Rockells Farm. Saffron Walden. Essex. July 22nd, 2012.

Marsh AC club match.

Once again it’s Rockells Farm in Essex that is the venue for the Marsh AC match today. It’s renowned as a bagging water, in fact it’s where Martin Hucker set the clubs best ever match weight of 383lbs 04ozs back in 2009 so it’s a venue that we always look forward to fishing. However I’d heard from a couple of people recently that it wasn’t producing like it had in the past. Was the reason down to the terrible weather we’ve experienced recently or had something changed? We would find out today.

I met up with Dave at his house at around 6·45am to follow down to the venue. It was already a pleasant morning with the promise of a warm sunny day ahead as we set off , but Dave must have been using his Beatles Sat Nav as we went on a Magical Mystery Tour of Stanstead Airport and the surrounding villages before we arrived at the venue car park around 8am .

Everyone was looking forward to this one and a few of the lads soon had it pegged out while Dave sorted out the money and organised the draw. Peg 14 was mine for the day, pretty much where I’d drawn last year and with plenty of water today hopefully it would produce better sport. Turning left from the car park with my kit I found Eddie, Al, Vic and Kev on the first 4 pegs. My peg was actually the one Simon had last year while Dave had the flyer on the point then Zack and Clive was back on his peg last year. Elsewhere John had peg 1 with Simon on 2 and Martin had run to his peg having drawn peg 3 the same peg he’d broken the club match record on in 2009.

Settling into the peg I couldn’t help noticing a couple of things. The first was the water colour or lack of it, it had that somewhat slate grey appearance that you normally see when the first frosts knock the colour out of the water, and the second thing was that there didn’t appear to be any signs of fish moving. Rockells is so heavily stocked that the fish are always competing for food, colouring up the water and you normally see tail patterns and swirls along with cruising fish as you set up, but hardly anything was showing ….. Very Strange.

The venue is that prolific that the match format is slightly different from our usual in that we have two, three hour matches with a weigh -in after each to avoid keeping too many fish in keepnets for long periods and to make things easier for the scales men. Rigs are simple and strong as you’re looking to catch on a top 2 from the margins to do a really big weight and as such were just 0.3 NG Edger’s on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for pellet and size 12′s for paste. Bait for today was just 6mm hard pellets and strawberry GOT Atomic paste.

With a bit of time before the start Kev strolled down with a coffee and a freshly cooked bacon and sausage roll which set me up nicely for the start.

10am saw the All-in called and some pellets were fed into both margins and right away alarm bells rang again as I could see them fall through the first 12-18 inches of water which is really unusual  as the water is normally so coloured. I banded a 6mm and dropped it into the left hand margin, the float dipped and a lift produced a 1oz roach, not what I was looking for. Now normally at the start of the matches here you start to hear splashing as people are landing carp straight away but today it was very quiet, nobody was into fish straight away.

10 minutes in and I had my first carp, but it was an 8oz stockie, absolutely mint which still had the curtain in its mouth intact, definitely not what’s expected at Rockells.
 I’d like to say it got better but it didn’t. Dave strolled round expressing surprise that nothing was coming to floaters and he strolled down the bank and returned with news that Al and Vic were struggling to put any fish together along with everyone else.

I’d added a couple of sections to try further out but after a couple of hours just had another 3 stockies and a few roach added to my catch so took a stroll looking for some inspiration. Kev was fishing a feeder but was in the same predicament as the rest of us……

Strolling down to Al he was trying his margins, but all the while we chatted he didn’t have a single bite yet alone a fish……

Vic was totally disheartened with the lack of fish as well and it was fast becoming obvious that all was not well……

I strolled back up to see Clive and it was the same story at his peg, just the odd stockie and roach showing, Zack was fairing no better, but Dave was getting the odd stockie from the margins and this was probably due to the fact that he only fed floaters at the start so didn’t overfeed the swim……

John was on peg 1 and was getting a few, but nowhere near the quantity expected ……

Just before 1pm Dave strolled down with another coffee and bacon and sausage roll for me  and with no sign of any improvement we cancelled the first weigh -in and decided to fish straight through. Meanwhile over on peg 9 Ken had managed to connect with a decent sized carp and after carefully playing it had it safely in the net and weighed at 11¼lbs before returning it . I heard that Tony was getting a few but couldn’t really see him although I could see Keith who was having the odd fish……

Vic had decided that he’d had enough in the meantime and tipped back and gone home , and I have to admit that the idea had crossed my mind as well.

Around 2pm there was one hell of a splash from Kev’s peg, he’d tripped and lost his footing as he returned to his peg and gone straight in, by the time I got round to see if he was alright he was back on the bank and draining out and declined my invitation to get back in so I could get a photo……

Meanwhile over on peg 8 Graham had hooked into something that was capable of stretching his elastic as he was fortunate enough to latch onto a decent carp……

I kept searching the swim adding sections exploring further out but to no real effect as no matter where I tried it just produced the odd stockie or tiny roach and it was a blessed relief when the All-Out was called at 4pm.

 I really couldn’t wait to get the kit packed away and the weigh-in had to be one of the quickest in the clubs recent history. on our bank Eddie had 7¼lbs, Al 10¾lbs and Kev had 6¾lbs. My few fish made 9lbs. Dave had the best weight on our bank with 19½lbs, Zack had a meagre 3½lbs and Clive ended with 11½lbs.

The owner appeared while we were weighing in and when I asked him about the lack of fish he was adamant that no fish had been lost or netted and no stockies had been introduced, but I’m afraid that I don’t believe that to be the truth and as a result of what we experienced today I think it’s fair to say that we won’t be returning to Rockells any time soon.

Back at the car park the results were soon sorted John taking the win today with just 41¼lbs, Tony was second with 32lbs and Mick’s 31¼lbs gave him third place and the MK Nugget. The sections went to John, Ken, Al and Dave. Next up for the club is The Reservoir at Hartleylands Farm and hopefully a better days fishing for all.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 1	John Holdsworth	41lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 7	Tony Roberts	32lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Mick Wright	31lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 2	Simon Watkins	22lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 15	Dave Collier	19lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 5	Keith Ashby	16lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 9	Ken Walker	14lbs 08ozs
8th=	Peg 17	Clive Pritchard	11lbs 08ozs
8th=	Peg 8	Graham Manning	11lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 11	Al Loader	10lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 14	Peter Morton	9lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 3	Martin Hucker	7lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 10	Eddie Dobson	7lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 13	Kevin Loveland	6lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 16	Zack Johnson	3lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 6	Terry Goff	3lbs 04ozs
17th	Peg 12	Vic Nugent	DNW

Rockells Farm. Saffron Walden. Essex. September 18th, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

It’s Rockells Farm that is the venue for the latest Marsh AC match today. It normally throws up some phenomenal weights so hopes will be high for a good days fishing today among the club members. I’d arranged to meet at Dave’s house and follow him to the venue, so with the cats fed and the car loaded I made my way over there arriving around 6·45am. Chris was strolling down the road, he was tagging along today as a spectator, his broken arm preventing him from fishing. Dave appeared and we were off and we made good time arriving at Rockells around 8am.

A few of the lads set off to peg out as the pegs aren’t numbered and I soon had the kit loaded on the trolley, and that’s where it all started to go pear shaped. There’s a bit of a slope up from the car park to the lake, and halfway up the slope I felt a searing pain in my left calf that brought me to a halt! A couple of the lads came to my aid, but I was left hobbling around and feeling pretty uncomfortable, not the best of starts to my day.

Anyway Peg 13 came my way in the draw, a number that seems to follow me, and I hobbled off with my kit to set up for the day ahead. John had Peg 10 with Jim for company on Peg 11, while Peg 12 was empty. I arrived to find that I had Simon for company on Peg 14 today, Terry was through the gap on Peg 15 ( where Dave had 344lbs last year) Vic was on 16 with Clive on Peg 17 (my peg last year).

I have to say that my initial impression was that the swim looked spot on with an overhanging willow to the right and another to the left, but with my box set up I got a bit of a shock as I put my nets in, finding that the water barely covered them, and a closer look confirmed that the water level was at least a foot down, if not a bit more on the normal level when I’ve fished there previously! It’s not deep at the best of times and as I sorted out the rigs for the day ahead it became apparent just how little water I had in front of me.

 I ended up with 3 rigs, all pretty much identical, being 0.2 NG Edger’s on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG’s, plus a 0·2 NG Margin paste on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 12 Guru MWG that was set up on my margin pole, these were set between 6 and 18 inches deep as that was all the depth I could find regardless of where I plumbed up. Bait today was 8mm pellet and GOT Baits Atomic paste with 6mm pellet for feed. but I also had some 6mm floating pellet as these have proved deadly in the past for sorting out the better fish.

On previous visits I’ve caught well on a top 2 tight in to the margins, but that line was dry today, so I would be looking to fish a line at the end of my nets and across to the overhanging trees. With a bit of time before the off I had a hobble along to see how the others were. Pretty much in the same boat, but someone had been doing some gardening removing a lot of cover, most notably in Clive’s swim where an overhanging bush had completely vanished and he was struggling to find any depth of water. Vic’s platform was way off the water, but at least he’d managed to get set up in front of it at water level, but again all the bank side vegetation had been cut back. Thankfully Kevin had brought a cup of coffee round and I sat down to drink that as I contemplated the two 3 hour sessions ahead.

So at 10am Dave called the All-In and a handful of pellet to the end of my nets and to the edge of both trees was followed by a banded 8mm to the end of my nets, and I also flicked out a few floaters to the edge of the right hand willow. The float soon slid away and a scrappy little Mirror of no more than 8ozs got me off the mark. Simon was off the mark as well and I soon had another couple of similar sized fish to keep the first one company. Now Rockells isn’t really about finesse normally, it’s a question of keeping the feed going in and catching quick, but it was noticeable that with so little water, playing fish was making the rest back off, so I was alternating between the end of my nets and across to the willow, while feeding every put in to hold the fish. The floaters weren’t drifting out of the swim, but nothing was touching them either.

Across on the other side I could see Keith who seemed to be picking up a few fish down his margin line ……

 While Dave on the next peg looked like he’d set out his stall to fish his usual floater tactics that work well for him here……

 After about an hour I had about 12 fish, not enough by the usual standards so gave the paste rig a try, this is normally a banker for me here as it tends to produce a slightly better stamp of fish, but it wasn’t having the desired effect today as I was having to wait to long between bites and the fish that it did produce were of a similar size to the pellet fish so after 30 minutes that was up the bank. Despite keeping a few floaters going in nothing had shown for them so I just had to keep picking off odd fish here and there and at the end of 3 hours when Dave called the All-Out for a half time Weigh-In I had around 35 fish, the biggest of which might have gone 2lbs if I was lucky.

With a set of scales on each side of the lake we soon had it underway. John had 51¼lbs and Jim 29lbs. I weighed 41lbs and Simon 46½lbs. Terry had 25¼lbs while Vic managed 40lbs and Clive could only muster 19¼lbs. Not the greatest weights and we could tell by the pace of the weigh-in across the lake that there had been some better weights over there. Martin appeared with another coffee from Jean and the news that Dave and Al had both had 80lbs +.

At 2pm Dave called the All-In for the second half and it was just a question of carrying on with my approach and hope that some better fish would put in an appearance, and I kept flicking out a few floaters hoping they would do the job, but the only thing they seemed to attract were 3 geese ……

The small fish were still there, but were once again coming in fits and starts and at around a pound a time weren’t really large enough to build any sort of weight. I could see Dave across the lake was still taking fish at a steady rate and they appeared to be of a better stamp than the ones I was getting ……

 Another look with the paste proved to be nothing but a waste of time, still yielding little fish, but at a slower rate than fishing pellet. The strange part was that Simon was catching on floaters in the next swim, whereas they were doing nothing for me. Meanwhile John down on Peg 10 was having a cracking session and steadily building a decent weight, as was Vic on Peg 16 who was finally finding some better fish on paste…

 I just plugged away amid rain showers to the end, and while I’d caught more in the 2nd session when Dave called the All-Out at 5pm I didn’t expect my 55 fish to weigh more than 60lbs. Thankfully the showers had stopped as we packed away, and with a set of scales at Clive’s peg we decided to get our part of the Weigh-In over and done with.

Poor Clive’s day hadn’t got any better with a meagre 16lbs to show for his efforts. Vic’s second half had been a definite improvement with 100¾lbs. Terry had 41¼lbs and Simon once again beat me with 71½lbs to my 65¼lbs. Jim had added 38¼lbs to his morning total, but John had the best weight on our bank with a fine 128½lbs.

So with our gear returned to the car park we all assembled as Dave worked out the results and monies. Winner on the day was Mr Chairman Dave with a total of 196¾lbs closely followed by Al on 193¼lbs while John’s total of 180¼lbs gave him 3rd on the day just ahead of Keith’s 176lbs. Six more ‘Ton+’ totals followed including my own 106¼lbs so while it would be harsh to say that it had been anything other than a good days fishing, however such is the level of catches that Rockells can produce that it’s safe to say that there were a few disappointed anglers that made their way home after the match.

Anyway the final club match of the season lies ahead at Hartleylands Farm on October 15th when we’ll be fishing The Reservoir, however prior to that I’m at Rolfs Lake on Saturday for the final match of The Jinx Series.

 

Position	Peg	Angler		Morning	Afternoon	Total Weight
1st	Peg 7	Dave Collier		89lbs 04ozs	107lbs 08ozs	196lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 2	Al Loader		85lbs 08ozs	107lbs 12ozs	193lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 10	John Holdsworth		51lbs 12ozs	128lbs 08ozs	180lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 6	Keith Ashby		62lbs 00ozs	114lbs 00ozs	176lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 1	Martin Hucker		72lbs 00ozs	96lbs 12ozs	168lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 4	Tony Roberts		62lbs 08ozs	91lbs 12ozs	154lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 16	Vic Nugent		40lbs 00ozs	100lbs 12ozs	140lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 14	Simon Watkins		46lbs08ozs	71lbs 08ozs	118lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 13	Peter Morton		41lbs 00ozs	65lbs 04ozs	106lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 9	Mick Wright	Guest	50lbs 00ozs	54lbs 12ozs	104lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 11	Jim Boase		29lbs 00ozs	38lbs 04ozs	67lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 15	Terry Goff		25lbs 04ozs	41lbs 04ozs	66lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 5	Zack Johnson	Guest	16lbs 00ozs	26lbs 00ozs	42lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 17	Clive Pritchard		19lbs 04ozs	16lbs 00ozs	35lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 3	Rod Turner		5lbs 08ozs	20lbs 00ozs	25lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 8	Kevin Loveland		17lbs 12ozs	5lbs 00ozs	22lbs 12ozs

 

Rockells Farm. Saffron Walden. Essex. March 20th, 2011.

Ospreys Angling Club

Well I’m finally out for the first time this year, and it’s thanks to Neil Riddy who has invited me to fish as a guest on his club match at Rockells Farm. Dave the Fish is joining me as well after Neil phoned me on Friday with news of a late vacancy. 

I first met Neil at Rolf’s Lake and we’ve kept in touch since and swapped banter via Facebook, and for his sins he’ll be fishing the Jinx Series in the coming year. I caught my best ever match weight at Rockells back in 2009 which was 330lbs. It’s a bit to early in the year to expect anything like that today, but with a decent draw and favourable conditions a decent days fishing should still be on the cards.

Getting up today to go fishing proved to be a bit of a struggle as I’d got out of the habit after 3 months off, but I managed it. Fed the cats while a couple of cups of coffee and 4 rounds of toast and marmalade took care of my needs. I got to Dave’s for 6·45am loaded all my kit into his car and we were off.

A noticeable frost as we left the tunnel into Essex started a few alarm bells ringing in my head, but couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm, especially as I’d discovered a packet of lemon flavoured Jammy Dodgers in Dave’s glove box, and we made good time, pulling into the car park just after 8am.

The lake looked spot on as always, though there wasn’t as much colour in the water as I would have liked and very little evidence of fish moving. Dave and I both notice how cold the wind was as well, so it could turn into a bit of a grueller. Soon the car park filled up and with 24 of us in attendance for the day, Neil had the draw under way. I came away from the draw with peg 20 and found out that it was at the top end on the right hand side. It’s the left hand one of a double peg that we normally leave out on our club matches, normally leaving todays peg 21 in as our peg 4. Peg 21 can fish a fair way down the margin, while the bush only really allows a top 3. Should still be good for a few fish though.

 For company today I’ve got Brian Ritchie on 21, while Neil was to my left on peg 19 and Dave was further down on peg 17.
Setting up took a bit longer than usual for no reason other than I was a bit rusty and it took a while to get back into the swing of things. I was going to keep things simple today, and just set 3 rigs up, all Sackup Floats CX1 4×12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match with size 16 Guru MWG’s at the business end. One set at around a couple of feet which was all the depth I could find out front and chose a line at 7mtrs to fish, while the other 2 were set at 15inches for the margins. Bait was taken care of by pellets and corn today .

At 10·30 Neil sounded the All-In and I shipped a pot of mixed pellet and corn out to 7mtrs and fed the bush by hand. Out to the 7mtr line with a grain of sweetcorn but 10 minutes in and despite lifting, dropping and dragging the bait I hadn’t had a touch. Brian had a couple of lightning fast bites that he’d missed. A change to pellet produced the smallest of dinks which I managed to connect with, unfortunately it was from as small a carp as I’ve ever caught here, normally they gravitate toward Clive’s swim, but with him absent they obviously thought that I would do !!!! Anyway it was in the net, 1st fish of the year and all that, just a shame it wasn’t closer to 4lbs than the 4ozs it probably weighed. Another soon followed, the twin of the 1st then a Roach before the line totally dried up.
Brian had managed a solitary small Carp in the meantime and he to was struggling for a bite. In fact apart from a couple of swims on the far side it seemed that most of us were struggling.

After re-feeding at 7 mtrs I was resigned to an early look at the margin by the bush, earlier than I wanted to, but I felt that I didn’t have much of an option. Bites were finicky, the merest dink and if you didn’t hit it that was your lot, and I could only get those on a 6mm banded pellet. The fish just weren’t there in any numbers though and those that were, were in the 4-8oz bracket. It was just a question of taking the odd one or two and then a 10 minute lull before another would have a go. Brian was fishing his margin by now as well and although he wasn’t catching the numbers that I was, his fish were at least in the 2-3lb bracket.

In general though the lake was showing it’s harder side today. Ricky Green across on peg 22 was catching steadily as was Mick Whitmore on peg 1, but most were having to work hard for their fish. I took a quick stroll down to see how Neil and Dave were doing. Neil had a few on the bomb and Dave had managed to put a few better samples together, but it seemed that it was Tony Taylor on peg 18 between them who just had the edge on their little tussle……

I wish I could say that it got better as the match progressed, but I would be lying if I did, I did manage a couple of bonus fish, but they were only around a couple of pounds each. Neil called the All-Out at 3·30pm and I knew that Brian had me well beaten on the next peg. I hoped that I might have 50lbs to show for my efforts, but the scales would soon tell. and when they arrived Brian’s 76¼lbs comfortably eclipsed my 52½lbs.

Back at the car park for the results and it was indeed Mick Whitmore on peg 1 whose 116½lbs had taken the honours on the day, with Ricky Green on peg 22 managing 98lbs for second ahead of Chris Lovelock.

All in all though it had been good just to get back out on the bank and blow the cobwebs away. Thanks to Neil and the members of Ospreys AC for the invite and making us feel welcome, and Thanks to Dave for being driver for the day and his Lemon Jammy Dodgers.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 1	Mick Whitmore	116lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 22	Ricky Green	98lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 7	Chris Lovelock	92lbs 02ozs
4th	Peg 8	Tony Wynnick	87lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 3	Bill Lovelock	78lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 21	Brian Ritchie	76lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 16	Andy Waterhouse	75lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg15	Kiran Chavda	72lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 6	Adam Griffiths	67lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 18	Tony Taylor	66lbs 02ozs
11th	Peg 17	Dave Collier	62lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 20	Peter Morton	52lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 24	Richard Doolan	51lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 12	Neil Fenner	46lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 9	Ian Millin	41lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 19	Neil Riddy	40lbs 00ozs
17th=	Peg 2	Julie Briscoe	27lbs 00ozs
17th=	Peg 13	Russell Hill	27lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 5	Mark Barratt	26lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 23	Owen Glover	24lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 4	Mark Gilbert	22lbs 08ozs
22nd	Peg 11	Mark Wilson	20lbs 08ozs
23rd	Peg 14	Steve Probert	20lbs 00ozs
24th	Peg 10	Barry Hatch	DNW

 

Rockells Farm. Saffron Walden. Essex. September 12th, 2010.

Marsh AC club match.

 I’m off to Rockells Farm today for what is probably the most eagerly anticipated club match of the year. Last year Martin Hucker set a new club match record at 383lbs 4ozs and a new club record total of 2911lbs 14ozs was put on the scales by the 19 anglers that fished the match. A lot can depend on the draw, but an awesome weight is on the cards if the draw bag is kind to you. 

As usual when visiting this venue in the depths of Essex I’d arranged to meet Dave at his place just after 6·30am and follow him and Colin down to the fishery. The weather looked good and a smooth run down saw us pulling up at the lake at around 8am to find Keith and his guest Troy along with Jean and Kev, Martin and John already in attendance. A quick look confirmed that the lake looked in good nick although the water level was a little down.

 Keith, Terry and I set off to peg out while the others arrived and I have to say that every peg looked like it was good for a few fish. Keith expressed a preference for a late peg in the high teens and the general consensus was that either the first 3 or the last 3 would be decent draws. So at 8·30am Dave called the draw, people seemed a little reluctant so I dived in early and found peg 19 to be my home for the day. Keith drew peg 3 and with Clive drawing peg 2 with Terry for company on peg 1 they would definitely be contesting the honours, I had Graham for company on 18 while peg 17 was Dave’s for the day and was the one I felt we all had to beat. I had the peg last year and the willow that had been cut back then had re-grown and now offered some cover and would be tailor made for Dave’s floater approach today.

So off to the pegs, and I have to say that I couldn’t have any complaints with my own peg, with the boards to fish to on my left and some cover to my right, both of which had a depth of no more than 18 inches.

 My approach is pretty single minded in that I tend to ignore any long lines when I fish Rockells as shipping back and forth wastes to much time and look to catch on a top 2 from the off if at all possible. Rigs are Middy in-line paste floats made up on 0·20 power match with a size 12 owner barbless relying on the bait to cock the float. Bait is simply GOT Atomic paste with 4mm pellets (and plenty of them) for feed.

So with such a simple set up I had a bit of time before the All-in and had a stroll down to see Dave who was looking as happy as Larry despite not feeling quite 100%……

Dave had never recorded 300lbs in a match, but today he was definitely sitting on a peg that was more than capable of doing it if he could get off to a good start in the first 3 hour session. We fish two three hour sessions here with a mid point weigh-in as with the prospect of big weights it means that fish aren’t retained in nets for to long and it gives the anglers a chance to have a breather as well.

So 10am and Dave blew the whistle for the All-in, a handful of pellet down both margins and in with my first piece of paste next to the boards, a couple of dinks and the float slid away resulting in a perfect little Common of around 8ozs to get me off the mark and from then on in the bites kept coming regularly, unfortunately not all were connected with, I’d get 4 or 5 on the trot then miss a few or foul hook a couple, but I had 20 fish in the first hour. Peg 19 is pretty tucked away in a corner and you cant really see anyone else to judge how you’re doing against them, though I could hear plenty of splashing coming from Graham and Dave’s pegs so it was just a question off concentrating on my own peg. By the end of the second hour I had 39 fish, but they were mostly small. In the 3rd hour I upped the size of paste that I was fishing and although the bites slowed a bit I started to pick up a better stamp of fish. Judy popped round to see how I was doing, but it coincided with one of those frustrating periods of lots of missed bites and by the time that Dave blew the whistle to signal the end of the morning session I had 55 fish on the clicker and was hoping for somewhere around the ton.

The weigh-in started from my peg and I recorded exactly 100lbs. Graham had 84½lbs while Dave had a much better stamp of fish for 150½lbs and top weigh of the morning. Martin on peg 13 had also fished floaters for 101½lbs. Colin had also had a good morning on peg 8, making the most of the cover afforded from the overhanging willow on his peg and again fishing floaters for a fine 144¼lbs. The point pegs hadn’t really produced as expected, lots of small fish, but not enough of the better stamp, with Keith’s 89¾lbs being the best weight of the group. I’d fished Keith’s peg 2 years ago though and expected it to fish much better in the second session. However 1095½lbs had been weighed in by the 18 anglers including four ‘Tons’, an average of just over 60lbs per angler so not too shabby.

By the time we all returned to our pegs and sorted ourselves out it was 2·15pm before Dave signalled the All-in for the second session. I’d fed a couple of pints of pellet into both of the margins prior to the end of the first session and was hopeful that it was enough to hold the fish during the break, and it seemed that it had been a success as I had a fish first put in.

Well the second session pretty much followed the pattern of the first, though I did manage to pick up a few more better fish, but nothing over 4lbs. Dave however was definitely getting a better stamp of fish and was looking good I felt for an overall win. Anyway after a further 3 hours Dave called the All-out for the second and final time today. I had 78 fish on the clicker this time and hoped they would be enough to take me to around 200lbs for the session if I had enough better sized fish, but I would have to wait and see as the weigh in would run in the opposite direction this time, starting from peg 1.

So with the gear back at the car park it was time to start the weigh in. Terry and Clive had both improved on their morning sessions with 128¼lbs and 123¼lbs respectively. Keith had had a standout session though, his 2 nets finally registering 219¼lbs for an overall weight of 309lbs which would prove to be good enough for 3rd on the day.

 John on peg five managed 101½lbs in the afternoon. Colin however had gone from strength to strength with 225lbs and a total of 369¼lbs to take the win on the day. Martin had another busy session putting 158¼lbs onto the scales. Dave had 3 nets in which gave him 193¾lbs, comfortably taking him past his own 300lb target for a total weight of 344¼lbs, a new PB match weigh giving him 2nd on the day. My own weight of 169¼ proved as I feared that I had to many small fish, but the total of 269¼lbs still gave me 4th on the day.

So back to the car park for the results. A total of 2878¾lbs had been weighed in on the day, just short of our record, still an incredible average of 159lbs per angler !!!! with 3 ‘Triple Tons’, 2 ‘Double Tons’ and a further  6 ‘Tons’ overall a phenomenal days fishing by any standards. Roll on next years match, looks like I may have to brush up on my floater fishing.
 

Position	Peg	Angler	Morning	Afternoon	Total Weight
1st	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	144lbs 04ozs	225lbs 00ozs	369lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 17	Dave Collier	150lbs 08ozs	193lbs 12ozs	344lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 3	Keith Ashby	89lbs 12ozs	219lbs 04ozs	309lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 19	Peter Morton	100lbs 00ozs	169lbs 04ozs	269lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 13	Martin Hucker	101lbs 08ozs	158lbs 04ozs	259lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 1	Terry Goff	66lbs 00ozs	128lbs 12ozs	194lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 5	John Holdsworth	76lbs 04ozs	101lbs 08ozs	177lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 18	Graham Manning	84lbs 08ozs	90lbs 12ozs	175lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 2	Clive Pritchard	43lbs 12ozs	123lbs 12ozs	167lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 7	Tony Roberts	69lbs 08ozs	88lbs 08ozs	158lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 4	Troy Hillier      (guest)	38lbs 08ozs	78lbs 00ozs	116lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 6	Ken Walker	35lbs 00ozs	42lbs 00ozs	77lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 14	Jim Boase	20lbs 12ozs	43lbs 08ozs	64lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 16	Roger Noakes	25lbs 08ozs	28lbs 08ozs	54lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 15	Judy Hermite	10lbs 08ozs	42lbs 12ozs	53lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 11	Kevin Loveland	24lbs 12ozs	18lbs 04ozs	43lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 12	Eddie Dobson	7lbs 08ozs	31lbs 08ozs	39lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 9	Rod Turner	7lbs 00ozs	DNW	7lbs 00ozs