Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2. November 24th, 2007.

“hi Peter what are the chances of a days practice before the big day so as you can show me how to snare a whiskery critter or two lol”  that was the message that I received from Bill on the Maggotdrowning.com Forum. He’d also posted our intent on the forum and a couple of the newer members, Pete (Petemid) and Ryan (Zephyr) soon agreed to join us as Ryan also wanted a Barbel.So there I was loading my kit into my frost covered car for the trip down with the temperature registering 2°C. Suitably wrapped up as I know just how exposed Monk Lakes can be, the thermals were getting their 1st outing for a while.

Bill and I had decided that there was no need for an early start, and to meet at the fishery around 9 – 9·30am. I stopped for a couple of Sausage & Egg McMuffins on the way down and arrived just ahead of Bill, while a quick phone call revealed that that Pete and Ryan were already ensconced in pegs on Lake 2. Bill soon arrived and after he’d demolished a breakfast baguette we made our way up to Lake 2, which I was pleasantly surprised to see was flat calm, a real bonus as the lakes normally catch the slightest breeze.

Pete had set up on peg 47 with Ryan on peg 48 and had been fishing for around an hour, so I let Bill take peg 45 as I was positive that he would get his Barbel from there while I dropped into peg 46.
On arrival I ‘d had a chat with Ron the bailiff and he’d agreed that we could use keepnets for a little knock-up, and I’d brought a spare for Ryan as I knew he didn’t have one.

We started the knock-up at around 10·45am after Pete & Ryan had gone and got something to eat and Bill and I finished setting up. Ryan was using a pole he’d borrowed from Pete for the 1st time and was soon into fish.

Pete was soon into a couple as well, and I felt that they may have an edge, given that they’d been fishing and feeding for an hour prior to the start.
I set up a couple of rigs, a top 3 for dead depth at around 3ft deep for an inside line, which would double as an up in the water rig on my main line at around 8mtrs. My other rig was set to fish dead depth at around 6ft on the 8mtr line. Bait was to be double red maggot on the size 18 Fox series2 hooks attached to both rigs. I started with ½ a pot of micro’s and a couple of dozen red maggots at 8mtrs and a pinch of maggots on the inside line, though I doubted whether the inside line would work today as the water was icy cold.
Bill appeared to set up just a single rig to fish at 6-7mtrs and was feeding pellet and maggot as well and alternating between corn and maggot on the hook.

1st fish for me was a little Tench followed by an Ide and I think Bill got off the mark with a Chub. I elected to pot more Micro’s and maggots in, and for a horrible minute thought that I’d killed it, but the bites soon returned. Pretty soon I had the 1st Barbel, much to Bill’s delight, soon followed by another couple, Vince phoned and found it hard to believe that Bill hadn’t managed a Barbel at that point, especially as I managed another couple while chatting on the phone.
No sooner had Vince hung up and Dave(Red Leader) phoned for a report and much to Bill’s delight, reckoned that he must be using Barbel-less hooks.

Both Bill and I were catching reasonably regularly and at one point I tried some cat food as a change bait and managed a run of 6 Barbel in 6 put ins, not that I was counting, Bill was though as he waded through the Chub, Tench and Carp to try and find a Barbel. A quick look down the bank revealed that Ryan was catching steadily, but Pete was struggling with big gaps between his bites.

Good to see as well, that the EA’s bailiffs were out and about checking licences in the cold. On a day when there were no matches on and the weather ensuring very few anglers were at the fishery, they could easily have given it a miss and stayed in the warm without anyone being any the wiser.

Around 1pm the wind started to get up, blowing straight into us and realistically both Bill and I should have changed our light rigs to combat it, but we were both to lazy as we were still getting bites. Soon I looked up and could tell by the grin on Bills face that the fish sliding towards his net was a Barbel, which was soon captured for posterity
Shortly after Paul(nomorelongwalks) phoned for a progress report and let us know that he was off for a pint or two in a nice warm pub. Meanwhile I was building a nice mixed bag of Barbel, Mirrors, F1′s, Tench (both green & golden) Golden Orfe and Ide, nothing big but regularly enough to keep warm.

By 3pm we decided to call time as the skies threatened rain and both Pete & Ryan had realised that trainers weren’t the ideal footwear to keep your feet warm.

Thanks to Pete having scales and a weigh sling with him we had a quick weigh-in.
Ryan managing a creditable 22lbs on his 1st pole fishing session including his 1st ever Barbel……
Pete had suffered however managing just 9lbs, though he did manage a final Barbel after the weigh-in that must have given him double figures……
My bag came to 26lbs, but you’ll have to excuse the picture as Ryan was so cold by then that he couldn’t hold the camera steady ……
Finally Bill weighed in with 21lbs including 4 Barbel that all beat his previous PB

Not the greatest of weights but given the light hearted nature of the day and the conditions, not to bad. Farewells made we set off, but we’ll soon be doing it all again on the 15th December at the MD’s Southern Fur & Feather match.

Platt-forms Series3 Tuff Box review. November 11th, 2007.

Platt-forms Series3 Tuff Box

I first saw one of the Platt-forms boxes early in 2006 when Dave Collier purchased a Series4 and I have to say that I was totally impressed, so much so that I said at the time that if I ever replaced my Boss 6 drawer one of these would definitely be in the running and here it is, my new box………

Made in England, the whole box is constructed from aluminium sheet and all catches used are the tried and tested metal toggle type along with the lift off hinges seen on many boxes such as the original Boss box, all of which are securely riveted to the box components..    

Starting off with the top of the box, The seat measures 13″ x 17″ with 2″ of high density foam padding covered with what appears to be a tough hardwearing rubberised material, with a pole channel making it suitable for those that like to sit on their pole butt. This is fitted to the centre section by means of two lift off style hinges and retained by two front mounted toggle catches. There is also a rubber seal round the seat base ensuring that no water can leak between the seat and the compartment below. 

Moving onto the centre section, underneath the seat is a compartment for pole rigs that’s around 1½” deep including the recess into the seat and there is a moulded plastic liner dividing the tray in two which has a ridge in the moulding allowing you to pop up the winders allowing easy removal. There is space for around 25-30 rigs to be stored dependant on the size of winders used (No winders are supplied with the box) I’ve also added two trays of the Fox orange winders on top that allow me to store another 28 rigs, which has the added bonus of holding the rigs in place when the lid is lifted. The locking pin for the drawers is also located in this compartment.

Underneath this first compartment are the 3 cross drawers running the full width of the box and these can be opened from either side. The top drawer is 1½” deep while the two lower ones are both ¾” deep. All the drawer contain moulded plastic liners dividing them into two separate sections. All drawers are opened with high quality knurled aluminium knobs. the total height of this unit is 6″

All of this is retained on the box section mid frame with two lift off hinges and two side mounted toggle catches allowing access to the base unit. Yet again there is a rubber seal fitted to the base of the centre section to prevent any water leaking into the base.

The mid-frame unit housing the legs has a width of 23″ and all welds appear to be 1st class. This utilises standard size square legs that are 18″ long and are finished off with good quality screw-in mud feet ( a word of warning however, as I know that Dave Collier had some problems with these coming unscrewed and dropping off when his box was new, though a bit of muck and dirt seems to have cured this now.) The legs are secured by what appear to be good quality hand wheels that are very similar to the Penrose ones.
These fittings however are not of the non-marking variety which may be considered a minus point by some, though it’s not a concern for me.

Below this is the 6″ deep base section, which again has with a one piece moulded liner which probably knocks ½” off the internal dimensions. The base can simply be removed by undoing the two side mounted toggle catches if needs be. Needless to say there is yet another rubber seal between the base and mid-frame unit to keep water out.

The footplate supplied is a 4 bar square section one, again all welds appear to be 1st class. The legs are identical to those used with the box.
Nowadays there is a trend for a non slip coating to be fitted to footplates but this one doesn’t have it, which may again be a minus point to some. The footplate isn’t a hinged folding design but locates into a 90° bracket which is adjustable on the box legs, This provides a totally stable footplate allowing you to stand up on it without fear of it folding up. To store the footplate it can be slid under the base unit, however if the base is set lower so that isn’t possible the legs can be slid into the brackets to store it as shown in the photo………

Finally to lift or carry it the box has two carry handles securely riveted to the mid-frame and it is supplied with a top quality detachable Air Strap® carry strap, probably the best on the market and well worth looking at if you’re looking for a replacement strap for your own box.

So there it is, I’ve used it once and it feels absolutely bombproof. The overall build quality is IMO the equal of any box that I’ve seen in recent years. My initial thoughts having spent 6 hours sitting on it are that it is probably the most comfortable pole seat I’ve used.
I’ve pointed out in the review what I feel may be considered minus points by some and there are another couple I feel may be an improvement. Firstly the moulded plastic liners in the drawers may not be to everyone's taste, but they are very securely fixed in place, if these were easily removable it would make the available storage space a bit more versatile. Secondly, it would be nice if the legs were extendable, similar to the new Preston legs as it would make the box easier to level on uneven surfaces. It’s fine for platforms though

Hopefully this will be of help to others and I’ll revisit this when I’ve used it a bit more.

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UPDATE: Sunday, January 4th 2009.

Well this box has now seen just over a year of use.
I did address one of my initial concerns with the box however shortly after writing my initial revue, and have changed the legs for the extending Preston legs, allowing the whole set up to be levelled more easily without affecting the footplate position, and as I originally stated, this is the one area that I feel Platt-Forms should address on the box.

  How has it performed? Perfectly, nothing has fallen off, worked loose or broken. The seat is still the most comfortable of any seatbox I’ve ever owned.
There is no signs of any corrosion to be seen and the paint finish is unmarked.
The box does exactly what it’s designed to do, with not a single problem, hard to ask more from a box. I would recommend it to anyone.

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UPDATE: Sunday, June 7th, 2009.

Well it’s 18 months on from my initial purchase now, and the box is still performing perfectly, Just to give you some idea of how everything is laid out on the box I’ll post the following photo……….

(The photo is a little bit of a cheat as it is two stitched together to show what’s kept in both sides of the 3 cross draws)

The under seat area stores 55 rigs, 27 on the bottom and 28 in the trays on top (These are Fox orange 14 x 180mm slide winders and are a perfect fit for the box)
At the bottom of the photo you can see the contents of 2 organiser boxes that are kept in the base unit and still leaves a bit of room for a few other odds and ends if need be.
  NB: I feel at this point I should make something clear.
A number of people have seen the photo above and have tried to replicate how the winders appear to be fitted and have had trouble stopping them falling out. The winders in the recess under the seat were only placed there to show how many are stored in the box. The trays are not fixed to the recess under the seat.
The reality is that the 2 winder trays are stuck onto a piece of thin Perspex to form a single large tray (you could use thin plywood or something similar) and normally sit on top of the other winders.

I can only apologise to those that may have taken the photo at face value, and experienced trouble trying to make them fit as it appears in the picture.

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UPDATE: Tuesday, January 12th, 2010.

2 years down the line and what can I say about this box?

It’s still going strong. There isn’t a single sign of rust or corrosion to be seen. Absolutely nothing has worked loose, dropped off or broken. The seat has no rips or tears and remains supremely comfortable. 
I would heartily recommend that anyone looking for a seatbox considers one of these. They may not be the flashiest, but they’re 100% British built and near as damn it bombproof.

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UPDATE: Thursday, May 26th, 2011.

  Three and a half years down the line and this box is still providing sterling service, and I really can’t fault it. The seat remains 1st class with no tears or rips and is as comfortable as the day I first sat on it. The footplate and frame show no signs of any fatigue on the welds. The paint/powdercoat finish on the body of the box and draws shows no signs of lifting and all the clips and fastenings still work fine.
3½ years of use with no problems. It’s hard to ask for any more from a quality seatbox like this. 

Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2. November 10th, 2007.

First outing for my new Seat Box.

Back down to Monk Lakes again today, with Maria going out with a friend for a bit of early Christmas shopping it seemed as good an excuse as any to give a new purchase a 1st outing and see if I was comfortable using it.

 Yes my faithful Boss 6 draw box has been retired from service and the new bit of kit that’s taking it’s place is a Platt-forms Series3 Tuff box……….

Anyway arriving after a leisurely drive down a chat with Ron while purchasing my ticket revealed that once again there were no Saturday matches on so I could take my pick of swims on the match lakes.

With it being quite mild (12°C) and overcast I thought I might have a bit of a practice on Lake1 for the upcoming MD’s Fur & Feather match however it soon became obvious that the wind was  pretty horrendous so I drove down to Lake2 which offers a little bit of shelter as it sits lower than the other 3 match lakes. Peg45 was occupied by a father and son so I set up on Peg47 to give them a bit of space.

I was going to keep things very simple today, just a top 3 with a rig set up for dead depth (about 4ft) , a couple of pints of red maggots for bait and some pellets for feed.

A couple of handfuls of pellet into the swim followed by a pinch of maggots followed by the rig produced almost instantly, however it was just a razorblade of a skimmer this was followed by a couple of Gudgeon and a micro Carp, but these were then followed by this fella…………….

who proceeded to upend himself in a determined attempt to get at the feed he had obviously seen me putting in. Not content with that he decided it was bath time, thrashing around getting himself soaking wet and then just sitting there preening himself.

However whilst all this had been going on the father & son on Peg 45 had decided to move over onto Lake 4, so not being one to miss an opportunity I quickly moved my kit over leaving Mr Swan to his ablutions. A quick re-plumb and I was set, I decided against feeding pellets as I felt the sound of the splash was what had attracted the swan, settling for just flicking out a pinch of maggot.

Now at this point I would like to say just how hard I fished, putting on a true piscatorial master class, chopping and changing with lots of tiny alterations just to keep the fish coming, but that would be a total lie. The truth of the matter is that it turned into one of those easy days fishing where it all goes right. A pinch of maggot, drop the rig in, watch it settle and 15-20seconds later watch the float slide under and the black hydro come out in reaction to the strike then net the fish. A mix of Barbel

Skimmers, Tench, Carp (both Mirrors and Commons) Chub and quite an large percentage of Ide

 a fish that I’ve not caught in any quantity before from Lake2, and not forgetting of course a number of F1′s……

Monks really should be regarded as the home of the F1 given that Simon who owns the complex originally developed F1′s on the adjacent Riverfield Fish Farm.

By 3pm I’d had 250 fish and with the clouds threatening rain I packed up (well I wouldn’t have wanted to get the new box wet first time out would I?) What about the box? well the seat is probably the most comfortable I’ve spent 6 hours on, but Ill post a full review of the box later.

So that was it for the day, Far better than being dragged round the shops by Maria, and if Lake 1 fishes anywhere near as well on the 15th December we should be in for a good day, We’ll see.