Seeing 'em was one thing, catching fish another, as aspiring and perspiring match hopefuls found in a sweaty week at the Packington Somers fishery.
Seeing 'em was one thing, catching fish another, as aspiring and perspiring match hopefuls found in a sweaty week at the Packington Somers fishery.
On the Gearys lake in particular carp were happy to cruise around all day, only getting their heads down late in the evening. That was fine for pleasure anglers, who found a method feeder with a popped up bait (floating maggot, dog biscuit or mini boilie) was a good technique for fish to 8lb, particularly around the gravel bar or the high bank pegs 30-35.
It was tougher for matchmen, although John Johnson (Youngs TBF) found a partial answer to win a Packington open fixture with figures of 45-0-0, taking his carp on maggot offerings from peg 21.
He led narrowly from Tom Watt (Sensas Crazy Bait) and Dave Kingerlee (FKO), who on adjoining pegs 11 and 10 recorded the same 44-0-0 score.
Pleasure session weights of 80lb plus came from in-form Molands, with bags of tench, carp and bream. Scarecrow Point remained a hotspot and for big carp, pegs 25-36 all saw double figure fish to 15lb netted, falling to mini boilies, pellet, paste and dog biscuit baits.
Best match weight from Molands was the 49-7-0 effort that won a Fishing Lodge open for Craig O'Brien (Fast Feeders), well clear of L. Heaven (Fishing Lodge) on 28-12-0 and G. Lakin (Fishing Lodge) with 28-2- 0.