Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. August 6th, 2011.

Maggotdrowning.com

 

Southern Championship 2011.

 Today is the day of the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Championship which means that I’m off down to Nick’s Lake at Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrooke in Kent. Nick Gilbert had kindly taken care of organising the match this year. The early morning glance out of the window revealed a cloudy overcast morning, and the weather forecast wasn’t for much in the way of improvement. I soon had the car loaded up and by 7am I was on my way.

The first port of call today was The Knoxbridge Café, where a few of the lads were meeting for breakfast. I got there just after 8am to find most of the usual suspects were already in attendance a ‘Knoxbridge Special Breakfast’ soon had me set up for the day ahead, and it was then just a matter of jumping back into the car for the five minute trip down the road to the fishery.

As we waited for the draw word came through that Tony was marooned on a stationary M25, and a quick phone call to him confirmed that he wouldn’t be able to make it today, which left 16 of us fishing today. Prior to the draw Nick was doing a brisk trade in his floats which he had with him, but we were soon picking our pegs……

I found peg 13 was to be mine for the day, not a peg that I would have chosen, as I’ve never fished there before and it’s not considered one of the noted pegs. Nick Costar (Bag Up) had drawn peg 8, and would take some beating with his Method approach, while Al had drawn 9, another good peg. Matt and Mick had 23 and 24 and Nick Gilbert was on peg 17, on his own at the top of the lake with the wind blowing into it.

Reaching my peg I took stock, a comfy chuck to the island for a feeder, and a promising reed lined margin to the right and a overhanging bush to the left, with the wind blowing from right to left across me ……

I set up 3 top kits. The first with a 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil made up on 0·16 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 16 Guru MWG for straight out in front at around 6mtrs where I had around 4ft of water. Then a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG for tight to the reeds in my right hand margin where I had 2 feet of water and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG that would be used tight to the bush on my left. I also set up the feeder rod to fish the method to the island. Bait was a selection of 4, 6 and 8mm pellets along with some GOT Baits soft hookers and some paste.

Kevin appeared with a welcome cup of coffee courtesy of Jean and after a brief chat made his way back to his peg for the start of the match. With everyone set Nick called the All-In at 11am. I fed a pot of mixed pellet at 6mtrs and a handful in each margin before shipping an 8mm pellet out to the 6mtr line. a couple of dips then the float buried resulting in a hand sized skimmer to get me off the mark, which was followed by a couple more identical examples. Not quite what I was hoping for especially as the two Nick’s both appeared to be off to flyer’s along with Al, in fact rumour had it that Bag Up had taken a couple of near doubles in consecutive casts within the first 15 minutes !!!!!!

Up to my left on peg 15 was Toby(vassago)Wells, and from what I could see it appeared that he was suffering with a similar slow start to the match like I was ……

After upping my feeding on the 6mtr line my next fish was a Carp, only a small one at around 1½lbs, but it gave a good account of itself before sliding across the rim of the landing net. This signalled the start of a run of Carp, but after about an hour I could tell that I wasn’t catching fast enough and was already falling behind. Time to take a look on the method. I’d previously soaked some 4mm pellets for use on the feeder, so using those in conjunction with a hair rigged banded 8mm pellet it was out to the island with the feeder. It was quite shallow out by the island and I could see fish turning toward the splash of the feeder as it landed, and while it soon started to produce fish for me, they were all small fish of around the 1lb mark. Nick on peg 17 was making serious inroads into the lake’s Carp population and still taking fish regularly……

I stuck it out in the hope that a few better examples would show up, but it just didn’t seem as if it was meant to be today. Sipping a second cup of coffee from Jean I decided to have a quick look with the pellet waggler, as I had been catapulting 6-8 8mm pellets to the island every couple of minutes while fishing the method and it was already set up in it’s ready sleeve. The set up was ideal to reach the island but after half a dozen casts it was all to obvious that the wind was making presentation to difficult for it to be effective.

I could see that Al was still catching at a steady rate, and his commentary on Bag Up’s progress kept everyone aware of how well he was catching. I could also hear plenty of splashing coming from Nick’s peg although the bush to my left stopped me from seeing quite how well he was doing. However I could see Mick over on peg 24 and he seemed to be catching well down his left hand margin ……

A quick look down both margins produced nothing apart from a solitary small Roach, so it was back to the 6mtr line for me. I was soon back among the Carp, still not large fish, but a slightly better stamp at around 1½-2lbs to those I’d been catching on the method. The problem was that I couldn’t increase the catch rate, it was just steady away. Finally with about 30 minutes to go the fish turned up in my right hand margin and I managed to take a few better fish around the 3-4lb mark before Nick called the All-Out at 4pm, but it was to little to late for me.

Packing up and chatting to Toby it was obvious that we’d had pretty similar matches, and I felt that I probably had around 70lbs to show for my efforts.
So with my gear back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In.

Mick R kicked things off with 39½lbs, but Simon recorded the days first ‘Ton’ with a fine 137lbs. Kev could only manage 37lbs 10ozs. Bag Up put 185lbs on the scales, but Al topped that with 197lbs 10ozs. My fish came to 88¼lbs, while Toby had 79¼lbs. Nick showed just what a busy day he’d had 140 Carp for a weight of 222¼lbs. Lee had 82lbs and Matt had 128¼lbs but Mick won their peg to peg tussle with 177¾lbs. Dave had 50½lbs while new boy Gino had 30lbs. On peg 32 Terry’s 112½lbs was just 4ozs better than Rusty’s 112¼lbs from peg 33, and Keith was last to weigh with 49¾lbs.

So back to the car park for the results. The Winner on the day and Maggotdrowning Southern Champion 2011 was Nick Gilbert. Al Loader took second place on the day while Nick Costar was third overall.

Thanks to Nick for organising the match and to all those that supported it on the day.

Lastly to Hartleylands Farm, what a fishery, Over 1700lbs of fish weighed in, meaning an average of over 100lbs per angler, it shows the quality of the fishing on offer.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 17	Nick(Master Baiter)Gilbert	222lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 9	Al(al)Loader	197lbs 10ozs
3rd	Peg 8	Nick(BAG UP)Costar	185lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 24	Mick(mickeym)McMillan	177lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 5	Simon(sidev77)Watkins	137lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 23	Matt(the slapper)Love	128lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 32	Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff	112lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 33	Russell(Russ G)Graves	112lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 13	Peter(mugger)Morton	88lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 21	Lee(LEEMANS)Rose	82lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 15	Toby(vassago)Wells	79lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 26	Dave(dave the fish)Collier	50lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 35	Keith(keith74)Powell	49lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 2	Mick(mick r)Rumford	39lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 7	Kevin(Kev the Catch)Loveland	37lbs 10ozs
16th	Peg 27	Gino(naughtycockney)	30lbs 00ozs

 

Rayne Lodge Fishery. The Top Lake. May 21st, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

The Top Lake at Rayne Lodge just outside of Braintree in Essex is the venue for what is the second Marsh AC club match of the year. A quick glance through the curtains confirmed that the forecaster hadn’t been kidding last night and it promised to be a fine sunny day, so shorts and tee shirt were the order of the day. Cats fed and coffee drunk I loaded up the car and set off round to Dave’s house where I met up Chris and Dave for the trip down to the fishery. An accident on the way to the Dartford Tunnel meant we had to divert round it making us a little late, but we still pulled into the car park just after 8am.

Soon all the kit was transferred down the hill to the lake and discussions were underway about the prospects for the day ahead. Vic (SHANGER) Nugent was fishing his first club match with us since joining and had brought his partner Diane along to fish as well, while Keith had brought workmate Mick along as his guest once more. Into the draw and peg 14 was mine for the day (one away from the one I had on my last visit here)……

while Keith drew peg 14A to my left……

 with Kevin and partner Jean to my right on peg 12 and Al next up on peg 11A……

I have to say that the lake looked cock on, There were plenty of fish showing, however they just appeared to be mooching about and it looked as if they were getting ready to spawn to me.

With us fishing from 10·15am till 4·15pm today there was plenty of time to set up, so everything got an outing today. 2 pellet waggler rods and a method feeder set up came out of their ready sleeves along with 3 top kits for the pole.

The top kits were set up with 2 Sackup CX 4×12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG’s and a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG for the margin line. Feed was 6mm hard pellet, with dampened pellet for the method while hook baits were 6 & 8mm hard pellet, corn and a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers.

Jean kindly provided me with my customary coffee and a bonus today in the shape of a freshly cooked sausage & bacon roll so I was well set by the time Dave sounded the All-In at 10·15am. A pot of pellets and corn onto each my selected lines then I shipped a banded 6mm pellet out to 7mtrs. A minute later and the float slid away and carp number 1 was on its way to the net. Unfortunately it was only a couple of ounces, not quite the stamp I was looking for. A better example of around a pound was next up and this was followed by a couple of skimmers and I got the impression that the fish I was really looking for weren’t present in any numbers.

I’d started catapulting a few pellets across to the corner of the island and after around an hour took a look with the pellet waggler after re-feeding my pole lines. There were fish there alright, I could see them cruising, but after half an hour I’d only managed 3 small carp for my efforts. A quick look with the feeder was unproductive so it was back to the pole.

At this stage nobody appeared to be running away with it, and the word was that it was generally fishing slow. I started to get a few carp interested on my 7mtr line, nothing remarkable, but enough to make me feel that I was holding my own against Keith. Another coffee and sausage & bacon roll from Jean was most welcome, so having been re-fed myself, I re-fed the swim and took a quick stroll to try and see what was happening elsewhere.

Keith was starting to find a few on a more regular basis, though he was ruing the loss of a ‘Double’ that had taken off out of his swim and just kept going……

 Simon appeared to be ticking along nicely picking up fish by alternating between on the deck and up in the water in an attempt to keep in touch with the fish……

 Diane was playing a fish as I passed and seemed to think that she might have the beating of Vic……

 …… and although Vic was also playing a fish, a quick chat revealed that he was far from confident in gaining the upper hand today……

 Terry on peg 22 claimed to be struggling, though he was playing a fish while we chatted. while Eddie on peg 1 appeared to be ticking along nicely and enjoying his first day out on the bank for a while……

Dave had started to catch fishing floaters under the tree to his left and while he was having trouble feeding due to the resident geese he seemed to be getting a decent stamp of fish, and it seemed that Martin had followed his lead and was starting to catch a similar stamp of fish from peg 6 round the corner from Dave ……

Clive was claiming to have a mare, but the fact that he was happy to pose with a small roach that he caught led me to believe that he might just be sand bagging about how his match was going…

I found Mick in the corner on peg 11 and was shocked to see him fishing the waggler, but he was having a bit of a lean time and figured that it was the best way to tempt a few……

 As I got back to my peg Keith was into another fish so it was time to get my head down and concentrate. First put in and the float buried as a carp intercepted the bait and although the sport was never fast or furious, I managed to keep the fish coming on a reasonably regular basis by keeping the pellet going in to hold the fish. It was nip and tuck between me and Keith right the way to the end with a bit of banter back and forth between the two of us right up till the end when Dave called the All-Out at 4·15pm while I played a final fish that took my total up to 51 carp.

As we packed up I knew it would be to close to call between Keith and I and with the weigh in starting on peg 1 it had made it’s way round to Martin on peg 6 before I caught up with it to find Dave leading with a fine 114¾lbs which would prove to be good enough to take the win on the day as Martin’s net came up a little short at 103¾lb, but still good enough for 2nd. Clive had indeed been economical with the truth as his net came in at a level 89lbs for 3rd overall. Al managed 64½lbs while my fish weighed a total of 73lbs giving me the section and just edging out Keith’s 71½lbs. Simon’s 64½lbs allowed him to tie for 6th with Al. Round to peg 20 where Diane placed a level 48lbs on the scales to take the decision from Vic’s 34½lbs, though of course we were all full of sympathy for him ……………NOT

Back up the hill to the car park for the results and the section monies and that was it for another match. The next match is at Mill Barn Reservoir on June 11th where I’ll be defending a narrow 1 point lead from Al and Clive with Keith just a point further back.
 

	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 4	Dave Collier	114lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 6	Martin Hucker	103lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 8	Clive Pritchard	89lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 14	Peter Morton	73lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 14a	Keith Ashby	71lbs 08ozs
6th=	Peg 11a	Al Loader	64lbs 08ozs
6th=	Peg 17	Simon Watkins	64lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 7	Tony Roberts	55lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 1	Eddie Dobson	51lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 20	Diane                     Guest	48lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 16	Jim Boase	38lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 21	Vic Nugent	34lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 12	Kevin Loveland	30lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 11	Mick Wright           Guest	29lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 22	Terry Goff	19lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 9	Chris Withall	14lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 10	Judy Hermite	14lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 3	Ron Mannister	7lbs 12ozs

 

Mill Barn Coarse Fishery, Great Wakering, Essex. June 26th, 2010.

Marsh AC club match.

Well it’s time for yet another Marsh AC club match today, and I’m off to Mill Barn Coarse Fishery, just outside the village of Great Wakering down in Essex it’s a new venue for a lot of us and we’re fishing The Reservoir that’s been recommended to us by club member Graham Manning. The weather forecast promises that it’s going to be a scorcher . Anyway with the gear loaded up it wasn’t a bad trip down and I pulled up in the car park of The Anchor where breakfast had been arranged around 7·15am to find Kevin & Jean and Keith & Mick already there. The others soon arrived and Breakfast was promptly dispatched, after which we followed Graham in convoy up to the venue.

Once we had all assembled in the car park, Tony and Colin collected up the fees and got the draw under way. I found myself with peg 5 for my home from the day, a little tucked into the corner restricting my options, but after a chat with Tony & Colin I decided to make the most of it. It was rumoured to be something of a flyer with a sunken island out in front of it, but in reality, the island was really in front of Roger and Rod and I didn’t want to risk casting over either of them ……

I set up 3 rigs for the pole, 2 for the margins where there was around 3ft tight in and another for around 6mtrs where I had around 7ft. I also set up my feeder rod with a running method feeder and the waggler as I’d heard that there was a good head of carp present and I expected them to come up in the water at some point today given the weather. Bait was to be corn and a variety of hard and soft pellets in various sizes, while the groundbait for the feeder was a 50/50 mix of Mojo and GOT Yellow Peril .

The All-In was called at 10am, I fed some pellets and corn into both margins and 1st cast I put the method feeder straight into the trees to my left, Not a good start!!!!! After re-rigging the feeder the next cast was a little better dropping just short of the tree line. It didn’t take long for something to take an interest in the hair rigged corn with the tip pulling confidently round and the culprit, a small common of around 2½lbs was soon safely in the net.

It was already starting to get hot with the sun beaming down, though thankfully a decent breeze was putting a ripple on the water and keeping things bearable. A second carp of around the same stamp soon followed for me, and I could hear from remarks that a few fish were starting to come out further along the bank……

Over on the car park bank I could see that Roger had started on the float and while sport didn’t appear to be fast and furious, it was surely only a matter of time before some fish would start to come his way…….

From my vantage point I could see that Kev had found a bit of early action with some carp and skimmers on the feeder, and I have to say that Kev’s set up certainly makes for a comfortable and relaxed approach compared to the usual seatbox set up you see most people using ……

Colin, to my right was having a look down the margins, and while it was producing a few for him, he was having a bit of trouble from fish shedding the hook, while a couple just snapped rigs like cotton !!……

For my part, the initial good start had come to a grinding halt with just a couple of skimmers added to those 2 initial carp. A look down both margins with the pole producing just another skimmer and a couple of roach, so after re feeding all pole lines I decided to take a stroll and see how others were fairing ……

Mick who had travelled down from Milton Keynes as Keith’s guest was fishing with his usual laid back approach, though he was missing being able to use his beloved meat, a bait he sets great store in ……

Meanwhile Keith on the next peg was starting to get amongst a few from the margins, targeting an area by an inflow pipe. However the fish weren’t letting him have it his own way, sorting out more than a few rigs with one even stripping the red hydro from a top kit showing the fighting qualities of the fish in the reservoir ……

Terry wasn’t experiencing anything like as much action, though he felt he was at least on his way to a better weight than he’d recorded recently, having suffered some poor days with his last 3 visits to Rolf’s in The Jinx Series……

Al had a frustrating start to the day, trying to get the fish going on the Pellet Waggler, he’d spent the first hour trying to steer clear of ducks that were snaffling his pellets every time he fed, but as the match wore on the ducks moved away and he steadily started to put a run of fish together……

Zack was having a bit of a quiet time, but had the satisfaction of landing a double figure Carp which was almost certainly a new PB ……

I stopped off to see how Tony was doing and found that he was suffering too, as the fish were testing his gear to and in some cases beyond its limits, meanwhile on the peg next door I was quite surprised to find Clive with something other than a pole in his hand. Indeed he was having a go with the pellet waggler, and he was having a few, though it was also noticeable that he had a spanking new set of Trambucco keepnets that were floating well, so there obviously wasn’t to much in them at that stage ……

On the end peg though Graham, who had put the venue forward seemed to be putting his experience of the fishery to good use on the end peg and was having a fair old struggle with what was obviously a decent fish ……

Indeed it proved to be a bit of a rarity, in the shape of a fine Grass Carp that must have been very close to double figures and well worthy of a photo for its happy captor.

So back to my peg, another look where I’d fed with the pole failed to produce anything other than a couple of small skimmers, while Colin was still nicking the odd decent carp from his margin lines. I went back to the feeder and as Roger was still fishing close in I gave it a chuck to the sunken island. While this produced a few fish for me I still couldn’t get them lined up and I felt that I was falling behind as Colin was getting larger fish at the same rate as me. I just couldn’t find a bonus fish.

In desperation I had a plumb up with the waggler at around 12mtrs where I could comfortably feed 8mm hard pellets and found around 8ft, and it was this line that I decided to concentrate on for the last couple of hours. This line eventually started to produce with some regularity. Nothing big (the largest was probably no more than 5lbs) but fast powerful fish that took line off the clutch on the strike and fought every inch of the way to the net.

By the time that the All-Out was called at 4pm I felt that I had around 60lbs in the net and had thoroughly enjoyed the day. With the gear packed away and back in the car I caught up with the Weigh-In. Graham had kicked things off with a fine 66¼lbs getting the better of Clive’s 59½lbs though they were both pipped by Tony’s 69¼lbs. Al however had the weight of the day with a fine 92½lbs to ensure the win on the day. Zack’s solitary carp at 10¼lbs did prove to be a new PB for him …… 

…… but John took the car pool from Zack and Martin with 40½lbs. Keith put a level 74 lbs on the scales for 3rd on the day and the bragging right from Mick on the way home in the car to Milton Keynes. Colin weighed 77lbs for second on the day, while my 69¼lbs gave me a share of 4th with Tony. All in all a good day out with the club, with everyone in agreement that the venue is worthy of a return next season.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 12	Al Loader	92lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 6	Colin Sharrard	77lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 8	Keith Ashby	74lbs 00ozs
4th=	Peg 5	Peter Morton	69lbs 04ozs
4th=	Peg 15	Tony Roberts	69lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 17	Graham Manning	66lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 16	Clive Pritchard	59lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 7	Mick Wright         (guest)	51lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 9	John Holdsworth	40lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 2	Kevin Loveland	36lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 11	Terry Goff	35lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 1	Jim Boase	17lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 4	Roger Noakes	11lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 13	Zack Johnson	11lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 10	Martin Hucker	10lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 3	Rod Turner	DNW

Churchgate Lakes. The Bottom Lake. April 24th, 2010.

Marsh AC club match.

Well it’s the second Marsh match of the year today. There’s a slight change of plan however as we were supposed to be fishing the Top Lake, but with only 22 pegs on there after some recent changes, and with 20 anglers booked in for todays match the decision was made to change to the Bottom Lake. I have to say that the last couple of matches that the club has had on there haven’t really been resounding successes so hopefully it will fish a bit better for us today.
 

I’d arranged to meet up with Dave at his house at 7am, and it’s a good job I did. As I got out of the car I saw that I hadn’t put my pellets in the car, Luckily Dave always has loads so I blagged some from him. Cars loaded and a quick trip through the Dartford Tunnel into darkest Essex saw us pulling into the fishery car park just before 8am.

It promised to be a glorious day weather wise with the sun shining out of a clear blue sky, but the first order of the day was breakfast in the café cooked by Tony Runnalls (the Fishery Manager) while everyone caught up with the latest gossip. It was Dave’s Birthday  today and his good lady Gladys had come with him on what has become her annual outing with the club. There’s a bit of history here as on her first visit here in October 2007 she had beaten Dave off the next peg, while on our last visit in July 2008, I was the one being beaten, so the pressure was on to avoid being “Gladys’d” so avoiding frightful amounts of stick in the future.

Into the draw and I found peg 2 sticking to my hand, a nice short walk from the car park but not the best of draws as it’s always struggled to produce in our matches on the lake. The peg itself looks glorious……

…….with the corner of an island that can be reached at around 20mtrs. For company today I had Keith on peg 1 ……

…… so the competition would be stiff, but at least the banter would be good while peg 3 wasn’t drawn.
I decided to be positive in my approach today targeting the larger fish that are present in the lake. I set up a couple of Shakespeare 11ft pellet waggler rods and a feeder rod with a small method feeder to attack the point of the island, while I just set up 1 pole rig for a late look down the margin as a back up. Bait for the day was simply 6mm hard pellet and some corn, while the groundbait for the feeder was the new GOT ‘Yellow Peril’ with some added Atomic micros.
There’s a huge head of smaller fish that can be caught fishing maggot, but the matches always seem to go to those who get amongst the better specimens, especially the Carp and Bream, so they were my targets for today.

So at 10am Dave called the All-In and we were underway, the method feeder being dispatched to the corner of the island with a banded pellet on the hook, while I pinged a few pellets over in preparation for the waggler later. Keith started on the lead to the island and was soon off the mark with a small Tench. I stuck at the method for 45 minutes before I was rewarded with my first fish, a small F1 that promptly dived at the keepnet and transferred the hook to it before I had the chance to net it. Carp 1-0, Was it going to be one of those days?

Out with the waggler and I was finally rewarded with an Ide of around 1lb+ to get me off the mark. Dave was on an early stroll round and informed me that Gladys was catching well and already had 35 fish to crank the pressure up. Gladys always fishes maggot on a top 2 for whatever swims and while I knew most of her fish would be small there was always the chance of the odd bonus and she would probably put 10lbs+ on the scales at the end, so no pressure there then.

A Bream was my next fish and at around 2½lbs more than welcome, this was swiftly followed another, unfortunately this one was nearer 2½ozs. Keith however was reporting rather a lot of black Hydro being pulled from his topkit !!!!!!!! The culprit proved to be a decent Common that was soon residing in the bottom of Keith’s landing net………

I was then briefly attached to something that decided to vanish at a rate of knots round the back of the island before shedding the hook and killing sport in the process. Carp 2-0. I took a look down the margin that I’d been feeding regularly from the off with a grain of corn on the hook but without an indication to give me any encouragement after 15 minutes I decided to have a stroll with the camera.


Tony on peg 25 was getting amongst some decent Ide down on peg 25, but the chap that seemed to be doing the best on that bank was Clive fishing meat long he’d picked up some decent Bream and a couple of Carp, but had lost a Bream that he reckoned was bigger than his landing net !!!!!……..

Gladys had slowed down a bit (Thank heavens for small mercies) while Dave fishing his customary 4 sections had the contented look of a man who felt he had the measure of his wife ……

Over on the far side the wind was putting a nice ripple onto the water and Jim could be found steadily putting a net of small fish together, but was a little frustrated that he couldn’t find any bonus fish ……

…… especially as Mick (fishing as Keith’s guest having accompanied him down from Milton Keynes) was quietly putting together a good net with some decent Bream fishing his right hand margin………

…… Colin was having a bit of a struggle and had reverted to fishing the maggot, but Al was fishing hemp & tares up in the water and was finding a few Ide and bream. Tony (Wily Coyote) was tucked away in peg 5 but was having better luck catching the sun than getting the fish to co-operate ……

……. and young Zack was sticking at it, but struggling to find a bite with just a couple of fish to show for his efforts…….

Back at my peg and the waggler still failed to produce so I decided to fish the method for the remainder of the match in the hope that I could find a decent Carp to get me out of Jail. Tony meanwhile had hooked a decent Carp, a right lump in fact and was gingerly playing it on his new pole, and getting plenty of encouragement to give it a bit of teddy …….
……. needless to say the hook pulled, but at least he got plenty of Sympathy ……..NOT !!!!!!!!

Meanwhile Clive had come for a stroll round complete with camera, and right on cue the tip on my feeder rod shot round, Fish on, softly softly as it was obviously a Carp that could save my day……

……. Well retribution for taking the micky out of Tony was swift as everything went slack, a pigtailed line showing that a knot had failed at the swivel ……

…… Mugger had been well and truly mugged. Carp 3-0.

So a couple of hours to go and it looked like I needed snookers. I tied a new rig up, paying special attention to the knots this time and set up a hair rig to take 3 grains of sweetcorn, sh*t or bust time. Time ticked on, Keith managed another a smaller Carp from his margin, but not so much as a rattle on my tip.

3·55pm and just 5 minutes to go, time for one last cast before the inevitable stick that I just knew would be coming my way. 3 fresh grains of corn on the rig and back out accompanied with a little prayer……………. Well the tip had barely settled when it steadily pulled round and just kept going . I just had to lift the rod and as soon as I felt it I knew this was the fish that I needed. A nervous couple of minutes followed, not helped by various shouts of encouragement (or was it disbelief) from around the lake, before I slid it safely over the net accompanied by a shout of relief that could be heard around the lake, a definite double, I slipped it safely into the keepnet just as Dave called the All-Out.

 

As I packed my kit away I have to say that I felt pretty relieved, though I’m sure I could hear “Two Minutes,Two bloody Minutes “ coming from Dave’s direction. Keith and I were on the scales today and as we set off round the lake Tony on peg 25 took an early lead with a level 20lbs. Clive on peg 20 soon overtook that however with 45lbs. Gladys set the target of 12½lbs to avoid humiliation, which Dave sailed past with 22½lbs. Jim put 17lbs on the scales, but the main man on the day was Keith’s guest Mick who comfortably took the win with 63¼lbs of mainly Bream. Al’s 23lbs was to prove good enough for 3rd overall. My moment of truth arrived and that late Carp weighed just over 11lbs and boosted my total weight to 16¼lbs, so no ‘Gladysing’ for me. Keith rounded things off with a hard earnt 17¾lbs.

 

Back to the car park for the results, and most seemed to think that it hadn’t fished that badly, and after a chorus of HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Dave we said our farewells.  

 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 10	Mick Wright              (guest)	63lbs 04ozs	n/a
2nd	Peg 20	Clive Pritchard	45lbs 00ozs	30
3rd	Peg 7	Al Loader	23lbs 00ozs	29
4th	Peg 18	Dave Collier	22lbs 08ozs	28
5th	Peg 25	Tony Roberts	20lbs 00ozs	27
6th	Peg 1	Keith Ashby	17lbs 12ozs	26
7th	Peg 11	Jim Boase	17lbs 00ozs	25
8th	Peg 2	Peter Morton	16lbs 04ozs	24
9th	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	15lbs 12ozs	23
10th	Peg 14	Roger Noakes	12lbs 08ozs	22
10th=	Peg 19	Gladys Collier             (guest)	12lbs 08ozs	n/a
12th	Peg 12	Ken Walker	9lbs 08ozs	21
13th	Peg 9	John Holdsworth	8lbs 04ozs	20
14th	Peg 5	Terry Goff	8lbs 00ozs	19
15th	Peg 16	Martin Hucker	6lbs 08ozs	18
16th	Peg 21	Eddy Dobson	5lbs 08ozs	17
17th	Peg 26	Judy Hermite	4lbs 12ozs	16
18th	Peg 4	Zack Johnson	3lbs 00ozs	15
19th	Peg 24	Kevin Loveland	1lb   00ozs	14
20th	Peg 22	Rod Turner	DNW	5

 

My next trip should be down to Monk Lakes for the Faye Match in support of http://www.postpals.co.uk which should hopefully raise a good few quid for a very good cause. A full report of the day will appear here in due course.