Greenridge Farm Open- 18/4/09

After my birthday celebrations over the Easter weekend it's pretty safe to say I was looking forward to getting back on the bank this weekend. I am moving to Romsey next week, around 4 miles from a venue I had heard alot about but never fished- Greenridge Farm. With nothing on this weekend it was the perfect opportunity to check the place out so I booked myself in for the Saturday open. As is often the case when visiting a new venue I got in touch with a few people on the online fishing forums to try and gather whatever information I could that would give me an idea of what to expect.
Arriving at the fishery at around 8am I had a quick walk around and found 3 canals,all around 13-14.5m wide with a nice colour and no real obvious 'stand-out' swims. I wandered around to the lodge where a few of the regulars had assembled around the BBQ which I later found out is run before every match. A couple of free bacon rolls and a tea later I paid my pools along with 27 other anglers and waited for the draw. Chatting to a couple of people it seemed the general consenus was that canals 2 & 3 were better,and you needed to avoid the end pegs as they hadnt had any form for a while with the fish concentrated in the middle pegs. In went my hand and out came peg 11- the end peg on canal 1- doh! I couldnt quite believe I had drawn the canal I was told I didnt want,and an end peg which I also didnt want.
Nonetheless I walked to my peg and tried to be optimistic,I couldn't see any reason why it wouldn't hold a few fish so decided to get any negative thoughts out of my head and approach the day with an open mind. Every one I could see had several pints of maggot with them which was apparently the best bait on there. I didnt have any with me as I had already made my mind up that I would fish pellet and corn,a decision I hoped I wouldn't regret

As you can see in the pictures (I left my camera in the car but went back after the match to take pics) I had about 15m straight across,with the end bank running to my right. There was a yellow pipe sticking out of this bank at 14m. I decided to fish two lines across,one at 15m on the top shelf where there was around 2ft of water. This rig was a 4x10 Scone Jubleez,0.16-16 B911. I found the exact same depth at 14m to the pipe which was to be my second swim. I also plumbed up at 14m straight across on the second shelf,where I had around 3 1/2 foot of water. This rig was a 4x12 Scone Jubleez on 0.16-16B911. I also set up a rig for the base of the near shelf at 3m where I had around 5ft. This rig was a 4x12 KC Chimp on 0.16-0.14 and a 16 B911. All 3 rigs were set to doubled 8 slip and had cad-pots on the pole. Finally I set up a rig for fishing tight in the corner to my right- a 4x10 Scone AM Wellardz on 0.16-16 B911 and Orange Wilkie Hollow.
For bait I had some Micro pellet,4mm pellet,two tins of corn and some expanders in 4.5m and 6mm. The all-in was called at 10.15 and I slipped on a 6mm expander and went straight onto the 3m line,flicking in 3 pellets every 10 seconds. After 5 minutes with no signs I cupped in a handful of corn and a few pellets. I then picked up the 14m rig,put 10 4mm pellets in the pot and shipped out to 14m at the pipe. After a few liners the float buried and I hooked a fish that turned out to be a small common of around 2lb,foul-hooked in the fin. I then repeated the process and again foul-hooked a fish that pulled out right at the net. After 5 minutes of liners I decided to leave this line and shipped out to the 15m line on 6mm expander with no feed. No bite's atall here saw me drop in at 3m. Two fish in two drops for about 6lb was a false dawn as the swim then died. Despite it feeling quite chilly early on,almost winter-like,I knew I had to make a change and toyed with the idea of fishing shallow. After taking another couple of fish from the two long lines I eventually made the decision an hour into the match. I got off my box,quickly set up a shallow rig (4x10 MTD1,0.16-16 Drennan eye barbless with a band on a hair) and filled up a bait box with 6mm pellets. I could see odd fish being caught to my left but no-one was particularly bagging and I had 5 fish in the net. I started to fire three 6mm pellets out every few seconds tight to the bank at 15m and after a few minute's of lifting and slapping the float dipped and a 3lber was soon in the net. I then had 3 more in 3 chucks before it went quiet. As I had been getting a few liners against the pipe I figured it would be worth trying here with the shallow rig so repeated the process and soon found a few more fish. I had to keep altering the depth, and none of the fish ripped the elastic out,all were slight dips on the float. It wasn't easy as the fish would come in fit's and starts,but I found by constantly feeding the two swims and taking a couple of fish off each I was able to get into a nice rhythym of feed,lift and drop the rig,strike,feed,ship back half-way,feed,net fish,feed which meant I was now catching far more regularly than anyone I could see. Around half way in I made the decision to feed two full pots of corn at 3m as I wanted to leave this line for a while allowing me to solely concentrate on the two shallow lines. I continued to pick fish off the two line's, although I did have a spell of half an hour or so without a fish,or even a bite,which I felt sure would cost me. At this point I shipped right over into the corner at 16m and took two quick fish shallow before I was back on the other two line's and eventually started to get into a rhythym again. With an hour to go I felt the shallow line's going away from me so decided to rest them and drop in at 3m. As there wasnt long left I made the decision to stop feeding the pipe line but would keep pinging pellet straight across at 15m as it had been the stronger line of the two. A quick bite on 6mm expander at 3m saw a 4lb carp in the net followed by a better fish of 6lb around 10 minute's later. The decision to feed corn heavily seemed to have paid off as it was important to add weight to the net while priming the long shallow line. With just over half an hour to go it was back on the shallow line at 15m and the rest seemed to have worked,as I took 6 fish in the final 40 minutes.
The all-out was called and I reflected on how I had done. I knew I would be up there as the guy to my left had around 20-30lb and although Andy Hayden on peg 9 had caught a few late on I was sure I had more than him. After packing away my gear the scales arrived at my peg and after two weighs my fish went 96lb. The chap to my left tipped back before Andy put 86lb on the scales. There were then a few 60's and 70's before the guy on peg 5 put 99lb on the scales- including a 6lb fish netted after the whistle- OUCH! There were then a few more 70 odd pound weights eventualy leaving me second on the lake overall. As expected canals 2 & 3 fished better with a 135lb and a 145lb winning each lake respectively.

Back to the BBQ area and there was time for a quick beer before collecting my winnings and heading home. All in all I felt I fished a good match. I drew a peg that apparantly had no form, fished my own match and managed to put a few fish together. It was a funny day as I dont think the fish really wanted to feed shallow, but fishing on the deck resulted in liners and foul-hooked fish. I spoke to a few other people who experienced the same thing fishing on the deck. Hardly anyone fished pellet,and the top-weights on the other canals fell to maggot. It certainly left me with plenty to think about and I have one or two things that I will be trying out when I return to the venue.

Todber Manor Open- 4/4/09

I had been hearing good things about Todber Manor for a while so without anything on this weekend I booked in for the Saturday open on Park Lake. I made a few phonecalls to Nick White during the week and he gave me plenty of info on the place as well as telling me that a lot of very good anglers fish there. Park Lake is a 38 peg canalised lake around 14.5m wide and is solid with carp and F1's. 179lb won the last match on there so it's safe to say I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately Nick had to cancel late on Friday as he couldn't make it but I decided I would still go as I wanted to check the place out and hopefully learn a thing or two. Arriving at the venue at around 8am (courtesy of the trusty SatNav) I had a wander around and was immediately impressed with what I saw- the central island was lined with reeds and sedges but every peg had a piece of around 1-2m cut out allowing you to fish tight to the bank. Pretty soon a few anglers started to assemble and it was like a who's who of southwest matchmen. Most of the Preston Thatchers team were in attendance and as they fish the place regularly I knew I would be up against it as it was likely to be a 'fish race' so if I fell behind early on it would be tough to catch up. Nick had informed me that the pegs to draw were the early one's (3-8) or the high thirties,particularly 38 which had been the real flier of late. These pegs were all down the far end of the lake where the big weights had been showing. With 25 pegs in the bag I had my dip and for a split second I thought I had drawn the dream peg but I had in fact pulled out 28. A quick chat with Gary Etheridge confirmed what I thought-not a great area but should still be worth a few fish and the best I could hope for would be a section win.

I decided that my best bet would be to keep things as simple as possible,so set up one line across at 14.5m,one tight in the edge at 3m to my left and a line at 3m straight in front. For my mainline across I set up two rigs-one for on the deck and one for shallow. The deck rig was a 4x10 Scone Jubleez,0.16 to a 16 Drennan Eyed barbless with a band on a hair. The shallow rig was a little Scone AM Wellardz to the same line/hook pattern. This rig was set at around 6 inches deep with just 2 inches of line between pole and float. Both rigs were set to double 6 slip elastic. I had about 3 and a half ft of water on the inside so set up a 4x12 Scone Jubleez on 0.16 to a 16 B911 and doubled 8 slip. Finally I set up a rig for 3m which was a little deeper but was set on the same tackle as the inside rig. For bait I had a few pint's of 6mm and 8mm cubed meat for the two near line's and a few pint's of 4mm&6mm hard pellets for the far line. As there were likely to be a few fish about I decided to simply feed and fish hard pellets across as it's far quicker than using expanders as I knew I would have to be coming back with a fish most put-in's.

The all in was called and I fed a small handful of meat down the edge and at 3m and went straight across with a 6mm pellet on the hair and slapped the rig in without feeding. On the third 'slap' the float shot under and a small F1 was soon on it's way in. Two more followed in the next two chucks before it went quiet so I decided to start pinging the odd 4mm pellet across. This brought a decent run of F1's as I put a further 6 in the net giving me 9 after half an hour. The guy on my right was fishing expanders over pellet slop and was getting proper carp one a chuck-although we were going fish for fish the F1's I was having were all around 1lb or so. I continued to ping pellet across but a few missed bite's was my cue to try the shallow rig. I slapped the rig over and a second later the float vanished and another F1 was on it's way. I continued to catch a few but felt as though the fish were backing off the pole a bit so quickly set up a new rig with a 12 inch length of line between the tip and float. Straight back out and I was now flying and catching F1's one a chuck on the shallow rig. They were mostly small fish between 8oz-1lb but as there was little being caught to my left and the guy to my right had stopped catching I decided to get my head down and keep them coming. After 3 hours I probably had around 25lb in the net but still hadn't caught a proper carp. I then switched from feeding around ten 4mm pellets every go to three 6mm's every ten seconds or so as I had to assume that a few proper fish were showing elsewhere. This soon resulted in my first carp at around 3lb on shallow pellet. The F1's had slowed down a bit so I continued to feed pellet across while I dropped in on the meat line at 3m that I had been regularly feeding every few minute's with 3 or 4 cubes of meat. Three quick fish saw two roach of around 1lb and a skimmer of a similar size-not exactly what I was after but kept the weight ticking over. A quick look down the inside didn't even produce a bite so I decided to put two handfulls of meat down there and leave it for an hour. During this time I had been regularly firing three 6mm pellets tight over and saw a few better fish swirling. They were showing really tight to the bank whereas I had been fishing around 2ft away. I decided it was time to strap on a pair and reach for the extra section. I went back to the short-line rig as there were a few branches and reeds that would make striking difficult. I shipped out with a 6mm pellet,pushed the rig out so the float was touching the far bank and a few seconds later the pole was pulled down as a carp made a bid for freedom. The double 6 slip was perfect and a few minute's later I netted a nice carp of around 3lb. A quick look at the watch saw two hours to go and I would guess I had around 30lb in the net at this stage,although I couldn't be sure as I was told the F1's were deceptively light. Over the next hour I caught really well,every fish a proper carp caught tight to the far bank at 4 inches deep. I could often tell when a bite was coming as the fish would switl and knock the reeds,and I could only get a bite by slapping the rig in. If I left the bait still they wouldn't even look at it. It went quiet with about an hour to go so I decided to try the edge as the guy to my right had a few fishing to his left. After a few minute's the float slid away and I hooked a decent fish but pulled out a few seconds later. I rebaited,went straight back in and after a minute or two the float disappeared and I made no mistake with this one that went around 4lb. Two more slightly smaller fish came in the next two put in's before it went quiet. I had been constantly feeding the far line during this time and went back over,taking five more carp in the last 30 minute's with the last one coming just before the whistle,netted a minute or so later.

The all-out was called and I honestly didn't know how I had done. I was sure I'd beat the two guys to my left and the two to my right,but the two best pegs in the section were on the end and out of sight. The guy next to me was adamant I had around 90lb but I assured him I hadn't as alot of my fish were F1's and it was only in the last two hours that I had a few carp. The scales made their way to me and the two end pegs in my section put on 92lb and 74lb before a few 40's and 50's. The guy to my right weighed 51lb which surprised me a little but he had caught some decent fish early on. I was a little disapointed to put 65lb 14oz on the scales as I had caught all match but only managed third in my section as I had comfortably beat the two to my left. The match was won overall by Mark Harper at the top end with 116lb,followed by a 115 and a 104. The same area produced the big weights again and with top anglers on the top pegs there is only ever going to be one outcome.

Looking back I don't think I did a lot wrong. It's hard to target the better fish when you are constantly adding weight to the net and no-one around you is catching. Maybe if I had fished tight over shallow all match I would have caught a few more carp but then would have missed out on the F1's. I don't feel meat was the best choice of bait for down the edge and maybe corn and pellet would have been better and held the fish for longer while I fished across. I don't feel I could have won the match from where I was as all of the big weights came from the top end and I beat the two to my left and the three to my right which is all you can ask for really. All in all an enjoyable day and I learned a thing or two-one thing's for sure,I'll be heading back to Todber Manor very soon.