Matches Saturday, Sunday, Monday 14 – 16 July

Phew, it’s been a hectic weekend.  The Saturday open was held on Top Lake. A good turnout meant that most of the pegs were in use and that seemed to frighten away all the fish from the main part of the lake. All of the top 5 weights came from the back spit or the back hole. I drew peg 13 and when we got there all of that part of the lake had ‘blows’ from feeding carp. As the whistle went and the first feeder hit the water those fish just stopped blowing. It was like somebody had flicked a switch, truly amazing.

Sunday saw us on Top and Horseshoe lakes.  I drew peg 15 on Horseshoe  and had a reasonable day’s fishing, finishing with 89 lbs 8oz for 4th place. There are some huge carp in that lake and the biggest ones are normally caught in close. I’d caught most of my fish by early afternoon, including one or two during a tremendous thunder storm. Once the storm cleared, the sun came out and the fish disappeared. I guess that it just got too bright for them to venture into 18 inches of water right next to the bank. The main top lake fished much better this time with Mark Harrington winning the match with 119 lbs from peg 6.

Monday saw the fishery hosting a Shakespeare “Old Codgers” heat. Limited to the over 50’s, the people fishing seemed to be the same faces that are seen on every match at Willinghurst. With only 26 people turning up and the match spread over 3 lakes, it was always likely that some good weights would be caught. It was good to  see two of the regulars (Reg “The Edge” and Harry The Hat take the two qualifying places, local knowledge is always a big advantage in this type of competition. Good luck to them in the final at Heronbrook Fishery (don’t ask me, I know that it’s somewhere north of Watford). My own match was a very strange affair. I drew peg 6 on New Lake and although peg 8 seemed to be “solid” but unpegged I fancied my chances of a few fish. After a slow start I had a decent run of 7 or 8 carp around half way through the match and by that time I’d probably got about 60 lbs in the nets. Then I hooked a monster in the tail and after playing (and losing) that fish and re-tying my trashed rig, the fish had gone, my peg seemed empty. At the end of the match I had 67 lbs, the fish had simply disappeared and had been replaced by 2 ounce roach….very frustrating !!.

Fishing Report – Sunday 8th July

There had been a couple of big matches on the lakes in the last week or so which meant that I was quite keen to get back and see if any of my latest ideas was going to work. Sadly, they didn’t really get a chance, I drew peg 17 on the Top Lake. It’s one of those pegs that’s only put in when there are a lot of anglers booked into the match and unfortunately I drew it. 7 carp “down the edge” to the right, all caught very late in the match gave me a weight of 50 lbs and another also ran on the weigh sheet.

The combination of bright sunshine and lots of pegs being used meant that weights were down on what we’ve been seeing lately. The top 2 weights came from Horseshoe Lake and 88 lbs was the highest weight on Top Lake (once more from the back spit).

All of the big matches are done for the time being, so it’s back to open matches for a few weeks now.

Incidentally, this crap weather that we’ve been suffering has done wonders for filling up the lakes that were empty a few weeks back. Old Lake is completely full now and the large new John’s Lake looks to be about 2 feet from being full. It looks like the plans for John’s Lake to be up and running by the autumn might just happen. It’ll be good to have a 60 peg match lake there and I’m sure that the pleasure anglers will be pleased to be able to fish Top Lake more often.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Saturday saw 130 hopefuls from all over the country spread around all the lakes on the Fishomania 2007 heat. Maybe it was the pressure of having so many anglers on the lakes, maybe it was the persistent rain, maybe, maybe, maybe. Whatever the reason, it fished very poorly. Steve Jackson, a former winner of the £25,000 competition won it with 97 lbs from Horseshoe Peg 14. He fished down the edge with worm and caster and caught quite a few “lumps” together with some roach. My own match was a dismal story. Drawn on peg 28 in the back spit, I was more than happy with the draw, it can blow hot and cold, either alive with fish or empty, but you’ve got a chance. The whole of the top lake fished very poorly, I think that around 40 lb was top weight in the back spit, normally a real hotspot, and I eventually caught 20 lbs in the last half hour when the fish just appeared from nowhere.

Next day it was back to more mundane matters. Leatherhead were on the New lake and the regular open was on Horseshoe and Top lakes. The title says it all….what a difference a day makes. The Leatherhead match was won with 113 lbs from the in-form peg 12. The open fished very well indeed, particularly on Top Lake with a top weight of 200 lbs (from the back spit of course). In fact the anglers in the back spit weighed in just over 1,000 lbs of fish, an amazing turnaround from the previous dismal day.

There’s no open match this Wednesday because the fishery is hosting a heat of the UK Championships. If you’re at a loose end it’s well worth going along to watch the stars in action (and maybe help with the weighing in eh ?). This Saturday the final of the Kamasan Points Championship takes place at the fishery. I think there will be an open match but maybe on Oak Tree and Cherry, so limited numbers.

At least this rain is doing some good, all of the established lakes are full to the brim and there’s a couple of feet of water in the newly constructed John’s Lake, I just wish that it would rain at night rather than when I’m fishing !!.

Fishing Report – Sunday 24th June 2007

Following my private lesson from Steve Ringer on Thursday I was keen to put into practice what had been learned. I drew peg 12 on the Saturday open. It’s not really a method feeder peg but it had been fishing pretty badly using conventional float tactics so I thought it was worth a go on the method. Now Steve had shown me that his method feeder groundbait is quite wet, he’d told me that you have to add quite a lot of water to get the right consistency and that it needed to be mixed on the night before the match. No problem there then. It did seem VERY wet when I mixed it but I took him at his word, he’d promised that it would soak up the water overnight. I guess there’s a difference between very wet and totally bloody drowned. My beautiful Ringers groundbait was in one big wet lump, it could well be a great new paste. I certainly hope so, because I’ve got several kilos of it !!.

Luckily I had a bag or two of dry groundait in the car, so hastily mixed that up and got ready for my days bagging. Hmmm 4 casts without any indication, that’s not following the script. The 4 casts then became 10 casts then 20 casts, you’ve got the message, it just didn’t happen. I did catch two fish out in the middle and 4 or 5 casting along the laft hand bank next to the road, but all in all it was a dismal performance. That end of the lake seemed completely fishless (the Cod in peg 13 caught just one carp). Incidentally, Mick Seymour who had sat with me for most of the day whilst we watched Steve Ringer won the match fishing the method feeder in peg 23, obviously somebody took in what we were being told.

Today we had a Leatherhead club match on Top Lake. With only 17 fishing, rather than the 24 or 25 of yesterday, we were able to spread out the pegs. It was an awful day weather wise with continual rain throughout the day but the overcast conditions certainly seemed to encourage the fish to feed. The full result is in the results section and I know that we fished a marathon 7 hour match BUT eight weights over 100 lbs is good fishing by anybody’s standard. I drew peg 22, probably the most consistent peg on the whole complex but one that has been out of sorts for a week or two. I would normally fish the pole and cat meat down my bank towards the bridge but I was really keen to have another go at fishing the method, so spent most of the day doing that. I weighed in 118 lbs which was only good enough for 6th overall but thoroughly enjoyed catching loads of fish on the method feeder. Maybe I’d have done better fishing the float but I really needed a confidence boost after my disaster of the previous day. The weights were spread all around the lake, really excellent fishing. Now I just need to get my gear dry ready for Wednesday !.

Fishing Report – Thursday 21st June 2007

Yesterday’s open match saw some good weights from the Top Lake with Mick Seymour emptying it from peg26 on the back spit. He fished the feeder across to the far bank and caught fish all afternoon to finish with a very good weight of 187 lbs. Here’s a picture to prove that there really are a lot of fish in the Top Lake (and don’t panic, the fish were on thick, lush grass, they’d been kept in 4 large keepnets and were very quickly returned to the water)

Click on the picture for a full sized image

Speaking of fish pictures, Paul gave me these 2 pictures of fish caught on the Main Lake but he didn’t give me the names of the anglers.

Today I’ve spent my day in the company of a Gentleman. Last year I bought “A day fishing with Steve Ringer” at a charity auction and it took a year or so for us to fix the date. The day finally arrived and I’ve had a smashing day. Bearing in mind that it’s much easier to catch fish on a pleasure day rather than a match, we gave him a bit of a handicap and sat him on peg 10 on the Top Lake. It’s a peg that hasn’t produced for quite a while now, there’s often fish in the area but nobody could get them to feed. Mr Ringer did !!. We’d decided that Steve should give a masterclass on fishing the method feeder. It’s something that I’m never confident with, so it seemed an ideal opportunity to watch how it should be done. Things started fairly slowly and it was only after we estimated that he’d already caught 15 carp after about 2 hours that it became obvious that he was in the process of building a big weight. I’ve no idea how many he caught by the end of the day, we’d stopped counting but it was lots !!. It’s amazing what you can learn by watching a good angler doing what he does well. There wasn’t one single thing that I had been doing wrong, it’s a combination of things that I’m sure will make a huge difference next time I try fishing the feeder. Here’s a couple of pictures of the man in action. I didn’t get the camera from the car until it got towards the end of the day, so I was desperate to get a picture before we packed up and I managed to take a picture of the ugliest fish in the lake. Whoever ate half his tail would they please give it back !. Thanks Steve, I enjoyed every minute and you’re a true gentleman.

Latest Matches – 18th June 2007

I’ve got a bit of catching up to do. Last Wednesday they moved the open match back a couple of hours and fished 1:30 till 7 pm hoping that the fish would feed later on in the match. No…wrong again !!. Results were still naff, Mick Seymour won it with 92 lbs from peg 8 and the second weight was a measly 64 lbs. It’s getting really frustrating, the fish are there (you foulhook plenty) but they just won’t feed. This Wednesday’s match is back to the usual 11:30 – 5:30 format.

Saturday saw the fishery host the Maver Pairs competition. 50 pairs of anglers spread over the entire fishery and although the weights weren’t huge it was good to see that the top six weights all came from different lakes. The weather Gods are still upset about something. When we needed the rain to fill up the modified Old Lake, we had the driest May on record. Last week it needed to stay dry to avoid turning the new parts of Old and Oak Tree Lakes into a quagmire…it pissed down for 3 days.  I fished the match with my mate Pikey Pearson (aka the Total Fishing Paste God). I did OK with 74 lbs from New Lake peg 5 but he blew out on the back spit, only managing to beat the bloke on peg 20 who didn’t actually turn up. I don’t mean “didn’t turn up” in the football team sense e.g. Arsenal simply didn’t turn up and were beaten 8-1 by The Blues, I mean he didn’t turn up…the peg was empty !!. Incidentally Pikey then absolutely emptied it yesterday at Stubpond, weighing in a very creditable 230 lbs (on paste of course).

Yesterday the fishery hosted the Shimano Summer League match with 90 anglers spread over most of the lakes. I was at Stubpond but the lads at Total Fishing report that it fished a little better with 135 lbs winning it from Old Lake and 117 lbs coming second from peg 28 on the back spit of the Top Lake.

Wednesday Open – 6th June

I’m up to my eyes in work (it’s what happens when you go fishing 3 days a week !), so I asked ‘Pikey’ Pearson (aka The Total Fishing Paste God) if he’d write something. You have to understand that he works for B.T. so has LOTS of spare time on his hands.

“Ross says he is too busy to Blog about the Wednesday match so I’m doing a bit of Guest blogging !

With the weather being sunny and hot, it was always going to be another tough match on the Top lake and I was more than pleased to draw Peg 2 – a very consistent peg with a bit of shade as well. And, with both Ross and Don drawing the main lake and not the back spit, I felt that I had a good chance of framing or even winning, especially with Ross on Peg 10 ! Eddie Green who had drawn Peg 13 FIVE matches in a row drew Peg 16 ! Incidentally, we worked out the odds of Eddie drawing Peg 13 five times in a row as 2,476,099 -1 I wish I’d had £1 on that !

Peg 2 is one I really like as there are lots of little “nooks and crannies” for you to fish. I usually pick 4 or 5 areas of the swim to feed and keep trying them all until you get some indications and start to catch. I have found before though that if you feed 5 spots, you will only catch on three of them and it isn’t always the same three.

My lines for the day were:-

1 Straight across in front against the under cut far bank.
2 In the bay to the left of the bridge.
3 At 10 metres in the shadow of the big tree – at about 2 o’clock
4 10 metres to my right under the trees
5 7 metres in the edge to my right.

Oh yes, I also set up a rig to fish under the bush to my left.

Most of my rigs were 4×14 Maver paste floats as I intended to feed a few pellets and fish paste over the top. Although I did set up a 4×12 Carpa Porth to fish corn across

To cut a long story short, after 2.5 hours I’d had one carp from under the trees and lost 3 foulhookers as nothing appeared to be feeding anywhere in the peg. I knew I wasn’t doing much wrong and just had to wait for the fish to feed, so I thought I might as well get my lunch box out and go for a quick walk. From what I could find out, nobody was catching much, Don had 3 carp on Peg 8 and Ross had caught 2 proper carp and a couple of smaller samples on Peg 10. On Peg 2, although you have lots of different areas of the swim to target, you can’t really chuck out a feeder, lead or waggler so it is just a question of plodding away and trying to make something happen.

Returning to my peg, I decided to concentrate on the 2 o’clock line and under the trees and after ten minutes I had my first “Proper” bite and my second fish. After three quick fish on that line, I re-fed it and switched to the right hand side under the trees. The wind was making presentation very difficult and I decided to come back a metre so that I could get better presentation. I did think about putting a big pot of pellets in to kick start the new line but figured that it was only 3 foot nearer than I had been fishing and the fish would soon find the paste if they really wanted it. Second cast in my “New” peg I had a fish of about 5lb and then caught another 3 smaller samples in the next 6 or 7 put ins. I continued to switch between the two productive areas, picking off a few fish from each one before switching to the other. I did have one brilliant period where it was like old times as I had 5 fish in a row where the float was in the water for less than 30 seconds before I had a bite ! Alan Harrington was well pleased for me as he was on Peg 22 and not catching at the time !

With an hour to go, the 2 o’clock line died and I switched to fishing across in the bay which was this time in the shade of the bushes – this was a good move as I added a another 4 or 5 fish from there plus a couple to my right before the final whistle.

As the scales arrived, I really wasn’t sure what weight I had and was pleased to see a final total of 117-8-0 recorded. I knew Don and Ross had caught a few and they weighed in 97lb and 65lb respectively for 2^nd and 3^rd place.
Dave Pearson Peg 2 117lb
Don Garnish Peg 8 97lb
Ross Nursey Peg 10 65lb
Graham Ford Peg 26 64lb

I really enjoy fishing at Willinghurst due to the people who fish it and it is certainly a challenge at the moment as you try to work out how to catch in the early part of the match. If someone can work it out, they are going to win a lot of money !

So that’s it for my guest blog – I’m sure Ross will be back soon and no doubt be blogging about how we won the Maver Pairs on Saturday week !”

Saturday Open 2nd June 2007

The fishing at the moment is enough to make you want to pull your hair out.  For a few weeks now the fish have been in mid water, everybody was suffering from foul hookers. Then last weekend when it was freezing cold the fish got their heads down and fed properly. Wednesday was a bit “iffy” and then on Saturday it was a case of deja vu…foul hookers galore and the fish just wouldn’t feed except in a few isolated pegs. There were 4 100 lb plus weights but there were plenty of people that seemed to have a thousand pounds of fish in their peg yet they just couldn’t get a bite. It’s very frustrating !!.

I wasn’t at Willinghurst today, we had a club match at Framfield in Sussex but if there was anything exciting to report, I’ll post it after Wednesday’s match.