Colemans Cottage Fishery. Wood Lake. July 24th, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

Well it’s off to Essex for me today and a club match at Colemans Cottage on Wood Lake. The view out of the window this morning promised a nice sunny day ahead and after a couple of cups of coffee and having fed the cats and loaded the car I was off and heading for Whitam in Essex, and a trouble free run down saw me pulling into the car park around 7·30am, where Kevin and Jean, along with Simon were already in attendance.

 Into the fishery lodge for a Large Breakfast, and we were soon joined by Terry, Keith and Pete along with Lee, Dave and a couple of other Morefax lads who were joining us today along with a couple of guests, so it should be a good turn out. Soon the rest of the gang arrived and with breakfast taken care of I went outside to discuss the prospects for the day ahead.

The club normally fishes Pathfield Lake when we visit Colemans, so this is something new, at least for me as I’ve never fished Wood Lake before, but luckily for me Paul Law (justin case) has furnished me with a detailed peg by peg rundown on the lake so I wasn’t not going into it totally blind. Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw up and running and after dipping into the bag I found myself with peg 14 for the day, which according to Paul’s run down was just an average peg.

So collecting my tackle I made my way down to my peg. Terry was on peg 1, with peg 2 drawn for Paul who was running late due to a blow out on the way down. Keith was on peg 6 (one Paul had reckoned was worth running to) with Pete Thompson on peg 8. Tony Roberts was on 10, Clive on 11 and Simon on 12 with 13 not drawn. To my left was Martin on peg 15 while I could see Dave in the corner on peg 18.

Settling into the peg it was time to decide how to tackle it. I had a gap between 2 islands out in front I elected to cover that with a waggler and got out a Shakespeare Micro that was already set up with a 2AA peacock insert waggler. I opted for 3 pole lines. Straight out at 6mtrs where I had 5ft of water with a Sackup CX 4×12 pencil on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG, and 2 margin rigs, both NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin’s on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG’s plus a paste rig of an NG 0·2 Margin paste float on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Fox series 2. Bait was my usual combination of 6mm hard pellet for feed with 6 and 8mm pellets for the hook along with some corn, a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers and GOT Atomic Paste (green halibut).

Kevin had arrived while I was setting up with a cup of coffee and with a bit of time prior to the off I strolled back to the car to collect a bottle of water, only to find Paul arriving by Taxi (having changed his blown out tyre only to find the spare knackered as well !!!!!!!!!!! ) so helped him to his peg with his gear, then made my way back to mine. At 10am Dave signalled the All-In and we were off.

Two big pots of pellet at 6mtrs followed by a handful in each margin were then followed by a banded 8mm shipped out to the 6mm line. A couple of tentative digs then the float buried resulting in a Carp tearing off and the rig flying back with a scale on the hook, not quite the start I’d hoped for, but at least there were some fish about. Next put in the float buries and it’s fish on again, a good solid surge and it didn’t want to get it’s head up, a bit more pressure and up it popped, not he expected Carp but a Barbel and at around 3lbs a nice way to get off the mark. A couple of Carp quickly followed this, not big fish, but really solid, giving a good account of themselves which I estimated at around 4lbs each.

Looking around I could see that Martin had a fish on the feeder that he was playing and most were starting to find a bit of sport, so it was looking like it should be a good day for most, in fact I looked down toward Dave and saw that he was engaged in what looked like a tug of war with plenty of red hydro streaming from his top kit……

For the next couple of hours it was just a question of things ticking over, a couple of Carp, then a Barbel or two, still putting some weight in the net, but I couldn’t seem to up my catch rate. I’d been using my clicker as there’s a net limit at Colemans which I didn’t want to fall foul of, and reckoned I had about 35lbs of carp by 12·30pm. I’d had a look down both margins, the right hand had produced hardly anything though despite the next peg being empty, so decided to concentrate on the left hand one. With this in mind I re fed it quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera to allow it to settle and take my coffee mug back to Jean.

Looking down from my vantage point I saw that Clive was busy unhooking a fish that he’d just netted……

While on the next peg along Tony was doing his best to get the landing net under a fish of his own ……

 Pete had left his peg, but I could see him sitting next to Keith and having a chat with him as he netted a small carp ……

 Terry was being a bit cagey as to what he had exactly, but didn’t reckon he was setting the place on fire. Paul was having a frustrating time trying to tempt some action from his margins, but Rod seemed to be enjoying a bit of sport ……

 Kev was owning up to 3 fish and hoping things would pick up for him later in the day, and looking across I could see Lee and Judy on adjacent pegs ……

 Strolling back Keith reckoned he had around 35lbs but was adamant that Pete was doing better, and I couldn’t help notice that he was fishing short just in front of his nets, and made me realise that last year I’d caught tight to my nets on Pathfield, perhaps that was the way to go today ?……

 Pete was back on his peg and of course though that Keith was just edging him as he struck into a carp just as I moved on ……

 Indeed it was starting to become obvious that the fish were starting to get their heads down, and I could see Ken on the far bank getting ready to slide a small Carp over the net ……

 Tony was attached to yet another fish, that seemed to be giving a good account of itself with plenty of orange vespe coming out of his top kit ……

 and there was Clive just slipping the landing net under yet another fish that he’d taken on the method feeder ……

 Simon however wasn’t feeling so positive, complaining that he’d never lost as many fish as he’d done today and considering that he’d lost a fair few on the last match at Mill Barn, you could safely say that he wasn’t best pleased ……

 Back at my peg I dropped my 6mtr rig in on a top 3 at the end of my nets and found just a couple of inches less on the depth, so fed a handful of pellet there and stuck a 6mm pellet on the band. This soon produced a Barbel of around 3lbs and was swiftly followed by a couple more, then a small Carp as Dave arrived with another Mug of coffee from Jean. The next fish made me jump as an acrobatic skimmer did a passable impression of a Trout leaping clear of the water as I struck. Another couple of Barbel followed and I’d noticed Al on peg 22 collecting a second carp net so he was obviously going well and from what I could see was fishing the method. Dave was still catching well and he was next to go for a second net. Another small carp followed for me before a couple of foul hookers ran me ragged and seemed to kill the swim.

Time for a look in the margin with the paste rig, a couple of knocks and the float buried , the strike meeting with firm resistance as a good fish powered of into open water. The fish stayed deep not wanting to get its head up, but steady pressure finally told as a double figure Mirror slid into the waiting landing net. With that fish I reckoned I had about 55lbs in the net so went and got a second carp net for myself.

Back in with the paste and it was obvious that the fish were there as the float buried straight away, a barbel this time with a taste for paste, and I took another 7 carp before Paul came up to see how I was doing with 15 minutes to go. Unfortunately this coincided with a spate of iffy bites and I only managed one more Carp before Dave called the All-Out at 4pm while he played a final fish.

Packing my kit up and chatting to Martin I was convinced that I had around 80-90lbs, but I wasn’t really sure as I’d got it somewhat wrong last year when we fished Pathfield but with the kit packed away in the car all would be revealed as I set off for the weigh-in. Terry kicked off with 63¼lbs from peg 1, which Keith topped from Peg 6 with 86¾lbs just edging out Pete’s level 86lbs to take the bragging rights on their trip home to Milton Keynes.

Tony on peg 10 put 70lbs+ on the scales with his first net, but thankfully Graham (The Owner) decreed that as long as it wasn’t over 80lbs there would be no penalty. His final tally was 143¼lbs, a total that wouldn’t be beaten ensuring he took the honours on the day. Clive managed 69½lbs and Simon just 40lbs. Round to my peg and as soon as I lifted my 1st net I knew that I’d underestimated as well, thankfully it came in under 80lbs and my total of 141½lbs that would be good enough for 2nd today. Dave had a good day as well on peg 18 with 122¼lbs and Nick Bondeau recorded a new PB match weight of 71lbs.

Al was left regretting a slow last half hour when his weight came out at 131lbs but still ended up 3rd overall. Lee Rose on peg 34 took the best weight among the Morefax lads with a level 98lbs while Roger, Ken and Graham managed 50lb weights. So back to the fishery lodge for coffee and results.

Dave soon had the results and the sections sorted and paid out, 1700lbs + had been weighed in for an average of 62lbs+ per angler so it was fair to say a decent day had been had by most. Next up for Marsh AC is Blasford Hill on August 13th.

For me however the next stop is 3 days at Rolfs Lake next weekend for Dave’s Friday Invitation match and the MD’s Pairs weekend.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 10	Tony Roberts	143lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 14	Peter Morton	141lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 22	Al Loader	131lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 18	Dave Collier	122lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 34	Lee Rose              Guest	98lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 6	Keith Ashby	86lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 8	Pete Thompson     Guest	86lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 20	Gary Smithers      Guest	83lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 33	Tony Moore         Guest	74lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 19	Nick Bondeau       Guest	71lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 11	Clive Pritchard	69lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 1	Terry Goff	63lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 28	Roger Noakes	53lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 38	Graham Manning	52lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 37	Ken Walker	50lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 9	Sean Moore          Guest	46lbs 12ozs
17th	Peg 27	John Holdsworth	46lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 40	Chris Withall	42lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 12	Simon Watkins	40lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 30	Dave Janes           Guest	37lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 3	Rod Turner	36lbs 00ozs
22nd	Peg 26	Zack Johnson        Guest	31lbs 00ozs
23rd	Peg 2	Paul East	28lbs 08ozs
24th	Peg 4	Kevin Loveland	28lbs 00ozs
25th	Peg15	Martin Hucker	24lbs 00ozs
26th	Peg 35	Judy Hermite	22lbs 00ozs
27th	Peg 24	Jim Boase	19lbs 08ozs
28th	Peg 39	Ron Mannister	14lbs 00ozs