ADTV Match Masterclass - Live Match

For todays open match, we are all on the Canal Lake, which is probably my favourite lake on the complex as it has a range of species including carp, f1s, ide and tench and can be approached in several different ways. As the venue is a long strip, the end pegs are normally the favoured draw, but I am quite happy with my draw of peg 22, as it puts me next to the end peg, so plenty close enough to the fish. 

Speaking to a few of the locals and after doing a bit of venue research, it looks like the recent wet weather has slowed the sport down a bit, but I still expect that you will need around 80lb to frame today, which with the stamp of fish will be plenty of bites, so it will be important to keep bites ticking over throughout the match. 

Although my side tray is brimming with a variety of bait, I have elected to start short on hard pellets towards the bottom of the near slope, feeding only 5-6 6mm pellets and fishing a 6mm pellet on the band. By doing this, and not feeding any bait anywhere else in my peg, I am able to keep my options open, without ruining any areas of my peg. Not only that, by starting on hard pellets, I do not have to feed much bait to get a quick response. 

It's taken just under 10 minutes for my first bite, but its a very welcome 3lb carp. As i'm not getting many indications, I am tapping my pellets to make some noise and draw some fish in my peg. I manage another f1, but I'm not getting many indications, so maybe there are not many fish on this line yet, so a move is needed!  

With my short hard pellet line, quite slow, I know I need to change something to start putting more fish in the net. I can see the anglers to my left are fishing shallow towards the far side and are catching a few ide, so I have started to feed some maggots at 13m at the bottom of the far slope.

In the meantime, while I'm priming this line, I have started a new short line with micros and expanders, which seems to be a tactic thats working at the moment, after speaking to the locals. I drop on this line and I am straight into another F1, and I've missed another bite straight away, so maybe this is what they want on the day? 

I have managed to start stringing a few bites together on my new short line. By feeding a small ball of micros every chuck and fishing a 4mm expander, I am keeping up with the anglers fishing for Ide to my left. Most of these bites are small f1s, but it looks like the lake is fishing tough. 

Unfortunately, these bites have dried up, I am still getting an odd bite, but the gap between bites has definitely increased. So I may be guilty of not changing lines fast enough and hopefully this will not cost me at the end! 

Now that my shallow line has been primed, I am fully expecting to get into the ide immediately, as they are such an aggressive feeding fish, but to my dismay, I am getting loads of missed bites, which I soon find out are small roach. I decided to persevere with this shallow line, swapping to a slightly deeper shallow rig set at 2ft with a strung out shotting pattern. 

By fishing a maggot hooked in the side, to hopefully make it harder for the roach to suck in, I am soon into my first ide, and as they are nearly a 1lb a piece they are excellent weight builders. I catch another one quickly, before I find that lowering my shallow rig in vertical seems to get me an even quicker bite, which results in another 5-6 ide in as many chucks! 

Unfortunately, as can so often be the case with Ide, you catch a few before they seem to disappear! Keeping an eye on the anglers around me, a lot have already spent a long period of the match fishing tight across to the far bank and although they have caught on this, its looks like they have all stopped catching. This is where leaving an area of your peg like this can transform your match, as fish will drift out of other anglers peg where they are fishing across and hopefully settle into your peg and gain confidence.

At this point of the match, we are around 3 hours into the match, so I think I given my across line plenty of time to settle and for any fish to gain confidence, so it is now time to try it. My approach for this is to feed micros similar to my short line, but I have gone with a double maggot hookbait, as it allows me to catch everything, whilst being durable so I do not need to keep shipping 16m in to change baits. 

As hoped, the across line has given another burst of fish, with a couple of chunky carp and some more f1s. However, I have noticed that the reeds in my edges have been knocking with fish and although I can only fish 3-4m either side, its a good depth at over 4ft, so I have decided to cover my options and target both edges. One side, I have opted to throw maggots, whereas the other side I have decided to feed micros and fish maggots on the hook, the same as I am fishing across. 

I decide to have a quick go on my right hand edge where I am loose feeding maggots and have two fish in two chucks, but before I think I have it sorted, the bites have stopped. Switching back to fishing 16m across, I catch another couple of quick fish before it slows, so its looking like I will need to keep rotating lines to keep bites coming. 

We are now into the last hour and we are at a point in the match, where to win the match, I feel I need to push my peg, to catch the weight needed. Therefore, I have decided to stop fishing the across line and purely concentrate on the edges. Not only that, I have started to up the feed slightly in both edges, to see if I can draw the fish in quicker and hold them for longer. 

This starts to work a treat, and I am able to keep bites ticking over for the rest of the match from carp and f1s by rotating between my left and right hand edge lines. Even better I manage to scoop a slightly bigger 4lb carp on the whistle! 

Although its hard to tell, as I can't see everyone, as we are all in a straight line on this lake, I feel I am in the mix. The scales soon come down from the far end of the lake, and with 63lb currently leading, I am ecstatic when my fish tip the scales to 67lb 10oz, and with the end peg to my right not fishing as well as everyone hoped, even better it is enough to win the match! 

I feel that this match has been the perfect illustration, of how timings and decisions through a match can easily be the difference between a match win or an average result. So hopefully, you can see how the mind of a match angler works, and can implement some of my approach into your next match on your local venue.