“Easter Friday Hawkhurst Fish Farm. I’ve just been up there and the bailiff tells me it’s free on this day, with everyone being off anyone fancy a knock up?” That’s the post that Paul(paulvis69)Slater put up on the Maggotdrowning forum which has led to 19 of us travelling down to Kent today.
Loading up the car it appeared to be pleasantly mild, which considering the previous weeks weather forecasts was a bonus as they had been promising rain. A smooth trip down saw me pulling into the fishery just after 8am to find almost everyone already there and eager for the draw.(Unfortunately Kevin had been called into work at 4am forcing him to miss it) With the on-site café not due to open till 9·15am Paul soon had the draw underway so that we could get set up and then have breakfast before the start of the match at 10·30am.
Dipping my hand into the bag peg 1 was my reward. Some regard it as a flyer as it’s an end peg in a corner, but I’m not so sure as everyone seems to congregate round it during and prior to the draw which must disturb the fish there and in all the matches I’ve fished there it’s never framed yet alone produced the winner.
Settling in I had Vince for company on peg 2, so the battle for our customary £1 coin was going to be up close and personal today, while opposite on peg 20 was Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff coming out of hibernation for his 1st outing of the year. Vince must have thought that I wasn’t all that confident because he took the following picture thinking that I was praying to the fishing gods, however he had only caught me pumping some expander pellets……
My set up was pretty simple today, just 3 top kits, 2 rigged with 4X12 Malman Champers on 0·16 to 0·14 bottoms with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hooks, one for 4mtrs straight out in front where I had around 4ft of water and the other for up against the boards to my left where there was around 2½ft, while the third was a Malman MTD2 dibber on 0·16 direct to a size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had around 18″ and would also double up as an up in the water rig. Bait for the day was simply 6 & 8mm fishery pellet (Skrettings) that would be banded and some 6mm GOT expanders as a change bait, with feed taken care of by more 6mm fishery pellet.
With the kit all set up most of us made for the café and a Full English. 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 eggs, Mushrooms, beans/tomatoes, fried slice + toast & marmalade and tea or coffee for £5 setting everyone up for the five hours ahead. So with everyone full it was back to our pegs……………
and at 10·30am Paul called the All-in. A large pot of pellet was dumped at 4mtrs and another spread along the boards to my left while I fed some more by hand down the left hand margin into the corner where there was a build up of scum. Out with the 4mtr rig and a banded 6mm pellet produced a couple of lightning fast bites without connection which I’m sure were Roach just snatching at the pellet, while Vince was soon into his 1st fish of the day and putting a Carp safely into his net. A more positive bite soon saw some Black Hydro coming from my top kit and a nice little Common of around 1½lbs get me off and running. After around an hour I had around 10 fish, no great shakes but at least I was getting fish regularly unlike Terry opposite who appeared to have got off to a bit of a slow start and having a bit of a struggle ………
Just after the half way mark I was starting to struggle on the 4mtr line so after dumping another large pot of pellet in I had a look over to the boards on my left, taking 4 Carp in 4 put in’s before the Roach turned up, a look to the corner proved fruitless, so I decided to stretch my legs and see how the others were doing.
It was soon obvious that the middle pegs were the place to be with Paul (nomorelongwalks) who always seems to do well here at Hawkhurst catching steadily, Tony was into a fish…………………
………as was Dave………………
……… though as usual they were both cagey as to just how well they were both doing. Clive who had made the trip up for the day as he always enjoys it here had settled on a margin attack……
……… as had the match organiser, Paul (paulvis69) over on the other bank on peg 13………
Back to my peg and onto the 4mtr line and the fish were ready for it once more, though I was still getting some of those lightning fast bites that I couldn’t connect with. By keeping the pellet going in I was keeping fish going into the net, even taking a few shallow, but I was having to wait to long between fish on the shallow rig so reverted back to the deck to keep my catch rate ticking over.
Vince however was starting to struggle a bit having to wait a bit to long between fish to keep pace with me
With around an hour to go I had 50 fish in my nets but the sky had darkened and it was obvious that we would be finishing the match in the rain. Terry on peg 20 had started to put a run of fish together playing catch up after his poor start, and looking a bit further across I could see that Nick(pastie)Allen on peg 16 and Keith(Disco)Driscoll on peg 15 were having a good old battle with both anglers taking fish regularly.
With the arrival of the rain however my bites dried up while Jay to Vince’s right on peg 3 seemed to have a great last hour ………
I really struggled and only managed to put another 2 fish in the net in the last hour, leaving me with 52 fish when Paul called the All-out at 3·30pm. I was first to weigh in and 86½lbs was my reward for the day, not good enough for the frame but more than enough against Vince’s 32½lbs to see yet another shiny £1 coming my way. Paul on peg 7 took the win on the day with 125lbs (Told you he likes it at Hawkhurst) while Keith had edged Nick out to third with 112lbs to 101lbs in their peg to peg battle.
So that was it for another day, A Nicely organised match by Paul(paulvis69), Thanks fella, and Paul(nomorelongwalks) kindly treated us to coffee’s in the café from his winnings before we bade our farewells and set off for home.
Next up for me is a Club match at Pea Lane in Essex in 2 weeks time, a new venue to me. How will it go?????????? not got a clue, but all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
| Position | Peg | Angler | Weight |
| 1st | Peg 7 | Paul(nomorelongwalks)East | 125lbs 00ozs |
| 2nd | Peg 15 | Keith(Disco)Driscoll | 112lbs 00ozs |
| 3rd | Peg 16 | Nick(pastie)Allen | 101lbs 00ozs |
| 4th | Peg 4 | Graham(franklin)Franklin | 94lbs 12ozs |
| 5th | Peg 3 | Jay Lay | 92lbs 12ozs |
| 6th | Peg 5 | Tony(spamwham)Roberts | 88lbs 00ozs |
| 7th | Peg 19 | Derek(derekl)Lockwood | 86lbs 12ozs |
| 8th | Peg 1 | Peter(Mugger)Morton | 86lbs 08ozs |
| 9th | Peg 8 | Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard | 85lbs 04ozs |
| 10th | Peg 18 | Pete(btpt)Allen | 83lbs 00ozs |
| 11th= | Peg 9 | Greg(splitshot1)Andrews | 81lbs 00ozs |
| 11th= | Peg 6 | Dave(The Fish)Collier | 81lbs 00ozs |
| 13th | Peg 12 | Trevor(M.T.Net)Little | 70lbs 00ozs |
| 14th | Peg 20 | Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff | 67lbs 00ozs |
| 15th | Peg 13 | Paul(paulvis69)Slater | 40lbs 00ozs |
| 16th | Peg 2 | Vince(Vince G)Gould | 32lbs 08ozs |
| 17th | Peg 11 | Chris(nagap)Pagan | 31lbs 00ozs |
| 18th | Peg 17 | Chris Withall | 23lbs 08ozs |
| 19th | Peg 14 | Ben Franklin | DNW |
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