After 18 months of volunteering I finally donned my weddings and funerals suit last Friday, spent a very unpleasant hour being interogated (I hate interviews) and managed to get a "Proper" (ie paid) job as a Fundraising Admin Assistant with Rainbow Trust Children's Charity !
And whilst it was a job I really wanted, the downside is that my regular Wednesday fishing has to come to an abrupt halt as I will be working a FIVE day week !
With a start date of 2nd November, Wednesday saw me at Willinghurst for my penultimate Wednesday match and with the match split between Horseshoe and Old lakes, I really wanted to draw Horseshoe as I'd finished second on it with just over 100lb last week.
I have to say that I was a bit confused as I plucked the yellow peg from the hat as the fact that it was yellow meant I was on Old Lake but it said 23 on it - which is a peg that I've never known them put in ! Fortunately for me, the cooler weather meant that a lot of the fish had moved off the shallower bar in the middle of the lake - meaning that it was unlikely to be a method feeder match and with the pegging well spread out, I fancied catching a decent weight on the pole. I did however end up with a little less room than I had at first anticipated as Hayden Woods either forgot the earlier draw - or just couldn't be bothered to get out of bed (knowing Hayden it was probably the latter) and when he finally turned up, they decided that he could fish peg 26, which meant that I was no longer the end peg.
When I arrived at my peg, I decided that it was a bit of inspired pegging by Brian Wharton (who we usually slag off for his "Stevie Wonder Pegging") as I'd drawn Peg 24 a couple of weeks ago and the shadow of the tree branches outside the cabin made it almost impossible to see a float on the long pole line. However Peg 23 had two distinct areas of "White water" where a black topped float could be seen easily. I set up two rigs to fish pellett at 12.5 metres (the usual 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock) and a paste rig (just in case) to fish at about 6 metres just down the shelf.
Having cupped in a few 4mm pelletts on all 3 lines, I spent the first 15 minutes or so on the waggler as a few fish had been showing shallow towards the bar but as neither myself or God (Steve Gardener) opposite caught on it, I was soon on the pole. Although I didn't catch straight away, I could tell that there were some fish in the peg as my float that had been shotted with a quarter of an inch of bristle showing was now down to a mere dimple on the surface as the fish disturbed the silt and the weight of the pellett pulled the float down further. I was just going to ship back and adjust the float when my dimple disappeared and I was suprised to find that a 6lb carp was the culprit ! I don't have a lot of confidence in fishing pelletts as I don't do it very much but had a lovely morning lifting a dropping the bait and at the halfway stage had 10 fish in the net for about 60lb. Although God was catching well on the pole (as well as anythig else he tried), so was Steve Sanders on the Peg on Horseshoe that I framed from the week before, but I thought I might sneak third place or at least a section win if I could have a decent second half of the match.
Unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan - whether or not I over / under fed it I don't really know but whilst the two Steve's continued to catch (that's probably why they fish for Dorking / England and I don't) my second half only produced another 5 fish. And whilst I did have an enjoyable match, finishing with 87lb for third place, I was a bit frustrated that I didn't have a better second half as that is usually when you catch a lot more at Willinghurst - I did however learn a bit more about pellett fishing and that will help in the coming months no doubt.
Result
Steve Gardener.........Old 5...........................133-4-0
Steve Sanders...........Horseshoe 12.............126-14-0
Dave Pearson............Old 23.........................87-0-0
Terry Harrison.........Old 19.........................68-12-0
Alan Harrington.......Horseshoe 3...............64-4-0
Mick Keeper.............Old 14.........................62-8-0
POUND WATCH
Plummers bottled it again and went to work rather than lose another pound !
I've now got a busy couple of days with a Match Fishing Scene "Champions League Final" at the Glebe on Saturday, Round 3 of my Winter League at Willinghurst on Sunday and my final Wednesday match for the forseeable future at Willinghurst, so come back in a day or two to see how I get on.
