Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. April 23rd, 2011.

Marsh AC v  Morefax AC

Well I’m down at Hartleylands today for a small Knock Up on Nick’s Lake. A couple of weeks ago Dave Collier posted the following on my club forum…… “ Some of my son-in-laws mates have invited me and a few Marsh members for a little knock up on 23rd April. They normally fish as a small club with usually 8 or 10 of them. Between their organiser and myself we have booked the whole of Nicks lake for Saturday 23rd of April. So how many of you want to risk the wrath of SWMBO and come fishing on Easter Saturday”   Well after an invitation like that, it would be rude not to wouldn’t it.

We had been hoping to have a Marsh club match around this time, but a combination of Easter, Royal Wedding and a lack of available bookings on suitable venues meant that the invitation from the Morefax lads offered a welcome opportunity for about a dozen of us to get out on the bank .

With the weather having been so good recently, it was just shorts and a tee shirt today, and with the gear loaded into the car it was off to the Knox-Bridge Café for a ‘Full English’. Well the best laid plans and all that, I found Pete and Keith just about to pull out of the car park as the café was shut. A stop at a local petrol station meant an overpriced sandwich replaced the ‘Full English’, but at least it filled a hole.
Pulling into the fishery car park most were already in attendance and I was surprised to see a face that I work with !! Dave Janes was there with the Morefax lads as a guest of his brother in law Lee Rose. So with 22 of us present it was time for the draw. Peg 3 was mine for the day with Al on peg 4 for company. Keith strolled past with a broad grin on his face on his way to peg 9, while I could see Pete off to my right on peg 35.

With plenty of time to set up before the All-In at 10am the pellet wag and feeder rod were taken out of their ready sleeves, though in all honesty I was only expecting to fish the pole. 3 rigs took care of my options, once again all Sackup CX 4×12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG’s. pretty much the same rigs I’d used at Monks on the previous Marsh match……

The first to fish at around 10mtrs where there was around 4ft of water and the other two to cover two margin lines. Bait for the day being a combination hard pellets and GOT Baits soft hookers.

Jean appeared with a welcome mug of coffee and at 10am the All-In was called. I fed a large pot of mixed pellets onto the 10mtr line and a handful down both margins before going out with a banded 6mm, meanwhile Al had started with the feeder to the island. Nobody seemed to get off to a flyer, but a few fish were coming out here and there. Al picked up a few early carp on the feeder but was suffering from a snag on his feeder line that was costing him a number of hook lengths. I was getting quite a bit of fizzing on my pole line indicating fish were present and it didn’t take long before I had my first carp of the day in the net to get me off the mark.


Sport wasn’t hectic, but with a bit of work the bites kept coming and at the end of the first hour I had 10 carp in the net. Pete over on 35 looked like he would take some stopping though as he was already into a steady run of fish, making the most of having empty pegs either side of him.


The second hour was steady away with Al and I matching each other pretty much fish for fish, but from where we were we couldn’t really see much of what was going on around the rest of the lake. With the recent warm weather Al was expecting the fish to come up in the water, but for some reason they didn’t seem to really want to know forcing him to fish on the deck……

Around half way through my long line tailed off, but with a look down both margins producing just a solitary small skimmer I re-fed at 10mtrs and took a quick stroll to allow things to settle. Keith was up on peg 9 and was concentrating on a line under the willow to his left……

 it was proving to be a bit of a frustrating time for him though with lots of taps and dinks on the float proving hard to hit and he felt that it was probably small skimmers causing this rather than the hoped for carp.

A bit further round I found my workmate Dave on peg 15 looking like someone from a Maver advert, he’d recently forked out on some shiny new kit including a seatbox. He was targeting the tree to his left but unfortunately it wasn’t proving to be that productive for him……

 And he felt that he was falling behind his brother in law Lee who he could see fishing the feeder to the end of the island over on peg 20……

Back at my peg I started to pick up the odd fish once more but felt that I was having to wait to long between fish compared with the rate that Al was catching. A look at the island with the feeder produced a couple of carp but not quickly enough and the waggler fared even worse without a single bite.
By now Al was struggling too and with us both trying down the margins only Al had any success with just a single carp……

Pete was still catching, but the lads that appeared to be in the box seats were Tony and Gary on pegs 7 and 8 as it seemed that every time I looked over their way they were both playing good fish and both Al and I thought they would both be on for Ton+ weights.

With an hour to go the sun vanished and was replaced with heavy grey clouds accompanied by ominous rumbles of thunder and a light sprinkling of rain, but at least I managed a final flurry of fish before the all out was called at 4pm.


With Al and I weighing in half the lake we set off from peg 1 where Roy had struggled for just over 17lbs. My catch weighed 69½lbs, a bit more than I’d expected while Al’s 78½lbs proved good enough to take the section as Tony and Gary both came up a little short with 76lbs and 73 lbs respectively. Keith put 60lbs on the scales, including a Carp of 12lbs 2ozs which would take the £10 heaviest fish money. Tony’s 61¾lbs would be enough to take this section while Chris,Sean and Dave all recorded weights in the twenties and Ian finished the section off with a level 49lbs.
Back to the car park for the final results and the honours on the day went to Pete Thompson (peg 35) with a fine 127½lbs to take the win……

 while second and third had come from adjacent pegs with Dave Collier’s 90lbs from peg 21 giving him 2nd place ahead of Lee Rose (peg 20) whose 79lbs gave him 3rd overall. Kevin on peg 24 had 64lbs to give him the section on the day while Nick Bondeau on peg 27 managed 59½lbs to take the final section and his first ever pick up in a match.

 All in all a good day, with everyone having some fish and I’m sure it won’t be the last time that the Marsh and Morefax clubs get together for a friendly Knock Up.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 35	Pete Thompson	127lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 21	Dave Collier	90lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 20	Lee Rose	79lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 4	Al Loader	78lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 7	Tony Moore	76lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 8	Gary Smithers	73lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 3	Peter Morton	69lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 24	Kevin Loveland	64lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 11	Tony Roberts	61lbs 12ozs
10th	Peg 9	Keith Ashby	60lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 27	Nick Bondeau	59lbs 08ozs
12th=	Peg 17	Ian Cooper	49lbs 00ozs
12th=	Peg 23	Terry Goff	49lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 26	Christine Collier	39lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 37	Dave ?	36lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 14	Sean Moore	26lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 31	Simon Watkins	25lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	23lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 15	Dave Janes	22lbs 14ozs
20th	Peg 29	Gino	21lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 1	Roy Sargent	17lbs 06ozs
22nd	Peg 33	Rod Turner	7lbs 00ozs

Marsh AC  Morefax AC