Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4. March 27th, 2010.

  Marsh AC club match.

Well after what seems like forever I’m finally getting back out on the bank. A combination of atrocious weather and pressure of work has seen me having my own private close season since Christmas,  but today sees the 1st Marsh AC club match of the year down at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 4, so it’s time to blow the cobwebs away and see if I can remember how to catch a few fish.

So with the alarm going off at 5·30am I soon had the cats fed and my coffee made and drunk before loading up the car and setting off for Monks. I pulled up in the car park around 7·45am with the sun shining to find a few of the lads already in attendance and tucking into breakfast in various forms. A bacon & egg baguette washed down with a tea took care of things for me as the rest arrived. Dave took care of collecting in the subs and peg fees while Tony and I strolled up to lake 4 to check out the pegging.

The lake was almost flat calm with barely a hint of breeze, though as this is Monk Lakes the odds were that the wind would get up as soon as we settled into our pegs. Only peg 157 needed to be left out as it’s tight in a corner. Keith, Clive and Al who have been regular guests for quite a while had accepted invites to join the club this year, while Bill G was guesting as was Pete Thompson who had travelled down from Milton Keynes with Keith, and Kevin & Jean were also back with us having had to cancel their plans to move to The Bahamas.
So into the draw bag and with none of us having any real experience of this lake, nobody seemed to worried about what peg they would draw. Peg 136 ended up in my hand, at least I would be able to park pretty close to it. Getting the kit out of the car I could feel the wind starting to get up and by the time I’d set up it was blowing quite briskly onto my back. For company I had Bill G on 137 who had the end of the island in front and had set up a waggler to fish it and he would alternate between this and the pole all match to keep some fish coming. At least we would have a bit of banter regardless of the outcome. My peg looked OK with a comfortable 14½ mtrs to the island. With the depth being a pretty constant 3½ft all over I just set up a couple of rigs, both 4X12 Malman Champers on 0·16 power match to 0·14 with a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook. Bait for today would be a selection of GOT 6mm soft hookers and some sweetcorn with GOT micros for feed.

10·00am saw Dave call the All-in, and Bill was in straight away with a Carp of around 3lbs on the pole at 13 mtrs. My start wasn’t so good with lots of rubbish on the bottom of my chosen line against the island I had to come back about a meter from the island to find a clear patch. Bill probably had 7 or 8 fish before I managed my 1st, a small Carp of around a pound and while Bill appeared to be ticking along nicely I was just getting the odd Gudgeon and small Tench……

Around 11am Vince arrived to see how we were getting on and brought me a welcome cuppa. By this time the wind had got up to a decent blow making things more awkward and I sent Vince off with my camera to take a few photos and see what others were doing. Bill was still catching though he was suffering from a few bumped fish and a snag on his waggler line seemed to be costing him a few hook lengths, but he was still on course to take our £1 side bet.

On Vince’s return his report was that although everyone seemed to be catching, nobody was taking it apart, though most seemed to be fishing maggot, so I asked Vince to pop down to the site shop and get me ½pint of reds and he duly obliged. 1st put in with double red on the hook I landed a small but scale perfect Golden Rudd which Vince photographed before saying farewell and heading for home.

 Young Zack had a bit of a shock when his double maggot was taken by a 5lb+ Pike (I had no idea there were any present) which he weighed and returned. All the time it was getting colder and with the sky getting darker it was obvious that we were due some rain at some point.
At least the red maggots were starting to pick up a few more fish for me, not enough to do any damage, but in all honesty I was just enjoying being out on the bank again after a 3 month layoff. Jean as always appeared with a welcome cup of tea and even went and got a burger for Bill and I. After the burger I fed a load of micro’s with some corn and a few reds at 7mtrs and went for a stroll of my own with the camera to allow it to settle.

Keith was fishing a top 3 and right on cue caught a decent skimmer for the camera…

While Colin was doing his best ‘Bankside Bush’ impression in his camo gear, and as usual was keeping how he was doing pretty close to his chest, although admitting to having a few ……

Tony was looking remarkably cheerful, despite having the no9 section of his 401 fall apart in his hands earlier in the day (Tony has had no luck with this pole since he brought it secondhand, with countless sections breaking) ………

Further round Pete Thompson was struggling to hit his bites, and felt that he was falling behind Clive on the next peg………

Clive was looking like someone out of an advert, sitting on his shiny new Space Station and using a shiny new pole, which seemed to be doing the business for him …….

Indeed he landed a decent Carp while I was chatting to him leading me to believe that he was doing better than he was letting on……

By the time I got round to Dave the wind was blowing full on into his peg and causing his joints to suffer, though he’d managed a few, admitting to around 10 different species in his nets ……

Kevin was just glad to be out fishing, having had the misfortune to suffer a couple of strokes in recent months, but with Jean keeping a careful eye on him to make sure he didn’t overdo things, he’d had a succession of small Carp to his feeder tactics and was obviously enjoying himself ……

Back at my peg the feed appeared to have done the job as there were a few bites to be had, very few Carp though, but a mixture of small skimmers, Ide, Gudgeon, Tench and Roach kept me interested as squalls of rain made things uncomfortable for everyone.

With about an hour to go Bill lost yet another hook to the snag on his waggler line and decided he’d have a stroll, while I kept plugging away picking up the odd fish including a solitary small Carp of around 2lbs that I managed to nick from my left hand margin before Dave called the All-out at 4pm.

Thankfully it didn’t take to long to pack up and get the gear back to the car as it was only parked about 10 yards away.

The weigh-in started at my peg where my net weighed a level 21 lbs which was more than I thought I had. Bill’s 26lbs safely secured the £1 side bet between the two of us. Colin’s mixed bag weighed in at a level 33lbs.  Next up was Keith who put a fine 50¾lbs on the scales that would eventually net him 2nd place. Hot on Keith’s heels was Tony who despite the disaster with his pole weighed 45¼lbs which would prove to be good enough for 3rd place. The winner however proved to be Clive round on peg 152 who used his new kit to good effect putting a level 54lbs on the scales to take the win on the day.

 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 152	Clive Pritchard	54lbs 00ozs	30
2nd	Peg 140	Keith Ashby	50lbs 12ozs	29
3rd	Peg 143	Tony Roberts	45lbs 04ozs	28
4th	Peg 139	Colin Sharrard	33lbs 00ozs	27
5th	Peg 161	Jim Boase	30lbs 04ozs	26
6th	Peg 163	Kevin Loveland	27lbs 08ozs	25
7th	Peg 151	Pete Thompson        (guest)	27lbs 04ozs	n/a
8th	Peg 137	Bill Gibbins             (guest)	26lbs 00ozs	n/a
9th	Peg 160	Al Loader	25lbs 08ozs	24
10th	Peg 150	John Holdsworth	24lbs 04ozs	23
11th	Peg 141	Zack Johnson	23lbs 00ozs	22
12th	Peg 156	Dave Collier	22lbs 12ozs	21
13th	Peg 136	Peter Morton	21lbs 00ozs	20
14th	Peg 155	Chris Withall	16lbs 00ozs	19
15th	Peg 158	Terry Goff	14lbs 08ozs	18
16th	Peg 149	Martin Hucker	11lbs 08ozs	17
17th=	Peg 145	Judy Hermite	11lbs 00ozs	16
17th=	Peg 164	Simon Watkins	11lbs 00ozs	16
19th	Peg 147	Roger Noakes	10lbs 12ozs	14
20th	Peg 153	Graham Manning	5lbs 12ozs	13
21st	Peg 162	Rod Turner	DNW	5

 

So that’s it, the 1st trip of the year done and dusted and hopefully a few cobwebs blown away. Where next? who knows, but the report will appear here from wherever it is.