We always used to fish the Stillwater Cup on Good Friday, we no longer fish for the trophy but still have the match. The draw wasn’t until 11 ‘o’ clock and I was at the pond well early, as everybody turned up there was the usual banter before the draw took place. I drew peg 13 which always used to be a consistent peg, as the weather was very warm I really expected the fishing to be a lot better than last Sunday.
I set up the same two rigs as last week, two 0.4 gram Drennan Carp floats, one with 0.14 mm bottom and black hydro for the inside and the other with 0.12 mm bottom and white hydro for out in front of me. Both rigs had size 18 Preston carp hooks. For bait I had some PA Megabait micro pellets, hemp, caster and red maggots. On the whistle I fed hemp, caster and pellets on the inside and at 11 metres on two lines, one at 11 ‘o’ clock and the other at 1 ‘o’ clock.
I started out in front of me and after half an hour had tried both lines without a bite, I started to get that deja vu feeling. My mate Andy was next to me on peg 14 and he had bumped a couple of fish but was still blanking as well. The two favoured corner pegs (10 and 11) were occupied by Les and Steve Bush and after an hour they had a small carp and a tench each. I came on the inside and caught a small perch before catching a carp around the pound mark on double red maggot. After my second I started to have visions of sacking up but this was short lived and it was apparent from the comments being made that the pond wasn’t fishing very well (again!).
Andy caught a decent skimmer and had bumped a couple more carp, Bushy on peg 11 had also had another carp. I had added two more small carp plus some tiny rudd and a couple more perch and was well in contention. I decided to refeed the inside and go out long again, but after another half an hour and no bites I fed it again but couldn’t really see me fishing it again. Back on the inside and two more carp in quick succession got my hopes up before it died again, I did foulhook a couple aswell. The weather was by now really warming up and carp could be seen cruising in the middle.
As far as I could tell there was nothing being caught and with six carp plus bits I felt I was in with a really good chance of winning, then Bushy latched into a right lump. After quarter of an hour he netted it and as we always weigh bigger fish straight away, we found out it was 8lb 8oz, a nice bonus. I landed a couple more carp and some perch and was hoping the last hour might be a good one. Andy lost a big munter and wasn’t a happy bunny and it was looking like the pound I had given him last Sunday might be coming back again! The last hour was an anti climax and I only added a couple more small fish.
I packed up and took most of my kit back to the car and we went to peg one to watch the weigh in, Janders then plonked 21lb odd on the scales and I knew I would be handing Andy’s pound to him. There were no more notable weights until we got to Alan Dunn who weighed 11lb 12oz and I thought it might be close between me and him. Bushy weighed a total of 18lb 14oz for second place, then it was my turn and I was disappointed when my fish only went 10lb 7oz and I ended up 4th on the day and picked up £40.
Results
John ‘Janders’ Anderson – 21lb 10oz
Steve Bush – 18lb 14oz
Alan ‘Pup’ Dunn – 11lb 12oz
Jamie Rich – 10lb 7oz
Alan ‘Picky’ Gage – 8lb 6oz
Theres nothing on this Sunday so my next match will be the second round of the Spring League on the 15th.
Great work.