First open contest

[Adamc]

Hi all,

Im fishing my first open contest at elmbridge fishery, heron pool on thrusday has any one got any tips for me please?

Thanks,
Adam.

[bredonangler]

Have fun

[Adamc]

Lol thanks i intend to.

But need some advice can any one adise?

[jonny_b1989]

Basicly in open matches if its a well known and popular place. You get a good standard of anglers and the standard is high and they probably have fished it for 10 years or so. So they know every peg. You might get battered in your first one but all you can do is learn. Remember most fish here every week, in and out. Try asking the lads whats winning at the moment. And then put your own twist on it. Or stick to something your really good at e.g pellet feeding micros.

[jonnyb1984]

it used to be pellet and corn down the edge one of my mates use to frame every week down there until the numbers dropped

[Adamc]

Cheers for the advice guys.

[rich200]

look at your first as a lesson trust me if the standard is high then its very likley you will come last.dont be worried about this use this to give you a target to aim at.asking for advice dosnt always work but always worth a try.if you are sat not catching and others are then use this time watch what they are doing.if you have time watch the weigh in you will pick up loads from that as the banter of the others will tell you how what and how far out they were fishing i found this the most useful part of the match,pen and paper comes in handy get the weight peg and listen to the banter of each peg.this will give you an outlook of how the whole match went mainly wining methods and you will hear the bait used.above all relax and enjoy it its your first treat it like a days fishing.But like anything else in fishing you could win it thats fishing....good luck and let us know of your result

[Adamc]

Cheers rich.
Thanks for your help.

I will let you know how i get on.

[jonnyb1984]

let us know how you get on adam i'm going down sat as i havent been there for ages well about 10 years and no open on my local lake this weekend due to john smiths at evesham.

[billy whizz]

you must have fished the venue before so you must know how you normally fish it so just do that, or set up as you would normally and at the start do not put any bait in and watch those either side (unless your in a corner) and see what they do. If heron pool is the middle one then i am sure you know this already but :-
feed the margins from the start and try them after a couple of hours
take red or orange corn for the hook
do not draw the ?&%* end

[Adamc]

No one did any good was crap.

[rich200]

but how did you go on.what methods you fish what weight you get ect details.how did you place ???????????????????????????? tell us

[Adamc]

well i started off baiting the margins either side of me with pellet and 9mtr out with corn, while i waited for that to get going i fishing pellet feeder to the island with corn on the hook had 1 6lb common that went dead so i tried margins but nothink, then went on to fishing jellets over the corn at 9mtr had 1 skimmer to 2 lb also went dead then tried casters got snapped then after that only had tiddlers, tried margins again still nothink and pellet feeder nothink so i just fishing casters over corn and kept catching tiddlers.

The winning weight was 54lb some people never even caught nothink!

We ended up fishing the first pool by the way.