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.