27 August 2016, John's Lake (Willinghurst)

Well it was our last visit to Willinghurst for a while today - two non-fishing weekends followed by two weeks at White Acres means we won't be back until October. Luckily things went well and after endless 'one out of the monies' I finally managed to sneak into the frame with a third place from peg 8 on John's Lake.
  

Thanks Tippy!!!

  

    

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

 
This lake has been fishing really well lately with Luke Sheriff setting a new record with 199lb earlier in the week. My draw saw me on peg 8 a pretty standard pitch with one exception - apparently during the week Paul 'Tippy' Taylor had done some serious gardening, making peg 7's platform nicely accessible with 11.5m of pole. In all fairness peg 7 was solid - I saw loads of fish in front of the platform before the match had even started!!! In the end I managed one small (1lb) carp on the short pole and the rest from peg 7's platform to finish with a nice 130-2-0.
    
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21 August 2016, Pittance Lake (Willinghurst)

Another trip to Willinghurst today - due to club bookings the open match was limited to New Lake and Pittance Lake so having never even seen Pittance I was hoping for a draw on New Lake (I know what I like and I like what I know and all that). As a result I drew on Pittance - peg 16 (normally a good omen), a nice looking end peg with a nice corner to chuck into and with the wind blowing in there too I was confident of getting a few pulls.
  

For pity's sake

  

    

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

 
However it wasn't to be and I could only manage one small carp on the feeder and a succession of crayfish on the 5m line - though I can't decide if the highlight of the day was watching Kris Fields spending an hour up a tree cutting down branches or seeing Claire 'Bagger' Hollis fishing opposite Stevie Gardener and beating him 39lb to 23!!!
    
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14 August 2016, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

Another match at Willinghurst today – this time I drew peg 10 on Top Lake, the first time I’ve drawn on the main bowl of this lake. For company I had a full house of superstars – England match fishing legend Steve Gardener to my left, woman of the moment Claire ‘Bagger’ Hollis directly opposite, Gold Valley nomad Stefan Gent to Claire’s left and venue experts Jason Morgan and Ben Cooke to my right. Summer open matches at Willinghurst are six and a half hour affairs running from 1030 to 1700 and things often start slowly – however I didn’t think it would take me over three hours to catch my first fish and I didn’t think it would be a 2 ounce perch!!! (There were plenty of carp cruising through my pellet waggler line but could I get a bite? Could I heck!)

  

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  

The action eventually got going after 2 o’clock – by this time I was fishing my right margin in front of a fishy looking reed bed. I hooked seven fish here – one fell-off at the net and three others ran me through those rushes, turning my 0.19 into candy floss!!! Even though there were clearly plenty of fish there I decided I really couldn’t be bothered tying a new rig every second bite so I switched to fishing to the left, occasionally to the platform at 14.5m but mainly tight to the bank at top kit plus 4. So whilst there were less fish on this side every proper bite led to a fish in the net, boosting my halfway score of 0-2-0 to 69-0-0 by the end. Ultimately that slow start really cost me as I finished-up third in section, 17lb behind Steve and 23lb behind Jason – one out of the money of course!

  

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07 August 2016, Top Lake (Willinghurst)

An interesting day at Willinghurst again today, my draw putting me on peg 22 on the back spit of Top Lake – this is quite a narrow peg (16m of pole will easily reach the far bank) and there is a bridge to the right that crosses the link between the back spit and the infamous Bung Hole. For immediate company I had venue experts Paul ‘Tippy’ Taylor on 25 and John Radford on 24 to my left, plus I had Paul Holland over my right shoulder on peg 2 in the Bung Hole, so I knew I had my work cut-out from the beginning!

  

Looking right with the Bung Hole behind

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  

I started my match by fishing to the far bank next to the bridge – things started slowly but I eventually managed a few carp on corn and meat hookbaits, though these fish were very small (less than a pound) and one of the biggest carp was actually a tench! Just as things were slowing down Don Garnish on peg 1 had his pole dragged in by a rogue carp and led to him running backwards and forwards across the bridge like a madman before jumping into Paul Holland's peg via the back of mine! Funnily enough this didn’t seem to stop Paul from catching but I didn’t have another bite for nearly 3 hours!!! Luckily the fish returned in the final hour and I added about 30lb to my score (51-0-0), leaving me just short of John (59-0-0) and Tippy (58-8-0) but miles behind Paul Holland (120lb+).

  

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