Acorn Fishery Saturday Open. (Paddock Lake)

I decided to take a trip back to Acorn even though it was tough going through the winter series I was hoping thing had improved a bit' These Saturday matches are run by the on-site tackle shop Cadbury Angling starting a couple of weeks ago held every other week, There are another three planned which dates I will add later, Owe & the entry fee includes the choice of either a pint of maggots or a kilo of fishery pellets which is a good incentive. Twelve of us fishing today with a couple of new faces which is good to see, Mark Walsh organised the pegging & decided to leave the island swims out altogether, I just hoped I could avoid cyanide straight having draw here the last three matches" I let a few go before me before my turn for a ping pong ball' Yep just as I expected, on the straight again peg 17 which I had in the winter series & struggled for 16lb odd! The lake had a tinge more colour so was optimistic but when I saw Walshy on the same peg he had in the last two rounds I thought the writing would be on the wall, They were paying out the top two plus silvers today so at least I had a chance to target them if need be.

I got caught out last match at the start as a few still caught on bread early so first up was a rig to dob across in the shallower water which went from 14mts to 15mts where there was a bit of cover over, I set up a 4x10 float on 0.13-0.11 & an 18 F1 pellet hook rig to fish just off the far bank but was still shallow around 2ft, A 0.3g AS3 float on the same line/hook to fish the slightly deeper water at 13mts around 4ft & finally a 4x12 Chanti on 0.15-0.12 to fish down the edge in-front the next pallet but fished around a metre out from the bank again in around 4ft of water.

On the all-in I fed a nugget of micros & some dead red maggot at 13mts to my right & some hard 4mms & a few same size expanders the same distance to my left, I started on the dobbing rig with bread straight infront at 14mts to start with, I worked my way along the bank towards the slight cover at 15mts before I had my first bite & a fish around 3lb was in the net in the first ten minutes, It wasn't solid but within 45mins I had four carp for around 16lb, Bites soon disappeared so I switched to soft pellet on the hook, I had the bait off the deck a few inches & with a bit of lifting & dropping along different areas of the far bank saw me add a few better fish, After 90mins things really slowed but already I thought I had close to 40lb in the net including a 3lb F1 so a great start & I hadn't really seen that mush being caught at this stage. After a few small fish across it was time to try the deeper water line at 13mts, I started over where I had fed a few 4mms from the start with expander on the hook, I had a small roach straight off followed by a couple of goldfish" another F1 & a couple of skimmers, It seemed most drop-ins I was having signs of fish but no more carp, I had a go on maggot on the other line & just a couple of roach showed up, I had been pinging the odd hard 6mm pellet down the edge so went over it with a 6mm expander but no early signs of fish here, I gave it another try across & had a couple of small pastie carp but no better fish, I remember last time I was on this stretch I went back across late in the match & hooked some better carp & had a feeling the same would happen today,? In this case I chose to catch what I could for a couple of hours off the 13mts lines & keep having the odd look across & down the edge, The fish weren't big but at least I was adding the odd pastie carp small F1's & the odd skimmer to the net & I still couldn't see much being caught?

Finally I had a bite down the edge with 45mins to go which was a 3lb carp but that was it, So struck to my guns & spend the rest of the match back on bread across at 15mts with the rig still set off the deck, I wasn't wrong as I had four more carp across in the last 30mins & the last one saw me add another net just encase I was close to the 70lb limit as this fish was around 8lb", Just one more small pastie carp before the all out but had an enjoyable 5hrs considering I though I would struggle for anything" Really worked hard on trying to induced bites where I though best to through the day & it proved worth while as I won the day with a bit to spare picking up a bonus £70 along the way so well happy with the result. Second place went to Tim Whitchurch from peg 34 next to the bridge with 45lb odd & the silvers went to Martin Leakey on his first visit with 10lb odd catching mainly on the corn short late in the day netting some lovely roach so well done to him. There are a few more Saturday matches coming up, April 14th & 28th and May the 12th so contact Cadbury Angling at the fishery to book-in. Off to Shiplate Farm for a match on Westpool tomorrow which will be final day of a four header" Can it end with another good result??

Full results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 17, 74lb 6oz.

2nd Tim Whitchurch (Acorn) Sorry Forgot what you told me" peg 34, 45lb 6oz

3rd Mike Jones (Over 50's) peg 40, 34lb 7oz.

4th Mike Hill (Un-attached) peg 11, 31lb 6oz.

Silvers -

1st Martin Leakey (Un-attached) peg 24, 10lb 9oz.

2nd mike Jones (over 50's) peg 40, 9lb 9oz.