Showing posts with label Hartleylands Farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hartleylands Farm. Show all posts

Saturday, 11 August 2012

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. August 11th, 2012.

Marsh AC club match.
Hartleylands Farm Reservoir
I’m off down to Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent today for the seventh match of the Marsh AC year. It’s a match that I really look forward to fishing as it’s one of my favorite  waters with the potential for a cracking days sport. An early start was in order as I was meeting a few of the lads for breakfast at The Knoxbridge CafĂ© and with the promise of some decent weather for today it didn’t take long to get the gear loaded into the car and set off.

A nice smooth drive down saw me pulling into the car park at around 7·30am just as Al and Keith Powell who was guesting today arrived. Kevin and Jean were already there along with Keith and Mick who’d made their usual trip down from Milton Keynes and Rusty who was also guesting today and we were soon joined by John, Martin and Zack. With the pangs of hunger taken care of by a Knoxbridge Special it was time to get up to the fishery for the draw, but not before Keith Powell noticed Keith’s wallet that had dropped on the floor by his seat and phoned him to let him know he had it.

Arriving at the draw most of the usual suspects were in attendance along with our third guest today Mick the Chippy who I struck a side bet of a Golden Nugget with as usual. Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw underway. Peg 25 proved to be mine today, a short stroll from the car park and shaded by trees. Kev had peg 29 and it looked good for a few today while Mick the Chippy was next up on 28 with Rusty to my left on 26 and Mick W next up on peg 23.
Res002.jpg Pete's peg today
Settling into the peg it was time to decide how to approach it. I’d considered fishing the pellet wag today but with the wind blowing from right to left across the peg it was going to be very awkward, so although I set one up I was pretty sure that it wasn’t going to figure. Instead it was going to be 3 pole rigs, one at 5mtrs straight out with another for the willow to my right and a third for the left hand willow. The first two were once again Nick Gilbert’s handmade 0·5g Power Pencils that were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG’s to finish off with while the third rig was a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 14 Guru MWG. Bait was 4 and 6mm pellet for feed along with some hemp while hook bait would be 8mm hard pellet with some GOT Atomic paste if I needed it.

Kev provided a cup of coffee courtesy of Jean when he popped down for a chat and Dave called the All-In at 10am and I fed a couple of handfuls of hemp and pellets to the two willow swims and a handful of pellet straight out at 5mtrs before following them out with a banded 8mm to 5mtrs. I could hear that Rusty was in almost straight away but I was being plagued by sharp bites that I couldn’t connect with and I suspected that these were from roach snatching at the 8mm pellet and this was confirmed when I landed one of around 6ozs that had somehow managed to engulf the pellet.

Thankfully my first carp of the day was soon on its way, the carp in the reservoir give a good account of themselves with the deep water encouraging them to keep their heads down and making you work to get their heads up and into the net but after a spirited fight a nice mirror of around 7lbs was safely in the keepnet.

You couldn’t class the sport as fast and furious though and the general banter around the lake made it obvious that most were struggling after around an hour, apart that is from Kev who was into a steady run of fish and Mick the Chippy if the rumours were to be believed. I was picking up the odd carp on my 5mtr line but looks over at both willow swims were producing nothing apart from the odd roach and skimmer. Rusty had taken a few carp fishing shallow but they weren’t really having it either and gradually faded away.

By 12·30pm I had around 6 carp and a few silvers to show for my efforts so took a little stroll to see how others were doing on my bank. Mick W reckoned that he’d had a few but seemed to be doing OK to me judging by the amount of elastic coming from his top two as he played a carp and it was obvious that he had hopes of taking the MK Nugget from Keith today……
Res009.jpg Mick on peg 23
but the pegs in the early twenties didn’t seem to be producing as I would have expected them to. However over on the other side the one person that did seem to be getting among a few was Terry and with the wind blowing into the margins there I fancied that he had the chance of a good weight on the cards today ……
Res014.jpg Terry, todays Winner
Back down on peg 29 Kev was enjoying himself taking a succession of fish from under the willow to his left……
Res006.jpg Kevin on peg 29
Mick was enjoying himself as always but had suffered with a few lost fish in the course of the morning and looking to up his catch rate ……
Res004.jpg Mick on peg 28
and while Rusty was his usual jovial self, with his shallow line having dried up was looking to explore other lines in an effort to put a few more in the net……
Res003.jpg Rusty on peg 26
Back at my peg it was just a question of keeping some feed trickling into the three lines and waiting for some fish to turn up, which I was certain would happen at some point given the head of fish present in the water. Dave the Fish popped round for a stroll and it obviously wasn’t going well for him and you could sense his frustration with not being able to get to grips with things today.

As the afternoon wore on things did start picking up for me. I had to rotate round the three lines, but by doing this I started to pick up carp on a regular basis, nothing big, most were around the 4-5lbs mark but good weight builders if you can keep them coming.

Others weren’t so fortunate and I could hear Al bemoaning the fact that he couldn’t reach the spot where he felt the fish were in his swim ……
Res005.jpg Al on another flyer
Things had picked up a bit for Tony, but he’d still found time to pop along and check out what Keith Powell was doing on peg 13 as it was obviously starting to produce for him ……
Res011.jpg Tony watches Keith
Keith was having one of those matches that we all dread, putting a few fish together but having to watch travelling companion Mick W catching just a few more which would surely result in the loss of an MK Nugget today……
Res007.jpg Keith
My afternoon was then rudely interrupted by a pain in the neck .......... I’d been stung by a bee. Fortunately Rusty came to my aid and removed the sting with the aid of a pair of styl pliers, ad hoc surgery at its finest which allowed me to resume fishing again.

Things seemed to pick up for most as the match drew to a close, unfortunately not for Dave who had to suffer more frustration as Tony on the next peg found a late run of fish to save his day while Dave got seen off by a couple of foul hookers.

The All-Out was called at 4pm and with a set of scales on our side Kevin and I decided to get the weigh-in underway before packing up. We started with Rod on peg 19 who put 26½lbs on the scales followed by Simon with 79½lbs. Next up was Graham with 33lbs and Chris with 36¾lbs. Mick W recorded 94¾lbs and my 19 carp with a few silvers weighed 114½lbs. Rusty had managed 96¾lbs but Mick the Chippy had suffered a frustrating second half to his match with just 36½lbs meaning a Golden Nugget was coming my way. Finally Kevin put his fish onto the scales and recorded 132½lbs and a new PB Match Weight……
Res012.jpg Kev with the catch
Time to pack away the kit and get back to the car park where Dave worked out the results and sorted out the section money. First today was Terry with a fine 163½lbs, Kevin had secured second place and I had finished in third.
Today’s sections had gone to Al, Terry, Mick W and Kevin to bring an enjoyable day to a close.

The next club match is at Colemans Cottage on September 15th, but we also have a midweek match at Alders Farm a couple of days before that which Keith has kindly organised for us, so plenty to look forward to.
 

Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
 1st Peg 15 Terry Goff    163lbs 08ozs
 2nd Peg 29 Kevin Loveland    132lbs 08ozs
 3rd Peg 25 Peter Morton    114lbs 08ozs
 4th Peg 13 Keith PowellGuest   106lbs 00ozs
 5th Peg 26 Russell GravesGuest    96lbs 12ozs
 6th Peg 23 Mick Wright     94lbs 12ozs
 7th Peg 20 Simon Watkins     79lbs 08ozs
 8th Peg 16 Zack Johnson     76lbs 04ozs
 9th Peg 9 Tony Roberts     75lbs 08ozs
 10th Peg 1 Al Loader     75lbs 00ozs
 11th Peg 11 Keith Ashby     68lbs 04ozs
 12th Peg 7 Clive Pritchard     64lbs 12ozs
 13th Peg 5 John Holdsworth     40lbs 12ozs
 14th Peg 22 Chris Withall     36lbs 12ozs
 15th Peg 28 Mick PearsonGuest    36lbs 08ozs
 16th Peg 21 Graham Manning     33lbs 00ozs
 17th Peg 4 Martin Hucker     27lbs 12ozs
 18th Peg 19 Rod Turner     26lbs 08ozs
 19th Peg 8 Dave Collier     22lbs 12ozs









Saturday, 12 May 2012

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. May 12th, 2012.


Marsh AC club match.
 Harleylands Farm, Nick's Lake.
It’s off down to Hartleylands Fishery at Cranbrook in Kent for what should have been an Inter-club match against Morefax AC but unfortunately they haven’t been able to get a team together so it’s just a regular club match today. However as we booked the whole of Nick’s Lake we’ve invited a few guests along so hopefully everyone will have a decent day. A glance out of the window offered a glimpse of what promised to be a decent day weather wise, so after taking care of the cats and swigging a couple of cups of coffee the kit was loaded into the car and off I went.

First stop was the Knoxbridge CafĂ© to take care of breakfast, Mick the Chippy and grand daughter Rosie had just arrived as I pulled up and we entered to find that Keith and Mick already there and waiting for breakfast after their trip down from Milton Keynes. John. Martin and Zack weren’t far behind and once breakfast was taken care of we made our way down to the fishery for the draw.

The usual banter was flying around as we waited. Lee was there, the sole Morefax angler who could make it, so he would be fishing as a guest along with Gary who was Chris’s guest today and fishing his first match for about 30 years. There were two areas I wanted to draw today, either the spit (pegs 7-9) or the mid twenties. Into the bag and the drawing hand didn’t co-operate leaving me with peg 16, not where I really wanted to be.

Making my way round to the peg with my gear I found that Rod had peg 13 and Al was on peg 14, while Martin had 17 and Jim 18. You can see where everyone else was pegged on the peg plan below ……
Peg Plan for the match today
Settling into my peg it was a question of sorting out a plan of attack. The obvious approach was method feeder to the island, but it only ever seems to produce small carp of around a pound and if I’m honest it’s a style of fishing that bores me to tears, so today I was going to target the bigger fish that tend to lurk around the margins so I set up four top kits. Two had Nick Gilbert’s handmade NG Power Pencil’s, 0·4 g made up on on 0·18 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X’s for a line in front at 6mtrs where I had around 4 feet of water, while the other 2 were 0.2g NG Edger’s again on 0·18 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X’s for the margins where I had around 2½ft of water. I also set up a pellet waggler should I see fish moving around up in the water. Bait was my usual combination of 6mm coarse pellet for feed and the hook along with some 8mm’s, sweetcorn and 6mm GOT Rippers as alternative hookers.
Peter had drawn Peg 16 today
With around 15 minutes to the All-In I took a little stroll. Al had set up to fish long and shallow on the pole along with a method feeder and pellet waggler ……
Al was setting up a method feeder
and I found Lee down on peg 7 with a big grin on his face and itching to get started……
Lee was happy with peg 7 today
So at 10am Dave called the All-In, a pot of pellet onto the 6mtr line and a handful down both margins was followed by a banded 8mm out to the 6mtr line, Sport was far from instant though and a good 10 minutes passed before I had my first bite which I promptly missed. Al had gone straight out on the method and was soon into a run of small carp, but apart from him sport seemed to be pretty slow up our end of the lake.

 My second bite produced a feisty little mirror of around 1½lbs so at least I was off the mark, but my next couple of fish were small skimmers and the first hour saw me add just another 3 small carp to my nets. The second hour was a little better, but only just with another 6 small carp to show for my efforts, but at least the sun was shining allowing me to ditch the fleece and sit comfortably in a polo shirt for the first time this year.

 However I was getting nowhere fast, while Al was still catching on the method, although he was complaining that fish were knocking off the groundbait as soon as the method hit the water, so I decided it may be time to get the feeder rod out. However I rigged it with a small cage feeder as opposed to the method, and was going to feed dampened 6mm’s in an attempt to stop it getting ragged. So with a couple of pints of pellets damped down I took a stroll while the pellets soaked.

Simon had started on the feeder, but it hadn’t really produced for him so he had reverted to the pole in attempt to find some action ……
Simon soon swithched to fishing the pole
Next up was Keith, another who’d started on the feeder but reverted to the pole and while he insisted that he wasn’t really getting to grips with it he was soon into a carp as we chatted……
Keith was soon into a carp
Clive was looking a little happier with things today fishing the bush to his right and soon had plenty of elastic streaming out of his top kit, and the culprit a carp that he’d foul hooked in the tail soon found its way to his waiting net ……
Clive brings a carp to the waiting net
Next up was Tony, back with us today having missed the Rayne Lodge match, he was targeting his left hand margin and seemed to be reasonably pleased with his progress, while down on peg 26 Rosie was having a fine old day in fact she was having such a good time that Grandad Mick had stopped fishing himself and contented himself with being Rosie’s Ghillie for the day……
Rosie was having a great time on peg 26 with Grandad Mick
Round to peg 31 and Mick W was being his usual laid back self and although he was being a bit cagey about how he was doing the large tail pattern by his float when he dropped his rig in rather gave the game away that he was probably sitting on a good few fish ……
Mick had a good few fish in front of him
On the next peg Chairman Dave reckoned he was having a similar day to me (I won’t call it a Grueller as I know one of my readers would take issue with me on this) but having returned from a stroll of his own had managed a couple of quick fish on paste down the margin ……
Dave was soon landing a carp
It was pretty much the same story until I got round to the point where I found Lee targeting his margin and getting among a few carp to keep him happy with his progress.
Lee was catching from the margin
Kevin was happily fishing the feeder on peg 8 and having one of his best days of the year so far ……
Kevin was enjoying his match on peg 8
Terry was also having a decent day on peg 9 although he’s lost a couple of lumps during the morning that just didn’t want to play ball and as I made my way back to my peg Al was giving the method a rest, and seeing if he could find some action on the pole line…
Al rested the method and took  a look on his pole line
Back at my peg, and with the feeder loaded and a banded 8mm on the hook it was out to the island. Within 30 seconds the tip wrapped round and a regulation 1lb carp was heading to the net, this rapidly became eight in eight casts forcing Martin to get his feeder rod into the action. For the next couple of hours fish came regularly and with around an hour to go I had 50 carp in the nets. The trouble was they were like peas in a pod, all around the 1lb mark and I wasn’t enjoying it so with an hour to go the feeder rod was up the bank and I spent that final hour looking for some lumps in the margins. However it wasn’t to be, they just weren’t there and I only added another half a dozen small carp to the nets before Dave called the All-Out at 4pm.

Packing my gear away I felt that I had something approaching 60lbs to show for my efforts. I would almost certainly have topped the ‘Ton’ if I’d fished the feeder all match, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as I like to have something larger to target nowadays. I was pretty sure that Al had won the match though as it had suited his style of fishing as he just likes to be busy and doesn’t mind what he’s catching as long as he keeps busy, and he’d certainly been that today.

When I caught up with the weigh-in they had just weighed Lee in with 105¾lbs and judging by his smile he was happy with that. Kevin had 63lbs and Terry 73½lbs. Rod had 11½lbs while Al certainly had been busy recording a fine 176½lbs. Next up my estimate proved to be almost spot on with 59¾lbs. Martin managed just 13½lbs and Jim 38lbs. Simon had tipped back as he’d had to leave early. Keith had managed 85½lbs but Clive topped that with 113lbs while Tony put 106½lbs on the scales. Mick was a very proud Grandad when Rosie weighed in with a fine 77lbs, “its just like catching roach on the canal Grandad, but bigger“. Mick W bagged ‘The Milton Keynes Nugget‘ today with 113lbs but did himself no favours beating Chairman Dave’s 51¾lbs from the next peg. Graham managed a level 40lbs to Zack’s 23½lbs and John rounded things off with 39¼lbs.

So back to the car park for the results and Al had taken the win today, while Clive and Mick W had tied for second. The sections today were won by Al, Lee, Clive and Mick W. Overall just over 1250lbs of fish were weighed in, making an average of just over 66lbs per angler. Not a bad day I think you’ll agree.
 
Position
Peg
Angler
Weight
 1st Peg 14 Al Loader   176lbs 08ozs
 2nd= Peg 23 Clive Pritchard   113lbs 00ozs
 2nd= Peg 31 Mick Wright   113lbs 00ozs
 4th Peg 24 Tony Roberts   106lbs 08ozs
 5th Peg 7 Lee RoseGuest  105lbs 12ozs
 6th Peg 21 Keith Ashby    85lbs 08ozs
 7th Peg 26 RosieGuest   77lbs 00ozs
 8th Peg 9 Terry Goff    73lbs 08ozs
 9th Peg 8 Kevin Loveland    63lbs 00ozs
 10th Peg 16 Peter Morton    59lbs 12ozs
 11th Peg 32 Dave Collier     51lbs 12ozs
 12th Peg 34 Graham Manning    40lbs 00ozs
 13th Peg 37 John Holdsworth    39lbs 04ozs
 14th Peg 18 Jim Boase    38lbs 00ozs
 15th Peg 4 Gary LuckGuest   36lbs 00ozs
 16th Peg 2 Chris Withall    31lbs 08ozs
 17th Peg 35 Zack Johnson    23lbs 08ozs
 18th Peg 17 Martin Hucker     13lbs 08ozs
 19th Peg 13 Rod Turner     11lbs 08ozs
 20th Peg 20 Simon Watkins 
DNW

 


Saturday, 15 October 2011

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. October 15th, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.
Hartleylands Farm Reservoir
Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent is the venue today for the final Marsh AC match this year. The club has booked The Reservoir for today, which should make a nice change as we normally fish Nick’s Lake. It was an early start for me as I’d arranged to meet up with Mick Pearson who was coming along as my guest today for a spot of breakfast prior to the match.

There was a noticeable chill in the air as I loaded up the car, and as I made my way down the temperature was only registering 4°C on the car thermometer. I arrived at The Knoxbridge CafĂ© just after 7am to find Mick waiting for me. We were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast and catching up with events since we’d last met. Kevin & Jean along with Graham, John, Martin and Zack arrived for breakfast as well, and with that taken care of it was just a matter of a five minute drive up to the fishery.

Pulling into the car park it was the usual hive of activity as greetings were exchanged and tackle was assembled prior to the draw……
Gathering up all the kit prior to the draw

Paul East was actually fishing today !!!! complete with new shuttle, space station and pole that he’s treated himself to, but unfortunately there were a few faces missing due to a combination of work, illness and prior engagements, which meant there were just 15 of us fishing, but with the whole reservoir booked it meant that we would have plenty of space. A quick chat with the bailiff revealed there had been a frost this morning and the day before, not the best of news as it may have had an effect on the fish feeding, though it promised to be a nice sunny day with what wind there was, blowing toward the earlier pegs.

Just after 8·30am Dave started the draw and I found peg 16 sticking to my hand, probably the furthest walk, but the end of the reservoir I prefer. You can see where it is, and where everyone ended up on the peg plan below ……
Peg Plan for todays match
As I made my way round I found Terry was on peg 18, where he’d fished a couple of weeks ago, while Zack was on peg 20, the peg I’d fished with Dave keeping him company on peg 21 along with Chris who’d come along to watch again as his hand is still in plaster. Settling my gear into the peg I planned to tackle it in a similar way to the way I’d fished peg 20 a couple of weeks ago, and that was to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 4 feet of water and the second down the left and right hand margins. Rigs were two 4×12 CX pencils on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 14 Guru MWG’s for straight out and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm pellet and various GOT Baits soft hookers for the hook……
Peg 16 was mine for the match
With a bit of time before the off, I took a stroll down to see Mick and Paul who were on pegs 12 & 10 and the side bet of a Golden Nugget’ was struck with Mick who was obviously confident in the pulling power of Mary Q . Jean had provided a welcome cup of coffee which went down well as the breeze had a bit of a nip to it as we waited for the start. As I sat there I couldn’t help noticing that some of the colour seemed to have dropped out of the water, no doubt due to those first frosts, would it effect things? We’d soon find out.

10am and Dave called the All-In, I was determined to be positive and fed a good handful of pellet straight out and down the margins before shipping a banded 8mm out in front. The first couple of put ins resulted in a couple of tentative dips of the float that I didn’t connect with, but the third put in saw me connect with what was obviously a carp, they do pull a bit these reservoir carp as they seek the deeper water, but steady pressure soon took its toll as a feisty Mirror found its way to the waiting landing net, at around 4lbs a nice way to get off the mark.

Bites weren’t coming instantly like they were a couple of weeks ago, but by feeding every put in and continually working the bait there were bites to be had, and in what seemed like no time at all I’d put 8 carp in the nets. The reality was that it had taken 50 minutes as I looked at my watch which said 10 to 11. I really shouldn’t have looked though, as that seemed to be the signal for the fish to switch off.

The next hour or so was pure torture as there wasn’t a bite to be had, but from what I could hear and see everyone else seemed to be pretty much in the same boat, though I was sure I’d heard a top kit smash from down toward Paul’s peg. I could see that nothing had touched the bait in the margins as the water hadn’t coloured up at all, but I kept bait trickling in on all the lines as I didn’t want fish to move in and find nothing to hold them. Around midday I’d heard that Mick and Paul had taken a few fish, so fed a good handful straight out and took a stroll with the camera to see what was happening and take my mug back to Jean.

It appeared that Mick was alternating between a pole line and the method feeder to tempt a few fish and he was owning up to around 25lbs in the net, though as I strolled away he was into another fish on the feeder ……
Mick playing a fish taken on the feeder
Paul revealed that the earlier sound of splintering carbon had indeed come from his peg, his top kit not being up to the task of heaving a double figure carp into his landing net when it had other ideas ……
Chris chatting to Paul on peg 10
Kevin was having a real struggle as were Rod and Martin on that bank, in fact it was hard to tell if Martin was watching the tip of his feeder rod or just staring despondently into the distance ……
Not the best of days for Martin
Round to peg 29 and there was Clive struggling for a bite on the peg that according to the bailiff had won the last match with 176lbs, talk about “You should have been here last week” added to which was the fact that the peg was in almost total shade, it would be fair to say that the moustachioed one wasn’t exactly ecstatic with the prospect of another few hours sat there ……
Clive was having a grueller today
Ken wasn’t fairing a whole lot better on 27, another shaded peg, though he had a few small silvers in the net to show for his efforts ……
Ken on peg 27
Graham was next up on the last of the shaded pegs and was just unhooking a small roach as I arrived, always positive he was hopeful that a few carp would put in an appearance later in the day …
Graham was taking a few silvers and waiting for the carp to show
onto 23 and Nick at least had a carp in the net to show for his efforts, while Dave had managed 3 carp early before they switched off, but he was now feeding small pinches of hemp with a tare on the hook trying to tempt some roach, and while he was getting the odd one or two, even they were proving reluctant to feed ……
Dave was trying to tempt a few roach with tares
On peg 20 Zack had concentrated on his right hand margin from the off and it had yielded a carp and a few silvers for him, while Terry had been unable resist a look down his left hand margin having seen a fish down there ……
Terry hoped there were carp in the margins
Back at my peg and a glance down both margins revealed that nothing had visited for a munch so it was back out with a banded 8mm in front, followed by some pellets. A quick dip of the float followed by a lift saw me attached not to a carp but a skimmer, still it was something to add to the net even if it did slime me.

Next put in and the same again only this time it wasn’t a skimmer, obviously a substantial carp it powered off in unstoppable fashion, the rig returning with a straightened out hook. Luckily I had a second identical rig to hand and the next 3 put ins saw 3 more skimmers deposited in the net. Next put in and a lift was met with stronger resistance, a carp this time, a chunky Common around the 6lbs mark and very welcome. This was rapidly followed by a similar sized Mirror that took a bit of getting in as it was hooked in the pectoral fin, but come in it did.

This stirred the peg up a bit and led to a lull, but after around 10 minutes another skimmer joined its mates in the silvers net. By now Dave was targeting his margins and I watched as he landed a couple of carp, and I knew that if there were fish there he would give me a run for my money. Next put in and I was briefly attached to a lump that took off before launching itself out of the water like a Polaris missile and crashing back on the line smashing the rig.

Time to compose myself and tie up another couple of rigs, and with that done get back to fishing. Kev appeared with another cup of coffee, but it dropped to the floor, emptying its contents before I could reach it. Kev trundled off with the empty cup after I retrieved it from the water promising a refill. 10 minutes later and Dave came wandering along to bring me the refill and tried to convince me that I already had 100lbs in my nets………….I wish.

Unfortunately it was back to scratching for bites after that, though Dave gave us all a bit of amusement with the length of time he spent playing a Ghostie, but he had the last laugh as it ended safely in the net. Meanwhile I was just picking up the odd skimmer here and there. Terry however suddenly seemed to have the carp turn up in front of him with an hour to go, and Dave was still getting the odd fish from the margins. Thankfully I managed 3 more carp among the skimmers while Terry suffered a run of bumped bites and lost fish in the last 20 minutes.

4pm and Dave called the All-Out. it had been a hard days fishing and the reservoir hadn’t fished up to its potential. I felt I had around 70lbs in the nets, but I’d soon find out for sure come the Weigh-In.

I packed my gear away but left it at my peg and went to get on with the Weigh-In. Rod kicked things off with just 9¼lbs while Martin could only muster 6lbs. Kev had 20¼lbs and John 14lbs proving just how hard the fishing on that bank had been. Paul despite his early woes had managed to get the better of a few decent lumps down the margin and put 77½lbs on the scales and take 2nd on the day. Mick had enjoyed his day with 52lbs, but Jim had suffered a torrid day with just 5¾lbs. I was next and my carp nets came up short of Paul’s weight, but 15lbs of skimmers gave me a total of 81¾lbs and the win today. Terry had 50½lbs and Zack 29¼lbs. Dave’s 69¼lbs took 3rd overall. Nick weighed 15lbs while Graham did manage some afternoon carp to take 42¼lbs to the scales. Ken had 8¾lbs while Clive was last to weigh with a level 20lbs.

Back at the car park Dave collated the scores and monies with the top 3 taking their sections on the day and I relieved Mick of a ‘Golden Nugget’ before we loaded our gear up, bade our farewells and headed off for home.
 





Position
Peg
Angler
 
Weight
 1st Peg 16 Peter Morton 
    81lbs 12ozs
 2nd Peg 10 Paul East 
    77lbs 08ozs
 3rd Peg 21 Dave Collier 
    69lbs 04ozs
 4th Peg 12 Mick PearsonGuest
    52lbs 00ozs
 5th Peg 18 Terry Goff 
    50lbs 08ozs
 6th Peg 25 Graham Manning 
    42lbs 04ozs
 7th Peg 20 Zack JohnsonGuest
    29lbs 04ozs
 8th Peg 6 Kevin Loveland 
    20lbs 12ozs
 9th Peg 29 Clive Pritchard 
    20lbs 00ozs
 10th Peg 23 Nick BondeauGuest
    15lbs 00ozs
 11th Peg 8 John Holdsworth 
    14lbs 00ozs
 12th Peg 2 Rod Turner 
     9lbs 04ozs
 13th Peg 27 Ken Walker 
     8lbs 12ozs
 14th Peg 4 Martin Hucker 
     6lbs 00ozs
 15th Peg 14 Jim Boase 
     5lbs 12ozs

The club does run a points table over the course of the matches (Guests results are not included in the table) and as you can see Dave Collier reaped the rewards of a very consistent season that included 3 match wins, coming out on top with 218 points while I was Runner-Up with 204 points and Al finished 3rd on 194 points despite missing the final Match. I’d just like to say Thank You to all the club members and guests who’ve fished this years matches. They’ve been great company on the bankside, with some hilarious banter meaning the matches have been enjoyable as always, and I’m looking forward to next year already.

Finally, MANY THANKS to Dave Collier (Mr Chairman) for his organisational efforts on behalf of the club, we give him plenty of ribbing at times, but we do appreciate his efforts. .


Position
Angler
Monk
Rayne
MillBarn
Colemans
Blasford
Private
Rockells
Hartlylands
Total Weight
Points
 1st
 Dave Collier
21
30
28
27
30
24
30
28
695lbs 12ozs
 218 pts
 2nd Peter Morton
29
27
29
29
17
25
22
30
628lbs 00ozs
 208 pts
 3rd Al Loader
30
25
30
28
27
28
29
d.n.f
702lbs 00ozs 
 197 pts
 4th Keith Ashby
28
26
25
26
25
29
27
d.n.f
567lbs 12ozs
 186 pts
 5th Clive Pritchard
27
28
d.n.f
25
26
30
19
24
453lbs 04ozs
 179 pts
 6th Terry Goff
25
18
24
24
12
22
20
27
308lbs 08ozs
 172 pts
 7th= John Holdsworth
20
d.n.f
20
20
19
23
28
23
330lbs 00ozs
 153 pts
 7th= Kevin Loveland
23
19
21
15
14
19
17
25
172lbs 00ozs
 153 pts
 9th Martin Hucker
d.n.f
29
15
14
23
20
26
20
350lbs 12ozs
 147 pts
 10th Jim Boase
22
21
15
12
29
d.n.f
21
19
211lbs 08ozs
 139 pts
 11th Tony Roberts
d.n.f
23
26
30
21
d.n.f
25
d.n.f
411lbs 04ozs
 125 pts
 12th Simon Watkins
18
25
18
18
d.n.f
21
23
d.n.f
291lbs 04ozs
 123 pts
 13th Graham Manning
24
d.n.f
19
22
28
d.n.f
d.n.f
26
178lbs 04ozs
 119 pts
 14th Rod Turner
15
d.n.f
22
17
21
d.n.f
18
22
109lbs 12ozs
 115 pts
 15th  Paul East
26
d.n.f
16
16
d.n.f
27
d.n.f
29
227lbs 12ozs
 114 pts
 16th Ken Walker
19
d.n.f
27
21
13
d.n.f
d.n.f
21
127lbs 00ozs
 101 pts
 17th Vic Nugent
d.n.f
20
d.n.f
d.n.f
22
26
24
d.n.f
264lbs 12ozs
  92 pts
 18th Judy Hermite
16
16
17
13
24
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
87lbs 08ozs
  86 pts
 19th Chris Withall
17
17
23
19
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
101lbs 12ozs
  76 pts
 20th=
 Ron Mannister
d.n.f
15
d.n.f
11
16
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
31lbs 04ozs
  42 pts
 20th= Roger Noakes
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
23
19
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
63lbs 08ozs
  42 pts
 22nd Eddie Dobson
d.n.f
22
d.n.f
d.n.f
15
d.n.f
d.n.f
d.n.f
59lbs 04ozs
  37 pts

(d.n.f = Did not Fish. 30 = Match Winner.)