Luck’s Lane Fishery. December 14th, 2003.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Off to Luck’s Lane reservoir today for the club Fur & Feather match.
Stopped of for breakfast at the Oakdene Cafe before meeting in the venue car park for the draw.

Into the drawbag for peg 10 which was halfway along the left hand bank with a cold NW wind howling straight into it.
That made my mind up straight away, I set up my new Boss Box which was having its 1st outing, and settled for fishing a feeder with hair-rigged corn. This was going to be my only line of attack because of the large number of crayfish that plague the venue. (any “meaty” bait gets ragged immediately.)
Looking to the right from peg 10…

Sport was slow but steady for me at least, with 9 Carp coming to the net at regular intervals during the match.
As the scales came round it became obvious that some had had a grueller with 10 dry nets recorded, however my level 24lbs was enough to win the match by a clear 9lbs.

Back in the car park and time for the prizes, a large bottle of Scotch for me, and a nice brown envelope. Everyone took home a prize at the end of the day, even if it was only for sticking it out.

So 1st time out with my new box and a win, lets hope it’s a lucky omen.

Framfield Fishery. Brookhouse Lake. Sunday, November 16th, 2003.

Hawthorne AC club match.

A club match at Framfield Fisheries on Brookhouse lake. At the draw we always run a football sweep to raise club funds and yours truly won it, picking up a welcome £28.
Into the draw and it’s peg 30 for me, a peg with no real form and on reaching it I have to say I wasn’t inspired, as the water was icy despite the sun the previous day and the colour appeared to be dropping out of it.

Peg 30
Well I had a plumb around but couldn’t find a feature but with the most depth at 11-13 mtrs that was going to be the line of attack. Meat is the going bait there at the moment, so it was going to be a question of just dripping in bait a little bit at a time through a kinder pot, meat at 11mtrs and caster at 13mtrs with a couple of margin swims as a get out of jail job.

Well the lake was flat calm with nothing showing, all the action took place on the opposite side of the island, with only the odd little Roach and Skimmer showing on my side.

Still Life…

It proved to be a truly uninspiring match, the highlight of which was the All-out being called I'm afraid. Come the weigh-in and I’d managed a meagre 3½lbs of small silvers for another midway finish, but there in the net lay a bit of salvation in the shape of a small Rudd of about 2ozs. We run a Fish of the Day competition ( another of our treasurers little money making schemes), and guess who won another £10 for Fish of the Day. So at least I walked away £38 better off than I’d started the day.

Hartleylands Farm, Finches Pond. November 15th, 2003.

Marsh AC club match.

First off  this weekend it was down to Hartleylands Farm to meet Dave the Fish and the lads of Marsh AC for their club match on Finches Pond.

Dave had kindly invited me to come along and fish as a guest of his club, so who was I to refuse.
An 8 am draw in the car park, and a brief chat with Vince (vg1037) the bailiff, who unfortunately wouldn’t be fishing with us, saw the pegs allocated and off we strolled to set up.

Looking down over Finches….

Finches is a lovely intimate little pond, with only about a dozen pegs on it, and nearly everyone was occupied today. I must admit that I had some reservations as to whether it would be able to handle this sort of pressure, as it’s more of a pleasure venue in my eyes.
Still nothing ventured……….the pond itself holds a good head of fish, Carp up to 28lb, including good number of “high doubles”, Roach up to 1½lbs, Skimmers, Perch and Chub up to 4lb, and of course Eric the Eel, who when last caught weighed 7lb.

I arrived at my peg, No4 and was faced with a good 16 mtrs to the far bank cover, possibly the widest swim on the pond, now given the fact that the peg is reached by about 15 steps down through trees and I was only guesting I wasn’t about to spend all day shipping a pole back uphill, so out came the waggler rod (shock horror) mind you I did set up a margin swim to tackle with my margin pole and some swimstim paste.

Peg 4…
Well come the off, and the pace wasn’t exactly electric, and with 5 of us almost fishing the same bit of water, there was plenty of banter especially as Dave was on peg 2 and Colin was on peg 5.
A little further up the pool a few fish started to show after the hour mark, but nobody was setting the place alight, with mostly just small Roach putting in an appearance.
After a while Dave wandered round for yet another chat, by which time I had the margin pole out with a big bit of paste. As we chatted the float did a little dance and decided to vanish and my astonished strike met with an immoveable object, then the rig sprang back with a large scale firmly attached to the hook.
Sympathy isn't on the cards when you fish with these lads and I was sure that I could hear laughter as Dave returned to his peg.
The day was wearing on and it was still all to play for with anyone that managed a good last hour in with a chance.
No more action on the paste, so back out on the waggler to see if a few more roach would play, away went the float and this wasn’t the expected Roach!!!!!
Now on a 2lb bottom and size 20 a little care was called for, and after 5 minutes of supremely skillfull playing a 10lb Mirror Carp was safely in the net ………

and here’s the resulting Carp………

I’d love to say that things picked up from there, but it was not to be, just a few more small Roach for me, but Dave had the good last hour and managed 6 Carp to pick up the win on the day, while my 11½lbs left me somewhere in midfield.

A shy winner on Peg 2…
Still thanks to the lads at Marsh AC for making it an enjoyable day as always, shame about the crash on the A21 though that meant it took me nearly 3 hours to get home. 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 2	Dave Collier	22lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 8	Tony Roberts	16lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 3	Jim Boase	15lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 7	Roger Noakes	12lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 4	Peter Morton  (Guest)	11lbs 02ozs
6th	Peg 5	Colin Sharrard	9lbs 06ozs
7th	Peg 6	Steve Wormall	5lbs 05ozs
8th	Peg 11	Dave Wormall	2lbs 07ozs
9th	Peg 10	Den Lambird	1lbs  02ozs
10th	Peg 12	Malcolm Norman	03ozs
11th	Peg 9	Ken Walker	01oz
12th	Peg 1	Tim Ford	DNW

Brookhall Lake. Tiptree. Essex. October 5th, 2003.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Brookhall Lake just outside the village of Tiptree in Essex was the scene of the Hawthorne AC club match this weekend.
This is normally a prolific venue and I’d invited my fellow Maggotdrowner Dave the Fish to join us as a guest at the venue for the day.

One thing that I’ve noticed over the years is that regardless how good the weather is, the 1st Sunday of October is invariably darn cold. I’m sure that it’s something to do with this day always marking the start of the Winter Leagues. Today there was a cloudless sky and a really biting North Westerly wind.

Just to make us feel better, Betty the bailiff informed us that the previous day had been very poor in terms of fish caught and that it had chucked it down overnight, so with 22 of us searching around in our car boots for fleeces and warm cloths it was draw time.
I drew peg 9 while Dave drew 23. On arrival at my peg it was obvious that the water level was down, as where the banker margin swim should be was bone dry. Plumbing up at 11mtrs where I was expecting to find at least 6ft revealed only 4ft and not a feature to be found. I had a look in what was left of the margins and could only manage 8 inches before it dropped down the ledge into about 3ft.
I set up a dead depth rig for 11mtrs and a heavy margin rig to fish paste, and a straight lead rig as a get out of jail option.

At the off nearly a pint of pellet and hemp went into the margin swim,and in such a shallow swim it wouldn’t be touched until I saw a tail pattern or mud cloud disturb it.
Out to 11mtrs over a small pot of hemp and pellet, to no avail with just the odd small silver coming to single maggot, with the ripple and rising sun just adding to the difficulty.
11mtrs and……………….not a lot!


After a while Dave strolled past on his way to retrieve some meat that he’d left in the car, by which time I’d gone over to a straight lead with a lump of paste, and as Dave came back past the tip pulled steadily round, and the strike met with……………… NOTHING!!!!!!! Guess which idiot had managed to knock the fighting drag off on the reel without noticing?  Well it cheered Dave up if nothing else.

Not another touch after that,and with very little coming out anywhere on the lake Dave returned later on, with his flask and sarnies and probably hoping for another faux pas on my part to entertain him.
So back out onto the pole line and no sooner had the float settled and away it went, a nice little Tench of about 8ozs, a double bonus as it was also the fish of the day, and if no others were caught it would pay my expenses. Dave wandered off back to his peg muttering to himself, I’m sure it was something about how skillfull I was.

Well the afternoon dragged on with just the occasional small Roach or Rudd breaking the monotony,when with 25 minutes to go I saw a tail pattern in the margin. On with a lump of paste on the margin pole and within 30 seconds it’s sailing away…………..MISSED!!
Undetered I was soon back out with another bit of paste and 30 seconds later away it went again, only this time I connected. Off tears an angry Carp, and a few minutes later a nice 9lb’er is nestling in the landing net.
Nothing more till the end of the match, but that one fish had got me out of jail.
Weigh-in time and that one Carp and a few silvers gave me a level 13lbs, which was enough for 4th on the day.
Dave had managed 7lbs 5ozs for a creditable 9th.
The inquest in the car park after the match, laid the blame firmly on the cold weather and the biting wind. Everyone had to work for their fish today.

Willow Park Fishery Big Lake and Elphicks Fishery Sandwich Lake. September 13th-14th, 2003.

Well What a Weekend!!!!!

Saturday:

The Southern Intersite Match.

This has been pretty well detailed elsewhere, so I’ll keep it brief.
I drew peg 72 on the big lake at Willow Park. You really need a good ripple on the surface, and the Culvert bank pegs were flat calm, so I knew it would be a grueller.

Looking across to the Bungalow bank from peg 72….

Pole at 12mtrs with the float at dead depth and dotted right down was the order of the day for a bag of small skimmers, roach and perch.
Onto the scales at the end for a weight of 11lbs 11ozs.
Only good enough for last in section.

11lbs 11ozs of hard earned fish……

Sunday:

Hawthorne AC club match.

Elphicks Fishery, Sandwich Lake.
Up at the crack of dawn again, and 19 of us met up for the draw, with peg 18 sticking to my hand, I have to say my heart sunk.
Peg 18 is in the far right hand corner as you look across from the car park bank, and Alan & Loz (who fished that peg on an MD‘s mini fish-in) will vouch for the fact that the average depth is about 18 inches.
Still got to make the most of it. I only set up 1 float rig for the pole fished dead depth (yes all 18 inches of it!) to fish pellet over pellet, with white hydro in the top kit, and I set up my feeder rod.(well I put it back in when I got home the previous night)

Looking over to the car park bank from peg 18….
Yet again flat calm conditions and warm sunshine turned it into hard work, but slowly I managed to get a few bites and put a few fish in the net.
Those that have fished it will tell you that Sandwich lake is a bit of an aquarium with such a wide range of species in it that you never really know what you’re going to catch next.
Well by 1pm the pole line had dried up, so it was out with the groundbait feeder with hair rigged meat on the hook which managed to keep the fish coming till the end.
It was a real mixed bag that I took to the scales, Common & Mirror Carp, an ornamental Fantail, Crucians, Roach, Perch, Skimmers, Chub and green and golden Tench.
Nothing big, but they took the scales round to 35lbs 6 ozs, Good enough for 2nd on the day, and a nice way to end a busy weekend. 

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir & Nick’s Lake. August 30th-31st, 2003.

Well this weekend saw me spending a good part of my time at Hartleylands Fishery................

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was at the invitation of Dave (Dave the Fish), His club Marsh AC had booked the Reservoir for one of their club matches and as all the pegs weren't taken, Steve (beebs) Jason (NofinPhish) and Myself recieved an invitation to join them.
Assembling in the car park for an 8.30am draw, it was nice to meet John (tutu) and Colin who had accompanied Dave to the Welsh Fish-in. Also present, though in a working capacity was Vince (vg1037) the Bailiff at Hartleylands. 

I drew in the high 30's and arrived at my swim to find the wind blowing in my face at what appeared to be the only shady peg on the whole reservoir, so while others sat around in tee shirts and shorts I was in a bib and brace and a fleece ! 

I started on the pole line at about 10mtrs fishing pellet and managed to winkle out 5 skimmers and a small carp before the wind made presentation too awkward. Had I not been a guest I would have gone straight onto the method feeder as this is a banker for a few Carp, but sitting in my carryall was a ball of paste. Now paste fishing is not one of my strengths, but having read a few of Malc's exploits in his forum reports it's a bait that I'm determined to get to grips with, so it was out with my margin pole and having tied a couple of rigs up I set about giving it a go.

Paste in the margin.......
Well lets just say that it was fun, trying to condition myself not to strike every dip and tremor of the float, and towards the end of the afternoon having tried endless variations of rigs I felt as if I was coming to terms with it and a few decent fish had ended up in the net . 
4pm and time for the weigh in and with Vince in charge we worked our way around the lake. Dave had set the pace with a 40lb bag and everyone appeared to have had a few.

Nice one for Dave........
Colin put just over 51lbs on the scales, all caught on the Method, which was to prove the winning weight. Steve had contented himself with using the day to practice his silver fish approach in readiness for the intersite match in a couple of weeks, and definitely caught more fish than anyone for a bag in the teens.


The Weigh-in......

Jason proved to be the dark horse, in what he professed to be his first ever fishing match, and duly put 49lbs on the scales for 2nd place. Well done Jason (I may have to rethink the team).
Last but one to weigh was me and I was pleasantly surprised to see the needle creep round to 47lbs, nearly all paste caught. 
So thanks to Dave and the members of Marsh AC for a very pleasant day as their guest. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, I certainly did.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Colin Sharrard	51lbs 04ozs
2nd	Jason Davies      (Guest)	48lbs 06ozs
3rd	Peter Morton     (Guest)	47lbs 00ozs
4th	Dave Collier	41lbs 12ozs
5th	Tony Roberts	30lbs 08ozs
6th	Judy Hermite	29lbs 12ozs
7th	Mike Develin	28lbs 12ozs
8th	Kevin Loveland	23lbs 08ozs
9th	Dave Wormall	22lbs 14ozs
10th=	Steve Wormall	19lbs 04ozs
10th=	John Holdsworth	19lbs 04ozs
12th	Martin Hucker	18lbs 00ozs
13th	Steve Sullivan   (Guest)	12lbs 08ozs
14th	Jim Boase	10lbs 04ozs
15th	Roger Noakes	10lbs 03ozs
16th	Chris Newton	7lbs 08ozs
17th	Tim Ford	7lbs 06ozs
18th	Rod Turner	5lbs 12ozs

Hawthorne AC club match.

So Sunday morning and I'm in the car park once more, this time for a Hawthorne AC match on Nick's Lake, it's one of 3 new lakes that have just been opened at Hartleylands and was only stocked with fingerling Carp last November, but these fish already weigh an average of 6ozs. 
A low turnout of only 15 anglers meant that we only put the even numbered pegs into the drawbag to give everyone a bit of room and peg 10 was mine. It was flat calm as we set up but as soon as the whistle blew so did the wind

Peg 10..........

Now Vince had warned me that the fish tend to follow the wind, so you can imagine my joy to find the wind blowing from behind me and blowing my fish away.
I wish I could say that I fished a blinder, but I wasted far too much time on a pellet line scratching for bites. I finally started to get a few at 12mtrs to maggot, but it was to little to late. I managed to put 15lbs 6ozs on the scales for 6th, but only 17lbs was needed for 2nd. At least I got another 3 points for the fishing race, having caught a few small Ghosties.


Mint little Ghostie....
Mike Vincent ran away with it, with 28lbs 4ozs for 1st. Everyone caught though and in a couple of seasons time this is going to be an awesome match venue.
 So that was my weekend - One fishery but two very different lakes and mixed fortunes.