers, a strung out rig. Top two plus one for soft pellets and a margin rig for down into the corner in front of the next pallet.

Starting on soft pellets short

The plan without doubt was maggots for later in the match once I had primed my lines, as this had worked well the previous week. So I started short at 2+1 with a 4mm Sonubaits Pro Expander, cad potting in fishery micro over the top. This was good I began to catch straight away and I was beginning to think this was going to be a pellet match. After 40 minutes I had around 20lb in the keepnet but this then started to fade. So I began to prime my maggot lines a little earlier than planned while I switched into the corner. This had been good for 30 minutes last week and I hoped for the same. This week there was a problem though. The Sun was out and being the middle of November it was low in the sky and the glare it was making on the water surface was right where I wanted to put my float. I couldn’t fish there. It was blinding even with sun glasses on. I returned to the short pellet line but played around with a 6mm soft pellet and a small grain of corn as hook bait but this line had now died on me. Time for maggots next!

Switching to maggots

As it was a little early to switch to maggots I began to fish out further than planned opting to fish the track at 2+3 sections with a bulk and two droppers, cad putting maggots to keep all the bait in a tight area and with triple maggot on the hook to stop any small fish grabbing the hook bait. I began to catch again after a 20 minute spell fishless but it wasn’t great. So I decided to throw pinches of maggots by hand. This was much better and I was soon catching small carp and F1’s. I was catching fish but it was a while in between bites. I gave the strung out rig a go next but this was no good. (unlike the previous week when it was the better of the two maggot rigs) So I returned to the bulk and dropper rig, which was better. For the next couple of hours I was now building a good weight. I estimated I had around 50lb in the keepnets with the second half of the match to come, where normally this gets better and better at Hillview.

Normally at Hillview on these canal pools you can really throw some bait in going into the last couple of hours but today it was different. The fishing was getting harder. The wind had picked up now which I guessed it was push the fish down to the other end of the pool. I had upped the rate of feed maggot going in but the fishing was slowing down. At this point I began to open up a new line, fishing shorter, thus resting the longer line, still feeding it but spreading out the feed area hoping to attract the fish without a pole over there heads. I caught on the shorter line but this also faded after a short time. So I began alternated between these two lines which worked better and brought the fish back. I’d cutback on the feed now and this seemed to be working better now. As one line faded I switched lines which kept the fish coming.

I stayed on these two lines for the rest of match and there was no need to try the margin, Even though the sun had now moved. So it was there if needed but never come of feeding fish!

The weigh in

Canal 4 was first to weigh in and the top weight was 76lb. I estimated I had just over the tonne and was first to weigh on canal 3. My fish weighed in at 119lb 2oz. a few pounds better than then week before. I was happy with that as the fishing had been more technical today. I was in 1st place now and as I followed the scales down the pool I was still in 1st place until the last angler on the other end peg weighed in. I was happy anyway as I had already secured the section money. He said he’d had a great last two hours of the match. So my theory about the fish following the wind later in the match seemed correct. He’d caught a lot of fish and weighed 156lb to win the match.

So I was 2nd overall again off the same peg as the previous week. I’d caught more fish this time and had to think it out more this week so I felt I’d fished a good match this week. Lets hope I can drew peg 81 again next Sunday!!

Best rig of the day

This was the bulk and dropper rig. The strung out rig from the previous week wasn’t the better one this time. So it just goes to show both rigs should be set up. The bulk rig was a 4×12 Preston F1 maggot set up in 3 foot of water with a bulk of 4 no.9 shot 18 inches from the hook with 2 x no.10 droppers equally spaced at 6 inches from the hook. The hook length was a 6 inch Preston 6 inch SFL-B 011mm Ready rig set up on Preston 11 green dura slip elastic though a standard puller power kit.