Monk Lakes. Match Lakes 1 & 3. August 2nd, 2008.

The Southern Intersite Match.

A nice smooth run saw me pulling into the car park at Monk Lakes at around 8am. I’m fishing for the Maggotdrowning.com team today in The Southern Intersite Match. The Intersite matches were originally conceived as friendly get-togethers where members of the various angling forums could meet and put faces to names from the various forums and enjoy a light hearted day out at the same time. However there’s quite a competitive element to these matches nowadays though the Maggotdrowning ethos is still to enjoy ourselves and enjoy the day without winning.

By 9am all the teams were assembled for the draw, with only the Total Fishing team being an angler short. Our team for the day was Nick Gilbert(captain). Matt Nutt, Gary Thorpe, Matt Love, Vince Gould, Paul East, Bill Gibbins, Clive Pritchard, Trevor Little and Peter Morton(myself). We were fishing Match Lakes 1 & 3 today and my draw gave me peg 112 at the end of the causeway by the aerators on Lake 3. Settling in to my peg i fancied it for a decent days fishing as I had a vacant peg to my left and the wind off my back. I had Ant Sparrow(antmusic) of Total Fishing for company behind me on 113, the other aerator peg and looking across I could see Fred Parker(milo) from TalkAngling and Vince to his right.

I set up 4 top kits so that I was covered to fish the flow and back eddy caused by the aerator to my right, plus a margin and an up in the water rig. I also set up my pellet waggler as i had it with me in its ready sleeve. Feed was a mix of 4, 6 and 8mm pellets with various pellets for hookbait.

11am and the all in and I fed a handful of pellet at 8mtrs on the edge of the flow and followed it out with the rig with a banded 8mm pellet on the hook set just to trip bottom. Almost straight away the float shot under and after a spirited fight I slid the net under a Barbel of around 2lbs and followed this with 2 more in the next 2 put ins.

 Unfortunately it didn’t last, as for the next half hour I was plagued with a series of fast un-hittable bites that despite varying rigs and baits I just couldn’t connect with. The threatened rain also arrived and while not heavy was enough to be annoying.
Upping the feed I finally got a decent bite and gratefully slid the net under the culprit, a nice Mirror Carp of around 3 lbs. By keeping the feed going in I was getting more positive bites from the Carp and after a couple of hours I estimated that I probably had around 30lbs in the net.

Looking across I could see that Fred was concentrating on his margin swim and it appeared to be producing the goods for him……..

My day was steady, I was getting 2 or 3 Carp but then suffering blank spells before the Carp returned. I kept taking a look at my margin swims that I had been steadily feeding from the off but never once got a bite from them. Vince seemed to be having a bit of a struggle too and was definitely falling behind Fred, as it appeared that the only line he could find a fish on was at 7mtrs straight out in front……

At least the sun came through in the later stages of the match making things a bit more comfortable for all concerned. I managed to keep the Carp coming in the final stages and had the feeling that it was close between myself and Ant but couldn’t really see the other anglers in my section as there’s plenty of vegetation that’s grown up between the pegs…………

4pm and the all out was called, and I felt I had 75-80lbs in my nets and while I’d enjoyed my day, felt I should have had more but for the blank spells.

Come the weigh in and my net came to 85¼lbs which only proved to be good enough for 3rd in section and 2 points with Dave Churchward of Angling Forums taking the section and the match with 147¼lbs.
Back for the results and it was obvious that Lake 3 had been the one to be on, with Lake 1 not fishing up to expectations and overall the Maggotdrowning Team finishing 3rd on the day.

Congratulations to Angling Forums for their win in the day and a big Thank You to Vince for organising the match with his usual efficiency. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it enough to do it all again next year.

Angling Forums	34 points
Total Fishing	27 points
Maggotdrowning.com	22 points
Talk Angling	16 points

Peg	Angler	Team	Weight	Points
		Section1
Peg 2	Jeff Driscoll	TA	21lbs 04ozs	2
Peg 3	Nick Gilbert	MD	37lbs 00ozs	3
Peg 5	Andy Gregory	TF	15lbs 05ozs	1
Peg 7	Dave Pearson	AF	49lbs 01ozs	4
		Section 2
Peg 9	M Wright	TA	6lbs 08ozs	1
Peg 11	Gary Thorpe	MD	7lbs 10ozs	2
Peg 13	Lindsay Scott	TF	19lbs 00ozs	4
Peg 15	Mark Hathaway	AF	17lbs 10ozs	3
		Section3
Peg 17	Paul Law	TA	36lbs 10ozs	2
Peg 19	Matt Love	MD	48lbs 08ozs	3
Peg 21	Johnny Beaton	TF	28lbs 10ozs	1
Peg 22	Mark Smith	AF	63lbs 06ozs	4
		Section 4
Peg 23	Ron Byus	TA	42lbs 00ozs	1
Peg 24	Matt Nutt	MD	48lbs 08ozs	2
Peg 26	Chris Martin	TF	86lbs 00ozs	4
Peg 28	Tony Curd	AF	62lbs 08ozs	3
		Section 5
Peg 30	Lance Glover	TA	21lbs 08ozs	1
Peg 32	Bill Gibbins	MD	23lbs 00ozs	2
Peg 34	Tim Suttle	TF	26lbs 08ozs	3
Peg 36	R Graves	AF	58lbs 04ozs	4
		Section 6
Peg 38	Frank Wright	TA	8lbs 08ozs	1
Peg 40	Clive Pritchard	MD	55lbs 02ozs	2
Peg 42	Colin Forsdyke	TF	75lbs 04ozs	4
Peg 44	J Holt	AF	66lbs 08ozs	3
		Section7
Peg 92	Fred Parker	TA	108lbs 08ozs	4
Peg 94	Vince Gould	MD	34lbs 10ozs	1
Peg 96	Russell Grimes	TF	77lbs 12ozs	3
Peg 98	J Swann	AF	66lbs 00ozs	2
		Section 8
Peg 100	R Lucas	TA	47lbs 08ozs	1
Peg 104	Paul East	MD	50lbs 00ozs	2
Peg 106	Dave A T	TF	94lbs 04ozs	4
Peg 108	M Page	AF	61lbs 04ozs	3
		Section 9
Peg 110	Dell Smith	TA	45lbs 00ozs	1
Peg 112	Peter Morton	MD	85lbs 04ozs	2
Peg 113	Ant Sparrow	TF	88lbs 00ozs	3
Peg 115	Dave Churchward	AF	147lbs 04ozs	4
		Section 10
Peg 117	Ian Hornby	TA	106lbs 12ozs	2
Peg 119	Trevor Little	MD	112lbs 00ozs	3
Peg 121		TF		0
Peg 123	Stu Wilson	AF	117lbs 08ozs	4

Monk Lakes. Match Lakes 1 & 3. April 28th, 2007.

Disabled Angler.co.uk
Charities Championship Match.

Well today was the day for the 2nd qualifying match for the Disabled Angler.Co.Uk Charities Championship.
A nice smooth run down to Monk Lakes saw me pulling into the car park around 7·45am soon to be followed by Paul East (NoMoreLongWalks) A quick look at the lakes confirmed it would be windy as usual and with nothing more to be learnt we adjourned for breakfast.

After a while the usual suspects started to arrive, Vince armed with the reams of paperwork that accompany him when he organises a match. Dirk and Craig who he’d dragged along for company. Wayne Panting with his helper Rob Panding, who would also be fishing today. Young Sven for his annual outing onto the match circuit and Clive seeking some respite from his recent gruellers at Rolf’s. Dirk and Craig then set about parting the assembled anglers from a few more with the offer of raffle tickets and a chance in the guess the weight competition.

Draw time saw 39 anglers booked in, mostly lads hoping to get an insight on the venue before next weeks Fishomania qualifier, meaning every other peg was left out on the 2 lakes. Myself(peg24), Dirk(peg22), Paul (peg20)and Vince(peg16) drawn almost together on the causeway of Lake 1 with Sven opposite me on the far bank leading to a £1 side bet mini-match being hastily agreed.

Setting up I opted for the pole, finding a comfy 5ft at 11mtrs and a couple of feet in the margin on either side. I’d taken a waggler rod with the intention of fishing the pellet waggler, but the wind from left to right made it a non starter IMO, though the angler on the peg to my right went with it, so I would be able to judge whether I had made the right decision.

11am and all-in with 2 large pots of GOT 4mm sinking pellet and a few grains of corn going in at 11mtrs and a big handful going into both margins. Bait for the day was GOT 6mm expanders and their 6mm soft hookers in both catmeat and liver flavour.

A small Tench and an F1 in the 1st couple of put ins was a nice start but the wind was making presentation hard.
I stuck at it for about 30mins before having a look on the inside with a top2 which produced a Skimmer straight away.

Paul behind me was bemoaning the fact that he couldn’t catch up in the water regardless of what he tried, but it was probably due to the fact that he had come straight from a night shift and was cream crackered.

Dirk was enjoying himself as usual putting more than a few fish into the net and so he should have been, seeing as I had drawn his peg for him, his usual flyer of an end peg right next to the aerators'.

Over on the other side Sven seemed happy enough even though from what I could see sport appeared to be pretty slow ……
…………. he wasn’t alone in this however as from what I could see nobody was exactly taking the place apart.

Vince appeared to be struggling with trying to decide which was his best line to fish, though he did have me worried for a while when he came over with a ball of paste for me to try, saying that he was starting to bag a few carp on it ( you have to have fished with Vince to know that “bagging” is a relative term where he’s concerned)
Around 1·30 Dave (The Fish) Collier put in an appearance and very kindly got the teas in for us allowing us to go through to the end at 4pm. I’d had a steady match catching pretty regularly with a real mixture of fish… F1′s, Carp, Barbel, Ide, Tench (both green and golden), Skimmers and even a solitary Perch making up my net that I guessed went over 50lbs but which I knew wasn’t going to be good enough.

Packing up while we waited for the scales was when disaster struck!!!!!! Leaning across my box to lift up the footplate the box tipped and three of my drawers went flying into the swim. Much hilarity ensued as my fellow anglers offered their sympathy as I delved around up to my armpits retrieving spools of line, disgorgers and all the various bit’s and bobs that had come to inhabit those draws over the years.

Scales time and Vince managed a mid thirties weight, while Paul tipped back for a DNW. Dirk took the coin with 72lbs with me only managing 66lbs and Sven a meagre 10lbs, not that he was gloating or anything when he got his hands on our coins…

Back to the car park for the results and it was soon apparent that the lakes had fished hard on the day, though a total of 1871lbs 12ozs was put on the scales, averaging out at just under 48lbs per man.

Raffle done and out of the way it was result time, and firstly the section winners received their coin……

Section A	peg 18	J Young	83lb 08oz
Section B	peg 32	B Maylyn	83lb 08oz
Section C	peg 108	C Pritchard	55lb 00oz
Section D	peg 132	B Ramsden	68lb 12oz

In overall 3rd place was A Willet with 94lbs from peg 12 on Lake 1………


Takingthe runners-up spot with 97lbs 1oz from peg 92 on Lake 3 was Gary Cross………

In 1st place with the only Ton-up weight of the day of 122lbs from peg 112 on Lake 3 was Rob Panding……
Finally just a word of Thanks to Vince for the bulk of the organisation, and a further word of thanks to all the Anglers that supported the day allowing us to add a further £391 to the total for the year. Looking forward to next year already.

1st	R Panding	122lbs 00ozs
2nd	G Cross	97lbs 01ozs
3rd	A Willet	94lbs 00ozs
4th	J Young	83lbs 08ozs
5th	B Malyn	83lbs 08ozs
6th	D Williams	72lbs 00ozs
7th	J Clark	68lbs 12ozs
8th	T Bailey	68lbs 04ozs
9th	P Morton	66lbs 00ozs
10th	A Cumming	63lbs 12ozs
11th	T Clark	60lbs 00ozs
12th	S Joy	56lbs 12ozs
13th	C Pritchard	55lbs 00ozs
14th	G Barbata	54lbs 10ozs
15th	D Wheeler	51lbs 04ozs
16th	A Milsom	50lbs 12ozs
17th	S Sharpe	50lbs 08ozs
18th	K Borer	48lbs 12ozs
19th	J Hague	47lbs 12ozs
20th	M Dowling	47lbs 04ozs
21st	S Pearson	46lbs 12ozs
22nd	T Baker	45lbs 09ozs
23rd	D Ward	44lbs 12ozs
24th	A Walker	42lbs 12ozs
25th	A Szekeres	41lbs 04ozs
26th	J Webber	38lbs 08ozs
27th	W Panting	37lbs 12ozs
28th	W Taylor	36lbs 08ozs
29th	I Carley	36lbs 00ozs
30th	I Webber	35lbs 08ozs
31st	V Gould	35lbs 06ozs
32nd	M Collins	34lbs 08ozs
33rd	D Sage	33lbs 04ozs
34th	A Piper	32lbs 02ozs
35th	C Hunt	24lbs 00ozs
36th	I Covey	21lbs 00ozs
37th	S Castle	10lbs 00ozs
38th=	M Leask	DNW
38th=	P East	DNW

A very pleasant and unexpected aside to this match was both Vince and I being presented at the end with a small token of their appreciation from Disabled-Angler.co.uk for our efforts in putting the match together.