I haven't fished at Willinghurst since before Christmas and was really looking forward to returning. A few of the other regulars said they were interested so I decided to run a match and make it a Rover where we all drew a number and whoever drew Number 1 chose his peg first followed by 2,3,4 etc etc. With the weather forecast saying heavy rain and high winds, I thought this would be the ideal format for a match as not only couldn't people moan about the pegging but it also meant that you could tuck yourself away out of the wind if you wanted to.
Sunday morning arrived, along with the promised rain and wind, as well as 20 brave souls. I'd fished Pittance Lake on Thursday with Plummers and although nobody had fished the venue recently I was sure that Pittance would produce some decent weights and no matter what number I drew I was looking to fish on that lake.
I did enjoy the draw as everyone watched everyone else draw and the craic was superb. I came to draw with 3 numbers still in the bag and let Mick The Bookie draw me Number 2. I then began to panic as I really didn't know which peg to choose ! Wicket had drawn number 1 and chose Peg 26 on Old Lake so I now had only 100 other pegs to choose from, and having spent all week saying that I was just going to pick a peg with the wind behind me I let the pressure of picking a peg get to me and blurted out Pittance 5 (where Plummers had caught 6 carp and 2 chub on Thursday). I knew that the wind would be horrendous on that bank and still don't know why I chose it !
Arriving at Pittance my initial thoughts were confirmed as the wind was howling across the lake into the peg of the only idiot to pick a peg over that side.....................ME ! On the other bank with the wind off their backs were Bubs, Gedge Cooper and Plummers - 3 of the Willinghurst characters I love to fish with and if nothing else we'd have a laugh.
As I'd pinched Plummers favourite peg, he wasn't sure where to go as he'd drawn Number 18 so I told him that Peg 16 on Pittance was a decent edge peg and the wind would be favourable there as well. As I type this, I still can't believe that I didn't pick it ! Although the rain eased off a bit throughout the day, I can't remember a days fishing where I had been so cold and after a couple of hours with only 4 gudgeon and 3 roach in the net I had to go for a walk as I was so cold.
Reaching Plummers, despite moaning about how cold his hands were, he already had 6 carp and with the latter stages of the match still to come, I expected him to catch a few more. Back at my peg I had another couple of roach before nicking a couple of carp but just as I thought I was going to empty it, the carp disappeared and I was back to catching the odd roach until a couple of Reggies put in an appearance. My next walk was with just over an hour to go and by this time Plummers was admitting to 10 carp but by now was struggling to get bait on the hook as his hands were so cold. I returned to my peg for the final hour to plunder one chub form the peg and my final wieght put me tied 3rd on the lake with 11-9-0 tied with Gedge, 9lb behind Bubs but a long long way behind Plummers whose 14 carp and a 4lb tench went 66lb for a convincing win.
Result
Tony Plumbridge........Pittance 16..............66-2-0
Steve Collins...............Cherrytree...............43-0-0
Donald Garnish...........Old 1........................29-10-0
Terry Harrison...........Oaktree 3 ..............26-0-0
Bubs.............................Pittance 10..............20-0-0
Steve Gardner...........Old 5........................Blanked !
The most entertaining part of the day on Old Lake was when Steve G was fishing opposite Mick the Bookie and as Mick kept casting over half way, Steve waited until he wasn't watching and cast over his line. Mick then played the England international for quite a while without realising what was going on !
The following weekend I had a cunning plan. I booked in on Terry Molloy's match on Sumners Match lake and the plan was that if I didn't draw in a carpy area I was going to go all out to win the silvers pool and at least have a days fishing with plenty of roach bites. So, on Thursday afternoon I had to go to the dentist in Sutton so ordered two pints of Steve Sanders finest "shells" and picked them up on the way there.
With Part one of the plan successfully complete, Part two consisted of making up a few silvers rigs on the friday evening and theses consisted of a .6 Drennan Lake float on 0.10 line with T213 hook on a .08 hooklength.
Unfortunately after a hearty breakfast in the cabin we assembled at the lake to hear that nobody else wanted a silvers pool so they had scrapped it ! The weather was forecast to be mild at 9 degrees and with 10 MPH winds but as the start time approached, the wins was getting stronger and stronger making fishing the long pole almost impossible. I'd drawn Peg 5 in the open water between the first and second island which can be a good area, depending where the carp are on the day.
I set up a rod to fish the bomb as although I think it is the most boring form of fishing possible, it unfortunately has to be done sometimes in order to be in with the chance of a pick up. I also set up a rig to fish at 10 metres into the wind for carp but with no silvers pool and the wind making pole fishing hard, I didn't even bother to get out my superbly tied roach rigs.
Half way through the match I wasn't too far behind the leaders as a few people had three or four carp and I had two carp for about 9lb on the lead. Another hour passed and as my tip remained motionless whilst others picked up carp, I decided to cal it a day and get out a roach rig just to see if I could catch a few and to hopefully see the float go under a few times. With the wind being so strong I couldn't fish past 5 meters and even then had to feed with a catapult as I could only throw casters about 3 metres by hand. To cut a long story short I had a few roach, then a skimmer of about 2lb and although I couldn't catch any of it's mates I continued to catch a few roach until the end of the match - although I did have another biteless 20 minutes on the tip with an hour to go.
My total weight was 19-2-0 which probably only beat a few of the weighing anglers but at least I had a few bites. However, at least my left over bait wasn't wasted as I soon had a couple of geese feeding well on my casters and corn.
It was touch and go whether I was colder last week or this and I really can't wait for the warm weather to arive, surely it can't be too much longer can it ?
At the weigh in it looked as though it could be tight with Plummers, Terry Molloy, Terry Maddox, Pete Franklin and Mick the Bookie (no I didn't believe it either) all owning up to 7 carp.
Result (I haven't got the sheet but it went something like this)
Terry Molly.........Peg 7..................52-0-0
Pete Franklin......Peg 18................42-0-0
Plummers............Peg 2..................34-0-0
Bob Clampitt.......Peg 11................33-0-0
So, all in all, not a brilliant two weeks fishing, mainly due to the weather again but hopefully it will start to pick up soon and I'll start to catch a few more fish.
This picture is a rarity as it shows match winner Terry Molloy NOT Talking, he was only two pegs to my right but luckily I used the Malc Fowler idea of sticking a piece of artificial corn in my left ear to muffle most of his rabbiting !
