On the top....

I would have posted my blog about the Wednesday evening match at Whinwhistle but it was a bit pants! I drew plum peg 15 that I have always wanted to draw. I set up one method rod as I was sure it would work....it didn’t! With 20 minutes to go I tipped back around 5lb of small skimmers without having a single sign of a carp! I can’t remember the last time I took an early bath and the match was won from peg 12 with 16lb odd.

Greenridge Farm Open- 8/8/09

With nothing on this Saturday I decided to fish the open at Greenridge Farm near Romsey. It is only 4 miles from my house yet I have only fished there once before- back in early April when I managed second place on Canal 1 with 96lb on shallow pellet. I had heard that surface fishing had been dominating recently with one angler in particular, Pete Newman, having the method sussed. He had won the last 3 matches in a row on floating bread with weights of 210lb, 240lb and finally a new venue record of 280lb! Not bad when the fish average around 3lb....

I’ve never fished a match with surface baits so when I heard that it had been banned at Greenridge I chose to fish there as I would always prefer to fish shallow as opposed to on the top as I feel there is generally more skill involved. A day or two before the match I found out that although it had been banned it would not come into place until the end of September. This didn’t change my plans much as I was sure I could compete shallow- although I did take a loaf of bread and a few floating pellets in-case I was being battered by the bread boys.

I arrived at the fishery at around 8am and as always had a walk around. The match was to be held on canals 1 & 2 and they both looked very similar, around 13-14m wide with 11 pegs on each. After meeting Pat (red-hydro) and his mate I tucked in to a few of the free bacon rolls and cups of tea as everyone arrived and awaited the draw. I went into the bag and pulled out peg 13....unlucky for some? Whilst unloading my gear in the car-park I heard somebody mention that Pete Newman had drawn end peg 12 next to me...great!! Pat had drawn two to my right on 15 so the obligatory quid side-bet was soon struck up.

My match plan was quite simple really with two paste lines at 3m and down the edge and pellet shallow across. I hoped to spend the first 30 minutes or so on the paste whilst priming the shallow line with a few 6mm pellets every 20 seconds or so. I set-up a few rigs to cover my options. My two paste rigs were on 0.18 to a size 5 Tubertini 175 and matched to Orange Wilkie hollow. One was for 2 feet of water tight to the bank on my left and the other was for the base of the near slope at an angle of 11 o’clock. I also set-up 3 rigs for across. The first was a malman MTD1 dibber on 0.18 to a size 20 Fox Series 2 with a ban on a hair. This was set at 18 inches. I also set up a Korum blob on the same terminal gear but set at 6 inches. Finally I had a 2ft length of 0.18 line to a size 16 Fox Series 2 for fishing the bread if I had to. All three rigs were matched to red vespe bi-core elastic. For bait I had some paste, a load of 4mm & 6mm pellets, a loaf of bread and some SonuBaits 8mm Oily floaters.

By 10 o’clock the sun was blazing and there wasn’t a breath of wind- hardly ideal fishing conditions. The all-in was called and I moulded a piece of paste around the hook and dropped in at 3m with no feed. The float sat there for all of 5 seconds before disappearing and carp number 1 was on.....for about 5 seconds! I suspect it was foul-hooked but after firing a few pellets across I dropped in at 3m and the same thing happened. I netted a small carp of around 3lb whilst everyone else was still potting in bait. I dropped straight back in and waited for around 30 seconds before a similar sized carp took the bait and was soon in the net with his mate. This is going to be a bagging match! Errr....wrong! Despite introducing a few 4mm pellets after 10 biteless minute’s I hadn’t added another fish after half an hour. Pete to my left was picking up odd fish on the bread and I was falling behind. All the while I had been pinging 6mm pellets across and with no bite on the paste I fed half a cup of 4mm pellets at 3m before picking up the 6 inch shallow rig and shipping across. After a few slaps the blob dipped and a small carp was soon in the net. Despite fishing my heart out pinging,lifting,slapping I couldn’t buy a bite. Pete was now surging ahead on the surface and although I added another small carp on the 18 inch rig I knew I wouldn’t compete the way things were going. To make matters worse Pat was catching fishing tight to the bare bank in his peg. His rig looked to be about 6 inches deep so I was convinced he was catching shallow but I later found out that’s how deep it was right across. He seemed to be suffering with foul-hookers and lost fish but either way my pound looked like it was heading his way! I couldn’t buy a bite across or on the paste at 3m so I plumbed a new paste line straight out at 6m. First drop with no feed saw a quick carp followed by another next drop. However as with the first swim it then died. Although I hadn’t fed anything except the hook bait there was a lot of blowing in the peg but I couldn’t get any signs. I eventually caught another fish across but after 3 hours I had just 7 fish in the net for around 20lb with Pete surely having close to the ton.

With nothing to lose I accepted that I was never going to frame on the pellet I cupped out a dozen floating pellets and a few bits of bread to the far bank. After 5 minutes or so there were a few ripples and after a while the carp were happily slurping away. The sun was blazing down so I decided to shorten the line right down to 10 inches and poke the small piece of crust under the tree. After a few seconds there was a large boil and the pole was yanked down and carp number 8 was soon in the net. Over the final 3 hours I managed to catch faster than Pete and I also found some bigger fish. Although it was too late to catch him I knew 2nd place was up for grabs as Pat had slowed down a bit. I got into a nice rhythm of hook fish, ship back quickly fire out 3 floating pellets, net fish, fire out 3 more, ship half way across, fire out 3 more. By doing this I always had fish waiting and was able to catch quickly. Whenever it went a bit quiet I would cup out 6 or 7 pieces of bread and a few pellets which always brought the fish back. I often found it best to ship out a metre or two from the far bank and hang the bait out of the water. As soon as I saw some movement I would plonk the crust where the fish were as they kept moving along the far bank. It was imperative that the bait was within an inch or two of the rushes, most of time it would be up against them. Something else that was effective was waiting just off the fish after I had cupped bread out. As soon as the last piece vanished I would drop my hookbait in the same place and it was usually taken instantly. When I was just feeding floating pellets this was less important as the bread stood out more. At one point I had a fish tear under the tree and snap me so I stepped up to 0.22 as it makes no difference to presentation when fishing on the top.

The all-out was called and I had finished on 36 carp with 29 coming in the last 3 hours. I guessed on having around 120lb. Whilst it was clear that Pete had won I hoped to nick second but I thought it might be close with Pat. Pete was first to weigh and totalled 174lb....a bad day apparently! After 3 weighs my total was recorded at 120lb 4oz...a new best match weight. I don’t usually fish bagging matches as most of the waters I fish you are looking for 20-60lb to do well. My previous best was an agonising 99lb 15oz,followed by 99lb 8oz,97lb,96lb and two 95lbs,with loads of 80’s to boot! I followed the scales down and Pat took third place with 87lb odd. I was pleased with the result although a little frustrated as I felt I could have won had I fished on top all match.

After packing away it was back to the BBQ area for a refreshing beer and to collect my winnings. Pat ‘didn’t have any change’ so it’s double or quits next time!! All in all an enjoyable day and there is a lot more to fishing on the top than I had previously thought. I will be heading back to Greenridge in a couple of weeks for another go on it as I’m sure I could do 200lb if I fished it for the duration and like all aspects of fishing those that fish it best will come out on top.