Firstly, I hope you all appreciate this piece as I am sitting in the Hilton Hotel in London and it is costing me £9 for 30 mins to post this ! Although it is better value than the Kitkat in the mini bar which would have cost me £3.50 had I eaten it !
Anyway, having struggled on the Top Lake at Willinghurst recently I had a secret plan for this week which involved a load of dead maggots and some worms. However, arriving at the venue on Sunday I was met by Leatherhead DAS Competition Secretary Pete Turnbull who advised me that the Top Lake had deoxygenated overnight and there were a lot of dead fish floating about.
Having seen this happen to one of our club ponds a couple of times I had no desire to see the same fate happening on my favourite fishery and therefore stayed well away from the lake. Peter agreed with the chaps who run the fishery that we could fit in with the pleasure anglers and our match was quickly switched to Old, New and Pittance Lakes. Personally, I quite fancied Old Lake as I'd seen pleasure anglers all catching on it recently and I didn't mind any of the pegs put in. Fortunately for me, I drew Peg 5 on Old and whilst it is usually a lead / feeder to the central bar lake but with my peg being on a point with 2 pegs vacant to my right and one to my left, I fancied catching in the open water on paste.
I did set up a waggler but after a couple of chucks gave up on that to concentrate on the pole lines, one straight out at 7 metres and one to my right 7 metres along the bank. Ross was the next angler to me on Peg 7 and had a fish first chuck on the T Bag as nearly everyone (except Woody) caught an early fish or two. The big difference between Old Lake and the others is that because it is a "New" lake the bottom isn't covered in inches or feet of silt and when you get a bite the fish are nearly all hooked in the mouth. After my first couple of fish the peg died so I added a load more sections - even using the ones with writing on - and fished paste without feeding anything at all. I immediately started to catch more and after a couple of hours I probably had 13 fish in the net and was really enjoying myself although I did find it hard to concentrate with the events on the Top Lake going on. I then switched into self destruct mode as instead of just plodding away as I was, I spent ages trying to catch closer in as the wind was a bit awkward and I thought I could catch quicker.
However, all I managed to do was stop catching ! I did also lose 3 foulhookers and for the first time in about 20 years I threw back a carp of about 7lb (I remember thinking at the time that it could be expensive) when I was tipping the fish in the keepnet when the keepnet rim tipped down and the fish balanced on the rim for what seemd like an age before falling the wrong way and back into the lake. What a Muppett !
Anyway, I switched back to the long line with about 30 minutes remaining and had another three fish and finished the match with about 18 carp, 2 skimmers and a tench for 89lb. I didn't realise how costly my afternoon disaster had been until I took the scales and weighed in Don, who had 99lb, Plummers who drew a peg with half the lake to himself and had 91lb, costing me yet another pound (I can't believe he has beaten me two weeks in a row now cos he really is rubbish), and Ross who depite betting me £5 that I had beaten him, weighed 94lb !
Result
Geoff Withcombe.......Pittance 12...............107-0-0
Donald Garnish..........Old 19.........................99-2-0
Ross Nursey...............Old 7...........................94-0-0
Tony Plumbridge......Old 12.........................91-0-0
Dave Pearson.............Old 5...........................89-0-0
Speaking to Terry Bolton (who runs the lakes) after the match, he said that the problem on the Top Lake did look like a lack of oxygen and that they had lost about 100 carp and some roach. Hopefully it will turn out to be no worse than that and the lake will soon recover.
All the other lakes fished ok and John's Lake which is stuffed with small carp between 4 and 8oz was won by Mick Seymour with 103lb followed by Fisho Qualifier Mark Tullet with 102lb.
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.
