Round 3 saw us return to Gold Lake at John Raison's Gold Valley fishery a month after our first match there and with the weather turning a lot colder, this was likely to be a much tougher affair, especially given the amount of cold rain we had the day before.
The match saw the return of Gary Haisman to our team (following his trip to Andy May's wedding last round) as we tried to hang on to our top spot in the league. With Keith Arthur away sunning himself again, we had an able deputy in my Leatherhead DAS team mate Mark Hathway and having drawn Peg 5 for the team, I thought we'd be ok.
I drew Peg 15 on the canal bank and whilst I'd have preferred an island peg, I was quite happy to see a few fish blowing before the start. I set up a lead rod to fish to the rope in the middle and also at 30 yards and a pole to fish at 5 metres for silvers. I also set up a pellet waggler just in case the fish on my 30 metre line came up in the water when I pinged pellets over it.
The match started slowly for everyone and personally it couldn't have been slower as after an hour of fishing the lead on both lines with either pellet or luncheon meat on the hook I was still biteless. Tony Kent two pegs to my left had caught a carp on the lead and just as I was thinking of trying for a silver fish to guarantee a point of two my rod went round and after a cautious fight (as they always are when it's your first fish) I netted a carp of about 6lb on a punched piece of luncheon meat. Next cast I had a skimmer of 1-10-0 but just as I thought I might now start to get a few fish, the peg just died again. Despite trying my silvers line fishing caster, I still couldn't catch one and with only Tony Kent catching roach and perch I made the decision to sit it out for a carp for the rest of the match.
After another biteless hour, I was just thinking of Ola Jordan on last nights Strickly Come Dancing (see picture above) when the tip flew round and carp number 2 was soon in the net.
What followed was one of those events that will make me laugh everytime I think of it. Tony Kent was catching some decent roach on the pole and just as he was about to net one, a Heron swooped down from the trees behind us, grabbed the roach and flew off not only with the fish but Tony's rig as well ! Sorry mate, I know I shouldn't have laughed as much as I did but it was very funny !
As we entered the last hour, Gary Clifford three pegs to my right was just on the edge of all the carp and was going to win our section but the rest of it seemed very tight with Tony Kent still catching silvers to add to his 2 small carp and a couple of others on 2 carp, I thought if I could just catch one more then I might just sneak second place in the section. Sure enough, just as I was entering the "Ola Zone" again, the rod went round and another 6lber joined his mates in the old onion sack.
Sure enough, Gary Clifford's 42-4-0 easily won the section, followed by my 20-12-0 with a couple of others just one carp behind. It wasn't my most exciting days fishing with just 4 bites and a few liners in 5 hours but unfortunately that is what winter fishing is sometimes like.
Teamwise my "Pikey's Six" team had a brilliant match with Ross winning his section, me and Woody finishing second in ours, Hathers and Haisman 3rd and Marcus our lowest points in 4th.
Well done chaps a superb performance.
Result
Mark Price Decca 69-8-0
Lee Smith Decca 55-12-0
Dave Bacon Foxy Five 50-12-0
Reg the Edge Decca 50-2-0
R Dowson Willinghurst Cabin 47-8-0
Gary Clifford Foxy Five 42-4-0
Teams
Pikey's Six 39
Foxy Five 33
Decca 28
Willinghurst Cabin 28
Molloy's Mob 25
Missfits 24
Molesey 19
Willinghurst Muppets 16
League after 3 Rounds
Pikey's Six 3
Foxy Five 8
Willinghurst Cabin 9
Decca 13
Molloy's Mob 14
Willinghurst Muppets 17
Missfits 20
Molesey 21
Next week I might be tempted to fish the Leatherhead DAS / Dorking AC club match on my local River Mole, depending on the amount of rain we have this week and the state of the river. At the moment it looks up a few feet and is chocolate brown ! However, if we get a few dryish days it could be spot on by the weekend.
However, I'll no doubt be reporting on Wednesdays exciting events at Willinghurst on Thursday morning, so don't forget to come back.
