Saturday 17th June -Maver Pairs, Willow Park

Since getting back into fishing a coupla years back, 2 of my favourite venues have been Willow Park and Willinghurst. I've never nailed either them by any stretch but I always enjoy going there confident that I will do soon, so I've put all my charms into wangling a weekend of it, as it's Willow Sat & Willinghurst Sun. Well, sometimes you have to, dont ya ?

Its the Maver Pairs at Willow, 2 main sections, one across the Small & Middle lakes plus 10 pegs on the Big Lake, t'other all on Big. My partner for the day is Barry Curd, and as he's stood in at the last minute he's agreed to go on the Big Lake which is gonna be a patchy affair apart from the few lucky souls sat on some bream. Having said that its nearly 30 degrees, cloudless and nary a puff of wind to be had - hardly ideal breaming conditions. I've pulled out 22 on Small, not a great peg but I'm happy enough; its 8 months since I've fished on here, and I have a little plan in my head which I'm keen to try out....

22 is along the bank towards a corner, and the pegs to the right of it are all a little bit further out into the lake, so I'm gonna start long but save a section in case I need to follow the fish out. I feed a full pot of fishery pellets and a few small bits of cubed meat at 13mt to fish a 4x14 KC Porth on 0.14 g-line to a size 18 808, dead depth in 5' of water. I've spent awhile plumbing up closer in, and found a nice flat spot over the first shelf, 5 mtrs out from the bank and 7 mtrs off to the left - this is my paste line, a 4x14 KC Paste float on 0.16 gline to a 16 Mustad Method hook, which should be perfect for the F1s. I've also put up a little margin rig and a shallow rig since there are already fish cruising round everywhere. To my right is Gary Miller from Van Den Eynde Essex who knows the venue well, so I could learn a few things too.

The first skimmer arrives after 10 mins, a few more follow over the next 90 mins, but its all about continually tweaking the rig, the bait and the feeding pattern to achieve any kind of consistency. I've been feeding small balls of groundbait on the paste line, but a quick look there shows nowt, so it's back long where I'd refed half a pot of pellets to try and get their heads down. Its worked and now a few small F1's are showing long amongst the skimmers, and by 3 hours I've got about 10lb or so. Its not going to win me anything though, but it's about same as most around me.

I've still been feeding the paste line with groundbait, so it's time for another look, an immediate bite and a decent F1 hits the net. Next cast same, and again, then a tench, great. Quick look in the edge, a bream of 1.8lb. Just as quick as they came, they've gone and I go 20 mins without a fish, so its back long, but the lack of drip feeding means its gone quiet out there. Theres about 40 mins left and my neighbour has decided to go long, seemingly ot of desperation as he hasnt had a fish for nearly an hour. He starts catching fairly quickly, and since I've been pinging a few pellets over the long line in an attempt to draw a few fish in, I give it a whirl and step up the feed. Pretty quickly a 1lb F1 is on its way to the net, followed by another, but I trash the rig into an almighty tangle, so go back to the paste for 10 biteless final minutes and its all over. I'm pleased with 24lb 13oz, my plan has worked out farily well, I've managed to work out how to keep fish coming to some extent and caught soem good bonus fish. Gary has won the section with 29lb, I'm only 3 or 4 fish off, which would've easily been doable if I'd've gone shallow earlier. Ah well, coulda woulda shoulda, still very enjoyable and a great days fishing. Unfortunatley this didnt apply to Barry who drew a stinker on the Big Lake and sat for 5 hours without a bite. Sorry mate, but well done to his son Tony Curd and his partner Myles who recorded the only perfect section score to win on the day, great performances, very well done !


Sunday 18th - Willinghurst
Part of the deal to go fishing both days was the wife got to have her fun too, which meant going to a big party Sat night, and so it was after about 2 hours sleep and a hangover the size of Denmark that I shambled up to Willinghurst. BreamBrain kindly drew for me as I knew I'd be late, and he picked me out 28 - the last peg in the 'backspit' and where the PasteMaster aka Pikey won the last club match. The main feature here is the end of an island, with some reeds 3 mtrs to yr left. Its very shallow in here- 2' max, nearer 8" towards the far bank and about 15" in the middle in the relative open water. Now, I think I've finally learnt a key lesson here which is keep it simple; pick your lines and stick to them and the last thing my poor heed needed was tactic confusion, so I set up a pellet / corn rig - KC Carpa 2 4x12 to 0.18 G-Line and a 911 size 16, and a KC Paste 4 x 12, no shot just the paste to cock it. 0.19 and a size 14 Mustad Method. 2 rigs, that would do it, I was ready 40 mins early and sat slack jawed & staring into space, interupted only by the constant crashing of carp shagging in the reeds.

I was a bit worried about the spawning situation in such shallow water, and after 5 foul hooked fish in the first 20 mins, I started having reservations about fishing 14.5 mtrs to the island, it was waaay too much like a complete non starter, so I decided to feed a new spot at 10 mtrs straight out in front of me with a potful of hemp pellets & corn. Immediately the water clouded up and started to 'boil' as fish came in, but the liners and foul hookers were still a big problem and it got worse when the wind picked up and pushed the scum into the far corner taking the fish with it. They were having a chew alright cos their tails were waggling , but in 8" of water it was foulhookers galore. 2 hours gone and I had about 10lb, this was no good at all.

Change of plan; I figured that in such an enclosed piece of water that any feeding fish would come to the food, and if i fished a big bait ie paste, any time the float went under properly there'd be a fish on it. So back to 10 mtrs, just feeding hemp and paste on the hook, within 30 mins i had another 30lb in the net and it was steady away. Some times they'd go off for a while, then I'd get 3 or 4 fairly quickly. The paste fish were much bigger stamp too, a couple of doubles thrown in for good measure. At 4pm with an hour to go, I threw a 3rd net out confident I was nearing a ton, which is always a good target weight to aim for at this venue I reckon.

The backspit throws up some good weights from the margins, and looking along the bank, most people had been catching down the edge in the last hour or so. I was a bit peeved cos this peg doesnt really lend itself to margin fishing as there is a bush immediately to your right that you cant fish round. At least that was my initial opinion, cos with a bit more thought, I realised that I could actually lay the pole behind the bush and along the bank to fish about 10 mtrs away, so I quickly potted in some hemp and catmeat, gave it 5 minutes and then went over it with the paste rig set at 12" deep and a piece of catfood on the hook. 4 fish in 4 puts and I was kicking myself for leaving it so late, there again I then went 20 mins without one before finally adding one last fish before the whistle.

As I have the scales and hardly any gear to pack up, I weigh in first, my 120lb prediction is slightly ambitious, it's 115.8, but I'm still chuffed, especially as its the first time I've done a proper weight on the paste. I know theres a couple of big weights elsewhere, and sure enough Kev Gaywood puts 160 on the scales, corn down the edge from peg 4, and Ross Nursey is miles ahead with 292 corn in the edge again from peg 23, a great weight, well done Ross, so close to 300lb for the second week running ! I'm edged out of the frame by Alan Woods who has 120lb on the feeder for 3rd and 116lb is 4th, but I'm not complaining - I've had a great weekend again, learnt loads more, caught a pile of fish in the process, got a nice suntan and by 9pm I'm happily in the land of Nod......