After a fair few years of blanking and generally coming nowhere I’ve somehow managed to win the last two Godalming AS Christmas matches – the first in 2011 using a stick float (yes, you read that correctly) to winkle-out three chub from the famous Sand Bar swim on the river Wey in Salgasson and then again in 2012 following another plumb draw in front of the tackle shop on Richardson’s at Marsh Farm. So after an astonishing 6 weekends without any fishing action would it be an unlikely three in a row?
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| All the gear … |
Today’s match saw a creditable 27 anglers grace the banks of Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm – not as many as recent Godalming AS Christmas bashes but nonetheless a good turn-out considering the recent heavy rains and a last minute switch from a flooded river Wey (most members preference, especially given Marsh Farm’s patchy form outside of late spring/summer/early autumn).
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| Looking left from peg 29 |
Like the majority I was expecting a hard match and was looking for a single digit draw – pegs 1 to 9 seem to be the best bet for a bite in winter as any brave souls that do venture to this lake seem to settle on the pegs nearest to the car park/tackle shop and create a virtuous circle between the anglers and the limited numbers of feeding fish.
The one area I really didn’t want to find myself in was the far side of the complex – so as you can imagine I wasn’t too amused when number 29 appeared from the bag of dreams! This peg is in the middle of the bank that is parallel to the adjoining Johnson’s Lake and about as far from the feeding fish as you can get – frankly it needs renaming Cyanide Straight!!!
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| Today’s cage and pellet feeders |
Most of the pegs on this lake look pretty similar and as a result I had a 22-25m chuck to the margin of a central island as the only obvious feature – however since my last visit the foliage on the island had had it’s annual haircut and the branches that normally hang-over the water have been cut down. So whilst I did set-up pellet and cage feeder rods it seemed that my best bet for a bite would be the deeper water on the pole at the usual top kit plus 4 sections.
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| The view to the right … |
Come 10 o’clock I fed a measured small Cad pot of softened micro pellets on my pole line, loaded my pellet feeder with the same bait (but with the addition of a squirt of Perfect Peach Goo) and cast 3 yards short of the far bank. (Tackle here was my usual 20g Preston Innovations small pellet feeder on 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge and a size 16 QM1 with a 6mm pellet inside a hair-rigged pellet band.) This tactic often produces a decent fish first cast – but those fish are normally tench so it was no real surprise that 20 minutes soon passed with no indications whatsoever!
10 minutes on the pole with both 4mm expanders and single maggot hookbaits were equally fruitless and I was already starting to worry that I was going to end 2013 with a dreaded blank – however I stuck to my task and spent the remainder of the first hour diligently switching between the pellet feeder and pole.
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| 6mm hard pellets and 4mm expanders for hookbaits plus some micros for feed |
After a biteless first hour it was time for a change so it was over to the traditional feeder rig (which consisted of a 10g micro Drennan cage feeder with an additional 5g stick-on weight on 6lb main line to an 18 inch Preston Innovations hook-to-nylon consisting of 2.5lb breaking strain line and a size 20 hook).
On the second cast I became rather over-excited when the 1 ounce megatop twitched and revealed a liner (at least I assume it was a liner as the single maggot hookbait wasn’t damaged in any way) but unfortunately nothing concrete materialised over a further 4 or 5 casts – the pole again led nowhere so after nearly two hours it was time for a walk to see how the drawbags on the lower numbered pegs were doing!!!
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| I won’t be using these again!!! |
After 2 hours it seemed that only five anglers had caught anything and as predicted they were sitting on pegs 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9!!! Interestingly it seemed that my mate Dave Woolgar was doing well on peg 7 fishing a cage feeder with some Sonubaits F1 Dark groundbait and double fluro pinkie on the hook – I happened to have some of that groundbait in my bag so I ‘borrowed’ a few pinkies and quickly returned to my peg with a certain amount of renewed hope.
However after 4 or 5 casts with no indications on the new bait I’d basically given-up and decided to scale-down the hooklength on my pole rig – as you can imagine I was shocked to look back at my tip to see it doubled-up as a decent fish sped off with my hook in it’s mouth!!! I picked-up the rod gingerly and couldn’t help but silently whisper ‘please don’t fall-off, please don’t fall-off’ over and over – so when after 10 seconds the unthinkable happened and the fish did fall-off I was absolutely mortified and seriously considered throwing my gear in the lake and f**king-off to play golf!!!
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| All eyes on the magic numbers! |
The final 2 hours passed without incident and despite rotating between the pole and my two different feeder set-ups no further bites materialised and I had 120 uninterrupted minutes to wallow in self-pity after blowing my golden opportunity. (Feedback from local legend Colin Underwood in the post-match debrief was that I’d executed some ‘bad angling’ – if only I could find to the words to counter this argument, but of course he was absolutely correct!!!)
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| Match winner Chris Kampa being weighed-in |
In the end only 10 of the 27 competitors managed to catch, with Chris Kampa returning a brilliant bag of skimmers to take the title. Overall top 5:
- Chris Kampa, peg 4, 11-14-0
- Trevor Haskell, peg 6, 8-7-0
- Richard McGuinn, peg 50, 6-15-0
- Brian Stephens, peg 49, 5-3-0
- John Wilkins, peg 9, 4-9-0
As expected the low numbered pegs in front of the car park all caught, as did the two end pegs on the opposite side of the island (49 and 50).
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| Back to the pub for the raffle! |
Conclusions: for me two important points really hit home today. The first is about the unavoidably peggy nature of winter fishing. I’ve not been fishing for a number of weeks for a variety of reasons but the main one is that at this time of year the outcome of most of the matches on my local venues is determined by the drawbag. This fact, coupled with bad weather, has seen me spending my Sundays under the duvet with a lottery ticket!!! The second point is about missed opportunities. I feel I’ve had a fairly successful 2013 and by hook or by crook I’ve managed to win a total of 9 matches – however the days that spring to mind when I look back on the year are the ones where I’ve blown-out (day 2 of the Olde English Cider festival at White Acres, the final round of the Guildford AC summer league at Bury Hill) and the ones where lost fish have cost me a ‘walk of glory’ (today and the match at MBK Baron’s Ponds back in October)!!!
Until next time …
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