Marsh AC club match.
Well today saw the 1st Marsh AC match of the year taking place at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 2 . These matches are always light hearted affairs and there’s bound to be a bit of banter flowing throughout the day, and hopefully a few fish to be had.
Loading up the car for the drive down it was dull grey and drizzling and by the time I arrived around 8am nothing had really changed. A cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie took care of breakfast. 15 club members and a couple of guests lined up for the draw One of those being Dave Talbot, who had received a new pole as a result of his daughter Faye’s appeal on the Maggotdrowning.com forum at Christmas. (You can read the relevant thread HERE). Bill G had come along too, but he was going to spend the day helping Dave get to grips with the pole has he hadn’t used one previously.
Into the bucket and peg 51 stuck to my hand. Colin and Dave drew last and ended up with the two flyer’s 66 and 45. Settling into my peg, despite having a free peg to my left with Judy next up on peg 53 and what turned out to be a free peg to my right as Bill G had drawn it (but would spend the match coaching Dave Talbot) I can’t say I was delighted with it, the wind was blowing straight into it and I would have to watch those on the opposite bank fishing with the wind off their backs for the whole match. Also it’s a peg that doesn’t get fished a lot during the week, pegs 45, 46 and 47 seeing a lot of action on a regular basis due to the resident Barbel.
Loading up the car for the drive down it was dull grey and drizzling and by the time I arrived around 8am nothing had really changed. A cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie took care of breakfast. 15 club members and a couple of guests lined up for the draw One of those being Dave Talbot, who had received a new pole as a result of his daughter Faye’s appeal on the Maggotdrowning.com forum at Christmas. (You can read the relevant thread HERE). Bill G had come along too, but he was going to spend the day helping Dave get to grips with the pole has he hadn’t used one previously.
Into the bucket and peg 51 stuck to my hand. Colin and Dave drew last and ended up with the two flyer’s 66 and 45. Settling into my peg, despite having a free peg to my left with Judy next up on peg 53 and what turned out to be a free peg to my right as Bill G had drawn it (but would spend the match coaching Dave Talbot) I can’t say I was delighted with it, the wind was blowing straight into it and I would have to watch those on the opposite bank fishing with the wind off their backs for the whole match. Also it’s a peg that doesn’t get fished a lot during the week, pegs 45, 46 and 47 seeing a lot of action on a regular basis due to the resident Barbel.
Setting up I selected 2 top kits with Black Hydro, these were rigged with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a 10mtr line where I had around 6ft of water and a KC 4×12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a closer margin line where I had 2-2½ft of depth. I also set up my Shakespeare Mach 3 Micro – 11′ Waggler which was rigged with a Premier 4AAA insert waggler. Bait wise, Got 6mm expander pellet along with 6 and 8mm hard pellet along with corn and meat would hopefully provide something appetising for the fish while 6mm pellet and some Special G groundbait took care of the feed.
10am and Dave blew the All-in. I fed 3 balls of ground bait on the 10mtr line and some pellet into both margins.
Dave Talbot on peg 49 had been under instructions from Daughter Faye to catch a Barbel, and got off to the perfect start as the 1st fish on his new pole proved to be a Barbel (Mission Accomplished).
10am and Dave blew the All-in. I fed 3 balls of ground bait on the 10mtr line and some pellet into both margins.
Dave Talbot on peg 49 had been under instructions from Daughter Faye to catch a Barbel, and got off to the perfect start as the 1st fish on his new pole proved to be a Barbel (Mission Accomplished).
After about 5 minutes I had my first bite on the 10mtr line and with what felt like a decent fish taking elastic, was more than a little put out when the hook pinged free as I was getting ready to net it.
From that point on my day went downhill rapidly. Judy was sorting out a few of the lakes resident Ide and Dave T was taking some decent fish on a regular basis, much to Bill G’s delight, was it Bill’s coaching or was he sitting on a shed full? It didn’t matter really because I couldn’t buy a bite.
Wherever I looked people were catching fish, Colin was fishing towards the aerator on peg 66 and steadily putting fish in the net………………
If I looked to my right, Dave, Kevin and young Zack were filling their boots from the early pegs. Indeed the only angler who seemed to be as inactive as me was Martin over on peg 60………………
I finally managed to put a fish (a small Tench) in the net after about an hour and that was quickly followed by a Gudgeon before things ground to a halt for me once more. A look on the waggler fared no better but as I could see young Zac and Kevin catching regularly on feeder set ups I got my feeder rod out of it’s ready bag and chucked a banded 8mm pellet out in desperation. After 10 minutes the tip wrapped round, the culprit being revealed as I netted it as probably the smallest F1 in the lake. Needless to say no more bites followed in the next 30 minutes after this.
By this point in the proceedings word had of course got out, and I received several visits from those who were keen to commiserate with my predicament and offer some sympathetic words of advice…………………..NOT
By now the sun was shining, but all that did was blind me as I tried to fish the ripple on my 10mtr line, so I came shorter and 1st put in I was rewarded with an F1 of around 1½lbs, but that again proved to be a solitary fish. Things were getting truly desperate for me by now, I’m sure that Bill hid my knife in case I was contemplating suicide, and when Dave C strolled down again with more words of sympathy (Yeah Right) I strolled back with him to see what a decent peg looked like and acquire some maggots off him.
By now I was convinced that I was stone last on the day, the maggots were at least getting me some bites, but these were only from 1oz blade skimmers and even smaller Ide fry. I was so fed up that with half an hour to go I stripped my top kits down to pack them away, and as I did that the wind dropped down a bit, so I decided to give the waggler a final chuck. Two red maggots on the hook and at last I could catapult some feed out to a reasonable distance, out with the waggler, it sailed away and a nice chunky F1 was soon in the net. I pulled out of the next one trying to bully it in too quickly but did manage another three before Dave blew the all out at 4pm.
The weigh-in started from the opposite side with Colin on peg 66 putting 71¾lbs on the scales for a fine win on the day. Dave C took second on the day with 63¾lbs from peg 45 while Dave Talbot completed the frame with a fine 48lbs, a fantastic effort using a pole for the 1st time, and a result that I’m positive will ensure that Faye is suitably proud of her Dad…………
By this point in the proceedings word had of course got out, and I received several visits from those who were keen to commiserate with my predicament and offer some sympathetic words of advice…………………..NOT
By now the sun was shining, but all that did was blind me as I tried to fish the ripple on my 10mtr line, so I came shorter and 1st put in I was rewarded with an F1 of around 1½lbs, but that again proved to be a solitary fish. Things were getting truly desperate for me by now, I’m sure that Bill hid my knife in case I was contemplating suicide, and when Dave C strolled down again with more words of sympathy (Yeah Right) I strolled back with him to see what a decent peg looked like and acquire some maggots off him.
By now I was convinced that I was stone last on the day, the maggots were at least getting me some bites, but these were only from 1oz blade skimmers and even smaller Ide fry. I was so fed up that with half an hour to go I stripped my top kits down to pack them away, and as I did that the wind dropped down a bit, so I decided to give the waggler a final chuck. Two red maggots on the hook and at last I could catapult some feed out to a reasonable distance, out with the waggler, it sailed away and a nice chunky F1 was soon in the net. I pulled out of the next one trying to bully it in too quickly but did manage another three before Dave blew the all out at 4pm.
The weigh-in started from the opposite side with Colin on peg 66 putting 71¾lbs on the scales for a fine win on the day. Dave C took second on the day with 63¾lbs from peg 45 while Dave Talbot completed the frame with a fine 48lbs, a fantastic effort using a pole for the 1st time, and a result that I’m positive will ensure that Faye is suitably proud of her Dad…………
My few fish weighed a meagre 12¼lbs much to everyone's delight, my one consolation being that Vince hadn’t been able to make it on the day, thus missing out on what would have been his best chance this year to get one of his £1 coins back from me.
The next Marsh AC match is at Pea Lane in Essex in 3 weeks time, I’ve never been there and evidently it’s predominantly silvers, so I could be on for another battering to provide yet more entertainment for the club members, but before then it’s the Match Lake at Hawkhurst where Vince and I will resume the battle of the £1 coins, and normal service will hopefully be resumed. I’ll keep you posted.
The next Marsh AC match is at Pea Lane in Essex in 3 weeks time, I’ve never been there and evidently it’s predominantly silvers, so I could be on for another battering to provide yet more entertainment for the club members, but before then it’s the Match Lake at Hawkhurst where Vince and I will resume the battle of the £1 coins, and normal service will hopefully be resumed. I’ll keep you posted.
| Position | Peg | Angler | Weight |
| 1st | Peg 66 | Colin Sharrard | 71lbs 12ozs |
| 2nd | Peg 45 | Dave Collier | 63lbs 12ozs |
| 3rd | Peg 49 | Dave Talbot (Guest) | 48lbs 00ozs |
| 4th | Peg 57 | Ken Walker | 42lbs 12ozs |
| 5th | Peg 61 | Tony Roberts | 39lbs 08ozs |
| 6th | Peg 56 | Graham Manning | 35lbs 12ozs |
| 7th | Peg 46 | Kevin Loveland | 33lbs 00ozs |
| 8th | Peg 47 | Zack Johnson | 30lbs 00ozs |
| 9th | Peg 64 | Terry Goff | 17lbs 00ozs |
| 10th | Peg 58 | Roger Noakes | 16lbs 08ozs |
| 11th | Peg 62 | Chris Withall | 14lbs 08ozs |
| 12th | Peg 53 | Judy Hermite | 14lbs 04ozs |
| 13th | Peg 51 | Peter Morton | 12lbs 04ozs |
| 14th | Peg 65 | John Holdsworth | 11lbs 04ozs |
| 15th | Peg 54 | Rod Turner | 7lbs 00ozs |
| 16th | Peg 60 | Martin Hucker | 2lbs 12ozs |
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