Malc had read my comments about being drawn next to a very loud Terry Molloy last week and came up with the following suggestion that could help many match anglers up and down the country. If you draw next to a "Molloy" then you can make use of the Korum artificial corn (pictured left) and reduce the amount of noise by sticking one in each ear or just the side nearest to the source of noise.
Anyway, with nothing planned for Sunday this week, I decided to swap my fishing day for Saturday and fish Terry Molloy's match on the Sumners Pond match (Carp) lake. The weather had been fairly mild during the week and as the carp started to have a bit of a chew last saturday following a long spell of inactivity, I was really looking forward to it. That was until I saw that the weather for Friday night was forecast as Minus 4 for the Horsham area and I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't be frozen over again.
My plan of attack was to fish corn on the pole and try fishing a bit of Mossella Magic bread on the lead as with the water becoming clearer, I thought that might be my trump card. Ialso popped into KC Angling on the way back from the dentist on Friday afternoon and picked up a pint of their finest casters, just in case the lake was frozen completely and it became a silvers match.
Saturday morning soon arrived and as usual Plummers picked me up in the middle of the night as he never sleeps and as we arrived at Sumners about an hour earlier than we needed to be we had a quick drive up to the match lake to see if it was frozen. Unfortunately it was probably the worst possible conditions, with about two thirds of it being frozen which meant that it would still be a carp match but some would be fishing through the ice.
With 15 anglers fishing it was left to Steve Gardener to peg the lake and whilst I would have just spread all the anglers out so they had a bit of room, Steve tried to squash everyone into the ice free bits. The one thing I hate about Match Fishing is when anglers are pegged tightly and end up fishing the same peg and they all start moaning about who is casting where so I just prayed that at the draw I'd pick a peg with a bit of room. With pegs 1-12 on the left had bank and 13-15 on the other, the only peg I didn't want was Peg 6 in the bay as the pegs either side of it are at an angle and if they cast out straight in front of themselves then your peg has about 2 yards of water to cast to on the lead line.
Anyway to cut a long story short, I started on theh pole with corn and had a 6lb carp fairly early on then nothng, I chicked out the lead and Terry Maddox said he thought I was in front of him, so I reeled in and chucked it slightly to the left and Steve Gardener said I was in front of him......aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh ! With nothing more showing on the pole line with corn I fed a few casters and started to catch a few roach whilst Terry caught on the lead and Steve G caught on the pole. The only good news was that my 9-10-0 beat Plummers (seen above with most of his catch).
I've now managed to lose the results sheet but I know it went something like this.
Jamie Grainger...............37-8-0
Steve Gardener..............37-6-0
Terry Maddox................34-6-0
So that was it, another week where I swapped my fishing day and wished I hadn't ! Not too sure what I'm doing next week but I 'll certainly be on a match somewhere so pop back early next week to see where I ended up.
Oh yes, the picture is of match winner Jamie, who pipped God by just 2 ounces.
