With Steve Ringer recently entering the Blogging World on the Shimano site I desperately needed to catch a few fish this week to try and keep hold of some of my regular readers !
The weather forecast for sunday was rain and maximum temperatures of 5 degrees and with Willinghurst fishing very very hard on most lakes for the last week or two, I really wasn't looking forward to the fishing at all. However if I could have chosen a lake and peg to fish then it would have been.................... Pittance Lake Peg 12. Which was quite handy really cos that is exactly where I drew ! Things got even better when I arrived at my peg to find that the wind was blowing from behind me and my pole line was flat calm - Thank You God !
There was a bit of pressure on me to do well as when Squeeky (Stuart Wilson) won the lake from the peg a month or so ago I told him that it was no suprise as it is the best peg in the South of England !
On last weeks Pairs League Pittance had fished really badly with only two anglers catching but with the weather being cold but settled all week I expected it to fish a lot better. Peg 12 has one end of the isalnd to chuck to and with plenty of time before the off, I set up the following to cover all eventualities:-
A lead rod to fish a maggot feeder and a straight lead to the point of the island.
A 3AAA waggler to fish to the island
A rig to fish in the edge either side
A rig to fish at 11 metres at 10 and 2 o'clock.
I decided to fish corn in the edge and feed a few grains of corn and micro pellets and to fish dead maggot on the other pole lines as I'd caught a number of carp on Pittance this winter fishing maggot.
Things didn't start too well as I decided to fish a crystal waggler rather than a fat topped pellet waggler and having attached it to the line I dropped it on the platform whilst I tied a hooklength and then managed to tread on it ! Luckily I had another one and second cast out by the island the float suddenly wasn't there and I soon had the first fish caught on the lake in the net.
A switch to the maggot feeder gave me a chub of about a pound and then as we entered the second hour I managed to foul hook a big fish in the tail on the waggler which lead me a merry dance including visiting the peg opposite - Sorry Hoggy, before I finally managed to get it in.
So with an hour gone, I'd had 2 carp and a chub for about 12lb and with only odd fish being caught from around the lake, I was looking good for a decent result in the section.
In the next couple of hours I continued to pick up the odd carp by switching between the maggot feeder and waggler and also a couple when I tried hair rigged corn but the island peg seemed to be dieing as I was getting less and less indications over there. Although I'd been trying all the pole lines at regular intervals without any bites at all, Mick (Wicket) Keeper at the next peg had been catching on the pole albeit a couple of sections further out than me. I decided to try a new pole line at 14 metres straight out in front of me and fed 10 maggots every put in and after a slow start picked up another chub which seemed to have every maggot I had fed in it's mouth !
I fed a bigger pot of dead maggots and whilst I left that to settle had another carp on the lead, before switching back to the pole and catching three decent skimmers. In the last 30 minutes I had three carp on the pole which pushed my final total up to 10 Carp, three skimmers and 2 chub, not a bad days fishing given the conditions and certainly a lot better than my last few matches.
I was not only pleased to win the lake with 55-10-0 to Wickets 25-4-0 but arriving back at the cabin I discovered I had not only finished second overall but the team had won as well and regained it's position at the top of the league with one round to go.
John Clifford fishing Horseshoe 14 struggled to catch on the long pole and deciding to try and catch some roach at 3 metres on maggot he only managed to catch 7 big carp for 68lb to win the match ! Well done John.
Result
John Clifford Horseshoe 14 68-12-0
Dave Pearson Pittance 12 55-10-0
Mick Seymour New 8 52-0-0
Rob Dowson Top 8 45-8-0
Keith Arthur New 13 34-4-0
Reg The Edge Horseshoe 2 33-14-0
Teams
Pikey's Six 33
Molesey 29.5
Foxy Five 28
Missfits 28
Willinghurst Muppets 25
Decca 21
Molloy's Mob 18
Willinghurst Cabin 17.5
League with One Round to go
Pikey's Six 11
Foxy Five 12
Willinghurst Cabin 20
Decca 21
Willinghurst Muppets 26
Missfits 28
Molesey 28
Molloy's Mob 29
A big thank you goes to Mick The Bookie who will be donating £20 to the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity following his brave but stupid bet that his team would beat mine in the league this year !
I have round 2 of the Molesey Pairs league next week and hope to draw Pittance 12 again but in the meantime I'm out on wednesday so come back Thursday to see where I end up fishing.
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.
