Stub Pond - Mill Lake

Sunday saw us returning to Stub Pond for another Leatherhead DAS club match but we weren't on Plantation Lake this time but the rarely match fished Mill Lake. With "The Major" (club Comp Sec Peter Turnbull) not being available, I was roped into running the match. When I spoke to Peter on Friday afternoon he said he'd heard that it was very weedy and we might struggle to get all the pegs in. Therefore when Mrs Pikey arrived home early from work and suggested that we go for a drive as the weather was so good, there was only one place to go !

Within half an hour I was walking round the lake and found that sometime recently they had dragged out a load of candian pond weed and there were more than enough decent looking pegs for us. There was an "Old Boy" (well older than me anyway) on the first peg I came to and when I asked him if he'd caught he said he was well pleased to have caught 8 carp to 7lb and a couple of tench and crucians. I told him I was checking out the pegs for our match on sunday and he then confided in me that he'd found the best bait to be prawns. That was worth knowing I thought, I've still got a bag in the freezer and I'll be the only one who knows ! Unfortunately when I grabbed a set of fishery rules, the first line said "NO SHRIMPS, OR ANY OTHER SEA FOOD BAITS !

Match day arrived and it was off to Bury Hill Lakes for us for a much needed pre match breakfast, although it didn't quite go to plan as they had 3 matches on there and wouldn't cook breakfast for anyone else ! We then made our way to Stub Pond looking for a breakfast location on the way. I really don't know what this country is coming to when you can't even get yourself a breakfast before fishing on a sunday !

We finally gave up looking and ended up with a coffee and pastry thingy in a newsagents, not the ideal start but better than nothing. Arriving at Stub Pond, me Ross and Tony Plumbridge wandered off to peg the lake and soon had 14 decent looking pegs sorted. Although I've only fished Mill Lake once before I knew that the pegs you really wanted were the near end pegs which were 1 and 16, and I also fancied 9 and 10.

As the draw commenced, I lost track of who was drawing where as I wrote them down on the sheet but suddenly there were only three of us to draw and pegs 1,3 and 10 were still there.

Ross drew Peg 5 and with Mike Mortimore (or Mad Mike as he is affectionately known) not yet there, I had the prospect of drawing one of two end pegs ! Not wanting to be accused of fiddling the draw, I then let Northern Bloke (Howard Corner) choose my ticket - which he did admirably, picking me Peg 1, a nice short walk and even better, a peg that is regularly fished.

Mill Lake is a long thinnish lake with an island down the middle at between 10 and 16 metres and quite weedy with loads of canadian pond weed and lily pads. Forunately my peg being regularly fished was quite clear of weed and was basically a big hole (about 10 metres x 10 metres) in the weed. I decided to fish paste at 10 metres in to the top right hand corner and also to my left by some lillies in the left hand edge. I also thought I'd fish a short line in the edge and fish hemp and luncheon meat.

Having tackled up and prepared my paste, I then put two tins of meat through my meat cutter, added three pints of hemp and mixed it all up in my bowl. With 10 minutes until kick off, I then went for a wander round the lake to see everyone else. If you've fished at Stubpond you will know that there is a great big black dog that looks like a small horse that roams about.......you just know what is coming next don't you !!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I arrived back at my peg to find that my two tins of meat and three pints of hemp was now about 20 pieces of meat and half a pint of hemp !

Now with no Plan B it was going to be an all out Paste attack ! I started off catching a few small carp between 1 an 2lb whilst others that were getting bites seemed to be losing some zoo creatures in their weedy pegs. By switching lines I managed to keep a few fish coming and found that I did better when I fed nothing at all, apart from the paste coming off the hook. Mid match, everyones swims seemed to die and I then had to switch about in different areas of my swim to keep the odd fish coming. Smiffy at the next peg was having a frustrating day as the water in his peg was very clear and when he fed in the edge he could see 2 or 3 very big fish come into the peg but couldn't catch them. Also when he fished by the lillies in front of him he kept hooking fish that swam off up the lake and snagged him in the lillies, even with 25 elastic ! I had no such trouble with my red hydro and beloved H10 pole, especially as my biggest fish were about 3lb !

I kept nicking the odd fish here and there and despite expecting to bag up in the last couple of hours, the fishing remained hard and I think I only had 4 fish in the last hour.

Being the end peg, It meant I also had the scales so on the whistle I packed up quickly and went off to weigh in. Ross was top in the pegs up the far end with 33lb and I was quite suprised when Smiffy only put 37lb on the scales, having lied to me all the way through about the size of the fish he had been catching. I knew my fish were small but hadn't realised I had caught so many as my final weight was 76-12-0. With Northern Bloke winning the far bank with 40-4-0 I was pleased to take top spot but disappointed that the venue didn't fish better for everyone else.

Result

Dave P 76-12-0
Howard Corner 40-4-0
Nick "Scooter Boy" Kenward 37-4-0
Smiffy 37-0-0
Tony Plumbridge 35-0-0
Ross Nursey 33-0-0

Next week we are visiting a new venue for us..........................Willinghurst Top Lake !