It seems that in recent months the Met Office has followed the lead of our American friends and has started to give names to the more significant storms that sweep across this fair isle of ours – today’s weather had been christened ‘Katie’ and boy was she angry! Despite carrying a few extra kilos around my midriff I was nearly blown over trying get out of the car in the Willinghurst car park and unless I was very much mistaken the waves on John’s Lake appeared to have white horses on them!
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| Easter - 4 days off work and chocolate! |
So with little haste it was into the café for a coffee and a bacon sandwich – once again the place was packed-out with Daiwa Dorking superstars (Terry Harrison, Tommy Hiller, Dave Guntrip, Mark Goddard) and half on the Drennan Bordon crew (Tom Arnot, Shaun Barnett, Matthew Barnett, Ian Dixon), so to say that the standard of angler on these open matches is pretty high is very much the understatement of the year!
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| The Bomb Hole in all of its glory |
Given the super-strong winds today I think most of the people in the queue for the draw were hoping to draw peg 1 on the Old Lake – this peg has recent form with Jason Morgan winning the match from there on Wednesday and Giovanni Barbatto winning the lake last Sunday from the same peg, but more importantly it looked like a mill pond compared to every other peg on Old and Top Lakes due to the row of trees and bushes along its long parallel margin. So it will come as no surprise to the regular readers of this blog that I promptly drew peg 1 – though you will be amazed to hear that it was peg 1 on Top Lake, rather than peg 1 on Old Lake!
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| The view to the left |
In all fairness peg 1 on the Top Lake is a very good draw. I used to think it was called the ‘Bung Hole’ but apparently it is actually called the ‘Bomb Hole’ – though in my experience any peg that has been given a proper name is normally a good one! The Bomb Hole is basically a mini pond linked to the main body of Top Lake and there are actually three pegs on it – I drew peg 2 a couple of years ago (this one is next to the entrance to the main part of the lake), and if you draw peg 1 you can choose to either sit on either 1A or 1B (which are both at the back of the Bomb Hole).
Given the strong winds I decided to sit on 1A as it was far too windy to even contemplate getting the pole out of the bag and by sitting on this peg I would be able to cast a bomb or feeder across to peg 2’s platform and to some fishy looking rushes slightly to the left of this platform. Personally I’d always choose to fish a feature peg such as this but they can be feast or famine – Stevie Gardner had a decent 55lb from peg 1B on Wednesday but apparently the guy that drew the peg yesterday packed-up and went home early …
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| Bait of the month! |
The recent rain and strong winds had certainly put a lot of colour in the water, so I was in two minds as to whether I should start on the bomb with bread or not – I’m no expert on the topic but from what I understand of the technique it is the visual nature of bread that makes it work, hence it should be more effective in clear water as the fish can see it (as opposed to coloured water as they can’t smell it). Regardless I decided to start on it – I was starting to regret my choice when the first chuck towards peg 2 was fruitless and I almost didn’t give it a second chance, though luckily I did and 3 carp in the next 4 casts was the result!
Unfortunately this good run soon came to an end and after those 3 fish in the first half an hour I could only manage one more (on a 36g small Guru Hybrid feeder with a Ringers chocolate orange wafter) in the next 90 minutes, leaving me on a somewhat underwhelming 4 carp in the net after two hours.
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| The 13m line, tight to the bank |
During the third hour the wind started to drop somewhat (it was probably still around the 20 mph mark, but better than the earlier 50-60 mph battering) so as bites were very few and far between on the tip I decided to risk getting the pole out of the bag. I set-up rigs for two lines (one tight to the bank to my left at top kit plus two, the other tight to the long bank to my right at 13m) though both featured the same set-ups – black Hydro, 0.19 main line, a 0.3g SconeZone V6 shotted with a bulk of 4 number 9 stotz and a 15cm hooklength of 0.15 to a size 16 Guru LWG hook.
Once the rigs were ready I fed a smallish cup of 7mm meat and dead maggots on each line and returned to fishing the tip for 15 minutes or so to let things settle. No indications on the tip soon saw me reaching for a top kit and I was immediately rewarded with 2 quick bites and 2 carp in the net from the 13m line. ‘Here we go’ I thought to myself as the float buried for a third time in a row – however this one was foul-hooked, came off, tangled my rig and seemingly scattered every carp that had settled in the area!!! So after re-feeding I had a chuck on the bomb and bread to the far side whilst the fish had a chance to regroup and as luck would have it the tip soon pulled around, leaving me on 7 carp and giving me a chance entering those all-important final two hours.
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| Moody weather today |
As is often the way with my fishing those final two hours turned-out to be more of a damp squib than a bag-up session! I could only manage two more bites from the 13m pole line (one of which was clearly foul-hooked and came off) and one more pull on the bomb and bread, meaning I finished my match with a rather disappointing 9 carp in the net and a feeling that I’d let another flyer slip through my fingers!
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| Shaun and Tom on the scales |
In the end those carp went 43-3-0 for a lowly fifth on the lake. I wasn’t far behind two of the weights that beat me (43-9-0 and 48-9-0), but I was miles behind lake winner Shaun Barnett (95-4-0) and second placed Tom Arnot (68-11-0)!!! Over on Old Lake there was a real tussle between Giovanni Barbatto and Dave Guntrip, with G just edging Dave 120-3-0 to 119-8-0 for a well-deserved win on the day.
Until next time ...
