Saturday saw me heading to Witherington Farm to fish the teams of 4 match. I already knew I would be fishing on Cottage lake and couldn't wait! I have only fished Cottage once before but had a lovely day catching 33lb odd from peg 2- all small carp,skimmers and goldfish on pole and pellet. I learned a lot last time so was itching to get back on there as I felt I could do better. I arrived at the fishery at around 7.45 and as always had a quick walk around the lakes. There were a lot of fish blowing in front of Cottage peg 10 which was where team-mate Nick White won from 2 weeks before with 83lb caught at 10m. I headed to the cafe to pay my pools and have a chat with the lads before the draw. Nicky went into the bag for us with the words 'Cottage 10 will do me thanks Nick' ringing in his ears. 'Well I got you close Gareth' came his reply, 'You're on Cottage 9'. I was happy enough with that as I was in the right area and fancied it for a few fish. I got to the peg and began setting up.
A few minutes later top angler Gary Etheridge arrived on peg 10. I had drawn next to Gary the last time I fished Cottage and he put in an awesome display to blitz the match with 60lb odd from Peg 3 on the opposite side. He was the last person I wanted to see arrive on dolly peg 10 as he would be very hard to beat from there! Gary's a really nice guy and never holds anything back so atleast I could have a chat throughout the match and hopefully learn a thing or two. One thing I have learned in the limited time I've been fishing at Withy is simplicity is often best. Every time I had fished there I had set the waggler up as I love fishing it even though sometimes I knew I would have been far better off just fishing a lead which isn't generally my favourite method. With that in mind I decided to set up one pole line at 10m in around 4ft of water, an edge rig to my left and a lead rod for fishing to the island. My main line was a 4x12 KC Chimp on 0.14-0.12 and an 18 B911. This was matched to a doubled 5 latex. I also set up a similar rig for the same line on 0.16-0.14 16 B911 and a doubled 6 latex in case the bigger fish showed. My edge rig conisisted of a 4x10 Scone AM Wellard (simply awesome,the perfect margin float) on 0.16-16 B911 and a doubled 8 latex. Finally I set up an 11ft Shimano Beastmaster tip rod matched to a Daiwa TDR reel, 8lb Matchwinner and a 12 inch 0.18 hooklength to an 18 PR36. I planned on fishing small PVA bags of pellet on this line. For bait I had a couple of pints of soaked micro pellets,some 4mm pellets,a tin of corn and a few hookers. The all-in was called and I cupped in around 30 micro pellets and 3 grains of corn at 10m before attaching a tiny PVA bag to the rod and cast around a metre off the island. After 5 minutes I had a small drop back and wound in to nothing. I changed the double corn for a single corn hookbait with a slightly shorter hair and cast out to the same spot. After 5 minutes I had another drop back but this time wound in to solid resistance and 5 minutes later netted a mirror carp of about 6lb. No more bites came in the next 15 minutes so it was onto the pole line at 10m on the light rig with a 4.5mm expander. I started to catch a few small skimmers but was missing a few bites. I double bulked the rig by moving 3 no:10's 6 inches from the hook and first drop saw the float disappear and a lift was met with solid resistance. A minute or two later I slipped the net under a carp of around 3lb. I continued to cad-pot a pinch of micro's and 3 grains of corn in after every fish but although I was catching regularly they were mainly small skimmers. Gary to my right was now sacking on waggler and pellet to the island and I knew I had to try an slow him down so began to ping 6mm pellets across to try and draw some of his fish away. It seemed to work so I cupped in a small amount of bait on the pole line and went on the lead with a 6mm pellet. A minute later the tip wanged around and I had a chub of around 10oz. On with a new pellet and a small PVA of micro's I decided to drop around 5m short of the island. After 10 minutes the tip slammed round and it was clear I had hooked a decent fish as it kited to my right. I thought to myself 'this doesn't feel right' and couldn't work out why. What happened next was one of those million-to-one events. The fish seemed to be fighting hard and when I got it towards me it became clear why. It had a big clump of weed and muck on it's nose,and coming off this clump was a piece of line that also had an 8lb carp attached to it. This made things extremely awkward as I was effectively playing two fish that were swimming in opposite directions. Eventually I netted my fish but somehow the 'other' fish was still attached. I lifted the rod expecting everything to go slack but the fish was still attached and as it just wallowed there I slipped the net under it. A quick check with those around and apparantly it was OK to put in the keepnet so I wasn't going to argue!After all,it's not like it was done intentionally and it was a nightmare trying to land my fish. I almost felt like saying 'and for my next trick'. This put me right back in contention as I felt I was now 2nd on the lake behind Gary who was still catching well on the waggler,mainly goldfish,skimmers and the odd carp. I probably had around 35lb at this stage with 2 hours to go. At this point I fed a bit of corn and pellet down the edge and went back on the pole at 10m. I was catching well but the fish were quite small- skimmers and tench mainly. Back on the tip with a single grain of corn and a PVA bag to the island saw a wrap around after 15 minutes which led to another carp- this time around 7lb. 'Oh no,I've only got one on this time,never mind' I commented to Gary with a big grin on my face. No more bites were forthcoming so it was back on the pole where I continued to catch small skimmers regularly. With an hour to go I put a bit more bait down the inside and went back on the tip. Again it took around 15 minutes for a bite on a single grain of corn that led to a nice mirror carp of around 5lb. No more bite's so it was down the edge for the last 30 minutes where I managed 2 tench and a skimmer on corn before the all-out was called. I was surprised I didn't get any carp down the edge as it looked perfect but it wasn't to be. I was pretty sure Gary had beat me as he had caught well throughout,taking fish on both the pole and waggler. The scales made their way around the lake and when they reached me 39lb was winning. My silvers net went 17.8 and my carp net went 36.12. I was surprised as I didn't think I had that much. My lead was short lived as Gary plonked 65lb dead on the scales. I followed them round the rest of the lake and it finally emerged I had come 2nd, with 39lb coming third. As it happened that 'bonus' fish hadn't made any difference, but I couldn't help but think that if I had won by a couple of pound it would have felt like a hollow victory. I packed up and headed back to the cafe where it emerged that not only had I come 2nd in my section but also 2nd overall which was a nice bonus. I finally feel like I'm starting to get to grips with the place and it's nice when this is reflected in your results.
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