After the recent bad weather, gales, flooding and ice in recent weeks I’d not been fishing in recent weeks and this was my first outing of the New Year. I was itching to go. It was still cold but with no wind or rain forecasted I hoped to catch a few and off to the Hillview Saturday open I went.

Starting on the the Bomb and Bread

After the recent frosts and with the water now loosing it’s colour the plan was to fish the Bomb and Bread for the first couple of hours and then the pole later on. If I could snare one or two carp this would give me a good start to the match. Starting on the Bomb rod gave me the chance to look around and gauge how the other anglers were doing. Most of them started on the pole and were catching some of the many Ide in this pool but no carp had been caught yet. So during this time I was happy to sit it out and waited for the rod to bend around. It took and couple of casts around before I started to get a couple of indications on the tip and after 40 minutes the tip bend around and I had my first fish, a Carp around 5 or 6lb so the gamble had worked starting on the Bread. I’d only seen one F1 been caught by the other anglers fishing the pole so I was happy to continue with the Bomb and Bread and I had to wait for another 25 minutes for the next one. The tip bend around again and I was into my 2nd fish of the day. This one felt a lot bigger and the clutch on my reel was screaming with the fish going on a run. It took me a few minutes to get it under control. This was a real bonus fish for this time of the year so I took my time and gave it line when I needed to. Once it surfaced it was big, around 10 to 12lb and it was proper squeaky bum time! Luckily I landed it and now I wasn’t to bothered about the other anglers catching the Ide, although these can go up to 3lb here at Hillview and why people target them in the winter. I had plenty of time to catch another on the Bomb and Bread and my 3rd Carp of the day followed 20 minutes later. I now had around 25lb in the keepnet but then nothing followed for the next hour. So time to change to the pole.

Soft pellets on the pole

As I’d now already caught some Carp and I was ahead of every one else and I started fishing the pole with a 4mm Sonubaits Pro Expander as hook bait and feeding a few mirco’s via a cad pot at 7 metres in the deepest part of the water which was about 5 foot. I didn’t need to fish maggots for the Ide now, I was fishing for Carp and F1’s. I did catch a few silvers at first but I hoped the micro’s would draw in Carp and F1’s and it wasn’t long before a caught a couple of decent sized F1’s around 3-4lb each. It was a bit of a waiting game for the bites but I did now have time on my side and I was prepared to wait for the better fish, but I did still catch the odd Ide or Skimmer. I added several more F1’s and small Carp for the next two hours but as the time went this pole line with soft pellets was slowing down and now going into the last hour it was time to switch on maggots.

Switching to maggots

The last hour at this time of the year at Hillview can be great fishing maggots. The F1’s begin to feed and they push out the small Ide and Skimmers. You still catch them but there is always a chance of catching a few F1’s in-between the silvers and this proved the case. I was now loose feeding by hand now rather than cad potting in the maggots (why I fished at 7 metres) and I added more F1’s and the odd small carp during this last hour.

The all-out came and I already knew I was in with a good chance of framing. The angler to my right had also caught plenty of fish but a lot of these fish where Ide. He weighed in 61lb which is a phenomenal weight for the 3 week in January and I knew he was going to push me hard. My carp and F1’s weighed just behind his 61lb but my 9lb of silvers got me over the line with a total weight of 69lb 15oz and I’d won the match !

Best rigs of the day

Bomb and Bread – The was a small Preston 10g ICM bomb with a 15 inch Preston size 16 KKM-B Rapid Stopped Ready rig baited with 3 10mm Bread disc’s set up on a 10ft Bomb rod and 6lb Mainline on a Daiwa 3012 TDR reel.

Pole rig – 4 x16 Preston F1 Maggot set up at 5 foot depth on 0.17mm mainline with 6 x 8 shot and 2 x 10 shot strung out above the hook length which was a size 18 (0.11mm) 6 inch Preston GPM Ready rig. Set up with Preston 11 Dura Slip though an standard top kit.

So a great start to the New Year, one match and a win !!