Pea Lane Fishery. Essex. April 25, 2009

Marsh AC club match.

Today was the 2nd match of the year for Marsh AC, at Pea Lane Fishery (a new venue for the club). It’s a gravel pit controlled by Becmain Angling Club that was dug out when the M25 was being built. Loading up the car it was noticeably cooler than it had been during the previous week, with the threat of rain in the air. I arrived at Dave’s around 7·30am to meet up with Dave, Colin and Chris and follow them to the fishery, and a short drive saw us pulling into the fishery car park just after 8am.

As people assembled prior to the draw I had a quick look at the water, everything I’d heard about the water indicated it could be peggy as hell with pegs 1,4,5 and 7 being the ones to draw, and with the wind blowing into it today peg 7 appeared to be the stand-out one today. The “Burger van” was a bit slow to get up and running today, so we put our orders in to be delivered to our pegs and did the draw. Peg 10 was mine for the day (not where I wanted to be.) Dave and Colin as is customary took the last 2 pegs in the hat with Colin getting 18, leaving PEG 7 for Dave !!!

Settling into my peg a few drops of rain started to fall, but thankfully soon stopped. I set up 3 top kits, the first was rigged up with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a line at 10mtrs where I had around 6ft of water, the gusting wind from left to right making it impractical to fish any longer. The second was a Malman 4×14 Snake 1 on 0·12 to an 0·10 bottom with a size 18 carbon maggot as an up in the water rig, should the Ide put in an appearance, while the third was a KC 4×12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had 2-2½ft of water. I also set up the feeder rod as I’d been told that it was possible to drop on some bream from some pegs. Bait was red maggots, corn and pellet, with some Special G groundbait and hemp for feed.

Breakfast arrived in the shape of a bacon & egg baguette and I was just finishing this as the all in was called.
Chris over on peg 6 was into a fish straight away, with plenty of black hydro streaming out of the pole and after about 5 minutes had the culprit in the net, a Barbel of around 2½lbs………

I fed some pellet into the margins and potted out a mix of hemp, pellet and maggot at 10 mtrs and followed it out with 2 maggots on the depth rig. The float settled and slid away and an Ide of around 6ozs got me off the mark, soon followed by a similar sized Chub. An hour later and I was still waiting for a third bite !!! Half an hour on the feeder was no better, but gave me the opportunity to take some shots of the wildlife.

and already word was spreading along the bank that it was rock hard with just a few bits for most, although Dave had already snared a couple of Carp from the flyer, it seemed that most were struggling to get to grips with the venue on the day.

Terry had appeared around 12·30 eating a burger, that being his only bite so far!! and I made the decision having only added a foul hooked Gudgeon and a couple of blade skimmers to stick 5 balls of groundbait onto the 10mtr line and have a stroll. Dave was happily plugging away and admitting to 5 carp…………

……….but for the rest it was grim, with nobody admitting to more than a few silvers, so I decided to take the burger option and get a bite to eat. All I can say is that it’s probably best to stick to bacon, as hand on heart I couldn’t tell what the burger was made of ???? Thank God for onions and mustard, at least it gave it some flavour.

Back at my peg I could see Judy over on peg 4 occasionally popping fish in her net, was I going to get beaten by the club’s lady angler twice in a row ?

Had the groundbait done the trick? Well I wasn’t pulling up any tree stumps, but I started to put together a few small skimmers and Ide which was an improvement and I just kept pinging a few maggots over the top in an effort to keep them coming. Frustratingly though they wouldn’t come up in the water, I could only get a bite at depth, but at least I was putting something in the net on a reasonably regular basis. Terry had at last had a couple of bites, but he’d missed both of them.

With around an hour to go my bites had dried up again, so I put in another 3 balls of groundbait, then Al wandered round and we decided to go and see what some decent swims looked like. We found Dave admitting to having had a few more Carp including one around the 10lb mark, but apparently engaged in a tug of war with a patch of reeds, It’s amazing just how far Red Hydro can stretch !!!!!

Judy was plugging away on peg 4, but was frustrated, feeling she probably hadn’t got the best from it, while Jim on peg 3 was in a bit of trouble with a Carp snagged in roots and struggling to net it, finally it was in the net though, a Common of around 7lbs, a real bonus on the day.

Back at my peg, and the groundbait had brought a few back to the swim with a few better skimmers around the 8-12oz mark coming to the net. Looking up Chris had plenty of pole in the air again before landing what looked to be a bonus Carp, while Terry reported that he had finally hooked a couple of fish, only to have them drop off.

Thankfully at 4pm Dave sounded the All-out to put most of us out of our misery. The weigh-in told the tale of the day really, Jim on peg 3 weighed 14¾lbs including his Carp to take 2nd place on the day, While Chris was just 4ozs behind him with 14½lbs. Dave had walked it off the flyer however, weighing in 46¼lbs (not a bad belated birthday present). I was pleasantly surprised to find that my net of bits weighed 13¼lbs for 4th on the day.


Overall the day had been a real struggle though with more than a few suffering their own “Mugger Moments©”, though as usual there had been more than a few laughs with plenty of banter flying around to make up for the disappointing fishing. The next Marsh AC match is at Colemans Cottage on May 16th, but next up for me is a match at Broad Oak in Kent with the lads from Maggotdrowning.com next Saturday, that you’ll be able to read about here as usual.
 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 7	Dave Collier	46lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 3	Jim Boase	14lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 6	Chris Withall	14lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 10	Peter Morton	13lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 4	Judy Hermite	11lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 13	Tony Roberts	9lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 18	Colin Sharrard	8lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 1	Roger Noakes	4lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 8	John Holdsworth	3lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 19	Ken Walker	3lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 15	Ed Dobson	2lbs 00ozs
12th=	Peg 12	Al Loader          (Guest)	1lbs 12ozs
12th=	Peg 14	Zack Johnson	1lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 17	Martin Hucker	1lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 5	Graham Manning	1lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 11	Terry Goff	DNW
17th	Peg 21	Rod Turner	DNW

Monk Lakes. Bridges Lake. April 18th, 2009.

Well with Maria having to work today I’d taken the opportunity to pop down to Monk Lakes to fish Bridges Lake. Vince popped down a couple of weeks ago and had a real Red Letter Day, and Bill G went on Bank Holiday Monday and also had a memorable day. Bill was going to join Vince and I today but unfortunately his wife was taken ill forcing him to cancel.

So after dropping Maria off at work I popped back home and loaded the tackle up and with the sun shining from a blue sky set off. As I passed Brands Hatch however, the sun vanished behind clouds and by the time I pulled into the fishery car park it was dull, grey and windy. As I paid for my day ticket in the shop I received a voice-mail from Vince telling me he was down by the lake and had already sorted two swims on the first island on the right hand side.
After carting the gear over Vince settled into the swim to the right, leaving me with the one facing out into the main body of the lake with the wind blowing from my right. It transpired that Vince’s swim was the one that he’d had his good session on a couple of Tuesdays previously !!! was I about to get ‘Goulded’ ????

As we set up Keith(Disco)Driscoll and Steve(rookery54)Allen appeared, they were here to fish the Pads Army Charity Match and after a brief chat they set off for their draw. Vince was soon set up as he had all his rigs from his previous session on winders.

I started plumbing up with a pole rig and was a little dismayed to find nothing more than a couple of feet of depth wherever I looked, so back into the holdall and out with the waggler rod that was already rigged up with a 4AAA peacock insert waggler finished of with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook at the business end, and a few casts around found a nice consistent 4ft. Bait wise I’d just brought 6mm pellets for feed and some 8mm’s to band as hook bait with some corn for a change bait.

A couple of pouches of pellet were fired out to about 20 mtrs followed by the float which soon buried, the strike met with a pleasing resistance and I was soon putting the net under the culprit, a nice fit Barbel of 2½lbs.

A steady run of fish started to come to both Vince and I, with a few of the resident Chub mixed in with the Tench and Skimmers, well I call them Skimmers because they were silver coloured, but they were decent plump fish weighing between 2 and 3 pounds which are serious weight builders. I also managed my first Golden Tench of the year, always a nice colourful addition to the day ………

………… and it was soon followed by a second ………

By 12 o’clock the wind had blown the clouds away and we had glorious sunshine, though the wind continued to make things difficult setting up an awkward tow on the lake, forcing me to lay about 6″ of line on the deck and adjust the shotting to hold the float in place. I’d had a look on the feeder to see if that was a better option, but with it only producing a solitary Skimmer it was soon discarded.

Vince appeared to be having similar problems with the tow and with the wind full in his face started to struggle a bit as his catch rate seemed to start dropping off. My next fish was a little more weighty however as one of the lakes proper Bream put in an appearance, a nice slab that rolled the scales over to 5½lbs ………

One of the things about Monk Lakes is that with 7 lakes and a stretch of the River Beult it hosts a profusion of water fowl and throughout the day a family of Great Crested Grebe’s were hovering around the edge of my swim …………

Vince had one of those “See You Later” moments as he hooked into something that set of like a torpedo and didn’t stop, so strolled over for a chat to see how I was getting on, and just in time to do the honours with my camera as another proper bream hit the net, a shade larger than the previous one at around 6lbs……

Which was soon followed by an immaculate Common Carp of around 6lbs………

Meanwhile I had a visit from “Mother Mallard” and her brood which curtailed my fishing for a little while as I didn’t want to risk striking and launching one of the ducklings skywards ………

A little while later Vince received a phone call from his Brother meaning he had to leave as he’d brought round a floor sander for him to use, not without him getting one final fish though, but try as he might it was not to be ……

……… as his float steadfastly refused to go under  …………

My next Bream proved to be my best of the day weighing 6½lbs, to give you some idea of the size, the net in the photo is a 30″ pan net, and the fish is just about as long as the net is wide ……………………

 Vince bade me farewell at 3·15 pm, while I fished on for another hour, with another 6 proper un’s mixed in with a few Tench and Chub, to finish the session with 57 fish that must have easily gone 100lbs+, a really nice days fishing by any standards.

As I packed away Keith and Steve reappeared for a chat having finished their match. I subsequently heard that poor Keith had managed to break his no 6 section of his pole again when the wind blew it while packing up, so no wonder he didn’t mention it at the time !!!!!

So that was it for another day, Thanks to Vince for his company on the day. Next Up it’s the Marsh AC match at Pea Lane (Thanks to Steve Allen for some info on the venue) next Saturday, and as usual a report will be forthcoming here.

Hawkhurst Fishery. The Match Lake. April 10th, 2009.

“Easter Friday Hawkhurst Fish Farm. I’ve just been up there and the bailiff tells me it’s free on this day, with everyone being off anyone fancy a knock up?” That’s the post that Paul(paulvis69)Slater put up on the Maggotdrowning forum which has led to 19 of us travelling down to Kent today.

Loading up the car it appeared to be pleasantly mild, which considering the previous weeks weather forecasts was a bonus as they had been promising rain. A smooth trip down saw me pulling into the fishery just after 8am to find almost everyone already there and eager for the draw.(Unfortunately Kevin had been called into work at 4am forcing him to miss it) With the on-site café not due to open till 9·15am Paul soon had the draw underway so that we could get set up and then have breakfast before the start of the match at 10·30am.
Dipping my hand into the bag peg 1 was my reward. Some regard it as a flyer as it’s an end peg in a corner, but I’m not so sure as everyone seems to congregate round it during and prior to the draw which must disturb the fish there and in all the matches I’ve fished there it’s never framed yet alone produced the winner.

Settling in I had Vince for company on peg 2, so the battle for our customary £1 coin was going to be up close and personal today, while opposite on peg 20 was Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff coming out of hibernation for his 1st outing of the year. Vince must have thought that I wasn’t all that confident because he took the following picture thinking that I was praying to the fishing gods, however he had only caught me pumping some expander pellets……

My set up was pretty simple today, just 3 top kits, 2 rigged with 4X12 Malman Champers on 0·16 to 0·14 bottoms with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hooks, one for 4mtrs straight out in front where I had around 4ft of water and the other for up against the boards to my left where there was around 2½ft, while the third was a Malman MTD2 dibber on 0·16 direct to a size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had around 18″ and would also double up as an up in the water rig. Bait for the day was simply 6 & 8mm fishery pellet (Skrettings) that would be banded and some 6mm GOT expanders as a change bait, with feed taken care of by more 6mm fishery pellet.

With the kit all set up most of us made for the café and a Full English. 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 eggs, Mushrooms, beans/tomatoes, fried slice + toast & marmalade and tea or coffee for £5 setting everyone up for the five hours ahead. So with everyone full it was back to our pegs……………

and at 10·30am Paul called the All-in. A large pot of pellet was dumped at 4mtrs and another spread along the boards to my left while I fed some more by hand down the left hand margin into the corner where there was a build up of scum. Out with the 4mtr rig and a banded 6mm pellet produced a couple of lightning fast bites without connection which I’m sure were Roach just snatching at the pellet, while Vince was soon into his 1st fish of the day and putting a Carp safely into his net. A more positive bite soon saw some Black Hydro coming from my top kit and a nice little Common of around 1½lbs get me off and running. After around an hour I had around 10 fish, no great shakes but at least I was getting fish regularly unlike Terry opposite who appeared to have got off to a bit of a slow start and having a bit of a struggle ………

Just after the half way mark I was starting to struggle on the 4mtr line so after dumping another large pot of pellet in I had a look over to the boards on my left, taking 4 Carp in 4 put in’s before the Roach turned up, a look to the corner proved fruitless, so I decided to stretch my legs and see how the others were doing.


 It was soon obvious that the middle pegs were the place to be with Paul (nomorelongwalks) who always seems to do well here at Hawkhurst catching steadily, Tony was into a fish…………………

………as was Dave………………

……… though as usual they were both cagey as to just how well they were both doing. Clive who had made the trip up for the day as he always enjoys it here had settled on a margin attack……

……… as had the match organiser, Paul (paulvis69) over on the other bank on peg 13………

Back to my peg and onto the 4mtr line and the fish were ready for it once more, though I was still getting some of those lightning fast bites that I couldn’t connect with. By keeping the pellet going in I was keeping fish going into the net, even taking a few shallow, but I was having to wait to long between fish on the shallow rig so reverted back to the deck to keep my catch rate ticking over.
Vince however was starting to struggle a bit having to wait a bit to long between fish to keep pace with me 

With around an hour to go I had 50 fish in my nets but the sky had darkened and it was obvious that we would be finishing the match in the rain. Terry on peg 20 had started to put a run of fish together playing catch up after his poor start, and looking a bit further across I could see that Nick(pastie)Allen on peg 16 and Keith(Disco)Driscoll on peg 15 were having a good old battle with both anglers taking fish regularly.

With the arrival of the rain however my bites dried up while Jay to Vince’s right on peg 3 seemed to have a great last hour ………

I really struggled and only managed to put another 2 fish in the net in the last hour, leaving me with 52 fish when Paul called the All-out at 3·30pm. I was first to weigh in and 86½lbs was my reward for the day, not good enough for the frame but more than enough against Vince’s 32½lbs to see yet another shiny £1 coming my way. Paul on peg 7 took the win on the day with 125lbs (Told you he likes it at Hawkhurst) while Keith had edged Nick out to third with 112lbs to 101lbs in their peg to peg battle.

So that was it for another day, A Nicely organised match by Paul(paulvis69), Thanks fella,  and Paul(nomorelongwalks) kindly treated us to coffee’s in the café from his winnings before we bade our farewells and set off for home.


 Next up for me is a Club match at Pea Lane in Essex in 2 weeks time, a new venue to me. How will it go?????????? not got a clue, but all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 7	Paul(nomorelongwalks)East	125lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 15	Keith(Disco)Driscoll	112lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 16	Nick(pastie)Allen	101lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 4	Graham(franklin)Franklin	94lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 3	Jay Lay	92lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 5	Tony(spamwham)Roberts	88lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 19	Derek(derekl)Lockwood	86lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 1	Peter(Mugger)Morton	86lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 8	Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard	85lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 18	Pete(btpt)Allen	83lbs 00ozs
11th=	Peg 9	Greg(splitshot1)Andrews	81lbs 00ozs
11th=	Peg 6	Dave(The Fish)Collier	81lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 12	Trevor(M.T.Net)Little	70lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 20	Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff	67lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 13	Paul(paulvis69)Slater	40lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 2	Vince(Vince G)Gould	32lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 11	Chris(nagap)Pagan	31lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 17	Chris Withall	23lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 14	Ben Franklin	DNW

Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2. April 4th, 2009.

Marsh AC club match.

Well today saw the 1st Marsh AC match of the year taking place at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 2 . These matches are always light hearted affairs and there’s bound to be a bit of banter flowing throughout the day, and hopefully a few fish to be had.

Loading up the car for the drive down it was dull grey and drizzling and by the time I arrived around 8am nothing had really changed. A cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie took care of breakfast. 15 club members and a couple of guests lined up for the draw One of those being Dave Talbot, who had received a new pole as a result of his daughter Faye’s appeal on the Maggotdrowning.com forum at Christmas. (You can read the relevant thread HERE). Bill G had come along too, but he was going to spend the day helping Dave get to grips with the pole has he hadn’t used one previously.

Into the bucket and peg 51 stuck to my hand. Colin and Dave drew last and ended up with the two flyer’s 66 and 45. Settling into my peg, despite having a free peg to my left with Judy next up on peg 53 and what turned out to be a free peg to my right as Bill G had drawn it (but would spend the match coaching Dave Talbot) I can’t say I was delighted with it, the wind was blowing straight into it and I would have to watch those on the opposite bank fishing with the wind off their backs for the whole match. Also it’s a peg that doesn’t get fished a lot during the week, pegs 45, 46 and 47 seeing a lot of action on a regular basis due to the resident Barbel.

Setting up I selected 2 top kits with Black Hydro, these were rigged with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a 10mtr line where I had around 6ft of water and a KC 4×12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a closer margin line where I had 2-2½ft of depth. I also set up my Shakespeare Mach 3 Micro – 11′ Waggler which was rigged with a Premier 4AAA insert waggler. Bait wise, Got 6mm expander pellet along with 6 and 8mm hard pellet along with corn and meat would hopefully provide something appetising for the fish while 6mm pellet and some Special G groundbait took care of the feed.

10am and Dave blew the All-in. I fed 3 balls of ground bait on the 10mtr line and some pellet into both margins.
Dave Talbot on peg 49 had been under instructions from Daughter Faye to catch a Barbel, and got off to the perfect start as the 1st fish on his new pole proved to be a Barbel (Mission Accomplished).

After about 5 minutes I had my first bite on the 10mtr line and with what felt like a decent fish taking elastic, was more than a little put out when the hook pinged free as I was getting ready to net it.

From that point on my day went downhill rapidly. Judy was sorting out a few of the lakes resident Ide and Dave T was taking some decent fish on a regular basis, much to Bill G’s delight, was it Bill’s coaching or was he sitting on a shed full? It didn’t matter really because I couldn’t buy a bite.

Wherever I looked people were catching fish, Colin was fishing towards the aerator on peg 66 and steadily putting fish in the net………………

If I looked to my right, Dave, Kevin and young Zack were filling their boots from the early pegs. Indeed the only angler who seemed to be as inactive as me was Martin over on peg 60………………

I finally managed to put a fish (a small Tench) in the net after about an hour and that was quickly followed by a Gudgeon before things ground to a halt for me once more. A look on the waggler fared no better but as I could see young Zac and Kevin catching regularly on feeder set ups I got my feeder rod out of it’s ready bag and chucked a banded 8mm pellet out in desperation. After 10 minutes the tip wrapped round, the culprit being revealed as I netted it as probably the smallest F1 in the lake. Needless to say no more bites followed in the next 30 minutes after this.

By this point in the proceedings word had of course got out, and I received several visits from those who were keen to commiserate with my predicament and offer some sympathetic words of advice…………………..NOT

By now the sun was shining, but all that did was blind me as I tried to fish the ripple on my 10mtr line, so I came shorter and 1st put in I was rewarded with an F1 of around 1½lbs, but that again proved to be a solitary fish. Things were getting truly desperate for me by now, I’m sure that Bill hid my knife in case I was contemplating suicide, and when Dave C strolled down again with more words of sympathy (Yeah Right) I strolled back with him to see what a decent peg looked like and acquire some maggots off him.

By now I was convinced that I was stone last on the day, the maggots were at least getting me some bites, but these were only from 1oz blade skimmers and even smaller Ide fry. I was so fed up that with half an hour to go I stripped my top kits down to pack them away, and as I did that the wind dropped down a bit, so I decided to give the waggler a final chuck. Two red maggots on the hook and at last I could catapult some feed out to a reasonable distance, out with the waggler, it sailed away and a nice chunky F1 was soon in the net. I pulled out of the next one trying to bully it in too quickly but did manage another three before Dave blew the all out at 4pm.

The weigh-in started from the opposite side with Colin on peg 66 putting 71¾lbs on the scales for a fine win on the day. Dave C took second on the day with 63¾lbs from peg 45 while Dave Talbot completed the frame with a fine 48lbs, a fantastic effort using a pole for the 1st time, and a result that I’m positive will ensure that Faye is suitably proud of her Dad…………

 

My few fish weighed a meagre 12¼lbs much to everyone's delight, my one consolation being that Vince hadn’t been able to make it on the day, thus missing out on what would have been his best chance this year to get one of his £1 coins back from me.

The next Marsh AC match is at Pea Lane in Essex in 3 weeks time, I’ve never been there and evidently it’s predominantly silvers, so I could be on for another battering to provide yet more entertainment for the club members, but before then it’s the Match Lake at Hawkhurst where Vince and I will resume the battle of the £1 coins, and normal service will hopefully be resumed. I’ll keep you posted.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 66	Colin Sharrard	71lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 45	Dave Collier	63lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 49	Dave Talbot      (Guest)	48lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 57	Ken Walker	42lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 61	Tony Roberts	39lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 56	Graham Manning	35lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 46	Kevin Loveland	33lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 47	Zack Johnson	30lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 64	Terry Goff	17lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 58	Roger Noakes	16lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 62	Chris Withall	14lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 53	Judy Hermite	14lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 51	Peter Morton	12lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 65	John Holdsworth	11lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 54	Rod Turner	7lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 60	Martin Hucker	2lbs 12ozs