Well, what a frustrating match that was !
My first club match of the season saw 23 of us fishing the Top Lake at Willinghurst and with that many anglers fishing (20 is the perfect number), the one thing you wanted was a peg with a bit of room. Luckily for me, if I wasn't going to draw the back spit (Pegs 22-28) or the bomb hole Pegs 1,1a and 2) then I 'd certainly have fancied the one I drew - Peg 20 as it is a decent peg on the point with a bit of room and a decent reputation for good results. Whilst it is really a lead / waggler peg, I decided that I could catch as much fishing paste on the pole and later on in the margins.
I set up a paste rig to fish at 7 metres which also doubled up as a "Paste Anywhere" rig as wherever I plumbed up in the peg from 5 - 14 metres right or left, it was exactly the same depth ! I then also set up a rig to fish inthe margins both sides and was pleasantly suprised to find two and a half feet of water there. To cut a long story short, I switched between paste at 7 and 12 metres in the first half of the match and had 7 or 8 fish but it was very frustrating as there were fish everywhere up in the water and they just weren't feeding - a few people were fihing properly for them up in the water and I think I only saw one fish caught. I therefore decided to just keep plugging away fishing paste on the deck and picking off the odd fish.
From what I could hear around the lake, nobody was really emptying it, apart from Terry Harrison behind me on Peg 23 who was catching well on a small method feeder and was looking like catching the first 200lb bag of the year. With a couple of hours to go, I was going nowhere, and despite having a look in the edge pegs, I'd not seen a sign of a fish. It was now time for a bit of drastic action so I stood up and threw 4 handfulls of pellett and a couple of handfulls of hemp and luncheon meat in the margins both sides. At the same time I announced in a loud voice that I was off home now and said goodbye to Terry in an effort to fool the fish into believing that I was packing up and it was safe to come into the edge and mop up the bait like they do at the end of the match !
It may have sounded silly but within 10 minutes the margin to my left was solid and two pieces of luncheon meat picked off 10 big fish before the end including one of 14lb. Terry had also started catching in the edge and finally weighed in 207lb for an easy victory. My late burst helped me up to 122lb and second place followed by Bob Clampitt with 111lb and John Clifford with 92lb.
Result
Terry Harrison.........Peg 23..................207-8-0
Dave Pearson............Peg 20.................122-0-0
Bob Clampitt.............Peg 1a...................111-0-0
John Clifford.............Peg 27.....................92-0-0
John Swann..............Peg 12.....................87-0-0
Wednesday I'm back at Willinghurst for the open match and then next Sunday Leatherhead DAS are going to Stub Pond to fish Mill Lake and I'm hoping that all the rumours I am hearing about fish removal prove to be untrue !
