Ivy House Festival

Day one

Peg 45

109lb 1oz

42lb 4oz was silvers

Won section

Won Silvers

I was pleased with the draw as normally you can catch down to the right edge early as the stocky carp seem to live there.  Then HOPEFULLY the big boys move in?!?!

Skimmer wise, again a good area, but was slightly concerned that the lake is slightly shallower here and the fish could move to my left more.

The match started very frustratingly, as I lost 4 carp, one of which was huge Mirror Carp but was booked in the side(foul hooked). Nothing broke me, all hook pulls. To be honest, I can't remember ever been broken on 0.188 Spider Line, if you haven't tried it, you should of!!

I was please to win the section and the silver pool. So won £100 which was a great start.

 

Day Two

Peg 45

68lb

3rd in section

Drew the same leg again, which was great as I learnt a lot from the day before. So I had two carp and lost one down the edge in the first 30 mins and had been feeding my skimmer line from the off. So have primed this line for 30 minutes, it should of been soild?!?!? Err no, the float sat there, no bubbles. I was in trouble, the wind was so strong, blew my pole over, then blew it the lake..... challenging times and didn't help that I wasn't catching!!! (Pole was still in one piece, despite leaving a dent in the ground).

Please note, Ivy House only allow ten mintues to play fish after the whistle. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of this, which is my fault as I should of read the rules, but Chris Timms and Frank was behind me telling me how much time I had, we thought 15 minutes, but Phil Powell walked past and said it wouldn't count as you only have ten mintues. So I put it in another net, away from my peg, so no could accuse me of cheating. After a little discussion of the 1ber fish, it didn't count.  Didn't make a difference to points, but could prove to be valuable if it comes to a weight count back.  ALWAYS check the rules and don't take things for granted, as I did.

Andy Won the match with incredible 246lb

Day 3

Peg2

16lb

Last

I knew this was going to be tough, but not quite as tough as this.  I was gutted to loose the silvers by 10oz and to make matters a little worse, I hooked and lost the a carp down the edge!! This cost me two points, this will and did cost me.   I would'nt be able to carry 6 points!!!

Day 4

Peg 46

57lb

2nd in section

I little concerned with my draw, but the another match opposite had caught a few fish, so hopefully today was going to be a better day, there was fish tiling, and this was much more postive sign.   However it took me 1 hour and forty minutes to get my first fish, which was a bream about 2lb.  This was tough, and waiting 20 mintues and more for a bite and you didn't wanna miss it!!!

I caught so fish down the edge at 4.10pm and it only lasted 30 minutes, which I had my best run of fish all week, which was 6 carp, no beasts.  I had my biggest carp out in open water, which was a 10lb ghost carp on 0.11 Spider Line.  If you haven't tried this line, then your missing out!!! £6 for 100 meters of class pole line.

I finish with 11 points, which was too many.  A couple of missed bites and one lost fish has cost me a frame place.   Oh well, always next year!!!

Overall

Andy Llyod 8 Points

Phil Powell 9 Points

Gary Etheridge 10 points

Highest overall weight

246lb Andy Llyod

Highest Silver weight

42lb Chris Telling (myself)

See Andy's blog

http://www.ivyhouselakes.com/blog/
 

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