Alders Farm Fishery, Great Brickhill, Buckinghamshire.

Marsh AC club match.
Ash Lake.


Well after the JJL Match at Alders Farm yesterday my old club (Marsh AC) had had a match booked on Ash Lake for today. Well it would have been rude not to stay over and fish it as a guest so that I could catch up with some of the lads especially as Keith had kindly offered to put me up overnight. So after a good nights sleep it was good to wake up to a fresh cup of coffee before we set off in Keith's car for the quick 15 minute trip back to Alders.

There the old faces were assembling along with a few new faces who have joined since I left along with another couple of guests, Barry and Dave Pontin who had been at Alders yesterday as well.
All I had to do was put my waterproofs on and pick up another couple of bags of pellet along with a breakfast ticket from Trevor in the shop as I'd left all my gear at the Pumphouse Café overnight.

So a leisurely stroll down the hill to the Café and I have to say that Ash Lake looked spot on, but it had fished hard yesterday and with all the rain and a forcast of more to come I felt it would be trickier today than a lot believed. Anyway into the Pumphouse where we were greeted by Charlotte, Sophie and Debbie who sorted us out with one of their excellent breakfasts as per usual.




Of course Mr Chairman aka Dave the fish was soon after collecting the monies while Keith sorted the pegs for the draw. Now on my many visits to Alders fishing Ash lake it's very rare that I draw one of the so called dolly pegs on the Café bank, normally I end up walking halfway round the lake before finding my peg, so I was more than happy to pull peg 5 out of the bag today. Ideally I would have liked either 1 or 2 which really looked bob on but Simon had 1 and Mick peg 2. Tony was back home on peg 3 ( if I drew pegs 3 and 4 with the regularity that Tony does I'd be embarrassed) Mr Chairman was to my left on 6 and Keith on 7.




Set up was going to be nice and simple today as there was nothing really on the outcome. The Marsh matches are really little more than a social with a weigh-in at the end with the only 'winnings' being £10 if you win your section, it's more about the bragging rights within the club. So 3 top kits containing NG red amber core all rigged up with 0·4g floats on 0·17 n-gauge to a 0·15 hooklength ending in a size 16 B911x to cover the margin and 5mtr line and as an afterthought I pulled out my Mach 3 feeder rod as it was still set up in its ready sleeve from yesterday. Bait was going to be banded 6mm pellets + some red maggots left over from yesterday while feed was just dampened 4mm fishery pellets.

So All-In and a good handful of pellet down the left edge and a pot out to the 5mtr line followed by a banded 6mm at dead depth out to 5mtrs. Normally I would expect an almost instant response but it wasn't to be today. After around 10 minutes of working the rig the float finally buried, this was followed by a brief scrap before the rig came flying back with a scale embedded on the hook, was this the start of having to build a jigsaw fish on my sidetray? 5 minutes later and a more positive sign as I connected with a feisty little 2 pounder that was soon in the net to get me up and running.

The problem was that things never kicked on for me from there. I set up another spot at 5mtrs but despite rotating between the two 5mtr lines and the edge I just couldn't put a run of fish together. Keith had had a decent start but after an hour he'd had to go long to stay in touch but unfortunately for him it seemed to result in an increased number of foul hooked fish that he wasn't able to get out. The man in the pound seats however was Mick on peg 2, ticking along nicely and steadily adding fish to his nets.......




For me it seemed that everything was happening at half pace and in all honesty I feel with hindsight that I tried to force it and overfed on the day. I had one look on the feeder to the island which produced an instant 3 pounder but another 10 casts didn't produce as much as a tap so that was sacked off.

By about 2pm it was time for a stroll with the camera. Simon was beating himself up on peg 1 with fish in front of him but apparently reluctant to feed........




Mick was sailing along and reckoned he'd lost count of how many he'd caught, talk about rubbing it in, while tucked away on Peg 3 Tony reckoned he was struggling but that grin on his face said otherwise..........




Dave to my left had swopped over to maggot on the hook and had taken a run of skimmers, not quite what he was after but better than watching a stationary float, while Keith had moved out onto a longer line and was still putting a few together........




and it seemed that John over on peg 19 was finally found a few fish..........




but the man to watch was Gino on end peg 21 who appeared to be building momentum as the match progressed........




Well the stroll was soon curtailed as the rain set in for the rest of the day. To be honest it was the last thing most needed at that stage and I think it drained the motivation from a few.
I continued to put a few together in one's and two's but still couldn't get a run going and that was it for the rest of the match apart from poor Chris on peg 4 having a top 3 ripped from his hand by a hungry carp. Fortunately I was on hand with my feeder rod and managed to retrieve it on just my second cast, though the fish had come off.

Anyway the All-out was called followed by a clap of thunder as the rain intensified. The weigh in was a little quicker than usual at Alders due to the lower weights than expected and yielded the following results.




Looking back on it now I think I approached it in too positive a fashion given the amount of cold water and pressure the venue had over the previous few days and that maybe I should have kindered micro's and fished expanders, all ifs and buts I know, but every day is a learning day.
Anyway Thank You to the club for allowing me to join them on the day, Apologies to Dave C (Mr Chairman) for beating him off the next peg. A big Thank You to Keith for putting me up overnight and to all the staff at Alders Farm who make every visit to their superb fishery a pleasure.

Joseph James Law Corporate Fishing Day ll

Last year with the inauguration of the Joseph James Law Corporate Fishing Day Maggotdrowning.com had stepped into the breech at the last minute to field a 5 man team after one of the original teams had dropped out and by way of a Thank You the boss of JJL (Andrew Settle) had personally guaranteed that we would have a place for the next event. Well the invitation duly arrived and Dave set about sorting out a team for the event. Unfortunately due to very unfortunate circumstances Dave had to step aside meaning that I found myself in the position of Team Captain, however with Clive able to step in for Dave we soon had a team assembled consisting of myself, Adam Daniells (dumdum) Keith Ashby (Gandhi) Dave Pontin (davered5) and Clive, and with all of us being familiar with Alders Farm feeling we could give it a decent shot on the day.

So that's how I found myself drinking a cup of coffee at 4am on the friday morning before loading up the car and making the 140 mile trip from just outside Barnsley down the M1 to the fishery at Alders Farm. It was a pretty good trip down with just the one stop for an exorbitantly priced cup of coffee before pulling into the fishery car park at around 7·30am. All the Team were there including Barry (Boggis51) who had offered to be our bank runner and steward for the day.

First things first, so our MD's Hoodies were handed out so that the others knew who to fear and with that done we made our way to the shop to pick up our bait and get our nets dipped where we were warmly welcomed by Andrew and Natalie from JJL. From there it was down to the Pumphouse Café where the staff (Charlotte, Sophie and Debbie) coped manfully providing a seemingly endless stream of bacon, sausage and egg rolls along with tea and coffee to feed the assembled anglers and helpers on the day and this was where we got some idea of the quality of anglers we were facing today with teams from JJL, BAE, MFS, Drennan Oxford, Drennan International, Garbolino, Matrix, Preston, Mosella, Colmic and a Mallory Park select team, nearly all containing some very experienced lads including Internationals and Fishomania winners amongst them. This was followed by team registration and a team photo to prove to everyone what a fine body of men had been assembled to represent Maggotdrowning.com.

Adam,Dave, Keith, Peter, Clive.

With that out of the way it was time for me to dip my hand into the dreaded bucket for the team draw, the result of which resulted in the following pegs for us......

Adam Peg 23 on Ash
Dave Peg 7 on Ash
Peter Peg 5 on Oak
Keith Peg 8 on Pines
Clive Peg 15 on Pines


Peg 5 Oak Lake.


So with the match being fished from 11am - 4pm we wished each other well and made our way to our alloted pegs. Peg 5 on Oak lake was a nice short stroll for me situated in the right hand corner by the dam wall but was the one unknown quantity on the day as it's actually the 'Specimen Lake' at Alders Farm and doesn't get match fished. What it does have however is Carp to 37lbs present and quite a few Perch. The pegs are set up for the specimen guys on Oak, so it took a while longer to get my box set up comfortably and with a bit of sun and the wind blowing towards my corner I have to say that I fancied my chances for a few fish if they co-operated. With very limited knowledge of the lake I was going to keep things as simple as possible today and set up a Shakespeare Mach3 11ft medium feeder with a small Guru inline hybrid feeder with a size 14 b911 on a 4" 0·19 N-Gauge hooklink, bait would be 6 and 8mm banded pellet with soaked 4mm fishery pellet for feed. I just set up 3 top kits for the pole all of which were for the 5mtr line, 2 with NG red amber core and one with the green, floats were all hand made pencils by Geoff Palmer, 2 were 0·5's on 0·19 with a 0·17 hooklength to a 16B911 and an 0·4 on 0·17 with a 0·13 to a 18 B911, bait would be banded pellet or red maggot to target the perch with 4mm pellet for feed.

So 11am and it's All-In. A couple of pots of pellet mixed with a few red maggots on my 5mtr line and straight out with the lighter pole rig and a maggot to target a perch. Within around 20 minutes I'd put together around half a dozen perch to avoid a blank and avoid the dreaded DNW, so time for the feeder cast to within about 2ft of the reeds that line the dam wall. A little awkward to set the rod owing to a large sunken branch to my left with smaller branches sticking clear of the water but do-able. About 15 minutes later after about half a dozen casts the tip rattled round and I was briefly connected to something large and angry before the feeder flew back, a straightened 911 was the culprit so it was replaced with a 911X. 10 minutes later it rattled off again and this time I was firmly connected and after a bit of a tussle a lovely double figure Common was safely in the net meaning I had to call for the scales as the fishery had asked for all fish of 10lbs+ that were caught on Oak Lake to be weighed and returned and not kept in keepnets. 12½lbs was the weight recorded and it was back to business.

Barry had been keeping an eye on things around the lakes and returned with news that while Adam appeared to be going along nicely, Dave was having a bit of a grueller and it didn't appear to be much better up on Pines where Clive had a couple but Keith was having a real struggle.


Keith


Clive


Unfortunately by then the sun had vanished to be replaced with rain that would continue off and on for the rest of the match. Over the course of the next 90 minutes I managed another 4 carp, all smaller that the first one but very welcome none the less. One further bite followed on the feeder but unfortunately it kited left and snagged me in some roots resulting in both a lost fish and end tackle. The next couple of hours resulted in absolutely nothing and chatting to Barry it was obvious that a lot of anglers were struggling on all three lakes as a result of the pressure and a lot of colder water entering the lakes over the previous couple of days. With 20 minutes to go I picked up a top 2 and stuck a maggot on to try for a few last minute perch only to see the elastic stream out before pinging back with a largish scale embedded on the hook as the heavens opened once more. It was obviously a sign as I only managed another couple of small Perch before the All-Out sounded at 4pm. Now while fishing in the rain doesn't bother me I really hate packing my kit away in the rain, so I was glad to see the scales appear and my 4 small carp and handful of perch gave me a weight of 30lbs 14ozs for 6th in section and 6 points and I had to be happy with that meaning I had beaten anglers from Preston, BAE, Drennan Oxford, Drennan International, Colmic and Garbolino. The chap from BAE on the next peg had the dreaded DNW while Darren Cox had 14½lbs of perch. Andy Kinder fishing for Mallory park romped our Lake with 116lbs 13ozs

So with the kit packed away it was back to the Pumphouse Café for an after match buffet and presentation and a catch up with the rest of the team. Adam had done really well with a Ton+ to finish 2nd in Section while Dave had suffered a grueller recording just 41lbs and last in section. Keith had also had a grueller on Pines, 12lbs meaning he was last in section while Clive had managed a creditable 26lbs for 7th in his section. The net result of all this meant that we recorded 39 points for 10th overall. As always the staff in the Café had laid on a fantastic buffet for everyone after the match and it went down very well with everyone.

Soon it was presentation time with 3rd place going to the teams from Drennan International and Mosella both on 27 points. Runners up went to the Joseph James Law select team with 25 points.......




and the Winners on the day, taking away a tidy £1000 were the Mallory Park select team with just 15 points.




Finally I'll just finish this with a few words of Thanks. Firstly to Andrew Settle and all at Joseph James Law for creating this event which it's been our pleasure to fish, and to all his staff that were present helping out at the event, providing us all with snacks and refreshments brought to our pegs throughout the day with a smile despite the horrid weather, To Lewis Monk and Trevor Price and all the family and Staff at Alders Farm Fishery for allowing us to use and enjoy such a fantastic Fishery. All the volunteers who helped out with the stewarding on the day, much appreciated by all. Tom Scholey at Catch More Media for capturing the day in pictures and video and finally to Dave Webster who created Maggotdrowning.com and it's forum nearly 17 years ago and it's members who through their contributions made it possible for us as a team to represent you, Thank You.


The Cast of this tale