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.