Although, having not match fished the lake very much, nobody really knows where the better pegs are yet, but with only 9 of us fishing (due possibly to the credit crunch meaning that some match anglers can't afford to fish two matches a week at the moment), I didn't really mind where I drew.
I decided to fish hemp and corn midway along the end bank in about 2 foot of water, a paste line straight out in front at about 8 metres and then when I plumbed up around the peg I found that if I fished at 16 metres then I could reach the bar that runs down the middle of the lake. Although that is a long long way to fish for me, I set up a corn rig to fish there as well.
I started off fishing long but having caught a 6oz carp and one of about 3lb I then got invaded by roach and catching 3 ounce fish at 16 metres isn't easy or much fun. I'd seen a few blows on my paste line and immediately caught a couple of carp before the fish disappeared and I switched to fishing against the end bank. Having caught a few small carp and a couple of bigger fish, I decided to just switch between the two short lines for the rest of the match and managed to pick off a fish or two on each line before switching. Being stuck in the corner, I couldn’t really see or hear how others were doing and was quite happy to finish with 76lb, or at least I was until I started to weigh in. The funny thing was that Paul dropped off the scales with 15 minutes still to go and left them between Peg 5 and Peg 7, which just happened to be the pegs for Alan Harrington and John Clifford who must have had an aggregate age of about 190 years !!!!! As I’d packed away quickly, I grabbed the scales and started to weigh in back round to my peg. John Clifford fished paste at about 7 or 8 metres and caught some big fish for 107lb, followed by Alan who only had 5 carp for 35lb and Wicket (Mick Keeper) in the corner Peg 1 who weighed 101lb. So from thinking I might have won or at least framed, I was already down to third place with the whole of my bank still to weigh ! Ross and Don on Pegs 26 and 24 pushed me further down the field with feeder caught weights of 91-12-0 and 91-8-0 respectively. I did however manage to beat the world's most inaccurate caster - Tony Yianni who only had 65lb but Brian Wharton then plonked 120lb on the scales to win from Peg 19.
It was only the second time I have fished Old Lake this summer but it actually fished well all round and with no silt on the bottom, it was nice to find that when you had a bite and hooked a fish it was nearly always hooked in the mouth. Although I almost seem to live at Willinghurst, now that we have started to fish a match or two on Old Lake, it is like fishing a new venue and is interesting trying to work out what works and what doesn’t.
In hindsight I could have caught a few more fish but the paste I used – which was my usual Tiger Nut paste (made from Dynamite Baits Tiger Nut Pelletts) was I think not right as I had too many fish blowing over it rather than just eating it off the bottom. I’m going to try a different less active paste on Sunday in the Leatherhead DAS club match and hopefully that will solve the problem. I think I should also have fished a small feeder or lead onto the central bar as most of the others caught fishing over it – I do however find feeder fishing incredibly boring which is probably the reason that I haven’t won as much as I should have lately !
Result
Brian Wharton......Peg 19........120lb
John Clifford.........Peg 7..........107lb
Mick Keeper.........Peg 1..........101lb
Ross Nursey.........Peg 26..........91-12-0
Donald Garnish....Peg 24.........91-8-0
Dave Pearson....Peg 14.........76-8-0
Tony Yianni..........Peg 22.........65-0-0
Alan Harrington....Peg 5..........35-0-0
Jim Long..............Peg 11.........DNW
Sunday sees us back at Willinghurst and after the problems they have had with the Top Lake, they have given us all of Old Lake and 8 pegs on New Lake. Come back Monday to see how I get on and keep your fingers crossed for me that I draw on Old Lake !
