August 3, 2007

• Willow Park Fishery.

  The Southern Intersite Match.
  

  

  Well today saw me making the relatively short trip down to Willow Park Fishery at Ash Vale for the Southern Intersite match and within an hour of leaving home I was pulling into the car park to see many of the participants already there, ready and eager for hopefully a good days fishing, despite the fact that it was obviously going to be a scorchingly hot day.

  
  
  

  Breakfast taken care of, most of the anglers were eager for the draw and while we waited many took the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones that they had only spoken to on the various forums before. In that respect it was nice to meet up with bad.boy bagger and baging up art, two lads from Bath who use the TalkAngling forum and had told me how much they had enjoyed reading this blog, Cheers Lads.
  
  A quick phone call meanwhile revealed that unfortunately Dai Thomas wouldn’t be joining us as an electrical problem with his car had forced him to return home to Wales. However a local stepped in to make up the numbers for us ensuring that we would not be short on the day.
  
  Vince’s team meeting was short and to the point, with just 1 instruction…….DON’T WIN!!!!!!!!.
  I should probably explain at this point that Maggotdrowning.com team members don’t take the Intersite Team matches too seriously, indeed when the series started, it was designed to be light hearted, and an opportunity for anglers from other sites to meet each other, put faces to names and have a bit of fun. We have just carried on with that ethos despite a competitive edge creeping in for some other teams.
  
  So with the draw over it was time to make our way to our pegs. I already knew that I would be fishing the Big Lake and peg 73 on the culvert bank was going to be “home” for the next 5 hours.

  

   A nice comfy peg and with the pegging leaving every other peg out, plenty of room to operate. Given the good head of Bream present I set up 2 feeder rods and paced them both out to around 45yds and clipped them both up.
  Groundbait was the new Bait-Tech Special’G’ Green with Casters and chopped worm added and worm, caster or a combination of both as hookbaits. I did set up a pole for a line at 8mtrs but this was very much a get out of jail option as I wanted to concentrate on the feeder.
  
  All set up with 25 minutes to go I took a stroll round to see Vince who was on peg 59 over on the Bungalow Bank in what can be a good Bream swim with the wind blowing into it, though todays bright sunshine rather negated that. He had Perry Stone, one of the local experts for company on end peg 57 but seemed relaxed enough when I left him to get back for the start.

  

  So 11am and the Klaxon signaled the start of the match. A whole Dendra selected as bait and the feeder punched out, within 30 secs of the feeder settling the tip pulls round and a 8oz Skimmer finds it’s way to the safety of the net “Happy Days” a point guaranteed for the team, job done.
  
  2½ hours later and I haven’t had another touch , despite a phone call offering encouragement from Dave (RedLeader) trying various combinations of hook lengths etc, not even a liner. Reluctantly I opt for the pole, balling in 3 big balls containing chopped worm & caster and offering either half a Dendra or Double caster on the hook. A couple of small indications early on, but it’s not till Geoff P phones me from Scotland to see how it’s going that I finally manage a Perch quickly followed by a Skimmer and a net Roach. Sport is never fast and furious but at least I’m putting a few bits into the net on a regular basis including a nice Crucian of around the pound.
  
  With around an hour to go something takes a liking to my offering of double caster and as the float sides away my strike is met with a very solid resistance. Vince phones at this point and a quick chat as to just how far Black Hydro can stretch !!!!!!!!! takes place, and as I’m obviously attached to a large lump of a Carp I tell him that I’ll phone him back.
  Thankfully the fish seems to be more of a plodder than a torpedo and after 10 anxious minutes it’s finally in the landing net. Adrenalin probably makes it look bigger in the net than it really is and I could have sworn it was a”Twenty” however the scales would later confirm it at 17lbs.
  Back in after re-balling with another 3 balls of groundbait brings me a few more perch and roach, when with 15 minutes to go I’m attached to what is obviously another double figure Carp which while not quite as large as the 1st is more of the turbo charged variety!!!!! Once again the Hydro receives a full workout, but just as i begin to feel that i have the beating of it it surfaces and rolls across the line parting it like cotton.
  5 minutes later the klaxon sounds and that’s it match over.
  
  Round come the scales and my 7lbs odd of bits added to the Carp gives me 24lbs 10ozs which is good enough for 2nd in section, edged out by Martin Harper aka The Runner on peg 75 who had the Bream and Crucians turn up on his pole line with an hour to go enabling him to put 29lbs 2ozs on the scales, a good result from the lake on the day.

  

  Back to the car-park for the results and it was soon apparent that The Maggotdrowners had stuck to the team instructions with Vince’s 3lbs+ just being edged out by Perry Stone’s 87lbs 14ozs for the Individual win on the day.
  Middle Lake had by popular consent been exceptionally hard on the day Clive had managed a creditable 14 ozs but was edged out of worst place by Paul (NoMoreLongWalks) with 13ozs . Small lake had produced some more consistent weights but not to the expected level. Thankfully none of the MD’s won there sections though Fred(Milo) and I nearly blew it finishing 2nd in ours, allowing us to take our customary last place on the day with 19points.
  
  I’d like to say a word of thanks to Dave(Pikey)Pearson for his efforts organising the match, superbly done as always, it’s not his fault that we always seem to have heatwave conditions on the day of the Southern Intersite. Nice to put some names to yet more faces, we’ll have to do it again next year, though hopefully not at Willow Park.

  OFFICIAL INTERSITE RESULT

  Angling Forums	30 points
  Total Fishing	28 points
  Talk Angling	23 points
  Maggotdrowning	19 points

  	Section Winners
  	Small Lake
  Giles Cochrane	Total Fishing	46lbs 07ozs
  Dave Baptist	Angling Forums	29lbs 08ozs
  John Holt	Total Fishing	53lbs 02ozs
  Mark Harrington	Talk Angling	79lbs 15ozs
  	Middle Lake
  Hillbilly	Total Fishing	18lbs 08ozs
  Paul Fillmore	Total Fishing	11lbs 07ozs
  Mark Nevins	Total Fishing	16lbs 13ozs
  Dougie Graves	Angling Forums	12lbs 06ozs
  	Big Lake
  Perry Stone	Talk Angling	87lbs 14ozs
  Martin Harper	Total Fishing	29lbs 02ozs

  

  

   

  • 7:38 pm
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