Sorry it's a bit late - been tied up with stuff for my new job that starts Monday, but as my big brother has just emailed me to complain that last Sunday's report is late, I thought I'd better get on with it.
Anyway, Sunday saw us back at Willinghurst for Round 3 of my Winter League and with us sitting pretty at the top of the league (well top anyway), tied with Plummers team, my "Over The Hill" team needed another half decent performance to keep us there. Personnel wise we were again missing Haisman (who had no doubt gone fishing with his new Polish friends), plus Swanny and Paul Taylor from the previous rounds. We were therefore left with Me, Ross and Smiffy, plus a couple of able deputies (well one really) in Joe Clarke and Stuart Wilson (Squeeky Roller from Match Fishing Scene).
Smiffy had managed to draw us some decent pegs in the first two rounds but wasn't quite as good this time as Peg 6 stuck to his hot little hand and gave us a couple of tricky pegs, along with one flier and two reasonable ones. My draw put me on Peg 10 on Horseshoe which Plummers did win the first match from but a lot had changed weather wise since then and it had recently produced 2 F1's and a DNW. Plummers, who is still drawing better than Rolf Harris was on Peg 12 - where me and Steve Sanders had both had over 100lb from in thre previous 2 matches, so I was all ready to hand over my £1 before the start.
With about 4 pints of casters left from the Glebe, my plan of attack was to feed caster heavily down the right hand margin, fish pellett on along line for F1's and carp and fish a paste line at 6 metres.
After a biteless first hour on the long pole I had a quick look in the margin and was immediately catching roach and rudd, not enough to do any good as one carp would beat most roach weights, however, it was better than catching nothing. The second and third hours produced a few more roach and one F1 of about 2lb on double caster on the long line and then it was time to try for an edge dweller or two. The state of play on the lake was that Dave Bacon on Peg 16 was probably winning but Terry Molloy had visited Ben Emery on Peg 2 and not only convinced him to try a floating pole but also made him a rig as well, and as soon as he tried it, he started to catch F1's.
I hade one decent carp of about 8lb in my edge caster peg but then decided to fish at 14 metres along towards peg 9 where a yellow topped float showed perfectly in the dark water and fish corn. After a while I had a couple of liners before the float disappeared and I had a fish of about 10lb. However that was it for me and with a couple of us having two carp (including Plummers), it was going to be close for the points, and as we weighed in, the sheet looked something like this:-
Peg 1.........Geoff Simmons.................31-0-0..........6 pts
Peg 2.........Ben Emery.......................45-4-0..........8 pts
Peg 3.........Ian Covey.........................17-8-0...........2 pts
Peg 5.........Hayden Woods................21-0-0...........4 pts
Peg 7.........Gedge Cooper..................4-12-0...........1 pt
Peg 10......Dave Pearson...................23-0-0...........5 pts
Peg 12......Tony Plumbridge.............18-6-0..........4 pts
Peg 16......Dave Bacon........................43-8-0.........7 pts
Individually Jeff Simmons proved a popular winner with 82-12-0 from Peg 19 on Old lake, followed by Reg The Edge who was the only angler out of the 40 who thought it was a 9 o'clock draw rather than the 8am that it was. Anyway, he finally sorted himself out and managed 57-4-0 from Old 5, ahead of Mick Seymour 55-4-0 (Pittance 10) and Joe Clarke53-12-0 (Pittance 13).
Team wise we finished 4th with 22 points but as the first two teams were well behind us in the league, we moved one point ahead of Plummers team with three rounds still to go.
League
Over the Hill...............7 pts
Down the Edge...........8 pts
Foxy Five..................10 pts
Molesey.....................12 pts
Decca..........................13 pts
Willinghurst Cabin...13 pts
Bookie Bashers.........20 pts
Willinghurst Muppets....21 pts
I'm off to Arundel on Sunday for my first visit to Back Arun fishery, and having looked at the weather I may either get drenched or blown away - If I survive then I'll be back here next week with a report !
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.
