Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2. June 21st, 2014.

Marsh AC club match.

Well it was back on the bankside for me today for my first match for 11 months. It's no secret that I'd lost my mojo when it comes to fishing recently, my only outing last year being 3 days at Rolf's Lake for Dave Collier's Friday Invitation Match and The Maggotdrowning.com Pairs weekend. However a couple of weeks ago Al invited me to guest on this match at Monk Lakes and I decided to take him up on his kind offer.

 What is it that they say? Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance, well my preparation consisted of a quick message to Mick McMillan on FaceBook to find out the score on the venue as it was 2 years since I'd last fished there and renewing my rod license on line at 10 pm the previous night Tackle prep amounted to removing two top kits from my rod bag that I'd broken at Rolf's last year, Hardly ideal to say the least. There must have been some unconscious anticipation however as I woke up before my alarm clock went off on Saturday. Sunshine and the promise of a warm day ahead greeted me as I took a peek through the curtains. A cup of coffee kick started the old grey matter and meant that I was ready and waiting downstairs at 6·15 when Al arrived to pick me up.

With my kit loaded up the first port of call was The Oakdene Café where I treated Al to breakfast and we were joined by Simon and Gino. Keith Powell was going to join us but a phone call confirmed that he was feeling a bit delicate this morning, so he was now going to meet us at the draw. So with breakfast taken care of it was off to Monks, though a road closure and subsequent diversion meant that it was just after 8·30 when we arrived at the lakes.




I have to say that it was nice to receive such a hearty welcome back after my absence of 21 months since I last fished with the club and the subsequent banter soon had me feeling like I'd never been away. Anyway with money paid to Tony in Dave's absence (a victim of "ManFlu" on his return from a recent cruise) it was time to dip into the draw bag. Peg 67 was my destination today, an end peg at the far end of the spit. I couldn't complain at that. Tony (as Dave C's stand in) certainly had some of his luck as peg 45 (the Barbel flyer) was the last peg left in the bag for him.So off to the lake with our kit and over the bridge to the spit and I found Keith on peg 77.....



.......and Clive on peg 56.......

both very good pegs capable of throwing up a winning bag on the day. A few of the lads on the left hand bank had to move up one peg as Gino who had draw peg 66 found it unfishable as the platform had collapsed meaning he ended up fishing peg 65.

Settling into my peg I set about sorting my kit out. 3 top kits were found that had what appeared to be suitable elastics and among the collection of rigs that hadn't seen the light of day for far to long were some Nick Gilbert handmade Power Pencils in 0·5g and 0·4g sizes that were made up on hat looked like 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG’s,These were set up for a 5mtr line out in front where I had about 3 feet of water and a line 6mtrs down to my left where it was just a bit shallower. Bait was simply 6mm hard pellet for feed and hookbait and some 8mm's and GOT Baits soft hookers as a change bait.

Everyone appeared to get set up quickly and word filtered down that we would be starting 15 minutes early, so the All-In was called at 10·15. A handful of pellets were fed onto both lines. A banded 6mm was shipped straight out to my 5mtr line. After lifting and dropping the rig a couple of times the float slid away and a small Skimmer was on it's way to the landing net. The next fish ripped the elastic out at an alarming rate. obviously one of the resident Barbel that fight far harder pound for pound than Carp. I was also getting trouble with foul hookers and despite varying the depth and playing around with the shotting patterns couldn't really find an answer to it.

Unfortunately the sun and ripple on the water combined to make it really tiring on my eyes and as I couldn't find my sunglasses meaning I was missing a few bites probably from F1's and after about an hour with around 10 lbs in the nets I swapped over to my left hand line.

 Troy to my right on peg 69 had a similar slow start to me, also suffering with a few foul hookers but had managed to pick up a couple of Carp. Al was on the opposite side of the spit on peg 63 and had started on the 5mtr line but hadn't been able to resist the lure of the open water in front of him and was soon fishing his favorite method ...... 13mtrs shallow and was starting to steadily take fish. Pete Thompson was targeting the silvers on peg 61 while Keith Powell was trying to tempt a few lumps from the bush to the left on peg 59. Gino was having a bit of a mare however having lost his first decent fish when it wrapped itself round the platform leg before he got a chance to land it.

Word had it that Keith was catching a few from 77 and that Tony and Simon were going well on 45 and 47. Poor Chris on peg 55 had one of those moments all anglers dread when a fish ripped into his bait so hard that it pulled his pole out of his hand and he could only watch helplessly as the fish towed it out into the lake. Thankfully it didn't sink and the breeze finally blew it back to the margins were he could retrieve it. My left hand swim started to produce almost straight away, not quick but steadily with a mixture of Carp, F1's, Barbel along with the odd Tench and Skimmer. However I was still suffering with the odd foul hooker and these led to a few trashed rigs. These cost me in the end and it was probably due to their age having sat in my box on winders for so long (remember what I said about preparation) I really should have tied some fresh rigs prior to the match as I wasted far to much time today tying fresh ones during the match, which resulted in me not feeding and having to work to get the fish back each time.

 Troy was convinced that I was sacking up, but he obviously wasn't aware that I wasn't landing any of the foul hookers, just seeing the elastic being pulled out and not the collection of scales on my sidetray. Al kept going on about the lumps that Keith P was getting from the bush, but he was catching steadily and would be hard to beat unless one of the flyers produced. I kept plugging away and towards the end had a Golden Tench which made my day as I think they're one of the nicest fish that we catch ......

4·15 and Kevin called the All-Out. I felt that I had around 70lbs in the nets, not enough to win, but given that I hadn't fished a match for nearly a year and my level of preparation (NONE) I'd done OK and enjoyed myself. I packed the kit away and realised I had time to take it back to the van before the Weigh-in. As I got to Keith's peg I noticed he had three nets in so he'd obviously had a good day, although he wasn't admitting to it, being his typical cagey self but we would see what the scales said.



With my kit back at the van I caught up with the weigh-in Chris had tied up his section with 65lbs from peg55 and it would be interesting to see what Tony had managed off peg 45, 70lbs 04ozs was the answer leaving him a little frustrated as after a good start he'd lost the fish for periods during the rest of the match.

 Round to the spit where Clive was first to weigh with 63lbs 08ozs. Now Keith P and Al are a little competitive and had been ribbing each other all match so there was a good bit of it going on as Keith put his fish on the scales, 97lbs 08ozs was the final call, just short of a "TON"....

..... but a great result as like me Keith P hadn't fished for nearly a year, Al however took the bragging rights as his fish came to 115lbs 08ozs allowing him to take the section and the lead so far. My fish weighed in at 90lbs 04ozs which I was more than happy with. Nobody threatened Al till we finally got to Keith waiting patiently. Needless to say he'd had a very good day especially as he'd never fished this lake before and 167lbs 08ozs gave him his section and a comfortable win on the day.

 Back to the car park for a drink from the snack wagon and Tony announced the results and handed out the section money, I'd finished 4th overall on the day and was more than happy with that. Farewells were said and we all departed for our various destinations.

  I'd like to say Thank You to Al for the invite today and providing the transport, much appreciated, and a big Thank You to the Marsh AC members for making me so welcome on my return. I don't think it will be 11 months till the next time,

	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 77	Keith Ashby	167lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 63	Al Loader	115lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 59	Keith Powell	97lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 67	Peter Morton	90lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 45	Tony Roberts	70lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 55	Chris Withall	65lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 56	Clive Pritchard	63lbs 08ozs
8th=	Peg 57	Tony Watkins	51lbs 00ozs
8th=	Peg 69	Troy Hillier	51lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 75	Terry Goff	49lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 61	Pete Thompson	47lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 47	Simon Watkins	42lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 65	Gino Exell	31lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 49	Jim Boase	30lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 51	Rod Turner	15lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 53	Kevin Loveland	15lbs 00ozs

Puddledock Farm Fishery. Road Lake. June 9th, 2012.

Marsh AC club match.

It’s off to what is a new venue for Marsh AC for todays club match, Puddledock Farm Fishery just outside Brentwood in Essex where we will be fishing The Road Lake on the complex.

Chris was picking me up today and he arrived just after 7am, and with my kit loaded into his van we were off. It wasn’t a long drive and we pulled into the fishery car park at around 7·45am. Climbing out of the van it was immediately noticeable just how windy it was and looking across it was noticeable that one half of the lake was very exposed to this, while the other half was sheltered. Anyway without further ado we made our way over to the on-site Lakeside Café to start the day with a Full English as they had agreed to open up early for us today. I have to say that the food and service was 1st Class, easily rivalling that of any fishery I’ve visited in recent times and one that I’d happily recommend.

Clive unfortunately missed out as he was stuck in traffic on the M25 though he did arrive just in time for the draw and from what I’d seen pegs 1-14 were ones to avoid unless you wanted to battle the wind today, so it will come as no surprise that it was peg 6 that stuck to my hand today, right in the teeth of the prevailing wind. Tony had the shortest walk to peg 1, just as well really as having loaded his trolley wheel into the car he found on arrival that he’d forgotten to load his actual trolley………… not that we weren’t sympathetic to his plight of course.

It wasn’t to far to my peg, but settling into it I really didn’t fancy it today as it promised to be an uncomfortable six hours in an area Dave and Tony had struggled to catch from on a visit a couple of weeks previously, in fact Tony’s advice on the forum had been “take as long as you like for breakfast “. Anyway nothing ventured…….nothing gained.

I was going to keep things simple today Just a couple of rigs for the pole and the method feeder which would be the main line up against the island at 20mtrs. The first of the two pole rigs was a 0·8gm NG XT Gimp on 0·16 Ultima power match straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911X for straight out at around 5mtrs where I had around 4ft of heavily towing water while the other rig was a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·16 Ultima power match straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911X for the margin line that had around 2 feet of depth. Bait was simply 4mm coarse pellet for feed (dampened down for the method feeder) and 6mm and 8mm’s for the hook along with some sweetcorn and 6mm GOT Rippers as alternative hookers.

Somewhere in the course of the morning I’d misplaced my glasses so had wandered back to the café to see if I’d left them there. I hadn’t, but luckily spotted them on the floor by Chris’s van still in one piece, but this meant that I only just made it back to my peg before the All-In was called at 10·15am. I potted in a mixed pot of pellet and corn at 5mtrs and the margins and followed that out with a banded 6mm at 5mtrs. It was immediately apparent just how strongly the wind was gusting, making presentation even at that distance difficult especially coupled with the tow.

Tony appeared to get off the mark with what looked like a Goldfish after around 30 minutes and a little while later Kevin had taken a Tench. An hour in for me and I hadn’t managed as much as a bite. I’d tried on several occasions to ping a few 8mm pellets over to the island to prime it for the method, but the wind had blown them back every time. Anyway with no action on either of the pole lines it was time to have a look across with the method feeder, a 6mm pellet was banded and pressed into the dampened 4mm’s and cast across tight to the island.

Not a knock, tap or liner followed, it wasn’t looking good, just a question of keep recasting in an attempt to get some feed across there and hopefully draw some fish at some point. Finally after around 45 minutes of this the tip flew round and after a bit of spirited resistance a common of around 2lbs was safely in the net to get me off the mark. However it took another 30 minutes before this was repeated again with a similar result. Another 45 minutes passed after this with nothing to show for it when I decided to take a walk and see how others were doing.

Jim was struggling with just a few small roach taken on maggot from his margin, but Keith was just sliding a decent carp into the net as I approached is peg. The wind was making it awkward for him but he was just sitting it out on a line at around 6mtrs and picking up what he claimed to be the odd fish ……

Next up was Chris who’d taken a few early fish fishing a 4AAA waggler across to the island though those fish had drifted away and he was now back to fishing the pole. Martin and Graham were both struggling with the wind and going nowhere fast and Mick (or was it Petal?) was searching his margin and already fearing the Milton Keynes Nugget would be heading home with Keith today……

Round to Clive and the change was amazing, just a gentle breeze from behind as the swims were relatively sheltered by some trees. He reported that he’d had a decent start before it faded. I’m not sure that I believed him though as his float promptly buried resulting in a carp that he swiftly netted before I strolled off ……

Terry was fishing the feeder across, but for some reason couldn’t get bite on it, a situation that was even more annoying for Terry as Al was having success a couple of pegs away ……

Indeed Al seemed to be fishing a completely different match from most sitting there in a tee shirt and shorts, regularly taking fish on the method feeder fished across to the island ……

Dave had departed for a spot of lunch at the café along with Kevin and Jean, while Eddy was suffering along with a lot of us on what was his first club outing of the year. Rod was having an enjoyable day fishing a feeder half way across what looked like a Mill Pond and was just about to net his eighth carp of the day……

Tony had added a few silvers from his margin swim as had Ken who was having a similar battle to me with the wind.

I wish I could say that the second half of the match was an improvement, but it wasn’t it remained just as dire for me with just another 3 bites on the method feeder producing another 3 carp of a similar size to the first two and to be honest it was a blessed relief when the All-Out was called at 4·15pm. I soon had my kit packed away and back to the car park and all that remained was the Weigh-In.

Tony kicked things off with 20¼lbs while Kevin solitary Tench made 2¾lbs and Ken’s silvers 6¼lbs. My 5 carp came to 11½lbs and Jim’s roach and skimmers 7¼lbs. Keith’s claimed 4 fish morphed into a few more and stopped the scales at 40½lbs. Chris put 24½lbs on the scales and Martin and Graham managed to tie on 7½lbs each. Mick waved farewell to the MK Nugget with just 12lbs while Clive’s fish came to a level 25lbs. Terry was muttering about taking up Golf as his catch came to just 3¾lbs. Al had romped it for the 4th match on the trot with a fine 94¼lbs (I think it’s time he was banned from using a method feeder) Dave had 37½lbs despite stopping for lunch while Eddie recorded 8½lbs and Rod finished off with 16¼lbs.

Back to the car park for the results and of course Al took the win, Keith was second  and Dave third. The section money went to Tony, Keith, Clive and Al.

Thoughts on the day? Puddledock Farm is certainly a nice venue with good facilities, we caught it on a bad day when the weather didn’t allow it to do itself justice, so on balance it’s got to be worth another visit in my opinion.

 

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 23	Al Loader	94lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 10	Keith Ashby	40lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 25	Dave Collier	37lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 19	Clive Pritchard	25lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	24lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	20lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 29	Rod Turner	16lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 18	Mick Wright	12lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 6	Peter Morton	11lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 27	Eddie Dobson	8lbs 08ozs
11th=	Peg 16	Graham Manning	7lbs 08ozs
11th=	Peg 14	Martin Hucker	7lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 8	Jim Boase	7lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 4	Ken Walker	6lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 21	Terry Goff	3lbs 12ozs
16th	Peg 2	Kevin Loveland	2lbs 12ozs

Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4. April 2nd, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

Down to Monk Lakes today for the first Marsh AC club match of the year. It’s always good to be back out with the lads and lasses who make up the club membership for these matches, they’re nice light hearted affairs, more like a days pleasure fishing with a weigh-in at the end than a serious match. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few personal rivalries and scores to settle, but at the end it’s all about a good day out with mates. The forecast for today was looking good and with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee to wake me up the kit was soon loaded into the car I was off by 7am. It’s around 40 miles down to Monk Lakes and a steady run down saw me pulling into the car park around 8am.

Most of the usual suspects were gathered round the food bar with tea’s, coffee’s and various breakfast concoctions being demolished ahead of the draw. A jumbo sausage stick took care of my needs as the banter flowed back and forth, Dave soon had the monies collected and with 19 of us in attendance the draw got under way. I quite fancied a peg in the 160′s today as these pegs frequently produce good bags, however my drawing hand had other ideas and presented me with peg 142 when it emerged from the hat.

So off to our respective pegs and I found that I had Al for company to my left on peg 143 which is tailor made for his long up in the water approach against the reed lined island, while Mick Wright, Keith's guest and travelling companion had Peg 145. Peg 142 had a very shallow area at the end of the island which the lakes waterfowl, especially the geese love to occupy. Down to my right on peg 140 was Keith on the same peg as he had for last years match and yielded a 2nd place for him, so I was going to have my work cut out for a result today. Next to Keith was Kev on peg 139 and with Jean keeping him company I should be OK for a couple of cups of coffee throughout the match.

Settling into the peg it looked like the wind could make fishing long awkward so I decided on a line at 8 mtrs as the depth was pretty consistent all the way across and a couple of margin lines. I just set up 3 rigs, all Sackup CX 4×12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG’s. I find that they’re nice stable but sensitive floats and one was set to fish at dead depth at 8mtrs where I had around 4 feet of water while the other two were set for the margins where I had between 18 inches – 2 feet and could also cover if I needed to fish shallow. Bait for today would be a mix of maggot, corn and pellet, with feed taken care of by 6mm pellet.

With everything set a few of the lads were discussing the prospects for the day ahead……

 While Paul East could be found wandering around, probably looking for tips as it’s been 6 months since he last picked up his kit ……

So at 10am Dave sounded the All-In and Marsh AC’s season was underway. A pot of mixed pellet, maggot and corn was shipped out to 8mtrs while the left hand margin received a handful of maggots and the right hand one pellets. Out to 8 mtrs with double red maggot and the float soon buried, a 4oz Roach becoming the first resident of the keepnet today. It was soon joined by a pair of small Tench, a small skimmer and a plump Gudgeon. Al had started with a feeder to the island, but soon reverted to the pole across which produced a Carp for him. Keith had got off the mark after around 10 minutes with a Carp as well, and soon seemed to be putting a few together. Kev had a couple to get him off the mark as well……

Meanwhile Jean appeared with a welcome cup of coffee, but I was beginning to feel that I was getting left behind as Al started to get among the Carp. I managed just 3 small Carp in the hour, but didn’t feel as if I was getting anywhere. A look in both margins produced just a solitary Orfe to my efforts.

I felt that Al was already over the hill and far away unless his swim dried up, but thankfully he wasn’t in my section. It’s funny how you can put yourself under pressure, it seemed that every time I looked Keith was playing a fish and I convinced myself he was walking the section. I decided to add another section and fish out past my fed area to see if the fish had backed off. Sure enough I started to get a few bites and started to get a few small Carp. With this change of fortune I started to feel a bit better but I was still struggling to put a run of fish together.

Dave appeared having a stroll and judging by his comments nobody was really taking the place apart. Jean had been kind enough to get me a cheeseburger from the food bar and as I consumed it I mulled over my next move. One of my fall-backs that’s served me well when I’ve been struggling has been to fish what I feed so I decided for the rest of the session to fish banded 6mm hard pellet and just feed those as well.

It seemed to have the desired effect as slowly but surely I started to put a run of fish together, mostly small Carp but they kept coming at a steady rate. Jean had supplied another welcome cup of coffee while Kevin had gone out on the feeder with a couple of hours to go, a sure sign that he was struggling. Al was still catching and wasn’t going to be caught . It was just a question of whether I could make up the deficit that I thought I had to Keith.

 Sport stayed strong for me and with 5 minutes to go I had my best fish of the day, a nice Common of around 8lbs (a definite Mugger moment©) and managed a further 3 Carp before Dave sounded the All-Out at 4pm. I felt sure that Al had close to the ‘Ton’ and wouldn’t be caught, but Keith felt that I may have edged him. I really couldn’t call it as I had been so focused on catching that I had no real idea as to what was in my nets.

The club has purchased a second set of scales this year and the Weigh-In for our part of the lake started from Al’s peg. Two weighs and 94lbs was a fine effort by Al on a day where the wind hadn’t made it easy to fish at 16mtrs. I was next to weigh and a figure of 71½lbs was to prove good enough for a section win as Keith’s fish weighed 57½lbs, meaning that he had at least secured the bragging rights over his guest Mick today.

So with the kit packed away everyone assembled back at the food bar for the full results. Over a refreshing cuppa it soon became obvious once the weight sheets were totted up that the lake as a whole hadn’t fished up to expectations.  Al’s weight had indeed been good enough for 1st on the day while I took 2nd place and Keith finished 3rd. Clive had managed top weight on the roadside bank with 56¾lbs , while Paul finally remembered how to catch a few fish after his lay off. The backing weights however weren’t quite what we’d hoped for although everyone had a few fish and we’re off and running for another year.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 143	Al Loader	94lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 142	Peter Morton	71lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 140	Keith Ashby	57lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 163	Clive Pritchard	56lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 145	Mick Wright      (guest)	56lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 164	Paul East	35lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 152	Mick Pearson     (guest)	33lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 146	Terry Goff	27lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 149	Graham Manning	26lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 139	Kevin Loveland	22lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 158	Jim Boase	20lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 154	Dave Collier	19lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 136	John Holdsworth	16lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 137	Ken Walker	15lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 161	Simon Watkins	14lbs 10ozs
16th	Peg 157	Chris Withall	14lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 151	Judy Hermite	11lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 148	Zak Johnson     (guest)	5lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 155	Rod Turner	4lbs 04ozs