Commentary by Allan Bayman:
I’d only just fished this water a few
weeks back after a depressing morning at Kempston getting covered in mud and
remembered we had a match here. My first visit and been an eye opener with 14
carp and lots of good bream, some big roach and couple of tench in 4 hours. My
next 2 visits had produced carp to 21lb and over 30 in a day nearly all doubles.
So you can imagine I was quite hopeful of a good days fishing even if it doesn’t
fish as well in matches. There had also been a match the day before so how would
it fish for our visit ?
A good turn out
again saw around 30 anglers on this picturesque lake nuzzling the banks of the
river Ivel. Matches are normally won here with 75lb plus with the feeder being
the main method. The fancied Ivel bank saw Colin Winter, Dave McGrath and Dan
Patrick together. I was draw between Stan to my left and Matt to my right.
Pretty much on the
whistle Alan G over in peg 7 latched into a carp and was having a huge battle
that lasted half an hour ! I’d put some bait in via the feeder and was getting
tiny knocks and then a pristine roach of about 6oz. then nothing.
Matt to my right had not had a bite an
hour in. Stan was finding it slowish also. The odd carp was showing on top.
I decided to try and nab one off the top but despite getting plenty of takes simply could not hook one. They were pulling the mixer of the band so these carp were a bit crafty. Switching bait, hook size, hook length all got the same result. Arghh !!
On the Ivel bank Dan, Dave and Colin were casting a long way out and picking up the odd fish on maggots. Maggots seemed to be the bait to be on , Charlie Palmer down at the shallow end latching into a lovely carp which he managed to get in.
Alan G had his money's worth with this 6lb carp. Shame the next 4hrs were so slow
About half way
through it was looking pretty disappointing. The causeway bank was giving the
odd fish to Kev Laird and Peter Fell.
Colin, Dan and Dave
were still picking up the odd fish on the long chuck feeder and Matt was now
starting to catch the odd bream. I finally managed to connect with a carp and
played it very gently and after some fight managed to get it into the net my
second fish and last one of the match. Not long after Stan hooked one which
promptly went through my swim and across Matts line , luckily Matts rig
eventually came off and Stan got the fish in the net after about 20 minutes.
I was continuing to
curse the crafty carp and despite lots of takes some within second of the bait
hitting the water I simply could not hook another carp, Stan was getting the
same too.
Around the lake
there was the odd fish, both Roger and Steve Burfoot had some bream Steve had a
few more than Roger who has some better sized fish.
At the weigh-in I
think many people were a bit perplexed by the lack of fish considering the
stock. That said, some dozen or so carp were
reported lost, typically by those fishing lighter and with maggots close in.
The riverside bank looked to have been the best area as per the open
matches with AlanG on peg 8 and his carp and bits giving him 13lb 11oz. Dan on
peg 7 slightly ahead with 15lb 8oz,
Colin on peg 5 had 27lb 5oz and Dave McGrath to his right
on peg 4 had 16lb 14oz. Peter Fell had done well to break the row of
weights with his causeway bank 21lb which in the end took second splitting Colin
and Dave McGrath. Charlie Palmer
had two lovely carp and some bits for 16lb 4oz and took 4th.
I think it is fair to say to anyone who knows the venue it really fished exceptionally badly indeed but with plenty of double figure weights and some good quality fish caught hopefully we’ll hit it on a better day in the future.