Sunday 24th September - Willinghurst Open

One of the venues I'm keen to get to grips with this year is Willinghurst, and as the first round of the AT Winter League is on the venue in a week's time, the Sunday open followed by the midweek open would give me the perfect opportunity to get upto speed and see if I've made any progression.

There's a decent turnout for this, about 70 blokes, some real top notch anglers out from all sorts of squads, many practising for the first round so lots of Dorking members, but also plenty from the area in general as it's one of the biggest matches on in the south this weekend. ie its another £25 thrown away !

There's loads of lakes in, but I really fancy a draw on the back bank on Top Lake - it's consistent enough and while it could throw a weight up, I feel it will be more suited to me just working out what the general methods for the Winter League are gonna be. Peg 18 on the back bank of Top duly sticks to my hand, so I'm happy enough and for company I have fellow LDAS members Mark Smith & Kev Gaywood both to my right - a quid each way side bet is soon struck.

I decided to keep it simple enough, concentrating on a line straight out & over the shelf at about 7mts, with options to look in the edges (bit shallow) or long if the shelf line was working. Bait was to be catmeat short, corn in the margins, pellet long if its a struggle. Starting on 11am, the first hour brought 2 fish on catmeat, typical lake average fish of about 5lb. No more bites were forthcoming in the next 90 mins apart from the constant chiselling by roach, which wasnt ideal. I've been guilty in the past of spreading lines about all over and then catching nowt on any of them, soI'm always reluctant to chage tactics onthis kind of venue, however coming upto 2pm i decided to pot in pellets, hemp and a bit of corn at 12 mtrs off to an angle and see what happened. 10 mins later the area was fizzing; looks promising.

45 mins later, liners, dips, foul hookers but no fish, very frustrating and some decisive action was needed. I potted in a bit of catmeat, thinking that they needed something substantial to chew on other than gill feeding and wafting particles off the deck. As the depth was identical i shipped out with the short catmeat rig, 2 mins later a 5lb fish was in the net. I started to build a few fish up, whilst hoping to catch a few in the edge later, unfortunately that bit never happened and in between pullingout of fish - 3 in 3 chucks at one point ! - it all fizzled out leaving lots of unanswered questions and 45lb of fish. Happily that was enough to beat Smiffy off the next peg (although not by the 100lb + margin which he hammered me on my first ever LDAS match - when i avenge that I'll be truly happy !) but not enough to beat the Palace supporting Kev 2 away, who weighed 54 and was"more than happy to take a quid off a Leeds fan". Right, cheers.


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Wednesday 27th - Willinghurst open - Top Lake
A very rare midweek outing for me, but I've got the bug and I'm dead focussed on cracking it, so I'm rarin to go. I draw 21, a peg I've never fished and always fancied a go on, its a noted edge peg, and has thrown up some big weights this season, 250 - 300+ kind of weights.

Taking Sunday's learning into consideration, I decide to keep it very simple - one line over the shelf and one line down the egde - and really try to work out the feeding pattern. The place has a habit of throwing up 2 or 3 fish early, then you can scratch for a couple of bites each hour before they turn up in the margins after 3pm.

Sure enough, the first hour I had 3 fish, then not even a bite for 90 mins. Feeding wise, it was dripping in through the tosspot & fishing for bites, eventually I got one, and then scratched out a fish an hour or so. By 2:30 its evident that I'm going nowhere - the flyer 22 is right behind me with Dorking's Pemb Whiting sat on it, and he's heading towards 100lb, and in the bombhole is Ross who is heading the same way. I'm confident that I'll have some fish down the edge later, so i decide to feed harder on the shelf line, there's nowt to lose, and the fish start to turn up, by 3pm theres 6 in the net. No-one else is really catching other than these 2 and Alan Woods on 19 who has had fish all match long on catmeat.. Time to sort this out and see if I can at least give a decent account of myself.

Quick look down the margin to the tree where the weights usually show - no-one is home, so back to the 6mtr line. I've tweaked the set up following Sundays lost fish and its working a bit better and by 3:45 theres about 45lb in the net. Back down the edge.

Its a fish a throw, not the 7, 8lbrs I'm after, but they are here now, between 4 & 5 o'clock I put 60lb in, 2 pieces of corn under a 4x12 PB4 on 0.21 in about 2.5' of water, feeding by hand about 9 mtrs away, great fishing. The last half hour is inexplicably slow, the bites get really cagey and i catch just one more fish, will it be enough to frame...?

Ross weighs 126, Pemb weighs 116. I've possibly caught the best in the last 2 hrs, can i catch these ? No, just short on 105, and even worse, Alan Woods pips me by 1lb. Finally theres a 108 from a peg on the other side of the lake that i couldnt see.... I've missed out on 2nd by 2 fish, and dont even get the section. I immediately pinpoint where I've gone wrong - feeding, timings of the edge line, and know that I could have actually won this if i'd've got a couple of things right.


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Sunday 1st October - Surrey Winter league - Willinghurst
Last year was the first time I fished in this, and to be honest I was completely shocked when Leatherhead asked me to fish, they must've been really desperate. However I came 2nd in my section in this match last year, beaten only by Des Shipp, it was a right buzz, which was quite inspiring and thats what its all about I guess (although the buzz would've been even bigger if I'd've beaten him !)

I'd be happy with a draw on Top Lake, any peg would do, its the lake I'm most familiar with, and some of the other lakes have been well patchy of late, at least Top is consistent. I must have good drawbag karma (or I'm just a spawny git), as i'm on Top 6, although on Weds there was only about 5 fish off it, so I'm a bit 50/50 about being there. I have a chat with the other team members about their draw and completely forget to ask how the peg fished in yesterdays Open....

About peg 6. 10 mtrs to the left is a tree stump in the water and about 25 -30 mtrs straight out is an aerator, and running between them is a rope. Theres always fish having a chew on this rope, and today is no exception, in fact there are quite a lot of fish showing on the surface. I decide to cover my options - my finely tuned catmeat rig on black hydro, a pellet rig for the same distance, my 4x12 margin rig plus duplicate, both on red bungee and a shallow rig if they really are gonna have a go up in the water. Theres a few fish blowing too, I'm feeling confident. However I then discover that pegs 21, 22 and 2 in the bomb hole are all in our section, oh well, just a days fishing then innit ? I'm targetting 70lb, but will be chuffed with 50 really.

I've started at 10mtrs, pot of hemp, 6mm pellets and a few pieces of catmeat, some corn down the edge and away we go. First throw, 10 secs, boomf, fish in the net. Next cast lose one, next cast foul hooker, next cast one in the net, 2 foul hookers, one more in the net, lose one more, the 4th is in the net, hour gone, great start. Slows off a little bit, here comes the "fish an hour" bit, at least I got 4 in the first 60 mins though, especially as there are 3 match winning pegs in the section. Theres still fish around though, and after 30 mins I finally nail the feeding pattern - I catch another, then another then another, at the end of 2 hours its 8, after that, its bites all the way, approx 4 fish an hour, a few too many lost until about 2:45, when i need to start looking down the edge.

At this point, my main concern is peg 21, where venue regular Steve Collins has been catching big lumps down the edge, and I estimate has over 50lb. I cant see in the bombhole, its England bloke Steve Hemingray, so i estimate he will have 50lb or so too. The others seem quite quiet, overall the lake doesnt seem to be fishing that well. I reckon I have 80lb or so, I've caught about 16 fish, average 5lb. I cant deny I'm a bit nervous - mainly in case i fck it up ! I've fed 2 egde lines, about 12 mtrs to my right and about 9 mtrs to my left. 3 casts to my right lead to foul hookers and liners, great big bow waves as lumps shoot off, no good. Theres nothing in the left margin yet, so i decide to catch a couple more at 10mtrs where they are still blowing. That goes to plan, and I have another go down the right edge - more lost fish, I'm fishing like a fanny really, anyway, I look in the left where its a bit closer, the float goes straight away and i have 6 or 7 on the bounce, and I finally start to feel that I'm pulling clear away from the rest of the section.

We're about right on the whistle, I need to decide where to put the float - left where i've just had 6 fish, or right where they must be queueing up ? I stick to what works, fling a load of corn down the left margin, hastily swing the bait into position, and will it to go under. After about 20 seconds I start regretting the choice when it buries, i set the hook and time is called. I immediately know its a proper lump, the pole is bending to the butt and the fish is on the deck, its heavy. A painfully long 5 minutes later and I've managed to juggle a carp of at least 15lb into the landing net, and i know i've won the lake at least.

I've been lucky really - the peg was solid and they were feeding. My neighbour kindly informs me that Top6 won yesterdays match with 250lb and now i feel a bit of a prat ! There again they dont always fish 2 days running do they ? A quick ask around and it looks promising, I've clearly won the section, probably the lake and aside from Des Shipp on Old Lake there are no other weights been talked about. I think I've got about 115lb, its 117 in reality and at the final results its good enough for 2nd !

I'm sure a better bloke than me could've beaten the 185 match winning weight off the peg on the day, and in hindsight I'm sure i could've got close if I'd've fished it better / properly, however I'm more than happy to come 2nd. No matter how i fished, I've still come 2nd, and I'm chuffed to bits really - its the first time I've framed in a big match for nearly 20 years! The wife is well proud, I tell her its only cos she let me out to practise so often - she looks at me very suspiciously, so I bung her the wedge (well, some of it), tell her I'll spend next Sunday at home and she's soon encouraging me to stick at it (er, okay then). All's well in the world....


Tight Lines !