Well, what a difference a couple of days can make weather wise as I arrived at Willinghurst to find that Wednesday's arctic conditions had been replaced by bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky and a predicted high of 25 degrees !
To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to the Leatherhead DAS club match on the New Lake as although it has 20 pegs, on my matches I usually peg 12 at most but for this one we had 17 fishing ! As we walked past the lake from the car park there were loads of fish in Peg 20 in the corner and I commented to Ross that I would quite fancy drawing there - and I did !
Peg 20 can be a brilliant peg if the wind has been blowing into it but if it blows up the other way - which it was, it is rubbish. Unfortunately when I started to tackle up, I realised that the fish were only in my corner as they were sitting in the shade of a tree behind me on the bank and as soon as the sun moved round and the shade disappeared, so did the fish.
I won't give you a full blow by blow account of the 7 hour match, suffice to say that after 5 and a half hours I'd had ONE ROACH, whilst those at the other end of the lake were catching the odd fish or two. The most entertaining part of the match was whilst "G" (the Guildford Pizza boy) was sitting behind me. I gave a spring clean to my fishing tackle room the other week and discovered loads of odd bags of GB and pellett that had been sitting around for ages and rather than throw them out I now take a load to Willinghurst each week and if I'm not catching then a load go in ! Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't ! This time I had a big bag of method mix with me (and I mean a big bag) so after mixing it all up I deposited about 12 orange size balls at about 5 metres. I then still had enough left for another 6 big balls and then for a laugh cos I was really getting bored, I made one big ball out of the rest if it - which was the size of a small football and threw that in as well !
At 4.07 precisely, having already been for 3 walks and with my only bite being a large Cheeseburger with onions, I had my first carp of the day, a nice "Barny Rubble" over my GB line ! Another smaller fish followed ten minutes later but then just as I was beginning to think that I could still win the match with 70 minutes to go, the fish just disappeared. I did catch one more carp on my longer line and still managed to finish 6th or 7th as my three carp (I put the roach back to save him getting squashed in the net) went 22-8-0. I also took yet another pound off Tony "The Cat" - the Tax man now wants to know the source of this regular £1 a week I keep receiving, oh yes I also had a pound off "Phil The Tapper" who sneaked off before the end without paying. However, as I know he reads this.......Don't worry mate I wont forget !
Matthew Jeffreys won convincingly with 73-0-0 from Peg 15 at the other end of the Lake and I think it may have been his first ever club match win - so well done mate. Paul Taylor filled second spot with 56lb from Peg 13 and then Scooter Boy (Nick Kenward) messed up another flier (Peg 8) to fill third spot with 48lb.
Result
Matthew Jeffreys................Peg 15...............73-0-0
Paul Taylor...........................Peg 13 .............56-0-0
Nick Kenward.......................Peg 8................48-2-0
Ross Nursey.........................Peg 5.................30-0-0
For those who seem to be showing an interest in my new Prawn paste, I never had a fish on it again but I'll keep trying it cos I know that the smell and texture are spot on and all I need to do is draw near a few fish in the right conditions and it will be taking them hours to weigh me in !
Wednesday sees us fishing the Willignhurst "Double Header", fishing 10am-2pm then having a 2 hour break to weigh in and have a bite to eat then fishing 4pm-8pm which will hopefully be much better fishing in the cool of the evening.
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.
