Matches Saturday & Sunday 19th / 20th May 2007
It’s been a surreal kind of weekend, a herd / flock / pride of llamas walked past me on the other bank on Saturday, I dreamed that I was last on the Leatherhead Club Match on Sunday with 40 lbs and then as I took Murphy the dog out for his late night constitutional there was a guy on a bike stroking a dead seagull !!.
First things first, the Saturday open was on Top lake and the hot draws were going to be 4, 6 or anywhere in the back spit (pegs 22 – 28). I managed to draw 25 which has been on top form for several months now. The only problem is that at the moment it’s an out and out feeder peg, a gentle lob to the far bank and wait for the tip to go round. I really don’t do feeder fishing so first task was to scrounge a couple of flat in-line feeders from the Cod. I’d watched Steve Sanders fishing the feeder a few days earlier so I was hopeful of doing it roughly right. Amazingly I was better than alright, I only hooked the far bank a few times and didn’t lose either feeder. Even better I managed to catch 109 lbs of carp for second place in the match, well beaten by Ian Summers on peg 6 who had 124 lbs of big fish, all caught during the second half of the match. It was whilst staring at a motionless tip that the Llamas wandered along the far bank. Each of them was on a sort of dog lead and was led by a human being. There were around six of them all told. I muttered something to the effect of “they’re the weirdest sheep I’ve ever seen” to my neighbour whose response was a casual “yeah”. Perhaps they didn’t exist and he was just humouring me…who knows ?.
I’ve been a member of Leatherhead & District A.S. for a good many years and try to fish as many of their club matches as possible. The first match of the season took place yesterday on Willinghurst Top Lake. I knew that I needed to draw a low number or the back spit but failed miserably by drawing peg 20. It’s a decent peg with some good form a few months back but that whole side of the lake has been in the doldrums for a month or two. It’s amazing what a difference just one day makes. On Saturday everything was normal, on Sunday the carp started spawning. It wasn’t the full production where you’re likely to get wet if you sit too near to the reeds, but I would guess that maybe 20% of the carp were “at it”. The fishing was very quiet during the first part of the day but eventually the favoured pegs started to produce some fish. The top 3 weights all came from the 6 pegs in the back spit and I had a totally frustrating day waiting 15 minutes for each bite, getting a classic carp bite and finding myself attached to the tail of yet another foul-hooker. At the end of the day I’d caught 40 lbs and was nearly last…it wasn’t a dream, just a nightmare.
It was still light when I got home and I noticed a dead seagull at the side of the road. Decided that you don’t see many dead seagulls and thought nothing more of it. When I took the dog out at about 11 pm there was a teenage lad on a push bike leaning over and stroking the dead bird. How bizarre.