Luck’s Lane.December 15th, 2002 .

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.

Elphick’s Fishery. Sandwich Lake. November 7th, 2002.

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.

Elphick’s Fishery.Sandwich Lake. November 5th, 2002.

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.

River Thames at Mapledurham. Reading & District AA water. November 3rd, 2002.

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.

Willinghurst Fishery. Old Lake. October 20th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Not a good start this morning, OVERSLEPT!!!! Woken by a nudge in the ribs from Maria.
Fling tackle into car and off to Willinghurst about 40 miles away, just outside Guildford.

I arrived to find everyone already fishing, so I went to find the Match Sec and draw my peg. Now 9 & 10 were left in the bag, 10 has loads of features and is a corner peg, 9 has nothing, just an open expanse of water. No prizes for guessing!!!!!!!!! Yes I drew 9.



I had been warned that if the weather turned nasty it would be a real struggle and boy had it turned nasty!!!!! There had been a frost. The East wind made it feel like midwinter and just as i arrived at my peg it started to rain.
Up with the brolly,sit on my box and access my options….. Pole? NO, Waggler? NO, Feeder? That’ll do.
Knock up a bag of Fishgutz method mix groundbait, add a little corn and a little riddled meat and fish either hair rigged corn or meat. (4 bits of corn or ½ inch chunks of meat).
Largish baits and sit it out for a carp, clip up and keep dropping it down the same hole.

All around me people were struggling except for 2 lads who had islands to fish to. Well to cut to the chase, the fish weren’t going to rip it off the rests today, a 2 inch pull was all you got and if you didn’t hit them you didn’t get another chance.
 I had a mere 7 bites all day and managed to connect with all but one catching 6 Carp, the best of which weighing 6lbs 14ozs and weighed in 27lbs 8ozs which was good enough for 3rd on the day. (less than 4lbs away from the winner, 1 more fish?)

TREVOR MANNING aka ZIPTREV. October 18th, 2002

Sadly a good friend of mine Trevor Manning aka ZIPTREV passed away today after a long illness.

My line casts over the water, and dances like a song,
so gently breaks the surface, It’s here where I belong.
As breathing comes so effortless, my spirit is in tune,
with all the smells of water and nature’s sweet perfume.
Standing at the waters edge, is where I want to be,
Hooking fish don’t matter, not very much to me.
Until I feel that little tug pulling at my line,
then the finest sport there is, no longer is so sublime.
My breathing starts to quicken, my heart beats faster too,
precision is important now, in all things that I do.
A fisherman that’s what I am, and think I’ll always be,
Take me to the waterside, and fish a bit with me!

The last time I saw Trev, was when Geoff & I had the pleasure of sharing a punt with him on the Estate Lake at Old Bury Hill.
Trev had read one of my posts on Maggotdrowning about the place and decided that he fancied a go at it. Geoff hearing of this decided that he wanted to recapture his youth (having last fished there some 20 years previously). So thats how the three of us came to be standing by the boat house at 7am one July day in the pouring rain. Out we ventured in the punt on a search for Trev’s first Tench of the season. The omens didn’t look too good and while Geoff and I both caught, all Trev had to show for his efforts were a couple of hooked fish that smashed him.

Undaunted we kept at it and even the weather took a turn for the better, and then it happened, Trev’s float sailed away and after a brief fight there nestling in the bottom of the landing net was his prize. Not a big fish by any standards, but looking at the smile on his face I just knew that it didn’t matter. Mission Accomplished.

Trev, It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to have known you.
 I’m sure you’ll be looking over our shoulders in the future and having a chuckle at some of our antics.
 Rest in Peace mate.

Old Bury Hill. The Estate Lake. September 13th, 2002.

Brother-in-law Chris has just got back into fishing via his boy Fraser (7 years old), after a 15 year lay off, and on the couple of times he has come with me most of the day has been devoted to making sure that Fraser catches.
The other day Chris confessed that he wouldn’t mind a days fishing without Fraser, and that he’d love to catch a Tench as he’d never caught one.
There is only one venue that I could think of to virtually guarantee this, so first port of call was the boat house at Old Bury Hill to pay for our day tickets and collect the punt that would transport us to “The Jungle” on the Estate Lake.

Settling into an area hard up against an uprooted tree, I fed a couple of handfuls of pellets and sweetcorn into mine and Chris’s swims. The sun was already starting to climb and not a cloud in the sky signalled that the early mist would soon burn off.
After about half an hour my waggler vanished, and after a brief tussle a fighting fit male Tench of just over 3lb was safely in the net.

Chris meanwhile was suffering from some lightning fast unhittable bites, which I felt could be due to skimmers.
I could see the frustration in his face, when suddenly the float lifted up and laid flat. “STRIKE”  The rod hooped over as one angry fish sought out the shelter of the bushes that were so close. Fortunately it was unsuccessful, and after 5 mins Chris’s first ever Tench was netted, and at 4lbs 2ozs a great fish to start with ……

Soon however the sun was beating down, and the Tench retreated deep into the shade of the bushes, Chris had a close encounter with a Carp, which sadly for him the Carp won.
Still the Bream continued to feed, nothing huge but large enough to keep Chris happy for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day as we stepped out of the punt, his first words were “When are we coming back ?” I don’t think it will be too long somehow.

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. September 9th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

It’s off to Hartleylands Farm for the 8th match of Hawthorne AC’s season today, and as I jumped into the car to make my way down to the fishery the heavens opened, and didn’t let up for the whole trip down until I pulled into the car park.
The fishery at Hartleylands Farm comprises a number of ponds and an irrigation reservoir, which is where we were to fish today.

After the usual welcomes and insults from those fishing today it was time for the draw, thrusting my hand into the draw bag I was rewarded with peg 17, which as it turns out is the very peg I struggled from in this years AT SuperCup match, so not a good start , but in for a penny……

Now there are a lot of Skimmers & Roach present in the reservoir but you really need to target the Carp to frame on the reservoir at this time of year, and if they aren’t in your peg you’ll struggle, which is exactly what I did !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 It didn’t seem to matter what I tried I couldn’t get a sniff of a Carp all day. The only thing that would take my bait were either Skimmers or Roach and at the end my rather meagre weight of 22lbs 3ozs was only good enough for 12th place .
Still some good weights were recorded, The match was won with a weight of 83lbs 14ozs of Carp caught by Paul Ollerenshaw,(The reigning Club Champion) for his 5th win in 8 matches …………

Some nice fish came out, including this one for Don Freeman, a nice plump Mirror Carp of 9lbs 15ozs …………

Not my day today, but it beats the hell out of being at home and decorating. Anyway roll on Friday when I’m taking the brother-in-law Chris out for a days punt fishing at Old Bury Hill in an attempt to get him his first ever Tench.

Hazel Court Ponds. South Wales. August 24th-25th, 2002

Maggotdrowning.com

 Welsh Fish-In.

I arrived at Hazel Court ponds at about 6.30am, after a nice leisurely trip down from London, to be greeted by various stumbling figures emerging from the collection of bivvies and tents that was base camp for this latest MD’s Fish-in over the course of the weekend.
The fishery is comprised of 4 ponds that are fishable and a stock pond and various hatchery pools that are dotted around the complex.
After greeting and introductions were completed, 7am signaled the start of fishing for the day and everyone elected to fish the bottom pond.

The weather was absolutely glorious , though a steadily freshening breeze was to make presentation awkward for some as the day wore on.

Now as is the style at these gatherings, the social side of things tends to get in the way of the fishing, as everybody catches up with the gossip, and more walking gets done as everyone circulates and stops for various chats.
Having set up a waggler and a feeder I soon established that there were more than a few small Rudd present. A slight understatement as every pool on the complex appears to be heaving with them. Very soon though I was into a decent fish, fishing the waggler tight to a bed of lilies…………

 and after a spirited scrap I had this nice Mirror Carp to show for my efforts ……

Geoff arrived for a chat and we walked up to the “Match Lake”, stopping off at the stock pond to admire several large Koi that were in residence (2 of which were 10lbs+ with another not far behind)
On arrival at the Match Lake we were confronted by the site of a tent with a flag of a little red lizard flying over it!!!!!
Sitting there on the bankside on a small scale model of a North Sea oilrig, surrounded by enough kit to open a tackle shop was Ray Owen.
Now Ray after 30 years of fishing matches, has this year decided to give it a rest and try “Pleasure” fishing, but is still having a little difficulty adjusting to the pace of this form of the noble art, but after this weekend i’m sure he’ll get there.
After a short chat Ray decided to move down and join the rest of us, and with the help of a small team of sherpas (Me & Dave) duly moved.
Throughout the day, some nice Carp, mostly Ghosts and Mirrors were caught.
Around about midday Dave caught a Ghostie with a deformed face that Stu christened “The Parrot”. A couple of hours later i was into a Carp myself and Stu wandered round and did the honours with the landing net,and there in the folds was “The Parrot”!!!!!!! Don’t they feed these fish??????????

As the day wore on Stu decided to break out his “Noddy” kit (his words,not mine) and get into a serious bit of Rudd bashing with his lad Daniel.

  

Now some might be tempted to say that Stu using a pole resembles a Garden Gnome (Trogg), but as he is considerably larger than me, I wouldn’t dream of it.

As the afternoon wore on, more and more anglers arrived and to be honest the fishery is probably too small to handle the amount of pressure placed on it by these numbers.
All day long Dai and his son Daniel (Yes,same name as Stu’s son) had been fishing to a lily bed as had Geoff. Now Dai’s lad has definitely got “The Bug” following his recent exploits with Carp, and as the afternoon wore on he was into a Carp that was intent on getting back into the pads

But with Dai offering moral support and Ray in attendance to perform the ghillies duties, there was ample reward in the end with this fine fish………. a new PB for Daniel at just under 8lbs…..

I think the smile says it all,and he did it again later on,with another larger fish!!!!!!!!!! 2 PB’s in an afternoon. Well done Daniel. At least I think that’s what Dai said, but my Welsh is a little shaky.
Geoff meanwhile soldiered stoically on, despite having one of those days, where more fish performed Houdini impressions than he would have liked.

As the day ran towards it’s end, I had moved over to the next pool to escape the constant wind in my face, and after casting a small feeder towards the central island, the tip wrapped around and I was rewarded with a nice Tench of about 3lb (but not one of the golden one’s I’m afraid, sorry Trev.)

As everyone packed away for the night (No nightfishing allowed I’m afraid) I decided to try out one of the Hotcan ready meals that I had won in the Elvington raffle. What can I say, following the instructions and piercing 3 holes as instructed, a mini nuclear reaction appears to take place, resulting in one very hot can with steam pouring out of the top. 12 minutes later and a piping hot meal is ready. This one was a vegetable curry and very nice it was too.
After dinner some of us visited the local hostelry, and were treated to a couple of pints by Dave courtesy of a Lottery Win.
A brief chat ensued on our return, by the moonlit ponds, as the bats flew above our heads, before retiring to our bivvies ready for the next day ahead.

6.30am, and Cliff (the owner) has appeared for a chat with the gang as we assembled for the 7am start. It promised to be another breezy day, although it was coming from the opposite direction!
Dai was on his own as his lad has gone on a rock climbing course, and he was joined in the next swim by Ray who was determined to get to grips with his first foray into the world of Knotless Knots and hair rigs , but still seemed a little shocked by the size of gaff (size 16 actually Ray)that made up his rig!

Dave had set up on the opposite bank to launch his customary 2 method rods towards the central island. Stu and Daniel were in Dai’s swim from the previous day. I had returned to the swim that I had finished in yesterday. Geoff meanwhile has settled into a swim on the next pond along. It had a large patch of lilies to fish to and the far bank appeared to be solid rushes. Supposedly it held a large head of Ghost Carp and almost certainly an even larger number of Rudd!

I started on the waggler with a single grain of corn and slowly but surely the swim came to life, but it was only the Rudd worrying the bait, however by keeping the corn going in a number of better examples around the 8oz mark came to hand.

In general though,things are slow. Poor Ray had a close encounter with a Coot that managed to get tangled in his line, and put up a spirited resistance before I managed to net it for him. In the net it managed to disentangle itself, and to swim off with nothing more than it’s feathers ruffled.
I struck into another Rudd bite only to find that it wasn’t, and after a brief but spirited fight, i was rewarded with an immaculate Mirror Carp of about 6lbs.

Geoff meanwhile has been wading through the small Rudd in pursuit of the Ghosties that inhabit the pond he was fishing. Dave had a couple of Carp while Stu and Daniel were having great fun with the pole in pursuit of the Rudd.
All of a sudden Dai’s margin rod was away,and after a brief struggle I did the honours with the net and Dai was rewarded with this nice chunky Mirror Carp ………


My swim seemed to die as more anglers arrived in the swims that were previously vacant,and with 180 miles of the M4 to negotiate before I got home, it was time to pack the kit away .
Soon it was time for farewells and thanks. Walking round to Dave I arrived just as he hooked into another Ghostie………………

……………………..the fish managed to run through Dave’s other line and the resultant tangle acted as Dave’s cue to finish up and get ready to head home.
Stu And Daniel were still slaying the Rudd on his “noddy” tackle. (Bet you’re glad you didn’t sell it now Stu).
Dai was still soldiering on while waiting for the family to arrive, and Geoff had come over for a chat and a break from the Rudd, and Ray was loading his mountain of kit away, while trying to get his head round this whole new approach to fishing that is so foreign to him.

Thanks a lot lads it was really enjoyable and a great weekend, We must do it again soon .