Pikey's Winter League - Final Round

I just knew that the final round of my league at Willinghurst was not going to go well for me when having postponed my pre draw Egg and Bacon sandwich to go and peg Cherrytree lake I arrived back at the Cabin only to find that they had now run out of Eggs !

Unfortunately with my "Over The Hill" team needing a decent result to overhaul Don's Foxy Five team at the top of the table, we were without Smiffy (probably the top individual in the league this season) and Paul Taylor and to make things worse, one of their replacements hadn't turned up, meaning we were already playing catch up. Having chastised Swanny for drawing us the awful end Peg 8 in the last round, we gave him the opportunity to redeem himself and what did he do ? Yes, he drew us Peg 8 again and I wont tell you what we called him as there may be women or children reading this !

Anyway, I was actually quite pleased with my draw, Peg 16 on Pittance as it is a peg I have won from before in winter and it is also my favourite lake at Willinghurst. Expecting it to be hard following the colder weather and recent influx of cold rainwater, I had decided to fish dead maggot on two lines at 10 and 2 o'clock hoping to catch carp, the odd skimmer and roach, whilst I also set up a rig to fish just down the shelf long to my left and also by some rushes in the edge.

Having won a few winter matches on Pittance in the winter fishing a waggler and maggot on the bottom, I also set one of them up as it enables you to search the peg looking for fish. As usual, as the match began the wind started to get up I was just so pleased that it was coming from behind me as those on the other bank including Gedge and Plummers looked a tad cold !

To say the lake fished quite hard at the start would have been a slight understatement as with half the match gone, I think 3 OUNCES was winning the lake and I couldn't believe that I hadn't had a bite, especially on the waggler as the wind was perfect for it and I could shot the float down to a dimple.

With about 2 hours remaining a few carp started to put in an appearance as first Mick Farrington on Peg 13 had a couple against the island then Plummers had one on the lead.
Meanwhile those of us at the near end of the lake were still carpless until Terry Cod opposite on Peg 1 lobbed his feeder out whilst packing away the rest of his gear and sure enough snared a carp. With an hour to go, it was time to concentrate on fishing my edge swim and after about ten minutes the float dipped and I was soon being played by what was either a very big fish or a foulhooker as yards and yards of white hydro emerged from the end of my pole. Luckily nobody had noticed what was going on as we'd spent the whole afternoon trying to put off everyone else as they played fish. After a brief struggle, the carp won our little contest and my rig came back with a very bent hook.

With half an hour to go the float disappeared again and this time it was not only a smaller fish but hooked in the mouth as well. And, after a very very careful piece of fish "Playing", I eventually netted a carp of about 3lb which was much to Gedge's displeasure as he was now the only one on the lake who hadn't caught a carp. In hindsight, I wish I'd gone down the edge earlier as the majority of carp caught were either in the edge or in the shallower water against the island.

Plummer's edge peg was solid at the end of the match and he finished with 5 carp for 28lb to win the lake (and my £1) with me recording 3-6-0 for 4 section points as the final result looked like this:-

Result

Terry Harrison...............Old 24...........................48-6-0
Brian Wallin....................New 16..........................36-0-0
Plummers.......................Pittance 5.....................28-4-0
T Bag...............................Old 1..............................25-8-0
Mick Seymour...............New 3............................24-0-0
Donald Garnish.............New 9............................24-0-0

Final League Table

Foxy Five...................................15
Molesey......................................20
Over The Hill............................21
Down The Edge.........................23
Willinghurst Cabin...................24
Willinghurst Muppetts............31
Decca.........................................31
Bookie Bashers........................42

So that is it for another series, the fishing wasn't brilliant but as usual, the blokes who fish the league made up for that.

Next weekend I have a family "Do" onthe Sunday so am having a trip to fish the Ribbon Lake at Sumners Pond on Saturday for my weekly match fishing fix. However, the weather forecast says Minus 6 on Friday night and Minus 3 all day saturday so don't expect too much as far as fish catching is concerned. Although for the Scottish contingent reading this, those temperatures must sound like their normal Autumn temperatures !

Oh yes, can you believe it, It's my birthday tomorrow and I've now reached the big 50 ! Where does all the time go, it only seems like yesterday that I was in my teens and running a stick float down the far bank of the River Mole.