Sunday 3rd may

Milemead open.
Sunday 3rd May Milemead open. A very disappointing 8 of us pitched up for this one.At the draw I pulled out peg 20 & was pleased with that. It is a very good peg, one of the best. At 11m on the deck it drops of nicely. It is an open water peg with the main island to the left & a huge bed of lilies straight out in front at about 30m. Both of these features can be attacked with the pellet wag or lead or you can fish on the deck just past that drop off. However I decided on a long pole & pellet shallow approach, simply because I like the method & if you can get the fish going then a weight is possible. It is also a far more efficient method.At the all-in I decided to cup in a pot full of 8mm coarse pellets to get a bit of bait down. The plan was to then fish shallow over the top, alternating baits & depths if necessary. I started off with my usual shallow rig, with a 12 inch hook length & an 8mm pellet. Over the top I pinged out a couple of 8mm pellets. Instantly the float buried and a carp was on as it bolted against the tip.The first hour was steady with about 8 carp coming to the net. What became evident though was that I was going to have to work for the fish. Also john Hetherington had drawn peg16 AGAIN & he was catching well fishing 16m tight over to the Island, I needed to keep an eye on him.The second hour was pretty much the same as the first, although I had made a couple of changes. Firstly I shallower right up as I could see the odd swirl, telling me I had them very shallow. I also tried the big 11mm pellet on the hook. This bought me a couple of fish but it didn’t really have the impact I wanted, so I switched back to the 8mm.The third and fourth hours were a bit frustrating as I constantly had to change depth & bait to keep the fish coming, It was enjoyable but John was catching very well & I had fallen behind.What I really wanted was to find the right depth & bait combination in order to maximise my bite ratio, but it seemed that the fish were not going to settle at a particular depth today.The fifth hour was much better as I concentrated on getting them right up, by just flicking 2-3 pellets at the float continuously. It worked slightly & I began to catch John up. At one point I felt I was only 5 or 6 carp behind. I needed the carp to really settle, but they they were never really going to.The last hour started much better as I had a run of F1’s & some big bream & roach. John however pulled away with some proper lumps. I finished with 6 more decent carp.At the weigh in everybody had caught a few, John weighed in before me & put a very impressive 111lb on the scales. I weighed in 79lb. Gordon mears was the last to weigh in with 50lb+ which put me in second place again.On reflection I was quite pleased, I really had to work for them today which was rewarding, as apposed to them hanging themselves, which In order to beat John & win, I needed them to do.