Saturday was another Fish South Silvers Qualifier at Ivy House, I’d really enjoyed my first visit (although drawing a bunghole always helps!) and along with Nick, Norts had also bought a ticket for this one. After the alarm went off at a rather unsociable 4:30am, I met the others an hour later and we arrived at the fishery nice and early. We had a really nice breakfast in the cafe before collecting some bait and paying our pools.
The draw was announced with most people hoping for a peg on Willow where the top weights came from in the last qualifier, alas I pulled out peg 15 on Old Match Lake but Nick and Norts drawing arms behaved themselves as they got 28 and 31 on the fancied lake.
I was in good company with Dave Romain, Stu White and Andy Power to my left so I could be in for some neckache today! Talking to Stu he said the lake had received an influx of little carp and F1’s which could prove to be a pain today.
I set up 0.2 and 0.4 gram rigs for two lines at 13 metres plus a little 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim with spread shot to fish top kit plus two. On the menu today were maggots, disco pinkies, casters, worms and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
The all in was signalled and I fed the short line with a smidge of groundbait and a few pinkies while the left hand longer swim received similar and the the right hand line got a good helping of chopped worms and casters in groundbait.
Kicking off on the short line, I had a 4oz skimbob first chuck on single maggot, then one of 8oz, a couple of small roach followed so I tried double red and my good start continued with several more skimmers although I did pull out of two as well. Just as I was thinking there were a lot of fish there, my bites dwindled while my neighbours were getting odd fish from their long lines. I probably spent too much time short, adding just one more skimmer in 15 minutes.
Moving out to 13 metres, it took a while to get a bite but a pound skimmer was very welcome, next chuck I had a decent 8oz hybrid and was ticking along nicely. It then went quiet and I should have guessed what was coming next! Sure enough, the float buried and on the strike, elastic streamed from the pole tip as a little carp took off. When I had its twin shortly after, it was time to look on the positive 13 metre swim earlier than I would have liked.
The first bite on this line resulted in carp number three and after a great start, my match was going downhill fast! Back on the other line and my fourth carp set the scene for the rest of my match really. Dave R and Darren to my right were catching some decent skimmers from their longer lines whereas I would get odd skimmers and roach interspersed with little carp but just couldn’t seem to put a run of fish together.
Fishing past the feed using the dolly butt resulted in one bite (which I missed!), I did have a better skimmer on double pinkie but the next fish was a little F1. I also hooked a fish that didn’t feel like a carp and as I got down to the top kit, I could see it was a big foulhooked skimmer but of course it came off.
I topped up the 13 metre swims and had another look short where I’d been feeding casters but only managed a few little roach so spent the remaining time on the longer lines for little return and my match finished with a whimper.
The weigh in started on our lake and when the scales got round to our side, Dave Willmott was top so far with an excellent 17lb 15oz from peg 7, then Andy Power went into the lead with 18lb 13oz. Stu White had 11lb 6oz, Dave R weighed 14lb 14oz, my fish went 9lb 9oz and then Darren had 13lb 12oz so I’d been chip-shopped today!
As expected, Willow was the place to be with Steve Harwood winning and qualifying for the final with a fantastic 40lb 7oz of mainly roach and Rob Williams wasn’t far behind with another great roach weight of 37lb 12oz. Nick and Norts had similar days to me with 9lb 1oz and 5lb respectively.
Steve Harwood with his winning 40lb 7oz. Photo credit – Fish South
Willow
1 – Steve Harwood (Ivy House) – 40lb 7oz
2 – Rob Williams (Ivy House) – 37lb 12oz
Old Match Lake
1 – Andy Power (Preston Innovations) – 18lb 13oz
2 – Dave Willmott (Ivy House) – 17lb 15oz
There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling
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Next up – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match
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