So, with the weather forecast saying "Sunny and 19 degrees" for the Guildford area and with some time off owed to me by work, I booked in with Plummers for the Wednesday open. Having caught 70lb+ all on paste on the Sunday, I was confident of catching on paste again and whilst the cold nights might slow the fishing down initially, the high day time temperatures were encouraging the fish to satrt moving about looking for food.
Anyway, 10 of us turned up for the 9am draw (and no I don't know why Plummers insisted in getting there for 7am, although it did give us a chance to go for a wander around the lakes and also have a nice chat with bailiff Paul White who as you can see was in one of his more photogenic moods). After a lot of discussion, it was agreed that we would fish on Horseshoe Lake. Having walked round it a couple of times in the 2 hours we had there before the draw, I sorted out the pegging and as usual had my list of favourites I'd like to draw, which were:- Pegs 3,7,9,12,14 and 15A. Four of those pegs went to the first people to draw and when all but me had drawn, Peg 5 was left inthe bag. Whilst I cannot deny that it was an in form peg (as Robbie Taylor won from it on Sunday with 93lb of F1's and carp) the wind was blowing straight into it and it was bloody freezing - as Alan Harrington on Peg 6 would no doubt confirm as he had about 6 layers of clothing on.
Whilst Robbie caught 19 F1's and a few carp fishing long up in the water, that isn't really my speciality and I decided to start with a paste approach on the bottom at 12 metres, and at the base of the shelf at about 7 metres. I also set up an edge rig, where you can see, I had a set of rushes to fish to.
Bait wise I had a large baitbox of paste and also some luncheon meat and hemp to fish in the edge. And as I've always caught fish (including the F1's) on paste on the bottom, and the match was 6.5 hours long, I was confident of catching a few fish. On the whistle I fed a pot of micros and paste on the paste lines, which nearly always gets them fizzing straight away and a small pot of hemp and cubed meat in the edge. I then sat back to enjoy a days bagging, which went something like this.
Hour 1 - Not a sign on either of my paste lines, not even a bubble. A few anglers had one fish up in the water and Mick Seymour on Peg 2 on the point was catching a few small fish and F1's.
Hour 2 - Still no signs fishing out, tried down the edge with two cubes of luncheon meat and as I lowered the rig in , the float buried after a second or two and with 0.18 line and red hydro, I soon had my first fish of the day in the net............................a GUDGEON !
Hour 3 - Still nothing on the bottom and as the odd fish were being caught up in the water, I quickly set up an UITW rig, fishing small cubes of meat and pinging 2 or three cubes regularly, I was soon catching the odd fish or two, although they were RUDD !
Hour 4 - As above, alhough I did have one F1. Went for a walk to play with Ross's dog where we decided that the only chance we had was to catch a few lumps in the edge in the last 2 hours. Arriving back at my peg, I fed about 6 big pots of feed on the long line - just to try and get some sort of response, then discovered that it was very pleasant lying on the bank in the sun and promptly fell asleep !
Hour 5 - Woke up and after a quick look over all the lines with no indications at all, decided to concentrate on my edge peg. John Clifford had started to catch a few fish on Peg 9 and Mick Seymour was still catching a few F1's on Peg 2 but a few lumpy fish could soon propel me up the leader board. So, a bit of edge dwelling it was for me but as my first three put ins resulted in two Gudgeon and a Rudd, I was not that confident. At 3.20pm I decided to try a piece of paste down the edge and a tiny little bite which I thought was a gudgeon resulted in my first carp of the day which was as we like to say......a Barny Rubble (or over 10lb for those of you not aufait with cockney rhyming slang) !
Hour 6 - Twenty minutes later I had his twin brother and with only John Clifford catching, I thought I only needed two or three more fish to frame, although Pete Turnbull had just started to catch down the edge in my favourite Peg, Peg 12. Unfortunately, I lost a foul hooker that just swam off to the horizon before the hook pulled out and then it was back to the gudgeon catching as my match petered out.
Packing up quickly, I grabbed my camera and went round to watch the weigh in and take a snap or two of the winner (and the one of Paul White who kept pulling silly faces every time I pointed the camera towards him).
Here is John Clifford with his match winning net, ably assisted by Mick Seymour (and his white legs) who finished third.
Result
John Clifford...........Peg 9...............61-8-0
Pete Turnbull........Peg 12..............32-2-0
Mick Seymour......Peg 2................31-8-0
Ross Nursey.........Peg 7.................29-12-0
Dave Pearson.......Peg 5................25-8-0
Mick Keeper........Peg 1.................21-8-0
Alan Harrington....Peg 6................13-10-0
Steve Lucie..........Peg 15A...........12-0-0
Brian Wharton.....Peg 3...............DNW
Plummers............Peg 14.............Blanked - and gave me another pound.
The frustrating thing was that despite only really catching a couple of fish, I only needed one more to finish second. Oh yes and although I always enjoy my days out with the Willinghurst crew, fishing wise I felt I'd wasted a day off work which wont be too plentiful this Summer.
There is no fishing for me this weekend as I am off to London to support our Charity runners in the London Marathon. I will however try and get a guest blogger.
Next week I have three days at Witherington Farm for the Steve Ramsay Memorial weekend, which is one of my favourite weekends of the year, I can hardly wait !
