Mathern Mill saturday open.

That short drive again today to Mathern for a practice match hoping to go for silvers. 12 fishing and with the torrential rain we had in the last 36 hours I really didnt think it would fish that well today. I was almost expecting to find one big lake instead of 2 today. I dived into the draw first as I wanted to draw down the motorway end of the lake. But peg 22 come out, as far from the other end as I could get. Its a corner of the lake Ive never done any good from. A big lily bed where you can loose loads of carp and a resident shoal of tiny rudd that stop just about every bait getting to the bottom. I set up to fish caster or maggot over groundbait at 5 and 13 metres for the skimmers if any were around, and also a carp rig to fish over the same lines. A rig to fish along to my left in shallower water as the carp can come in on this line. There was a nice big gap in the dying lily`s where I could guide them out if hooked. And a bomb rod to fish the other side of the bay as another option. I started on the bomb while the groundbait line settled but after 25 minute and no pull rounds I ditched that for the time being. Out to 13 meters and I got a skimmer first drop in. Only 5 ounces but it was a start. Nobody was catching at that time so the cold rain had done a number on the fish and they were not feeding. A couple more bits came to hand before the first carp was hooked on the silvers rig. 10 minutes later it was landed. Squeaky bum time at about 10lb. that just about killed the silvers line and all I could get then was blippy rudd. Another try on the bomb was biteless. I took a couple of smaller carp at 13m down the edge but they werent there in any numbers. After about 3 hours I had my first pull round on the bomb, and it was a bruser at 18-7. I think thats the biggest fish Ive landed in a match. the restof the match was spent swapping around all lines. The silvers lines only pruduced rudd and on the carp lines I did manage another 5 fish. But it was a struggle to get anything going. The last hour was crap and bites were a premium. At the end my guess was around 70lb for nowhere, but was pleased my fish went 80-8 and got me third on the day. The skimmers just never showed up today for anyone. Top dog on the day was new resident to the area Rich Heatley, who now calls this place his local water, on peg 2 with 99-4 second was Rich Lovering on peg 25 with 86-3. Top silvers on the day went to venue expert Norm Sterry with 25-11 from peg 8.