I was meant to be in Barcelona this week as its half term and the Mrs works in a school but she’d had to have an operation last week and we couldn’t go. So I was able to jump on the mid week Cost cutter open at Woodland View. Not a lot of cash up for grabs being a cheap match to enter but it was just a days fishing for me as I always need a competitive edge when I go fishing.

We were all pegged on Front Deans for the match. I hadn’t been to Woodland View for a couple of months and home for the day was peg 30. The area hadn’t been fishing that well, so I heard after the match but I didn’t know this before the start. Being the first week in November I planned a maggot and soft pellet attack fishing for the resident F1’s. The plan was to start fishing a 4mm Sonubaits Pro Expander, feeding a little micro pellet on a short pole line before switching to maggots at 13 metres if the weather allowed and to finish off the match fishing maggots on a second short pole line.

The weather forecast wasn’t that good, It was a blustery day and with the sun low in the sky as its November it makes fishing on this bank on Front Deans difficult to read the pole float at distance. I planned to fish maggots at 13 metres when the wind would allow. If I couldn’t catch on the short pole lines and the wind was to strong to fish the pole out long I also set up a feeder rod on a ICS system so I could either fish a maggot feeder or a method. But I hoped this wouldn’t come into play.

On the all in I started on a short pole line at 2+3 fishing a 4mm Sonubaits Pro Expander, cad potting in small balls of micro over the top. I caught a few small F1’s and Skimmers for the first hour but I felt I was wasting my time here and I was soon wanting to switch to maggots. The wind was really to strong to fish any longer than 2+3 and throwing feed by hand would just spread the maggots all over the peg to I began to cad put in maggots. My catch rate got better with the maggots but the sunny glare and strong ripple on the water made it difficult to see the float bristle and I had to keep moving around the peg so I could see the float. I continued doing this for the next hour or so. Cad potting plenty of maggots on each line, catching a few F1’s and Skimmers before having move because of the sun glare.

It got to the half way point in the match and the wind was dying down a bit and I was able to go out long to my 13 metre line, This time feeding via the catapult. This was much better, the fish were out into the middle of the pool and I caught some nice F1’s here but fishing at range in this weather was becoming hard to do. So I began priming my short 2+2 line with maggots where I could throw accurately for the last hour. I went on this line after priming it for 40 minutes and the fishing was now just a good as the 13 metre line and this is where I finished off the match.

I weighed in 53lb of F1’s and Skimmers. (no carp) which was good enough for 2nd in the match which I was happy enough with considering the bad conditions and I really enjoyed my day, I had bites all day! I love this style of fishing, building a weight of F1’s rather than sitting it out for few Carp on a big bait.

Best rig of the day