For anyone who has been saying all summer that I only draw fliers, please note my current run of draws !
I was undecided about where to fish sunday and early in the week it looked like a toss up between the River Mole Championships, a hastily arranged match at Gold Valley or the old favoutite.........Willinghurst ! Despite having won the Mole Champs in the past with 44lb of chub (what a lovely couple of hours fishing that was) the river has changed considerably over the years and in quite a few pegs you need to sit it out for big barbel (up to 14lb) and /or double figure carp, not really what I want from my small river fishing. I also heared that the proposed match at Gold did not materialise so it was Willinghurst for me with the match on Horseshoe, New and Pittance Lake.
My pre match wander revealed that there were a few fish blowing on New Lake in front of pegs 4 and 5 and opposite them on pegs 17 and 18. With Horseshoe not fishing well lately and after a crap day on Pittance on wednesday, I was hoping for a draw on New Lake, cos it is also a short walk and you can visit Aimy in the cabin for a tea and bacon sandwich if you aren't catching !
My mate Don who is on a bit of a roll at the moment having won the last 4 Willinghurst matches in a row, drew Pittance 10 and my location for the day was to be ....New 2. With nobody on Peg 1 or Peg 3, it meant I had a lot of room but it just depended where the carp were in the lake as to whether I would catch. A number of anglers that I have spoken to at Willinghurst lately have been catching a few carp on the humble maggot rather than the usual corn or pellet so a tthe tackle shop on saturday I visited the "Wriggly Bait Section" and purchased enough maggots to keep me going for a few matches. My cunning plan was to feed a line with the "usual baits" ie corn or pellet and also dump half a pot of dead maggots elsewhere in the peg. I thought that if I wasn't bagging on carp then at least I'd catch roach and rudd to stave off the boredom. How wrong can you be !
Sponge Bob opposite me on Peg 20 managed to snap his 6th section of pole whilst cupping in but it didn't seem to slow him down as he then telescoped the section and had two carp on his first two put ins !
My match started off slowly and got even slower ! I never had a bite for the first two hours whilst Mick Seymour, Tony Yianni and Dan Cooper on Pegs 4,5,6 to my left were all catching, but suddenly my peg sprung into life as a rudd grabbed hold of my double dendrabina offering.
With half the match to go I was needing snookers and despite netting one carp on the maggot line, I was getting very bored despite a trip to visit Aimy for an egg and bacon sandwich and a visit to Don on Pittance about half a mile away ! As we entered the last hour I had another carp in the edge and a roach on the long line but that was it for the day and I finished with the grand total of 13-8-0. I'm having a bit of a nightmare at Willinghurst lately as that now makes a total of 5 carp in my last 21 hours match fishing there !
Just to rub it in, I was also on the scales where on our lake I witnessed Mick Seymour win the match with 87-0-0, Dan Cooper finish just a pound behind him and Ian Summers finish 4th overall with 67-4-0.
Result
Mick Seymour New 4 87-0-0
Dan Cooper New 6 86-0-0
Jeff Dickinson Pittance 7 76-8-0
Ian Summers New 8 67-0-0
Haydon Woods Pittance 13 64-10-0
On Wednesday I am back for some more punishment at Willinghurst and I'm also there sunday for Round 2 of the Pikey Winter League - it must be my turn for a decent draw soon mustn't it ?
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.
