Whilst rummaging through my fishing freezer in the garage the other day, amongst the many bags of unlabelled half used paste (I really must start writing on them what they are) and other concoctions, I discovered a couple of bags of Sainsbury's Prawns that had been sitting there for a while. As for most of my spring / summer matches I take two types of paste with me, this was the ideal opportunity to make up some prawn paste for the forthcoming match at Willinghurst.
So, on friday evening, into the liquidiser went a packet of prawns, I topped it up with water and gave them a quick wizz around then poured the resulting mess into a bowl (not one of Mrs Pikey's as for some reason she doesn't like me using them for paste / catfood etc etc) and added a couple of tablespoons of Hinders Crab and Krill mix and a touch of trout pellet powder just to firm it up a bit. This was then all mixed up together and placed in the fridge overnight.
Arriving at Willinghurst in the morning, we were met by one of my regular £1 donators, Geoff Simmons who advised us that the carp on the Top Lake were spawning and there were loads of fish in the edge. A quick wander round revealed that this was the case but I've fished it before when it has been like that and usually the fish spawn for a couple of hours in the morning and then when they stop, loads of the other carp come in the edge, eat all the spawn and you can bag up. I was actually quite suprised that the carp were spawning at all as the water still felt quite cold when I put my hand in later to pull my hook off a snag in the edge.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I drew Peg 4, fished two paste lines at 2 and 10 o'clock at 8 metres, which I never had a bite on - even using my superb prawn paste, a line against the rushes to my left, which I also never had a bite on and then one in the edge to my right. The fish continued to spawn all day and I don't think anyone on the lake caught a fish more than a foot away from the bank. The only way I could catch was to fish right tight to the bank fishing a foot or less deep in two foot of water with a segment of prawn on the hook as I think the fish were just coming in against the edge to eat the eggs that had been depositied on the grass. Personally, I don't think we should have been fishing the lake when the fish were spawning as although the majority of my 11 fish were hooked in the mouth, I still lost a few foulhookers and some people lost 20+ foulhookers.
Terry Harrison fished the same as me, ie up in the water in the edge and won convincingly from Peg 10 with 77-12-0, followed by Tony Plumbridge (or Tony "The Cat"as his work colleagues now call him after his Catfish last week) who somehow manged to take my £1 (probably the first time ever) with 55-8-0 - although to be fair to me, his end of the lake was actually black with carp when we walked round ! After the match he then had the cheek to suggest that as I had loads of Prawn paste left and was not fishing on Sunday, I might like to give it to him to try out ! Yeah right - that's gone into the freezer for wednesday with a label on the lid saying what it is !
Result
Terry Harrison..........Peg 10.............77-12-0
Tony "The Cat"..........Peg 13 (or carp hotel as it's known)....55-8-0
Dave Pearson..............Peg 4...............53-0-0
Marcus Tilley..............Peg 12.............50-8-0
Ian Covey...................Peg 26.............50-4-0
On Wednesday I am back at Willinghurst for the Open match and hopefully by then the fish will have stopped spawning and we can get back to some proper fishing.
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.
