Greenridge Farm

After a couple of recent really naff matches, I was really looking forward to the Match Fishing Scene match at Greenridge Farm at Ampfield in Hampshire. A number of the MFS anglers fish the venue and having looked at the weights over the past month they were still needing 60-70lb to frame and as this was about 60-65lb more than I had been catching lately, you can see why I was so excited. The "Locals", especially Gareth "The Badger"Boycott had been very helpful and suggested that maggotts across to the far bank was the way forward, however as the weather had just started to turn, that could all change very quickly.

And he wasn't wrong ! as I logged on to the MFS Website the evening before the match to see that the Saturday match had been won by Blakey with 196lb all on meat. Pete Bailey had finished second with 145lb on meat and Gareth 4th with 105lb on ......Yes, you've guessed it MEAT !My cunning plan (which was about as cunning as one of Baldrick's) was to try something different to the locals as I'd never even seen the place before and fish Catfood and or maggotts (and also a smidgeon of paste) !

Rick very kindly picked me up at 7am and 45 minutes later we had our first disaster of the day, when we were MUGGED in the Fleet Services ! I mean, £16 for two breakfasts like this, what a rip off.

Anyway, we arrived at the fishery in plenty of time and a quick walk round revealed that we were to be fishing 3 small snake lakes which looked to be 14 -16 metres across with approximately 11 pegs on each. With 18 of us fishing it meant we could all have a blank peg one side which would make for better fishing. At the draw I didn't really mind where I drew as I had no idea which were the better pegs anyway. So, when I drew Peg 17 on Lake 2, all I knew was that it wasn't far to walk - although to be fair nobody had a long walk.

My peg looked quite nice (as did they all), just over 14.5 metres across to the far bank and plenty of room with a blank peg to my left. My main plan of attack was to be catfood and I had prepared a 4 pint milk bottle of feed by pushing catfood through a riddle and adding a couple of pints of hemp (which is my normal catfood feed for Willinghurst).

Rigs were all on 0.16 G Line as although I wasn't sure of the carp size, I always found that if the fishing are having catfood then they aren't worried about line diameter ! Floats were all Pikey Paste floats which I also use for other baits and just add another couple of shot. I began by cupping in a pot of feed across, two big pots down the middle - as I intended to leave that line for a while and some pellets and micros in the edge to my left. First put in,the float hadn't even settled properly before it suddenly shot under and I was soon attached to a 3lb carp. This is going to be easy I thought and was grateful for the extra keepnet I'd put in the net bag.

However, three and a half hours later I'd only managed to catch one more carp, despite having about a million bites ( from which I was told were probably Motherless Minnows) and also had a couple of visits to the far bank to disentangle my rigs from the bush - sorry to the chaps on Lake 3 if I spooked any fish on your far bank line but I just couldn't get the rig off the foliage without coming round. After a brief walk and having now caught 5 fish in my previous 9 hours match fishing, I was just about to prepare my "Tackle for Sale" advert for E Bay when I noticed a few blows on my middle of the lake line.

I'd continued to feed the line during the previous 3 and a half hours and it now looked like there were a few fish on it, I put a bit of paste on the size 10 hook and cupped it in. The float settled, sat there for a few seconds and disappeared as a carp of about 8 ounces snaffled the bait. The blows continued and next put in I had a 2lb bream followed by a carp of about 3-4lb then another, I changed from a black hydro top kit to a red hydro one and the fish continued to come although I could only catch on small bits of paste and only with the float shotted right down to a dimple.

As the "All Out" was called, I was just playing my final fish and although I'd really fished like a numpty for the first 4 hours of the match, I'd had a superb last 2 hours and weighed in 92lb to finish 4th on the lake and pick up 3 Champions League points which is one more than I'd got in the previous 2 matches !

Gareth did well to win our lake with 160lb (pictured below with part of his catch) from Peg 12 whilst Ben B was second with 139lb from the other end peg.

Result
1st - Colin Horn, 204-14
2nd - Gareth Boycott 166-03
3rd - Pete Bailey 158-12
4th - BenB, 139-03
5th - Martin F, 136-06
6th - Pete 133-10
7th - Slider, 108-05
8th - Dean Rowden, 101-04
9th - Mark Blake, 93-08
10th - Pikey 92-04
11th - Lummox, 75-02
12th - Krayner 62-04
13th - JWB, 57-00
14th - Happydangler, 43-00
15th - Dave Haddon, 37-04
16th - NTB, Wightangler, Methodman DNW

So. another enjoyable day on a new venue to me, and one I hope to fish again soon.
Don't know where I am next Sunday yet but will hopefully report back here early next week.