Buxted Oast Farm Fishery, Buxted, East Sussex. February 28th, 2009.

Maggotdrowning.com Knock Up.

 

It was a small Knock-up amongst a few members of the Maggotdrowning.com forum down at Buxted Oast today, but it didn’t get off to the best of starts for me, as I went down to load the car and found that some scrote had tried to break into the car overnight. However I managed to fix the damage pretty quickly and was soon loaded up and on my way. Overcast but nice and mild, it promised to be a decent day and I even had time to stop off in East Grinstead for a spot of breakfast, arriving at the fishery car park around 8·45am.
The MD’s knock-ups are always fun and today promised to be no different, Bill had already pegged out, so it was monies paid and into the draw bag, with peg 4 being my home for the match.

Settling in I had Trevor for company on peg 3 with Pete to his right on peg 2, while peg 5 to my left wasn’t drawn. Bill had recommended fishing a comfortable 8-10 mtrs straight out where there was about 2½-3ft and not to ignore the margins so that was the basic approach. I just set up two top kits and both of these were rigged with Malman 4×12 Snake 1′s on 0·14 to an 0·12 bottom with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook and I also set up the pellet waggler rod as I could see a few Carp already cruising around the top. Bait for the day was Corn, GOT 6mm expanders and 6mm hard pellet, No maggots though as these tend to pull the Roach.

10am and Ryan called the All-in. I shipped out half a pot of mixed pellet and corn to 10mtrs and fed some pellet by hand into the margins and had a quick cast with the pellet waggler to see if I could “mug” and early fish, but with no interest shown that was quickly discarded in favour of the pole. Shipping out a 6mm expander to 10 mtrs the float had hardly settled when it disappeared down the hole and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon safely in the net, next put in and another smaller fish around 1½lbs joined its friend, Happy days. Trevor had had a couple of quick Carp too, as had Pete.

Dave tucked away in the corner on peg 6 had got off to the best start however, fishing tight into the corner under the willow, taking 5 Carp and a Frog !!!!! You just know that Dave the Fish’s nickname will become Dave Le Frog after that little episode.

After that initial burst however sport seemed to grind to a halt for most, leaving people scratching their heads as to why they couldn’t get amongst the fish, and Trev being bored looking at a stationary float reverted to a top 2 and maggot to get some action with the roach, soon lining them up and regretting the fact that he hadn’t packed a whip today. Around 12·30 I re-fed my main line and another to my left and went for a stroll round.

Dave’s sport has slowed but fish were moving round the tree, while Bill on peg 7 by the outfall just had a solitary Carp, but frustratingly, he could see fish in front of him taking pellet.
Colin tucked away in fancied peg 8 was another with just a solitary carp to show for his efforts, but was now being plagued by small Roach attacking whatever he put on his hook.

Vince meanwhile was fishing down his right hand margin on peg 9 and had taken a couple of Carp despite it being “Snag Central” and costing him a few hooks, and he managed to slide a third Carp into the net as I watched. Would he be taking a £1 coin from me today ?

Back to my peg and out to 10mtrs and the float shot strait under as I laid it in !!!! A foul hooker that tore around a bit, but was soon safely in the net, with the hook in a pectoral fin and a good 5lbs added to my weight. Pete dropped by for a chat as I shipped out to my left hand line for the 1st time, and an instant bite resulted in Carp no 4 making it’s way to join the others in the net.

Trev was getting into a decent rhythm and building a weight of silvers when the inevitable happened and he hooked a Carp, and he was connected to it just long enough for it to trash his swim before it shed the hook, leaving him to have to build it up again.

Tony strolled round and informed me that both he and Paul had a couple of Carp each, while Mick on peg 1 breathed a sigh of relief as he finally managed to snare a Carp, having endured a frustrating time watching them cruise round in front of him, leaving just Ryan staring at a dry float tip as it steadfastly refused to go under.

With a couple of hours to go Dave started to catch regularly, having fed a few floaters under the tree, and was looking uncatchable, leading Bill on the next peg to change rigs to just a couple of feet of line and a hook and fish long to try and tempt the fish that were still cruising in front of him, and it soon started to produce for him.
With nothing showing on the top within pole range in my swim I stuck it out alternating between my 2 long lines, as nothing apart from Roach could be tempted from the margins, and I managed another 5 Carp before Ryan called the All-out at 4pm.

The Weigh-in told the story, Dave Le Frog had won comfortably, taking 27 Carp in total for 52¼lbs and a very comfortable win. Bill had a good last hour weighing a level 27lbs to bump my 25lbs 6ozs down to third.
Trevor put a very creditable 21lbs 3ozs on the scales for 5th and may well have taken second place if he’d remembered to pack his whip. Of course poor Vince had to hand over another £1 coin to yours truly, so it seems normal service has been resumed in 2009.

My next planned outing is in a couple of weeks time, to Wylands for a “Silvers” match on House Lake which should be fun providing we don’t get a repeat of the weather we had on our last visit there, though if we do at least the Tea Hut will do a roaring trade.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Dave(Le Frog )Collier	52lbs 04ozs
2nd	Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins	27lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peter(Mugger)Morton	25lbs 06ozs
4th	Tony(spamwham)Roberts	23lbs 04ozs
5th	Trevor(MT Net)Little	21lbs 03ozs
6th	Pete(petemid)Midgley	13lbs 12ozs
7th	Vince(Vince G)Gould	4lbs 04ozs
8th	Mick(The Chippy)Pearson	2lbs 08ozs
9th	Colin(The Pike)Sharrard	1lbs 12ozs
10th	Paul(paulvis69)Slater	D.N.W
11th	Ryan(Zephyr)Wells	D.N.W