John tells me that on arriving at the lake today the anglers were greeted with a frozen lake, so the first order of the day was to get out the little used ice breakers to cut each others swims out to a distance that would enable them to have half a chance of catching some fish. As i was busy this morning it meant that i could not fish but i was coming up later to see the guys only to be told the match had only just started and it was 11.30 and the guys were today only going to fish 4 and a half hours.

The pleasure anglers were catching in the ice free small lake as there was a breeze to keep the water moving but no such luck in the big lake as quick as you made a hole to fish the floating ice wanted to close it back up and by the amount of ice on the bank that must of been alot. The story of the match was that most anglers opted to fish the bomb or feeder on the edge of the ice floes hoping that the carp would eventually come out from under the ice which they did not.

 

 

The winner of todays match was lake owner John Bennett who used both the long pole and bomb/ feeder but caught all his 8 carp on the tip casting as far out of into the lake as he could and by using a combination of corn and 8mm puched meat managed to keep the bites coming but by no means was it frantic. The first 5 carp were caught by John very early in the match but as soon as the ice melted out in the middle John made a longer cast and the fish were there waiting  [the other three that was } and after a very cold 5 hours put a very hard earned weight of 85-04 for the win { well done John }.

 

 

Always playing catch up today was Kev Dolton on cold peg 13 on the motorway bank and by half way was already 5 carp down to John, but a brilliant last two hours saw Kev catch 8 carp to 18-08 fishing a straight out line on the pole at 13 metres fishing corn on the deck feeding micros which caught him his first 5 fish and a switch to the 16 metre line to the boat saw him catch the last three and in the end fell just one small carp short of John’s weight with his 81-04 ,but still a great effort Kev.

 

 

Completing the frame was John Draper who was trapped with a 7mtr swim on peg 19 as this was where the ice was the most thickest, and after a quick 3 carp had to wait for his remaining two by fishing the pole to the bush to his right fishing corn on the deck and feeding micro. He was fish for fish with John for the first 5 but they were a lot smaller and in the end John weighed a hard earned 35-08.

Results

Place	Angler	Peg	Weight
1st	John Bennett	16	85-04	Rolfslake
2nd	Kev Dolton	13	81-04	Rolfslake
3rd	John Draper	19	35-08	Rolfslake
4th	Phil Powell	28	20-08	Rolfslake
5th	Graham Ridgley	24	9-04	Rolfslake
6th	Barry	26	7-04	Rolfslake

9 anglers fished.

 

Some photos from the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be posting the details for the forthcoming pairs match tomorrow so please come back and have a look.

 

Thanks for reading Simon , Eddie and John.