My Match Fishing Scene Champions League points quest continued on Saturday with a match at one of my favourite fisheries, Witherington Farm near Salisbury.Arriving at the farm at about 8am (courtesy of Brian Green -PTB) it was good to see a few old friends again and also nice to see a rather large Withrington Farm breakfast !Having consumed said breakfast, we then drove up to the Snake lake for the draw, but not before I had walked round both inner and outer lakes to check out the pegging. With 17 anglers spread over 92 pegs we were certainly going to have some room but the pegs I really fancied were 1-4, 9 and 10 on the outer snake and ANY of the pegs on the Inner.
So, in went the hand to the draw bag, and out came........Peg 9, or at least I thought it was until I arrived ay "my" peg to find Fred already setting up. Now, I'm sure Fred wont mind me pointing out that he is no spring chicken and at first I thought "Silly old sod he's not looked at his draw ticket properly", that was until we checked his and it had a line under the number and it was me who'd read it wrong ! I therefore continued on my way before arriving at Peg 6, not one I really fancied, being 16 metres across to the far bank but at least I had a bit of room to my left as Pete Bailey was on the bend below me, about 6 pegs away. Incidently PB drew the only peg that I really didn't want as it was about 19 metres to the far bank and I think only he could have fished it with a pole.
Tactics for the day were long pole tight to the far bank, a silvers rig down the middle and either side in the edge. Baits were bread, corn, pellett, worms and of course paste. With so many Goldfish in the lake, I also had a secret bait (pictured left) but unfortunately had trouble keeping it on the hook ! To be honest I think I messed it up as I'm sure I could have sat and caught silvers for most of the day but I thought you'd need a few carp to win and spent too much time trying to catch them when it didn't seem as they were about as in the 5 pegs in our section there were only about 6 or 7 caught. Still as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
So, in went the hand to the draw bag, and out came........Peg 9, or at least I thought it was until I arrived ay "my" peg to find Fred already setting up. Now, I'm sure Fred wont mind me pointing out that he is no spring chicken and at first I thought "Silly old sod he's not looked at his draw ticket properly", that was until we checked his and it had a line under the number and it was me who'd read it wrong ! I therefore continued on my way before arriving at Peg 6, not one I really fancied, being 16 metres across to the far bank but at least I had a bit of room to my left as Pete Bailey was on the bend below me, about 6 pegs away. Incidently PB drew the only peg that I really didn't want as it was about 19 metres to the far bank and I think only he could have fished it with a pole.
Tactics for the day were long pole tight to the far bank, a silvers rig down the middle and either side in the edge. Baits were bread, corn, pellett, worms and of course paste. With so many Goldfish in the lake, I also had a secret bait (pictured left) but unfortunately had trouble keeping it on the hook ! To be honest I think I messed it up as I'm sure I could have sat and caught silvers for most of the day but I thought you'd need a few carp to win and spent too much time trying to catch them when it didn't seem as they were about as in the 5 pegs in our section there were only about 6 or 7 caught. Still as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.However, at least the weather was good - especially after many anglers packed up early last week because they couldn't feel there fingers and the company wasn't bad although I did draw next to Greenie with Plummers the other side of him. The only good thing about my fishing was that with an hour or so to go, I was well infront of them both and odds on for the £1's when Plummers caught three carp (one of them a whale) fishing great big lumps of paste down the middle - to pip me with 11-13-0 to my 8-6-0 of Goldfish, little carp and skimmers, caught mainly tight across on bread or down the edge on worm and maggott. So, my feeble efforts put me 7th in the 9 peg section earning just 1 measley Champions League point for me, and following my 1 Point at Tylers Common, it's going to take me a lot of matches to qualify for the final.
I got a bit bored in the afternoon so started to take lots of pictures, so here is one of my float not going under in the edge ! Well done to the framers, especially Richard Watt (Onefeed) who finished well ahead of the chasing pack with 50-6-0, followed by Kingfisher 38-7-0, Ken Rayner 36-2-0, Buygoodtackle 35-2-0 and Rolio 34-12-0 in what turned out to be a tight match for the the minor places.
With no fishing on Sunday, Mrs P who is a keen bird watcher suggested that as some short eared owls had been spotted locally, that we go and have a look. As the location was some fields adjacent to the River Wey and Broadmead cut at Send, (a venue familiar to all the anglers who used to fish the Surrey Division of the Surrey Winter League many years ago) I readily agreed and off we went. Whilst Mrs P went to join the twitchers in the field admiring these magnificent creatures, I wandered along the river bank to survey the scene of a magnificent victory in the winter league some 34 YEARS ago !
With no fishing on Sunday, Mrs P who is a keen bird watcher suggested that as some short eared owls had been spotted locally, that we go and have a look. As the location was some fields adjacent to the River Wey and Broadmead cut at Send, (a venue familiar to all the anglers who used to fish the Surrey Division of the Surrey Winter League many years ago) I readily agreed and off we went. Whilst Mrs P went to join the twitchers in the field admiring these magnificent creatures, I wandered along the river bank to survey the scene of a magnificent victory in the winter league some 34 YEARS ago !
I can remember the match as though it was yesterday as I fished a waggler against the far bank with bronze maggott on the Size 18 Mustad 90340 hook and had 10 chub for 23-12-0 for a convincing victory, which was especially nice as I was 18 and fishing against Dorking, Banstead and Weybridge etc who were some of the best teams in the country at the time. Having wandered back to join the twitchers I was then able to see both a barn owl and a short eared owl so all in all a rather nostalgic and successful afternoon.
Not sure where I am next weekend but return here soon to see how I got on.
Arriving at Willinghurst we drove up to Pittance to check that there weren't any anglers on it already and with the wind as it was, the number of pegs in and with my knowlwdge of the lake, the only pegs I didn't want were Pegs 13 and 14. Despite being near the back of the draw queue, there were plenty of decent pegs left when I reached the front but the one I picked out of the bag - Peg 14 wasn't one I really fancied. Arriving at the lake, the wind had now strengthened and with rain to come in the afternoon, it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. My tactics were to be two long pole lines (which it was almost impossible to fish once the wind got even stronger), an edge peg long to my left - which usually produces a few fish, and a chuck to the island.
At 8.30am following a very nice egg and bacon sandwich courtesy of Sue the new cabin supremo, the draw commenced and with just two pegs left in the bag I was quite excited as my favourite Peg 5 was still in the bag. Luckily for me Windy Ben (Emery) drew Peg 10 and I was left with a decent chance of winning (or so I thought). We made our way up to the lake and as we arrived I noticed that the wind was strong and cold and blowing from from Pegs 17 and 18 up to the dam end (Pegs 7 and 10). My plan of attack was to fish a lead to the island or at least in the open water off the island, a pole at 13 metres and a longish pole down the edge. Bait was to be dead maggotts and corn on the pole lines with a touch of Marukyu 130 GB (that I'd scrounged off Ben) and bread / Corn on the lead. Unfortunately the match was much the same as the previous weeks as despite switching about on all the lines, I couldn't get a bite anywhere. Just as I'd started an angel appeared before me laden with an insulated bag full of hot tomato soup and some french bread (it was actually Sue and at that point I think I fell in love again) !! With 45 minutes to go, I was still fishless but still felt I was in with a chance of framing if the fish turned up in my edge peg. Malcolm Heaver on Peg 12 was likely to win as he already had 5 or 6 fish fishing corn to the island on the lead whilst Gary Simmons on Peg 7 had caught 4 lumps down the edge but the next best was "The man in Black" Geoff Dickenson who'd had three fish on the lead from Peg 14. My hopes were raised considerably when my three dead reds were picked up by a fish in my edge peg and after a brief tussle, I netted a nice Barny Rubble. Unfortunately no more fish showed for me in the last half hour and at the weigh in my one fish pulled the needle round to 12-14-0, a nice fish but unfortunately a bit of a billy no mates as was obviously swiming about on his own. As expected Malcolm's 8 fish went 47lb ahead of Gary's 4 fish for 34lb. Geoff's 3 carp went 15-4-0 and that pushed me into the one out of the frame spot ! 
