June 2011 - Guest diary by Colin Walford
Well it seems as though this month is getting busier and busier for John as you ladies and gents out there are getting amongst the fish and putting more orders in, as well as the new customers we are picking up. Please keep passing the word around and most of all, keep catching on the baits and sending in your capture details.
First of all this month, I'd like to thank John and Gina for the opportunities that they have given me, and making me feel a big part of the team. I love writing and I hope that you enjoy reading what I put down. Secondly, I would also like to congratulate Dan Chart on his capture of a new PB and also to all of you that have been consistently catching on our products and its a massive buzz for all of us when John rings up and tells me that someone has had a great result!
So, onto my guest diary for this month. My season on CEMEX Sutton 2 started on June 1st and I had already drawn my swim for the first day the previous week. Unfortunately, nothing happened for me on that first day, but one of my target fish for this year did make an early season appearance at a spawned out weight of 35lb. As happy as I was for the chap who caught it, I was a little disappointed that it hadn’t swum a few swims down to me and snaffled my bait! But, then perhaps it’s just not my time to catch it yet?
The second day brought me a great draw and I was in a swim called the Pads, which is nearly always a great swim for an early and a late bite. This almost proved to be the case as I had a bite right out the blue on an Aquatix Anchovy Cork Ball Pop-Up in the early afternoon that resulted in a fish called the Beast at 29lb 12oz. I was absolutely elated with this as its one of the Sutton A team, and also it had fallen to a little pop up rig that I’ve been playing around with that I’m sure at some stage I will write about, but not just yet! Unfortunately, that evening I lost a fish due to a really bad piece of angling on my part. The hook link material that makes up part of my pop up rig was damaged when I blobbed the tag end and I didn’t notice it, and of course it parted as I lent into a kiting fish.
The 3rd and final day of the start again saw me draw the Pads, and although I was feeling really tired from lack of sleep from the previous 2 days of 18 ? hour sessions, I stayed awake to watch the water as the sun came up. I was getting liners from the off and at 0530 one of the rods called me to action. The result was a 26lb 4oz common, and as you can see from the pictures, a lovely dark one at that. I was well made up with another capture on my little rig and the fish seemed to be responding to the Anchovy pretty quickly. That evening, I unfortunately lost another fish which snapped me up in the pads after the most violent take which nearly pulled the rod in!
I was back for another 3 day trips the following Monday after a weekend off with the family and despite a good draw, I only had liners on the first day back. That evening whilst watching the water, I noticed that there were plenty of fish showing over the angler in the Trees swim, and also that the wind had changed slightly to blow into that swim. As I sat there i realised that, draw depending that was where I wanted to be the following day. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I would get in there, and at the draw the following day, my ticket was drawn second and I secured the Trees.
By now, the wind was pushing really nicely into my plot and I wasted no time in getting baits out onto spots that I knew very well in this swim. Straight away I started to get liners and at first I think they were bream, but then the big liners started, and as my mate Keith and I sat on my bed chair drinking lots of tea, our conversation drifted round to my obsession, the Peach Common. We where comparing a few photos and having a great chat about that fish, and just after 6 AM, one of those liners picked up and the bobbin just held as the line picked up out of the water. I was in, and as I leant into the fish, little did I realise what was just about to happen. The fish didn’t put up much of a fight and certainly didn’t feel that heavy, but as it neared the bet, it rolled and all of a sudden, Keith stood right in front of me and pushed the net right out as far as it would go. I thought id hooked a small common, but as I drew it over the net, Keith just turned to me and said, ‘that’s it mate, you’ve got it, that’s the Peach!’
My reply was, ‘yeah right’, but I sneaked a look in the net and saw that it was a rather large common that was into the 30’s. The penny still hadn’t dropped when I picked it up and laid it on the mat. I quickly pulled the net away to look for the telltale hole in the tail, and all of a sudden, there it was, the Peach Common was laying there in all his glory on my unhooking mat! He was weighed in at 41lb 8oz, and was a new personal best for me, but it was all irrelevant as it was the fish I was after, not the weight.
A vast number of pictures were taken and also a little bit of video and before I knew it, I was standing up to my waist in the margin releasing the absolutely magnificent Peach Common back into the murky depths of Sutton. Congratulations were received from all who were there and id like to thank those boys for helping me out. I hope I’m there to return the favour one day!
It took me a good week to get my head round that capture, it really blew me away for a little while, but then I got my arse in gear. There were a few others that were on the hit list and you can read about a couple of those in the next diary piece from me.
Don’t forget, keep sending in those pictures of your captures, they really mean a lot to us, its not all about size either, so don’t worry if its 10 pond or 50 pound, they all count!
Good luck and tight lines...
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