Welcome to Issue 28 of Think Fishing and this month, by popular demand, I decided to fish a match in front of the cameras. The midweek opens at Ivy House Lakes are popular and I try and fish there whenever I can because it’s a lovely venue and there’s some interesting fishing on offer. On the day of my visit the match was being held on one of the new snake lakes which is about 16 metres wide and full of silver fish, carp and there’s also a few F1s so there’s plenty to think about. Timing for my visit was right at the end of May and it’s a funny time of year because the fish are a bit unsettled because they’re looking to spawn and that can make them impossible to catch at times.

However, the owners have put some stockies in so if those bigger fish refused to feed there should still be plenty of bites to be had and the decisions on how to approach it could only be made once I’d got to my swim and I could see what was in front of me. Plumbing up was also crucial because of the steep, rocky ledges so we’ve included some extended footage of that in the video to show you how exactly how I approached it.

So hope you enjoy the issue and hope you get plenty out of it because there were plenty of lessons to be learnt on how to approach this type of venue in match conditions.

Des Shipp

ISSUE 28 VIDEO TASTER...

Check out Des' rigs he used at Ivy House