Arriving at Willinghurst in the morning, it was clear that with the wind blowing towards the bottom end of the lake, the place to draw was always going to be Pegs 12, 13 and 16 and that's just how it turned out. Having drawn Peg 12 I really fancied it for a few fish especially as they'd left out Peg 10 leaving me a lot of room to my right.
As I'd had 124lb on paste last wednesday from Peg 23 on the back spit, despite the amount of cold rain we'd had the previous day and a couple of cold nights, I decided to start on it again and perhaps modify my approach to fish pellett or corn if I was struggling.
I set up three paste rigs to fish 11 metres straight out, 6 metres at 10 o'clock and an edge rig for just down the shelf to my right. I also set up a corn rig to fish right in the edge in the bay to my left - but never had a bite there. On the whistle I fed both inside lines but was just going to rely on the paste coming off the hook to feed the other paste lines as I didn't want to get too many fish in the peg and suffer loads of foulhookers. First put in on the longer line I had a carp of about 7lb and two more of similar size followed in the next 20 minutes before with the wind getting stronger I decided to try the 6 metre line as there were clearly a lot of fish up this end of the lake. Whilst it took a while for the fish to find the paste, I soon had a few fish on the shorter line before the "Willinghurst Lull" started. After a few early fish you then get a quiet period (usually a couple of hours) before the fish start to feed again properly in the last half of the match. I don't know why it happens but it nearly always does and in this slack period you just have to fiddle about trying different things trying to entice 3 or 4 extra fish into your net.
By swapping about lines, paste size and paste texture, I managed to catch about 5 fish during my quiet spell and as the fish started to feed in earnest I had about 60lb in the net, which judging by what I'd seen and heard was well up inthe match as only Ross on Peg 19, Mick "Wicket" Keeper on Peg 16 and Brian Wharton on Peg 13 seemed to catching well. With two and a half hours to go I then had a brilliant little spell at 6 metres when I probably had 10 or 12 fish in 90 minutes and was really looking forward to putting as big weight together by bagging in the last hour.
However, sometimes at Willinghurst when you expect the last hour to be the best, the fish then turn off completely and you struggle to get a bite (it really is a strange place to fish, unlike any other fishery I know). And, that is exactly what happened as in the last hour I lost four foulhookers but never actually landed any fish. I still don't understand how one minute you can be catching really well, with confident proper bites then all of a sudden the fish just seem to be mooching about but not feeding - suggestions on a postcard to me please !
Anyway, I finished the match with about 21 carp I think - I never bother counting or using a clicker and the only threat seemed to be Mick Keeper as he admitted to 20 carp and Ross who said he had 77lb (Yeh right).
Result
Dave Pearson............Peg 12.................132-10-0
Mick Keeper..............Peg 16.................125-4-0
Brian Wharton..........Peg 13.................110-8-0
Ross Nursey..............Peg 19...................91-8-0
Terry Harrison.........Peg 22..................74-4-0
Hayden Woods..........Peg 25.................72-0-0
Steve Gardener.........Peg 23................65-0-0
Steve Sanders............Peg 18................63-2-0
John Clifford...............Peg 20...............62-0-0
Ray Tingley................Peg 2..................58-0-0
Donald Garnish..........Peg 21.................51-0-0
Harry Clements.........Peg 24................32-0-0
Jim Long.....................Peg 5..................25-0-0
Alan Woods................Peg 26.................DNW
Les Parker.................Peg 10.................DNW
Tony Plumbridge.......Peg 27.................DNW
This weekend sees me spending three days in Salisbury for the Steve Ramsay Memorial Weekend at Witherington Farm. As far as I am concerned, this is the best weekend of the year and one I really look forward to - due mainly the the great bunch of blokes who fish it and the superb organisation of Nicholas Lund and his little band helpers. We will hopefully catch loads of fish, have a lot of laughs, a drink or two in the evenings and raise a shedfull of money for Cancer Research. Come back Monday to get the full run down of who caught and did what !
