And that's exactly what happened for me for the Leatherhead DAS / Dorking AC match which was moved from a very high River Mole to the club ponds at Bookham.
Having pegged the lakes with competition secretary Pete Turnbull, of the 12 pegs, I wouldn't have minded drawing pegs 1-7 on the top lake and 10 and 11 on the bottom lake. Being the generous hosts that we were, we let the 4 Dorking anglers draw first but I was getting a bit worried when they drew 4,5 and 6 ! Peg 3 then disappeared before I managed to get in the draw bag and get Peg 1.
Peg 1 is a decent swim but the downside is that you share a rush bed with Peg 2 - where Pete Turnbull drew. I did feel a bit guilty when Peter said he hadn't got any paste with him and I didn't offer him any of mine but it was the only bait I had with me and wasn't conviced that I had enough for myself let alone give some away !
For me, the ponds are an out and out paste venue and having caught with it on friday, I was sure it would work again today. I set up one rig to fish at 6 metres at the end of the rushes - H10 pole, 0.16 line, 4x12 Maver Margin Paste float and size 14 B911 hook. I also set up an identical rig to fish in the margin to my left.
I started the match by putting in two kinders of paste mix on both lines and started off at 6 metres. With the float dotted right down I had two early indications on the float but no fish but third put in the float disappeared and I soon had a 2lb fish in the net. Although the fishing was never hectic, by feeding a pot of paste mix every third put in, I managed to keep some fish in the peg and after two hours I'd probably had twenty small carp between 1lb and 2lb.
Unfortunatly the pond is a collecting pond for the local rain fall as many drains seem to run into it before running out of the overflow on the bottom lake. The amount of rain we'd had meant the top lake was up a couple of inches overnight and rose another couple between the time we pegged it and the start, this had obviously unsettled the fish and from mid match onwards it became a struggle for nearly everyone.
Personally, the next couple of hours (despite chopping and changing feeding etc ) were a struggle with only the odd fish and in the last 90 minutes I never had a bite or any sort of indication at all.
The odd thing was that despite feeding the margin peg all day, and it only being 6 inches shallower than the 6 metre line, I never had one bite there.
Helping Pete do the weigh in, Hathers (pictured above with his monster roach that he didn't catch today) topped the bottom lake with 21-2-0 of small Goldfish, carp, crucians and roach well ahead of Spindle on 7-8-0. Mick Sharples won the Dorking fish off on the top lake with 15-3-0 and my net of carp pipped Hathers to the top spot with 34-4-0.
Result - Top 4
Dave Pearson 34-4-0
Mark Hathway 21-2-0
Mick Sharples 15-3-0
Gary Rose 13-9-0
So, another lovely days winter fishing, despite the weather, plenty of bites early on and a few bob in the old fishing account. Hopefully wednesday will give a similar result in Round 2 of Steve Gardener's Silvers league on the Sumners Pond match lake.............but don't hold your breath !
