Monk Lakes. Match Lakes 1 and 2. August 22nd, 2009.

The Southern Intersite Match.

Well today was the day of the annual Southern Intersite Match, where 4 teams of 10 anglers representing 4 angling forums pit their wits and fishing skills against each other in a light hearted match. Well I say light hearted, but over the years it’s become quite competitive for some, but as usual I’m fishing for the team from Maggotdrowning.com and our ethos is still to enjoy ourselves and the day without actually trying to win. The other teams are from Angling Forums, Total Fishing.com and TalkAngling so we’ll see how the day goes. The first look out of the bedroom window was promising, offering the promise of a decent day weather-wise ahead, though the forecast reckoned we might get a few showers at some point.
A cup of coffee to kick start the old grey matter, then get the car loaded before setting off for the fishery. A nice easy drive down saw me pulling into the fishery just after 8am and pulling up in the car park next to Mick the Chippy. Climbing out of the car it was strangely still, and people were saying that the lakes were like glass with no hint of a ripple to be seen, a very rare occurrence at Monks!!!!!

Down to the chuck wagon for a bacon sarnie and coffee and the greetings and banter were soon in full flow as the 4 teams started to assemble prior to the draw.. New faces being introduced, while old ones were greeted and abused in equal measures. 9am and the team captains drew their teams pegs which were then allotted to their team members. The MD’s draw was done and with 5 sections on each lake peg 60 on Lake 2 was mine. I was quite happy with that as I much prefer Lake 2 having fished it more than Lake 1.

With new match rules in place at Monk Lakes including bait and net limits, decisions had to be made about bait and as I loaded my kit up onto the barrow I selected 7 pints of pellets, a couple of tins of corn and 2kg of groundbait for the day as well as 4 keepnets (well you never know your luck).

With my gear safely round to my peg it was time to set up. Peg 60 has a decent bit of depth and a decent left hand margin to a bush. The plan was to fish paste and pellet and concentrate on 2 lines today, 5mtrs straight out where there was around 5½ft and the margin with around 2½ft. For the 2 paste rigs I selected a couple of Malman SC paste floats made up on 0·18 Power Match with size 12 Ashima Barbless hooks. I also set up a Malman 4X 14 Champers on 0·14 power match with a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook for fishing the pellet on the deck out at 5mtrs and a Malman Slapper, again on 0·14 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook for up in the water, that would also double up for the margin if needed. Bait wise the paste was a bag of Dynamite Swim Stim Amino Original that I had put through a liquidiser to make it really fine and added a packet of GOT Baits pineapple Atomic Cloud which mixes up to a nice soft consistency, a selection of hard and soft hook pellets and some corn, with 6mm pellets for feed.

With the new weight limits in place I put 3 keepnets in straight away just in case, as I didn’t want to run the risk of disturbing the margin later if I was catching well. Everything was ready by 10·30am and with half an hour to go I strolled back to the car to get my jacket just in case we got the odd shower (You aren’t allowed to cross the bridge now once the match has started) Nick(Bag Up) was settling in to peg 46 as I got round to the car, and you couldn’t accuse him of being the worlds tidiest angler ……

As I made my way back I took the opportunity of snapping a picture of Clive on end peg 77 as he sat waiting for the off ……

Fred(Milo)Parker fishing for TalkAngling had draw the other end peg (56) and was obviously hoping for a decent day ahead ……

While the lads at the other end were obviously discussing their prospects, and I had to fancy Nick Gilbert’s chances (but not his dress sense) after he’d drawn peg 67 as he’s got a good record at Monks……

So 11am and the All-In was called and I cupped in 2 big pots of pellet at 5 mtrs and fed some pellet down the left margin. I started off with a banded 8mm pellet at 5mtrs which resulted in a couple of lightening fast bites that I couldn’t connect with. Third time lucky though as a slower more positive bite resulted in a first fish, a nice plump Mirror of around 2lbs nestling safely in the net. It was a case of steady away from then on really, working the bait , lifting and dropping the rig or a little drag to one side to try and induce a bite. There was just a little to long between bites but the fish that I was getting were plump Mirrors so at least a bit of weight was going in the net and at the end of the first hour I had 7 fish for around 18lbs.

Looking across I could see Hathers (moleman) who appeared to be going along quite nicely on peg 54 and luckily he had a cap on, so I wasn’t getting dazzled by the reflection from his bonce ……

while over on peg 46 Nick appeared to be going along quite nicely thank you, regularly putting fish in the net……

Try as I might I just couldn’t seem to up the rate, while Mark on peg 59 to my right seemed to be catching faster than me, though he was getting a lot of Barbel (I couldn’t actually see though as he was hidden by the bush). So about 12·30 I had my 1st look with the paste rig and while it didn’t provide any increase in bites, they were a lot more definite when they came and easier to connect with.

By 1·30pm I was feeling a little parched and realised that I’d left my drinks in the car, and as you’re now not allowed across the bridge once the match is on I took a stroll up to Mick to scrounge a drink. The man himself kindly obliged with a whistle wetter and appeared to be enjoying himself as he slid another fish into his waiting landing net while I watched ……

I took the opportunity to pop down and see how Nick was getting on, and he reported that he’d had a blinding start with 20 fish in the net in the 1st hour, things had slowed for him however and he was actually fishing on the deck to keep some fish going in the net !!!! Anyone that knows Nick will know that he’s a confirmed “up in the water” man, so thought I’d better catch proof of this rare event on camera …

Just after 2pm I noticed a tail pattern in my left hand margin, so felt it was time for a look there. Just 3 sections were needed to drop the paste down the margin and after a couple of minutes the float slid away and I found myself attached to a better fish that appeared to be determined to go and visit the opposite side of the lake. Almost straight away I could feel it was a foul hooker, but fortunately after a few minutes I was able to slide it tail first into the landing net, another plump Mirror, but this one went about 6lbs.

I stayed with the margin swim for the remainder of the match, yet again I couldn’t up my catch rate though. However I was putting fish into the nets on a regular basis even if it wasn’t quite as quick as I would have liked and felt I should have brought some maggots with me as they would probably have drawn a few more Barbel into the peg.

Looking around it was hard to see how others were doing due to the lush bankside vegetation, indeed I could just see Clive’s head peeking above making him appear somewhat like a Jap Sniper in the jungle…

While Mick being somewhat loftier in the height department (though he may have been standing up) could be seen playing another fish when I glanced round ……

My final 40 minutes were quite frustrating as sport seemed to slow right down, and I only managed to put a couple of fish in the net in this period meaning that when the All-Out was called I’d ended the match with 40 fish in my nets. Clive and I had drawn scales duty for the causeway so I managed to get packed away and my kit back to the car while we waited for the scales as they weighed the car park bank first.
Unfortunately Nick(Bag Up) fell foul of the new rules as his 2 nets at the Weigh-In were both over 60lbs so he only recorded a level 100lbs (50lbs for each net) I’m not really sure what happened there though as he had 4 nets in the water during the match.

So we finally got round to the Weigh-In on the causeway and Morgan kindly took on the recording duties allowing Clive and myself to get on with the weighing. Fred kicked off with 114lbs. Mark Smith took the honours in my section (8) with a fine 145lbs, which proved to be the 3rd best weight on the day, and giving me a right battering off the next peg as my 98 lbs was only good enough for 3rd in section. Section 9 saw 3 consecutive ‘Tons’ brought to the scales with Nick Gilberts being the best of them at 168¼lbs and the top individual weight on the day. The final section (10) saw all four anglers record ‘Tons’, with Roland Lucas’s 153½lbs, which was the 2nd highest weight on the day winning the section . Billy Lowe put 128½lbs on the scales to record his first ever ‘Ton’ in a match and take 2nd in section, while poor Clive’s 112½lbs was only good enough for last in section.


So with the Weigh-In completed we made our way back to the car park for the results and it was obvious that Lake 2 had been the one to draw, with Lake 1 fishing much harder, in fact just a single ‘Ton’ weight was recorded on Lake 1 by Paul Law (justin case) the Talk Angling Team Captain. With all the results in it was the lads from Total Fishing that took the honours on the day by just a single point from the Angling Forums team. Maggotdrowning trailed into 3rd place with the lads from Talk Angling bringing up the rear.


All in all it had proved to be a good day though, Thanks to Vince for organising todays match with his usual customary efficiency. Thanks to Morgan and his staff for providing his fishery for the day and finally Thanks to everyone from all the forums who made it a most enjoyable day with the match fished in the right spirit, nice to catch up with some we already knew and others for the first time. Happily for me, and unfortunately for Vince normal service had been resumed and Vince had to hand back one of my Golden Nuggets that he’d taken from me at Rolf’s, so a nice end to the day for me at least.

1st	Total Fishing	20 points
2nd	Angling Forums	21 points
3rd	Maggotdrowning	28 points
4th	Talk Angling	31 points

Section 1
Paul Law	Talk Angling	Peg 2	103lbs 04ozs	1 point
Vince Gould	Maggotdrowning	Peg 4	54lbs 10ozs	3 points
Dave Churchwood	Angling Forums	Peg 6	87lbs 04ozs	2 points
Brian Jackson	Total Fishing	Peg 8	25lbs 04ozs	4 points
Section 2
Les Griggs	Talk Angling	Peg 10	17lbs 04ozs	3 points
Alan Loader	Maggotdrowning	Peg 14	39lbs 00ozs	2 points
Marcus Page	Angling Forums	Peg 16	45lbs 12ozs	1 point
Andy Honess	Total Fishing	Peg 18	7lbs 00ozs	4 points
Section 3
Tony Biddle	Talk Angling	Peg 20	56lbs 00ozs	3 points
Matt Love	Maggotdrowning	Peg 22	47lbs 08ozs	4 points
Stuart Wilson	Angling Forums	Peg 23	78lbs 12ozs	1 point
Martin Wright	Total Fishing	Peg 25	66lbs 00ozs	2 points
Section 4
Chris Siddle	Talk Angling	Peg 27	64lbs 10ozs	3 points
Steve Allen	Maggotdrowning	Peg 29	71lbs 06ozs	2 points
Tony Curd	Angling Forums	Peg 31	57lbs 08ozs	4 points
Andy Gregory	Total Fishing	Peg 35	77lbs 06ozs	1 point
Section 5
Liam Willis	Talk Angling	Peg 37	44lbs 01ozs	4 points
Paul East	Maggotdrowning	Peg 39	52lbs 12ozs	2 points
Trevor Little	Angling Forums	Peg 41	46lbs 03ozs	3 points
T Baker	Total Fishing	Peg 43	74lbs 08ozs	1 point
Section 6
Jim McDowell	Total Fishing	Peg 45	146lbs 00ozs	1 point
Nick Costar	Maggotdrowning	Peg 46	100lbs 00ozs	4 points
John Holt	Angling Forums	Peg 48	139lbs 00ozs	2 points
Fred Parker	Talk Angling	Peg 56	114lbs 00ozs	3 points
Section 7
Simon Duke	Talk Angling	Peg 49	45lbs 00ozs	4 points
Roy Gudgeon	Maggotdrowning	Peg 51	112lbs 08ozs	3 points
Chris Martin	Total Fishing	Peg 52	138lbs 08ozs	1 point
Mark Hathaway	Angling Forums	Peg 54	117lbs 00ozs	2 points
Section 8
Dave DAT	Total Fishing	Peg 57	117lbs 00ozs	2 points
Mark Smith	Angling Forums	Peg 59	145lbs 00ozs	1 point
Peter Morton	Maggotdrowning	Peg 60	98lbs 00ozs	3 points
Richard Page	Talk Angling	Peg 62	46lbs 00ozs	4 points
Section 9
Johnnie Watts	Total Fishing	Peg 64	109lbs 00ozs	3 points
Rusty Graves	Angling Forums	Peg 66	131lbs 08ozs	2 points
Nick Gilbert	Maggotdrowning	Peg 67	168lbs 04ozs	1 point
Mick Pearson	Talk Angling	Peg 69	44lbs 00ozs	4 points
Section 10
Roland Lucas	Total Fishing	Peg 71	153lbs 08ozs	1 point
Paul Taylor	Angling Forums	Peg 73	117lbs 00ozs	3 points
Billy Lowe	Talk Angling	Peg 75	128lbs 08ozs	2 points
Clive Pritchard	Maggotdrowning	Peg 77	112lbs 08ozs	4 points

Saturday sees me back at Rolf’s for the final Match of The Jinx Series. Clive and I are lying 2nd in the Pairs and have an outside chance of 1st place. Can we do it? who knows, but you’ll be able to find out here next week.