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 .

Framfield Fishery. Spring Lake. August 18th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well we all assembled in the car park at Framfield Fishery, which is a complex of 3 lakes set in the countryside just outside the town of Uckfield in Sussex.
Today we were to fish Spring lake, which is the main match lake, and is mostly stocked with Carp.

Spring Lake.

Anyway it transpired that there had been a cock-up on the alarm clock front by the Secretary. So there we were waiting for the Drawbag and scales to arrive .
Anyway after a short delay and a lot of ribbing on his arrival out came the draw bag. In goes the hand and out comes peg 43.
As I arrived at my peg one thing became glaringly obvious, I couldn’t reach the island, which was about 20mtrs away, also in previous seasons this swim had a large bed of lilies to fish to on the right hand side. NOT ANY MORE!!!!!

Plumbing up I found 12 inches in the margins and only about 2½feet at 13mtrs. For the margin swims I set up a dibber on my margin pole. These swims would not be touched until I could see the mud being disturbed by feeding fish.
On the 13 mtr line it was to be 2 simple rigs,both to fish banded pellet. The first one was just 18inches of line and a hook (size 14 PR22) and the other was a Drennan Carp2 float set at dead depth to target any fish that followed the constant stream of pellets down to the bottom .
I also set up a feeder rod,but this would only be a get out of jail option if things went horribly wrong, which seems to be the case more often than not at the moment.

Peg 43.

Anyway at the off and two good handfulls of hemp go into the margins on each side along with some corn to await developments. Out to 13mtrs and into a rhythm of 5-6 pellets every 30 secs.
Straight away the 2 pegs to my right were into fish as they could reach the island.
If that wasn’t bad enough I had the beginnings of a headache that was to get worse as the match went on and no it wasn’t due to drink the previous night.

After about an hour on the up in the water rig along came carp No1...........

a pretty little ghost/common and things were starting to look up,a steady stream of small carp followed it to the net, and while not setting any records a worthwhile bag was building. Unfortunately though with an hour to go the headache had got so bad that I was forced to stop fishing and lay down (either that or fall off my box).

Come the weigh-in and it soon became apparent just how well the day had gone. Top weight, caught by John Tyler was 136lbs, 2nd was Michael Vincent with 124lbs 4ozs and 3rd was Mike Davis with 103lbs 2ozs. My level 46lbs was only good enough for 11th .
In total 19 of us weighed in a total of 1041lbs 14ozs for an average weight of 54½+lbs per man, Fantastic fishing by any standards.

Brookhall Lake.Tiptree. August 4th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Having survived yet another Little Chef “Early Starter” we arrived at the car-park for a 9am draw, to be greeted by Betty the Bailiff .

Now anyone that listens to Keith Arthur’s program “Fishermans Blues” on TALK SPORT (1053/1089AM) on Saturday & Sunday mornings will have heard Betty, and her weekly chats to Keith, and perhaps the story of her Cormorant Hound .

Betty assured us that a draw on the bottom half of the lake was what was needed, as the fish tend to follow the wind and it had been blowing in that direction for the past 4 days, and that the fish were being caught up in the water.

Brookhall Lake (looking from the car-park)

Need I say more, into the hat and out comes peg 28 (just about the longest walk, and the furthest away from the desired pegs) The ironic thing is that had the wind been blowing in the opposite direction, this peg would have been an absolute flyer.

While setting up ominous black clouds were gathering and the odd clap of thunder could be heard. Now call me a coward but the idea of being attached to 14½ mtrs of one of the finest lightning conductors known to man wasn’t on (especialy when I saw some fork lightning in the distance). So I decided to go with a feeder and waggler (and Norm’s “Secret” bait).

The swim really looked a picture

but apart from a few little Rudd worrying the bait nothing was forthcoming, and all the time the sky was getting blacker, so out with the brolly and out with the feeder as the heavens opened transforming the scene into something akin to “Carry on Noah”

In amongst all this I managed to connect with 4 Carp and 3 Tench (Nice One Norm)
The most savage take of all coming from a male Tench which weighed 3lb 14ozs. People have said to me that Tench don’t fare well when they have to compete with Carp, and this fish was long enough to be 5lbs+, but was one of the thinnest Tench that I’ve ever caught (food for thought)

That Tench…..

Thankfully the rain stopped about an hour before the end of the match, but then again so did my bites so when the scales arrived I recorded a weight of 24lbs 2ozs, which was good enough for 5th on the day, which to be honest was better than I had expected .
Now all I need to do is spend the rest of the week drying my kit out!!!!!!!!
What was Norm’s secret bait?………. Mussels.