Private Lake, East Sussex. September 3rd, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

It was off down to a Private Lake in East Sussex today for a Marsh AC club match and I was hopeful that it would be a decent day as the lake had been fishing well recently.
It was a bit dull and grey as I looked out of the window this morning, but a quick look on the web reassured me that we were in for a good day weather wise, and after feeding the cats and drinking a couple of cups of coffee to fire up the old grey matter, I soon had the car loaded and was off to East Sussex. With no café close to hand I stopped off at McD’s in Bromley on the way where a couple of Sausage and Egg McMuffins were consumed before resuming the journey. It got a bit foggy on the A21, but not enough to delay things and I reached the fishery just after 8am.

There wasn’t our usual turn out today due to a number of reasons, meaning there were just 12 club members and 3 guests to make up the numbers, but at least we should have a bit of room. Al went off to peg out while everyone got there nets dipped. Bill G was guesting today and as he’s been running a match series there, people were quizzing him for some info. Dave had brought his daughter Chrissy to fish today, but rumour was that it was really to act as his carer.

 Anyway with the pegs sorted it was time for the draw, and Peg 2 on the dam wall was mine for the day, a short walk and a peg I seem to draw quite often on my visits there, and with Kevin on Peg 1, I should be good for a couple of cups of coffee. The pegs aren’t numbered at the lake, so if you take a look below you’ll see where we were all pegged ……

As you might guess, it didn’t take long to get my gear to my peg, and having fished it before I had a fair idea of how I was going to approach it. Now when you hear ‘dam wall’ you tend to think deep water, however it’s not the case here, apart from a small marginal shelf close in it just gently drops away to around 3ft which remains pretty constant.

I had planned to fish paste today so I set up 2 paste rigs, the first was a 0·2 NG XT Power Pencil on 0·18 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 12 Guru MWG for a line at about 5mtrs straight out. I also set up another 0·2 NG XT Power Pencil on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 16 Guru MWG to fish pellet over this line if they didn’t want paste. The Margin paste line was taken care of by a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·18 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 12 Guru MWG. Bait was GOT Atomic paste and a mix of 6 and 8mm pellets.

 Jean spoilt me today as prior to the off I was treated not only to a cup of coffee, but also a freshly cooked Sausage and Bacon roll. Sitting there waiting for the off, the fog from earlier had burnt off and a bright sunny day lay ahead. In fact I felt we could do with a bit more cloud as a bright sunny day could make for a hard days fishing.

Anyway the All-In was called at 10am so we would soon find out. A pot of pellet at 5mtrs and some down the margins, then I shipped a banded 8mm out onto the 5mtr line. My first bite proved to be a bit of a false dawn as a Carp shot off before rolling on top as the rig came flying back with a scale on the hook. Next came a Roach, but it was Carp or nothing for me today and I hadn’t put a silvers net in, so it was popped back.

Clive had got off to a good start tucked away on Peg 3 fishing to the willow and had taken 3 Carp almost straight away leaving everyone playing catch up already ……

 In general though sport was far from hectic from what I could see and from my vantage point on the dam wall I had a good view of all those fishing the railway bank and on the meadow bank ……

 I managed to get off the mark shortly after when my float slid away, and after a brief scrap a Mirror of around 4lbs was safely in the net. There’s a good head of carp in the lake that average around 5lbs and it’s generally reckoned that 20 of them will normally give you a ton, but there’s also a good percentage that are considerably larger, and a few of them in the course of a session can really boost your weight. After that initial fish I changed to the paste rig, and after a few minutes the float buried and the culprit this time was a Common, again around the 4lbs mark but welcome none the less. I could see Simon over on the railway bank and although he’d had a couple of fish, he appeared to be struggling like me ……

 It was becoming obvious already that Clive would take some stopping today, as although I couldn’t really see him from where I was pegged, I could certainly hear the splashing as what seemed like a constant stream of fish were played and netted. I could see that Mick up on Peg 11 was starting to take the odd fish and knew that he might do some damage as well ……

 My paste fish seemed to be an solitary one so I reverted to the pellet and over the course of the next 90 minutes or so managed to add another 3 Carp to my total, all of which seemed to be around the 4lb mark. The noticeable thing was that I needed a ripple on the water to get a bite, as soon as the ripple stopped so would any chance of a bite.
So with it flat calm in front of me by 1pm I re-fed and took a stroll with the camera……

 Kev had just had his 1st fish of the day on the feeder, while Keith was admitting to 5 in the net. Vic in truth was looking a little tired, probably due to the fact he’d caught 400lbs at Alders the day before, only to finish second to a weight of 534lbs !! However he was still into a Carp as I looked on ……

 John had managed a few as well, but Martin was having a bit of a grim time. Mick was indeed catching despite being plagued by small Perch. Bill was locked in a battle with the Carp in his peg and unfortunately the score was Carp 8 – 4 Bill at that point. He was fishing corn across to the island and as I looked on he was into another fish, a good photo opportunity, but before I could even remove the lens cap the score became 9 – 4. Al was having a bit of a moan up and insisting he was having a bad day so I left him to it. As I continued round I met Dave coming the other way who reckoned he had 4, but was struggling. Next up came Dave’s daughter Chrissy, she’d lost a good fish first put in, and was now fishing her margins ……

 Terry was having a bit of a struggle once more, but Paul was putting a few together on the method feeder to the edge of the island, it must have been solid out there as Paul had a fish take a bare hook as he cast to the island prior to the start of the match. It hadn’t got any better for Simon either and he was hoping for an improvement in the latter stages. Clive however was sitting very much in the pound seats, his corner peg had the wind blowing into it and a willow providing plenty of cover to fish to ……

 Back to my peg and Jean had another coffee waiting for me. I started back on the paste, but couldn’t get a touch on it from any of my lines, so I was soon back to fishing the pellet and slowly started to pick up the odd fish, however they were all of the same stamp, around the 4lb mark without a hint of a better bonus fish. Keith however had started to alternate between his long line and his margin and was starting to put a run of fish together over on peg 15 ……

 Try as I may I just couldn’t get a run of fish going, it was just a case of nicking the odd fish as the chance arose, and even that was interrupted by a number of foul hookers as the afternoon wore on. Simon did manage another couple of fish late on but it was far from the improvement he’d been hoping for ……

 I just stuck at it and had 14 fish in the net when the All-Out was called at 4pm. I felt that I had around 60lbs in the nets, and soon had my gear packed away and back in the car before the Weigh-In started from Peg 1.

 Kev kicked things off with just 17lbs and I was almost spot on when my fish registered 60½lbs. Clive had 25 fish and after 4 weighs recorded 149¼lbs which would prove to be unbeatable on the day. Simon had 38½lbs to show for his efforts, while Paul put 77½lbs on the scales. Terry had 42lbs and Dave 47¼lbs while Chrissy managed 20lbs. Al had been telling everyone what a bad day he’d had but still put 81¼lbs on the scales. Bill’s score ended up 21 – 13 in favour of the Carp for 50¼lbs. Mick had kept going all afternoon for 124¼lbs and 2nd on the day. Martin managed just 18¼lbs while John had 46lbs including a new PB Carp to show for his efforts. Vic had 68½lbs while Keith was last to weigh, and his 103½lbs gave him 3rd overall.

So back to the car park where Dave sorted out the results and monies Next up for Marsh AC is a trip to Rockells Farm in 2 weeks time, a venue that I always look forward to. Before that however I have a trip to Rolfs on Thursday for a match with the  TalkAngling  lads and then a return to The Private Lake on Saturday to fish one of Bill G’s Matches.

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 3	Clive Pritchard		149lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 11	Mick Wright	Guest	124lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 15	Keith Ashby		103lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 9	Al Loader		81lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 5	Paul East		77lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 14	Vic Nugent		68lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 2	Peter Morton		60lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 10	Bill Gibbins	Guest	50lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 7	Dave Collier		47lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 13	John Holdsworth		46lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 6	Terry Goff		42lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 4	Simon Watkins		38lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 8	Christine Collier	Guest	20lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 12	Martin Hucker		18lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 1	Kevin Loveland		17lbs 00ozs