Colemans Cottage Fishery. Cottage Lake. September 19th, 2010.

Kev the Catch’s

 50th Birthday Bash

I’m off to Colemans Cottage Fishery in Essex today at the invitation of Kevin Loveland for a days fishing on Cottage Lake to celebrate his 50th Birthday . It will take the form of a small knock-up match, but the emphasis will be very firmly on enjoying the day and will no doubt finish off with tea and cakes in the clubhouse.

The alarm going off and a nudge in the ribs from Maria saw me rising just after 5·30am, our cats think an alarm clock ringing is a dinner bell, so having washed and dressed they were fed, while a large cup of coffee took care of my needs before loading up the car and setting off. A nice smooth trip down saw me pulling into the car park around 7·45am. First things first so it was straight into the clubhouse where I bumped into fellow Maggotdrowner Ron B who was here for a match with his club. One of Colemans excellent breakfasts was soon dispatched and the banter started to flow as todays participants assembled for the day ahead.

Keith, Terry and Pete set off to peg the lake while Dave collected the pools for the day, our only outlay as Kevin had kindly paid for the lake today. With the lads back from pegging out it was time for the draw. Peg 7 proved to be mine for today so it was off to the car park to collect our kit and make our way over to the lake. As I made my way round to the riverside bank it was soon obvious that we were in for some fun today as some joker had placed my peg number on a culvert with half a forest in front of it, realising this was obviously a mistake I settled for the perfectly fishable peg a couple of paces further on. For company today I had Terry to my left on peg 6 and Colin to my right on peg 8.

Settling into the peg I recognised it as the one that Colin had won from when we fished the lake last October, while I could see Pete Thompson settling into the peg that I’d fished. Thankfully although the platform resembled a ski slope the adjustable legs on my box and footplate soon sorted that out. I had trees overhanging the water to the left and right which were the two obvious lines to fish so set up a couple of Malman 4×12 Adam’s on 0·20 Power Match with size 14 QM1 hooks to fish at 5mtrs to the trees on the deck and a MW HC margin again on 0·20 with size 14 Guru QM1 for the left hand margin, though it seemed to be a bit of a snag pit and might prove awkward to get a fish out of it. Bait for today was simply a selection of GOT Baits soft hookers and 6mm hard pellets while feed would just be a mix of 4 & 6mm hard pellets. Keith put in an appearance prior to the off snapping a few photos for his blog and caught me setting up a top kit……

So 10am and Dave blew the whistle for the All-In and I fed a couple of pots of mixed pellets into both swims and shipped a soft hooker out to the left hand swim. I was going to concentrate on this line as I had it to myself, and Colin would be fishing to the other side of the right hand one. A couple of lightning fast bites followed, both of which I missed, putting them down to silvers.
Rather than keep shipping back and forth I changed to a banded 6mm hard pellet, but before I could ship back out I could see Pete playing his first fish of the day ……

… obviously a Carp it was giving a good account of itself, but Pete soon had it under control and safely in the net. So out with my rig with a pouch of pellet over the top and after lifting and dropping the rig a few times the float buried and a quick lift resulted in the elastic coming out, not a big fish but a small Mirror of around 2lbs that was soon in the net to getting me off the mark. Jean put in an appearance with a welcome cup of coffee and all was right with the world.

 A further 6 carp followed in the first hour which as far as I could make out was as good as anyone else. I’d seen plenty of elastic coming out on Keith and Dave’s pegs, and the grapevine reckoned that Clive had a couple of lumps early doors, but sport seemed generally slow around the Lake. In fact Clive came for a stroll round to see how others were doing, a sure sign that it wasn’t going well for him, handily though he was just in time to get an action shot of me landing what would prove to be my biggest fish of the day ……

Colin was struggling for a bite, and I’d not had any indications on the couple of occasions that I’d dropped into my right hand line, but I’d heard a bit of splashing coming from my left, so obviously Terry was getting a bit of action. I was getting little spurts of action, 1 or 2 fish then a gap before a bit more action, the vast majority of my fish were Carp with just the occasional silver, while Pete who seemed to be catching at a similar rate appeared to be getting a much larger percentage of silvers.

I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my right knee for a while and today it was really giving me grief so around half way through I decided to have a stroll as my knee felt like it was starting to seize up. Looking across I could see that Keith already had 3 nets in!!! was he bagging or just being prepared?……

Colin had at last got a couple in the net, but Martin was confessing to being behind his young son Harry in the catching stakes. Judy had moved to her inside line as the wind made things awkward on her longer line. I then arrived at the Birthday Boy himself, and I have to say that the mood was far from celebratory, probably due to the fact that he hadn’t had as much as a bite at that point……

Clive was wearing that well worn expression of his once more, he’d had a few early fish, but hadn’t had a bite for a couple of hours and was beginning to wonder where the next one was coming from ……

A bit further round and Dave was admitting to having a few in his usual cagey way, while Keith was making light of the fact that he had those 3 nets in. I thought I’d better take a spare for myself while I was round there though just in case. Tony was having a bit of a mare with fish obviously in his peg but refusing to get their heads down and have a feed…….

 Pete was having a short stroll by then having been seen off by a rather sizable lump down his margin. Terry had the reasonably contented look of a man who was steadily putting a bag together from under the tree to his left ……

Back out to the edge of the tree at 5mtrs once more and it was just a question of steady away, Jean had provided another cup of coffee and slowly and surely I managed to keep the Carp coming in ones and twos for the remainder of the match……

 By the time that Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out I had 30 Carp to show for my efforts and half a dozen silvers which hopefully would give me somewhere around 65lbs. We soon had our kit packed away and the weigh-in reached us quite quickly so obviously there hadn’t been to many big weights. Pete’s 36½lbs leading by the time they got to Terry. Terry had indeed been quietly been doing the business and put a fine 50½lbs on the scales that would be good enough for third place on the day. I was next up and my fish weighed in at an even 74lbs which as it transpired was enough for the win. Harry beat his dad by 4ozs – 0 while poor Kevin suffered a blank as well.

Clive’s 38¼lbs was edged out by Dave’s 38¾lbs while Keith was left to rue a biteless last hour when his fish weighed in at 64¾lbs to take 2nd place overall.

So with the weigh-in concluded it was back to the club house for the results where Kev and Jean had arranged for a buffet to be laid on.

Pride of place went to Kev’s Birthday Cake ……

………and once the big fella had blown his candle out…………

……………. and we’d sung a rousing chorus of HAPPY BIRTHDAY everyone tucked in.

I’d like to say A BIG THANK YOU to Kev and Jean for treating us all to the day out in celebration of his 50th, certainly a different way to celebrate a Birthday. Cheers Kev, and may you have many more to come.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 7	Peter Morton	74lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 16	Keith Ashby	64lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 6	Terry Goff	50lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 15	Dave Collier	38lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 12	Clive Pritchard	38lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 3	Pete Thompson	36lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 13	Jim Boase	24lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	22lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 5	Graham Manning	17lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 2	Simon Watkins	9lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 10	Judy Hermite	7lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	7lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 14	Nick Bondeau	2lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 9	Harry Hucker	04ozs
15th=	Peg 9	Martin Hucker	DNW
15th=	Peg 11	Kevin Loveland	DNW

Rockells Farm. Saffron Walden. Essex. September 12th, 2010.

Marsh AC club match.

 I’m off to Rockells Farm today for what is probably the most eagerly anticipated club match of the year. Last year Martin Hucker set a new club match record at 383lbs 4ozs and a new club record total of 2911lbs 14ozs was put on the scales by the 19 anglers that fished the match. A lot can depend on the draw, but an awesome weight is on the cards if the draw bag is kind to you. 

As usual when visiting this venue in the depths of Essex I’d arranged to meet Dave at his place just after 6·30am and follow him and Colin down to the fishery. The weather looked good and a smooth run down saw us pulling up at the lake at around 8am to find Keith and his guest Troy along with Jean and Kev, Martin and John already in attendance. A quick look confirmed that the lake looked in good nick although the water level was a little down.

 Keith, Terry and I set off to peg out while the others arrived and I have to say that every peg looked like it was good for a few fish. Keith expressed a preference for a late peg in the high teens and the general consensus was that either the first 3 or the last 3 would be decent draws. So at 8·30am Dave called the draw, people seemed a little reluctant so I dived in early and found peg 19 to be my home for the day. Keith drew peg 3 and with Clive drawing peg 2 with Terry for company on peg 1 they would definitely be contesting the honours, I had Graham for company on 18 while peg 17 was Dave’s for the day and was the one I felt we all had to beat. I had the peg last year and the willow that had been cut back then had re-grown and now offered some cover and would be tailor made for Dave’s floater approach today.

So off to the pegs, and I have to say that I couldn’t have any complaints with my own peg, with the boards to fish to on my left and some cover to my right, both of which had a depth of no more than 18 inches.

 My approach is pretty single minded in that I tend to ignore any long lines when I fish Rockells as shipping back and forth wastes to much time and look to catch on a top 2 from the off if at all possible. Rigs are Middy in-line paste floats made up on 0·20 power match with a size 12 owner barbless relying on the bait to cock the float. Bait is simply GOT Atomic paste with 4mm pellets (and plenty of them) for feed.

So with such a simple set up I had a bit of time before the All-in and had a stroll down to see Dave who was looking as happy as Larry despite not feeling quite 100%……

Dave had never recorded 300lbs in a match, but today he was definitely sitting on a peg that was more than capable of doing it if he could get off to a good start in the first 3 hour session. We fish two three hour sessions here with a mid point weigh-in as with the prospect of big weights it means that fish aren’t retained in nets for to long and it gives the anglers a chance to have a breather as well.

So 10am and Dave blew the whistle for the All-in, a handful of pellet down both margins and in with my first piece of paste next to the boards, a couple of dinks and the float slid away resulting in a perfect little Common of around 8ozs to get me off the mark and from then on in the bites kept coming regularly, unfortunately not all were connected with, I’d get 4 or 5 on the trot then miss a few or foul hook a couple, but I had 20 fish in the first hour. Peg 19 is pretty tucked away in a corner and you cant really see anyone else to judge how you’re doing against them, though I could hear plenty of splashing coming from Graham and Dave’s pegs so it was just a question off concentrating on my own peg. By the end of the second hour I had 39 fish, but they were mostly small. In the 3rd hour I upped the size of paste that I was fishing and although the bites slowed a bit I started to pick up a better stamp of fish. Judy popped round to see how I was doing, but it coincided with one of those frustrating periods of lots of missed bites and by the time that Dave blew the whistle to signal the end of the morning session I had 55 fish on the clicker and was hoping for somewhere around the ton.

The weigh-in started from my peg and I recorded exactly 100lbs. Graham had 84½lbs while Dave had a much better stamp of fish for 150½lbs and top weigh of the morning. Martin on peg 13 had also fished floaters for 101½lbs. Colin had also had a good morning on peg 8, making the most of the cover afforded from the overhanging willow on his peg and again fishing floaters for a fine 144¼lbs. The point pegs hadn’t really produced as expected, lots of small fish, but not enough of the better stamp, with Keith’s 89¾lbs being the best weight of the group. I’d fished Keith’s peg 2 years ago though and expected it to fish much better in the second session. However 1095½lbs had been weighed in by the 18 anglers including four ‘Tons’, an average of just over 60lbs per angler so not too shabby.

By the time we all returned to our pegs and sorted ourselves out it was 2·15pm before Dave signalled the All-in for the second session. I’d fed a couple of pints of pellet into both of the margins prior to the end of the first session and was hopeful that it was enough to hold the fish during the break, and it seemed that it had been a success as I had a fish first put in.

Well the second session pretty much followed the pattern of the first, though I did manage to pick up a few more better fish, but nothing over 4lbs. Dave however was definitely getting a better stamp of fish and was looking good I felt for an overall win. Anyway after a further 3 hours Dave called the All-out for the second and final time today. I had 78 fish on the clicker this time and hoped they would be enough to take me to around 200lbs for the session if I had enough better sized fish, but I would have to wait and see as the weigh in would run in the opposite direction this time, starting from peg 1.

So with the gear back at the car park it was time to start the weigh in. Terry and Clive had both improved on their morning sessions with 128¼lbs and 123¼lbs respectively. Keith had had a standout session though, his 2 nets finally registering 219¼lbs for an overall weight of 309lbs which would prove to be good enough for 3rd on the day.

 John on peg five managed 101½lbs in the afternoon. Colin however had gone from strength to strength with 225lbs and a total of 369¼lbs to take the win on the day. Martin had another busy session putting 158¼lbs onto the scales. Dave had 3 nets in which gave him 193¾lbs, comfortably taking him past his own 300lb target for a total weight of 344¼lbs, a new PB match weigh giving him 2nd on the day. My own weight of 169¼ proved as I feared that I had to many small fish, but the total of 269¼lbs still gave me 4th on the day.

So back to the car park for the results. A total of 2878¾lbs had been weighed in on the day, just short of our record, still an incredible average of 159lbs per angler !!!! with 3 ‘Triple Tons’, 2 ‘Double Tons’ and a further  6 ‘Tons’ overall a phenomenal days fishing by any standards. Roll on next years match, looks like I may have to brush up on my floater fishing.
 

Position	Peg	Angler	Morning	Afternoon	Total Weight
1st	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	144lbs 04ozs	225lbs 00ozs	369lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 17	Dave Collier	150lbs 08ozs	193lbs 12ozs	344lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 3	Keith Ashby	89lbs 12ozs	219lbs 04ozs	309lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 19	Peter Morton	100lbs 00ozs	169lbs 04ozs	269lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 13	Martin Hucker	101lbs 08ozs	158lbs 04ozs	259lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 1	Terry Goff	66lbs 00ozs	128lbs 12ozs	194lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 5	John Holdsworth	76lbs 04ozs	101lbs 08ozs	177lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 18	Graham Manning	84lbs 08ozs	90lbs 12ozs	175lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 2	Clive Pritchard	43lbs 12ozs	123lbs 12ozs	167lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 7	Tony Roberts	69lbs 08ozs	88lbs 08ozs	158lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 4	Troy Hillier      (guest)	38lbs 08ozs	78lbs 00ozs	116lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 6	Ken Walker	35lbs 00ozs	42lbs 00ozs	77lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 14	Jim Boase	20lbs 12ozs	43lbs 08ozs	64lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 16	Roger Noakes	25lbs 08ozs	28lbs 08ozs	54lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 15	Judy Hermite	10lbs 08ozs	42lbs 12ozs	53lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 11	Kevin Loveland	24lbs 12ozs	18lbs 04ozs	43lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 12	Eddie Dobson	7lbs 08ozs	31lbs 08ozs	39lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 9	Rod Turner	7lbs 00ozs	DNW	7lbs 00ozs

Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. September 9th, 2010.

A RiveT Piscatorial Promotion

I’m off down to Rolf’s Lake today for A RiveT Piscatorial Promotion along with the lads from  TalkAngling  . I missed getting my name down for this when it was posted on the forum, but managed to get a place on the match when a few people dropped out. I don’t normally get the chance to fish during the week but as I’ve got few holiday days left it wasn’t a problem for me to get a day off.
Now the thing is, the  TalkAngling  lads tend to like an early start to their matches and the plan was for a 9·30am draw with the fishing from 11-4pm. This meant an early start for me, but no problem as I said that I’d drop Maria off at work around 6am. This meant that I could still get a ‘Full English’ from my favourite little café in Battersea before doing battle with the London traffic.
Thankfully the plan went like clockwork and I rolled into the car park at around 8·45am.

A few of the lads were already there, including fellow Jinx Squad member Simon who’d managed to get a place on todays match the day before, and Mark C and Royst who I hadn’t seen for a while as they no longer fish the series…….

Soon the car park started to fill up, and the chat turned to the prospects for the day ahead, and if I’m honest I wasn’t sure just how it would fish. This was the third day in a row there had been a match on the lake and previous experience has shown that it can make for hard fishing, and the fishing times weren’t going to help either as the fish tend not to get their heads down till around 3-4pm.

 Anyway come 9·30 and no draw !! We were all still waiting for Rive T and Larry who’d got themselves lost having ventured so far south. They finally rolled up around 10am, and after the usual ribbing and pee taking the draw finally got under way with a revised time meaning we would be fishing from 12-5pm. Hand in the bag time, Simon had drawn peg 32 and I found myself holding ……… peg 8, well happy with that.

 Round to my peg and time to set up. I was planning to just fish a couple of lines today. 5mtrs down the track and to the bushes on my left, and although I also set up the feeder to fish across, that was a bit of an afterthought……

Rigs were my usual ones, Malman 4×12 Adam’s on 0·20 Power Match with size 14 QM1 hooks for the 5mtr line on the deck with 0·2 MW HC margin’s again on 0·20 with size 14 Guru QM1′s to fish to the bushes, while bait was the usual variety of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers, though I did have paste with me as well.

For company today on peg 7 I had Justin Watkins who fishes for Browning Crowsports and it looked like he was going to be fishing the pole across……

 Having set up we were then treated to a sharp shower as the sky turned grey, such are the joys of an English summer. A quick stroll while I waited for the All-In revealed Mark C still getting set up, obviously out of practise at Rolfs ……

 Royst was still beavering away too, evidently he’d forgotten how deep the big lake is and had found that none of his rigs were long enough, so had to make up new ones ……

Larry meanwhile has settled himself into peg 18 and was hoping that the next 5 hours would finally provide him with his first ever ‘Ton’…… 

So at 12 noon John rang the fishery bell for the All-In. I potted a mix of pellets and corn onto the 5mtr line and a big handful to the bush, but before I could get a bait in the water Justin was playing his 1st fish of the day having shipped across and had the float bury before he could feed.

Not good for me, could I be on for a battering? I shipped out with a banded pellet to 5mtrs, but the float tip obviously didn’t want to get wet as it stubbornly refused to go under.

Simon meanwhile was obviously into a good fish over on 32, in fact it proved to be hooked in the tail, but he still managed to bundle it into the net and at 15lbs+ a great start for him. Well an hour in and I was still fish-less. Simon was starting to put a few together, but after that initial fish Justin was suffering from foul hookers and missed bites. I’d heard a bit of splashing coming from the other side of the bushes on peg 10 so ‘The Brick’ was obviously putting a few together so decided to take a look by the bush myself.

Now the fish know every root and twig that lurk under the bushes, so it’s a question of how brave you want to be with how close you edge the rig in, the closer you get the more likely you are to get a bite. Well after 5 minutes I obviously got it right as the float buried and I was attached to a feisty Mirror that was determined to seek the safety of the roots, but plenty of side strain saw me gain the upper hand and after a couple of minutes an 8lb’er was safely in the net.

What followed though was one of the most frustrating couple of hours that I’ve experienced in a long while as time and again fish stormed off through the bush trashing rigs. I must have gone through 7 or 8 rigs and only had 4 smallish fish to show for it, and a couple of those had been foul hookers. The trouble was that if I fished short I just wouldn’t get a bite and they just didn’t want to be tempted further out by feed.

Simon by now had slowed down and was having to feed and fish over the top of the bush toward peg 33, and it seemed he was suffering from foul hookers as well, indeed one ran him ragged surfacing past the platform on peg 33 almost in front of me before he managed to get it in the net.

Then with about an hour to go it all seemed to come right for me in that I was hooking fish and getting them out into open water and safely in the keepnet, I even got a weigher, only 10½lbs but most welcome as I’ve really struggled to find the larger fish at Rolfs this year. As the clock ticked down I felt that if nothing else I was catching up with Simon. Glancing up I could see John going to ring the bell for the All-Out and just before he did my float buried again just as the bell rang. Fish On, at least Simon was pleased for me, though it may have been something else as I didn’t quite catch exactly what he said, fortunately it stayed attached, an 8lb Mirror that joined the others in the net as others started to pack up.

As we packed away Justin and I discussed the day, he’d suffered real frustration and only had 5 fish to show for his efforts.
I’d had a good last hour, once again to little to late, but was left ruing the fact that we hadn’t fished the match to more usual Rolfs times as the peg was getting better and better.

Having got the gear back to the car park it was obvious that some had had decent weights and once the weigh-in got under way those soon became obvious. froogy on peg 38 recording the first ‘Ton’ with 126½lbs quickly followed by Mo M with 102¾lbs.
My fish pulled the scales round to 88½lbs. Then round to peg 9 where ‘The Brick’ put a fine 161¾lbs on the scales which would prove to be good enough for 2nd on the day as ’20 Metre Bob’ on peg 10 topped it immediately with a fine 187½lbs to take the win.
Dan(awesome fish) finished just out of the frame however with 142¼lbs as Jay on peg 24 took 3rd place on the day with 149lbs 10ozs. Finally I just pipped Simon in our personal battle when his fish came to a level 84lbs.

Back at the car park and after a few minutes of spirited debate Larry and RiveT managed to sort out the monies……

…… and a pleasant surprise for me as I managed to take my section money. So an enjoyable day with the  TalkAngling  lads drew to a close as farewells were said and a hot air balloon drifted serenely past overhead……

I’m of to Rockells Farm on Sunday for a club match, so keep a look out for the report.

Position	Peg	Angler (forum names)	Weight
1st	Peg 10	20 Metre Bob	187lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 9	The Brick	161lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 24	Jay 411	149lbs 10ozs
4th	Peg 16	awesome fish	142lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 38	froogy	126lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 40	Mo M	102lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 18	Larry Teepot	91lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 8	Pete ‘Mugger’	88lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 32	Simple Simon	84lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 30	Royst	82lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 13	Steve 123	80lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 26	Rive T	80lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 2	Budgie	52lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 34	Cov Blaze	46lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 14	Marco	43lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 6	Rive’s Mate	41lbs 14ozs
17th	Peg 7	Justin Watkins	39lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 28	Mark C	28lbs 12ozs
19th	Peg 40	Flexi Mo	15lbs 00ozs

Private Lake, East Sussex. September 5th, 2010.

Maggotdrowning.com

 

Badpegpicker’s Southern Pairs 2010.

 It was off down to a Private Lake in East Sussex today for me to fish the Southern Pairs Match organised by Steve Oswick aka badpegpicker through the Maggotdrowning.com forum. The weather looked pretty promising as I loaded up the car and after a stop in Bromley for a spot of breakfast I made good time and pulled into the fishery car park around 8·10am.

 There was a good turn out come draw time, but unfortunately we had one no show, not a problem normally, but with this being a Pairs match a bit of a problem. The solution decided on was that after the draw the angler short of a partner would be allowed to count his weight twice, and that angler turned out to be Keith(shallowman)Haynes.

 I had found myself with peg 3 on the dam wall. Keith(gandhi) had drawn peg 1, and I had Steve on peg 2……

   and Keith(keith74)Powell on peg 4 in the corner for immediate company today………

My Pairs partner for the day was Paul(nomorelongwalks)East who had drawn peg 13. Mark(moleman)Hathaway was tucked away behind the island on peg 11 which was effectively an end peg meaning that he and Keith would have to be in with a chance as they are both more than capable of making the most of decent draws.

Now I don’t fish the lake that much, but I tend to treat it in a similar way to Rolfs as there’s a decent head of Carp present that run into double figures though the average is probably around the 6lbs mark, and with only Carp and Tench counting in todays match I just set up 3 rigs. A Malman 4×12 Adam on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 5mtr line on the deck, an a similarly rigged Malman Paste float but with a size 12 Ashima hook for paste while a 0·2 MW HC margin again on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 was set up to fish the margins and double up as an up in the water rig if needed. Bait for today was a mix of hard pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers and Atomic paste with 4mm pellets for feed.

With a bit of time to go before the All-In I took a quick stroll to see where others were drawn. Clive was ready for action on peg 16 and guaranteed at least one bite today…

 Sven was trying to pick a few bits of local knowledge from Bill’s brain, but unfortunately the strain appeared to be getting to Bill (it’s not easy trying to hold a stomach that size in)……

 I managed to get back just before Steve called the All-In. I shipped out a couple of pots of pellet and corn to 5mtrs and fed a couple of handfuls of pellet down the margins before shipping a grain of corn out to 5mtrs…………

Steve was into a fish first put in, but only briefly as it shed the hook however he was in again straight after, and soon had that one safely in the net. A couple of people had taken quick fish and it looked as if Jeff on peg 6 was in for a good match as he was soon into fish fishing the method out toward the island.

Fifteen minutes in and a change to banded 6mm pellet saw me into my first fish, a fighting fit Mirror of around 6lbs that was more than welcome to get me off the mark. However it was soon obvious that nobody was really taking it apart. It took me another twenty minutes before I got another bite, A Common this time, slightly smaller than the first fish but very welcome none the less. Jean strolled down with a very welcome cup of coffee and reported that things were slow all round. After around 1½hours I’d managed another couple of Carp when fellow Jinx Squad member Jon Hatch appeared, He was visiting relatives locally and had snuck down to the lake to see how we were all doing, it was a shame he couldn’t fish, but family has to come first at times.

By 1·30pm I couldn’t buy a bite so re-fed the 5mtr line quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera. Keith on peg 1 was having a frustrating time trying to work out just where in his swim his next bite would come from……

 Dave on peg 18 was attached to what appeared to be a decent fish that was giving him a bit of a run around, but he was slowly gaining the upper hand ……

 Clive was plugging away but only had a couple of fish to show for his efforts at this stage and had that look that I’ve seen before (normally when he’s on peg 32 at Rolfs)…

 Bill was into a decent fish on the feeder and enjoying every minute of it, giving Clive a running commentary alluding to the final destination of the ‘Golden Nugget’ involved in their side bet……

 Then I got to my Pairs partner Paul. I have to say that his news didn’t inspire me when it came to our chances of framing in the match as he hadn’t had a single fish apart from Perch which didn’t count today. Kevin was admitting to 3 fish on peg 12 but was being handicapped by an aching shoulder meaning that he couldn’t fish right across to the island……

 Fellow Chelsea supporter Hathers was into a fish as I arrived and certainly seemed to be going well for at least a section win, though he was a tad put out at having to return 5 chub weighing around a pound a piece as they didn’t count today……

 Richie(BME) seemed happy enough, this really isn’t his normal type of fishing being more of a river man, but he had a Carp in the net that he was sure was a new PB so was well chuffed. Terry was sitting it out on the feeder at peg 7 and owning up to 4 in the net……

 Jeff who I felt was well away for the section had been alternating between the method and the pellet waggler had it seemed had a bit of trouble keeping the fish on the hook and while he appeared to have been catching well, had lost a few to many for his liking before he could get them to the net ……

 Nick on peg 5 was having a bit of a grueller, he’s just getting back into his match fishing having had a bit of a lay off and only had a single carp to show for his efforts. Keith on peg 4 as just slipping the net under a Carp as I arrived , so despite him being a Spurs supporter I did the decent thing and took a picture of it for him ……

 Back to my peg and there were a few bubbles showing at 5mtrs, and first put in produced a fifth Carp for me almost straight away, a better fish of around 8lbs, but try as I might I couldn’t tempt another bite after a further 30 minutes. Time for a look in the margins. Lowering a grain of corn into the right hand margin the float cocked and disappeared. The fish gave a good account of itself……

 …… before finally slipping over the net, a really chunky Mirror of around 10lbs. Time to take a look down the left hand margin and once again an instant response saw another fish power off ……

 …… unfortunately it totally trashed the margin swim in it’s efforts to make good its escape, but thankfully it was unsuccessful and was soon safely in the net, another decent Mirror. That however was all the action from the margins as yet again the bites dried up.

Steve was trying everything and after going shallow finally managed his 3rd fish of the day, not before it had given him a bit of a run around though. I’d managed another couple of small carp from my 5mtr line, but with half an hour to go I was quite looking forward to the All-Out to put an end to a frustrating day. However at that point it all started to go right for me and in the final 30 minutes I managed to catch another 5 Carp before Steve called the All-Out. It just goes to show that you never can tell, it was just a pity that they didn’t turn up a bit earlier.

So as we packed away the inquest started. Keith strolled round from peg 4 to hand me a ‘Golden Nugget’ that had been our side bet, all the sweeter coming from a Spurs fan, and though I feared that I would have to hand it onto Hathers I knew he would appreciate its origin. As we waited to start the weigh-in at peg 1 Paul strolled past with the news that he had nothing to weigh, so that was us out of the running before the weigh-in had begun.

Keith started the ball rolling with a hard earned 53¼lbs. My fish came in at a level 73lbs which surprisingly gave me the section win as Jeff put 68¾lbs on the scales. Richie had his big Carp weighed separately, and indeed it was a new PB for him at 15¾lbs and his smile said it all……

 Hathers had topped the weight today with 95¼lbs and Kev had managed 42lbs despite his shoulder. Greg on peg 14 had obviously nicked all Paul’s fish to record 57¼lbs. Bill had pipped Clive in the Battle of the Nuggets, While Keith was looking to double up having recorded 53¾lbs.

So back to the car park where Steve announced the results. and in first place on the day and the MD’s Southern Pairs Winners 2010 were Keith Ashby & Mark Hathaway with 5 points. 2nd was Keith Haynes & Keith Haynes with 6 points, while Jeff Driscoll & Clive Pritchard took 3rd with 9 points.

All in all a hard days fishing, but fished in the right attitude by the anglers who made it a good day.
A Big Thank You to Steve for organising the match and Congratulations to all the Winners.
Same again next year?

Pairs Result

1st	Keith Ashby & Mark Hathaway	5 points
2nd	Keith Haynes & Keith Haynes	6 Points
3rd	Jeff Driscoll & Clive Pritchard	9 points
4th	Keith Powell & Greg Andrews	10 points
5th	Peter Morton & Paul East	11 Points
6th=	Richie Dell & Dave Collier	13 points
6th=	Steve Oswick & Kevin Loveland	13 points
8th=	Terry Goff & Sven Castle	14 points
8th=	Jamie & Brian	14 points
10th	Nick Jones & Bill Gibbins	15 points

Individual Result

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 11	Mark(moleman)Hathaway	95lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 3	Peter(mugger)Morton	73lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 6	Jeff(jeff d)Driscoll	68lbs 12ozs
4th	Peg 14	Greg(splitshot)Andrews	57lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 19	Keith(shallowman)Haynes	53lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 1	Keith(gandhi)Ashby	44lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 12	Kevin(kev the catch)Loveland	42lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 10	Jamie	41lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 7	Terry(wily coyote)Goff	36lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 15	Bill(bill g)Gibbins	27lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 18	Dave(dave the fish)Collier	27lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 16	Clive(black hydro)Pritchard	24lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 8	Richie(BME)Dell	20lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 4	Keith(keith74)Powell	19lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 2	Steve(badpegpicker)Oswick	17lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 17	Sven(svenc)Castle	16lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 20	Brian (indiginous3556)	5lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 5	Nick(polepot)Jones	5lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 13	Paul(nomorelongwalks)East	DNW