River Thames at Mapledurham. Reading & District AA water. November 3rd, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

I have to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to this as the weather of the proceeding week had promised to turn the river into a chocolate conveyer belt, so I was well pleased on arrival to see the river in good shape with just a hint of colour. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a breathe of wind. Arriving at my peg I was delighted to see a nice crease at a comfortable trotting distance, so out came the MAP18ft and a stick float.
Now the bad news!! the peg held a huge bed of Canadian Pondweed (what’s it doing in the Thames?) and despite burying the hook inside the caster it proved almost impossible to get a smooth trot down the swim.
After about 2 hours of flogging a dead horse word came down that a few slabs were starting to show and with just 1 small Perch and a couple of even smaller Roach to show for my efforts out came the feeder to see if I could find myself a Bream.
All the time the wind has been increasing and the sky was getting darker,and then the heavens opened. Half an hour later and 2 gorgeous rainbows appeared.(1 fainter than the other)…………………

However there was to be no crock of gold or even Bream for me, and at the end of the match just a couple of Gudgeon and Ruffe had been added to the net to give me a rather meagre 10ozs for 10th place.
Never mind though it’s still better than sitting around at home.

Willinghurst Fishery. Old Lake. October 20th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Not a good start this morning, OVERSLEPT!!!! Woken by a nudge in the ribs from Maria.
Fling tackle into car and off to Willinghurst about 40 miles away, just outside Guildford.

I arrived to find everyone already fishing, so I went to find the Match Sec and draw my peg. Now 9 & 10 were left in the bag, 10 has loads of features and is a corner peg, 9 has nothing, just an open expanse of water. No prizes for guessing!!!!!!!!! Yes I drew 9.



I had been warned that if the weather turned nasty it would be a real struggle and boy had it turned nasty!!!!! There had been a frost. The East wind made it feel like midwinter and just as i arrived at my peg it started to rain.
Up with the brolly,sit on my box and access my options….. Pole? NO, Waggler? NO, Feeder? That’ll do.
Knock up a bag of Fishgutz method mix groundbait, add a little corn and a little riddled meat and fish either hair rigged corn or meat. (4 bits of corn or ½ inch chunks of meat).
Largish baits and sit it out for a carp, clip up and keep dropping it down the same hole.

All around me people were struggling except for 2 lads who had islands to fish to. Well to cut to the chase, the fish weren’t going to rip it off the rests today, a 2 inch pull was all you got and if you didn’t hit them you didn’t get another chance.
 I had a mere 7 bites all day and managed to connect with all but one catching 6 Carp, the best of which weighing 6lbs 14ozs and weighed in 27lbs 8ozs which was good enough for 3rd on the day. (less than 4lbs away from the winner, 1 more fish?)

TREVOR MANNING aka ZIPTREV. October 18th, 2002

Sadly a good friend of mine Trevor Manning aka ZIPTREV passed away today after a long illness.

My line casts over the water, and dances like a song,
so gently breaks the surface, It’s here where I belong.
As breathing comes so effortless, my spirit is in tune,
with all the smells of water and nature’s sweet perfume.
Standing at the waters edge, is where I want to be,
Hooking fish don’t matter, not very much to me.
Until I feel that little tug pulling at my line,
then the finest sport there is, no longer is so sublime.
My breathing starts to quicken, my heart beats faster too,
precision is important now, in all things that I do.
A fisherman that’s what I am, and think I’ll always be,
Take me to the waterside, and fish a bit with me!

The last time I saw Trev, was when Geoff & I had the pleasure of sharing a punt with him on the Estate Lake at Old Bury Hill.
Trev had read one of my posts on Maggotdrowning about the place and decided that he fancied a go at it. Geoff hearing of this decided that he wanted to recapture his youth (having last fished there some 20 years previously). So thats how the three of us came to be standing by the boat house at 7am one July day in the pouring rain. Out we ventured in the punt on a search for Trev’s first Tench of the season. The omens didn’t look too good and while Geoff and I both caught, all Trev had to show for his efforts were a couple of hooked fish that smashed him.

Undaunted we kept at it and even the weather took a turn for the better, and then it happened, Trev’s float sailed away and after a brief fight there nestling in the bottom of the landing net was his prize. Not a big fish by any standards, but looking at the smile on his face I just knew that it didn’t matter. Mission Accomplished.

Trev, It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to have known you.
 I’m sure you’ll be looking over our shoulders in the future and having a chuckle at some of our antics.
 Rest in Peace mate.

Old Bury Hill. The Estate Lake. September 13th, 2002.

Brother-in-law Chris has just got back into fishing via his boy Fraser (7 years old), after a 15 year lay off, and on the couple of times he has come with me most of the day has been devoted to making sure that Fraser catches.
The other day Chris confessed that he wouldn’t mind a days fishing without Fraser, and that he’d love to catch a Tench as he’d never caught one.
There is only one venue that I could think of to virtually guarantee this, so first port of call was the boat house at Old Bury Hill to pay for our day tickets and collect the punt that would transport us to “The Jungle” on the Estate Lake.

Settling into an area hard up against an uprooted tree, I fed a couple of handfuls of pellets and sweetcorn into mine and Chris’s swims. The sun was already starting to climb and not a cloud in the sky signalled that the early mist would soon burn off.
After about half an hour my waggler vanished, and after a brief tussle a fighting fit male Tench of just over 3lb was safely in the net.

Chris meanwhile was suffering from some lightning fast unhittable bites, which I felt could be due to skimmers.
I could see the frustration in his face, when suddenly the float lifted up and laid flat. “STRIKE”  The rod hooped over as one angry fish sought out the shelter of the bushes that were so close. Fortunately it was unsuccessful, and after 5 mins Chris’s first ever Tench was netted, and at 4lbs 2ozs a great fish to start with ……

Soon however the sun was beating down, and the Tench retreated deep into the shade of the bushes, Chris had a close encounter with a Carp, which sadly for him the Carp won.
Still the Bream continued to feed, nothing huge but large enough to keep Chris happy for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day as we stepped out of the punt, his first words were “When are we coming back ?” I don’t think it will be too long somehow.

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. September 9th, 2002.

Hawthorne AC club match.

It’s off to Hartleylands Farm for the 8th match of Hawthorne AC’s season today, and as I jumped into the car to make my way down to the fishery the heavens opened, and didn’t let up for the whole trip down until I pulled into the car park.
The fishery at Hartleylands Farm comprises a number of ponds and an irrigation reservoir, which is where we were to fish today.

After the usual welcomes and insults from those fishing today it was time for the draw, thrusting my hand into the draw bag I was rewarded with peg 17, which as it turns out is the very peg I struggled from in this years AT SuperCup match, so not a good start , but in for a penny……

Now there are a lot of Skimmers & Roach present in the reservoir but you really need to target the Carp to frame on the reservoir at this time of year, and if they aren’t in your peg you’ll struggle, which is exactly what I did !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 It didn’t seem to matter what I tried I couldn’t get a sniff of a Carp all day. The only thing that would take my bait were either Skimmers or Roach and at the end my rather meagre weight of 22lbs 3ozs was only good enough for 12th place .
Still some good weights were recorded, The match was won with a weight of 83lbs 14ozs of Carp caught by Paul Ollerenshaw,(The reigning Club Champion) for his 5th win in 8 matches …………

Some nice fish came out, including this one for Don Freeman, a nice plump Mirror Carp of 9lbs 15ozs …………

Not my day today, but it beats the hell out of being at home and decorating. Anyway roll on Friday when I’m taking the brother-in-law Chris out for a days punt fishing at Old Bury Hill in an attempt to get him his first ever Tench.