Colemans Cottage Fishery. Pathfield Lake. August 14th, 2010.

Marsh AC club match.

It’s off to Essex for me today to Colemans Cottage to fish just my 4th club match of the year. Hopefully it’ll be a decent day and everyone will catch a few . However I nearly didn’t make it today having woken at 1·30am and been violently sick for no apparent reason. I finally got back to sleep around 3am, so only got about 3 hours sleep before the alarm went off. A grey drizzly day wasn’t the greatest incentive, but I figured I would probably feel better on the bank out in the fresh air.

I arrived at the fishery just after 8am and decided a small breakfast was in order to check out the state of my stomach. Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw underway. Now normally the low numbers are the favourite pegs on Pathfield Lake, so you can imagine my delight at drawing peg 26 down on the shallow newer part of the lake. Dave of course had his usual low draw and I’m sure I detected a little smirk when he recorded my draw on the sheet.

So out to collect my nets and a stroll down to take a look at my peg, an end peg effectively as peg 25 was empty today and there seemed to be a few fish feeding, so back to the car park to collect my gear and stroll back down to the peg. I’ve got Kevin for company today on peg 28 so I should be good for a mid match cup of coffee courtesy of Jean.

 It’s probably 13mtrs to the island, and the targets today are Carp, Mirrors and Commons + a decent head of recently stocked F1′s along with silvers which include Barbel. Now I said it was shallow but even I was surprised when an initial plumb up revealed a maximum of 15 inches down the track at around 5mtrs and just 12 inches in the margins. Now given that there are some decent carp present and they tend to take off like bullets in such shallow water I set up a couple of modified Rolf’s rigs, and these were Malman Adam 4×10′s on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hooks adjusted to suit + a Malman MTD2 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 16 QM1 hook for shallow. I also set up a 4X12 Middy Paste Float, it’s a really strong line through design made up on ·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a Drennan size 12 Carp Method hook to fish paste in both margins. Bait was just 6 and 8mm hard pellet, 6mm GOT Baits Expanders and GOT Baits Atomic Paste.

So at 10am Dave signalled the All-In, a hand ful of pellet onto the 5mtr line and a pinch into each margin. The plan was to concentrate on the 5mtr line and regularly flick pellet into the margins, but not to touch them till a tail pattern showed. Out to the 5mtr line which was already bubbling and fizzing with a 6mm expander produced an instant bite, a small F1 which was immediately followed by it’s twin, not quite what I was hoping for, but I was off the mark.


I swapped to a banded 8mm in the hope of attracting something slightly larger, but all I got for my trouble was a couple of foul hookers which tore off at a rate of knots before shedding the hook. A change to banded 6mm produced a series of frustrating little digs at the float until it finally buried and I connected with a feisty Common of around 3lbs which battled all the way to the net.


 This seemed to set the pattern for the next 3 hours, I wasn’t setting the place alight with maybe 30lbs in the net, but nobody else was apparently from what I could see and had gathered from a couple of anglers that were strolling around, though Chris Newton on peg 23 reported having had around a dozen fish ……

…… and I’d noticed that Chris Withall had strolled down from peg 20 to collect a second carp net quite early on.

Around half way through I spotted a tail pattern in the left hand margin and soon had a couple of better Commons of around 5lbs a piece safely in the net. Clive appeared at this point and I had another of around 3lbs which he captured on camera before returning to his peg……

  Unfortunately the next fish proved to be a foul hooker which absolutely trashed the margin before shedding the hook.
Rather than risk wrecking it further I decided to re-feed both margins with a couple of handfuls of pellet and take a stroll with the camera to allow it to settle.

Graham was on peg 30 which had plenty of marginal cover along with fish obviously feeding, but he was having a bit of a struggle trying to tempt them to take a bait……

 Martin opposite seemed pretty quiet with what looked like a feeder rod set up to try and tempt a few……

 Next was Keith on peg 33, who I noticed already had a second carp net in, he was pretty cagey about it though reckoning that it was empty at that point, but he’s a damn good angler and I couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t telling porkies ……

 Tony on peg 36 hadn’t broken any BeastMaster sections, but said that he was struggling to get to grips with things today……

 My last port of call was to Clive who was on peg 3 today. He had an overflow pipe trickling water into his left hand margin, and it was here that he was fishing, and judging by the tail patterns the fish were there too ……

 He said that he was being plagued by foul hookers though which was really frustrating him, but as I went to return to my peg he hooked and landed a lively pearl white Ghostie  ……

 As I made my way back down the bank I noticed Tony was also into a Ghostie himself, this one a lovely brassy flanked fish ……

 So it was starting to look that a few people were sandbagging with their tales of struggle, and with Keith also sliding a Carp over the landing net as I passed him, I knew that I was going to need a decent final couple of hours……

 Ever the optimist I grabbed a second carp net for myself as I returned to my peg and staked it out on my return. Jean supplied a welcome cup of coffee as I made my mind up to ignore the 5mtr line and just fish paste in the margin for the remainder. It was slow at first with a few hesitant bites that I missed, but I soon got into a rhythm feeding and fishing both margins close to my nets……

…….. taking a fish from either side before swapping over to avoid to much disturbance, the odd foul hooker disturbed this, but on the whole the last hour and a half saw my catch rate increase nicely.

By the time Dave called the all out at 4pm, I was confident that I had high double figures, but had lost track a bit having mislaid my clicker, but I was kicking myself a bit for not having fished the paste sooner and hoping that it hadn’t cost me to badly.

With the gear back in the car, the inquests started, Keith was owning up to 60-70ish as was Clive, all would be revealed by the scales. Clive soon set the mark with 77½lbs which he seemed reasonably pleased with, but in general the low numbers hadn’t fished as well as expected today with Dave Colliers’s 66lbs being the next best. Indeed it wasn’t till we got to peg 17 that we saw another weight to overtake Clive’s, Ken Walker following up his 2nd place on the previous club match at Blasford Hill with a fine 80½lbs today, which would bring him a similar result. Chris Withall on peg 20 had a busy day, his 77½lbs equalling Clive’s weight. Round to my peg and I was honestly surprised when my weight was called at a level 131lbs which would prove to be the best of the day. The last weigh of note was Keith’s at 78½lbs which gave him 3rd overall, just pipping Clive and Chris.

The nice bit about Colemans is going back to the clubhouse for the results and being able to get a cuppa and a bite to eat while Dave sorted the results and dished out the section pools, before we said our farewells.
 

The next club match is at Rockells Farm which is always one to look forward to, but before that I’m back at Rolfs Lake next Saturday for the final Jinx Match of the year.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	26	Peter Morton	131lbs 00ozs
2nd	17	Ken Walker	80lbs 08ozs
3rd	33	Keith Ashby	78lbs 08ozs
4th=	3	Clive Pritchard	77lbs 08ozs
4th=	20	Chris Withall	77lbs 08ozs
6th	8	Dave Collier	66lbs 00ozs
7th	6	Terry Goff	55lbs 00ozs
8th	5	Mick Wright            (guest)	51lbs 08ozs
9th	30	Graham Manning	51lbs 00ozs
10th	36	Tony Roberts	50lbs 00ozs
11th	9	Nick Bondeau           (guest)	38lbs 08ozs
12th	11	Colin Sharrard	36lbs 00ozs
13th	22	Judy Hermite	35lbs 08ozs
14th	28	Kevin Loveland	32lbs 08ozs
15th	35	Jimmy Etherington   (guest)	28lbs 08ozs
16th	23	Chris Newton           (guest)	26lbs 08ozs
17th	2	John Holdsworth	24lbs 08ozs
18th	16	Simon Watkins	23lbs 08ozs
19th	19	Martin Hucker	20lbs 00ozs
20th	13	Zak Johnson	19lbs 00ozs
21st	14	Rod Turner	18lbs 00ozs
22nd	7	Eddy Dobson	13lbs 00ozs
23rd	32	Ron Mannister	9lbs 00ozs

Colemans Cottage Fishery. Pathfield Lake. August 15th, 2009.

Marsh AC club match.

Today It’s down to Colemans Cottage with Marsh AC for a club match on Pathfield Lake. It’s the second time this year that the club have visited the fishery for a club match, and there should be 16 of us fishing, including guests today. I missed the seasons first club match here in May due to work, though as it transpired it fished quite hard then , so I didn’t really miss much. Hopefully we’ll have a better day today, though it wasn’t the best of starts, as some idiot had crashed his Merc at the top of my road this morning, meaning that I left a bit late for the trip down. It was pretty overcast as I drove into the car park just after 8·15am and a fair old breeze blowing, which can effect the lake as it’s quite shallow for the most part. However we had the whole lake booked and that should allow everyone a bit of space to draw a few fish.
Anyway first things first and into the fishery lodge for breakfast. Most were already tucking in. Keith Ashby was a guest again and today he’d brought fellow GOT Baits angler, Pete Thompson with him. It was great to see Pete, as he’s a class angler with a particularly dry sense of humour. All to soon Dave was after our money and the draw was underway just as my breakfast arrived. Anyway into the hat and it’s peg 6 for me today (much to Dave’s disgust as it’s a favourite peg of his)

Breakfast finished and it’s back to the car park to collect my gear and the fishery supplied nets then off to my peg. It seems Clive is on peg 2 and Pete Thompson is on peg 4, while Martin and Graham were right in the bay to my left on pegs 7 and 8 with Colin opposite on peg 9.

Looking at the peg, the obvious feature is the point of the island opposite, but with the wind gusting from right to left it would be awkward to say the least so rig wise it was decision time ……

I settled on a 4X12 Malman Adam on 0·16 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook and a duplicate rig but with a 4X16 Adam should the wind require it. I also set up a rig with one of the new Malman Slappers, again on 0·16 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook for up in the water, that could also double up for the margins, though with so much vegetation on both sides, both my margin swims were very limited. Indeed I decided that my main line of attack would be at 8mtrs down the track where I had around 2½ft of water. Everyone I’d spoken to about Pathfield had told me that it was pellet & corn, so that was the plan of attack today.

So with everything set Clive arrived complete with camera for a chat and Pete put in an appearance as well. Soon it was 10am and a blast on the whistle from Dave signalled the All-In. With a large pot of pellet and corn down the track and some pellet into both margins I picked up the 4X12 rig, hooked on a kernel of corn and shipped out to 8mtrs. There were already signs of fish with a few bubbles appearing over the fed area. 10 minutes later and the anticipation had faded a little, there were a few Carp cruising around but they appeared quite uninterested and I’d only had a couple of sharp taps on the float that I couldn’t connect with. Banded pellet, expanders and corn were all alternated, but at the end of the first hour all I had to show for my efforts were 3 small Barbel and a couple of Roach that might have scraped 1lb in total.


 I’d heard Pete take a couple of fish (and curse the fishery landing nets) but from what little I could see nobody was bagging up. The wind wasn’t helping but at least it had blown the clouds away and bright sunshine was warming things up nicely, but after another 15 minutes biteless I dumped another 2 large pots of pellet and corn on the 8mtr line to try and kick start things and took a stroll with the camera. Pete was fishing corn down his left hand margin and was admitting to around 15lbs in the net……

Clive was taking a similar approach and it had already produced a few Carp for him, and he was hoping that things would improve as the match wore on ……

and I could see Terry on the next peg, and while he was fishing down the margins as well he looked as if he was having a bit of trouble with his presentation due to the wind……

Anyway, with others catching I decided to get back and see if I could improve on my performance so far. As I made my way back someone called out my name and it turned out it was Scott(scottymatch) who follows this Blog and his partner who had come down to introduce themselves, and it was a nice surprise to meet them both. After a brief chat they left and I settled back in to get on with things. Second put in with corn and the float slid slowly away and a couple of feet of elastic indicated something with a bit of weight at last. A small Mirror of around 2lbs, and very welcome. It proved to be a bit of a false dawn however as just a solitary tiny Barbel followed with nearly 2 hours of the match gone.

I’d noticed that Colin was starting to pick up a few fish, while Martin and Graham were fairing no better than me, despite being on what looked like a couple of pegs to die for, especially with the wind blowing into them. Martin had managed to nick a couple of fish on the feeder, but Graham appeared to be having a real grueller and was struggling to even get a bite……

Dave strolled round and stopped to see how I was doing and reckoned that although most were catching a few, nobody was really going well where he was, though Tony had been catching steadily. I then noticed what I was sure was a tail pattern just past the end of my keepnets. Decision Time!!! I had some GOT Atomic paste in my carryall, and decided to make it up. With that done I selected a small Malman SC Paste float and rigged it up on 0·18 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless. Plumbing up I found 2 ft at 3mtrs, so with the rig set I flicked a few pellets out and potted the 1st bit of paste in. The rig settled and 30 seconds later a couple of dips were followed by the float sliding steadily away and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net. That was the start of the improvement for me, nothing spectacular, but at last I started to put fish in the net on a regular basis.

Unfortunately I started having a bit of trouble with foul hooked fish. Now I wasn’t feeding heavily, just the odd pinch of pellets that were pretty well spread as I didn’t want to concentrate to many fish in to small an area, but it was stopping me from finding any sort of rhythm, and with just around 1½ hours remaining I was looking for a decent finish to the match. Checking on my clicker I realised that I’d missed a few fish off and didn’t really know just what I had in the net.


Now Colemans operates a weight limit (70lbs per net) and I was hopeful that I’d exceed that by the end of the match so I decided to go and get a 2nd carp net and put it in to be on the safe side. I was pretty careful putting it in, conscious that I didn’t want to disturb the paste line to much. Not to worry though , first put in after sorting the nets and a decent Mirror of around 5lbs obliged, so no harm done.

So with an hour to go I was set, but how to avoid the foul hookers? I added 3 inches of depth to the rig and fixed a no1 shot 3 inches from the hook in an attempt to get round the problem. Colin by now was catching well and I knew it would be close between us at the end……

The adjustment to the rig had the desired effect and I was soon putting a much better run of fish regularly in the net, In fact I only suffered 1 more foul hooker in the last hour, and the swim was getting stronger and stronger when Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm. I felt reasonably happy with my match at the end, it was just a shame that I hadn’t sorted things out earlier. I felt that I’d probably got around 80lbs to show for my efforts, but couldn’t help feeling that the peg would have been good for a ‘Ton+’ if I’d sorted it earlier.

So with the kit packed away and back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In. Now I have to say that Colemans probably has the most efficient system for weighing in that I’ve seen at a fishery in some time.

Basically as the picture above shows, they have quad bikes with trailers that drive round. On the back of the trailer is a bar that supports the scales, along with a weighing container and carp mat. It drives round to the pegs, fish are transferred to the container weighed and returned and the fishery nets collected in the trailer. Fast, efficient and with minimal strain for the fish. The chat suggested that Tony had had a decent day round on the other side of the lake, and Keith was keeping things pretty close to his chest, hinting that he probably had 50lbs+.


Clive kicked things off from peg 2 and put 53½lbs on the scales . Pete had obviously had a decent day on peg 4 and took the lead with a fine 95lbs. I was quite pleased and surprised to edge him out though when the scales recorded 96½lbs for my fish. That lead was short lived however as Colin put 97lbs on the scales to edge me out of it. Onward we went with the next weight of note being Tony’s who finally put 86lbs on the scales.

We then arrived at Keith’s peg!!! What can be said? somehow his 50lbs+ morphed into 142½lbs !!!! An excellent weight given that his peg wasn’t one of the most fancied (Be careful if you’re standing besides Keith though, because if he turns round quickly he could have your eye out with his nose)

So with the Weigh-In completed it was back to the patio outside the fishery lodge where winnings were dispensed by Dave, and tea, coffee and bread pudding along with a load of banter brought yet another Marsh club match to a close. Another excellent day out at a decent fishery in good company, it doesn’t get much better really.

Next Saturday I’m down at Monk Lakes for the Southern Intersite match where I’m fishing for the Maggotdrowning.com team. Vince is our Captain and I’ll be looking to mug him and get one of my Golden Nuggets back. Will I manage it? you can find out here.
 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 22	Keith Ashby       (guest)	142lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 9	Colin Sharrard	97lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 6	Peter Morton	96lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 4	Pete Thompson    (guest)	95lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 17	Tony Roberts	86lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 13	Simon Watkins	64lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 15	Dave Collier	64lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 2	Clive Pritchard   (guest)	53lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 36	Terry Goff	43lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 30	Al Loader           (guest)	38lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 27	Rod Turner	30lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 32	John Holdsworth	19lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 7	Martin Hucker	11lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 19	Zack Johnson	8lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 34	Ken Walker	6lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 8	Graham Manning	4lbs 00ozs

 

Colemans Cottage Fishery. Pathfield Lake. September 12th, 2008.

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday saw me traveling down to Witham in Essex for a Marsh AC club match on Pathfield Lake at Colemans Cottage Fishery. I’d been looking forward to this match as I’d never visited the fishery before, but had heard good things about it. As usual I’d arranged to meet up with Dave and follow him down and by 7am we were on the road. Blue skies and sunshine held the promise of a decent day, though this was replaced by dull grey skies as we exited the Dartford Tunnel, but a trouble free trip saw us pulling into the fishery car park around 8am. Into the fishery lodge and we were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast as Dave took the monies and organised the draw.

There were 19 of us present including 4 guests so with the draw done it was back to the car park to sort the kit for the day ahead, and collect our keepnets and landing nets which are supplied by the fishery before we made our way to our pegs….

It had been interesting to watch peoples reactions to the pegs they’d drawn, Dave had been more than happy with drawing peg 6, a peg he’d fished on previous visits, and judging by his reaction peg 11 which I’d drawn wasn’t bad either. Thank heavens for my barrow as peg 11 appeared to be just about as far away from the car park as it was possible to get.

Setting up it didn’t look to bad, though there was a bit of green scum on the surface, but with a bit of an indent on the opposite bank and a few fish moving things were looking promising though the water level looked like it was about a foot down on its usual height.

Tackle-wise I set up a couple of Mk3 Malman self cocking paste floats on 0·16 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. one to fish the 18 inches of water in the margins and the other for the 4 feet that seemed to be consistent from 3mtrs out to 11mtrs, and I set up a Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match to fish pellet and corn at 6 and 10 mtrs as well as a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match that would double up as a shallow rig and margin rig for pellet and corn. I also set up a pellet feeder and pellet waggler for right across. Bait was sweetcorn, pellet and GOT Atomic paste with 6mm hard pellet for feed.

10am and Dave called the All-in and I shipped out 2 large pots of pellet and sweetcorn onto a line at 10mtrs and 5mtrs and fed some pellet down both margins. To give those lines a chance to settle I started off on the pellet feeder across, but despite signs of fish moving about didn’t get a touch in the 1st half hour. Out with the pole onto the 10mtr line but despite switching baits and working the rigs couldn’t buy a bite there either. A look on the pellet waggler was no more productive either and I was starting to worry. Jim Etherington to my right on peg 9 had managed 3 or 4 Carp by now but from what I could see others were struggling. Judy on peg 8 seemed to be in the same boat as me…………

……. and Terry on peg 7 appeared to have had just a single fish…………

About 2 hours in my float finally dipped, but rather than the elastic coming out with a Carp on the other end a small hand sized Skimmer flapped to the top, but was gratefully netted all the same. However with nearly 3 hours gone nothing had joined it. In desperation I filled it in at around 5mtrs pumped some expanders to try as a change bait, grabbed the camera and set off for a stroll looking for a bit of inspiration. Chris on peg 15 was admitting to a few silvers and 3 or 4 Carp and was soon sliding another into the net…………

Tony on peg 17 appeared to be struggling to get to grips with his peg, while Eddie down on peg 23 was handicapped by the painful effects of a slipped disc but was putting a few fish together ……

……… as was Jim Boase almost opposite on peg 26………

Looking across to Wood Lake where there was an open being fished, I could see Browning’s Dave Vincent but he didn’t appear to be having much more luck than us, despite knowing the fishery really well ………

Al on peg 28 was admitting to around 20lbs and with fish bubbling away down the track in front of him seemed to be firmly in the pound seats ………………

Meanwhile Paul on peg 34 was in danger of losing what little hair he had left trying to connect with bites that he was getting fishing the lead tight across to the island, mind you he had come to the match straight from a night shift so probably wasn’t at his best, though it’s always hard to tell with Paul ………

Further along Clive had decided to target his margin and with 5 Carp in the net was hoping to crack on in the later stages ……

Dave up on peg 6 was struggling at this stage too with just 3 Chub and a Crucian, but as I passed Terry on peg 7 he was firmly attached to a rather angry Carp that he’d hooked into the tail, well not so firmly as it turned out as it departed rather abruptly without gracing the landing net after charging round most of Terry’s swim …………

Back at my peg and I noticed a few bubbles coming up on the 5mtr line, so an expander was slipped onto the hook and the rig shipped out. Within 10 seconds the float slid away and a firm lift met with a pleasing resistance and a Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net. Back out and almost straight away I was rewarded with another Carp, this time a Mirror of around 4½lbs. Unfortunately I also suffered from a number of foul hooked fish which with the shallow water tended to charge around like lunatics disturbing the swim preventing me from building up any sort of rhythm though I did manage to keep catching reasonably regularly through to the end when Dave called the All-out at 4pm.

The weigh-in at Colemans is a delight to watch as a bailiff comes round with a quad towing a trailer. The scales are attached to the trailer so that the fish are transferred to the weigh sling weighed and returned with the minimum of fuss and the fisheries nets collected all in one go. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fish weighed 55lbs, the second best weight at that point behind Jim Etherington’s 66½lbs which contained a right lump of 15lbs. Chris put 64lbs on the scales but it was Al who took the honours on the day with a fine net of fish weighing 88lbs, while Clive took 2nd place with a level 70lbs.

Chatting with Dave Vincent afterwards in the car park it was plain that the Open on Wood Lake hadn’t fish much better with some very good anglers struggling on the day. Back at the fishery lodge for a post match drink and the inquest was conducted. 3 guests had filled the top 3 spots, but all the club members seemed to have enjoyed the day even if the fishing had proved to be harder than expected.

 It’s a cracking fishery and one I’d happily recommend that you pay a visit to if you’re in the area. I know that I’ll definitely be going back to it in the future.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 28	Alan Loader           (Guest)	88lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 36	Clive Pritchard       (Guest)	70lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 9	Jim Etherington     (Guest)	66lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 15	Chris Withall	64lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 11	Peter Morton	55lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 17	Tony Roberts	53lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 4	John Holdsworth	40lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 5	Dave Collier	36lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 7	Terry Goff	35lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 23	Eddie Dobson	32lbs 00ozs
11th=	Peg 21	Bob Hucker	24lbs 00ozs
11th=	Peg 32	Graham Manning	24lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 26	Jim Boase	23lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 19	Martin Hucker	15lbs 00ozs
15th=	Peg 8	Judy Hermite	13lbs 00ozs
15th=	Peg 30	Ron Mannister	13lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 12	Mike Etherington   (Guest)	7lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 3	Zack Johnson	6lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 34	Paul East	DNW

Next up for me is the final match of this year’s Jinx Series at Rolf’s Lake next Saturday.