Colemans Cottage Fishery. Pathfield Lake. August 15th, 2009.

Marsh AC club match.

Today It’s down to Colemans Cottage with Marsh AC for a club match on Pathfield Lake. It’s the second time this year that the club have visited the fishery for a club match, and there should be 16 of us fishing, including guests today. I missed the seasons first club match here in May due to work, though as it transpired it fished quite hard then , so I didn’t really miss much. Hopefully we’ll have a better day today, though it wasn’t the best of starts, as some idiot had crashed his Merc at the top of my road this morning, meaning that I left a bit late for the trip down. It was pretty overcast as I drove into the car park just after 8·15am and a fair old breeze blowing, which can effect the lake as it’s quite shallow for the most part. However we had the whole lake booked and that should allow everyone a bit of space to draw a few fish.
Anyway first things first and into the fishery lodge for breakfast. Most were already tucking in. Keith Ashby was a guest again and today he’d brought fellow GOT Baits angler, Pete Thompson with him. It was great to see Pete, as he’s a class angler with a particularly dry sense of humour. All to soon Dave was after our money and the draw was underway just as my breakfast arrived. Anyway into the hat and it’s peg 6 for me today (much to Dave’s disgust as it’s a favourite peg of his)

Breakfast finished and it’s back to the car park to collect my gear and the fishery supplied nets then off to my peg. It seems Clive is on peg 2 and Pete Thompson is on peg 4, while Martin and Graham were right in the bay to my left on pegs 7 and 8 with Colin opposite on peg 9.

Looking at the peg, the obvious feature is the point of the island opposite, but with the wind gusting from right to left it would be awkward to say the least so rig wise it was decision time ……

I settled on a 4X12 Malman Adam on 0·16 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook and a duplicate rig but with a 4X16 Adam should the wind require it. I also set up a rig with one of the new Malman Slappers, again on 0·16 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook for up in the water, that could also double up for the margins, though with so much vegetation on both sides, both my margin swims were very limited. Indeed I decided that my main line of attack would be at 8mtrs down the track where I had around 2½ft of water. Everyone I’d spoken to about Pathfield had told me that it was pellet & corn, so that was the plan of attack today.

So with everything set Clive arrived complete with camera for a chat and Pete put in an appearance as well. Soon it was 10am and a blast on the whistle from Dave signalled the All-In. With a large pot of pellet and corn down the track and some pellet into both margins I picked up the 4X12 rig, hooked on a kernel of corn and shipped out to 8mtrs. There were already signs of fish with a few bubbles appearing over the fed area. 10 minutes later and the anticipation had faded a little, there were a few Carp cruising around but they appeared quite uninterested and I’d only had a couple of sharp taps on the float that I couldn’t connect with. Banded pellet, expanders and corn were all alternated, but at the end of the first hour all I had to show for my efforts were 3 small Barbel and a couple of Roach that might have scraped 1lb in total.


 I’d heard Pete take a couple of fish (and curse the fishery landing nets) but from what little I could see nobody was bagging up. The wind wasn’t helping but at least it had blown the clouds away and bright sunshine was warming things up nicely, but after another 15 minutes biteless I dumped another 2 large pots of pellet and corn on the 8mtr line to try and kick start things and took a stroll with the camera. Pete was fishing corn down his left hand margin and was admitting to around 15lbs in the net……

Clive was taking a similar approach and it had already produced a few Carp for him, and he was hoping that things would improve as the match wore on ……

and I could see Terry on the next peg, and while he was fishing down the margins as well he looked as if he was having a bit of trouble with his presentation due to the wind……

Anyway, with others catching I decided to get back and see if I could improve on my performance so far. As I made my way back someone called out my name and it turned out it was Scott(scottymatch) who follows this Blog and his partner who had come down to introduce themselves, and it was a nice surprise to meet them both. After a brief chat they left and I settled back in to get on with things. Second put in with corn and the float slid slowly away and a couple of feet of elastic indicated something with a bit of weight at last. A small Mirror of around 2lbs, and very welcome. It proved to be a bit of a false dawn however as just a solitary tiny Barbel followed with nearly 2 hours of the match gone.

I’d noticed that Colin was starting to pick up a few fish, while Martin and Graham were fairing no better than me, despite being on what looked like a couple of pegs to die for, especially with the wind blowing into them. Martin had managed to nick a couple of fish on the feeder, but Graham appeared to be having a real grueller and was struggling to even get a bite……

Dave strolled round and stopped to see how I was doing and reckoned that although most were catching a few, nobody was really going well where he was, though Tony had been catching steadily. I then noticed what I was sure was a tail pattern just past the end of my keepnets. Decision Time!!! I had some GOT Atomic paste in my carryall, and decided to make it up. With that done I selected a small Malman SC Paste float and rigged it up on 0·18 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless. Plumbing up I found 2 ft at 3mtrs, so with the rig set I flicked a few pellets out and potted the 1st bit of paste in. The rig settled and 30 seconds later a couple of dips were followed by the float sliding steadily away and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net. That was the start of the improvement for me, nothing spectacular, but at last I started to put fish in the net on a regular basis.

Unfortunately I started having a bit of trouble with foul hooked fish. Now I wasn’t feeding heavily, just the odd pinch of pellets that were pretty well spread as I didn’t want to concentrate to many fish in to small an area, but it was stopping me from finding any sort of rhythm, and with just around 1½ hours remaining I was looking for a decent finish to the match. Checking on my clicker I realised that I’d missed a few fish off and didn’t really know just what I had in the net.


Now Colemans operates a weight limit (70lbs per net) and I was hopeful that I’d exceed that by the end of the match so I decided to go and get a 2nd carp net and put it in to be on the safe side. I was pretty careful putting it in, conscious that I didn’t want to disturb the paste line to much. Not to worry though , first put in after sorting the nets and a decent Mirror of around 5lbs obliged, so no harm done.

So with an hour to go I was set, but how to avoid the foul hookers? I added 3 inches of depth to the rig and fixed a no1 shot 3 inches from the hook in an attempt to get round the problem. Colin by now was catching well and I knew it would be close between us at the end……

The adjustment to the rig had the desired effect and I was soon putting a much better run of fish regularly in the net, In fact I only suffered 1 more foul hooker in the last hour, and the swim was getting stronger and stronger when Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm. I felt reasonably happy with my match at the end, it was just a shame that I hadn’t sorted things out earlier. I felt that I’d probably got around 80lbs to show for my efforts, but couldn’t help feeling that the peg would have been good for a ‘Ton+’ if I’d sorted it earlier.

So with the kit packed away and back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In. Now I have to say that Colemans probably has the most efficient system for weighing in that I’ve seen at a fishery in some time.

Basically as the picture above shows, they have quad bikes with trailers that drive round. On the back of the trailer is a bar that supports the scales, along with a weighing container and carp mat. It drives round to the pegs, fish are transferred to the container weighed and returned and the fishery nets collected in the trailer. Fast, efficient and with minimal strain for the fish. The chat suggested that Tony had had a decent day round on the other side of the lake, and Keith was keeping things pretty close to his chest, hinting that he probably had 50lbs+.


Clive kicked things off from peg 2 and put 53½lbs on the scales . Pete had obviously had a decent day on peg 4 and took the lead with a fine 95lbs. I was quite pleased and surprised to edge him out though when the scales recorded 96½lbs for my fish. That lead was short lived however as Colin put 97lbs on the scales to edge me out of it. Onward we went with the next weight of note being Tony’s who finally put 86lbs on the scales.

We then arrived at Keith’s peg!!! What can be said? somehow his 50lbs+ morphed into 142½lbs !!!! An excellent weight given that his peg wasn’t one of the most fancied (Be careful if you’re standing besides Keith though, because if he turns round quickly he could have your eye out with his nose)

So with the Weigh-In completed it was back to the patio outside the fishery lodge where winnings were dispensed by Dave, and tea, coffee and bread pudding along with a load of banter brought yet another Marsh club match to a close. Another excellent day out at a decent fishery in good company, it doesn’t get much better really.

Next Saturday I’m down at Monk Lakes for the Southern Intersite match where I’m fishing for the Maggotdrowning.com team. Vince is our Captain and I’ll be looking to mug him and get one of my Golden Nuggets back. Will I manage it? you can find out here.
 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 22	Keith Ashby       (guest)	142lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 9	Colin Sharrard	97lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 6	Peter Morton	96lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 4	Pete Thompson    (guest)	95lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 17	Tony Roberts	86lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 13	Simon Watkins	64lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 15	Dave Collier	64lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 2	Clive Pritchard   (guest)	53lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 36	Terry Goff	43lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 30	Al Loader           (guest)	38lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 27	Rod Turner	30lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 32	John Holdsworth	19lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 7	Martin Hucker	11lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 19	Zack Johnson	8lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 34	Ken Walker	6lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 8	Graham Manning	4lbs 00ozs