Match Report

We were greeted by a bit of rain which thankfully soon cleared and the weather remained pleasant for the rest of the day. We had a good turnout but just managed to all fit along the solar panel bank which seems to fish best at this time of year. The only downside was that the last three pegs were very muddy even more than our last visit here in mid December.
The normal tactic at this time of year is to dob bread along the far bank for Carp, this had proved very successful for Paul Ward last time out but only a couple of Carp were found during the first couple of hours using this method so most of us changed tactics.
Match Secretary Keith Hughes decided upon a worm approach and fished about 1/2 metre off the island and caught six Carp and some Skimmers for a total of 15lb 11oz to take first place.
Steve Simmonds drew the far end peg which he also drew in the December match. After fishing to the lilies for a couple of hours on a pellet cone with no success he reverted to a whip line and pinkie, having had some success with this tactic last time out. He put together a mixed bag of Roach and Skimmers of 10lb 15oz for second place.
Vince Herringshaw persevered with the dobbing for around 4 hours but for just one carp. He then changed to a silver fish approach and in the last couple of hours has around 4lb of Roach. His total of 6lb 11oz was good for third place.
It was interesting that those that switched to a silver approach got an almost instant response with plenty of fish being caught and it would have been interesting to see just what weights could have been achieved if this had been silver fish only.