Rayne Lodge Fishery. The Top Lake. September 19th, 2009.

Marsh AC club match.

So it was off to the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge just outside Braintree in Essex today for what should be the last Marsh AC club match of the year (Though we might manage to sneak another one in somewhere). It promised to feel a little strange as Dave Collier would be missing his first club match in nearly twenty years but I felt sure that we’d manage to muddle through without him.

The initial look through the bedroom curtains held the promise of a decent day ahead, and it was pleasantly mild as I loaded the kit into the car and set off for deepest Essex. An easy trouble free run down saw me pulling into the Top Lake car park just after 8am, where I found a few of the lads already sorting their kit and ferrying it down the hill to the lake. There were 16 of us today including two of our regular guests, Keith and Mick who had trekked down from Milton Keynes.

Now the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge is one of those picture book little lakes with trees trailing into the lake offering plenty of cover and features to fish to. Well it was !!!!

Unfortunately someone appears to have acquired a chainsaw and has yet to discover the OFF switch.
To say that the pruning in some swims has been extensive would be an understatement. Brutal bordering on vandalism would be more accurate in my opinion. By way of example the following photo shows the view from peg 16 last May……

While the following photo shows the view from the same peg now ……

Anyway rant over and back to the business of the day. With Dave absent, Colin and Tony had taken care of the pegging and collection of the cash and it was soon time for the draw. Into the draw-bag and I find myself holding Peg 14a. Last year I would have run to it, but I wasn’t so enthusiastic today as it’s right at the heart of the recent ‘Pruning’. It’s one of Dave’s favourite swims, but in a way I’m glad he’s not here today as he would probably have cried to see it as it is now.

Well it was my swim for the next 6 hours so it was a question of making the most of it. For company today I had Keith over to my left on Peg 16, a quality angler and if he’s on a few fish, more than capable of doing the necessary. To my right there was Judy on peg 13 and Colin next to her on Peg 12. Tony has drawn peg 1 and there were a stack of fish in the corner to his right as we were drawing, and with Peg 22 drawn for Al (who hadn’t made it as it turned out) he’s got that corner to himself.

Time to set up and today I was going with a pellet and paste attack. The lake’s level was about a foot down from its normal level and I was going to fish one line straight out at around 7mts where there was around 3ft of depth, and down both margins where there was around a foot. Rigs were my favourite Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hook to fish pellet as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·18 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook for paste on the 7mtr line with a couple of Malman MTD1 dibbers rigged up on 0·18 Power Match, one with a 16 Drennan for pellet and the other with a size 12 Ashima for paste. I had my feeder rod rigged up in it’s ready sleeve but didn’t really want to go down that route unless I was struggling. Bait for the day was simply a selection of various pellets and paste, while feed was taken care of with 6mm Skrettings pellets while a bag of groundbait was in the carryall if I needed it later.

So down to business as Colin signalled the All-In at 10am. Out with a pot of pellet at 7mtrs and some more by hand down the margins. A banded 8mm to start was shipped out to 7mtrs. A few little dinks, probably silvers pecking at the pellet. A few lift and drops, float dipped, missed it. Now something I noticed on a previous visit is how bad the condition a lot of the fishes mouths are and I’m sure that’s the reason for a lot of missed bites here, as it must be hard to get a hook-hold with the state of some of their mouths. Keith had landed his 1st fish “That’s the blank saved” he remarked. I was in almost straight after and soon had a Common of around 2lbs safely in the net. I noticed that the fish was very slimy and hard to get hold of and made a mental note not to try lifting any into the keepnet. Another couple of fish followed for both Keith and myself, but sport was slow to say the least.

After a couple of hours I’d got 7 Carp and a couple of silvers, so out came the feeder rod and I knocked up a bit of groundbait, I’d banded an 8mm pellet and out went the method feeder to the corner of the island. An almost instant response in the form of a Mirror around the 2½lb mark didn’t lead to better things however. Colin strolled up with his sandwiches. He’d been having a torrid time of it with just 3 Carp to show for his efforts. Keith meanwhile has suffered from ’slippery fish’ syndrome and deposited a Carp safely back into the lake rather than his keepnet. With just 2 Carp to show for 45 minutes on the feeder I decided to cup in some loose groundbait and pellets on my 7mtr line and take a quick stroll with my camera to allow it to settle.

I took a stroll down to see Mick (Keith’s travelling partner) on 11a. Tony had this swim on our visit last year and took a good bag from the left hand tree. It’s not there any more, just a stump but Mick was nicking a few from the left hand margin ……

I could see Eddie over on Peg 5 with what appeared to be a nice patch of lilies on his right to fish to, so hopefully he would be picking up a few ……

Making my way back, I stopped off at Colin, but things weren’t showing any signs of improving for him I’m afraid and he was at a loss as to what he could do to improve things ……

while Judy was in pretty much the same boat as Colin, but was plugging away and at least keeping up with him ……

Back to my peg and I noticed a couple of bubbles coming up on the 7mtr line. Keith was a bit exasperated by the number of fish he’d had shed the hook and had managed to release yet another ‘slippery fish’ but he now appeared to be concentrating on his margin line……

Bites for me were still finicky so I decided to fish the 6mm Skrettings I was feeding banded on the hook as they were really quite small compared with some other 6mm pellets.
That seemed to make all the difference for me, and while Keith started to put together a run of fish I felt that I was managing to match him and maybe even ease ahead a little bit. In fact it was all going pretty well apart from a couple of foul hookers, one of which trashed my pellet rig with 15 minutes to go. However swapping to my paste rig still kept the bites coming and I managed another 4 Carp before Colin called the All-Out at 4pm.

Packing away I couldn’t help feeling a little frustrated at the way my match had gone, mostly due to the fact that the swim had been altered so drastically from the one I’d been expecting when I drew it, but on the plus side I felt confident that I’d beaten Keith and those around me. The Weigh-In was in full swing by the time that Keith and I caught up with it. Tony leading with a fine 79½lbs that would ultimately take his section and the honours on the day. Ron and Jim had managed a tie from adjacent pegs (3 & 4) with 28lbs each while Eddie had winkled out 21½lbs from peg 5. Martin had managed a very creditable 63½lbs from Peg 7 only to be pipped by 1lb from the next peg when Terry placed 64½lbs on the scales.

Poor Zack had struggled and could only manage a meagre 11½lbs from peg 10 while John put a level 73lbs on the scales that would give him the section and 2nd overall on the day, but most importantly the bragging rights over Martin & Zack in the car on the way home.
Ken recorded 13½lbs from Peg 11, but it was Mick on Peg 11a with 42½lbs who took the section spoils after Colin and Judy tied from their adjacent pegs with a level 18lbs each.

Round to my peg and my 25 Carp along with a few silvers took the scales round to 67¼lbs for a section win and 3rd overall. Keith’s 53½lbs at least saw him with the bragging rights over Mick on the way home. Roger round on Peg 20 weighed in 32½lbs but once again suffered the agony of losing a PB carp at the venue as he’d done last year, While Rod was the last to weigh with a level 14lbs.

All that just left us with just the slog back up the hill to the car park. Thank Heavens that Dave wasn’t there to waltz up the hill with his powered trolley and take the mickey out of us all. So with the sections paid out the farewells were done, That’s it officially for the Marsh AC club matches this year, though we hope to fit one final outing in next month as Kevin is coming back to visit from the Bahamas, so we’ll try to sort out a day with him.

In the meantime it’s been a most enjoyable series of matches oncemore, and I’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dave for organising the matches as always and another BIG THANK YOU to all that have fished the matches, both members and guests who’ve made them great fun to fish as always. Here’s to more of the same next year.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	79lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 10	John Holdsworth	73lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 14a	Peter Morton	67lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 8	Terry Goff	64lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 7	Martin Hucker	63lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 16	Keith Ashby     (guest)	53lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 11a	Mick Wright     (guest)	42lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 20	Roger Noakes	32lbs 08ozs
9th=	Peg 3	Ron Mannister	28lbs 00ozs
9th=	Peg 4	Jim Boase	28lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 5	Eddie Dobson	21lbs 08ozs
12th=	Peg 12	Colin Sharrard	18lbs 00ozs
12th=	Peg 13	Judy Hermite	18lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 21	Rod Turner	14lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 11	Ken Walker	13lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 9	Zack Johnson	11lbs 08ozs