It was back on the Match Fishing Roller coaster on Sunday for the first round of the "Pikey Club Winter League" on Gold Lake at Gold Valley. With 48 anglers fishing the league, we just about all fitted on the lake although I would rather have given some anglers a bit more room.
We arrived on the morning to find it absolutely hissing down with rain and it looked like it was set in for the day. Without the "Mighty Leatherhead" team fishing this year due to clashes with other leagues, I had put together my own scratch team of Me, Ross (who I have fished with for over 30 years), Woody (The Leatherhead Miser), Keith Arthur (Radio and TV celebrity), Marcus Page (Old Bordon reject) and Gary Haisman (who is only in the team cos we couldn't find anyone else and he kept ringing me up trying to get in the team) !
Anyway, before the match, the suggestion was that a draw on the middle of the lake was favourite and anywhere between 31 and 38 was in the brown smelly stuff ! So where did I draw ? Yes, PEG 34. To be honest, I didn't really mind where I drew, I haven't fished Gold Lake for ages and really had no idea what I was supposed to be doing !
It's very difficult to know what to do on Gold Lake, it's ok if you chuck out a lead or waggler and it goes round a couple of times with a big carp on the hook, but if it doesn't then you have to think about catching some silvers for some valuable team points. The problem is that one carp is worth lots of silvers but if you spend too long fishing for them and don't catch then you are already a long way behind those fishing for silvers !!!!
I have to be honest and say I didn't really do either properly, and with an hour to go I'd had one carp of about 8lb on the tea bag (my first ever on it) and a couple of pound of silvers on the pole.
Local Gold Valley ace Jeb Attwood on the next peg said he had about 10lb, so I decided to fish in the edge for some silvers in the last hour to try and overtake him and gain another valuable point for my team. I shallowed up my long pole rig, impaled two casters on the hook and flicked it in the edge where I had been feeding all match. I was soon catching a few roach and perch and just as I was edging ahead of Jeb I suddenly hooked a fish that decided to go and try and visit Angie in ther clubhouse some 100 yards away ! Luckily my silvers rig was 0.14 to a Preston H13 elastic as I've found that at Gold it seems to make no difference with the roach and perch what line you have on and it also means you have a chance should you hook a carp. After a lot of pulling and much praying, I finally netted a fish of about 16lb ! Now that is a bonus fish !
Next put in I hooked another fish which I think was foul hooked and it trashed my rig completely as it headed for the centre of the lake before the hook came out. With only ten minutes to go now, I tried my paste rig but couldn't get a proper bite on it. With 2 minutes to go I crammed 8 casters on the size 10 hook and lowered it in. There it sat for about 30 seconds before disappearing from sight !!!!!! As I struck, the fish went absolutely beserk and again ran off up the lake where I thought it was going to snap my pole as I couldn't follow it as there was a bush in the way. The whistle had now gone and Jeb very helfully kept reminding me how long I had left to net it. His last call was with 4 minutes left and by then I had seen the fish was firmly hooked in the side but as the hook had held so far I was confident of landing it. Sure enough within a minute he was nestling inthe landing net and I was beginning to think that maybe this match fishing isn't so bad after all.
At the weigh in, my three carp went 38lb and with a few pound of silvers, I finally recorded 41-10-0 for a section win, just ahead of Malc Fowler who had 35-2-0 and was very pleased for me !
Overall, Reg the edge had lobbed a lead onto the sunken island on Peg 46 to weigh 130-14-0, whilst Woody the tight wad recorded an impressive 100-6-0 on the waggler from Peg 43.
O h yes, I'd better mention that Mick The Bookie was third with 76-14-0 on the conker from Peg 50 and is so good that the bloke who was supposed to be next to him was too scared to turn up !
Team wise my team - From now on known as "Pikeys Six" finished with 38 pts, ahead of Molloy's Mob on 34, Willinghurst Cabin (despite being one short) on 29 and Don's Foxy Five team who he tells us is by far the best team trailling in only 4th with 26 pts.
oh yes, I meant to say a big thank you to the chap fishing the match on middle lake who had trouble with his brolly. The wind changed direction completely with about 90 minutes to go and his brolly blew inside out - he then spent about 10 minutes wrestling with it trying to put in back in the right way, and I have to say that the brolly nearly won !
Round 2 of the league is in two weeks time but come back thursday when I'll have a report on wednesdays Willinghurst open.
JPZ's from Marukyu - "The Dogs Danglies"
Jordan Whitby with a PB Carp of 18lb from Newdigate
Maggotdrowning.com
Exclusive Pictures
Fred Davis with his personal best chub of 7-2-0 from the River Lea
and his 6-8-0 tench !
Neil Humpage with part of his 89-10-0 match winning chub catch from the River Wye
Mike Spragg with his personal best Barbel from the The Wye, a whopping 10-1-0.
Davey P's Locker - Tackle I would recommend
Drennan Lake Floats - I used to use these floats for crucians and have recently started using them again for my silvers fishing, The cane bristle makes them especially sensitive.
I use this hook for nearly all my carp fishing from Size 10's with paste, 14's with the knotless knot on the lead and 18's for Hook in the loop rigs and they have never let me down.
How smart are this lot - Andy May and his wife with some of the motley Total fishing.com crew. There is a small pond just out of the picture and they fished a small sweepstake between the wedding ceremony and the reception ! Andy May won, Haisman was last - no change there then !
Myles Levy and his mate Chris with a 59lb catfish from France.
When I was writing in the Angling Times I promised some friends that I would try and get "Fish Cakes" mentioned in an article. However, as I was sacked before I could do so, I thought I'd put them on here ! So Mick and Karen Jones, here they are as promised !
At least one member of the Baxter clan can catch fish ! Young Dylan with a 4lb bream.
Hathers at Stafford Moor - Let this picture be a lesson to you all, those last couple of drinks the night before are never a good idea !
World Exclusive !!!!!!!
Andy Toplis playing a fish.
Ryan Hughes with part of an 80lb bag from White Springs Fishery in Wales
Mick Bull wont have received many points for this dive - but having just won the Fisho Final and £25k I don't think he really cared !
Another exclusive for Pikey's Progress - Terry Molloy not talking ! Oh yes and with a decent River Thames Pike.
OK Own up - who lent Mick The Bookie some fish to pose with ?
Martin Harper with a superb 8lb tench from Farlows Lake
Young match star Tony Curd with an 11lb barbel from the River Kennet - he didn't say where, these spessy hunters are so secretive !
Total Fishing's Justin Laundon with a fine net of fish from Lindholme Lakes
Fred Davis with 3 chub over 5lb and a small one from the River Lea.
http://www.carpvader.com/index.asp
Jeff Moors took part in the recent Catfish Challenge and caught this one - more of a "kitten" than a cat really !
And here are some proper ones that the winners had.
BNF - with part of a near 100lb haul from the Glebe
Scone - Angling writer, float maker and all round good egg !
"Hathers" with his 3-8-0 roach from Timsbury Manor - some claim it was really a hybrid, I couldn't possibly comment !
"Fordy on the Telly" with 40lb of prime River Kennet chub.
.........and this one weighed 5-2-0
Alan Dove with a small Skimmer Bream of 15-8-0 from Walthamstow Reservoir
Fred Davis plied Alan Dove with coffee all day then when he went to attend to a call of nature caught this one with his gear !
Colin Ormston (Billy no Fish) with the reason that some anglers still fish rivers !
Phil Stone (Pebs) with a fine net of roach and rudd from Witherington Farm
Total Fishing.com ventriloquist Gary Haisman with his two new dummies - Billy No Fish and Pebs.
