Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. September 30th, 2005,

Well today was one of those spur of the moment days, I’ve been off with Mrs M for a couple of weeks, and one of our golden rules is that if we’re both off I don’t normally go fishing, but as she had brought me a new pole last week I was itching to try it out, just to make sure I’d set up the elastics right you understand.

Maria said last night that she was going to visit a friend today so I thought I may as well snatch a few hours down at Hartleylands on the Reservoir.

There was a bit of rain about as I woke up this morning, so a leisurely breakfast meant that I didn’t load the tackle up till 10·30am, and a bit of traffic meant that I didn’t arrive at the farm till noon. There were eight people already fishing on the Reservoir as I settled in on peg 5.

Bait for the day was GOT Baits 6mm expanders and paste, with their 4mm hard pellets as feed. I’ve been using GOT Baits since a visit to Rolf’s earlier in the year and feel that quality wise their range is second to none.
I set up 1 swim in the left hand margin where there was a nice 2ft of water, and a comfy open water swim at 7mtrs with about 7ft of depth. The margins would be fed by hand and wouldn’t be touched until clouds of mud betrayed fish feeding with confidence. 2 large pots of pellet primed the 7mtr line.

1st put in on the 7mtr line with an expander at dead depth brought a positive bite straight away and a sharp lift resulted in a few feet of Black Hydro streaming out of the top kit and after a brief tussle a nice plump mirror of about 4lbs was in the net, a nice way to christen a new pole.

Let me say at this point that I tried Hydrolastic when it 1st came out and didn’t get on with it. However having visited the likes of Stockton, Clattercote and Rolf’s this season I’ve decided to give it another go in the new pole. I’ve taken the No1′s out of the match kits and cut the power tops back to match, resulting in very stiff kits that I’ve elasticated through 2 sections. The stiffness of the kits seems to be the key with Hydro. Throughout the afternoon I alternated between 7mtrs and the margin using kits with both red and black hydro fine tuning the tension till I was happy with it.

Typical Reservoir carp

Sport was nice and steady all afternoon despite the occasional flurry of rain and by 5·15pm I’d managed 32 Carp, the best being around 8lbs, 3 Tench and a dozen skimmers, a great workout for the new pole.

Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. September 17th, 2005.

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf’s Lake Match.

Another cracking day in good company saw 19 of us assembled in the car park at Rolf’s to take part in Matt Nutt’s 1st attempt at organising a match.
A lot of us were survivors from The Jinx Series with a couple of new faces from the site attending their 1st Maggotdrowning.com event. Even Webbo had come down from Yorkshire to try some proper fishing.

I drew peg 26 and was joined on the car park bank by Paul, Nick (Slimcatcher) and Webbo to my right and Young Dave & Gemma, Royst and Malc to my left.

Paul, Nick(Slimcatcher) with Webbo behind a bush.

Royst(playing a fish) Malc & Jason(JKG)

Sport was never fast and furious (An understatement in Paul’s case) but we all watched a lesson in how it should be done as most of us watched Gary opposite on Peg14 show us how it should be done with a superb display of up in the water fishing,  and I think we realised that we needed snookers when he got a 3rd keepnet out !!!

Perhaps it was just having Rolf sitting behind “coaching” him that gave him the edge though.

Spare a thought for Mark C as he was pegged between Gary & Pete Thompson who finished 1st & 2nd. Mark stuck at it though and did manage a few.

During the match I managed to smash a top kit trying to get a lump’s head up before it buried itself in the bush to my right much to various peoples amusement, I did manage a few though, one of which Gemma captured on camera.

However a thought should be spared for Paul on the next peg to me, who despite trying everything in his bait bag could only manage a 5½lb Golden Orfe as the Carp in his peg went on strike, Having escaped being pegged next to his nemesis Dirk, thought he was safe, He should have known better, naturally we were full of sympathy for his plight.

At the end of the match it was those with the experience of fishing the venue that took the spoils, proving that it’s not the easy venue that some seem to think, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone has plans to return at a later date to try to get to grips with the challenge that the venue presents.

Here’s the results of the day…………

1st	Gary(Gaza)Thorpe	227lb 08oz
2nd	Pete(Quietman)Thompson	179lb 08oz
3rd	Keith(Ghandi)Ashby	167lb 08oz
4th	Matt Nutt	112lb 00oz
5th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	91lb 08oz
6th	Dirk(The Dangler)Williams	75lb 12oz
7th	Roy(Royst)Ravenhill	69lb 08oz
8th	Jason(JKG)Grant	68lb 12oz
9th	Matt(Matt6900)Smith	61lb 04oz
10th	Geoff(Lurcher)Eggison	52lb 00oz
11th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	50lb 12oz
12th=	Dave Ashby	48lb 08oz
12th=	Dave(Webbo)Webster	48lb 08oz
14th	Mark(mark c adroit)Causer	40lb 08oz
15th	Nick(Slimcatcher)Bryan	16lb 00oz
16th	Nick(Neo-1)Williams	13lb 08oz
17th	Steve Wilson	10lb 00oz
18th	Paul Roberts	5lb 08oz
19th	Dave(Dave The Fish)Collier	DNW

NB: On Sunday 25th September, Gary Thorpe smashed the World 5hr match record with a weight of 490lb 8oz from peg 19.

Newlands Hall. Essex. September 10th, 2005.

Marsh AC club match.

Today I had the pleasure of fishing as a guest with Dave (The Fish) Collier and the club members from Marsh AC at Newlands Hall just outside Chelmsford in Essex.

I had heard some good reports about the sport on offer from Dave in the past, and having guested with the club before knew that they are a good bunch to enjoy a days fishing with.

The draw saw me picking peg 20 which proved to be in the opposite corner from the car park.

I have to say that the lake appeared to be a little down on it’s normal level, but my peg looked decent enough.

Setting up provided a bit of a shock however, as plumbing up revealed no more than 14 inches of water anywhere, not even at 13 mtrs!!!!! Indeed there was a whole extra inch in the left hand margin, but that was it.

Mud clouds everywhere betraying a silty bottom and fish moving on the top showed that there were obviously plenty of fish stocked, but with the promise of changeable weather, just how it would fish looked as if it would be in the lap of the gods.

10am and all in, and after 45 mins just a single fish to pellet wasn’t the start I was looking for, John opposite me was catching fairly regularly as was Dave on Peg 30 in the corner by the car park. A change to paste tempted another couple for me just as it started to rain. It let up at around noon and with a few fish showing on top I managed to sneak a few out on dapped dog biscuit.

1pm and a half time weigh in took place, Dave putting 70lbs+ plus on the scales, John opposite 50lbs+ and myself around 30lbs while others had struggled.
2pm and we were off for part 2, and a breeze from right to left was preventing me taking full advantage of fish coming to the surface as someone to my right was feeding floaters that kept dragging the fish away. Periodically they would come back as they chased the surplus, and when they did I could pick a few off. John opposite was still catching regularly, while Dave appeared to be either playing or netting a fish every time I glanced over in his direction.

Weigh in time and John opposite was soon leading with 150lbs+ while I had managed about another 60lbs to leave me just short of The Ton overall. Dave had had a cracking afternoon with his total for the day coming just short of a Double Ton at 197lbs.

So an enjoyable day in good company finished with 3rd for me at another new venue (I seem to be fishing a lot of them this year) and after we all decamped to the pub for a well earned pint.
Thanks to Dave and the lads of Marsh AC for the day, it was a pleasure to fish with you all once more.