Framfield Fishery. Spring Lake. March 24th, 2008.

“Anyone coming out to play Easter Monday?” That was the perfectly innocent post put up by Pete Midgley on the Maggotdrowning Forum that resulted in this little episode. Loading up the car, a sunny day appeared to be in the offing and with just a light frost I felt we could be in for a decent day.

A smooth traffic free drive of 40 miles down to Uckfield in East Sussex even allowed me to stop off at McDonalds for a bit of breakfast, where I found Pete Thatcher, Martyn Dwayne and Mark Hathaway too, meaning I pulled into the fishery at around 8·20am. Worryingly the car thermometer still only said just 1°C though.

Today was the 1st time that I’d been down to Framfield since March 2005, so I really didn’t have a clue what to expect. Anyway into the draw bag and peg 64 stuck to my hand. They say that a good indication of how well you’ve drawn is how many keepnets they hand you. I was given just the one while Kevin, who had drawn 63 and a few others were given two, so I figured I may have drawn out of the favoured areas.

As I settled into 64 I was faced with probably 17½mtrs to the island which had seen some vigorous pruning since the last time I’d seen it. Having hurt my ribs at work the previous week long pole was out of the question, so I set up for around a comfortable 8mtrs and found a reasonably level 3ft all over, and with it being just a couple of inches shallower in the margins 1 rig covered all. I also set up a waggler to fish across if need be. Bait was simply sweetcorn to be fished over the fisheries own pellets with a few expanders as a change bait.

To my left I had Bill G for company on peg 65, so a decent bit of banter was guaranteed if nothing else.

10am and after a warming cup of coffee fortified with a drop of Bushmills generously provided by Kevin, I potted in some pellet and sweetcorn at 8mtrs and fed some pellet by the dead rushes in both margins for later. Straight out to 8mtrs and after 20 mins the 1st bite of the day resulted in a nice Common Carp of around 3lbs gracing the net. I just kept topping up the feed with a T-pot containing a dozen pellets and 3-4 bits of corn at regular intervals, with the same being fed by hand into the margin swims.

After a couple of hours I’d managed 6 Carp which had been matched by Bill, though I felt my fish had been a little bigger. Weather wise the day had deteriorated with a mix of rain sleet and snow coupled with the wind making things very cold and unpleasant.

Of course as with all things Maggotdrowning there had to be some Pee taking somewhere along the line and todays target was Pete Midgley, who in the run up to the day had posted……“I think I would still beat Ryan if I had a bit of bamboo, a length of rope and a lump of cheese.”

So of course Bill G hadn’t been able to resist producing the relevant bit of Preston Imitations kit.

Pete however took it all in the spirit that was meant and even had the good grace to pose for the obligatory photo.

Meanwhile word was circulating Mark Hathaway and Martyn Dwayne were doing relatively well with Stephen Tanner putting a few together from the supposed flyer.

Kevin had changed over to a set up incorporating a maggot feeder and polaris float and was soon into a run of Carp as he cast into the gap between the islands. Unfortunately he hooked up on the island after a while losing his float in the process. Not having another he reverted to a straight maggot feeder, but for some reason this didn’t seem to be so productive and he reverted to the pole.

Quite a few were struggling for even a bite however and people were ringing the changes in an attempt to buy a bite. Colin may have taken things a shade to far however, disguising himself as a bush in attempt to draw fish into his margin swim.

Bill meantime had gone for a stroll to stop himself from seizing up and by the time he returned it had allowed me to sneak a couple of fish ahead of him.With about an hour to go things had started to pick up with Tony Roberts finally getting amongst a few on the maggot feeder hard across to the island, Colin getting a couple of decent Perch as reward for his efforts and even Trevor Little getting a couple although he was to tip back without weighing in.

I managed to tempt 5 more Carp from down the edge in the last hour, though a lump snagging me in the reeds in the last 10 minutes was to cost me at the death.

At last 3·30pm rolled round and the all out, quickly followed by the weigh-in. Mark Hathaway leading with a very decent weight on the day of 55lbs 2ozs followed by Stephen Tanner on 48lbs 12ozs, a very creditable effort as it was his first match. As the scales reached me I thought I might scrape 40lbs, so it was a pleasant surprise when they recorded 54lbs 8ozs putting me into 2nd place, though it left me ruing that lost fish.

So that was it, just leaving the 14 anglers to pack up and get home to thaw out. Despite the conditions we had caught some fish and had a few laughs as always. We must do it again, but please, can we have some better weather next time?

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	peg 58	Mark Hathaway	55lbs 02ozs
2nd	peg 64	Peter Morton	54lbs 08ozs
3rd	peg 62	Stephen Tanner	48lbs 12ozs
4th	peg 57	Martyn Dwayne	36lbs 00ozs
5th	peg 63	Kevin Loveland	27lbs 04ozs
6th	peg 65	Bill Gibbins	25lbs 12ozs
7th	peg 66	Tony Roberts	24lbs 08ozs
8th	peg 59	Pete Thatcher	17lbs 00ozs
9th	peg 61	Terry Goff	12lbs 04ozs
10th	peg 56	Dave Collier	10lbs 10ozs
11th	peg 71	Pete Midgley	8lbs 00ozs
12th	peg 69	Colin Sharrard	7lbs 00ozs
13th	peg 68	Ryan Wells	6lbs 08ozs
14th	peg 67	Trevor Little	DNW

Framfield Fishery. Spring Lake. March 13th, 2005.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well stupidity overcame common sense this morning, as instead of just rolling over and staying under a nice warm duvet cuddled up with the wife when the alarm went off at 6am, I got up and decided to give it a go on my club’s match.

 So at 7am there I was loading the tackle into the car for the drive down to Framfield Lakes just outside the village of Uckfield. Frost on the car didn’t bode well, and the frost on the surrounding countryside got heavier as I approached the venue.

On arrival more disappointment entered the equation as the onsite catering wagon was closed, so no hot cuppa or bacon sarnie to start the day.

Now there are about 7 pegs you don’t really want to draw as you can’t reach the islands from them, so of course I drew peg 60 which is probably as far away from an island as it’s possible to get. Out came the waggler, while the next peg set up a bomb rod, so between us we would see if anything was about. I also set up 4 sections of pole to target a dead reed bed in the margin to my right.

10am and all-in was called, and after an hour the waggler had produced just a couple of tiny Roach, while next door hadn’t had a touch. Also a cold crosswind had sprung up ruining presentation, so it was pole time. Targeting a small gap about a foot square between the reeds, it was a question of feeding 4 grains of corn and fishing a single grain till a bite or fish arrived.

Well apart from watching those fishing to the island catching, I actually managed to winkle a few small Carp out and at the final whistle managed to put a level 19lbs on the scales which was enough for 6th place on the day.

So hard work in the cold and wind, but given the limitations of my peg on the day I was reasonably happy with the result.

Framfield Fishery. Spring Lake. August 1st, 2004.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Up with the lark this morning for the drive down to Framfield Park Fishery, just outside the village of Uckfield. The sun was up as I pulled into the car park, promising a second hot day on the trot, Summer must be here at last.

Lots of banter and catching up over a Bacon sandwich and a cuppa as I had missed the last 2 club matches. We were fishing Spring Lake, a noted “bag-up” water down here in the SE, and this had encouraged a good turn out of 23 anglers.

Into the drawbag and it’s the early pegs in the 50′s that everyone wanted, but it was peg 45 for me, not the best of pegs as there’s only a maximum of 3ft of water and the island is out of pole reach at 20mtrs+.

Having already missed 2 club matches and with the prospect of missing at least another 4 during the course of the season, I’ve made up my mind this year to just enjoy the days fishing and I wanted to use today to try and get to grips with fishing paste, a bait that I don’t use very often, and a method that I really need to improve on.

Peg 45.
Plumbing up revealed a change of depth of just 4″ from the margin to 14mtrs and a couple of slurping sounds from the vegetation growing in the left hand margin made my mind up that that would be my main area to fish.

By the time of the all-in there were a good number of fish cruising around but despite a number of anglers targeting them they seemed reluctant to feed. Meanwhile I was sitting on my hands and trying to resist hitting every little dip and dink of the float as hordes of little Roach descended on my paste.
An hour in and the float just buried and the elastic ripped out of the pole as Carp no1, a nice Ghostie of about 3lbs got me off the mark.

The next few hours were what you might call character forming!!!
Lots of tail patterns in the swim with apparent sail away bites being nothing more than liners. Fiddling with the rig and laying about 6″ of line on the deck and cutting back the feed meant that I managed another 9 fish, so that with just over an hour to go I probably had about 25lbs in the net.

Meanwhile news was traveling down that a couple of the lads on the 50′s were sacking up and were in with a chance of doing the ton.
Me? I decided to increase the size of paste that I was fishing from a thumbnail piece to a bit the size of a 10p in the hope that the silvers wouldn’t whittle it completely away before the Carp found it.

Well, whether it was sheer luck or inspiration I’m not sure but it certainly did the trick. The last hour was hectic to say the least as nearly every put in resulted in a sail-away bite and a Carp on the end. I couldn’t get a bait in the water quickly enough and I had them queuing up.

When the scales arrived, sure enough 2 of the lads on the 50′s had recorded tons, Paul (The club champ) with 119lbs 11ozs and Andy with a superb 159lbs 3ozs for a new club record weight.
Me? Thanks to that final hectic hour I managed 80lbs 12ozs which proved to be good enough for 3rd on the day.

The 23 members present managed to put a total of 1151lbs 9ozs on the scales today, representing an average of over 50lbs per man, A cracking days fishing by any standards.

Paste then, Have I cracked it? Probably not, but a fun day that got me thinking about my fishing and definitely something that I shall be using on a more regular basis.

Framfield Fishery. Brookhouse Lake. Sunday, November 16th, 2003.

Hawthorne AC club match.

A club match at Framfield Fisheries on Brookhouse lake. At the draw we always run a football sweep to raise club funds and yours truly won it, picking up a welcome £28.
Into the draw and it’s peg 30 for me, a peg with no real form and on reaching it I have to say I wasn’t inspired, as the water was icy despite the sun the previous day and the colour appeared to be dropping out of it.

Peg 30
Well I had a plumb around but couldn’t find a feature but with the most depth at 11-13 mtrs that was going to be the line of attack. Meat is the going bait there at the moment, so it was going to be a question of just dripping in bait a little bit at a time through a kinder pot, meat at 11mtrs and caster at 13mtrs with a couple of margin swims as a get out of jail job.

Well the lake was flat calm with nothing showing, all the action took place on the opposite side of the island, with only the odd little Roach and Skimmer showing on my side.

Still Life…

It proved to be a truly uninspiring match, the highlight of which was the All-out being called I'm afraid. Come the weigh-in and I’d managed a meagre 3½lbs of small silvers for another midway finish, but there in the net lay a bit of salvation in the shape of a small Rudd of about 2ozs. We run a Fish of the Day competition ( another of our treasurers little money making schemes), and guess who won another £10 for Fish of the Day. So at least I walked away £38 better off than I’d started the day.

Framfield Fishery. Spring Lake. August 18th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well we all assembled in the car park at Framfield Fishery, which is a complex of 3 lakes set in the countryside just outside the town of Uckfield in Sussex.
Today we were to fish Spring lake, which is the main match lake, and is mostly stocked with Carp.

Spring Lake.

Anyway it transpired that there had been a cock-up on the alarm clock front by the Secretary. So there we were waiting for the Drawbag and scales to arrive .
Anyway after a short delay and a lot of ribbing on his arrival out came the draw bag. In goes the hand and out comes peg 43.
As I arrived at my peg one thing became glaringly obvious, I couldn’t reach the island, which was about 20mtrs away, also in previous seasons this swim had a large bed of lilies to fish to on the right hand side. NOT ANY MORE!!!!!

Plumbing up I found 12 inches in the margins and only about 2½feet at 13mtrs. For the margin swims I set up a dibber on my margin pole. These swims would not be touched until I could see the mud being disturbed by feeding fish.
On the 13 mtr line it was to be 2 simple rigs,both to fish banded pellet. The first one was just 18inches of line and a hook (size 14 PR22) and the other was a Drennan Carp2 float set at dead depth to target any fish that followed the constant stream of pellets down to the bottom .
I also set up a feeder rod,but this would only be a get out of jail option if things went horribly wrong, which seems to be the case more often than not at the moment.

Peg 43.

Anyway at the off and two good handfulls of hemp go into the margins on each side along with some corn to await developments. Out to 13mtrs and into a rhythm of 5-6 pellets every 30 secs.
Straight away the 2 pegs to my right were into fish as they could reach the island.
If that wasn’t bad enough I had the beginnings of a headache that was to get worse as the match went on and no it wasn’t due to drink the previous night.

After about an hour on the up in the water rig along came carp No1...........

a pretty little ghost/common and things were starting to look up,a steady stream of small carp followed it to the net, and while not setting any records a worthwhile bag was building. Unfortunately though with an hour to go the headache had got so bad that I was forced to stop fishing and lay down (either that or fall off my box).

Come the weigh-in and it soon became apparent just how well the day had gone. Top weight, caught by John Tyler was 136lbs, 2nd was Michael Vincent with 124lbs 4ozs and 3rd was Mike Davis with 103lbs 2ozs. My level 46lbs was only good enough for 11th .
In total 19 of us weighed in a total of 1041lbs 14ozs for an average weight of 54½+lbs per man, Fantastic fishing by any standards.