Alders Farm Fishery. Great Brickhill. Buckinghamshire. September 13th, 2012.

Marsh AC
Alders Farm Fishery

Once again I’m travelling up toward Milton Keynes to Alders Farm Fishery just outside the village of Great Brickhill. It’s for a Marsh AC match that’s been arranged by club member Keith Ashby who lives reasonably close to the fishery. Today is really just a friendly knock up though with a few of the venue regulars invited to make up the numbers today, but it’s a fantastic venue that’s capable of throwing up some mega match weights, so well worth taking the day off work for.

Living down in South London an early start was called for to avoid the London rush hour, so the alarm went off at some ungodly hour and with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee consumed, the car was loaded up in the dark and I was on my way by 5·30am. The plan worked a treat and gave me a clear run up the M1 and A5 meaning I pulled into the car park just after 7am. Trev’s van was already parked up and young Mark Quick has obviously been dropped off as he was sitting on his box surrounded by the rest of his kit in splendid isolation.

Dinah soon appeared and set up the dip so we could rinse our nets off and Trev staggered into view with a couple of gallons of maggots that he had to riddle off ready for the anglers today. With that done it was time to open the shop and we were soon chatting over the prospects for the day ahead as other anglers started to arrive including Keith, the organiser of todays match and pretty soon the banter was starting to flow back and forth. Anyway with some fishery pellets purchased my stomach was telling me it was time to make my way down to The Pumphouse for breakfast, so I collected my kit and headed off down the hill.

Dinah already had breakfast under way when I got there, in fact Kevin and Jean were already tucking in. A coffee and a full English soon had me ready to face the day ahead as the rest of todays anglers arrived. One of those was Mal Talbot who Trev describes as ‘Mad as a box of frogs‘ but he’s fished at the top level for many years and now helps out presenting the Alders Farm and GOT Baits video’s that Trev produces, so spends a fair bit of time at the fishery. Standing out on the veranda taking in the sunshine you could see that there were plenty of fish moving, an encouraging sign but with the recent colder nights I had a feeling that it could be a little harder than expected today.

Around about 9·30am Keith called everyone to order (no small task) and got the draw under way. Into the bag and peg 34 finds it’s way to me. I was more than happy with that as Vic had told me it was a good peg to draw.

So off to collect my kit and make the short trip to the peg. Kev was settling into peg 38 along with Dave on peg 36, while to my right I could see Mal on peg 32, so no pressure there then !!!

Peg 34 is a lovely looking peg that had a decent view over the rest of the lake, There’s a big bush overhanging the water to the left and a smaller one in the margin to the right. It’s quite shallow with a maximum of around 2 feet of water but that doesn’t normally have an adverse effect on the fishing.

I set up 3 identical rigs that were freshly tied, all 0·2g NG Springer Sampson Margin’s on on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 16 Kamasan B911X’s to finish them off that would be fished on a top 2 +1 at around 18 inches deep. Bait was simply 4mm fishery pellets that I damped down for feeding while hook baits were just hard 6mm’s along with corn and GOT Baits soft hookers as change bait.

With a bit of time before the All -In I strolled round for a chat with Mal and found him perched on his trusty red ASI making the most of the glorious sunshine ……

 and was soon joined by Dave and Kevin. After a while I left them chatting and made my way back to my peg for a quick check that everything was ready before we started.

 At 11am Keith called the All-In so I fed some pellet along the bush to my left and some pellet and corn into the right hand margin before shipping a banded pellet out to the bush. a couple of tentative dinks before the float vanished but the lift offered little resistance before a rudd surfaced and promptly fell of the hook, not the start that I was looking for, so I re-fed and dropped in again. This time the float just buried and a lot more resistance this time as a hooked carp tore off in the shallow water. I soon had it under control however and in the net, a 2½lb mirror to get me up and running. It was steady away from there on in if I’m honest, I wasn’t catching quickly but I did catch steadily, the only real problem was lost fish, but with hooked fish charging off when they’re hooked in shallow water it’s inevitable that you’ll lose a few if the hook hold isn’t spot on.

I could see that Mal appeared to be matching me fish for fish, but looking round the rest of the lake, although people were catching, it didn’t appear to be at the expected rate that the lake is capable of. Indeed after around an hour Dave appeared to see how I was doing and reckoned that he only had around 15lbs to show for his efforts.

I just kept feeding the two lines but concentrated on the left hand bush as I didn’t want to disturb the margin to early. After a couple of hours I had around 25 fish in the nets and could see that Vic over on peg 2 appeared to be putting a few together as well ……

I could hear Al over on peg 6 complaining that all he could find were small fish in the 1lb – 1½lb range, but knowing Al he was probably fibbing. Clive however seemed to be doing OK when my camera lens caught him in the act of landing a fish ……

My fish appeared to back off just before 1pm, so as is my custom I re-fed quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera to allow things to settle. Terry was tucked away on peg 29 and struggling to come to terms with it today and only taking the occasional fish ……

Keith was on peg 28 and with nobody on the next 3 pegs he was targeting the margin with corn, the fish were certainly there as he could see their tails waving at him, but getting them to take his bait was proving to be a frustrating exercise as they continued to ignore it in favour of the free offerings ……

As I made my way back Mal was still plugging away steadily taking a succession of fish in glorious sunshine, at least that’s the way it appeared ……

Returning to my peg it was now in the shade and with the breeze blowing onto my back I felt the need to put my fleece on. Back out with the bait and the fish had settled again and I took a look down the margin for the first time as I could see fish moving in and out of it. It did produce bites but the fish were much smaller than I had been taking from the bush so after around 30 minutes I reverted back to there.

With around 2 hours to go Kev was having a bit of a grueller on peg 38 as it just wasn’t producing for him today, but Dave started to catch at a better rate which cheered him up no end ……

Things had obviously picked up for Al as well as he was heard to ask Keith if the match could be extended for a bit longer, a request that Keith declined.

I managed to keep the fish coming steadily till the end of the match and by the time that Keith called the All-Out at 4pm I had 67 fish in my nets. Packing away my kit Mal appeared reckoning that I’d beaten him and shook my hand. I wasn’t so sure as it seemed to me that he’d been catching at a similar rate, but the scales would have the last say on that.

Trev had come down to start the weigh in on the pumphouse bank and as Dave had the club scales with him Keith started to weigh-in on our side. Kev had indeed had a frustrating day with just 28½lbs to show for his efforts. Dave’s peg had come good in the last couple of hours allowing him to put 126½lbs on the scales. At my peg my fish weighed 177½lbs and Mal was proved to be right when his fish came in at 119½lbs . Simon had quietly put together 74¼lbs from peg 30 while Terry’s fish registered 58½lbs. Finally Keith weighed in with a level 87lbs and with the weigh-in on our side concluded we made our way back to The Pumphouse for the results.

Trev had laid on Tea and Coffee and broken out the biscuits which was very welcome as the assembled anglers discussed their experiences of the day. Finally Keith had the results collated and was ready to announce them.
It turned out that my weight had been good enough for me to take the win today with Al taking second place and Vic taking third.

I’d just like to say a big Thank You to Keith for organising the match for us, and another Big Thank You to Dinah,Trev, and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, it’s hard to ask for more unless it can be moved closer to where I live.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 34	Peter Morton	177lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 6	Al Loader	147lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 2	Vic Nugent	146lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 10	Josh Blavins	136lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 36	Dave Collier	126lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 32	Mal Talbot	119lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 7	Troy Hillier	114lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 1	Charlie Lancaster	93lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 28	Keith Ashby	87lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 30	Simon Watkins	74lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 5	Mark Quick	69lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 8	Clive Pritchard	68lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 3	Pete Iles	65lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 29	Terry Goff	58lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 16	John Holdsworth	51lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 4	Martin Hucker	32lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 38	Kevin Loveland	28lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	19lbs 00ozs

 

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

Alders Farm Fishery. Great Brickhill. Buckinghamshire. October 5th, 2011.

Marsh AC
Alders Farm Fishery

Well today sees me and some other members of Marsh AC visiting Alders Farm Fishery just outside the village of Great Brickhill. It’s really nothing more than a friendly mid-week knock up that’s been arranged by club member Keith Ashby who lives reasonably close to the fishery. It’s a venue that’s capable of throwing up some mega match weights, so it will be interesting to see how we get on fishing the Match Lake today.

However that means an early start for me today to avoid as much weekday traffic as I can, so I’m up at silly O’clock and have the car loaded and ready to go in time to drop Maria off at work at 6am, then it’s a case of driving straight through Central London to get onto the M1, then onto the A5 to get to Alders Farm. This saw me pulling into the car park just before 9am along with Al and Keith P. We soon had our kit unloaded and with our nets dipped and feed pellet purchased from Gary who pointed us in the right direction and we made our way down to the pump house where Gwen had kindly opened up so we could get a pre match bacon sarnie and a cuppa that was much appreciated.

 Joining us today were Trev and Bert from GOT Baits along with Mick and John B who work with Keith. Standing outside on the patio you could see plenty of carp cruising around Peg 1 and a couple of crusts were eagerly devoured by them. Trev as usual was a mine of information for those that hadn’t fished the venue before. Unfortunately Simon phoned to say he’d had been delayed, so at 9·30am we went ahead with the draw and peg 1 was the one that ended up in my hand. Nice short walk then.

Unfortunately the weather had taken a bit of a turn for the worse after the glorious sunshine we’d had for the past few days with grey overcast skies and just the odd glimpse of sun along with a stiff wind blowing straight into the peg, but having been advised by Trev to stick to fishing top 2′s and 3′s hopefully that wouldn’t be to much of a problem. Jean provided a welcome cuppa so I set about sorting out my gear.

 I elected to keep it simple and set up just 3 identical rigs. these were all 0·2 NG Mk 2 Edger’s on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to size 14 Guru MWG’s. As it was just a friendly knock up bait was simply going to be the fishery 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm hard pellet for the hook, though Trev did give me some new 6mm hookers he’s working on to try as well.

Simon had arrived by now and Keith delayed the start to give him a chance to set up, so I took a stroll to chat with Al and Keith on pegs 2 & 3. Unfortunately over on the other side Dave had taken a tumble getting down to his peg but Trev and the rest of the lads on his side rallied round to check that he was OK. Al appeared to be well up for it today with visions of breaking his match PB today from what was a decent peg……

……… while Keith had been put under a bit of pressure from the Alders regulars among us as they were of the opinion that he’d drawn ‘The Flyer’ in Peg 3, though in Keith’s defence it should be noted that he doesn’t fish that many matches there, not that it seemed to make any difference to Trev, Vic or Bert.

Looking across I could see Keith P on Peg 28, another guest today taking advantage of a sunny interlude and apparently lost in thought, he’d never had a ‘Ton’ in a match, and was hoping that today would be the day. Trev has sorted him out with some advise on how to tackle the peg and even given him one of his own rigs so hopefully today would be the day……

So at 10·45 Keith called the All-In and this seemed to be the cue for the sun to vanish and the wind increase in my corner. A handful of pellet toward the pump house wall and another to the bush to my right and out with a banded 8mm to the bush. This led to a number of super fast bites which turned out to be from small Rudd trying to engulf the pellet, but they weren’t what I was after so I switched across toward the wall. Within a minute the float sailed away and soon the first Alders carp of the day was safely in the net, a Common of around 2lbs to get me off the mark. What I had hoped to do was alternate between the wall and the bush and take fish from both sides and then come back to a top 2 in the edges as the day wore on, but with the bush seeming to be solid with small Rudd I had to concentrate on the wall swim and I felt that slowed my catch rate down.

Meanwhile Simon opposite me was targeting the end of the bush on his left hand margin, however it was turning into a day of frustration for him which would end up costing him a damaged top kit and No4 section before the match was over ……

Steady away probably describes my progress, the wind gusting into the peg was the real problem as I was having to wait for lulls to feed as when it was gusting I couldn’t even throw 6mm’s 3 sections out!!! By around 1·30pm my calf was starting to ache, a legacy of pulling it at Rockells Farm, so I had a stroll up to see how Al and Keith were doing.
Al was going along steadily, feeding and fishing off the end of his nets, taking fish regularly and obviously on his way to a decent weight ……

Meanwhile Keith was targeting his right hand margin and although he was catching reasonably steadily felt that Al was pulling away from him ……

A quick chat with Kev revealed that he was enjoying his day and although his catch rate was nowhere near either Keith or Al’s he was regularly putting the odd fish in the net fishing down his right hand margin …

Back at my peg the bush was still solid with rudd, however I’d been feeding close in as well and felt it was time to take a look and see if I could pick up some bonus margin fish.
Indeed the fish were there, but they seemed to be much smaller fish around the 8-12oz mark, not quite what I’d planned so back to the wall swim. Thankfully this was still producing and I ended up fishing there for the rest of the match as it steadily produced fish right up to when Keith called the All-Out at 3·45pm. I’d ended up with 76 carp which I felt should give me somewhere around 150lbs.

As I was packing my kit away Kevin came round for the scales. He and John were planning to fish on after the match, so they were going to start our half of the weigh-in straight away. I soon caught up with them, JohnB had a day fishing the method on Peg 9 and had 34½lbs. Next up was Vic who’d made full use of his knowledge of the water to put an excellent 310lbs on the scales. John was next with 136½lbs and Kevin 74½lbs. Keith had 199¼lbs just short of a ‘Double Ton’. Al had a fantastic day shattering his best ever match weight with 343lbs.

  However Alders operates a strict 100lbs per net limit and he was over on all 3 nets resulting in a disqualification. Finally my fish took the scales round to 176¼lbs.

With our part of the Weigh-In completed we assembled back at the pump house for the results. Gwen had kindly returned and opened it up and had left us a tin of cakes and tea and coffee, an unexpected treat and greatly appreciated. Keith collated the final results and as a result of Al’s misfortune it meant that Trevor took the honours on the day with 333¼lbs while Vic was second and Bert’s weight of 229lbs taking third so a clean sweep for the GOT Bait lads. A hard lesson for Al as he’d never caught anything close to that weight of fish before, but a mistake I’m sure he won’t repeat again. Keith P was well made up however as his weight of 186¼lbs had enabled him to record his first ever match ‘Ton’.

Overall a very enjoyable day and Thanks to Keith for organising it today, Alders Farm is a very special fishery that unfortunately attracts some unwarranted criticism for the weights it produces, however the most noticeable thing is that while a lot of waters are way down on their normal levels this year Alders has maintained its normal levels as it’s spring fed and it’s this that allows it to sustain the large head of fish and indeed allows them to breed successfully. Dinah and Gary have a quality, well managed fishery in beautiful surroundings that I’m sure Marsh AC and its members will be returning to in the future. Just a pity that it’s not a bit closer to home for me, as I could see myself becoming a regular there with the other lakes and facilities that the fishery has on offer.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 2	Al Loader	*343lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 32	Trevor Price	333lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 7	Vic Nugent	310lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 30	Bert Gibbs	229lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 3	Keith Ashby	199lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 28	Keith Powell	186lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 1	Peter Morton	176lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 36	Mick Wright	160lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 34	Clive Pritchard	145lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 29	Dave Collier	143lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 5	John Holdsworth	136lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 38	Simon Watkins	84lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 4	Kevin Loveland	74lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 9	John Button	34lbs 08ozs

* Alders operates a strict 100lbs per net rule in matches, and unfortunately Al was over on all 3 of his nets resulting in a disqualification.