Hawthorne AC club match.
Well today was the first Hawthorne AC club match of the New Year and the first chance that I’d had to get out since before Christmas. Looking out of the window as I woke up, my first reaction was that it had snowed again, but no it was just a very severe frost.
On the way down to the lakes at Frant the outside temperature was registering -7° centigrade, and it was with some apprehension that we pulled into the car park, Only to be greeted by the site of all six lakes frozen solid.
Thankfully the food wagon was up and running, so after a fortifying egg & bacon sandwich and a steaming mug of tea we made our way down to Lake 4 which had allegedly been ice free the day before, armed with a selection of weights, chains and ropes to try and free up some swims.
To say this was not a success would be an understatement, in fact we were on the point of calling it a day and cancelling the match when help appeared in the shape of the owners son with the fishery ARGOCAT.
Eventually enough swims were cleared, and a vote was taken to cut the match short to 4 hours to prevent to much suffering and frostbite.
Into the drawbag and peg 13 (unlucky for some) stuck to my hand.
Over to the far side of the lake where the low sun was straight in my eyes. A bit of deft work with the landing net cleared enough floating ice out of the way to allow me to start fishing at about 7mtrs.
I decided to keep things simple and fish a fluro pinkie on the hook and just drip a few in with a kinder pot. Well I got some bites that I managed to convert to a few fish (all small) but enough to keep my mind off the temperature which managed to struggle up to a positively tropical +1° centigrade during the course of the match.
A slow but steady procession of small Roach, Rudd, Perch, Gudgeon and Skimmers produced a netfull that was enough to swing the scales round to 5lbs 2ozs at the end of the match which gave me 3rd place.
Not the biggest bag of fish by any means, but very satisfying given the conditions, and certainly better than a day spent decorating.
Hawthorne AC club match.
Ho Ho Ho!!!!! Time for the Christmas Fur & Feather Match. This is really just a fun match and everyone is guaranteed a prize at the end of the day, and funnily enough this meant the best turn out of the season so far!!
Now Lucks Lane Lake couldn’t be described as the prettiest venue going, especially in the winter. It’s an old irrigation reservoir that is raised up from the surrounding orchards, thus catching any weather that’s going, and today there was plenty!!!!!! Oh and did I mention that the Eurostar trains thunder past about 50 yards away every 20 mins?
In it’s defence it’s one of those venues that normally produces a few fish regardless of conditions. Being that today was basically a social event, I was just looking for a bit of comfort, so it was up with the brolly and out with a feeder to try and snare one of the lumpier Carp that inhabit the venue. I hate fishing the pole in the cold & rain so that got left in the rodbag.
Between wandering around and chatting to most of the members I did actually manage to catch one, A nice Mirror Carp of 7lbs 10ozs which was good enough for 8th place on the day which won me a bottle of Scotch by way of a bit of Christmas cheer.
Well back to Elphick’s today for another go! As I said in my previous report, today I would be accompanied by Fred
(one of only two founder members of our club, which is celebrating 40 seasons this year). However a couple of phone calls from him and we were joined by Peter W, Ron & Roy. Sandwich Lake was selected again (Remember….No Carp).
Well what a difference two days makes !!!! After yesterdays torrential rain down here in the SE, The level had risen 3 inches putting the platforms on the other side under water. A clear sky and a biting cold NW wind greeted us as we made our way to our pegs. As we tackled up the wind seemed to increase. It was obviously going to be awkward to say the least.
Here’s the lineup (front-back) Me (taking the pic) Fred, Pete W. Ron & Roy……
I had peg 10 again, but action was far from fast & furious. Corn & pellet both went untouched as the others started to connect with some nice Roach around the 6-8 oz mark.
After an hour a switch to maggot produced a series of lightning fast unhitable bites. However adding 3 inches to the depth of the rig to nail the bait down had the desired effect and I was soon rewarded with a nice skimmer of about a pound. Next put in and a bit more elastic comes out………… this was more like it, a nice Golden Tench weighing about 1½ pounds.
By now Ron & Roy had succumbed to the cold and forsaken their poles for the relative comfort of the feeder fished from behind their brollies. Fred & Pete W had come in close to try and sneak a few fish from the margins while I stuck it out at 11mtrs to pick up a dozen hard earned Roach and Rudd, the best of which might have just topped the pound!
Roy had managed 1 Bream on the feeder, but poor Ron was still struggling to prevent the dreaded blank.
Fred was having trouble spotting bites in the choppy conditions and Pete W was still nicking the odd one from almost under his feet fishing caster. Me? I got another bar of gold about 2lbs this time.
Towards the end bites dried up for everyone as the temperature continued to fall. We were all getting ready to call it a day as the cold started to creep into old joints when down went my float and all of a sudden there was an awful lot of elastic heading for the other side of the lake. Softly softly catchee monkey (or in this case fish) and 9mins later (timed by Ron) the prize was in the net, A pristine Mirror Carp of exactly 10lbs………
Did it count????? There aren’t supposed to be any Carp in this lake. Of Course it did.
Well that was all folks, a much harder day than Tuesday, but still some fish to be had, except for poor Ron…… Yes folks he had suffered the dreaded BLANK.
Well after my struggle at Mapledurham I Needed to catch a few fish to restore the old confidence. Looking out of the bedroom window at a grey leaden sky I wasn’t in any great hurry to venture out, but then thought “Why Not” (It’s nice when you have a week off and no decorating to do)
So after a leisurely breakfast it was of to Elphicks Fisheries, Horsmonden, in Kent. There are 6 lakes offering something for everyone, but the one that I was interested in is the fourth lake on the complex called The Sandwich. This lake holds virtually everything with one exception…… No Carp!!!!!!!!! The Sandwich is about 1.2 acres with a small island in the middle,and arriving there I had the whole lake to myself.
I picked swim 10 as it holds the only obvious feature (an overflow stack) on the lake apart from the island.
It’s a comfortable 11mtrs to the stack, and from previous experience I knew that there is an even 4ft of water covering an area about the size of a table tennis table there.
Now knowing that there’s a good head of fish present I went for a positive approach and put in 4 large pouches of 2mm pellets and 2 of casters and went straight out with a soft pellet fished 2 inches overdepth.
30 seconds later and the float slid away and I missed my first bite.
Try a caster, float slides away, a gentle lift and Bingo a fin perfect Roach of about 8ozs gets me off the mark, and for the next hour I catch one a chuck, feeding a small pinch of pellet or caster in a kinder pot every time. The best of which I weighed at 1lb 2ozs. Then all of a sudden they appeared to switch off???
Well I’d already caught about 25lbs so decided to attack it again, 3 more large pouches of pellet and another of caster and back out with a soft pellet.
Nothing……….. keep lifting the bait about a foot and let it drop, then after about 20mins the float lifted of it’s own accord, I lifted into it and ohhhhhh this was a bit better, a nice Bream of about 3lbs.
And so it continued for the rest of the afternoon, I had 27 Bream in total, the best one I weighed at 4lbs 12ozs, Mixed in among them was 1 Tench and 5 Carp???????? (obviously they didn’t realise that they shouldn’t be there).
Some time ago Gray Catchpole put a photo in one of his posts showing a Golden Tench that he’d caught. Trev phoned me enthusing in his usual fashion, that he would love to catch one as it was such a glorious fish. Alas it was not to be as he didn’t make it to the Welsh fish-in at Hazel Court (the venue where Gray caught his).
My last fish of the session, Need you ask? This one’s for you Trev ……
So a great day, with confidence fully restored, In fact I enjoyed myself so much I’m going back on Thursday for another go, only this time I’m taking our club chairman Fred (He’s one of only two remaining founder members of our club from 40 years ago) I’ll let you know how we get on.
Hawthorne AC club match.
I have to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to this as the weather of the proceeding week had promised to turn the river into a chocolate conveyer belt, so I was well pleased on arrival to see the river in good shape with just a hint of colour. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a breathe of wind. Arriving at my peg I was delighted to see a nice crease at a comfortable trotting distance, so out came the MAP18ft and a stick float.
Now the bad news!! the peg held a huge bed of Canadian Pondweed (what’s it doing in the Thames?) and despite burying the hook inside the caster it proved almost impossible to get a smooth trot down the swim.
After about 2 hours of flogging a dead horse word came down that a few slabs were starting to show and with just 1 small Perch and a couple of even smaller Roach to show for my efforts out came the feeder to see if I could find myself a Bream.
All the time the wind has been increasing and the sky was getting darker,and then the heavens opened. Half an hour later and 2 gorgeous rainbows appeared.(1 fainter than the other)…………………
However there was to be no crock of gold or even Bream for me, and at the end of the match just a couple of Gudgeon and Ruffe had been added to the net to give me a rather meagre 10ozs for 10th place.
Never mind though it’s still better than sitting around at home.
