Result
Plummers...Peg 26......88lb
John Clifford....Peg 20.....66lb
Brian Wharton....Peg 22...52lb
With the weather looking good for the wednesday and another day off earnt at work it was Willinghurst for me. After about three hours of debating (a posh argument), we finally settled on 6 Pegs on Pittance (where I hoped to draw) and 7 Pegs on Horseshoe. The lucky draw hand did it's business and Peg 14 on Horseshoe was to be my destination for the day. Not a peg I really fancied but thought I might catch a few in the edge. With the lake being about 300 foot deep and the weather being warm, it was likely to be "Up in the water" or in the edge to catch. So, as UITW isn't exactly my scene (cos I am rubbish at it), after 40 minutes of fishing at 12 metres on the bottom, and with no bites or signs of fish at all, I deceided to have a go inthe edge to my right. With a large lump of paste on the hook, my first three put ins produced two F1's and a 6lb carp and just as I was thinking that I might not have enough nets with me, the carp disappeared and the roach turned up.
I then spent the next 3 hours watching my float go up and down as the roach attacked the past before finally going under resulting in a 4 ounce roach. With 2 hours to go, I had the right hump and having not had a bite in the left hand margin, I threw in 6 big handfulls of paste and pellett, then continued fishing to the right. Fifteen minutes later I looked down the left hand margin to see about 4 tails and umpteen fish vortexing ! To cut a frustrating story short, I did have the odd fish or two but fished like a total idiot (does everyone have the odd match like that from time to time ?) and finished with 48lb for 4th on the lake. With Donald Garnish winning the lake with 62lb I was probably only a couple of fish behind and really know I should have won it.
Ross drew peg 1 on Pittance and won the match with 82lb, mostly caught in the edge, just ahead of John Clifford on Peg 14 who weighed 81lb.
Leatherhead DAS match number 2 saw us visiting John Raison's fishing emporium at Gold Valley for a match on Bungelow Lake (See above - although most of the trees have now gone)With the temperature set to soar to 28 degrees and a lot of fish spawning, we were not exactly expecting it to fish it's head off. However, when I drew Peg 5 (the second peg on the bank backing on to Syndicate Lake) I was quite happy. I had a nice edge to fish to, complete with small overhanging bush and was almost as far as I could be away from the spawning fish which were in the rushes in Pegs 1 and 12.
As you can see from the picture Plummers drew another featureless peg !
Once again it looked like a day for "In the edge or Up in the Water" so I settled for an paste rig in the edge by my feature and one paste rig at 11 metres. Oh yes, I did also set up a pellett waggler just incase the hundreds of carp that were swimming aimlessly on the top decided to feed. Having fished before on really hot days and only caught in the shaded part of the peg, I decided to start in the edge and catch whatever I could before the sun moved round and shone directly on the peg. Although I had a couple of early foulhookers (which came off) I soon started to put a few fish in the net and by swapping between my two different pastes, managed to put 18lb of silvers (mainly skimmers but also a crucian and a tench) in the net together with 78lb of carp. Hathers drew on what they said was the unfancied railway bank and managed to put together 62lb of mainly pellett waggler caught carp for second place, followed by Pete Kendall who had 5 lumps and a few skimmers for 52lb.
So there it is three very different matches with varying levels of success. I'm working this wednesday so will have to wait until the weekend for my next match fishing fix. For any Wildlife lovers this time of year is brilliant with baby geese and dusks everywhere.
