Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir & Nick’s Lake. August 30th-31st, 2003.

Well this weekend saw me spending a good part of my time at Hartleylands Fishery................

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was at the invitation of Dave (Dave the Fish), His club Marsh AC had booked the Reservoir for one of their club matches and as all the pegs weren't taken, Steve (beebs) Jason (NofinPhish) and Myself recieved an invitation to join them.
Assembling in the car park for an 8.30am draw, it was nice to meet John (tutu) and Colin who had accompanied Dave to the Welsh Fish-in. Also present, though in a working capacity was Vince (vg1037) the Bailiff at Hartleylands. 

I drew in the high 30's and arrived at my swim to find the wind blowing in my face at what appeared to be the only shady peg on the whole reservoir, so while others sat around in tee shirts and shorts I was in a bib and brace and a fleece ! 

I started on the pole line at about 10mtrs fishing pellet and managed to winkle out 5 skimmers and a small carp before the wind made presentation too awkward. Had I not been a guest I would have gone straight onto the method feeder as this is a banker for a few Carp, but sitting in my carryall was a ball of paste. Now paste fishing is not one of my strengths, but having read a few of Malc's exploits in his forum reports it's a bait that I'm determined to get to grips with, so it was out with my margin pole and having tied a couple of rigs up I set about giving it a go.

Paste in the margin.......
Well lets just say that it was fun, trying to condition myself not to strike every dip and tremor of the float, and towards the end of the afternoon having tried endless variations of rigs I felt as if I was coming to terms with it and a few decent fish had ended up in the net . 
4pm and time for the weigh in and with Vince in charge we worked our way around the lake. Dave had set the pace with a 40lb bag and everyone appeared to have had a few.

Nice one for Dave........
Colin put just over 51lbs on the scales, all caught on the Method, which was to prove the winning weight. Steve had contented himself with using the day to practice his silver fish approach in readiness for the intersite match in a couple of weeks, and definitely caught more fish than anyone for a bag in the teens.


The Weigh-in......

Jason proved to be the dark horse, in what he professed to be his first ever fishing match, and duly put 49lbs on the scales for 2nd place. Well done Jason (I may have to rethink the team).
Last but one to weigh was me and I was pleasantly surprised to see the needle creep round to 47lbs, nearly all paste caught. 
So thanks to Dave and the members of Marsh AC for a very pleasant day as their guest. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, I certainly did.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Colin Sharrard	51lbs 04ozs
2nd	Jason Davies      (Guest)	48lbs 06ozs
3rd	Peter Morton     (Guest)	47lbs 00ozs
4th	Dave Collier	41lbs 12ozs
5th	Tony Roberts	30lbs 08ozs
6th	Judy Hermite	29lbs 12ozs
7th	Mike Develin	28lbs 12ozs
8th	Kevin Loveland	23lbs 08ozs
9th	Dave Wormall	22lbs 14ozs
10th=	Steve Wormall	19lbs 04ozs
10th=	John Holdsworth	19lbs 04ozs
12th	Martin Hucker	18lbs 00ozs
13th	Steve Sullivan   (Guest)	12lbs 08ozs
14th	Jim Boase	10lbs 04ozs
15th	Roger Noakes	10lbs 03ozs
16th	Chris Newton	7lbs 08ozs
17th	Tim Ford	7lbs 06ozs
18th	Rod Turner	5lbs 12ozs

Hawthorne AC club match.

So Sunday morning and I'm in the car park once more, this time for a Hawthorne AC match on Nick's Lake, it's one of 3 new lakes that have just been opened at Hartleylands and was only stocked with fingerling Carp last November, but these fish already weigh an average of 6ozs. 
A low turnout of only 15 anglers meant that we only put the even numbered pegs into the drawbag to give everyone a bit of room and peg 10 was mine. It was flat calm as we set up but as soon as the whistle blew so did the wind

Peg 10..........

Now Vince had warned me that the fish tend to follow the wind, so you can imagine my joy to find the wind blowing from behind me and blowing my fish away.
I wish I could say that I fished a blinder, but I wasted far too much time on a pellet line scratching for bites. I finally started to get a few at 12mtrs to maggot, but it was to little to late. I managed to put 15lbs 6ozs on the scales for 6th, but only 17lbs was needed for 2nd. At least I got another 3 points for the fishing race, having caught a few small Ghosties.


Mint little Ghostie....
Mike Vincent ran away with it, with 28lbs 4ozs for 1st. Everyone caught though and in a couple of seasons time this is going to be an awesome match venue.
 So that was my weekend - One fishery but two very different lakes and mixed fortunes.