Greenridge Farm - Sunday 14 April 2013

With no match planned for Sunday, I let Plummers (my regular fishing buddy) convince me to go with him to Greenridge Farm at Ampfield in Hampshire.  Don't get me wrong but with me being a 6 metre paste angler and most fish long pole to the far bank,  I wasn't expecting great things !

The day didn't start well as we both forgot to make a note of the suggested breakfast stop and we ended up stopping at the Basingstoke Services for a not particularly nice 2 English breakfasts with tea and coffee for a bargain £22.40 !

Arriving at the fishery, having survived our mugging, the first thing I noticed was that the place had received a "Gold Valley" haircut and the lakes looked very very bare.   At the draw ably organised by Calum Craig (thanks mate for running the match) Plummers drew Peg 11 and I drew Peg 4, both on Lake 1.  A quick look at the draw sheet revealed that I had Mark Poppleton (or Slider as he is better known) on Peg 3 and Pegs 5 and 6 had both been left out, which I thought was a right result, as a bit of room is never a bad thing - although I did notice that there was a load of water coming into the lake through a pipe about 8 metres to my right.

My cunning plan was to fish 14 metres tight to the far bank - yes I know this would involve using the sections of the pole with the writing on but I'd been psyching myself up for a while, down the track was a more sensible 7 metre option and then 2 edge lines, one at 9 metres towards the empty platform to my right and then a shorter 4 metre line.  Bait was to be either maggots or meat.  Fortunately for Mark and ingfisher on Peg 1, the chap on Peg 2 didn't turn up for the match so they both had a blank peg as well and whilst I didn't make use of mine they both caught steadily through out the match.  IMy far bank seemed to be a lot deeper than Marks and I really struggled to catch across although I did catch a few big fish late having put on a heavier float and also starting to feed more meat, although I think by then it was "Carp O'clock" that magic time when the fish just start to feed properly.  Having struggled to catch across, I also tried down the middle but only had I big ide, a seven pound carp and one big bream which turned out to be a member of the smallest bream shoal in the south.  The edge proved a little more successful as I did have a few big fish but it was all too little too late.  Although my 58lb was very disappointing, it was nevertheless nice to fish without rain or frost and fish in a T shirt once again.

Result

Lake 1


Peg Name Weight Position

1 Pete Newman 106lb 08oz 2nd

3 Mark poppleton 113lb 12oz 1st

4 Pikey 58lb 12oz 4th

7 Graham Spiller DNW =7th

8 Brian Hayse 38lb 00oz 6th

9 Mike smith 61lb 08oz 3rd

10 Nick Merry 53lb 12oz 5th

11 Tony Plumbridge DNW =7th

Lake 2

Peg Name Weight Position

12 Bryan moore 32lb 00oz 6th

13 Paul barnard 61lb 08oz 4th

14 Trevor holmes 13lb 00oz 9th

15 Kev downer 14lb 00oz 8th

16 Rob Gallagher 83lb 00oz 1st

17 Nathen fox 64lb 08oz 3rd

18 Andy fox 31lb 00oz 7th

19 Steve hemming 44lb 00oz 5th

20 Dave burford 69lb 10oz 2nd

Lake 3

Peg Name Weight Position

21 Calum craig 57lb 08oz 5th

22 Gareth boycott 171lb 06oz 1st

23 Jake Gallagher 93lb 10oz 2nd

24 Bob wackril 23lb 00oz 6th

26 Dean rowden 22lb 00oz 7th

27 Tom miller DNW =8th

28 Mark blake 78lb 14oz 3rd

29 Tony blight 74lb 14oz 4th

30 Bernard blight DNW =8th