However, Rolfs unfortunately had a very off day and if you stare at this picture of my float for nearly 5 hours then you will get some idea of how my day went ! Despite having fish blowing on my 6 metre line all day, the only 4 carp I caught were down the edge to my left with one on paste and three on corn. My total weight of 37lb (from Peg 18) put me in 10th place out of the 23 fishing.The highlight of my day was when Nick Merry hooked his first fish after about two hours (it turned out to be foul hooked) and when he lost the fish at the net he then entertained us with one of his best "Basil Fawlty Tantrums" as his top three was jetisoned up the bank !
I also fell for the lure of Jon Walker's floats yet again as despite having no intention of buying any, (as I have hundreds of floats at home) I could hear them "calling me" as I stood in the car park but luckily managed to escape with only buying five of them !
Result
Simon Mound 93-12-0 (See left)
Steve 0070 85-3-0
Slider 76-4-0
Paul Laws 75-12-0
Eels 65-0-0
Thanks to Ricky Baxter for the lift and Welshmagic (Gareth Boycott) for his pound !
Fortunately Sunday was another kettle of fish entirely. Having never fished Lake 4 at Monks before and not being able to find anyone who had - despite asking on numerous fishing forums, I decided from the little info I had, that I would fish paste out in front and hemp and meat down the margins. My 8 pint bait limit was therefore made up of:- 2 tins of meat, 2 pints of hemp and four pints of micro pellets, plus 2 kilos of paste.The day started well when we visited the truckers cafe on the way there (Thanks Hathers for the directions) and we were only charged for a normal breakfast (£4.50) rather than the "Super" one we had (£6.25) which upset Spindle greatly as his breakfast looked like a little kiddies meal compared to ours !
Having never even seen the lake before, when I drew Peg 145 it meant nothing to me and when we arrived at the lake, all the pegs looked decent to me, although as we only had 21 anglers on a 30 peg lake, some had more room than others. Arriving at my Peg it looked ok with open water infront of me - between two islands (which I didn't want to fish to anyway) and with Simmons one side and Martin Jackson the other. As both Simmons and Plummers had taken my pound on the last club match at Willow Park and Martin had beaten me by a pound off the next peg, I was out for revenge !
I really didn't know what to expect and erred on the light side tackle wise when setting up, with 2 paste rigs on 0.16 line to black hydro and an edge rig to fish luncheon meat on 0.18 to yellow hollow elastic that has been in my edge pole a while and I still can't remember what it is !
I kicked off the match feeding a couple of pots of micro's on the paste lines and a couple of handfulls of hemp and meat down the edge to my right. By the time I'd fed all the lines Martin already had two fish in the net !
Everyone then had a mad hour catching on whatever they put on the hook on whatever method they tried before it started to slow down and the fish became a bit finicky. I worked out quite quickly that the rigs and elastic were too light and I switched to an 0.18 paste rig with a bigger float to get the bait down quicker and a lightly set red hydro. This meant that whilst the fish were really having it I could spend much less time playing them and I was catching 3 fish to Martin's 2. As the match progressed most people said they were struggling (except for Terry Harrison who was still catching one a bung on a method feeder to his island) but I found that by switching about types and size of paste, I could still keep a few fish coming and because I was fishing paste rather than pellett, I was catching carp rather than the smaller tench or skimmers.
Whilst most of my fish were caught on paste, I did probably have 10 or 11 fish on meat in the edge but it was very slow and after catching one you had to rest it for a while before you could get another bite. After a few recent matches where I have struggled for a bite, it was a pleasure to catch a load of fish and a most enjoyable day banter wise.
Having packed away I wandered round the lake to help weigh in my section and it sounded like I was going to struggle to frame as Plummers said he had a load of fish and reckoned that Jason Morgan at the next peg had beaten him. I knew Competition Secretary Peter Turnbull had caught well as had Spindle (no, we didn't believe it either) and Martin thought he was just infront of me as well !
First to weigh was Terry Harrison who reminded us why he fishes for Dorking by placing 128lb on the scales for a convincing win and as we continued round the lake everyone seemed to weigh between 40lb and 60lb until Peter Turnbull weighed 85-12-0 and Spindle pipped him with 86-0-0. Martin Jackson placed 59-0-0 on the scales and as we reached my peg, the board from the other section arrived. I was told that Plummers and Simmons had both had 60 odd pound and not really knowing what I had, I was a bit concerned about my pound coins !
However, I needn't have worried as my first net went 39lb odd and I knew I had more in the other one. Sure enough the other net went just over 46lb and when the two weights were added together it meant that I had tied with Spindle for second place with 86lb. So, not a bad day at all, a cheap breakfast, a decent days fishing in good company, I'd got revenge over Martin for my Willow Park next peg beating and had a pound off both Simmons and Plummers.......... what more could a man want ?
Wednesday sees us back at Willinghurst for the usual wednesday open then it's back again for the first round of my winter league on sunday. Hopefully I'll catch as many fish on those matches as I did Sunday !!!!!!!!
