Mathern Mill Friday Open

Today`s match at Mathern was on the motorway lake where there is a large head of silvers , but even though I went in the silvers pools I just cant sit it out on silvers when I know there are big carp on offer. But I did set up a silvers rig in case the big boys didn`t play. Into the draw bag and out pops 25, but as they have changed the pegging since I last fished this lake so a quick check was needed to find out where I was. And it was happy days 😀.

A good peg to the right of the aerator, usualy good for a few lumps. To my left was George Sumsion  and beyond him venue supremo Norm Sterry. And with him on a very good corner peg it could be tough. Got to the peg and found this peg didn`t look like it had been fished for a while with it being very overgrown. I couldn`t even tell where the concrete bank was, so I set about clearing it out. I basicaly had no margin either side as there were Water iris to my right going out to a point I couldn`t see anything, and the rope for the aerator to my left with the electric cable dropping into the water about a metre out so that side was completely out of bounds. So a big clear out to my right was done so I could at least fish one side. And the view gave me a chance to fish close to the lily bed around the corner were the local munters tend to live.

I set up four rigs and a bomb rod to fish against the island. The rigs were, a  . 3 SS Margin to fish through the jungle gap to the lily bed on corn or 8mm pellet. Another to fish the top 2 next to my keepnet against the iris`ss`ss`s. A point 4 slim to fish a silvers line over ground bait at 2+2. And a .5 slim for pellet at 13 metres. At the start I went straight over to the island on the bomb looking for the resident lumps, It took a while for a pull round, but it came off half way back when it surfaced. The bomb came back at speed over my head, but I cleverly caught it in my left hand...Go me lol. Ten minutes later I hooked another but that came off pretty quick. Hmmm, not going to plan. George was still fishless, but Norm was storming away and had already hooked 11 fish in the first 30 minutes but had lost 9. Several taking his rigs. No more bites came on my bomb line so it was time to try the lily bed. I`d been feeding 6mm and corn and first drop in the float burried but before I could lift my pole over the foliage the fish was ten metres through the lily bed. no chance of getting that in. so when I found it had come off i pulled for a break. But i got the lot back. back in again and the same result. this time no rig on the return. This happend 6 more times before I gave up on this line. These bloody fish had been trained by Usain bolt. They were in the lilies before I could react. And when you think many are big doubles in this peg I never had a chance. So it was a try on the close edge line but that never produced a bite. back on the bomb but nothing happened. In fact bites had dried up completely. Half way through Norm was now up in the thirties with carp hooked and mostly lost but I recon he had about ten in the net. I couldn`t see much else being caught around the lake so Norm was well ahead. I was now pulling my hair out as I know there were fish in my peg but I couldn`t get going. So it was back to the lily bed were I continued to loose a couple more. Norm had a big smile on his face as he couldnt believe how many fish he was loosing and it did make me laugh a bit. The carp in this lake are loonatics and it is realy hard work to get the small ones out. It does give you doubts about trying to bully them as they just pull harder than you want to try with the pole. New plan, fish for silvers. So it was on with double maggot and hope I could find some of the big skimmers in this lake. First drop in and the float stayed flat on the surface. a small rudd had grabbed it. Back in. same thing. Another rudd. And im talking 2 inches. so i moved 5 number 8`s down to the hook length. But it made no difference. The float just shot across the surface and another rudd was on. I never got the bait to the bottom in ten minutes. So that line was binned. Not interested in 30 fish to the pound. back through the gap but I had been feeding a line very close to the flattened Iris. first drop in the float burried and I managed to stop the first run and it resulted in a 6 pounder. A few minutes later I hooked another that just plodded around for ten minutes. It was a beast at around 17lb. And as soon as it was away from the feed area, there were more tails showing. Maybe a chance of a late turn around. I basically stayed on this line for the rest of the match and even though I lost a few more to the lilies I managed to take 7 from this line including another good double. George had a couple of carp but had stayed mostly fishing for silvers. he had plenty of them but they were small so he worked hard for what he had. At the weigh in I was in front with my 9 carp going 72-05 for third on the day. Not sure what the top silvers was at the time as I didn`t get the silvers weigh sheet. Norm had stopped counting lost fish when he got to 40 but still managed to get enough in for a winning weight of 109-07. He trashed 20 rigs today which had me giggling. But a bonus for me he bought 20 float from me to replace them. Every cloud and that lol. second on the day went to Billy Barble, (that cant be his real name hahaha) with 76-07 from peg 11. A frustrating day again for me, and I just cant seem to get my act together at the mo. Guess we all go through bad patches. Hope it picks up a buit and mybe I might get a win for a change. Weigh sheet below.