Marsh AC
Alders Farm Fishery
Alders Farm Fishery
Once again I’m travelling up toward Milton Keynes to Alders Farm Fishery just outside the village of Great Brickhill. It’s for a Marsh AC match that’s been arranged by club member Keith Ashby who lives reasonably close to the fishery. Today is really just a friendly knock up though with a few of the venue regulars invited to make up the numbers today, but it’s a fantastic venue that’s capable of throwing up some mega match weights, so well worth taking the day off work for.
Living down in South London an early start was called for to avoid the London rush hour, so the alarm went off at some ungodly hour and with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee consumed, the car was loaded up in the dark and I was on my way by 5·30am. The plan worked a treat and gave me a clear run up the M1 and A5 meaning I pulled into the car park just after 7am. Trev’s van was already parked up and young Mark Quick has obviously been dropped off as he was sitting on his box surrounded by the rest of his kit in splendid isolation.
Dinah soon appeared and set up the dip so we could rinse our nets off and Trev staggered into view with a couple of gallons of maggots that he had to riddle off ready for the anglers today. With that done it was time to open the shop and we were soon chatting over the prospects for the day ahead as other anglers started to arrive including Keith, the organiser of todays match and pretty soon the banter was starting to flow back and forth. Anyway with some fishery pellets purchased my stomach was telling me it was time to make my way down to The Pumphouse for breakfast, so I collected my kit and headed off down the hill.
Dinah already had breakfast under way when I got there, in fact Kevin and Jean were already tucking in. A coffee and a full English soon had me ready to face the day ahead as the rest of todays anglers arrived. One of those was Mal Talbot who Trev describes as ‘Mad as a box of frogs‘ but he’s fished at the top level for many years and now helps out presenting the Alders Farm and GOT Baits video’s that Trev produces, so spends a fair bit of time at the fishery. Standing out on the veranda taking in the sunshine you could see that there were plenty of fish moving, an encouraging sign but with the recent colder nights I had a feeling that it could be a little harder than expected today.
Around about 9·30am Keith called everyone to order (no small task) and got the draw under way. Into the bag and peg 34 finds it’s way to me. I was more than happy with that as Vic had told me it was a good peg to draw.
Living down in South London an early start was called for to avoid the London rush hour, so the alarm went off at some ungodly hour and with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee consumed, the car was loaded up in the dark and I was on my way by 5·30am. The plan worked a treat and gave me a clear run up the M1 and A5 meaning I pulled into the car park just after 7am. Trev’s van was already parked up and young Mark Quick has obviously been dropped off as he was sitting on his box surrounded by the rest of his kit in splendid isolation.
Dinah soon appeared and set up the dip so we could rinse our nets off and Trev staggered into view with a couple of gallons of maggots that he had to riddle off ready for the anglers today. With that done it was time to open the shop and we were soon chatting over the prospects for the day ahead as other anglers started to arrive including Keith, the organiser of todays match and pretty soon the banter was starting to flow back and forth. Anyway with some fishery pellets purchased my stomach was telling me it was time to make my way down to The Pumphouse for breakfast, so I collected my kit and headed off down the hill.
Dinah already had breakfast under way when I got there, in fact Kevin and Jean were already tucking in. A coffee and a full English soon had me ready to face the day ahead as the rest of todays anglers arrived. One of those was Mal Talbot who Trev describes as ‘Mad as a box of frogs‘ but he’s fished at the top level for many years and now helps out presenting the Alders Farm and GOT Baits video’s that Trev produces, so spends a fair bit of time at the fishery. Standing out on the veranda taking in the sunshine you could see that there were plenty of fish moving, an encouraging sign but with the recent colder nights I had a feeling that it could be a little harder than expected today.
Around about 9·30am Keith called everyone to order (no small task) and got the draw under way. Into the bag and peg 34 finds it’s way to me. I was more than happy with that as Vic had told me it was a good peg to draw.
So off to collect my kit and make the short trip to the peg. Kev was settling into peg 38 along with Dave on peg 36, while to my right I could see Mal on peg 32, so no pressure there then !!!
Peg 34 is a lovely looking peg that had a decent view over the rest of the lake, There’s a big bush overhanging the water to the left and a smaller one in the margin to the right. It’s quite shallow with a maximum of around 2 feet of water but that doesn’t normally have an adverse effect on the fishing.
I set up 3 identical rigs that were freshly tied, all 0·2g NG Springer Sampson Margin’s on on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 16 Kamasan B911X’s to finish them off that would be fished on a top 2 +1 at around 18 inches deep. Bait was simply 4mm fishery pellets that I damped down for feeding while hook baits were just hard 6mm’s along with corn and GOT Baits soft hookers as change bait.
With a bit of time before the All -In I strolled round for a chat with Mal and found him perched on his trusty red ASI making the most of the glorious sunshine ……
With a bit of time before the All -In I strolled round for a chat with Mal and found him perched on his trusty red ASI making the most of the glorious sunshine ……
and was soon joined by Dave and Kevin. After a while I left them chatting and made my way back to my peg for a quick check that everything was ready before we started.
At 11am Keith called the All-In so I fed some pellet along the bush to my left and some pellet and corn into the right hand margin before shipping a banded pellet out to the bush. a couple of tentative dinks before the float vanished but the lift offered little resistance before a rudd surfaced and promptly fell of the hook, not the start that I was looking for, so I re-fed and dropped in again. This time the float just buried and a lot more resistance this time as a hooked carp tore off in the shallow water. I soon had it under control however and in the net, a 2½lb mirror to get me up and running. It was steady away from there on in if I’m honest, I wasn’t catching quickly but I did catch steadily, the only real problem was lost fish, but with hooked fish charging off when they’re hooked in shallow water it’s inevitable that you’ll lose a few if the hook hold isn’t spot on.
I could see that Mal appeared to be matching me fish for fish, but looking round the rest of the lake, although people were catching, it didn’t appear to be at the expected rate that the lake is capable of. Indeed after around an hour Dave appeared to see how I was doing and reckoned that he only had around 15lbs to show for his efforts.
I just kept feeding the two lines but concentrated on the left hand bush as I didn’t want to disturb the margin to early. After a couple of hours I had around 25 fish in the nets and could see that Vic over on peg 2 appeared to be putting a few together as well ……
I could see that Mal appeared to be matching me fish for fish, but looking round the rest of the lake, although people were catching, it didn’t appear to be at the expected rate that the lake is capable of. Indeed after around an hour Dave appeared to see how I was doing and reckoned that he only had around 15lbs to show for his efforts.
I just kept feeding the two lines but concentrated on the left hand bush as I didn’t want to disturb the margin to early. After a couple of hours I had around 25 fish in the nets and could see that Vic over on peg 2 appeared to be putting a few together as well ……
I could hear Al over on peg 6 complaining that all he could find were small fish in the 1lb – 1½lb range, but knowing Al he was probably fibbing. Clive however seemed to be doing OK when my camera lens caught him in the act of landing a fish ……
My fish appeared to back off just before 1pm, so as is my custom I re-fed quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera to allow things to settle. Terry was tucked away on peg 29 and struggling to come to terms with it today and only taking the occasional fish ……
Keith was on peg 28 and with nobody on the next 3 pegs he was targeting the margin with corn, the fish were certainly there as he could see their tails waving at him, but getting them to take his bait was proving to be a frustrating exercise as they continued to ignore it in favour of the free offerings ……
As I made my way back Mal was still plugging away steadily taking a succession of fish in glorious sunshine, at least that’s the way it appeared ……
Returning to my peg it was now in the shade and with the breeze blowing onto my back I felt the need to put my fleece on. Back out with the bait and the fish had settled again and I took a look down the margin for the first time as I could see fish moving in and out of it. It did produce bites but the fish were much smaller than I had been taking from the bush so after around 30 minutes I reverted back to there.
With around 2 hours to go Kev was having a bit of a grueller on peg 38 as it just wasn’t producing for him today, but Dave started to catch at a better rate which cheered him up no end ……
With around 2 hours to go Kev was having a bit of a grueller on peg 38 as it just wasn’t producing for him today, but Dave started to catch at a better rate which cheered him up no end ……
Things had obviously picked up for Al as well as he was heard to ask Keith if the match could be extended for a bit longer, a request that Keith declined.
I managed to keep the fish coming steadily till the end of the match and by the time that Keith called the All-Out at 4pm I had 67 fish in my nets. Packing away my kit Mal appeared reckoning that I’d beaten him and shook my hand. I wasn’t so sure as it seemed to me that he’d been catching at a similar rate, but the scales would have the last say on that.
Trev had come down to start the weigh in on the pumphouse bank and as Dave had the club scales with him Keith started to weigh-in on our side. Kev had indeed had a frustrating day with just 28½lbs to show for his efforts. Dave’s peg had come good in the last couple of hours allowing him to put 126½lbs on the scales. At my peg my fish weighed 177½lbs and Mal was proved to be right when his fish came in at 119½lbs . Simon had quietly put together 74¼lbs from peg 30 while Terry’s fish registered 58½lbs. Finally Keith weighed in with a level 87lbs and with the weigh-in on our side concluded we made our way back to The Pumphouse for the results.
Trev had laid on Tea and Coffee and broken out the biscuits which was very welcome as the assembled anglers discussed their experiences of the day. Finally Keith had the results collated and was ready to announce them.
It turned out that my weight had been good enough for me to take the win today with Al taking second place and Vic taking third.
I’d just like to say a big Thank You to Keith for organising the match for us, and another Big Thank You to Dinah,Trev, and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, it’s hard to ask for more unless it can be moved closer to where I live.
Trev had come down to start the weigh in on the pumphouse bank and as Dave had the club scales with him Keith started to weigh-in on our side. Kev had indeed had a frustrating day with just 28½lbs to show for his efforts. Dave’s peg had come good in the last couple of hours allowing him to put 126½lbs on the scales. At my peg my fish weighed 177½lbs and Mal was proved to be right when his fish came in at 119½lbs . Simon had quietly put together 74¼lbs from peg 30 while Terry’s fish registered 58½lbs. Finally Keith weighed in with a level 87lbs and with the weigh-in on our side concluded we made our way back to The Pumphouse for the results.
Trev had laid on Tea and Coffee and broken out the biscuits which was very welcome as the assembled anglers discussed their experiences of the day. Finally Keith had the results collated and was ready to announce them.
It turned out that my weight had been good enough for me to take the win today with Al taking second place and Vic taking third.
I’d just like to say a big Thank You to Keith for organising the match for us, and another Big Thank You to Dinah,Trev, and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, it’s hard to ask for more unless it can be moved closer to where I live.
| Position |
Peg
|
Angler
|
Weight
|
| 1st | Peg 34 | Peter Morton | 177lbs 08ozs |
| 2nd | Peg 6 | Al Loader | 147lbs 00ozs |
| 3rd | Peg 2 | Vic Nugent | 146lbs 04ozs |
| 4th | Peg 10 | Josh Blavins | 136lbs 04ozs |
| 5th | Peg 36 | Dave Collier | 126lbs 08ozs |
| 6th | Peg 32 | Mal Talbot | 119lbs 08ozs |
| 7th | Peg 7 | Troy Hillier | 114lbs 12ozs |
| 8th | Peg 1 | Charlie Lancaster | 93lbs 08ozs |
| 9th | Peg 28 | Keith Ashby | 87lbs 00ozs |
| 10th | Peg 30 | Simon Watkins | 74lbs 04ozs |
| 11th | Peg 5 | Mark Quick | 69lbs 08ozs |
| 12th | Peg 8 | Clive Pritchard | 68lbs 12ozs |
| 13th | Peg 3 | Pete Iles | 65lbs 12ozs |
| 14th | Peg 29 | Terry Goff | 58lbs 08ozs |
| 15th | Peg 16 | John Holdsworth | 51lbs 04ozs |
| 16th | Peg 4 | Martin Hucker | 32lbs 00ozs |
| 17th | Peg 38 | Kevin Loveland | 28lbs 08ozs |
| 18th | Peg 12 | Chris Withall | 19lbs 00ozs |
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