Private Lake, East Sussex. September 29th, 2012.

Marsh AC club match.

 A Private Lake in East Sussex is the venue today for the Marsh AC club match. It’s a lovely secluded venue tucked away in the countryside which is capable of throwing up some very good weights if you catch it on a good day. Hopefully today will prove to be one of those days.

I’ll let you know on my return.

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 5	Al Loader		102lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 15	Mick Wright		90lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 13	Dave Collier		60lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 12	Vic Nigent		52lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 6	Clive Pritchard		51lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 8	Keith Ashby		32lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 3	Tony Roberts		31lbs 00ozs
8th=	Peg 7	Peter Morton		24lbs 08ozs
8th=	Peg 10	Simon Watkins		24lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 14	Terry Goff		13lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 1	Kevin Loveland		13lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 9	Ken Walker		8lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 2	Rod Turner		6lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 4	Tony Watkins	Guest	5lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 11	Jim Boase		4lbs 08ozs

Colemans Cottage Fishery. Wood Lake. September 15th, 2012.

Marsh AC club match.

 Essex is the destination for me today with another Marsh AC club match at Colemans Cottage on Wood Lake. It’s a venue that’s always popular with the club members and today is our second visit this year so hopefully it will provide a good days fishing for the lads. I was awake before the alarm went off and soon had the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee drunk before loading up the car before sunrise. I couldn’t help noticing how cold it felt though, the car thermometer registering just 11°C and for the first time in a while I put the car heater on as I set off. It’s a great time to be travelling though with little traffic on the roads and as I cleared the Dartford Tunnel the sun was just rising, promising a lovely day ahead weather wise.

I pulled into the fishery car park at just past 7am and indeed it appeared that I was the first one to arrive. A quick look at the lake revealed that the level was down from our previous visit with the platforms a good 2 feet clear of the water.

 Gerry and Jayne has opened the lodge so the first order of the day was one of Jayne’s large breakfasts  to set me up for the day ahead. Lee was next to arrive, he was guesting today and is always good company so we were soon catching up as breakfast was consumed and the others arrived. I then got a phone call from Terry, his car wouldn’t start so he wouldn’t be joining us today.

With breakfast out of the way Dave soon had the money collected and got the draw out of the way. Peg 27 was to be mine for the match, not one I was familiar with , so gathering up my kit I set off to get acquainted with it.

Arriving at the peg it turned out that I had Dave on peg 25 for company on my right and young Zack to my left on peg 29, with Lee and Chris opposite on pegs 13 and 15.

The carp run to a decent size in Wood Lake and the Barbel are getting bigger all the time so I made up 3 rigs, the first for straight out in front at 5mtrs where I had around 3½ft of water was a 0·4g NG XT Mugger HD on 0·18 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911Xs while the other 2 were for the margin while the other 2 were 0·2g NG Springer Sampson Margin’s on on 0·18 Ultima power match with size 14 Kamasan B911X’s. Feed would be a mix of corn and damp 4mm pellet while hookbaits would be a mix of pellet, corn and some GOT Baits paste.

10am and Dave called the All-In and I fed both margin lines then dropped a banded 6mm over a few loose pellets on the 5mtr line. A few of the lads were into quick fish but I wasn’t one of those and 30 minutes in I still hadn’t had as much as a bite so I fed a full pot of pellet and corn to see if it would tempt anything in. Well after about 5 minutes the swim started fizzing like a jacuzzi but the bites still refused to come . However Tony over on peg 11 had started to put one or two fish together ……

Finally after around 45 minutes the float slowly slid away and a gentle lift saw a pleasing amount of elastic stretching from the top kit, The fish was quickly subdued and slid over the landing net, a common of around 3½lbs to finally get me off the mark.

 Back out but it appeared that it had been a solitary fish as no more bites were forthcoming, a bit more feed and a few more bubbles but no bites despite varying the depth and the baits I just couldn’t buy another bite.

Chris was opposite on peg 15 and I’ve often taken the micky out of him telling him that his kit looks like a throw back to the 70′s but he was definitely having the last laugh on me today as he started to take fish from his peg while I could only look on enviously …

After 90 minutes I noticed a couple of carp moving in the left hand margin, normally I would have left it longer but I was already getting desperate so dropped a banded 8mm in there. The float buried almost straight away and I connected with a big fish that powered off towards Zack, but almost straight away the rig came pinging back with a large scale on the hook.

A look down the other margin with corn looked like being no more productive until the float vanished from sight, yielding a common around the 5lb mark to add to my meagre total. Lee was having no such problems over on peg 13 however though he was surprised at just how hard the fish fought, giving his hydro a good work out ……

Another try on the 5mtr line finally produced a couple of F1′s after around half an hour but again nothing followed them. I could see odd fish constantly moving through the swim in front of me but nothing appeared to want to settle. Was it because the water was down and I was sitting so high up above the water? had the cold nights upset things? I couldn’t work it out today whatever it was.

Chris’s guest Gary Luck was over on peg 13 and it looked as if he was pretty much in the same boat as me, as I could see his swim fizzing but only producing the odd fish for him ……

Back to the margins for me and I finally managed to tempt another couple of carp from the left hand side, but in all honesty I was going nowhere fast. Around 2pm Chrissy arrived with Dave’s two grandchildren Lily and Alfie who both wanted to catch a fish with Grandad. It’s a good job they hadn’t arrived earlier or they would have undoubtedly battered me today.

More in desperation than anything else I took my feeder rod out and decided to give that a go, but after 3 casts that tangled and snapped off, pretty much summing up the match for me in a nutshell. Meanwhile young Alfie was getting well into helping Grandad catch and land his fish  ……

John (tutu) was suffering a similar match to mine over on peg 21 but as the match drew to a close started to find one or two fish from his margin ……

I battled on with the margins and actually managed to get another couple of carp before Dave called the All-Out at 4pm.
 I have to say that I was glad to hear the whistle today, 6 hours for just 8 fish for around 30lbs wasn’t the outcome I’d expected and with hindsight I got it horribly wrong, getting side tracked by fish I could see in the margins despite them not wanting to co-operate today.

It took me a while to get the kit packed away meaning that I didn’t follow the Weigh-In round as usual and when it got round to me Keith was leading with 118lbs from peg 3 from Tony with 88lbs. Dave with Lily and Alfie’s help had 85½lbs. My fish weighed a level 30 lbs and Zack had 54½lbs leaving me like a bit of cod “battered both sides. The Weigh-In moved on at pace as it does at Colemans and I made my way back to the car park with my kit and loaded it away.

Back at the lodge for the results and Jean had asked Jayne to lay on a buffet complete with Birthday Cake ……

…for Kevin’s Birthday (which was on Sunday) and I have to say it offered the best bites of the day as far as I was concerned.

Dave announced the results after everyone had tucked in and the winner today was Al with a fine 139lbs from peg 35. Keith was second with 118lbs and regained the MK Nugget from Mick and Tony was 3rd on the day.

The next club match is at The Private Lake in East Sussex in a couple of weeks time, but before that next Saturday is the penultimate round of The Jinx Series at Rolf’s Lake which will hopefully give me the chance to get this match out of my system.

	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 35	Al Loader		139lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 3	Keith Ashby		118lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 11	Tony Roberts		88lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 25	Dave Collier		85lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 13	Lee Rose	Guest	75lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 37	Clive Pritchard		72lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 23	Mick Wright		71lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 33	Simon Watkins		65lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 19	Jim Boase		57lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 29	Zack Johnson		54lbs 08ozs
11th=	Peg 15	Chris Withall		54lbs 00ozs
11th=	Peg 9	Kevin Loveland		54lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 39	Eddie Dobson		46lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 5	Graham Manning		36lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 21	John Holdsworth		31lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 27	Peter Morton		30lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 7	Martin Hucker		29lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 1	Ron Mannister		21lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 25	Lily & Alfie Bondeau	Guests	18lbs 08ozs
20th	Peg 17	Gary Luck	Guest	15lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 31	Tony Watkins	Guest	14lbs 00ozs



Colemans Cottage Fishery. Wood Lake. July 7th, 2012

Marsh AC club match.

Well it’s off to Essex for me today for another Marsh AC club match at Colemans Cottage on Wood Lake. That first glance out of the window didn’t look too promising though there was a bit of sun among the clouds but the forecast wasn’t that good for the day ahead. Anyway with the two cats fed and the kit loaded up it was time to go. Through the Dartford Tunnel and down the A12 proved to be straightforward and I arrived around at 7·30am to find Simon just returning from a walk round the lake with his brother Tony who had come along as a guest today.

First things first and it was into the clubhouse for one of Colemans Big Breakfasts, a great way to fortify yourself for the day ahead.

Terry and Rod were already tucking into theirs and slowly but surely the rest arrived and the banter started to flow. A few were concerned that the weather may have unsettled the fish making for patchy sport, but I was fairly sure that given the quality of the venue most would have a decent days sport. Chairman Dave had daughter Chrissy along for company today and fishing as a guest, she’s not a bad angler and having had a bit of coaching from Tommy Pickering at Lindholme recently there were a few that were worrying about the possibility of being CHRISSIED today.

By 8·45am it was time for the draw and having dipped my hand in I found peg 12 was to be mine for the match, just a couple away from the one I’d had in the corresponding match last year.

With the gear collected I made my way to my peg, Al was on peg 6 a strongly favoured peg and he would be looking to make it five wins out of five on this years club matches. With just an hour to set up it was make your mind up time as there are so many possibilities on the pegs with the islands running down the centre, The carp in woods run to a good size and the barbel keep growing and fight like hell. I opted for just 3 pole lines. so the rigs would be similar to those I use at Rolfs to take any possible wear and tear. One straight out in front at around 6mtrs where I had around 5 feet of water, one at the end of the bush to my left with around 4 feet of depth and the final one for the right hand margin which had 18 inches of water close in. All the rigs were freshly tied and made up with NG XT Mugger HD’s in sizes 0·3gm and 0·4gm on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X’s. Bait for today was a mix of 4 and 6mm pellet for feed along with some 6 and 8mm pellets for banding along with some corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

The All-In was called at 10am and I fed a large pot of mixed pellets with a few grains of corn at 6mtrs, a handful at the end of the bush and another handful down the margin. I banded a 6mm and shipped out to 6mtrs where some bubbles were already coming up and was hopeful of some quick action. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be the wind had picked up a bit and was blowing into me and bringing with it the odd shower (no surprise there then) but I was just getting little digs and dips on the float and only managed to connect with a couple of small roach that I bumped off. despite swapping through the hook baits I couldn’t tempt a thing and while nobody that I could see had got off to a flyer Tony had taken a couple of carp as had Graham next to me on peg 11.

After half an hour of total frustration I gave it up as a bad job and swapped over to target the end of the bush with a banded 8mm. Still a bit slow but the float finally buried and a lift saw plenty of elastic stream from the top kit as the fish powered off and after a minute the culprit popped up by my nets, a barbel of around 3lbs. Not the expected carp but very welcome none the less to get me off the mark. Jean had also brought me a mug of coffee so things were starting to look up despite the showers. A couple of small carp followed and an F1 before yet another barbel put in an appearance and it was these that kept me ticking over for the next couple of hours.

 I could hear a bit of banter between Kevin and Al that suggested that Al was catching reasonably well on peg 6 but from what I could see Tony opposite on peg 29 had made the best start but nobody seemed to be heading off into the distance, though …….

By about 12·30 I got a shout to bring my mug round to Jean if I wanted another cup off coffee and with sport remaining slow took the opportunity to fill in the bush and margin and take a stroll with my camera.

Terry was still tucked away under his brolly and didn’t look like he was having a particularly good time of it despite having the fun of watching Dave trying his best to get the better of Chrissy on the opposite bank ……

A quick chat with Al revealed that he was struggling though it didn’t look like it to me when he shipped out, gave a couple of taps and he shipped back with an F1 attached that was soon netted ……

Mick was being a bit cagey as to just how well he was doing on peg 2, but it was obvious that he fancied his chances of taking home the Milton Keynes Nugget today. As I got to the car park I stopped to take a picture looking down the lake so that those reading this who aren’t familiar with Colemans can get some idea of Wood Lake……

Carrying on round Chris’s guest Gary Luck on peg 38 was playing a bream and soon had it safely in the net …….

I soon reached Jean and collected a fresh mug of coffee, while Kevin seemed to be relatively happy with the way his match was progressing. Chrissy on peg 32 had just dropped her rig in short of the bush to her left to see if she could tempt something.

While Dad Dave next up on peg 31 seemed to be targeting silvers fishing maggot down his left hand margin, and although he declared himself confident of being ahead of his daughter at that point, it looked like the actions of a desperate man to me. Tony seemed to be going along steadily with his favourite method, fishing up in the water.

Keith wasn’t looking to happy with his lot and was struggling to get to grips with peg 25, though he probably had one eye on how fellow GOT Bait angler Vic was doing over on peg 17……

Tony Watkins on peg 22 seemed quite happy taking carp on the method feeder, which was more than could be said for his brother Simon on peg 20 who was really struggling to get a bite from anywhere in his peg ……

Keith Powell was on peg 18 and had just started to have a look down his right hand margin as he’d started to see signs of fish there ……

Vic was trying hard to sort his peg out but reckoned it wasn’t really happening for him today and he would be lucky if he had 30lbs to show for his efforts so far. Ken on peg 14 was fishing his usual relaxed match on the waggler and was into a carp as I passed by……

When I returned to my peg Graham was catching from his margin, but he had the advantage of a reed bed there and I could see fish there. I flicked some more feed to the edge of the bush and the margin, but with no sign of fish in my margin targeted the end of the bush first off. The rest seemed to have done the trick as a couple of minutes in the float buried as a carp picked up the bait and after a spirited tussle was soon in the net.

 It wasn’t fast and furious but I started to pick up regular fish for around an hour. All the while I was feeding the margin and with an hour and a half to go I finally saw a couple of tail patterns there. First put in with a banded 8mm produced a positive bite and another barbel of around 3lbs, but from then on it was carp all the way. A good common had me thinking I was back at Rolfs, giving a really good account of itself and it was obvious why when I finally slid the net under a big common that must have been close to 15lbs which was to be my best fish of the day. This was followed by a stunning Ghostie of around 10lbs and a few smaller fish.

Graham was having trouble connecting with bites and I suggested that he changed to 8mm pellet and let him have some to try and it seemed to do the trick for him in the last hour. I finished with another five carp including another double before Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm. Shouts of Fish-On came from Graham and Chrissy and I couldn’t help wondering if Chrissy had done enough to beat her Dad……

The gear was soon packed away and I was pretty confident I had around a ‘Ton’ in the nets despite having lost track of just what was in them at the end. I soon had my gear back in the car and had a chat with Gerry before following the Weigh-In Round.

 Mick set a good target with a first weight of exactly 100lbs followed by John with 84½lbs. Next up was Rod with 59½lbs a new PB match weight. Al had a storming end to the match getting decent carp lined up in the margin on paste for 194lbs. Jimmy had 32½lbs and Terry 43½lbs. Graham put 84½lbs on the scales while my fish came to 113lbs. Ken had 80½lbs another PB match weight and Roger 29lbs. Vic had managed 64½lbs. Keith Powell weighed 83lbs while Simon’s meagre 24lbs left the bragging right firmly with brother Tony who also recorded a new match PB of 70lbs. Keith’s 65½ meant he was waving farewell to the MK Nugget today. Jim’s 53lbs and Martin’s 45lbs brought us round to Tony with an excellent 126lbs. Next up was Chairman Dave with a weight of 67½lbs, but he didn’t look to confident, and rightly so when Chrissy put a new PB match weight of 93lbs on the scales. Sympathy for Dave? ………………. No Chance, it was like a pack of hounds with a 3 legged fox ………… Merciless. Kev was next with 62lbs followed by Zack with 79lbs while Chris was the fifth angler to claim a new PB match weight today with 118lbs. Gary had 28lbs while Ron was last to weigh with 14lbs.

Back to the clubhouse for drinks and sausage rolls while Dave worked out the results. Todays winner was Al (his fifth on the trot) with Tony taking second place and Chris third.
The sections today went to Al, Myself, Keith Powell, Tony and Chris.

Next up for the club is Rockells in two weeks time. Can Al make it six in a row or will someone else get a look in? Time will tell.

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 6	Al Loader		194lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 29	Tony Roberts		126lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 37	Chris Withall		118lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 12	Peter Morton		113lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 2	Mick Wright		100lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 32	Christine Collier	Guest	93lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 11	Graham Manning		85lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 3	John Holdsworth		84lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 18	Keith Powell	Guest	83lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 14	Ken Walker		80lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 35	Zack Johnson		79lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 22	Tony Watkins	Guest	70lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 31	Dave Collier		67lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 25	Keith Ashby		65lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 17	Vic Nugent		64lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 34	Kevin Loveland		62lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 5	Rod Turner		59lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 26	Jim Boase		53lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 28	Martin Hucker		45lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 9	Terry Goff		43lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 8	Jimmy Etherington	Guest	32lbs 08ozs
22nd	Peg 15	Roger Noakes		29lbs 00ozs
23rd	Peg 38	Gary Luck	Guest	28lbs 08ozs
24th	Peg 20	Simon Watkins		24lbs 00ozs
25th	Peg 40	Ron Mannister		14lbs 00ozs