Having been roped into fishing for Leatherhead DAS in the Surrey Winter League at Gold Valley, me and Ross both decided that we couldn’t compete with the top teams fishing for “Silvers” and therefore intended to fish the lead for 5 hours and wait for a couple of carp to pull the tip round.
Imagine how gutted we both were to arrive at Gold in the morning to find that 99% of the pegs were iced over ! We also both drew decent carp pegs on Bungelow where they catch by fishing the lead towards the rope – just what you want when you are restricted by how far you can chuck your ice breaker.
In an “Ice Match” at Gold, Bungelow lake is actually a very good draw cos there seem to be more silvers in there than on the other lakes and even without bloodworm and joker, I thought I’d still catch on pinkie or maggot.- WRONG !
After a bit of ice breaking I had a lovely ice free channel cut, out to 11 metres – thanks to Andy Ryan for the loan of his ice breaker. I set up a carp rig to fish with corn and a lighter rig to fish for silvers. On the whistle I fed a couple of grains of corn and a few pinkies and then sat motionless for the next hour as my float refused to go under. Ben Leach at the next peg (Pictured above) cupped in his joker in double leam at the next peg, then along with the majority of the Dorking team retired to the clubhouse for the next hour. On the hour mark, I spotted Ross leaving his peg and making his way to the clubhouse, so I joined him for a warming cup of team. As I made my way to the clubhouse I passed Ben going the opposite way.
After a while, we ventured back and as I approached my peg I noticed Ben netting a quality roach. For the rest of the match as my float sat motionless, I was treated to an exhibition of Joker fishing by the former England Youth star. He would ship out, lower the rig into the water then as the float sank as the shot registered on the tip, the float often just carried on sinking and as he gently lifted the pole, his elastic appeared from the end of the pole and he slowly shipped back and netted another roach. There was nothing startling or amazing, just a very smooth and controlled performance.
As the final whistle went, I returned the ice breaker I had borrowed, congratulated Ben on his performance and returned to the car park in order to make a swift exit !
I’ve not seen the full results but when I logged on to the Total-Fishing.com website in the evening I heard that Ben had won the match with 26lb.
Just managed to see the results in Angling Times !
Results
Ben Leach Daiwa Dorking 25-8-0
Steve Gardener Daiwa Dorking 24-12-0
Gary Pook Daiwa Dorking 20-14-0
Pete Kaye Milo Bordon 14-6-0
Tony West Fox Match Banstead 13-12-0
Final League Table
Daiwa Dorking 7 pts
Fox Match Banstead 14 pts
Milo Bordon 17 pts
KC Angling 27 pts
Leatherhead DAS 33 pts
Guildford AS 35 pts
Bordon Shop 35 pts
On Wednesday I’m probably off to Sumners Pond where it could well be frozen.
However, there are loads of crucians and silvers there to catch if the carp don’t feed, so return here on Thursday to see how it went.
Imagine how gutted we both were to arrive at Gold in the morning to find that 99% of the pegs were iced over ! We also both drew decent carp pegs on Bungelow where they catch by fishing the lead towards the rope – just what you want when you are restricted by how far you can chuck your ice breaker.
In an “Ice Match” at Gold, Bungelow lake is actually a very good draw cos there seem to be more silvers in there than on the other lakes and even without bloodworm and joker, I thought I’d still catch on pinkie or maggot.- WRONG !
After a bit of ice breaking I had a lovely ice free channel cut, out to 11 metres – thanks to Andy Ryan for the loan of his ice breaker. I set up a carp rig to fish with corn and a lighter rig to fish for silvers. On the whistle I fed a couple of grains of corn and a few pinkies and then sat motionless for the next hour as my float refused to go under. Ben Leach at the next peg (Pictured above) cupped in his joker in double leam at the next peg, then along with the majority of the Dorking team retired to the clubhouse for the next hour. On the hour mark, I spotted Ross leaving his peg and making his way to the clubhouse, so I joined him for a warming cup of team. As I made my way to the clubhouse I passed Ben going the opposite way.
After a while, we ventured back and as I approached my peg I noticed Ben netting a quality roach. For the rest of the match as my float sat motionless, I was treated to an exhibition of Joker fishing by the former England Youth star. He would ship out, lower the rig into the water then as the float sank as the shot registered on the tip, the float often just carried on sinking and as he gently lifted the pole, his elastic appeared from the end of the pole and he slowly shipped back and netted another roach. There was nothing startling or amazing, just a very smooth and controlled performance.
As the final whistle went, I returned the ice breaker I had borrowed, congratulated Ben on his performance and returned to the car park in order to make a swift exit !
I’ve not seen the full results but when I logged on to the Total-Fishing.com website in the evening I heard that Ben had won the match with 26lb.
Just managed to see the results in Angling Times !
Results
Ben Leach Daiwa Dorking 25-8-0
Steve Gardener Daiwa Dorking 24-12-0
Gary Pook Daiwa Dorking 20-14-0
Pete Kaye Milo Bordon 14-6-0
Tony West Fox Match Banstead 13-12-0
Final League Table
Daiwa Dorking 7 pts
Fox Match Banstead 14 pts
Milo Bordon 17 pts
KC Angling 27 pts
Leatherhead DAS 33 pts
Guildford AS 35 pts
Bordon Shop 35 pts
On Wednesday I’m probably off to Sumners Pond where it could well be frozen.
However, there are loads of crucians and silvers there to catch if the carp don’t feed, so return here on Thursday to see how it went.
