Wyland International Angling Centre, near Battle, East Sussex. December 12th, 2009.

Maggotdrowning.com

 

Southern Fur & Feather.

Time for the annual Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match and we’re back down at Wylands on House Lake today. Pressure of work has meant that I haven’t been out fishing for nearly 2 months so it was good just to be going fishing today. I was hoping that the weather would be a little kinder than last year, but looking through the curtains it was looking pretty cold and that was confirmed as I loaded the car. I rolled into the car park around 7·50am in tandem with Mark (MoleMan) and found Bill, Simon, Trevor and Wayne already in residence at the tea hut. The bad news however was that there was no food on the go, and the bailiff had only opened it so we could get a cuppa before we started.

Looking across the lake it was obvious that some drastic gardening had gone on since last year with the island that’s reached by the footbridge cut in half to form two, a lot of the trees cut back and a number of bivvy friendly swims installed on the woodside bank and the bank to the left of the bridge.

Mark soon had the draw underway for the 14 of us in attendance and put in 3 more pegs for absentees who hadn’t cancelled. I ended up with peg 16, one of 4 new pegs to the left of the bridge. For company today I had Tony to my left on 17, while to my right was Wayne on 15 and Trevor on 14 next to the bridge. Positioning my box I couldn’t help noticing the icy easterly that was blowing from right to left into our pegs, and then for good measure it started raining.

Now with a good head of silvers present and the cold snap probably slowing the carp down, I’d picked a couple of top kits with soft white Hydro and made up a couple of silvers rigs, 4X12 carpa tricky’s on 0·12 to 0·10 with size 20 Red Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot hooks. Now the main body of house lake offers depths of around 4-6ft on the pole line, so I was a little taken aback to find no more than 2½ft regardless of where I plumbed up. Bait for today was red & white maggot, 4mm expanders and some micro pellet.

10am and Mark blew for the All-in, I potted some maggot and pellet straight out at 8mtrs and a similar amount about 10ft to the left of it.
Out with the rig baited with a single red maggot and 30 seconds later a small roach made sure that I wouldn’t be facing a DNW. Further small roach followed in the next 2 hours, but Tony and I were really struggling, Wayne appeared to be doing a bit better, while Trevor fishing the whip was definitely doing the best of the four of us……

Feeling a little disheartened I grabbed the camera and took a stroll. Jeff had once again drawn on the island and was getting regular action with some skimmers helping him build a decent net. Looking across I could see Mark on the 1st peg and rumour had it that he already had a bonus Carp in the net……

Indeed it appeared that all those on the wood bank had got off to a decent start, especially Simon and Andy……

and I could see that Vince over on the dam was getting a few meaning that he was looking odds on for another Golden Nugget off me today……

I could see Bill sitting in splendid isolation with the tea hut bank all to himself, and as I made my way over he was into a fish that was taking just a bit to much elastic for it to be anything other than a Carp. A couple of anxious minutes followed, but soon it was safely in the net, a nice bonus fish……

Mick looked to be lost in concentration and getting amongst a few silvers himself ……

Indeed the whole of the main part of the lake seemed to be fishing quite well as I made my way back to my peg. I stopped off for a chat with Trev to try and pick his brains as it’s his local fishery and he suggested that I needed to up my feeding despite the bitter cold as that’s what the fish normally responded to. So back to my peg and off with the kinder pot and out with the catapult.

Well it worked to a degree, in that the roach started to come a bit more frequently, but they were still just 1-2oz fish with the occasional 4oz bonus fish. With around half an hour to go Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff appeared having come down to see how we were getting on, and it was as I chatted to Tony that I struck into another roach bite only to see quite a lot of White Hydro, and a nervous couple of minutes followed before I slid the net under a Carp of around 5lbs. However that was the end of the excitement for me and Mark blew the All-out at 3pm just as the rain returned for us to pack up in. Thankfully we were using fishery keepnets so were able to pack up in double quick time and get the gear back to the car before the weigh in.

Mark kicked off with 20¾lbs and was rapidly overtaken by Simon with 24¼lbs, Stuart managed 15½lbs before Andy brought 37lbs to the scales including 3 Carp. Vince’s 16lbs+ secured the Golden Nugget from yours truly while Jay put a match winning 38¼lbs on the scales. Mick recorded 12¾lbs while Bills level 34lbs left him ruing 3 lost carp, anyone of which would have given him the win. Next up Jeff and Trevor both put 25½lbs on the scales for joint 5th place. Wayne had 14½lbs, my meagre total was 11lbs 6ozs leaving poor Tony last to weigh and last on the day with just 4¼lbs to show for his efforts.

At least everyone took home a prize on the day, one day hopefully we’ll catch it on a day when the weather gods are smiling on us.
A Big Thank You to Mark for organising the match, and to all that turned up on the day. Same again next year folks?

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Jay Lay	38lbs 04ozs
2nd	Andy (CU) Cummings	37lbs 00ozs
3rd	Bill Gibbins	34lbs 00ozs
4th	Nick Gilbert	26lbs 06ozs
5th=	Jeff Driscoll	25lbs 08ozs
5th=	Trevor (M.T.Net) Little	25lbs 08ozs
7th	Simon Elsey	24lbs 04ozs
8th	Mark (MoleMan) Hathaway	20lbs 12ozs
9th	Vince Gould	16lbs 06ozs
10th	Stuart (squeaky roller) Wilson	15lbs 08ozs
11th	Wayne (map) Taylor	14lbs 08ozs
12th	Mick (The Chippy) Pearson	12lbs 10ozs
13th	Peter (Mugger) Morton	11lbs 06ozs
14th	Tony (spamwham) Roberts	4lbs 04ozs

Colemans Cottage Fishery. Cottage Lake. October 17th, 2009.

Marsh AC club match.

Well it was down to Colemans Cottage today for an impromptu final match on Cottage Lake with Marsh AC to give Kevin a fitting send off before he and Jean leave for The Bahamas. Now Cottage Lake is the original more established lake at Colemans and doesn’t get used for many matches, so it’s a bit of a trip into the unknown for most of us.
With very little info available anywhere about this lake and the nights getting colder it was anyone's guess how it would fish, but I always enjoy fishing a water that’s new to me, so I soon had the motor loaded this morning and was away in good time and pulled into the fishery at around 7·50am to be greeted by Tony who’d already been for a scout round the lake. First things first, up to the lodge where Terry, Eddie, Kevin and Jean were already in attendance and a ‘Full English’ was soon ordered and dispatched, and as the rest of the crew arrived a few of us set off to peg the lake.

First impressions were that it looked a little gem, only 19 pegs but well established in comparison to the newer lakes at the fishery and having decided which pegs to leave out we made our way back to the lodge, where Dave got the draw under way for the 13 of us present. Today for a bit of fun Dave had drawn 3 teams, 2 teams of 4 and one of five, with the team of 5 being able to drop their worst result, and I was in the team of 5 along with Colin, Graham, Zack and Rod. Into the hat and Peg 2 was mine, so gear collected from the car and down to the lake. For company today I had Rod on Peg 1 to my left and Kevin on Peg 4 to my right. The platform on my peg had seen better days, but nothing that couldn’t be sorted thanks to my box’s telescopic legs.

From the little info I’d managed to glean it seemed that there was a fair head of Carp, including some proper lumps and plenty of silvers. Looking at my peg, I had a tree overhanging the left hand margin and a bush to the right. The wind made it feel pretty chilly though luckily it was off my back. I decided on a pole approach, setting up 3 rigs. The 1st being a 4X12 Malman Adam on 0·20 power match straight through to a size 14 QM1 for a line at around 8mtrs where I had around 3½ft of depth, and 2 Malman MTD1′s similarly rigged for down the margins 2ft deep in the left and 1ft in the right hand. Bait for the day was going to be 6mm GOT expander pellets and corn with 6 mm pellets for feed.

10am and as Dave called the All-In I shipped out a pot of pellet with a few grains of corn to my 8mtr line and fed some pellet down both margins. Tony was in to a fish almost straight away while I shipped out my rig baited with a grain of corn. No instant response for me however despite lifting and dropping the rig to try and provoke some action, just little dinks that I couldn’t connect with. Looking around a few people appeared to be taking the odd silver, but nobody appeared to be off to a flyer. 30 minutes in having changed to expander on the hook a good positive bite resulted in several feet of elastic, and after a spirited scrap a pristine Common of around 3lbs was safely netted to get me off the mark. A second followed soon after, a Mirror this time of a similar size.
I could see Colin over on Peg 8 fishing tight to the bush overhanging his left hand margin and he seemed to be matching me fishing his favourite paste……

Twenty biteless minutes followed before the next bite, this time however it felt like a much more solid fish as it plodded off, steady pressure took it’s toll however and after about 5 minutes I slid the net under a Common that must have been close to 10lbs. Another couple of fish soon followed, sadly not of quite the same stamp, both of them being closer to 2lbs than 10, but very welcome none the less. So 5 fish in the net for around 20lbs and things were looking good, the next bite however resulted in me being attached to something that felt more like a submarine than a fish, It just steadily headed off across the lake and all I could do was hang on with the pole tip under the water till the hook pulled. Unfortunately it trashed the rig. With a new rig sorted it was back out, but it took a good 20 minutes till another bite produced a small but perfectly formed Mirror of around 8ozs. A look down both margins produced nothing at all, so I decided to re feed and have a stroll with the camera while things settled.

Rod appeared to be having a bit of a struggle with just a solitary skimmer to show for his efforts, while Graham was taking a steady stream of small silvers from his peg. Eddie seemed to have a decent feature to fish to, but the fish didn’t seem to agree and he was working hard for little reward……

Terry was another who was having trouble getting to grips with things and it was becoming pretty obvious that the overnight drops in temperature during the previous week had taken its toll on things. Young Zack had managed to winkle out a couple of Carp on the feeder however and was looking reasonably happy with his lot……

Martin had nicked a Carp as well and had also encountered a submarine that had seen him off. Round to Dave who was plugging away fishing maggot which had produced some silvers and a couple of Carp for him……

Tony was in pretty much the same position as Dave and fishing for anything with fins, while Colin’s paste attack had produced 5 Carp for him, though he’d lost 3 fish which he felt were foul hooked, and while Jean watched on from behind, Kevin had managed a couple of Carp on corn……

Back to my peg and I decided to try a banded 6mm on the hook and almost immediately it produced a plump Common of around 1½lbs swiftly followed by a 12oz skimmer. I struck into the next bite and all hell seemed to be let loose as a big Carp charged off then boiled on the surface, a large Mirror that was hooked in the tail!!!!! Steady pressure saw me making progress, but the fun was still to come. Colemans supply all the nets at the fishery, but the landing nets are only 18″ spoons. Somehow and more by luck than judgement I managed to get the fish up and it’s head in the net 1st time, then the hook fell out. The fish was a stunning Mirror of around 10lbs, the orange of it’s tail contrasting wonderfully with its dark brown flanks. Dave arrived and was surprised that I’d got it in so quickly as he felt sure that I would still be playing it. A quick chat during which I missed a couple of bites then Dave was on his way.

The afternoon settled into a pattern where I would get a couple of fish then have to wait 15-20 minutes before I would get another couple, and I felt this could be down to the fish patrolling around rather than settling and the water starting to loose a bit of it’s colour as it got cooler making the fish a little spooky. Still I was putting fish in the net though I always felt that Colin had the edge as he was keeping up with me and his fish seemed to be of a better average size.

Rod at last seemed to have had a a change of fortune hooking a decent Carp only to suffer one of those horrible moments as he played it all the way to the net only to have his 8lb line break for no apparent reason. Dave however had better luck when he latched into a decent fish, and although it gave him a bit of a runaround he soon had it safely in the net……

My last fish proved to be a Tench of around 1¾lbs and when Dave called the All-Out at 4pm I’d taken 17 Carp to go with that Tench and the skimmer which I felt would be somewhere close to 60lbs.

So Kit packed away and on to the Weigh-In with Kevin once more taking up his familiar role of scalesman. Rod kicked things off with 1lb for his solitary skimmer, while my fish came to 62½lbs. Kevin recorded 15¼lbs while it was Colin who took the honours on the day with a fine 67¾lbs. Tony found that his 25¼lbs was only good enough for 4th on the day as Dave produced 27¾ for 3rd. Martin recorded a level 14lbs and Zack 12½lbs. Ken produced 8¼lbs while Terry had struggled for 8½lbs. Bob could only muster 3¾lbs and Eddie had only 3½lbs to show for his efforts. Graham being the last to weigh produced a hard earnt 10¼lbs as his reward for plugging away at the silvers.
So back to the Lodge for a welcome cuppa and a slice of bread pudding paid for by Dave.

It turned out that our team had won on the day, meaning that Zack received his first ever pick-up from a match. While the weights had been a little disappointing in general I felt that the conditions hadn’t shown the lake in it’s best light, Match wise although it holds 19 pegs it probably can’t hold more than 16 in comfort which restricts it a little, but I for one would be more than happy to fish it again.

So that’s it, definitely the final Marsh AC match of the year, well unless we sneak out somewhere for an impromptu Christmas match. Where am I off to next? Who knows? but the report will be here when I find out.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	67lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 2	Peter Morton	62lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 20	Dave Collier	27lbs 12ozs
4th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts	25lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 4	Kevin Loveland	15lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 11	Martin Hucker	14lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 12	Zack Johnson	12lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 19	Graham Manning	10lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 16	Terry Goff	8lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 13	Ken Walker	8lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 17	Bob Hucker	3lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 18	Eddie Dobson	3lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 1	Rod Turner	1lbs 00ozs

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 and the matches at the Private Lake and Cottage Lake at Colemans weren’t included as neither of them were official club matches. As you can see it was very close in the end with Colin and Tony tied at the top. However Colin had 3 match wins to Tony’s 2 and also caught a greater weight of fish. My blow out on the 1st match at Monks and missing the 1st match at Colemans knocked me back. Perhaps I should have worked it out on aggregate weight.

Position	Angler	Monks	PeaLane	Colemans	Rockells	Nicks	Colemans	Rayne	Points	Total Weight
1st	Colin Sharrard	20 pts	14 pts	20 pts	17 pts	18 pts	20 pts	11 pts	109 pts	580lbs 04ozs
2nd	Tony Roberts	17 pts	15 pts	18 pts	16 pts	20 pts	18 pts	20 pts	109 pts	568lbs 12ozs
3rd	Dave Collier	19 pts	20 pts	19 pts	18 pts	15 pts	16 pts	d.n.f.	107 pts	535lbs 04ozs
4th	Peter Morton	9 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	19 pts	17 pts	19 pts	18 pts	99 pts	625lbs 04ozs
5th	Terry Goff	13 pts	1 pt	13 pts	15 pts	13 pts	13 pts	17 pts	86 pts	325lbs 12ozs
6th	Martin Hucker	6 pts	8 pts	11 pts	20 pts	10 pts	12 pts	16 pts	77 pts	499lbs 04ozs
7th	John Holdsworth	8 pts	12 pts	7 pts	d.n.f.	12 pts	13 pts	19 pts	71 pts	155lbs 00ozs
8th	Ken Walker	18 pts	11 pts	9 pts	9 pts	d.n.f.	10 pts	8 pts	65 pts	122lbs 00ozs
9th	Jim Boase	d.n.f.	19 pts	12 pts	8 pts	11 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	64 pts	134lbs 08ozs
10th	Judy Hermite	10 pts	16 pts	d.n.f.	12 pts	14 pts	d.n.f.	11 pts	63 pts	171lbs 04ozs
11th	Chris Withall	11 pts	18 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	16 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	62 pts	105lbs 08ozs
12th	Rod Turner	7 pts	1 pt	16 pts	7 pts	8 pts	14 pts	9 pts	61 pts	75lbs 08ozs
13th	Zack Johnson	14 pts	9 pts	8 pts	6 pts	9 pts	11 pts	7 pts	58 pts	96lbs 14ozs
14th	Roger Noakes	12 pts	13 pts	4 pts	11 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	15 pts	55 pts	109lbs 08ozs
15th	Simon Watkins	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	15 pts	d.n.f.	19 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	51 pts	212lbs 08ozs
16th	Graham Manning	16 pts	7 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	d.n.f.	9 pts	d.n.f.	46 pts	154lbs 12ozs
17th	Eddie Dobson	d.n.f.	10 pts	10 pts	10 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	12 pts	42 pts	82lbs 04ozs
18th	Kevin Loveland	15 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	29 pts	48lbs 08ozs
19th	Ron Mannister	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	6 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	14 pts	20 pts	32lbs 00ozs
20th	Bob Hucker	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	5 pts	13 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	18 pts	94lbs 08ozs

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