After a lot of chopping and changing, Sundays match saw me back at Sumners Pond match lake for the first time since it had thawed out. Arriving at the café, there seemed to be loads of anglers there but it turned out that a fair few had only turned up for the breakfast and were actually fishing Paul Chatfield’s Silver fish match at nearby Furnace Lake. We finally ended up with 15 “Stayers” for our match and I was quite looking forward to a match where we would all have plenty of room – WRONG …………… as I then heard that we only had the right hand side of the lake as another club had the other side. To say I was gutted would be an understatement as the right hand side of the lake is usually the worst side and with every peg in, there are only 18 pegs anyway. Fortunately, we managed to nick a couple of pegs on the other bank as the other club didn’t go right down to the far end with their pegging and we could therefore leave out a few of the usually less productive pegs on our bank. I drew a peg half way down the second island, which I’d fished before and seen team mate John Swann win from before and I quite fancied it. However, with Don Garnish two to my right on the fancied end of the island peg, he was certainly going to be the favourite.
I started off feeding lines at 8 and 14 metres in the deep water and also set up a 2AA waggler to fish to the island. After about an hour, I’d had one carp on the long line on corn and a tench on the short line but with the odd fish being caught, especially by Don who already had 4, I was going nowhere. I picked up the waggler, put a banded pellet on the size 16 B911 hook and launched it towards the island. The float splashed down within 6 inches of the bank, sat there for a second and then disappeared ! A swift lift of the rod resulted in the line tightening and my 11 foot mini waggler rod taking on a satisfying curve as the unseen fish made it’s bid for freedom. Well, that’s not exactly correct as I missed the bloody bite !
With my pole lines not producing and only Don catching consistently I decided to plug away on the waggler as I thought this was my best chance of catching, so for the next 3 and a half hours I sat a fished to the island. To be honest I fished like a muppett, as my casting left a lot to be desired ! If I could get the float within 8 inches of the island, then I’d catch but any further out than that and it just sat there motionless. I had clipped up but the bank of the island came towards me slightly so if the wind took the float even a foot to the right of where I was casting, then it went up the bankside vegetation. With an hour or so to go, I made the conscious decision to slow myself down as I was wasting far too many casts by leaving the float short of the target area. This seemed to work as my percentage of casts in the “Right area” increased tremendously and I started to put a few more fish in the net.
I finished the match with 13 carp and a couple of chub and with Don admitting to 18 carp, it looked like it was second place for me. Don’s fish went 58lb but as he weighed in, I did notice that some of them were quite small compared to the ones I’d been catching and as I pulled my net out, for the first time in a number of weeks, it felt quite heavy ! Tony West had come up to see the weigh in and with 30lb in the weigh net, he looked at what was left to weigh and thought I might have won it. Sure enough, the second weigh went 38lb and I had beaten Don by over 10lb.
Despite having a frustrating day where I know I should have fished a lot better, it was nice to actually catch a few fish for a change.
Result
Dave Pearson 68-8-0
Donald Garnish 58-0-0
Joe Clarke 40-8-0
Bubbs 35-10-0
Jeff Simmons 27-14-0
Mick Fitzpatrick 27-8-0
Tony West 26-8-0
Tony Kent 24-0-0
Barry Goddard 21-8-0
Tony Yianni 19-6-0
Plus 5 DNW’s
I don’t know where I’m off to on Wednesday yet but come here on Thursday to see where I ended up !
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
I started off feeding lines at 8 and 14 metres in the deep water and also set up a 2AA waggler to fish to the island. After about an hour, I’d had one carp on the long line on corn and a tench on the short line but with the odd fish being caught, especially by Don who already had 4, I was going nowhere. I picked up the waggler, put a banded pellet on the size 16 B911 hook and launched it towards the island. The float splashed down within 6 inches of the bank, sat there for a second and then disappeared ! A swift lift of the rod resulted in the line tightening and my 11 foot mini waggler rod taking on a satisfying curve as the unseen fish made it’s bid for freedom. Well, that’s not exactly correct as I missed the bloody bite !
With my pole lines not producing and only Don catching consistently I decided to plug away on the waggler as I thought this was my best chance of catching, so for the next 3 and a half hours I sat a fished to the island. To be honest I fished like a muppett, as my casting left a lot to be desired ! If I could get the float within 8 inches of the island, then I’d catch but any further out than that and it just sat there motionless. I had clipped up but the bank of the island came towards me slightly so if the wind took the float even a foot to the right of where I was casting, then it went up the bankside vegetation. With an hour or so to go, I made the conscious decision to slow myself down as I was wasting far too many casts by leaving the float short of the target area. This seemed to work as my percentage of casts in the “Right area” increased tremendously and I started to put a few more fish in the net.
I finished the match with 13 carp and a couple of chub and with Don admitting to 18 carp, it looked like it was second place for me. Don’s fish went 58lb but as he weighed in, I did notice that some of them were quite small compared to the ones I’d been catching and as I pulled my net out, for the first time in a number of weeks, it felt quite heavy ! Tony West had come up to see the weigh in and with 30lb in the weigh net, he looked at what was left to weigh and thought I might have won it. Sure enough, the second weigh went 38lb and I had beaten Don by over 10lb.
Despite having a frustrating day where I know I should have fished a lot better, it was nice to actually catch a few fish for a change.
Result
Dave Pearson 68-8-0
Donald Garnish 58-0-0
Joe Clarke 40-8-0
Bubbs 35-10-0
Jeff Simmons 27-14-0
Mick Fitzpatrick 27-8-0
Tony West 26-8-0
Tony Kent 24-0-0
Barry Goddard 21-8-0
Tony Yianni 19-6-0
Plus 5 DNW’s
I don’t know where I’m off to on Wednesday yet but come here on Thursday to see where I ended up !
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
