In the blink of an eye it was time for the final round of the Guildford Angling Centre summer league for 2013. Having gotten off to a great start in the first three matches, round 4 was a complete disaster and having missed the fifth with a holiday meant I’d slipped down to sixth position overall. However, as your best five scores count towards your final total it was still a mathematical possibility that I could finish as high as second, though in reality my aim was to finish in the top four and to secure one of the overall league pay-outs …
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| The fishing lodge at Bury Hill |
Today’s match was to be held on Milton Lake at Bury Hill Fisheries, near Dorking in Surrey. This is leafy stockbroker belt country and those of you that live ‘up North’ may (or may not) be surprised to hear that a standard, one rod day ticket is £12!!!
In all fairness Bury Hill is a cracking fishery with four waters that cover a range of angling disciplines. Old Bury Hill is a large estate lake known for it’s bream and tench – plus cracking pike and zander sport in the winter; Bonds Lake is a smaller commercial-style lake with a central island and lots of match sized carp; Temple is the newest pool and is a dedicated specimen carp lake (run as a syndicate I believe); Milton Lake has about 30 pegs, an island and lots of swims with lily pads. Over the years any carp have been moved into Bonds Lake, leaving the main stocking as tench, crucians, skimmers and roach.
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| Please form an orderly queue! |
My home for the day turned-out to be peg 5 – not being a venue regular I didn’t know if this was a good area or not, but this peg is on a mini point facing into the main bowl of the lake with no obvious (visible) features. For company I had Tony Corpes to my left on end peg 6, and round the corner to the lily pads to my right C section was completed by Giovanni Barbato (4), Ian (3) and Dave Carter (2).
Because of the nature of the lake today’s match was made float only – something that strikes fear into the hearts of method feeder obsessed anglers such as myself! Having a good plumb around I found an even depth of about 4’ virtually everywhere, and hence started the match with a single rig that I could use at 13m straight in front, 13m to the right and at top kit plus 4 to the left at an angle of 45 degrees.
Given the target species this rig was made-up on a 0.11 Reflo Power main line to a 0.10 hooklength of the same material tied to a size 20 Tubertini 808 (elastic was pink Hydro). Given the strong left to right breeze (which was forecast to rise, bringing heavy rain later) I settled on a stable 4x14 KC Carpa Chimp float shot with a total of ten number 10 stotz – the initial shotting pattern was to be a spread bulk, but the use of small shots meant that I could quickly swap to a bulk and dropper set-up if needed.
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| Welcome to Milton Lake … |
In many ways today’s match was the first autumn match of 2013 – the temperature gauge in the car dipped as low as 4 degrees Celsius on the way to the venue and heavy overnight rain would surely have an impact on sport. Bearing this is in mind I decided to start the session very cautiously, only feeding very small amounts of chopped worm and caster through a tiny Preston Innovations Cad pot attached to the end of my top kit.
This seemed to be a reasonable approach as the match started slowly and I can’t recall seeing any of the five or six anglers I had full view of on the far side catch a fish in the first 30 minutes or so! My first fish came after about 45 minutes and was a tiny roach – though it was quickly followed by two 10/12 ounce specimens.
A series of missed bites then saw me switch my shotting pattern to a bulk at 40cm and 2 number 10s pushed together at 20cm from the hook – this led to a couple more quality roach but was something of a false dawn as I struggled to the mid-point of the match with no more than about 3lb in the bag.
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| Looking left from peg 5 |
Just over halfway through the match I decided to scale-down my hooklength to an 0.08 trace into a size 22 Gamakatsu Black hook – essentially the lightest I carry at this time of year. I also switched shotting patterns back to more of a shirt button style and started loose-feeding a few casters via a catapult – first drop in and a near 3lb skimmer was the result!!!
Unfortunately this was another false dawn and all I could manage in the remainder of the match were four or five more quality roach. (The 13m line to the right, which I’d fed with micro pellets, didn’t yield any bites – a line to the rushes to my left towards peg 6 was equally fruitless.)
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| The moment of truth |
Following a torrential downpour it was time for the all important weigh-in – had I pulled-off a miracle and managed to scrape the third in section I needed for a decent league placing? In short – no! Tony Corpes was first to weigh and put 12-2-0 on the scales from peg 6. I was up next and could only muster a disappointing 9-4-0 – made worse when I was annihilated by Giovanni Barbato’s 46-8-0 from peg 4!!! I was then ounced by Ian on peg 3 (9-8-0) and battered by Dave Carter’s 18-5-0 (peg 2) – leaving me stone cold last in section!!!
In the end the ever reliable Pete Franklin and Gareth Phillips took first and second overall (respectively), and G was pushed down to third by the narrowest of margins. Overall top 4:
- Pete Franklin, peg 22, 48-12-0
- Gareth Phillips, peg 23, 46-15-0
- Giovanni Barbato, peg 4, 46-8-0
- Martin Johnson, peg 28, 23-4-0
Today’s section winners:
- Pete Franklin, peg 22, 48-12-0
- Martin Johnson, peg 28, 23-4-0
- Giovanni Barbato, peg 4, 46-8-0
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| The final reckoning |
After retiring to the Wooton Hatch, Pete was soon to work with his trusty laptop crunching the numbers and putting together the final league table, which read as follows:
- Pete Franklin, 5 points, 479lb
- Gareth Phillips, 8 points, 407lb
- Dan Cooper, 10 points, 264lb
- Luke Sheriff, 11 points, 255lb
- Martin Johnson, 12 points, 349lb
- Giovanni Barbato, 12 points, 331lb
- Paul Williamson, 12 points, 307lb
- Phil Morris, 13 points, 335lb
- Mick Keeper, 13 points, 322lb
- Paul Taylor, 15 points, 283lb
- Shaun Sylvester, 15 points, 272lb
- Dave Carter, 15 points, 164lb
- Mick Seymour, 16 points, 223lb
- Claire Hollis, 17 points, 196lb
- Ben Hicks, 17 points, 165lb
- Ryan Seymour, 17 points, 116lb
- Richard Hicks, 18 points, 162lb
- Tony Corpes, 18 points, 128lb
- Mark Cane, 21 points, 117lb
- Ryan Coates, 23 points, 150lb
So congratulations to those at the top of the table – a great result in what is a relatively small, yet very hard fought league! I’d also like to thank the organisers (mainly Pete, G, Shaun and Tony) for their efforts as I know it is greatly appreciated by those taking part.
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| Sums-up my day!!! |
Conclusions: Well what can I say? After a great start to the league with two overall match wins and second in section (with what will almost certainly be my biggest weight of the year), the second half was a complete disaster with two lasts in section and match that I could make due to holiday (in other words three lasts in section), meaning I dropped to eighth place. At the end of the day this is what makes fishing a festival or a league a truer test than one-off matches, as every match means so much in terms of points and final position! To make matters worse an extra 2-15-0 today would’ve seen me jump-up the league to fourth place – if only it was that easy!!!!!
Until next time …
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