Alders Farm Fishery. Great Brickhill. Buckinghamshire. June 23rd, 2012.

Maggotdrowning.com

Alders Farm Match

Like a lot of these things today’s trip to Alders Farm all started when back in early April, Linda (Mermaid) made quite an innocent post on The Maggotdrowning Forum asking whether there would be any interest in a match of some sort at the venue. It was soon obvious there was a bit of interest and before long Linda found herself entering into a new job, that of ‘Match Organiser’ having managed to get a Saturday in June sorted.

I travelled up with Dave the fish today and it was around 8·20am when we arrived at the fishery, First things first and a quick trip to the new on site tackle shop tackle shop for some fishery pellets and a chat with Trevor Price and then getting the nets dipped while Dave dropped our gear at the bottom of the hill. A good few were in attendance and I found Linda to check in, she handed me a name badge, a nice touch so that everyone would know who was who. Next stop was down to The Pumphouse overlooking the lake to grab a quick breakfast and catch up with some more of todays participants. Much chat over the prospects for the match and the general consensus was that the unsettled weather and rain during the week would keep the weights down today, though everyone should enjoy some good sport.

Around 9am Linda called everyone to the draw. Gary Thorpe had kindly sorted the choice of pegs for the draw, so into the draw bag and peg 5 was attracted to my hand, not a bad peg and I was happy with that. So off to collect my kit and make my way to my peg……

There were a fair few of us pegged on the pumphouse bank with Jonny on peg 1, Lee peg 2. Fellow Jinx Squad members Fred and Clive had pegs 3 and 4 while to my left was Linda’s husband Chris on peg 6. It was nice to see Chris fishing as he tends to be employed as Linda’s ghillie normally. Next up was Rod on peg 7 and Nick on peg 8, while Keith had plenty of space to himself on peg 12.

Settling into the swim the first thing that was noticeable was that yet again the wind was blowing firmly into me, not a bad thing in itself, but it meant that I’d be sitting there all match with a fleece on looking across to those sitting there in polo shirts, or in Andrew on peg 27′s case a very poor taste in football shirt.

Trev had told me that the end of the bush on the right was the sweet spot in the swim, with a back up at 5mtrs straight out so setting up was quite straight forward. Just 3 rigs all pretty much identical as the swim is pretty shallow(around 18 inches at the end of the bush and around 2½ feet at 5mtrs) . These were all Nick Gilbert’s handmade NG Power Pencil’s, two 0·4 gm and a 0·5 gm, all made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X’s nice and simple and strong enough to stand up to what would hopefully turn into a good bagging session. Bait was simply 2 bags of 6mm fishery pellets, a couple of pints of red maggots and a couple of tins of corn along with some GOT Baits soft hookers.

With everything set there was a bit of time for a quick chat with Rod, Chris, Clive and Fred before Linda called the All-In at 10·30am. A couple of pots of mixed pellet maggot and corn at 5mtrs and a similar handful fed to the end of the bush but before I can get a bait in the water Clive is playing his first fish of the day……

I soon had a banded 6mm on the hook and dropped at the end of the bush. The float simply buried and produced a…………..rudd, not the hoped for carp, there’s loads of them in Ash Lake and it’s normally just a case of working through them and keeping the feed going until the carp move in and push them out. After about 5 rudd the next bite produced firm resistance as a carp powered off. Now these carp aren’t huge, indeed the average size is probably around 3lbs, but being that the water is shallow they just power off when you hook them and fight well above their weight. In that respect it’s probably handy that I’m used to fishing Rolfs where the carp are of a far larger average size. It’s just a question of getting their heads up so they take a gulp of air and sliding them over the net.

I felt that Clive had got off to a better start in the first hour as I was only picking up odd fish, but as we moved into the second hour I was starting to catch him up as he had longer gaps between his fish. In fact looking around it was obvious that this was going to be one of those days where you had to work for your fish as nobody seemed to be really bagging up, but I was reasonably confident that if I could keep the fish coming at the same rate a ‘Ton’ was definitely on the cards. My back up line at 5mtrs however was only producing the odd fish so that was written off pretty early on.

Looking on I could see Clive hanging on as increasing amounts of red hydro appeared from the end of his top kit, obviously a decent fish it appeared hell bent on reaching the island, steady pressure finally told though and it was a very relieved Clive that finally netted another fighting fit carp……

Chris was having a bit of a mare however as the rudd stubbornly refused to make way for carp close in, forcing him to fish long to find any carp, but even then a few to many were slipping the hook as he played them ……

About 2pm Trevor Price had a stroll round taking a few pictures and seeing that I thought I’d better have a quick session with my camera so I had a few pictures for this report. I strolled down to Rod (isis) to find him cursing the rudd, they seemed to have settled into his peg and were doing a great impression of Piranhas devouring anything he cared to put on the hook. Nick (pastie) on peg 8 was starting to get among a few however and looked to be getting one over on his Dad, Steve (rookery54) who was across on peg 16 ……

While over on peg 20 I could see Trev (grannyspodder) who seemed to be waiting far to long between bites today ……

Meanwhile on peg 22 it looked to me like Gary (shooter560) had decided to try paste in an effort to up his catch rate ……

On peg 27 Andrew (lemon1) had at least covered up his rather dubious taste in football tops, while Keith was wishing for an upturn in sport like he’d had on his previous visit here when he’d set a new match best for himself ……

and tucked away on peg 30 was Dave the fish, I’d noticed that he’d been catching as well as anyone on that bank, and with this sort of fishing suiting his style felt he was bound to be in with a shout at the end……

Back on peg 3 Fred (Milo) was smiling but it hid the frustration of not getting the best from his peg as he was suffering with to many foul hookers and lost fish ……

While a look across to Lee (red baron) saw him with a smile on his face as he slid another carp over the waiting landing net……

Steve (big Stump) seemed lost in concentration on peg 38, probably hoping to avoid being beaten by the next peg ……

Which happened to be occupied by the Match Organiser herself, Linda (Mermaid) who was obviously targeting fish in the margins ……

As was Simon (sidev77) who obviously had the same aim as Steve ……

Back at my peg I’d just netted my first fish on my return when what sounded like a rifle shot came from the left, Nick had destroyed a Tri-Cast top kit when a carp had buried itself in the margin reeds. Moving into the last hour I was still taking fish on a steady basis from the edge of the bush in between being heckled by Clive and Chris to the effect that I was bagging and it must be solid with fish in the peg………………. hurtful that neither of them felt that it may be down to my superior piscatorial ability.

 Anyway despite this harassment I soldiered heroically on till the All-Out was called at 3·30pm. Looking down at my clicker I had 49 carp recorded on it and I felt that I had a comfortable Ton+ in the nets, which I felt was a decent effort given how hard the lake had fished today.

As we packed away our kit and waited for the scales the chat turned to how the day had gone. Rod now understood why Gary Thorpe refers to rudd as ‘Vermin’ having suffered a peg full of them all day and Nick showed off his new multi piece top kit. Clive felt he may have 50-60lbs though I was convinced he had more. The scales were moving around the lake pretty fast so it was obvious that it hadn’t fished as it can today and when they got to Keith (Gandhi), my travelling partner Dave the fish was leading with 117lbs the only ‘Ton’ so far……

Keith started the weights on the pumphouse bank with 71lbs 14ozs …… 

Rod followed with 15½lbs and Chris put 40¼lbs on the scales ……

My 3 nets weighed a total of 132lbs 07ozs to take the lead with 4 still to weigh ……

Clive did indeed have a bit more than his estimate with 89lbs to show for his efforts…

and while Lee was last but one to weigh with 102lbs 06ozs ……

and Jonny was last to weigh in with a fine 123lbs 06ozs.

Back to the Pumphouse for the results where we found that the staff had kindly laid on hot drinks for us, a really nice touch. Linda then called us all to order and paid out the sections……

Section A:
1st: Peter (Mugger) Morton £20
2nd: Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent £15

Section B:
1st: Nick (pastie) Allen £20
2nd: Keith (Gandhi) Ashby £15

Section C:
1st: Dave (dave the fish) Collier £20
2nd: Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs £15

Section D:
1st: Simon (sidev77) Watkins £20
2nd: Linda (Mermaid) Billington £15

Third overall on the day went to Dave the fish, Second to Jonny and the winner was Me and I have to say that I was both surprised and delighted when Linda presented me with an engraved tankard as a trophy, a lovely end to the day……

In conclusion I have to say a Big Thank You to Linda and Chris on behalf of all who attended, spot on organisation, right down to badges so that everyone knew who was who. I think you may have created an annual fixture for the MD’s calendar in the future.

Another Big Thank You to Trev, Gary and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, even on a hard day, fully deserving of the Stillwater of the Year Award that the fishery won in the National Angling Awards last year.

Finally, Thanks to all the forum members that attended, plenty of good banter along with more than a few laughs as expected on a Drowner’s match and good to meet up and put some faces to names from the forum.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 5	Peter (Mugger) Morton	132lbs 07ozs
2nd	Peg 1	Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent	123lbs 06ozs
3rd	Peg 30	Dave (dave the fish) Collier	117lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 2	Lee (red baron) Mitchell	102lbs 06ozs
5th	Peg 29	Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs	94lbs 06ozs
6th	Peg 4	Clive (Black Hydro) Pritchard	89lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 8	Nick (pastie) Allen	85lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 24	Keith (Gwinear13) Webb	83lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 12	Keith (Gandhi) Ashby	71lbs 14ozs
10th	Peg 28	Keith (keith74) Powell	69lbs 10ozs
11th	Peg 22	Gary (shooter560) Funnell	68lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 34	Simon (sidev77) Watkins	66lbs 06ozs
13th	Peg 36	Linda (Mermaid) Billington	59lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 27	Andrew (lemon1) Stevens	51lbs 14ozs
15th	Peg 38	Steve (big Stump) Chadwick	51lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 3	Fred (Milo) Parker	50lbs 01ozs
17th	Peg 16	Steve (rookery54) Allen	50lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 32	John (John-Tutu) Holdsworth	40lbs 09ozs
19th	Peg 6	Chris (Mermaid’s Ghillie) Billington	40lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 20	Trev (grannyspodder) Matthews	20lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 7	Rod (isis) Rose	15lbs 08ozs

Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire. June 16th, 2012.

The Jinx Series 2012
Match 2

I’m back to Rolfs Lake today for match 2 of this year’s Jinx Series, just 2 weeks after the first match and having suffered a mare 2 weeks ago when I changed my pre match routine I wasn’t about to let it happen again, so after loading the car this morning and setting off my first stop was my customary one in Battersea for breakfast at the Jimmy’s Griddle café and a ‘Full English’ soon had me set up for the day ahead and feeling that all was right with the world before I climbed back into the car and headed for Rolfs. There was a bit of a hold up on the M40 due to a crash just after Junction 4, but the hold up wasn’t to costly and it was just after 10am when I pulled into the car park.

There were quite a few already in attendance as they had fished a night match the previous evening and after collecting a cup of coffee I was soon catching up with the events of the previous night, including a first hand account from Terry of how he’d been for a moonlit swim on peg 4, luckily he’d survived to see the funny side of it despite not being able to swim.

One of the big questions today was who would be the first wearer of the new Pink Hat, unfortunately Geoff couldn’t be there today, but with 13 victims of the previous match attending Gem would be spoilt for choice, in fact a couple of us tried it for size, Lisa W-P catching me on camera……

….. but others strangely melted away at the very site of it, it didn’t do Fred any good though as The Minx selected him to be this season’s first wearer……

With Geoff unable to make it today Dave Wall had seized the chance and stepped into fish for him, so of course it was only polite on my part to offer the chance to reclaim the Golden Nugget he’d handed to me on the previous match. Gem and I had our usual side-bet of a Nugget and I also had one with Neil. For once Malc actually called the draw early at 11·50am with a full house of 21 assembled for the draw, everyone moving along one section today from the previous match.

C section for me today and with the wind blowing down toward the Little Lake not the most favourable of sections I felt although it had produced 1st and 2nd in the previous night’s match. Into the bag and it’s peg 26 on the car park bank for me today with Ade on peg 28 to my left for company and Neil to my right on peg 24 along with Dave Wall on peg 22. The Minx had drawn peg 30 so it should be easy to keep an eye on the possible destination of the Nuggets today. It didn’t fill me with confidence though as Simon had won the night match from peg 28 with 175½lbs and with Ade being his partner in the ‘Pairs’ he’d fully briefed him on how he’d fished the peg. Mat had fished Dave Wall’s peg and come second with 121lbs while Malc had fished Neil’s peg and weighed 74¼lbs. Mine had been fished by Nick Williams who’d only managed 17lbs for last place, so it looked like I might have it all to do.

A nice short walk meant that it didn’t take long to settle my gear into the peg despite there being about an inch of water covering the platform. I don’t seem to draw the car park bank that often but decided to keep it relatively simple with just 3 pole lines all on a top 2 + 2, a comfy 5mtrs. One straight out in front where I had around 7 feet of water, one at the base of the slope in front of the bush to my right with around 6 feet of depth and the final one on my left in line with peg 9 in around 4½ ft of water. All the rigs were freshly tied and made up with NG XT Mugger HD’s in sizes 0·3gm, 0·4gm and 0·6gm on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X’s. Bait for today was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellet for feed along with some 6, 8 and 11mm pellets for banding along with some corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

The All-In came at 2pm and I fed two small pots of mixed pellet and corn straight out and one on the other 2 lines. Nothing straight away but Neil had started on the feeder cast to the aerator and snared a bream straight away which was soon followed by a carp. It’s times like this that you start questioning your own approach. Should I have set up a feeder? No point worrying about it now though, Neil is a regular at the lake and has had his fair share of results there, so time to file that away for future reference and get on with fishing my own match.

I made the mistake of leaving the first couple of indications to let them develop………. they didn’t, so at the next dip a lift brought some resistance and a decent skimmer was soon in the net to get me off and running. I just kept feeding a pinch or two of mixed 4 and 6mm’s every minute or so and soon had my first carp in the net as well, nothing big at around 7lbs but it really scrapped well, staying deep and reluctant to come to the surface and it set the pattern for my match. I seem to get my fair share of draws next to Neil and it always makes for a good day as he likes a bit of banter and there’s always a few laughs to be had along the way.

Neil had definitely got off to the better start but I had the feeling that I was staying in touch over the first couple of hours with 4 more carp and another skimmer. John Bennett had strolled up to retrieve Ollie who was trying to cadge some luncheon meat from Neil while he was playing what looked like a decent fish that took him a bit of time to get to the net……

A cracking Mirror that looked a good 15lbs but rather disappointingly only showed as 12½lbs on the scales, obviously spawned out. Ade had picked up a few as well and in fact looking around the Big Lake everyone seemed to be getting a few at one time or another and one of those was Mat on peg 8 who seemed to be catching pretty regularly

I soon spotted Dave Moore, to be fair he’s a big lad and hard to miss, even more so in his fluorescent orange bib and brace and a quick chat soon revealed that he was suffering down on peg 40 getting blasted by the wind in his face without as much as a bite to show for his efforts so far.

I opted for a look at my left hand line with a banded 8mm on the hook and first put in the float just kept on going, the fish set off for the middle and put up dogged resistance before succumbing to the pressure, a nice common of 13½lbs, but I couldn’t tempt another bite from that line so opted to take a look down the slope by the bush. That produced a decent skimmer straight away followed by a common that made a bee-line for safety under my platform but I was lucky and managed to grab the line and pull it out from under there before it broke me and soon added it to my net.

Meanwhile Neil had broken his landing net handle returning a weigher, but luckily had a brand new spare in his holdall. The Minx however was struggling on peg 30, it hadn’t been fished on Friday night and it looked like the lack of feed previously was handicapping her as she still had nothing to show for her efforts today……

With nothing more to show from the edge of the bush it was back to straight out in front for me and things started to pick up from there on in as I started to put together a steady run of fish, mostly net fish but still decent weight builders. Meanwhile Neil had lost a big common right at the net that he’d played for ages after foul hooking it in the tail on his feeder rod, and then just to add further insult to injury had the thread fall off his new landing net handle. Luckily he managed to borrow another from Paul Jay who was at the lake.

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS rang round the lake as Gem finally had a carp to show for her efforts and this was swiftly followed by another, was she going to have a good end to her match? Opposite me on peg 14 Dai was starting to pick up some big weighers fishing tight down his right hand margin ……

…… but had a disaster when a big double that he was unhooking rolled in the landing net and with a big splash was back in the lake before he could weigh it.

The last hour saw my bites become very iffy and I bumped a few on the strike despite changing the hook although it didn’t seem to have lost it’s point. I did manage to put another 5 in the net though, and Neil reported the same, losing six fish on the trot before the All-Out sounded a 7pm. Neil felt I may have edged it, but I felt that he may have the advantage with more weighers on the board, Whichever way I felt it would be close as I reckoned on having around 120lbs. Dave Wall would be there or there abouts as well as he’d had a good second half tucked away on peg 22 and had a few weighers on the board. Ade would be in contention as well although he felt he’d had to many skimmers among his carp.

With the kit packed away and back in the car I said farewell to Neil, he had to leave early as he had somewhere to go, then it was time for the Weigh-In, all would be revealed.

Simon in A Section was first to weigh with 87lbs followed by Steve who’d finally caught late for 76¼lbs. Paul’s 43½lbs was followed by Dave M’s 51¼lbs so he’d got a few in the end. Nick W-P had 66lbs and Clive 94lbs but it was The Jinx who’d walked the section when his peg came to life late on giving him a weight of 167½lbs. Into the first part of B Section and Budgie’s 69¼lbs was soon eclipsed by Mat with 122lbs while Tony had suffered a day of total frustration for his 44¼lbs. Kevin had 52¼lbs while Fred had managed 71¼lbs from peg 13. Onto C Section and Dai recorded 89¼lbs missing out on a ‘Ton’ due to that big double escaping. Terry had 61lbs followed by Nick with 53lbs. Round to peg 22 and Dave Wall recorded his first Rolf’s ‘Ton’ with 107½lbs. Neil’s weight was 117½lbs and my weight showed how close it was with my 121¼lbs proving good enough to take the section. The final part of B Section saw Ade put another ‘Ton’ on the board with 105lbs, The Minx however was a little despondent with just 3 carp for 28½lbs leaving a lot of people very relieved. Last to weigh was Dave C who’s 69lbs brought matters to an end.

Back to the hut and the winner on the day was The Jinx himself, Mat taking second  while I’d taken third overall which meant that the section money was ours as well along with 3 Golden Nuggets for me.

Who’s got The Pink Hat for the next match? Well with no victims today it looks like The Minx will be wearing her own hat next time, but before anyone gets to cocky beware ………… I’m sure she’ll be looking for revenge next time out.

Overall Result

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 6	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	167lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 8	Mat Edwards	122lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 26	Peter Morton	121lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 24	Neil Riddy	117lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 22	Dave Wall(Guest)	107lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 28	Ade Williams	105lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 4	Clive Pritchard	94lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 14	Dai Thomas	89lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 34	Simon Mound	87lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 36	Steve Wilson	76lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 13	Fred Parker	71lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 7	Marcus Burgess	69lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 32	Dave Collier	69lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 2	Nick Watkins-Price	66lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 16	Terry Goff	61lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 18	Nick Williams	53lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 10	Kevin Loveland	52lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 40	Dave Moore	51lbs 04ozs
19th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts	44lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 38	Paul Roberts	43lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 30	Gem (The Minx) Doyle	28lbs 08ozs

  No names in Pink as nobody was “MINXED”  

A Section

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 6	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	167lbs 08ozs	1
2nd	Peg 4	Clive Pritchard	94lbs 00ozs	2
3rd	Peg 34	Simon Mound	87lbs 00ozs	3
4th	Peg 36	Steve Wilson	76lbs 12ozs	4
5th	Peg 2	Nick Watkins-Price	66lbs 00ozs	5
6th	Peg 40	Dave Moore	51lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 38	Paul Roberts	43lbs 08ozs	7

B Section

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 8	Mat Edwards	122lbs 00ozs	1
2nd	Peg 13	Fred Parker	71lbs 04ozs	2
3rd	Peg 7	Marcus Burgess	69lbs 04ozs	3
4th	Peg 32	Dave Collier	69lbs 00ozs	4
5th	Peg 10	Kevin Loveland	52lbs 04ozs	5
6th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts	44lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 30	Gem (The Minx) Doyle	28lbs 08ozs	7

C Section

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 26	Peter Morton	121lbs 04ozs	1
2nd	Peg 24	Neil Riddy	117lbs 08ozs	2
3rd	Peg 22	Dave Wall	107lbs 08ozs	Guest
4th	Peg 28	Ade Williams	105lbs 00ozs	3
5th	Peg 14	Dai Thomas	89lbs 12ozs	4
6th	Peg 16	Terry Goff	61lbs 00ozs	5
7th	Peg 18	Nick Williams	53lbs 00ozs	6