Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. January 25th, 2004.

Hawthorne AC

AT Supercup match.

It was off down to Hartleylands for our Supercup match this morning.
On the way down in the car and the outside temp was reading -2°C, and the fields were so white with frost that it looked as if it had snowed.
On arriving at the fishery the temp had risen to a stunning 0°C but there didn’t appear to be any signs of frost! There was a bright blue sky and just a gentle breeze while the water temp was 4°C.

Into the draw, and I found myself making my way to peg 20, with a leisurely 1½hrs till the start of the match.

Peg 20,Looks lovely doesn’t it?……
Well I’d been told that feeder (either maggot or groundbait) with a ·08 hooklength and a 22 with single red maggot was the way to go dropped about a metre away from the island, so that was set up 1st.
I couldn’t resist setting up the pole as well and the main line of attack would be at 13mtrs where I had got around 5ft,using a ·6grm Drennan Lake with a ·07 hooklength and a 22 again. Through the top2 I’d got the new Drennan green dual core (6-8) set soft, as I was expecting stockies no bigger than 12ozs max.

All-in, and after cupping in a few micro pellets and a small amount of dry groundbait on the pole line, it was out on the feeder.
Well it wasn’t happening for me but the lad to my left on peg 21 was catching steadily from the off while I couldn’t buy a bite, but all the time I’d been feeding 2-3 maggots every couple of minutes on the pole line.

After 30 minutes it was out onto the pole line and after 10mins the float dipped, and I was into a Carp at last, not huge at about 6ozs but at least it avoided the dreaded blank. Another 20mins went by without another bite, so back onto the feeder which produced another couple and that’s the way it went nearly all match for me. Even a pep talk from Red Leader had no effect other than to lighten the mood.

Well with about 45 minutes to go I was being battered by the next peg and I reckoned he must have 20+lbs while I’d got about 6lbs if was lucky.
Back out on the pole for a final look and they were there  and in the last 45 minutes I managed a fish a chuck. Why couldn’t they have turned up earlier?
Come the weigh-in and the lad to my left put 22lbs 2ozs on the scales which easily eclipsed my 13lbs 9ozs.
The match was won by Medway Tackle (blue) by 14pts to 10pts, so that’s us knocked out of the Supercup for another season. Overall the 16 of us weighed in 235lbs 6ozs, an average of over 14½lbs per man, which I feel given the conditions just goes to show what a good fishery Harleylands is to produce those sort of weights on a hard January day.