Having been told by Maria that she would be working late today, I decided that I’d sneak off and have a few hours at Hartleylands Farm today.
Looking out of the window at 7am, the car was covered in frost, so it was another 30 minutes under a nice warm duvet followed by a leisurely breakfast before loading the car.
I arrived at Hartleylands just after 10am, and with just 3 other cars in the car park, and with a layer of cat-ice on Samson pond, I drove up to have a look at the reservoir. Getting out of the car I realised just how strong and cold the wind was and decided to go for a bit of comfort and fish Finches pond which sits in a hollow about 20 feet below the reservoir and would be nicely sheltered.
Looking down Finches…
I fancied fishing the pole, and given the steep nature of the banks at the car park end, elected to have a stroll down to the far end where the flatter banks make it easier to fish at 13mtrs to the far bank cover.
Setting up on the end peg I noticed that yet again the fishery staff had been hard at work renewing all the platforms on the pegs, Nice solid 1mtr square wooden platforms that are covered in chicken wire so that they are non-slip.
End peg…
I just set up the one top kit threaded with white Hydro, with a rig comprising of a Drennan Carp 6 float with 4lb line straight through with a bulk and two no10 droppers ending with a 18 Kamasan Animal. Bait was to be sweetcorn fished over micro halibut pellets, with a few expanda pellets prepared as an alternative hookbait.
I wasn’t expecting any fireworks, but after 20mins the float slid away and I connected with a nice Common that after a brief scrap, slid over the net to brighten up the day. A nice plump fish in mint condition that went just over 5lbs…………
1st of the day…
Slow and steady would be the best description of the day, 13 bites produced 12 Carp and 1 Submarine that just wandered off down the lake without stopping. I don’t think it even knew that it was hooked!!!!
The rest were a mix of Commons and Mirrors, all plump fish between 3 & 5lbs, and in beautiful condition.
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So all in all, a nice little session with about 40lbs of fish on a day that didn’t promise an awful lot at first. Yet again Hartleylands had come up with the goods.
Hawthorne AC club match.
Well it was off to Lavender Farm today for a Hawthorne AC club match.
For a bit of added interest I was being joined by 3 guests, all members of Maggotdrowning.com, in the shape of Dave the Fish, Colin the Pike and last but not least Malc “The Jinx” Doyle.
After various bits of banter in the car park it was time for the draw. Peg 92 was mine and low and behold Dave drew 93. Fortunately Malc drew on the dam wall which was about as far away from us as it was possible to get, though poor Colin only managed to get 4 pegs away. I was planning to start on the straight lead fishing corn, with a possible switch later on to the end of a dead reed bed on my left, into about 4 feet of water.
At the whistle Paul potted in 2 big cups of maggot at 11mtrs, and in his first 3 put ins had 3 carp for about 10lbs in the net. My tip meanwhile refused to move so a hasty change onto the pole and out to about 10mtrs in 9ft of water with corn on the hook, resulted in a couple of tentative bites and my first carp, but I was going backwards as Paul was off to a flyer.
At the start I had fed a couple of handfuls of micro halibut pellets into the reed bed on my left along with a few grains of corn, and after about an hour the stems started waiving as fish moved through them. I’d normally wait till later in the match before going onto that line, but I was getting battered by Paul and had to try something. Bites for the most part were tiny little dips, but slowly I felt that I was pulling back the deficit. Paul having seen me catching close, moved onto his margin and while not getting as many as me, seemed to be catching a better stamp of fish.
Dave had decided to concentrate on the other side of the reeds to me, and was slowly putting a few together. Malc was happily adjusting to a smaller stamp of Carp than he’s been used to at Drayton & Stockton, but unfortunately Colin was having a hard time of it in his peg, fish proving hard to come by.
All to soon for me the scales arrived, with Paul weighing 66lbs 06ozs for 1st place, to my level 63lbs which gave me 2nd place overall, Pauls better stamp of fish making all the difference. Dave managed 17lbs 12ozs for 8th on the day and Malc managed a creditable 34lbs 14ozs for 5th. Unfortunately Colin tipped his back without weighing.
Also today the club was fishing its Pairs Cup and with my partner on the day Mark Smith weighing in with 48lbs, we were the winners with 111lbs.
So a good day for me, and I hope that my 3 guests enjoyed themselves.
