Hillview Fishery Saturday Open.

To start my bank holiday plan of four matches in a row my first visit was to Hillview fishery in Tewkesbury, I was traveling with Lewis Jones again for what would be only are second visit to the venue so a bit alien to as both, I picked Lewis up & it worked out it was only around 50mins so arrived in plenty of time for the fishery breakfast, We both had the large which I have to say was very enjoyable' It turned out there was a good turn out with 24 fishing so the match was to be held over The two main lakes along with the back canal lake which meant nothing to me, Nice to see England ace Des Shipp was in attendance but after a good chat before the draw I was praying not to draw next to him really".

Into the draw & Lewis found himself on peg 17 on Moorhen which were told is a good swim on his lake before hand by venue regular Gabriel Skarba & I ended up on peg 84 on the far end of the back canal, For starters I had my work cut out as des just so happened to draw the section on this lake on peg 91'. Arriving at my swim my swim turned out to be one off the end peg which wasn't in today so fancied to catch a few F1's & Carp.

First up I had a rig to fish tight to the far bank at 12mts in just over 3ft of water, A rig to fish at 5mts on the deck & shallow & a rig to fish at 4mts down the edge,  I was just about ready by the all-in & for a change I was going to base my attack around worm & casters as their was an overnight frost but with the sun out I fancied to catch some fish shallow down the track or across on worm. At the start I cupped a good helping of chopped casters & some chopped worm across, fed a smaller amount down the track, Starting across on a segment of worm I did expect some action but after 20mins I was still biteless. It turned out all the other anglers had started on the 5mt lines & the two guys to my right had netted some F1's as had Des but I wasn't to concerned as I had been feeding casters on it by hand from the start. After trying various baits across & even trying the shallow rig on the same line after seeing a few of the lakes Ghost carp cruising around under the surface but you could tell they had seen it all before as the didn't so much as look at it!.

After an hour it was time to try down the track, I started on the deck rig but after 10mins & no bites I expected some signs shallow on the caster or with maggot on the hook. Nope Still failing to catch". I had still been feeding across with a mix of worm & casters & finally I had a carp of 2lb followed by a 2lb F1 but that was it! I had been feeding down the edge with the odd cubes & after two hours it was time to see if it would produce. I missed a bite straight off the had another F1 then nothing, I tried shallow over the top but that didn't work so decided to try & snare some but using my depth rig as a swinging rig along the far bank. Another 20mins passed & apart from one missed bite I still couldn't catch, I was regretting putting my faith in the worm/caster combo & meat but it wasn't just me who was struggling the guys to my left were aswell after there early fish, Apart from Des who was winkling out a few (Nothing new there then"), Lewis Tex me to say he was struggling for a bite & his lake was fishing hard so had to try something else.

I started a new line to my left again at 5mts feeding a few hard 4mm fishery pellets & a few cubes of meat, I had another F1 from down the edge on meat before it was time to try my new line with an 8mm cube of meat on the hook, As soon as it settled I had a carp of 3lb & Followed by a couple more better F1's & it seemed going into the last 90mins I was going to start catching well, The problem was everyone else had started to get some action" Mine wasn't prolific though & I still had to keep trying my other lines, I managed a two late carp on the swinging rig with a cube of meat on the hook, & a few more on the new line bait failed to catch anything on the caster/worm lines so defiantly the wrong choice their. I finished with around 25lb odd which was disappointing but apart from the legend' who snuck out 93lb odd" The rest of us struggled really. I certainly made the wrong choices today but having never fished the lake before I was a bit of an eye opener for my, I had a chat with Des after the final whistle & he told me it wasn't until he switched to fishing 4mm expander over micros he caught properly with fish of all sizes so if I had gone down my normal route things might of been a tad better?. Good news back at the van though as after four hours with nothing Lewis had a few decent fish down the edge on paste & a few on his short meat line in the last hour to end the day with 109lb which was enough to take the win ahead of Des so well done mate & a well deserved quick pint on the way home.  Off to Shiplate Tomorrow for a match on Hawthorns which I haven't fished for a while so looking forward to it.