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 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!
Until next time ...
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