Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. December 17th, 2005.

Dave the Fish’s 

Fur and Feather Fun Match.

22 hardy souls headed down to Hartleylands in Kent today to take part in a Xmas match organised by Dave the Fish from Maggotdrowning.com.

I met up with a few of the lads at the Knoxbridge Café at around 7·30am to find it a tad busy, a party of shooters had obviously beaten us to it, meaning that the service was about as far removed from “Fast Food” as you could imagine.
By the time that Jess & Szabi and The Welsh Contingent (Dai, Neo, Geoff & Malc) arrived it had slowed even more and as we left for the draw they were still waiting!

With the delays making the draw run late we decided that we would fish from 10·30 to 3·30pm so we all dipped in and made our way to our respective pegs.
I found myself on 22 with The Jinx for company on 23. Not only were our pegs in the shade but we had the wind howling into them and although there was no ice on the lake it was soon obvious that the only people that would be at home on them would be Eskimos. Looking across to the other bank it was bathed in sunlight with barely a ripple on the water!

I set up a pole and a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder, while Malc elected to fish the feeder all day to the island in front of him.

The All-in was called and I went out on the pole, and needless to say with both Malc and Dave standing behind me my first bite, a small very delicate affair (don’t believe Malc when he tells you “it speared the bottom”) resulted in me missing it horribly and wrapping the rig round the tip.

I stuck it out on the pole for an hour for 4 small fish (1 Skimmer, 1 Roach, 1 Perch and a Gudgeon). In the meantime Malc had managed 3 Carp and Neo a few pegs down had managed a few small stockies. I could see Omega Mike (who I regard as something of a venue expert) pegged further round and bathed in sunlight starting to put a few together on the long pole.
Sven on peg8 (The Flyer) and Colin opposite me appeared to be catching regularly,
and with my hands starting to become numb with the cold the pole was replaced with the feeder rod.
Looking round it appeared that a Garden Gnome had turned blue with the cold, but it was only Malc staring at his tip willing it to go round..

Slowly I started to put a few small Carp together by dropping the feeder as close to the island as I dared.

Just after Noon the best part of the day arrived in the shape of Dave & Jean bearing Hot Pies & Pasties along with a bottle of Canadian Club. Truly inspired and most welcome, even if Malc did complain that they weren’t served on Dave's usual Silver Tray.

Into the fading light, and a few misgiving's were being aired about the wisdom of fishing to 3·30pm, it was getting that cold that I had a couple of feeders crack up where they had become so brittle in the cold. With 5 mins to go I’m sure that I heard the ominous sound of breaking carbon from further down the bank followed by a softly muttered Welsh curse, though I could be wrong.

Finally the whistle sounded, and it transpired that Malc and I would have to perform Scales Duty. My 27lbs 2ozs started the ball rolling (and secured £1 from Malc), Omega Mike came up just short with what was still a creditable bag as he’d fished the pole all day. Colin was soon in the box seat however with a 50lb+ bag, a worthy winner on the day. Sven & John on adjacent pegs had obviously had a close match, with Sven just having enough for 2nd on the day pushing John down to 3rd and me to 4th. A very good result for Sven as I’m sure he would admit that match fishing isn’t his thing. Nick Gilbert also managed 27lbs on the day.

Gathering up our kit Malc and I returned to find our nets frozen solid (told you it was cold) so back to the car park for the prizes and farewells.
I have to say that given the conditions the lake fished well on the day, even though the fish were shoaled up in pockets.

A big thank you to Dave for organising the match and to all those that attended from near and far, making the day the success it was. We’ll have to do it again, preferably in warmer conditions though.

The final results were :-

1st	Colin Sharrard	51lbs 12ozs
2nd	Sven Castle	28lbs 11ozs
3rd	John Holdsworth	27lbs 04ozs
4th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	27lbs 02ozs
5th	Nick Gilbert	27lbs 00ozs
6th	Mike Jameson	25lbs 01ozs
7th	Nick Williams	19lbs 10ozs
8th	Tony Roberts	17lbs 01ozs
9th	Chris Withall	11lbs 08ozs
10th	Kevin Loveland	9lbs 11ozs
11th	Jim Boase	8lbs 07ozs
12th	Jess Brind	7lbs 13ozs
13th	Dai Thomas	7lbs 11ozs
14th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	6lbs 02ozs
15th	Geoff Palmer	5lbs 07ozs
16th	Rob Page	3lbs 09ozs
17th	Terry Goff	11ozs

+ two blanks and 3 who tipped back.

Tanyards Fishery. The Tench Lake. November 12th, 2005.

Well Saturday at 7·20am found me sitting in my car in the Little Chef car park at South Godstone waiting for Dave the Fish, Colin, Jess (jackcatcher) & Szabi (Tinkerbelle) to arrive for a days fishing at Tanyards Lakes.
Everyone soon arrived and we set off for Tanyards getting there around 8am. As we drove in I noticed that all the lakes had their aerators running, something I hadn’t seen on previous visits. With our gear collected from the cars we all set off for lake4, the Tench Lake.

I settled into the 1st swim by a dying reed bed with Szabi & Jess further round and Dave next to them. Colin had a look round lake 2 but finally settled in a swim with another dying reed bed at the top opposite Dave.

Plumbing up revealed an even 3ft of depth all round my swim even hard up against the reeds but 1st put in revealed a very noticeable flow caused by the aerator. I fed 2 swims, 1 at 11mtrs straight out and another at 11mtrs hard against the reeds with a pot of 4mm hard pellet and a few red maggots fed into each, Hookbait was 6mm expanders.
Szabi soon let out a squeal of delight as she landed a small Pumpkinseed and Jess was soon pressed into service as her photographer with increasing regularity as more species came her way including a nice Perch, while Dave was heard to remark that a stick float would be more appropriate in his swim due to the proximity of the aerator.

I managed a couple of Bream around the 2½lb mark and a male Tench from my open water swim but the flow seemed to be making the fish finicky, so trying the swim against the reeds seemed to be a better option. However around 10am a halt was called as we adjourned to the fishery lodge for a spot of breakfast, suitably fortified we returned and Dave set about instructing Jess in the delights of THE DARKSIDE!!!!!

Jess had spoken to Dave of his interest in trying a spot of pole fishing and Dave had brought an old pole that had been gathering dust for Jess to have a go with.
Soon Obiwan Dave was instructing his paduan Jess in the dark arts………

Soon we were treated to the site of Jess hanging on as his 1st pole caught fish turned out to be a Skimmer of the acrobatic variety trying to do an impression of a Trout.

Colin was having a bit of a hard time of it but was plugging away at it and finally managing to find a few fish through the sheer persistence of his approach………

Meanwhile I was managing to sneak out a few more Bream from my swim hard against the reeds, but my efforts were being hampered by the angler fishing the other side of the reed bed. Every time that I hooked a fish, his response was to ball more groundbait into his swim and despite his getting no response in the way of bites. Unfortunately the only effect was to kill my swim.

By 12 o’clock I had had enough and decided to move, and Colin came round and decided to join me. We moved up to lake 2 but were shocked to find that the depth appeared to be no more than 18 inches in any swim. I set up in a swim with a small island and decided to go for it anyway, while Colin found a bit more depth in a corner peg on the far side.
First put in and a confident bite resulted in a good scrap with a nice Common and things were suddenly looking up………
Next put in and a decent Bream of around 3lbs was soon followed by a couple of identical examples. Dave soon wandered over to see how I was doing, just in time to see another Bream saving me having to unhook it as it shed the hook just as I got it into the net, and wandered off muttering and shaking his head, I’m sure it was something about how skilful I was, teaching fish to unhook themselves.

Jess & Szabi arrived bearing a welcome cup of tea paid for by Dave just as I had pulled out of a lump and soon returned to their swims after commiserating. Sport continued steadily for me all afternoon including a nice Tench that had a slight kink in its tail………
A change to maggot on the hook, produced plenty of Roach, Rudd and Gudgeon…………..



 while the pellet seemed to sort out better Carp and Bream…………

Colin was also getting into some fish in the corner including some decent Perch.

All too soon the sun had dropped out of the sky and the cold descended as the light faded and it was time to pack up. A good day had been had by all and back in the car park farewells were exchanged and plans made to do it all again.

Elphick’s Fishery. Sandwich Lake. October 22nd, 2005.

Over several sessions fishing with a good friend of mine, Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury, it had come to light that he had never caught a Golden Tench. Indeed even when Andy has fished the next peg to me, I’ve caught them while they’ve managed to avoid Andy. Over the course of time it’s got to the stage where Andy’s catchphrase had become “Don’t mention GOLDIES“
Last week I sent him a Private Message on the Maggotdrowning forum asking if he fancied breaking his duck so to speak and finally catch one, to which he replied that of course he did, and like a mug I had virtually promised that it could be achieved from Sandwich Lake at Elphicks as I had never failed to catch at least a couple whenever I fished there.

So there I was standing on the steps of the fishery lodge at 8am when Andy arrived. Into the lodge to purchase our day tickets, and just looking at his face you could tell that Andy was up for it.

Up to the lake and the overflow swim was vacant, so I allowed Andy to have it, especially as he’d received a PM from someone who will remain nameless telling him to make sure he got it. I set up in the next swim to the left as the banter started to flow while we got ready.

The approach was simple, 11mtrs at dead depth feeding and fishing pellet, with a pouch of pellet every put-in.

Out I shipped and the float buried and after a brief fight the 1st fish of the day was safely in my landing net……………….
Andy’s face was a picture to say the least, and he went into full Victor Meldrew mode with a “I don’t believe it” well that’s all that was suitable for publication.

During the morning a few fish started to come for both of us and while I managed another 3 GOLDIES along with some Skimmers, all that Andy could manage were the resident Skimmers that think they’re Trout, leaping clear of the water whenever they’re hooked.

By 12 I was beginning to wonder if Andy was going to achieve his goal, but at 12·30 his elastic streamed out with something that obviously wasn’t a Skimmer. At the same time my float slid away and I was in as well, we both netted our fish at the same time, A GOLDIE for me and a GOLDIE for Andy.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!

The afternoon saw Andy fishing with renewed vigour, but another Goldie was not to be, a couple more Tench raised his hopes, only to turn Green as they saw the landing net, though I did manage another 3 bringing my total to 8.

During the afternoon a family of Swans payed us a visit, A particularly stroppy Cob with his Hen and 4 Cygnets, that weren’t far of being fully fledged.

As they worked their way round the lake, a couple of anglers noticed some line trailing from 1 of the Cygnets, but they couldn’t get close enough to remove it.

Meanwhile a few more fish were added between us, more of a variety, with some small stockie Carp, a Grassie for me and a Crucian for Andy amongst the ever present Skimmers, but they were fun to catch as they averaged out at about 2lbs a piece.

About 5pm I noticed that the Swans had moved to the next lake, but one of the Cygnets was missing, However Andy noticed it limping into the lake, and it swam across to our bank. I took some sweetcorn and sprinkled it on the bank and stood back.
Soon it found the corn and as it was tucking in I walked up behind it.
I was gobsmacked to see about 3ft of carp rig trailing behind it.
I placed my foot on the line, but it must have felt it and tried to waddle off. I knew it was now or never and managed to rugby tackle it and get it’s wings folded in. Looking up to Andy for some assistance I noticed him taking a photo of proceedings

When he came over we were both horrified to see that there was a large barbed hook embedded in it’s foot, Here’s the rig, Not the best of photo’s I’m afraid but the rig consisted of a size 8 barbed hook attached to heavy braid to a swivel,3ft of heavy clear leader (30lbs B.S.+ at a conservative estimate) spliced into about 8 inches of snakeskin or something similar.
Now whoever made that rig up knew full well what they were doing and decided to use a barbed hook despite them being banned on the fishery. The Cygnet wasn’t fully fledged, so hadn’t flown to another water to pick the rig up.

The whole time we were there no fishery staff came round to do a rig check so in my eyes are just as culpable as the angler that ignored the rule, but still doesn’t excuse it in the 1st place.

Surely if fisheries are going to put these rules in place, they should enforce them, and ban anglers that are found to be knowingly breaking them.

Luckily Andy had a pair of side cutters and we managed to cut the hook and remove the barbed point as it had come through.
Just in the nick of time as a very angry Cob came stamping and hissing up the bank. Off went the Cygnet to re-join it’s family apparently none the worse and it was soon feeding on our leftover pellets and corn as we called it a day.

So the day ended with plenty of fish caught, Andy got his GOLDIE and hopefully the young Cygnet is none the worse for it’s ordeal.
 

Lemington Lakes. Gloucestershire. Westminster Lake. October 8th, 2005.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Individual Championships 2005.

Today it was an early start as the destination was Lemington Lakes, just outside  Moreton In Marsh in Gloucestershire, the venue for this years Maggotdrowning.com Individual Match which had been organised by Vince. Thankfully the trip there went smoothly and by the time I pulled into the car park at 8am the sky looked to be promising a decent day despite the forecasts, but then Malc The Jinx Doyle had yet to arrive.
Breakfast served up by Andy and Debbie Machin who own the fishery, was a good plateful that set everyone up for the day ahead. People were arriving from all round the country promising a good turn out, new faces meeting old and friendships renewed once more which is what these matches are all about.

Nick(Neo1) had been victim of an alarm malfunction however, which resulted in Malc and Gemma arriving in the Jinxmobile just as the sun was replaced by grey clouds and the wind started to blow.

Back to the function room and 34 anglers assembled for the draw, conducted with Vince’s usual precision, curses were uttered and info sought as it became clear who would be fishing where.

Down at the lake it soon became clear that The Jinx was indeed in attendance as the sun promptly disappeared, the wind started to rise and the sky took on a more ominous shade of grey.

I had drawn peg 25 with Steve12 to my right,

and Simon(me) and MarkC to my left.

Plumbing up all I could find was 2½ft until I got to 13mtrs, where a small drop off gave me an extra foot, and this was where I decided to fish despite the wind making presentation a struggle. Having had a couple of hours practice the previous day I had decided to fish GOT BAITS 6mm expanders over GOT BAITS 4mm hard pellets to keep things simple, and just concentrate on the 1 line.

At the ALL-IN MarkC was soon off the mark with a decent Carp to meat on the straight lead that weighed 12lbs 7ozs. Ady (bigladwigan) had had a Carp of around 5lb 1st put in on corn and Steve12 had a quick couple of Skimmers on the feeder but was struggling for consistency as conditions worsened.

After about 30 minutes I had my 1st Carp of about 1½lbs but it was a real struggle presenting a bait with the wind, but slowly a few more fish found their way to the net.
I was struggling with the occasional foul hooker, but was gradually putting a weight together as I had the 13mtr line to myself as others around me chopped and changed tactics trying to find elusive fish on what was proving to be a very hard day owing to the conditions.

With a couple of hours to go The Jinx could be heard wandering the banks dishing out his own unique brand of encouragement. Steve12 decided the England football match on TV was more inviting than sitting it out as the rain started, leaving me effectively with an end peg.

Then The Jinx arrived at my peg along with the heavier rain that appeared to be following him and proceeded to give the entire lake a running commentary on my struggles. His hilarity when I pulled out of a lump finally leading me to ask him to FOXTROT OSCAR.
The last hour turned into a real trial of endurance, and with a few minutes to go I was into another decent fish that didn’t feel quite right. Softly softly was the course of action and with a couple of minutes to go a nice Mirror surfaced with the hook in its pectoral fin. I netted it and popped it into the keepnet just as the all out was called.

The weigh-in proved just how hard it had fished and with half the lake weighed in SteveW was leading with 32lbs 8ozs. When it got to MarkC it was going to be close, but as Mark put his fish on the scales he realised to his horror that 1 of his Carp that must have been around 4lbs had escaped and the scales only gave him 32lbs 4ozs.

When it came to my turn I was quietly confident and thankfully the scales backed it up, registering 47lbs 8ozs.

Back to the function room for a welcome cup of coffee, the presentations and raffle.

I have to say it was nice to see Vince looking so happy at handing me the Trophy.

On to the raffle and it was good to see the prizes shared around amongst those present, I even managed a bottle of Islay single malt to round the day off.
It had been agreed that the proceeds of the raffle would be donated to the winners charity of choice, so it was my pleasure to donate the £104.00 that was raised to The Kirsty Appeal (Francis House Hospice).

I would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Vince who put a lot of effort into organising the match, Malc, Gemma & Dirk for their help on the day, Andy and Debbie Machin and their staff for looking after us at their cracking venue, that we didn’t see at its best due to the conditions on the day.

Finally to all The Maggotdrowners that attended, Thanks for coming, hopefully we can do it again next year in better weather.

RESULTS.

1st	Peter(Mugger)Morton	47lbs 08ozs
2nd	Steve Wilson	32lbs 08ozs
3rd	Mark(mark c adroit)Causer	32lbs 04ozs
4th	Nick(Monkey)Watkins-Price	28lbs 06ozs
5th	Nick(Neo1)Williams	25lbs 12ozs
6th	Bobby (BobbyG)	21lbs 08ozs
7th	Dirk(The Dangler)Williams	16lbs 14ozs
8th	Darren (Badatfishing)	15lbs 12ozs
9th	Richard(Brigg-Ric)Tuxford	15lbs 02ozs
10th	Ian(fish4alarf)Venn	13lbs 05ozs
11th	Dave(Red Leader)Webster	11lbs 12ozs
12th	Vince(vg1037)Gould	11lbs 08ozs
13th	Lee (LG)	10lbs 08ozs
14th	Midge(Midge99)Milnes	10lbs 04ozs
15th	Matt(Bricktop)Schofield	9lbs 10ozs
16th	Dave(Dave The Fish)Collier	9lbs 00ozs
17th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	7lbs 00ozs
18th	Andy(Andy222)Felton	6lbs 04ozs
19th	Keith(Gandhi)Ashby	6lbs 00ozs
20th	JMCLincoln	5lbs 14ozs
21st	Adrian(bigladwigan)Wood	5lbs 12ozs
22nd	Dave(Cleggy)Senior	5lbs 10ozs
23rd	Nick(Slimcatcher)Bryan	4lbs 02ozs
24th	Sue(Nora)Senior	8ozs
	Matt Nutt	DNW
	Steve12	DNW
	Simon(Me)Rowley	DNW
	Colin(The Pike)Sharrard	DNW
	John(Arkwright)Anderson	DNW
	Martin O (Muskrat)	DNW
	Roy(Royst)Ravenhill	DNW
	Benno	DNW
	Nick(Big Sedge)Sedgwick	DNW
	Barry(Barrie44)Walker	DNW

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. September 30th, 2005,

Well today was one of those spur of the moment days, I’ve been off with Mrs M for a couple of weeks, and one of our golden rules is that if we’re both off I don’t normally go fishing, but as she had brought me a new pole last week I was itching to try it out, just to make sure I’d set up the elastics right you understand.

Maria said last night that she was going to visit a friend today so I thought I may as well snatch a few hours down at Hartleylands on the Reservoir.

There was a bit of rain about as I woke up this morning, so a leisurely breakfast meant that I didn’t load the tackle up till 10·30am, and a bit of traffic meant that I didn’t arrive at the farm till noon. There were eight people already fishing on the Reservoir as I settled in on peg 5.

Bait for the day was GOT Baits 6mm expanders and paste, with their 4mm hard pellets as feed. I’ve been using GOT Baits since a visit to Rolf’s earlier in the year and feel that quality wise their range is second to none.
I set up 1 swim in the left hand margin where there was a nice 2ft of water, and a comfy open water swim at 7mtrs with about 7ft of depth. The margins would be fed by hand and wouldn’t be touched until clouds of mud betrayed fish feeding with confidence. 2 large pots of pellet primed the 7mtr line.

1st put in on the 7mtr line with an expander at dead depth brought a positive bite straight away and a sharp lift resulted in a few feet of Black Hydro streaming out of the top kit and after a brief tussle a nice plump mirror of about 4lbs was in the net, a nice way to christen a new pole.

Let me say at this point that I tried Hydrolastic when it 1st came out and didn’t get on with it. However having visited the likes of Stockton, Clattercote and Rolf’s this season I’ve decided to give it another go in the new pole. I’ve taken the No1′s out of the match kits and cut the power tops back to match, resulting in very stiff kits that I’ve elasticated through 2 sections. The stiffness of the kits seems to be the key with Hydro. Throughout the afternoon I alternated between 7mtrs and the margin using kits with both red and black hydro fine tuning the tension till I was happy with it.

Typical Reservoir carp

Sport was nice and steady all afternoon despite the occasional flurry of rain and by 5·15pm I’d managed 32 Carp, the best being around 8lbs, 3 Tench and a dozen skimmers, a great workout for the new pole.

Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. September 17th, 2005.

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf’s Lake Match.

Another cracking day in good company saw 19 of us assembled in the car park at Rolf’s to take part in Matt Nutt’s 1st attempt at organising a match.
A lot of us were survivors from The Jinx Series with a couple of new faces from the site attending their 1st Maggotdrowning.com event. Even Webbo had come down from Yorkshire to try some proper fishing.

I drew peg 26 and was joined on the car park bank by Paul, Nick (Slimcatcher) and Webbo to my right and Young Dave & Gemma, Royst and Malc to my left.

Paul, Nick(Slimcatcher) with Webbo behind a bush.

Royst(playing a fish) Malc & Jason(JKG)

Sport was never fast and furious (An understatement in Paul’s case) but we all watched a lesson in how it should be done as most of us watched Gary opposite on Peg14 show us how it should be done with a superb display of up in the water fishing,  and I think we realised that we needed snookers when he got a 3rd keepnet out !!!

Perhaps it was just having Rolf sitting behind “coaching” him that gave him the edge though.

Spare a thought for Mark C as he was pegged between Gary & Pete Thompson who finished 1st & 2nd. Mark stuck at it though and did manage a few.

During the match I managed to smash a top kit trying to get a lump’s head up before it buried itself in the bush to my right much to various peoples amusement, I did manage a few though, one of which Gemma captured on camera.

However a thought should be spared for Paul on the next peg to me, who despite trying everything in his bait bag could only manage a 5½lb Golden Orfe as the Carp in his peg went on strike, Having escaped being pegged next to his nemesis Dirk, thought he was safe, He should have known better, naturally we were full of sympathy for his plight.

At the end of the match it was those with the experience of fishing the venue that took the spoils, proving that it’s not the easy venue that some seem to think, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone has plans to return at a later date to try to get to grips with the challenge that the venue presents.

Here’s the results of the day…………

1st	Gary(Gaza)Thorpe	227lb 08oz
2nd	Pete(Quietman)Thompson	179lb 08oz
3rd	Keith(Ghandi)Ashby	167lb 08oz
4th	Matt Nutt	112lb 00oz
5th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	91lb 08oz
6th	Dirk(The Dangler)Williams	75lb 12oz
7th	Roy(Royst)Ravenhill	69lb 08oz
8th	Jason(JKG)Grant	68lb 12oz
9th	Matt(Matt6900)Smith	61lb 04oz
10th	Geoff(Lurcher)Eggison	52lb 00oz
11th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	50lb 12oz
12th=	Dave Ashby	48lb 08oz
12th=	Dave(Webbo)Webster	48lb 08oz
14th	Mark(mark c adroit)Causer	40lb 08oz
15th	Nick(Slimcatcher)Bryan	16lb 00oz
16th	Nick(Neo-1)Williams	13lb 08oz
17th	Steve Wilson	10lb 00oz
18th	Paul Roberts	5lb 08oz
19th	Dave(Dave The Fish)Collier	DNW

NB: On Sunday 25th September, Gary Thorpe smashed the World 5hr match record with a weight of 490lb 8oz from peg 19.