Having blanked in two of my last three matches, night time temperatures were down to minus 9 and with inches and inches of ice to break, I was ready for Don's call on Tuesday afternoon. I was all ready and primed to turn down his kind offer of a lift to spend the day indoors in the warm. So, when my phone rang and "Don Mobile" showed on the screen I leapt into action and the converasation went something like this .......................
"Hello Mate it's Don, how are you"
"OK thanks but it's bloody freezing outside"
"I know, ......................normal time tomorrow ?"
"Ok"
DOH ! Why did I do that !!!!!!!!
Anyway, Don picked me up in the morning with the temperature reading Minus 3, we were both quite excited as that is the warmest it has been for a while ! Arriving at Sumners, most of the regulars had bottled out (including my fromer ice breaker Marcus Page who'd sent me a text at 7.15 saying "Minus 5 here, going back to bed") - What a wuss, I thought builders were supposed to be hard ! With a small but select field of God, Terry Harrison, Me, Don and Brian Wharton (The human plummet), we decided that we would have more chance of catching on the Match Lake so made our way up there to start our ice breaking.
The plan was to break out 5 pegs on the left hand bank as that has been the best area for silvers in the past few matches , and then have a draw for pegs. Don and Terry set about breaking the ice and I alternated between the two pegs clearing all the broken ice whilst God and Brian worked on the furthest two swims. By 11am we'd cleared 5 decent pegs, done the draw and were all ready to go. I'd drawn the far end peg next to Don and with the peg only being broken out to about 7 metres I decided to fish just one line against the ice. I set up two almost identical rigs with one of my old favourite makes of floats - a 4x16 Drennan Lake (I really like their cane bristles for silvers) on 0.12 g line with a 0.10 hooklength and a PR 24 size 18 hook.
Whilst the first half hour or so was slow for everyone except Brian who had 10 or 12 roach from the other end peg, I soon started to catch a few small roach on maggot and the size started to increase slightly as I switched to caster. Whilst silvers fishing isn't exactly one of my great strengths, I was really enjoying getting a few bites as regular readers will know that I've had a few tough matches lately.
To cut a long story short, the sun came out, the birds were singing, I was whupping Don off the next peg and I couldn't believe that I ever thought about not fishing. I spent the rest of the match catching roach on and off by switching between the two rigs, one fished slightly overdepth and one about a foot off the bottom. Alan and Mark Harrington who'd both blanked on sunday in my team both came for a wander and I don't think they could believe how many bites people were getting.
When the match ended at three o'clock, I thought it might be close between me and Terry, who was determined not to let me beat him for two weeks in a row and unfortunately I didn't, but I did have him worried !
Result
Terry Harrison 8-13-0
Dave Pearson 8-11-8
Brian Wharton 6-7-0
Steve Gardener 5-9-0
Donald Garnish 3-13-0
In hindsight, I wish I'd fished a shorter line as well as a long one but as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing. It wasn't a bad 4 hours fishing though given the frozen conditions and I can't wait to get back there soon as I think I am slowly learning how to catch silvers- although I have drawn well both times I've come second down there.
I don't know what is happening at the weekend yet but I will definitely be out somewhere, so come abck Monday to see how I got on.
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.
