Paste Time At Ivy

Just the one match this weekend, which was an open at Ivy House Lakes on the fabulous Heron Pool. The fish had apparently been spawning hard for a couple of days, so no one was quite sure how it would fish. I drew peg 15, round the back of the lake. Not a fancied area really and owner Andy suggested there would be more carp rather than the lake’s big F1s to target down there.

He was dead right and I should have heeded his words a bit more as I really struggled to line any F1s up on my caster shallow line. The ones that I did catch were ultra shallow and I wasted too much time trying to fool them. I caught OK down the edges but they were mostly very small mirrors and, again, very cagey and spooking, despite coming in to feed in numbers. I was catching in 15 inches of water but they were still trying to get around the back of the float and causing all sorts of problems. I found a shallower 12in plateau and had a few here on maggots and expanders over Match Method Mix down one side and experimented with casters down the other.

My best swim was paste on a top kit and I’ve had two thirds of my fish on this. They were fractionally bigger on average and it was great fun as I’d not done any proper paste fishing so far this year. I used my favourite Sonubaits 50:50 Method & Paste Green and this seemed ideal on the day.

As it was a fish race with carp from 2oz to 2lb (but mostly 8oz to 1lb 4oz) my clicking went a bit to pot… as per usual. I guessed I had about 105lb so was pleasantly surprised to total 138lb and come 2nd in the match. I must say a big well done to young Alfie Rhodes who won with 156lb from peg 11. I could see him catching all day and was slaying them shallow at times. He’s only 14 and fished a really tidy match, so a name to watch out for!

I did manage one more outing this week, which was the midweeker at Packington on Gearys. I drew peg 33, which I didn’t particularly fancy, but I had a couple of things I wanted to try. I had loads of meat left over in the fridge and fed that on the pole and caught 15lb of skimmers on it. I also boshed a load of bait on a 30m line but this was fruitless, as was a really big chuck to the pots with a 45g feeder. I can’t believe I never managed a single fish on the rods!

I got out of jail with five late carp down the edge on meat, losing one. My 57lb total never won a bean, but it was close fishing with two 70s and then John Burchell wining with 80lb off peg 19. Everyone said it had fished really weird, presumably after all the overnight rain.

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.