Regular readers, and yes there are apparently a few (especially in Scotland, or so my Big Bruv tells me), will know how much I look forward to my Leatherhead DAS matches on our club ponds. Part of the reason is that both ponds are full of fish and even in winter you can usually catch a fish or two and the other reason is that they are only a couple of hundred yards from my front door and I can (and do) walk to the draw, meaning I don't have top rely on others for a lift.
I would think that of all the matches I have fished on the ponds over the years, at least 90% of them have been won from the Top Lake as this contains more bigger carp in the 1-3lb range whilst the Botom Pond has more small crucians, small carp and Goldfish in it. Don't laugh, there are plenty of Goldfish like this in both ponds and some even bigger ones in the Bottom pond.
Up until this week I've always drawn really well at the ponds, usually drawing a rushes peg on the Top Lake and had quite a few 50lb+ weights fishing my favourite paste tactics, even in the middle of winter.
Sunday morning arrived and with the weather wet and windy, I really fancied a peg out of the wind so I could at least put my brolly up without it taking off with me and my box attached. A brief look at the pegging pre draw revealed that I really wanted pegs 1-8 and 13 and 14 on the Top Lake and whilst I didn't really fancy the bottom lake, if I had to fish it then pegs 15 and 16 near the rushes would do me. As I helped Pete Turnbull with the draw I watched most of the decent pegs go, except Peg 8 which had won the last two matches with weights exceeding 60lb both times. With only me and Pete to draw, the 2 remaining pegs were 8 and 17 and as Ross was standing by the draw and would only moan if I drew the flier (especially as he'd drawn Peg 9) I let him draw for me. You would think that after we'd travelled to matches together for probably 30 years, he'd have done the decent thing and draw me the flier wouldn't you ? Well, he didn't and when I went for my first walk after an hour of the match he'd advised me that Pete was winning the match and caught his first carp after .........43 SECONDS !
Anyway, back to my match. Peg 17 was on the right hand bank of the bottom lake and whilst I did have a lot of room, I did also have the wind right in my face which would be a nightmare if the rain returned (which it no doubt would). The Top Lake for me has always been an all out paste attack but with a lot of much smaller fish in the Bottom Lake my approach was to fish a 4mm or 6mm expander on a lighter 0.12 rig but also fish a paste line as well in case some of the bigger carp made an appearance.
What followed for the next 6 hours was a battle with the elements as first the wind got up, making fishing a paste rig almost impossible, then we had a half hour thunder storm where I just sat under my brolly and held on for dear life. Then the rain and wind stopped and the sun came out.......right in front of me so I couldn't see anything at all except a bright orange ball reflected in the water and then when the sun moved round a bit meaning I could at least see my float, the wind direction changed and blew about three million leaves in my peg and I found it hard to get a bait in the water !
The frustrating thing was that when I could present a bait properly there were a few fish to be had, mainly small crucians and roach but with the odd 1lb carp as well. John Clifford (on the opposite bank with the wind behind him and no ripple) caught on and off for most of the match (including 4 or 5 decent size Goldfish) and although he said he fished soft pellett I'm not sure that this wasn't his real bait.
With only 5 of us on the Bottom Lake, it didn't take us long to weigh in. Brian Wharton and Matthew Jefferies on the pegs I fancied weighed 2-7-0 and 1-14-0 respectively before I placed my 12-8-0 on the scales, followed by John whose lovely net of small carp, crucians and Goldfish went 27-0-0 - see below.
As I took my gear round to the other pond, they had just started weighing in so I followed the scales round and as I chatted to the others it looked like John might actually sneak a win as although Pete Turnbull and Jack DeAlmeida had both caught about 10 or11 carp each, they were only small and neither thought they had done enough to pip John. Sure enough Peter's fish went 22lb odd and Jack weighed 19lb for third place, So with John winning it meant that I picked up a handy £20 for a section win. A special well done to Jack who has only recently started fishing club matches and gave Dorking ace Terry Harrison a good whupping off the next peg !
Result
John Clifford........ Peg 20.................27-4-0
Peter Turnbull.....Peg 8...................22-5-0
