In the words of former Spurs and England ace Jimmy Greaves, "It's a funny old game", and whilst he was referring to the world of football, the same applies to Match fishing.
One month (especially in winter) you can be struggling for bites then all of a sudden you have a little run of matches where you draw on a few fish and suddenly match fishing isn't so bad after all.
Regular readers will know that I have been struggling like mad at Willinghurst infact I think I've only had 10 carp in my last 5 matches, with none in my last two. I was therefore not really looking forward to todays wednesday open but had nothing better to do and just hoped for a draw near some feeding fish. With 20 anglers present, the match was split over Top and New Lakes and rather than wait until last to draw I jumped straight in and drew Peg 8 on Top lake, a peg that has shown a bit of form lately and one I was quite happy with. I'd watched Michael Sanders fishing it a few weeks ago and on that occasion he said he liked to fish as long as possible on Top lake in winter as the fish seemed to all move out to the middle of the lake. I therefore set up two rigs to fish at 14 and 16 metres at 10 and 2 o'clock. I 'd scaled down from my usual Willinghurst 0.18 rigs and have now settled on 0.12 G Line to a B911 size 18 with White or grey hydro and a pull bung.
A little trick I picked up from Michael another time he gave me a bashing off the next peg was to go out at the start without feeding anything and hopefully nick an early fish or two as they aren't really coming to the feed anyway. Having caught 2 carp in my last 17 hours and my confidence being fairly low, I wasn't expecting anything to happen for a while and was fairly suprised when first put in, having shipped out my 6mm pellet to the 12 metre line, the float settled then almost immediately disappeared from sight ! With white hydro on this rig, I was grateful for the help of a pull bung and soon had an 8lber in the net. Another of the same size followed next put in but then having gone 20 minutes without another sign, I fed seven or eight 4mm pellets via a kinder cup and switched to the longer line as I thought any fish in the peg might have backed off a bit.
Sure enough, within a few minutes I had a bite and another decent carp soon joined his mates in the net, then next put in I had another ! Bloody hell I thought, in the last month or so 7 or 8 carp have usually been enough to win at Willinghurst and here was I with an hour gone and four in the net already ! To make things even better, there were only three other anglers on the lake with carp (and they'd only had one each), whilst New Lake was fishing even harder with Don leading from Peg 8 with 1 carp !
I knew I wouldn't carry on catching at that rate but by switching lines and also trying corn, I managed to keet the odd fish coming and entering the last hour had 9 fish in the net and with a 65lb limit per net thougth I'd better put my second net in - for the first time in months !
I remember Don fishing the peg the other week and when he was struggling for a carp, he decided to cup in 30 grains of corn and caught over it almost immediately. Therefore with nothing to lose, I did the same on my 12 metre line and had the same result ! After every fish I fed another 20 grains of corn and each time nicked a fish off each line to add another 5 in the last hour.
For the first time in ages I was looking forward to the scales arriving at my peg and after three weighs and a bit of adding up, my final weight was recorded as 79-12-0 - GET IN THERE !
Result
Dave Pearson Top 8 79-12-0
Steve Sanders New 12 43-2-0
Steve Gardener Top 2 36-12-0
Michael Sanders New 18 36-10-0
Donald Garnish New 8 32-0-0
John Clifford Top 18 30-10-0
So after a grim couple of weeks, it was nice to duff up the Dorking Mafia and put a few bob in the old sky rocket - Hopefully I can draw near a few fish on Sunday when I return to Willinghurst for Round 5 of Pikey's Winter League.
Well, that all sounded believable didn't it ?
Here is what really happened !
Don rang me at 7am to say that his car wouldn't start as the batteries were flat and he wouldn't be able to pick me up, (I think he was just scared that I was going to beat him really) so there was no Willinghurst match for me today !
Don rang me at 7am to say that his car wouldn't start as the batteries were flat and he wouldn't be able to pick me up, (I think he was just scared that I was going to beat him really) so there was no Willinghurst match for me today !
I did ring Plummet (Brian Wharton so named after his double back somersault with Pike into Peg 21 on Top Lake the other month) as he lives round the corner and now usually goes on wednesdays, however, I think I must have woken him as he mumbled that he wasn't going today - Sorry Brian !
Anyway, not wanting to sit around at home all day, I had a bit of breakfast, wrote my "Willinghurst Match Report Blog", and decided to go to our club ponds up the road for a few hours. Having made some paste, I then cleaned out the rabbits - well I thought I ought to do some jobs as I wasn't fishing a match, and grabbed some gear. All I take to the ponds for pleasure sessions is my trusty old H10 pole with yellow preston elastic in it, a landing net, my box to sit on and some paste. I left home at 10.25am and was sitting in my peg on the Top Lake by 10.33am ! Not suprisingly I chose the peg I had 77lb from in a recent Leatherheaqd DAS club match as not only is it a decent peg but it is also very comfortable and tucked away out of the wind.
I've caught on paste before in the winter on the club ponds but with the water cold and very clear I wasn't exactly expecting a "Bagging Session". However, second put in fishing at about 7 meters along the rushes to my right, the float disappeared and a carp of 3lb was soon in the net. Four more followed in the next half an hour but then the swim seemed to fade and the indications of fish in the peg got less and less. After a short walk around the lakes I decided to try feeding a kinder cup of pellets every put in to see if the fish wanted more feed. This gave the peg the kiss of life as I was soon catching a few fish and added another 6 or 7 carp to the 5 I had earlier. Spotting bites wasn't easy as the light on the water was very broken (black and white) that's often a problem with tree lined lakes in winter when all the leaves have gone, so I dedided to add another couple of sections and fish further along the rushes where the light was much better and my yellow tipped float stood out like a lighthouse despite being dotted down. I continued to carry on with the "Feed every put in" regime and was soon catching one a chuck.
At 2.30pm I'd had enough, after catching 25 carp in the last hour and having packed up and had a quick walk round the bottom pond, I was at home in the warm by 3pm.
Despite having a great days fishing - I had about 35 or so carp between 2lb and 5lb, sharing my lunch with a couple of Mallards and chatting to a few locals, I still missed fishing a match and I just wish that I could find a local match fishery where I could catch a few fish on a match !
Come back tomorrow when I will have a report from "Fordy on the Telly" the well known angling reporter on his "Get Together" on the River Kennett. I've seen it and believe me it's well worth a read.
