Buxted Oast Farm Fishery, Buxted, East Sussex. December 29th, 2008.

Well with Maria back at work today after the Christmas break, I’d accepted an Invitation from Bill G on the Maggotdrowning forum to join him and a few of the lads for an impromptu Knock-up at Buxted Oast, especially as it was a venue that I’d not fished previously. Having dropped Maria of at work around 6am I popped back home to load the car up, but with the outside temp readout showing -2°C I must admit to questioning my sanity as I pulled away from the flats.

An easy trip down saw me have enough time to stop for some breakfast in East Grinstead and still arrive by 8·30am, though by the time I pulled up the temp was down to -3°C. My 1st site of the Lake revealed over half of it was iced over, It was fed by a stream at one end with a ‘monk’ type outlet at the other, and it had space for around 17 pegs maximum, but with only eight of us fishing today we wouldn’t be to cramped. While Bill pegged out the chat revolved around who would have to break the ice.

Draw time and Kev was 1st in for peg 2 and I followed with Peg 3, these are the pegs where the stream comes in and share a reed bed that Bill reckoned had Carp moving in them when he pegged out, but by the time I got my gear down there, they were nowhere to be seen (Must have seen Bill’s face and buggered off) However it was relatively ice free, with just a bit of cat ice and with the sun shining that would soon go.

A couple of pegs to my left was Mick with John, one of Bill’s club mates next up. On the road bank were Ryan, Vince on the outlet and Mick’s brother Geoff in the corner peg, which Bill reckoned was the ‘Flyer’, leaving Bill in the shade and ice bound on the final peg.

Bill, Geoff and Vince had some serious ice breaking to do 1st, while the rest of us had the luxury of setting up straight away. I was going with the pole and just set up a couple of identical top kits. Both of these were rigged with Malman 4×12 Snake 1′s on 0·12 to an 0·10 bottom with a size 20 Drennan Match Carp hook, Feed was just micro and 4mm hard pellet, which would be fed through a kinder pot, while bait was simply 4mm expanders and corn.

10am and the All-in, and with an initial feed of a pinch of micro’s and a couple of grains of corn potted in against the rushes I dropped the rig baited with a piece of corn full of anticipation.Kevin had a bit more trouble with the ice in his peg so started off targeting the other end of the reeds,

Mick was soon into small Roach fishing maggot with his trusty Tri-Cast and Mitchell 300, but no amount of lifting, dropping and dragging the rig could induce a bite for me. with an hour gone Ryan had a small Carp, but most of us were struggling and Bill was already starting to freeze on his shaded peg, though he appeared to be getting the odd Carp.

A change to pellet on the hook made no difference apart from a few knocks that I was convinced were small roach shredding the pellet. However the bird life was a pleasant distraction, with a Kingfisher flitting back and forth across the pool between perching in the trees……..

While a tiny Wren flitted around my peg on the lookout for a tasty morsel to come his way………

2 hours in and I went for a stroll. Mick was happily bashing the bits. John had had a few small Carp and silvers, while Ryan was now targeting the Roach in the absence of another Carp. Vince and Geoff were both struggling with just a few small Roach between them.

Bill however was getting a few Carp and landed a small one of around 6ozs while we chatted, however with no sun on it his peg was so cold that I soon left him to it.

Returning to my peg Kev was admitting to a solitary small Roach but my peg was still dead apart from a few more knocks on pellet. This was getting desperate and I was starting to think that I was going to end 2008 not just with a blank, but worse still losing a £1 to Vince.

Desperate measures were called for so I popped along to Mick and scrounged some maggots off him. Double maggot on the hook and straight away a small roach obliged saving me from the dreaded blank. Now it was just a case of getting my head down and catching as many as possible in the last couple of hours. If Vince managed to nick a Carp he would be firmly in the Pound seats, if not I was in with a chance.

A visit from Bill, who was trying to restore some circulation revealed Vince was targeting the Roach as well, but I was at least catching regularly, and that’s the way it stayed until the all out was called at 3pm. Kevin’s solitary roach had saved him the dreaded DNW, while 4lbs was the result of my bit bashing. Mick had around 7lbs for his efforts. John’s 18½lbs was a very creditable effort on the day,, while Ryan’s bonus Carp added to his Roach saw him weigh 4¼lbs, Vince had had a mare however with to many missed bites meaning that just 1lb 10ozs registered on the scales, so the final £1 of 2008 was mine. Geoff added 2lbs 10ozs of waggler caught Roach, but the star on the day was Bill with a very fine 37½lbs to take the honours on the day.

So that’s it for 2008, I was hoping to get out one final time before New Year, but with the way the frosts are coming down at night, I think I’ll wait till the New Year before venturing out again. What will 2009 bring? Well hopefully more £1 coins from Vince. I’m already booked in for another Jinx Series and more Marsh AC club matches, but above all I’m looking forward to more fun and enjoyment with all those I fish with in 2009.
Till then may I wish all that read this a Happy, Prosperous and Fish Filled New Year.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins	37lbs 08ozs
2nd	John Manktelow	18lbs 08ozs
3rd	Mick(The Chippy)Pearson	7lbs 00ozs
4th	Ryan(Zephyr)Wells	4lbs 04ozs
5th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	4lbs 00ozs
6th	Geoff(geoffallday)Pearson	2lbs 10ozs
7th	Vince(Vince G)Gould	1lbs 10ozs
8th	Kevin(The Catch)Loveland	04ozs

Wyland International Angling Centre, near Battle, East Sussex. December 13th, 2008.

Maggotdrowning.com

 

Southern Fur & Feather.

Well it was off down to Wylands, just outside Battle today for the Southern Fur & Feather match on the fishery’s House Lake, that’s been organised for the lads on the Maggotdrowning forum by Trevor(MT Net)Little. Loading up the car it was cold, windy and pouring down with rain (the sort of morning that makes you question your sanity) and it didn’t get any better during the trip down. Pulling into the fishery and as I got out of the car I realised it was even windier than I thought. A quick bacon sarnie and a coffee while I caught up with the other 14 lunatics assembled proceeded the draw and it has to be said that nobody looked too enthusiastic to get started. In fact the conversation revolved around which were the closest pegs to the snack bar.

Anyway peg 14 by the footbridge stuck to my palm. A stroll down with the tackle revealed a pretty steep bank that would test the seat box legs out, all in all a little precarious. Mick to my right on 13 was in pretty much the same predicament while across the footbridge I had Jeff D and Al on 15 & 16. Once I’d managed to level the box up I stuck the brolly up. With the wind swirling and the angle I was fishing at, it meant that I couldn’t get right out of the rain but at least it offered a bit of shelter.

I just set up 2 pole rigs, both consisted of Malman 4×14 Snake 1′s on 0·12 to an 0·10 bottom with a size 20 red Drennan carp maggot hook, one for under the bridge, but with only just a couple of feet of depth I wasn’t expecting much from there. The other was for out into open water at 7mtrs where I had around 3½ft. Fishing any longer was out of the question really with the wind and driving rain, Bait was just red maggots with some corn for a change bait and some micro’s for feed.

10am and Trevor called the All-in. A pinch of micro’s and maggots followed by a maggot baited hook soon produced a small roach from the open water swim and set the pattern for the day. Looking round after about an hour though , very few were looking comfortable, though everyone appeared to be catching the odd fish. Now I’ve had my Preston Dri-Fish suit since they 1st came out and it’s served me well, but despite regular NikWaxing after 4 seasons of abuse it’s due for changing, and today the conditions found it out. I could feel the water starting to leak through, so decided to retreat to the snack bar for a warming coffee. I wasn’t the only one either. Mick produced a bottle of Brandy and a shot was added to the coffee (strictly for medicinal purposes of course) Sitting there certainly seemed a better idea than battling it out with the elements and offered a good view of the lake.

Nick Gilbert right in front of us seemed to be doing OK, alternating between waggler to the island and the pole line, as did Mark(MoleMan)Hathaway a couple of pegs along to the left of Nick. Tony(spamwham) pegged between them was having a bit of trouble however with his umbrella with the wind doing its best to wrap Tony up in it …………

I returned to my peg for another go, but I have to say that my heart wasn’t in it, despite the Roach still being there. I stuck it out till about 1pm, but I was cold damp and miserable, so gave it best, tipping back about 6lbs of Roach and hastily getting my gear back to the car. A session with the hand drier in the loo got some feeling back in my hands and I returned to the snack bar to watch the rest of the match, and by the time that Trevor called the All-out at 3pm there were half a dozen of us there.

The weigh-in didn’t take long, Mark(Moleman) taking the honours on the day with 32lbs 15ozs from Nick’s 30lbs 03ozs, though the real shock was Omega Mike sticking it out for the whole 5 hours for 19lbs 10ozs and 3rd place !

So a quick presentation saw Mark with a nice shiny trophy, while the rest of us all took home a little something from the prize table for Christmas. Thanks to Trevor for organising the day, we all agreed that it was a cracking venue and that we’d like another go at it in better weather. On a final note all the lads chipped in the pools money and Keith at Wylands chipped in £2 from each of our peg fees, meaning £75 was donated to the Maggotdrowning Christmas Appeal Nice one lads.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Mark(MoleMan)Hathaway	32lbs 15ozs
2nd	Nick Gilbert	30lbs 03ozs
3rd	Mike(Omega Mike)Jameson	19lbs 10ozs
4th	Jeff(Jeff D)Driscoll	13lbs 04ozs
5th	Alan(Al)Loader	11lbs 10ozs
6th	Tony(spamwham)Roberts	11lbs 05ozs
7th	Trevor(MT Net)Little	7lbs 08ozs
8th	Bill(Bill G)Gibbins	6lbs 06ozs
9th	Simon Elsey	4lbs 04ozs
	Peter(Mugger)Morton	DNW
	Mick(The Chippy)Pearson	DNW
	Vince(Vince G)Gould	DNW
	Kevin(The Catch)Loveland	DNW
	Matt Love	DNW
	Wayne(map)Taylor	DNW

The DNW’s aren’t a reflection on the fishery as the 6 anglers all caught,
 but packed up early and tipped their fish back.

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. December 6th, 2008.

Ryan’s Winter Knock Up.

It was definitely a day for the thermals today as I loaded the car ready for the trip down To Hartleylands Farm for a friendly little Knock Up on Nick’s Lake that Ryan (Zephyr) has organised through the MD’s forum. By the time I arrived at the car park it was around 8am and it appeared that I was the last of 17 lunatics to arrive. Fortunately Mick had managed to arrange for the catering wagon that had been at Broad Oak to turn up, so breakfast was taken care of courtesy of a cuppa from Andy and half of one of the monster breakfast rolls from Trevor Thanks lads.

Nick unfortunately had a black out and cracked his head, but after we had got him into the back of a van and Kevin had administered a spot of first aid he thankfully recovered enough to fish, especially once he realised that peg 9 was left in the hat for him.

My draw had yielded peg 36, not a great area in winter, but with a nice short walk from the car and a bit of shelter looked like being a bonus today, and as only sections were being paid out today instead of the top 3 I still had something to fish for. For company today I had Andy(The Hat) to my right on peg 36, and to my left 3 of my fellow Marsh club members, in Kevin, Terry and Dave on pegs 2,4 and 6.

The peg was comfy enough with just a short chuck to the corner of the island, and with it being so cold I only set the feeder up. Bait was simply a couple of pints of reds and some groundbait. The one doubt in the back of my mind was the colour or rather lack of it in the water. The recent frosts appeared to have knocked the colour right out of it which is unusual on Nick’s regardless of how cold it gets.

So 10am and the All-In is called, feeder to the point, tighten up and wait for the action to start …………….and wait ………….and wait ………………and wait. Thankfully Kevin’s partner Jean broke the monotony by providing me with a hot cup of coffee, but apart from Dave getting a small Carp and receiving all our hearty congratulations……NOT there didn’t seem to be much happening, In fact the only person that appeared to be doing anything was Steve Allen on peg 8. Now Steve normally fishes with his two sons Pete and Nick, but it was obviously a little to cold for the poor things so he’d brought his mate, Terry with him for company. A quick chat with Andy revealed that at least he’d had 3 small fish, better than me at that point with his more “speccie” orientated approach……

Well with 1½ hours gone without as much as a nibbled maggot to show for it, I decided I should get the pole out, at least shipping in and out would keep me warm. The rig was a Malman 4×10 Snake1 to ·12 finished with an 18 Drennan maggot hook. I set this up to fish at around 6mtrs where I had around 3½ft of water with soft set white hydro in the top kit. A pinch of maggot followed by the rig soon rewarded me with a small roach, at least I hadn’t blanked.

Terry was alternating between the feeder and a pole approach but was struggling like the majority of us, nothing really seemed to bring him a run of fish……………

Dave meanwhile had managed to nick another small carp on the feeder, but was also sorting out a pole rig in an attempt to find a bit of action………

Indeed regardless of where I looked it was hard to find anyone who was getting amongst the fish apart from Steve whose could be seen with a bend in his rod on a regular basis.

I managed to keep the small roach coming, not quickly enough to build any real weight, but fast enough to pass the time and keep me focused.

With about 10 minutes to go Kevin finally had a bite on the feeder and was rewarded with a small carp, however in his enthusiasm to get back out there his next cast ended on the island and the resulting break ended his day with 5 minutes to go. I chucked the feeder out just in case there was another in the area, but the tip remained stationary till the All-Out was called at 3pm.

At least it didn’t take to long to pack up and get the gear back to the car, and a stroll round with the scales showed just how hard it had fished today. Steve had walked the match today putting 42lbs 12ozs on the scales for a comfortable win, in fact everyone else only managed single figures apart from Trevor whose 10lbs 4ozs of silvers won him his section. Steve’s mate Terry Goulding realised he had tipped back a weight that would have won his section but Hey Ho…….. That's fishing, and of course we were all very sympathetic……….NOT.

Thanks to Ryan for organising the day (his 1st attempt at organising a match). Next up is the Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match at Wylands next Saturday. How will that turn out? You can read about it here next weekend.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 8	Steve(Rookery54)Allen	42lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 32	Trevor(MT Net)Little	10lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 13	Jeff(Jeff D)Driscoll	7lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 21	Alan(Al)Loader	7lbs 00ozs
5th=	Peg 36	Peter(Mugger)Morton	6lbs 12ozs
5th=	Peg 6	Dave(The Fish)Collier	6lbs 12ozs
5th=	Peg 23	Tony(spamwham)Roberts	6lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 17	Pete(petemid)Midgley	5lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 34	Andy(The Hat)Spreadbury	5lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 24	Lewis(Super ted)Keen	4lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 12	Ryan(Zephyr)Wells	3lbs 06ozs
12th	Peg 15	Mick(The Chippy)Pearson	3lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 4	Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff	2lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 2	Kevin(The Catch)Loveland	2lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 20	Keith(Chief)Wells	1lbs 01ozs
16th	Peg 9	Nick(Bag Up)Costar	DNW
17th	Peg 26	Terry Golding	DNW

Mansfields Lake, Broad Oak, Canterbury. November 22nd, 2008.

Mick the Chippy’s Knock Up.

Out with the lads from Maggotdrowning.com today for a Knock up arranged by Mick the Chippy with the aid of his brother Geoff. Loading up the car it was obvious that it was going to be a cold one, so the thermals were getting their 1st outing of the year. A smooth drive down saw me arriving at the lake around 8·30am, however a displayed temperature of just 3°C had left a small seed of doubt in my mind as to whether the fishing would be up to much.


The good news though was that Mick had persuaded a local snack wagon to put in an appearance so that we could get some hot food and a cuppa prior to the start. While the others arrived I strolled down for a 1st look at the lake……………

So with 13 lunatics of us assembled and everyone fed and watered we dived into the draw then made our way to our pegs. Having drawn 11 I opted for the far side that offered a bit of shelter from the wind and found myself settling into peg 20 with Dave and Vince on my left on 19 & 18 respectively, with one of the Allen brothers to my right and Colin next to him.

The set up was going to be pretty simple, and a quick plumb up revealed around 3ft on a top 2 line but with lots of twigs etc making for a bit of a snag pit, while adding a section gave me a decent 4½ft straight out in front that was relatively free of clutter. The feeder rod was also set up with a tiny cage feeder, while bait was simply red maggots with a bit of corn by way of a change bait.

10·30am saw Mick call the All-in, and it was soon pretty apparent that we might be looking at a bit of a grueller. I heard a muttering from my left and heard Mike questioning Vince, it turned out that Vince had had a wrap round almost straight away on the feeder but hadn’t connected. For most of us however it was just a case of nicking some small roach (though Mick was positive they were Rudd)

Mike on the opposite side was fishing long into the teeth of the wind and after about an hour was rewarded with yards of elastic streaming from his pole. He’d obviously connected with a Carp, but with only No4 elastic in his top kit was having a few problems. Mick stepped in to provide a ghillie service however meaning that Mike romped into the lead when Mick netted a small Carp of around 2½lbs for him.

45 minutes later and Mick was rewarded with a small Carp of his own, which he gingerly played on a pound bottom, and I’m sure his heart was gladdened by all the calls of support that accompanied it’s capture.

No such luck for the rest of us, though Colin was rumoured to have had a half decent Skimmer to boost his Roach, Bill had strolled down and reported that he was getting small Roach regularly from his peg up he top end where he had 9-10ft of water close in.

With not much happening for me I took a quick stroll to see what was happening elsewhere. Bill was indeed catching pretty regularly by keeping the feed going in…………

………. but everyone else seemed to be plodding along just nicking the odd small Roach here and there……….

Indeed unlike Bill I was finding that feeding was the kiss of death, and it was only by stopping feeding that I could attract any bites. Dave was finding the same despite alternating between a maggot and likkie line………

I’d had a couple of looks on the feeder, but it hadn’t produced as much as a tremble on the tip. Meanwhile Colin had netted a cracking Roach of 1½lbs and Mike had landed another small Carp to put himself firmly into the pound seats. With around an hour to go the Allen brothers decided they’d had enough and packed up (Youngsters these days, No staying power or perhaps more common sense than the rest of us)

As we moved into the last half hour Mick’s brother Richard got himself a small Carp, while Vince was having one last look on the feeder in an attempt to get a £1 coin from me for a change…………

Thankfully Mick called the All-out at 3pm. A quick weigh-in ensued, and sure enough Mike had taken the honours on the day with 6lbs 14ozs while Bill and Colin shared second place with 3lbs 8oz each. Vince put 2lbs 4ozs on the scales, and initially my fish were called at the same weight, however the scalesman finally called it at 2lbs 5ozs to give me another shiny £1 coin.

Back at the car park and Mick presented Mike with a trophy for the winner………..

and we were all very pleasantly surprised to find that Mick had got us all engraved medals as a momento of the day, a really nice gesture on Mick’s behalf.

 

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Mike(omega mike)Jameson	6lbs 14ozs
2nd=	Colin(The Pike)Sharrard	3lbs 08ozs
2nd=	Bill Gibbins	3lbs 08ozs
3rd	Geoff(geoffallday)Pearson	3lbs 04ozs
4th	Richard(DHL man)Pearson	3lbs 02ozs
5th	Mick(The Chippy)Pearson	3lbs 01ozs
6th	Peter(Mugger)Morton	2lbs 05ozs
7th	Vince Gould	2lbs 04ozs
8th	Dave(hopalong)	1lb 10ozs
9th	Dave(The Fish)Collier	1lb 08ozs
10th=	Julian Bergin	DNW
10th=	Nick(pastie)Allen	DNW
10th=	Pete(btpt)Allen	DNW

So the end of yet another MD’s day out, and a big THANK YOU to Mick and his brother Geoff for organising the whole day. Mick’s already planning the next one, but hopefully that can wait till next year when things warm up a bit. Mind you the next trip isn’t far away as Ryan (Zephyr) is organising a match on Nick’s Lake at Hartleylands Farm on 6th December and as usual I’ll post a report on the days events here.

Hawkhurst Fishery. The Match Lake. October 11th, 2008.

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was the last match of the year for Marsh AC, and the chosen venue was The Match Lake at Hawkhurst in Kent, to hopefully finish off the match calendar in fine style.

With the car loaded I set off around 7am with the forecaster on the radio promising a fine sunny day ahead. By the time I reached Badgers Mount there was thick fog and I’d also had a phone call from Keith (Gandhi) who was traveling down from Milton Keynes to guest on todays match. The fog hung around all the way down to Hawkhurst and I pulled into the car park just after 8am.

There was a reasonable turn out assembled as we had a total of 5 guests joining us today and as the on site café wouldn’t open till 9am we decided to draw and set up beforehand and then have breakfast before starting the match around 10am.

Into the draw and I came away with peg 15, just about half way up the left hand bank as you look from the car park…….

…and there was quite an eerie silence as everyone settled into their pegs shrouded in fog………

I was going to keep the set up simple. 1 line at around 7mtrs and another in the margin against the boards. Rig wise i set up 3 rigs consisting of Malman 4×12 Adam’s on 0·18 to size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks . 1 to fish at depth at 7mtrs (around 4ft) another shallow and the 3rd for the margin where I had around 2ft on the shelf. I also set up the pellet waggler, but wasn’t expecting to use it unless I struggled on the pole. Bait wise I went with 8mm fishery pellet with 6mm expanders and corn for change baits while feed was taken care of by 4 and 6mm fishery pellets.

With the fog still hanging around I could just see Clive trying for some atmospheric shots with his camera………

…… as I strolled up for a spot of breakfast just after 9am. I’ve got to say that the Full English at Hawkhurst is well worth the £5, and the banter was soon flowing as everyone tucked in. Dave had decided to run a little pairs match with-in the match and sorted out the draw for that over breakfast as well. As we made our way back to the lake it was bathed in sunshine, the sun having burnt off the fog and Dave finally called the All-in at 10·15am.

I fed 2 large pots of pellet on the 7mtr line to try and nail any fish in the vicinity to the deck straight away and a handful on the margin line and shipped an 8mm banded pellet onto the 7mtr line where I could see the odd bubble coming up over the feed already. Judy opposite me was into a fish straight away…….

 I was just lifting the rig a foot and letting it drop back and after a couple of minutes the float dipped and I lifted into it and was into my 1st Carp of the day, a nice little Common of around 1½lbs. A welcome start as on the 2 previous occasions I’ve fished Hawkhurst this year it’s been a bit of a struggle with both the matches being low weight affairs.
It was just a case of trying to settle into a rhythm, flicking a pinch of pellet out and constantly working the rig to try and induce a bite.

 Worryingly sport seemed slow for most, though Bill on 19 and Keith on 17 had seen a bit of action, Poor Vince however was draw between the two of them and was having a real struggle just to get a bite. With an hour gone I had 10 fish in the net which was better than most from what I could see.

I decided to have a look and see if the constant feed had brought the fish up off the bottom as I could see a few cruising about, but wasted 30 minutes for just 2 small fish as I tried to make it work. Reverting back to the depth rig I was still picking up regular fish but was suffering with the odd foul hooker, however from what I could see I was still doing better than most, indeed Terry to my left on peg 14 was heard to tell me to “give it a rest” as he was struggling despite having the cover of the tree to his right.

Tony was stuck up on corner peg 10 all on his own and did seem to be getting a few……………

It didn’t seem to matter what I tried, I couldn’t up my catch rate, but by sticking at it I was getting a fish every 5-6 minutes and slowly building a decent weight. Looking down to my right I could see that Roger on 16 was struggling, while Keith was still catching though not as regularly as me.

Bill down on 19 seemed to have to stand to net his fish with yards of elastic streaming out of his pole. I heard someone say he was catching lumps, but was pretty sure that he was just on light elastics as the fish at Hawkhurst give a good account of themselves.

 

Generally sport was slow though, with even the noted pegs struggling to put together a few fish, Colin was trying hard to put a few fish together from his peg, but just couldn’t seem to get to grips with it today………

With a couple of hours to go Dave (The Fish) Collier started to put a few together from down the edge ……

………so I had a look down my margin swim, but after 10 minutes without a bite I wrote it off as a bad job and went back to 7mtrs for the rest of the match. Despite trying the corn and expanders the only thing I could get a bite on was the 8mm banded pellet and even those only produced small dips which had to be struck, if you left it, waiting for it to develop further you’d missed it, but at least I kept putting fish in the net and when Dave called the All-out at 4·15pm I’d managed to put 64 fish in my nets.

As I packed away my gear it was obvious from the talk going on it had been a bit of a struggle for most. Vince strolled up to give me yet another £1 as he had to shoot off quickly to sort out a family problem and he’d tipped back knowing his 14 fish wouldn’t be enough on the day.

So round with the scales for the weigh-in and Alan was soon leading with 50½lbs from peg 2 but relinquished it to Dave on 62¾lbs and then Tony up on corner peg 10 who put 69lbs on the scales. When they got to me on peg 15 my two nets came to a satisfying 118lbs for the match win. Keith managed a creditable 81½lbs and third on the day on his first visit to the venue, while Bill put the only other Ton of the day on the scales with his fish weighing 106½lbs for second place.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 15	Peter Morton	118lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 19	Bill Gibbins          (Guest)	106lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 17	Keith Ashby         (Guest)	81lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 10	Tony Roberts	69lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 7	Dave Collier	62lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 13	Clive Pritchard     (Guest)	54lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 2	Alan Loader          (Guest)	50lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 12	Jim Boase	23lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 6	Judy Hermite	20lbs 12ozs
10th	Peg 1	Graham Manning	19lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 3	Kevin Loveland	18lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 5	Colin Sharrard	15lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 14	Terry Goff	13lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 4	Ken Walker	12lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 16	Roger Noakes	10lbs 12ozs
16th	Peg 20	Rod Turner	8lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 18	Vince Gould          (Guest)	DNW

Finally as mentioned earlier Dave decided to run a Pairs match on the day for a bit of fun and the top 3 on the day were as follows……

1st	Bill Gibbins & Kevin Loveland
2nd	Alan Loader & Jim Boase
3rd	Peter Morton & Rod Turner

Now the club doesn’t operate a championship as such but for a bit of fun I worked out a table of the seasons results using a 20 point system, allowing for an anglers worst result to be dropped and 1 point awarded for a DNW. Guests results were not included in the table.

Position	Angler	Monks	Rayne	Church	Rockells	Colemans	Hawkhurst	Points	Total Weight
1st	Peter Morton	16 pts	18 pts	13pts	20pts	19 pts	20 pts	93 pts	612lbs 14ozs
2nd	Tony Roberts	15 pts	19 pts	15pts	17 pts	18pts	19 pts	88 pts	484lbs 15ozs
3rd	Dave Collier	19 pts	17 pts	17pts	16 pts	16 pts	18 pts	87 pts	372lbs 08ozs
4th	Colin Sharrard	20pts	20 pts	11 pts	19 pts	d.n.f.	13 pts	83 pts	478lbs 08ozs
5th	John Holdsworth	11 pts	10 pts	19pts	15 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	72 pts	249lbs 04ozs
6th	Terry Goff	14 pts	16 pts	d.n.f.	13 pts	15 pts	12 pts	70 pts	239lbs 04ozs
7th	Judy Hermite	17 pts	d.n.f.	16pts	11 pts	9 pts	16 pts	69 pts	176lbs 00ozs
8th	Kevin Loveland	10 pts	14 pts	18pts	9 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	65 pts	163lbs 04ozs
9th	Martin Hucker	8 pts	7 pts	20pts	18pts	10 pts	d.n.f.	63 pts	310lbs 12ozs
10th	Roger Noakes	12 pts	15 pts	8 pts	10 pts	d.n.f.	10 pts	55 pts	171lbs 08ozs
11th	Jim Boase	18 pts	9 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	11 pts	17 pts	55 pts	131lbs 12ozs
12th	Graham Manning	7 pts	d.n.f.	10pts	7 pts	12 pts	15 pts	51 pts	102lbs 08ozs
13th	Bob Hucker	d.n.f.	12 pts	12pts	8 pts	13ts	d.n.f.	45 pts	118lbs 08ozs
14th	Ken Walker	13 pts	5 pts	7 pts	6 pts	d.n.f.	11 pts	42 pts	108lbs 12ozs
15th	Chris Withall	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	12 pts	20 pts	d.n.f.	32 pts	148lbs 00ozs
16th	Eddie Dobson	9 pts	11 pts	d.n.f.	5 pts	14 pts	d.n.f.	30 pts	86lbs 00ozs
17th	Rod Turner	d.n.f.	6pts	6 pts	4 pts	d.n.f.	9 pts	25 pts	34lbs 12ozs
18th	Zack Johnson	9pts	4 pts	5 pts	d.n.f.	7 pts	d.n.f.	25pts	28lbs 06ozs
19th	Simon Watkins	d.n.f.	13 pts	9pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	22 pts	50lbs 08ozs
20th	Paul East	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	1 pt	14 pts	1 pt	d.n.f.	16 pts	113lbs 08ozs
21st	Gladys Collier	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	14pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	14 pts	16lbs 02ozs
22nd	Jean Algar	d.n.f.	8 pts	4 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	12 pts	25lbs 00ozs
23rd	Ron Mannister	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	8 pts	d.n.f.	8 pts	13lbs 00ozs

(d.n.f. = Did not Fish.   20 pts = Match Winner.)

So that’s the Marsh AC matches done for the year. It’s been a pretty good year for me on the club matches one way or another, and they’ve all been fished in a friendly atmosphere with plenty of laughs and banter along the way. I’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dave for organising things on our behalf, and I’m sure I speak for all the members and guests who’ve joined us over the course of the year when I say that his efforts are much appreciated.  Let’s do it all again next year.