Hillview Open - 2/5/2009

12 Fishing

I hadn’t fished at all for 2 weeks so back into matches and I decided to go to Hillview with my dad, as it was fishing quite well and there was something going on at Woodlands. Arriving at the fishery it seemed 50 degrees warmer than home! It was hot and calm, not the best conditions for fishing, but brilliant for getting a tan!

After a brilliant breakfast I went for a quick walk and quite fancied most pegs as it was being won from various areas so it would be nice and fair. I did point out however how I would like to be on the Heron on pegs 27-29 as I fancied fishing the rods. In for the draw and I pulled out peg 29! Result! Gary Picken did tell me once I had drawn it that the peg was fishing really iffy and no decent weights had come off it for a while. With him being the venue expert, I did take this into account, but still went about my normal match.

Arriving at my peg I realised I had loads of room with only one other angler on my bank. But I also noticed that there was a load of fish on the top which isn’t always a good sign. I got 4 top kits out of my bag (2 double number 6, 2 double number 8 elastic). My 1st rig was a deck rig at 13m, which consisted of a 0.5 MW Pellet float on 0.14 Silstar to an 0.12 bottom with a Mosella Micro Band and a 18 B911 hook. Rig number 2 was a shallow rig that consisted of a Malman 4x8 on 0.14 Silstar again with a band and a B911 hook. I then plumbed a rig on my top 2 which was a 0.3 MW Pellet on 0.16 Silstar to a 0.14 hook length. My final rig was for fishing the margins either side in 2½ feet of water was a 0.1 Griizzly on 0.18 Silstar to an 0.16 hook length and a size 4 Tubertini 175 hook. If the fish come in, they were definitely not breaking me!! Bait wise I had 3 pints of 4mm pellets, 2 pints of 6mm pellets for fishing shallow and a couple of tins of corn.

At the all in I potted around 100 softened 4mm pellets on my long line and started pinging it with 6mm’s, I also fed my short line with the same amount. I put a bit more in both margins along with some corn. I didn’t even attempt to put my full depth rig in at 13m instead I started on my shallow rig set at 1ft. After 10 minutes of missing bites I finally connected with a fish, a skimmer about 2lb. The carp just weren’t feeding. After 45 minutes of trying shallow at loads of different depths I finally decided to try short……to catch another skimmer! After an hour and a half I decided to get my waggler rod out as there were fish constantly swirling at the island. First cast my and my rod was literally ripped out of my hand and my 1st carp was in the net. I thought I had sussed it, but then after 30 minutes, I realised it wasn’t working and only had that one mug! All of the first 2 hours I was trying my edges but getting ‘roached out’ and I finally upped the feed going into the 3rd hour, putting a full pot both sides and resting it.

In the 3rd hour I decided to get all my section out of my bag and look for shoals of fish and just drop my rig amongst them hoping one of them would take it. After an hour of mugging fish I had about 21lb of carp for my efforts and 2 skimmers. I then dropped in on my edges and after a good 15 minute wait I was into my 1st carp. From that point on I caught steady until the end with all of the fish being a good size, I had one beast that scared me when it popped up! Best bait for the big fish was double corn, and I had my biggest fish on 3 grains of corn! I’m sure I would have bagged on paste but I didn’t have any. I literally fed life into my peg, giving them a big pot and then fishing it out and then another big pot. As soon as I started sprinkling like I normally do here, it was roach fishing!

At the all out I didn’t think I had done enough to frame or win the lake but had a good day, with my clicker saying 65lb. it was the most I had ever fed at this place to catch fish, I had got through 2.5 pints of pellets and a tin of corn to get the fish in my peg and believe if I had upped it earlier I would have bagged a lot more. At the weigh in, 50lb odd was winning, I took the lead with 87lb 13oz , my estimating was well out again!! I ended up coming up 2nd in the match to Gary Picken on peg 9 who had 90lb odd. All in all a good day, and some more coin!!