My 2nd only match

In over 30 years of fishing tomorrow I face only my second match.
I've never seen the venue but have had a long chat with a local tackle dealer who regularly match fishes and indeed has fished that water.
1st line of attack will be pole (can't remember the last time I used one) Browning Hydro 11m with new univeral top fitted with 16 elastic. Line 0.19 Reflo powerline (7lb 6oz bs ) with 1.5 gm Drennan Tipo pole float direct to Colmic Nuclear barbless size 11 long shank hooks. Bait will be 3-4 chunks of cat meat.
Venue holds carp mainly 4-6lbs but odd fish 12 -15lbs.
I have Reflo powerline in 0.17 (6lbs 12oz for finer hooklengths if needed and same hooks in size 13.
Idea is to start and 9m and feed margins either side for first hour or so and then try each in turn every 20-30 mins to see if fish have moved in.
Any tips or ideas from you dedicated match anglers would be much appreciated, although I've left it a bit late as match is 1pm tomorrow Sat 3rd July. Will have hemp to feed with the cat meat and sweetcorn as a back up bait, but is apparently a cat meat water. I will have 2 back up rods both 1lb 4oz TC John Wilson Avons one at 11ft & 1 at 13ft both loaded with 6lb line.

I always find with Match fishing for Carp that the loose feeding of pellets attracts them into my swim.I don't give them any samples of my hook bait.
Also i've started hair rigging my pole rigs.I'm missing less bites and not losing as many by shedding the hook.
Good luck.

Thanks Mick, will loose feed pellets but have to buy them at the lake, you can only use the ones they supply.

Richard, how did you get on ?

I had a match yesterday aswell.Using the tactics I recommended,I managed to catch two roach.
So mutch for tips.

Fishing an 11m pole at 7m was a nightmare the wind was blowing a near gale and the pole blew around so much at times I had a job to hold it. Having said that I came 4th out of 20 which I was pleased with as it was my first visit to the venue and the others had all fished it a minimum of 6X. Finished with 33lbs of carp and 1 Tench. Winner peg next to me had 53lbs next 50lbs and 3rd 36lbs. I lost 5 fish one a good one, if I landed them I would have been in with a shout. However I learned a lot and look forward to the next match their.
HOWEVER after fishing the match my opinion that barbed hooks are kinder to fish than barbless has been firmly reinforced. I had approx 8 fish best 7lbs 2oz and all the fish were bleeding at the hook site, and the movement of the hook had caused nasty holes. I know it a commercial carp water but the mouths of some of the fish had horrible marks all over the inside. Using barbed hooks on my pleasure sessions I've had 15 Bream & Tench and not one of those fish had damaged mouths due to the hook, in fact none of them showed any previous hook damge.

Richard,well done,good result,I also dont like to use barbless hook`s for the same reason`s.
I think that when the barbless hooks were first used many years ago, there was a need for them as barbed hook`s had bloody big barb`s on ,but these day`s of the micro barb which to my mind is the best of both worlds,there is no need for the barbless hook.

Couldn't agree more Les.