Maggotdrowning.com
Southern Championship 2008.
Sunshine and a bit of a breeze greeted me today as I loaded up the car for the trip down To Hartleylands Farm for the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Individual Championship match.
First port of call was the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast with a few of the lads that were fishing the match. The best part of the Maggotdrowning matches are that they’re not taken to seriously and there’s always some decent banter amongst the lads irrespective of whether the fishing proves to be good or not. So having fuelled the inner man we made out way down to the fishery for the match.
Into the car park where 19 anglers assembled for the draw. The match this year had been organised by Nick Gilbert, and as usual with Nick’s matches Matt Love gave him a hand conducting the draw. So money paid and into the bag and I find I’ve drawn peg 1, a decent peg normally and one that I had won the corresponding match from back in 2004. However today I’d fancied a draw in the early teens as with the wind blowing into them I thought that’s where the fish would be. Never mind though, at least it was a short walk from the car so no barrow needed.
First port of call was the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast with a few of the lads that were fishing the match. The best part of the Maggotdrowning matches are that they’re not taken to seriously and there’s always some decent banter amongst the lads irrespective of whether the fishing proves to be good or not. So having fuelled the inner man we made out way down to the fishery for the match.
Into the car park where 19 anglers assembled for the draw. The match this year had been organised by Nick Gilbert, and as usual with Nick’s matches Matt Love gave him a hand conducting the draw. So money paid and into the bag and I find I’ve drawn peg 1, a decent peg normally and one that I had won the corresponding match from back in 2004. However today I’d fancied a draw in the early teens as with the wind blowing into them I thought that’s where the fish would be. Never mind though, at least it was a short walk from the car so no barrow needed.
Settling into the peg I noticed that the fishery staff had pruned the willow quite heavily making it easier to feed and fish under it, but would it produce without the wind blowing into it? I set up the pellet wag and feeder + 3 top kits for the pole. 1 for the margins. 1 for 5mtrs where I had 5ft of water and another for 7mtrs where I had 8ft of water, Bait for the day was pellet, both hard and expander, paste and sweetcorn and the feed was 4 & 6mm pellet and hemp.
11am and the all-in and I fed pellet and hemp into both margins and pellet onto the 5mtr line and followed it with the rig baited with pellet. Matt Love on peg 10 was into a Carp straight away on the waggler swiftly followed by another, as was Dean Lockwood to my left on peg 2 as he had an early look on his margin swim…
11am and the all-in and I fed pellet and hemp into both margins and pellet onto the 5mtr line and followed it with the rig baited with pellet. Matt Love on peg 10 was into a Carp straight away on the waggler swiftly followed by another, as was Dean Lockwood to my left on peg 2 as he had an early look on his margin swim…
Nick Gilbert had been into fish almost straight away, but had trouble landing them losing the first 4 Carp that he hooked. Me? I couldn’t even buy a bite. 2½hrs in and I still didn’t have a fish in the net, just a large scale on my sidetray where I’d lost a foul-hooker.
Terry up on peg 13 however had had a fowl (alright a duck actually) but had safely managed to catch and release it.
Finally I managed a fish, only a small Skimmer from my 7mtr line, but at least I would avoid a dreaded DNW, and more importantly kept me in with a chance of not having to part with £1 to Vince, who seemed to be struggling almost as badly as me though he had owned up to a couple of Skimmers earlier.
Looking straight across I could see Bill on peg 15…
Looking straight across I could see Bill on peg 15…
he was having one of those days we all dream of, with the fish lined up at 4 mtrs and apparently ravenous for his paste bait, resulting in a bite every put in, and he was obviously going to take all the stopping.
Indeed poor Tony Roberts next to him on peg 16 was finding it hard to concentrate on his own fishing and seemed to have resigned himself to a next peg battering of epic proportions…
Indeed poor Tony Roberts next to him on peg 16 was finding it hard to concentrate on his own fishing and seemed to have resigned himself to a next peg battering of epic proportions…
Meanwhile Paul East was quietly putting together a decent bag from peg 19…
steadily putting fish in the net, a good performance considering that he’d come straight from work the previous night.
For the rest of the match I struggled on, managing 6 Carp and a few more Skimmers, all from my 7mtr line which was the only place I could get a bite, and to be honest I was glad to hear the whistle blow at 4pm signal the all-out and put an end to my struggles.
So to the weigh-in and Paul soon took the lead putting 91lbs 7ozs onto the scales, but this was soon eclipsed when Bill put a match winning 156lbs on the scales which was also a new PB match weight. Well Done Bill.
Round to peg 10 and Matt Love put 105lbs 11ozs on the scales to seal 2nd place on the day.My meagre total scaled 23lbs, but was enough to take Vince’s £1 coin, though Vince had been close till he lost an estimated 15lb’er near the end, unlucky Vince.
So that was it for the day. Congratulations to Bill G, The Maggotdrowning Southern Individual Champion 2008.
Thanks to Nick for organising the day, and to all the anglers that attended. We’ll have to do it all again next year.
For the rest of the match I struggled on, managing 6 Carp and a few more Skimmers, all from my 7mtr line which was the only place I could get a bite, and to be honest I was glad to hear the whistle blow at 4pm signal the all-out and put an end to my struggles.
So to the weigh-in and Paul soon took the lead putting 91lbs 7ozs onto the scales, but this was soon eclipsed when Bill put a match winning 156lbs on the scales which was also a new PB match weight. Well Done Bill.
Round to peg 10 and Matt Love put 105lbs 11ozs on the scales to seal 2nd place on the day.My meagre total scaled 23lbs, but was enough to take Vince’s £1 coin, though Vince had been close till he lost an estimated 15lb’er near the end, unlucky Vince.
So that was it for the day. Congratulations to Bill G, The Maggotdrowning Southern Individual Champion 2008.
Thanks to Nick for organising the day, and to all the anglers that attended. We’ll have to do it all again next year.
| Position | Peg | Angler | Weight |
| 1st | Peg 15 | Bill Gibbins | 156lbs 00ozs |
| 2nd | Peg 10 | Matt Love | 105lbs 11ozs |
| 3rd | Peg 19 | Paul East | 91lbs 07ozs |
| 4th | Peg 14 | Stuart Wilson | 62lbs 06ozs |
| 5th | Peg 2 | Dean Lockwood | 55lbs 01ozs |
| 6th | Peg 17 | John Haigh | 52lbs 07ozs |
| 7th | Peg 18 | Nick Gilbert | 49lbs 02ozs |
| 8th | Peg 20 | Nick Costar | 34lbs 14ozs |
| 9th | Peg 13 | Terry Goff | 30lbs 03ozs |
| 10th | Peg 16 | Tony Roberts | 23lbs 03ozs |
| 11th | Peg 1 | Peter Morton | 23lbs 00ozs |
| 12th | Peg 11 | Darren Smith | 20lbs 00ozs |
| 13th | Peg 8 | Alan Loader | 18lbs 04ozs |
| 14th | Peg 3 | Jeff Driscoll | 15lbs 15ozs |
| 15th | Peg 6 | Vince Gould | 13lbs 11ozs |
| 16th | Peg 7 | Trevor Little | 13lbs 03ozs |
| 17th | Peg 5 | Mick Pearson | 4lbs 07ozs |
| 18th | Peg 9 | Bill Brice | DNW |
| 19th | Peg 4 | Tony Clark | DNW |
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