Fished pigeon cottage for the first time today and its a nice looking small pond with water lillies and lots of reeds and a big island in the middle.
Me and a fishing buddy have a special match once or twice a year and it entails fishing with a john wilson Avon rod.
3hours on the float then a top section change then 3 hours on the quivertip.
H eforgot his keepnet so we had a points match instead.
1 point for a silver fish
2 points for a tench or a crucian
3 points for a carp
1 point extra for a fish over 1lb so if its a 5lb carp you get 3 for the carp and 5 points on top for the weight.
It was a hot diay and fishing started slow on the float but i got on the leaderboard with a small crucian.
he went for bits and had 3 small rudd so was winning 3-2
I had another crucian the he added one so he was winning 5-4 as we started the second half on the quivertip.
some big carp had been showing off the island so i lobbed ledgered breadcrust over but none was having it as the sun beat down.
The ducks were up for it and proved a bloody pest.
The odd carp was taking freebies but none was having the hook baits.
then my mate spawned another crucian and it was 7-4.
An hour to go and i went down to a 20 hook and double maggot and fished less then a rod lenghs out and had 2 crucians and was on top 8-7.
Then my mate hooked a small tench then lost it at the net .
then i had a crucian 10-7 then he did 10-9.
I was missing some rattling bites and with 15 mins to go he had a 1lb+ tench and was in the lead 12 -10.
All i needed was a crucian to take it into extratime but missed 4 bites and lost the match.
Not many fish cought for 6 hours but a good day sat in the sunshine watching the carp on top and wasting far too long trying for them.
We are having another John wilson Avon rod match in a week or two and hope its better fishing on the day.

Aye a nice little hideaway fishery that Tyke, I fished there a couple of years ago while on holiday in the area in north somercotes.
I was bagging up there in the far left corner right opposite where you park the car, I had to empty my keepnet twice, mind you they were all crucians, tench and rudd, but still a very good day...tight lines ..hoppy :cool:

[ 16. August 2005, 11:16 PM: Message edited by: hoppy ]

Im going again today but fishing the pole.
The water level is down by about 2 feet but it is a nice old well established pond and not one of those flat boring holes in the ground.