Buxted Oast Farm Fishery, Buxted, East Sussex. February 28th, 2009.

Maggotdrowning.com Knock Up.

 

It was a small Knock-up amongst a few members of the Maggotdrowning.com forum down at Buxted Oast today, but it didn’t get off to the best of starts for me, as I went down to load the car and found that some scrote had tried to break into the car overnight. However I managed to fix the damage pretty quickly and was soon loaded up and on my way. Overcast but nice and mild, it promised to be a decent day and I even had time to stop off in East Grinstead for a spot of breakfast, arriving at the fishery car park around 8·45am.
The MD’s knock-ups are always fun and today promised to be no different, Bill had already pegged out, so it was monies paid and into the draw bag, with peg 4 being my home for the match.

Settling in I had Trevor for company on peg 3 with Pete to his right on peg 2, while peg 5 to my left wasn’t drawn. Bill had recommended fishing a comfortable 8-10 mtrs straight out where there was about 2½-3ft and not to ignore the margins so that was the basic approach. I just set up two top kits and both of these were rigged with Malman 4×12 Snake 1′s on 0·14 to an 0·12 bottom with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook and I also set up the pellet waggler rod as I could see a few Carp already cruising around the top. Bait for the day was Corn, GOT 6mm expanders and 6mm hard pellet, No maggots though as these tend to pull the Roach.

10am and Ryan called the All-in. I shipped out half a pot of mixed pellet and corn to 10mtrs and fed some pellet by hand into the margins and had a quick cast with the pellet waggler to see if I could “mug” and early fish, but with no interest shown that was quickly discarded in favour of the pole. Shipping out a 6mm expander to 10 mtrs the float had hardly settled when it disappeared down the hole and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon safely in the net, next put in and another smaller fish around 1½lbs joined its friend, Happy days. Trevor had had a couple of quick Carp too, as had Pete.

Dave tucked away in the corner on peg 6 had got off to the best start however, fishing tight into the corner under the willow, taking 5 Carp and a Frog !!!!! You just know that Dave the Fish’s nickname will become Dave Le Frog after that little episode.

After that initial burst however sport seemed to grind to a halt for most, leaving people scratching their heads as to why they couldn’t get amongst the fish, and Trev being bored looking at a stationary float reverted to a top 2 and maggot to get some action with the roach, soon lining them up and regretting the fact that he hadn’t packed a whip today. Around 12·30 I re-fed my main line and another to my left and went for a stroll round.

Dave’s sport has slowed but fish were moving round the tree, while Bill on peg 7 by the outfall just had a solitary Carp, but frustratingly, he could see fish in front of him taking pellet.
Colin tucked away in fancied peg 8 was another with just a solitary carp to show for his efforts, but was now being plagued by small Roach attacking whatever he put on his hook.

Vince meanwhile was fishing down his right hand margin on peg 9 and had taken a couple of Carp despite it being “Snag Central” and costing him a few hooks, and he managed to slide a third Carp into the net as I watched. Would he be taking a £1 coin from me today ?

Back to my peg and out to 10mtrs and the float shot strait under as I laid it in !!!! A foul hooker that tore around a bit, but was soon safely in the net, with the hook in a pectoral fin and a good 5lbs added to my weight. Pete dropped by for a chat as I shipped out to my left hand line for the 1st time, and an instant bite resulted in Carp no 4 making it’s way to join the others in the net.

Trev was getting into a decent rhythm and building a weight of silvers when the inevitable happened and he hooked a Carp, and he was connected to it just long enough for it to trash his swim before it shed the hook, leaving him to have to build it up again.

Tony strolled round and informed me that both he and Paul had a couple of Carp each, while Mick on peg 1 breathed a sigh of relief as he finally managed to snare a Carp, having endured a frustrating time watching them cruise round in front of him, leaving just Ryan staring at a dry float tip as it steadfastly refused to go under.

With a couple of hours to go Dave started to catch regularly, having fed a few floaters under the tree, and was looking uncatchable, leading Bill on the next peg to change rigs to just a couple of feet of line and a hook and fish long to try and tempt the fish that were still cruising in front of him, and it soon started to produce for him.
With nothing showing on the top within pole range in my swim I stuck it out alternating between my 2 long lines, as nothing apart from Roach could be tempted from the margins, and I managed another 5 Carp before Ryan called the All-out at 4pm.

The Weigh-in told the story, Dave Le Frog had won comfortably, taking 27 Carp in total for 52¼lbs and a very comfortable win. Bill had a good last hour weighing a level 27lbs to bump my 25lbs 6ozs down to third.
Trevor put a very creditable 21lbs 3ozs on the scales for 5th and may well have taken second place if he’d remembered to pack his whip. Of course poor Vince had to hand over another £1 coin to yours truly, so it seems normal service has been resumed in 2009.

My next planned outing is in a couple of weeks time, to Wylands for a “Silvers” match on House Lake which should be fun providing we don’t get a repeat of the weather we had on our last visit there, though if we do at least the Tea Hut will do a roaring trade.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Dave(Le Frog )Collier	52lbs 04ozs
2nd	Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins	27lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peter(Mugger)Morton	25lbs 06ozs
4th	Tony(spamwham)Roberts	23lbs 04ozs
5th	Trevor(MT Net)Little	21lbs 03ozs
6th	Pete(petemid)Midgley	13lbs 12ozs
7th	Vince(Vince G)Gould	4lbs 04ozs
8th	Mick(The Chippy)Pearson	2lbs 08ozs
9th	Colin(The Pike)Sharrard	1lbs 12ozs
10th	Paul(paulvis69)Slater	D.N.W
11th	Ryan(Zephyr)Wells	D.N.W

Private Lake, East Sussex. February 22nd, 2009.

“The Private Lake on Sunday, are ya coming? eight thirty if you are .  No keepnets just a days fishing.”

With an invite like that from Bill G it would be rude to refuse, especially with the weather forecast predicting a nice mild 9°C. As with all good things though Sunday Morning revealed that Saturdays glorious weather had come to an end, but a smooth drive down stopping off in Bromley for a spot of breakfast on the way, saw me arrive at the fishery at 8·30am to find Vince waiting beside a locked gate, Bill soon arrived though with the padlock combination so we were soon parked up and decided on a walk round while we waited for the rest of the cast to arrive.

Usually when I’ve visited the Lake in the winter it’s been brim full and today was no exception, with a fair bit of water running down the outflow pipe on the dam wall. As we strolled round Al was the next to arrive and was soon dropping his gear into the 1st peg by the gate, a peg he’s been eager to have a go at for a while.
By the time we got back to the car park Dave, Colin and Tony had arrived.

Soon we had our gear together and set off for the session. Colin was traveling light only intending to have a crack on the river today and Tony also started with the bare minimum of gear hoping to sneak a Chub or two out of the river early on before settling down on the lake.

The surprise of the day was that Bill wasn’t going to fish!!!! deciding instead to spend the day wandering and chatting with the rest of us collecting titbit’s for his Blog, so he’d just brought a comfy chair with him and settled down with Al. Meanwhile Dave set up just just along from Al before the outlet on the dam wall.

Vince and I strolled a little further round to the far bank with Vince dropping in where he would have an easy chuck with his feeder rod to the island as well as a nice comfortable line where he could try out his new pole. I dropped into the next swim along (Bill had won his last club match from the peg), where I had about 13mtrs to the island which was ideal as today I planned to try out the Clever Claw and see how I got on using it.

Al was soon into fish, and even before most of us had set up he’d had four quick fish.

Tony had winkled a Chub of around 2½lbs out of his swim on the river to satisfy his quest, but by the time Bill arrived on the 1st of his strolls neither Vince or I had got off the mark. This soon changed however as Vince’s feeder tip whipped round and he was into a carp. Someone had remarked on the forum a couple of days previously that he’d never seen a photo of mine of Vince actually catching a fish, so I seized the opportunity to rectify that…..

….and soon Vince had a nice plump Common to show as his reward.

Bill was of the opinion that I wasn’t fishing close enough to the island, so another section was added and after potting in some more feed and adjusting the rig, I of course didn’t see the 1st bite as I chatted to Bill. I was briefly connected, but it shed the hook. However next put in I was more alert and connected with the bite properly this time, soon putting the net under a nice plump Mirror of around 5-6lbs. I have to say that the fish that the owner has stocked are some of the plumpest Carp I’ve come across, being deceptively heavy for their size and in lovely condition.

Tony came strolling round just after with his pole gear to fish the back of the island as he wanted to try out fishing long with his new Maver 401. Vince meanwhile had rested the feeder rod looking to christen his new pole, a Maver 101. I had managed another Carp, a Mirror of around 10lbs before taking a stroll to retrieve a couple of KitKat’s that I’d left in the car.

Dave had had a couple of Carp and a few Roach, and Al was now getting Roach, though as we chatted he was into another Carp and I got the definite impression that his peg would only get stronger as the day went on.

Vince meanwhile had been unable to resist the temptation of popping over the fence with his feeder rod and had succeeded in bagging a couple of Chub around the 2-2½lb mark from the river, before returning and resuming the task of trying to christen his pole.

I settled back to fishing across and I have to say that the Clever Claw made it an easy task, allowing me to rest the pole across my leg while the Clever Claw took all the strain……………..

Indeed I soon managed to extract another couple of Carp with Vince doing the honours with the camera for me on the second one………..

……… another nice one that may have nudged 10lbs given how plump it was.

Strolling round I found Tony, well settled in and trying to build his swim, but getting pestered by what he felt must be Roach trying to rob his bait.

Returning back to my swim a bit of a breeze had got up making presentation difficult and it was to cost me a couple of rigs in the island bushes before I decided to back off a bit and re feed a couple of feet short of the island. All along I’d been feeding to a tree in my left hand margin, but despite regular looks there hadn’t had a bite from it. Tony had finally managed a carp around the 7lb mark and had come round to show me as he was surprised just how heavy it was when he weighed it, proving once more just how solid the fish are.

Vince finally managed to christen his pole with a couple of 5lb’ers while I added another to my tally from my new line.

Vince started to pack away around 2·30pm but managed one final Carp on his feeder rod before he said his farewells and departed. I had one final Carp just before 3pm, but with the breeze ever present I felt the temperature was dropping and I decided to call it a day as well. As I packed away my kit Colin reappeared having spent the day roving the river and reported having a thoroughly enjoyable day despite only having three chub.

As I wandered back Dave reported having had a few more Carp, while Al had firmly taken the honours on the day with a succession of Carp from his peg.
All in all a pleasant session with a few fish to keep things interesting, next Saturday it’s a knock up at The Oast at Buxted, so until then………… That’s All Folks.