This Sunday it was back to Hillview for the Open. This week this was split over canals, one, three and four. I drew peg 87 on canal 4 which is in a good area but with the weather back in winter mode at around 4 or 5 degrees it was going to be another cold one.

A great start on maggots

I began fishing double red maggot and cad potting in maggots over the top of the float and I hoped for a good start and very soon I began to catch small Carp and F1’s doing this, just topping up a small cad pot with red maggots after every fish. The first two hours were fantastic fishing and I estimated I had 50lb in the Keepnet. The question was how long would this last and could I now build a framing weight? The water was only around 3.5 foot deep and with the sun out I expected this line to dye off at some point with my pole hovering over the top. So I began feeding a short maggot line and then also a soft pellet line where I’d fed a little micro pellet for later when this first line would begin to fade. I reached this turning point around 12.30 two hours into the match. The bites dried up and it was time to move.

But a poor middle hour

So now I’d gone from a bagging mode to a scratching around mode. I couldn’t bye a bite anywhere. It was like some one had thrown a switch. Both short lines produced nothing. I looked into the margins but all that this produced a single gudgeon and I was going from hero to zero pretty fast. I needed to do something quick. So with two hours left in the match I returned to the far bank line. At least it had been rested for an hour!

Back in the game

This time returning to the far bank I went back to minimal winter feeding. Rather then feeding maggots through a pot I picked up the catty and began spraying around a few loose maggots hoping to draw in a few feeding fish. This worked to some degree and I caught some more fish but it was nothing like the two first hours. Adding 30lb in the next two hours.

This give me a total weight of 88lb 15oz for the match. This was 2nd on my pool, canal 4 where the top weight was 94lb so I hoped that would win the match and give me a section win.

Unfortunately for me there was one better weight from the other two pools, Canal 1 had been won with 103lb. So this put me actually 3rd placed overall. But no brown envelope came my way just the quedos of being 3rd overall as at Hillview they pay the winner and then section prizes. Nothing for being 3rd! That middle hour cost me today.

Best rig of the day

This was a 4×12 Preston F1 Maggot in about 3.5 foot of water, set up on 0.17mm mainline with a bulk of no.9 shot with two no.10 droppers above a size 18 Preston SFL Ready Rig. set up with a 13 white Dura slip elastic.