Well Done Tone !
Before I start this weekends blog I just want to say a big Well Done to Tony Curd on winning the Lakeview round of Fishomania and taking up his place in the final later in the summer. Well Done mate. I don't think he had anything this big, but it was the only picture I have of him !This weekend the offer of sunday dinner at my parents was far too good an opportunity to miss as my mums roasts are superb ! So, I switched fishing days and on saturday went to Willinghurst to fish the open on Pittance Lake - which also just happens to be one of my favourite lakes.
With 14 anglers fishing, it was really one or two too many for the lake and we had to peg a couple of swims that I wouldn't really have fancied. I drew Peg 15 which we don't usually peg but sitting on my box before the start, I really fancied it for a few fish. The anglers to beat looked like being Don on Peg 1, Terry Harrison on Peg 5 (on the island) and John Clifford who was celebrating his 70th birthday opposite Terry on Peg 12. You can usually catch a lot of fish in the edge on Pittance and although I was quite close to the anglers either side, I set up a rig to fish to my left in the edge with corn. A rig to fish at 12 metres with pellett on the deck and a throw away 8 metre paste line at 10 o'clock. Paste hasn't started working at Willinghurst yet but it is only a matter of time before it does and I want to start catching on it as soon as I can !
Having fed all three lines I started off fishing long with a soft 6mm hooker and after about 10 minutes had a carp of about 4lb. Jeff Dickinson was to my left and after he battered me off the next peg last sunday I was out for revenge this time. However, things didn't exactly go to plan as after 20 minutes he already had two big carp in the net, fishing a hair rigged 8mm hard pellett at 6 metres ! With Jeff catching close, I had a quick look on my paste line with a 10mm size piece of paste and within seconds the float had disappeared as my first Willinghurst paste fish of the year made a bid for freedom ! At this time of year you can't usually just plunder one line all day as the fish seem to back off after one or two have been caught so I quickly fed another line with the same rig at 2 0'clock with a small pot of 3mm swim stim pelletts and left it to settle.
After 15 biteless minutes on the other paste line I switched to my "New" line and had a 4lb bream first put in - there are quite a few bream in Pittance now as I think the carp anglers considered them to be a nuisance and moved them when they were fishing Xmas tree Lake behind it. I didn't consider them to be a nuisance at all and found them to be a nice little bonus when the carp weren't in the peg. After about an hour and a half, I was probably winning the match with 6 carp and two bream but then the peg just died and I really struggled for a bite despite trying the pellett line again and in the edge. Jeff was still catching a few including a small whale of about 15lb and Hayden Woods on 18, Ian Summers on 6 and Terry Harrison fishing a feeder to the island were all catching. Don opposite me on Peg 1 had started very slowly but as my peg died, his got better and better and with a couple of hours to go he was catching well fishing at 6 or 7 metres with corn.
I did start to catch the odd fish again but then had my most frustrating period of the match when I foul hooked 5 fish in a row and lost every one. With an hour to go, I decided that it was all or nothing now and fed three pots of paste and pellett on my long line, just to see what happened. I left it for 15 minutes or so but with no more bites on the other lines I was itching to get back out there, and in the last thirty minutes I had another 4 carp out there - it is usually a kiss of depth feeding that much bait at Willinghurst as you just end up with loads of foul hookers but it seemed to work this time, possibly cos it was "Carp o'clock" and the fish were feeding properly but it might be worth feeding one line like it next time.
Anyway, I finished the match with about 12 carp and 5 bream and although I wasn't going to frame, I really enjoyed the match and learnt a thing or two to try in future.
Result
Don Garnish............Peg 1...............93-4-0
Terry Harrison.......Peg 5..............82-4-0
Jeff Dickinson.........Peg 16.............75-10-0
Ian Summers.........Peg 6...............64-4-0
Dave Pearson.........Peg 15.............56-8-0
Hayden Woods.......Peg 18.............55-8-0
The good news for me was that they paid the Top 3 and two sections and I managed to sneak my section and pick up £30 by beating Hayden by a pound and Rob to my right by 2lb when I thought they had both beaten me !
