I approached the wednesday open on the Top Lake at Willinghurst full of confidence and sure that I had a decent plan to frame. Catch four or five mug fish at the start, fiddle about in the next three hours or so, changing things around and possibly catching another 4 or 5 fish and then bag another 10 fish in the last 2 hours giving you 20 fish which most times would be enough to frame. Sounds simple doesn't it ? And it had been lately with four 120lb+ nets in my last four matches on the Top Lake.
I arrived in the morning to find 16 anglers fishing and to be honest, having walked round the lake, I really didn't care where I drew as with that number of pegs in, even the pegs you wouldn't really fancy had a load of room, making them potential framers. So, in went the trusty left hand and out came.......Peg 22 ! I'd only drawn the same peg I won off last wednesday with 155lb ! Whilst I didn't expect to catch as well this week, as the pegs around me were in this time, the weather was perfect for Willinghurst with overcast skies, light winds and a bit of drizzle.
Little had changed since last week so I set up to fish exactly that same as I had finished the previous week - two paste lines at 9 metres - one straight out in front and one towards Peg 23 and two edge lines, one each side to fish hemp and luncheon meat. Unfortunately that is where the similarity ended !
After an hour it was clear that with nothing in the net, I had missed out on my early "Mug" fish and the frustrating thing again was that I had signs of fish in the peg but just couldn't get a bite. I then started to try a few different things, including trying a 10mm expander that I'd soaked and was now about 14mm ! First put in on the paste line with the expander, I had a bite and was soon netting a fish of about 8lb - I was just thinking that I'd sussed it out when I noticed in the landing net that the fish was hooked in the top of the head ! No more fish came to my "New" bait or any other bait come to that although I did manage to catch another fish of about the same size in my right hand margin on two cubes of luncheon meat.
After about three hours I went for a walk and it was clear that the whole lake was fishing badly with Steve Gardener and Mick Seymour probably leading with 6 fish so it was still anyones match. I was still confident of catching a few fish before the end but just hoped they wouldn't start feeding properly too late. In an effort to spark some feeding activity on my paste line, I had thrown in a couple of big balls of paste and a load of pelletts and with just over an hour to go and still with 2 fish in the net I noticed a few blows over the bait. I shipped out, cupped the paste in and within 20 seconds I had my first proper paste bite of the day - I then had another 7 fish in the last hour to finish with 51lb.
Result
Hayden Woods........Peg 16.........88-0-0Steve Gardener ......Peg 18........81-8-0
Shaun Sylvester .....Peg 5..........76-0-0
Gedge Cooper ..........Peg 25........71-0-0
Ross ..........................Peg 8...........69-0-0
Mick Seymour .........Peg 21........63-0-0
On Sunday we have a Leatherhead DAS club match at Stub Pond on Mill Lake, hopefully I'll be reporting on a less frustrating match on Monday.
