Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2. April 5th, 2008.

Marsh AC club match.

 

Well an early wake up call so that I could drop Maria off at work saw me with plenty of time to get back home and cook myself a bit of breakfast before donning the thermals and waterproofs and loading the car up in the pouring rain and setting off to Monk Lakes to meet up with the members of Marsh AC for our 1st match of the year on Match Lake 2. 

Now the main thing about Marsh AC is that it is a small friendly club with membership by invitation only, in essence it’s a Social Club that organises a days fishing for it’s members. The format of these days fishing loosely resembles a match in that there’s a draw for pegs, but there is no Club Championship or Cups to be won, in fact the only cash that gets paid out is section money, no 1st, 2nd or 3rd place prizes. It suits the members and keeps the pot hunters away.

Pulling into the car park at around 8am it was good to see that the vast majority of the usual suspects were in attendance, along with a couple of guests (Bill G and Alan from the Maggotdrowning Forum), Paul East was missing however, it turned out that he’d forgotten to buy a new license and for some reason had forgotten that you can buy one on-line or over the phone. At least it had stopped raining, though the grey skies and brisk wind promised to make it a challenge.

Anyway to the draw, and anyone of 3 corner pegs would have been nice, 45 because it’s an out and out flyer with a resident shoal of Barbel, or 56 and 66 at opposite ends of the causeway as these have aerators at their sides and unlike the other match lakes they aren’t roped off allowing you to fish tight to them. No such luck though, 53 sticking to my fingers providing my home for the day.

One thing about the match lakes at Monk’s is that there are plenty of fish, so that whatever the draw you’re guaranteed to have a few fish in front of you to provide a decent days fishing. A stranger feature to this particular lake however is the fact that the depth shelves from around 5 feet in front of peg 55 to around 10 feet in front of 45, and when the wind blows straight down the lake as it was today it sets up a terrific tow!!

I set up 2 pole rigs to fish a couple of lines, the 1st at around 10mtrs where I had just over 6ft of water was a 4X18 KC Carpa2 on 0·16 straight through to a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook and the 2nd for the margins where I had a couple of feet of water against the reeds was a 4X12 Carpa shelf with similar line and hook that I could also use up in the water on the main line if need be. I also set up a pellet waggler, though I suspected that it wouldn’t be a realistic option due to the wind and tow.

Bait for the day was red maggot, corn and pellet, and I also made up some groundbait to get some feed down through the tow. This was Special G with some corn and a good helping of micro pellet added.

10am and the All-in, and straight away I fed 5 good balls of groundbait on the 10mtr line, with a good helping of pellet, corn and maggot down the right hand margin which I would continue to top up through the match as there was a vacant peg between me and the next angler.

Out to 10 mtrs with a single grain of corn, I just let the rig edge through the groundbaited area with the tow and was rewarded with a confident bite that produced the 1st fish of the day, a nice chunky FI of around 1½lbs. The wind and waves on the water meant that presentation wasn’t ideal but by sticking at it I managed to put another 8 in the net along with around a dozen small Tench in the next 2 hours. Alan to my right was having a grim time and was struggling to buy a bite with only a couple of fish in the net and Tony next to him was having trouble coming to terms with the tow that the lake was generating, but putting a few together holding a heavy rig back against the tow.

It seemed that every time I looked up towards Colin on peg 45 he was either playing or netting a fish and it was obvious he would take all the catching. Looking across to the lads opposite fishing on the causeway, I could see Dave had turned his back on the wind and was fishing short to the channel where the aerator is and appeared to be putting a steady run of fish together, while Terry next door to him was also catching close in to the margin, while Bill was fishing a longer line and sorting a few out.

With a lull in my fish, I fed 4 more balls of groundbait in a bid to kick start things and had a quick stroll with the camera. Colin as I suspected was catching well despite trying to deny it and it was a pleasure to see that Judy on peg 46 next to him was putting a couple of tips I’d given her to good use and was enjoying some good sport too.

Back at the peg and a quick look at the margins revealed just a solitary small Chub so back out and I was soon into a run of small Tench and Skimmers with a couple of decent Ide for good measure.

Kevin to my left had resorted to a Polaris set up with a groundbait feeder to beat the tow and was starting to find a few fish, while Martin was really struggling to get a bite.

With a couple of hours to go Alan finally managed to find some Barbel down his margin line, while Tony having changed to a feeder to combat the tow was steadily starting to put fish in the net, Despite several looks, my margin just never came to life, forcing me to stick it out at 10mtrs, and while I caught steadily to the end it was mainly small Chub and Tench with just a couple of bonus Barbel around the 2lb mark.

With 15 minutes to go the skies grew darker and the temperature dropped noticeably and just to top it off it started to rain. 4pm and the All-out saw everyone hurriedly packing away followed by the weigh-in. Third to weigh, my 51¼lbs put me briefly into 1st place which I knew wouldn’t last. Alan’s 34½lbs was a decent return given that he had nearly the whole of that in the last 2 hours, while Tony’s 48½lbs meant that I had at least won my section. Judy put a very creditable 54¾lbs on the scales (Her best ever match weight) to briefly lead till Colin weighed his level 87lbs for the match win. Jim round on 56 managed  55¾lbs that would prove to be good enough for 3rd while Dave put a very decent 62½lbs on the scales for 2nd and might have run Colin even closer if it hadn’t been for a few lost fish during the course of the day.

Still despite the weather trying it’s hardest, overall it proved to be a decent day with no dry nets and an average of around 39lb per angler between the 17 of us. A decent days fishing by any standards. Roll on the next one.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	peg 45	Colin Sharrard	87lbs 00ozs
2nd	peg 66	Dave Collier	62lbs 08ozs
3rd	peg 56	Jim Boase	55lbs 12ozs
4th	peg 46	Judy Hermite	54lbs 12ozs
5th	peg 53	Peter Morton	51lbs 04ozs
6th	peg 50	Tony Roberts	48lbs 08ozs
7th	peg 64	Bill Gibbins	42lbs 08ozs
8th	peg 65	Terry Goff	42lbs 04ozs
9th	peg 47	Ken Walker	39lbs 04ozs
10th	peg 49	Roger Noakes	36lbs 04ozs
11th	peg 51	Alan Loader	34lbs 08ozs
12th	peg 57	John Holdsworth	33lbs 00ozs
13th	peg 54	Kevin Loveland	24lbs 12ozs
14th	peg 58	Zack Johnson	17lbs 08ozs
15th	peg 61	Arthur Thompson	15lbs 04ozs
16th	peg 55	Martin Hucker	10lbs 04ozs
17th	peg 60	Graham Manning	7lbs 00ozs

Framfield Fishery. Spring Lake. March 24th, 2008.

“Anyone coming out to play Easter Monday?” That was the perfectly innocent post put up by Pete Midgley on the Maggotdrowning Forum that resulted in this little episode. Loading up the car, a sunny day appeared to be in the offing and with just a light frost I felt we could be in for a decent day.

A smooth traffic free drive of 40 miles down to Uckfield in East Sussex even allowed me to stop off at McDonalds for a bit of breakfast, where I found Pete Thatcher, Martyn Dwayne and Mark Hathaway too, meaning I pulled into the fishery at around 8·20am. Worryingly the car thermometer still only said just 1°C though.

Today was the 1st time that I’d been down to Framfield since March 2005, so I really didn’t have a clue what to expect. Anyway into the draw bag and peg 64 stuck to my hand. They say that a good indication of how well you’ve drawn is how many keepnets they hand you. I was given just the one while Kevin, who had drawn 63 and a few others were given two, so I figured I may have drawn out of the favoured areas.

As I settled into 64 I was faced with probably 17½mtrs to the island which had seen some vigorous pruning since the last time I’d seen it. Having hurt my ribs at work the previous week long pole was out of the question, so I set up for around a comfortable 8mtrs and found a reasonably level 3ft all over, and with it being just a couple of inches shallower in the margins 1 rig covered all. I also set up a waggler to fish across if need be. Bait was simply sweetcorn to be fished over the fisheries own pellets with a few expanders as a change bait.

To my left I had Bill G for company on peg 65, so a decent bit of banter was guaranteed if nothing else.

10am and after a warming cup of coffee fortified with a drop of Bushmills generously provided by Kevin, I potted in some pellet and sweetcorn at 8mtrs and fed some pellet by the dead rushes in both margins for later. Straight out to 8mtrs and after 20 mins the 1st bite of the day resulted in a nice Common Carp of around 3lbs gracing the net. I just kept topping up the feed with a T-pot containing a dozen pellets and 3-4 bits of corn at regular intervals, with the same being fed by hand into the margin swims.

After a couple of hours I’d managed 6 Carp which had been matched by Bill, though I felt my fish had been a little bigger. Weather wise the day had deteriorated with a mix of rain sleet and snow coupled with the wind making things very cold and unpleasant.

Of course as with all things Maggotdrowning there had to be some Pee taking somewhere along the line and todays target was Pete Midgley, who in the run up to the day had posted……“I think I would still beat Ryan if I had a bit of bamboo, a length of rope and a lump of cheese.”

So of course Bill G hadn’t been able to resist producing the relevant bit of Preston Imitations kit.

Pete however took it all in the spirit that was meant and even had the good grace to pose for the obligatory photo.

Meanwhile word was circulating Mark Hathaway and Martyn Dwayne were doing relatively well with Stephen Tanner putting a few together from the supposed flyer.

Kevin had changed over to a set up incorporating a maggot feeder and polaris float and was soon into a run of Carp as he cast into the gap between the islands. Unfortunately he hooked up on the island after a while losing his float in the process. Not having another he reverted to a straight maggot feeder, but for some reason this didn’t seem to be so productive and he reverted to the pole.

Quite a few were struggling for even a bite however and people were ringing the changes in an attempt to buy a bite. Colin may have taken things a shade to far however, disguising himself as a bush in attempt to draw fish into his margin swim.

Bill meantime had gone for a stroll to stop himself from seizing up and by the time he returned it had allowed me to sneak a couple of fish ahead of him.With about an hour to go things had started to pick up with Tony Roberts finally getting amongst a few on the maggot feeder hard across to the island, Colin getting a couple of decent Perch as reward for his efforts and even Trevor Little getting a couple although he was to tip back without weighing in.

I managed to tempt 5 more Carp from down the edge in the last hour, though a lump snagging me in the reeds in the last 10 minutes was to cost me at the death.

At last 3·30pm rolled round and the all out, quickly followed by the weigh-in. Mark Hathaway leading with a very decent weight on the day of 55lbs 2ozs followed by Stephen Tanner on 48lbs 12ozs, a very creditable effort as it was his first match. As the scales reached me I thought I might scrape 40lbs, so it was a pleasant surprise when they recorded 54lbs 8ozs putting me into 2nd place, though it left me ruing that lost fish.

So that was it, just leaving the 14 anglers to pack up and get home to thaw out. Despite the conditions we had caught some fish and had a few laughs as always. We must do it again, but please, can we have some better weather next time?

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	peg 58	Mark Hathaway	55lbs 02ozs
2nd	peg 64	Peter Morton	54lbs 08ozs
3rd	peg 62	Stephen Tanner	48lbs 12ozs
4th	peg 57	Martyn Dwayne	36lbs 00ozs
5th	peg 63	Kevin Loveland	27lbs 04ozs
6th	peg 65	Bill Gibbins	25lbs 12ozs
7th	peg 66	Tony Roberts	24lbs 08ozs
8th	peg 59	Pete Thatcher	17lbs 00ozs
9th	peg 61	Terry Goff	12lbs 04ozs
10th	peg 56	Dave Collier	10lbs 10ozs
11th	peg 71	Pete Midgley	8lbs 00ozs
12th	peg 69	Colin Sharrard	7lbs 00ozs
13th	peg 68	Ryan Wells	6lbs 08ozs
14th	peg 67	Trevor Little	DNW

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. March 9th, 2008.

Well the day promised to be a bit of fun as I was off down to Hartleylands to join a few of the lads that are fishing Nick Gilbert’s 1st Invicta Angling Match League and were looking to have a bit of a practice prior to the 1st match there next week. Loading up the car at 7am in Sydenham it looked as if we could be in for a decent day with the sun rising into a bright blue sky, just a breathe of wind and a pleasant 7°C showing on the car thermometer.

By the time I pulled up at the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast things had taken a turn for the worst however, with wind, thick grey clouds and the first hint of rain replacing the sun. A quick bit of breakfast with Matt, Nick, Alan and Ekythump and it was off to the fishery for the draw. Already there were Vince, Trevor, Jay and Kevin and while Nick sorted out the draw we sorted our kit out. Mistake no1!!!! I’d left my jacket at home!!!!! Thankfully Matt saved the situation lending me his spare jacket for the day. Nice one Matt.

With the wind increasing I fancied one of the pegs in the 30′s which were reasonably sheltered and almost flat calm. It was not to be as peg 25 was to be my home for the next few hours…

The wind was already starting to gust strongly as I settled in and set up and I just set up a maggot feeder and a couple of top kits to fish short, as I didn’t fancy battling with a long pole in the conditions, not that I was jealous looking across to Alan on peg 32 setting up with what appeared to be a millpond in front of him!…

10·30am and Vince blew the whistle for the All-in. I’d made up a slop of crushed hemp and Pineapple Atomic Cloud to feed the inside line and fished white maggot on the hook and this soon started to produce few small Roach. Sport in general appeared to be slow for most though Jay was getting a few Carp on the feeder over on peg 8, Nick had the wind full in his face on peg 6 (a most unusual occurrence for him) while Matt was blasting maggot and fishing the waggler on peg 9 but this was producing mostly Roach for him rather than the hoped for Carp. In fairness though most of the lads were trying to sort methods for the upcoming League so it was more of a question of sorting out wouldn’t work as opposed to sitting it out on a banker method.

Just after midday I had a look over on the feeder. 3rd cast and I stuck it into a tree on the island and cracked off. Temper? Laziness? I really should have stuck with it but didn’t. Instead I had a cup of coffee and went for a walk with the camera to warm up.

Up on peg 21 Trevor was sheltered behind his brolly and had settled on the waggler with a fair bit of open water in front of him, and while it was mostly Roach the occasional Carp was putting in an appearance to keep it interesting…

while Ekythump 2 down on peg 23 was fishing his top 2 and finding a few more Carp amongst the Roach…

Back down on peg 32 Alan was getting a few on the Waggler but had been feeding a margin line that as it turned out, was to come good for him in the last hour.

Kevin on peg 34 was having a bit of a grueller and was sitting it out on the feeder…

Vince was on peg 32 and complaining that he was freezing despite being sheltered from the worst of the conditions. The feeder was producing the odd Carp for him as it appeared the fish wanted a dead still bait.

Nick on peg 6 (a peg he didn’t want to put in, so you just knew he would draw it) spent most of his time chopping and changing trying various methods out when he wasn’t having a walk about chatting and trying to get out of the wind…

That just left Jay and Matt on pegs 8 & 9……

and while Jay stuck it out on the feeder all day, Matt started the match on the waggler spraying maggot before switching to the method halfway through.

I spent the rest of the match fishing the top 2 but unlike Ekythump, couldn’t find a Carp for love or money, I did however manage a Barbel which was a bit of a surprise because as far as I’m aware Paul only stocked about 14 of them into the lake originally  (needless to say it was in perfect condition)

3·30 and Vince blew the All-out, a most welcome sound, which was quickly followed by the weigh-in. 12lbs 12ozs was my reward for the day, leaving Vince happy that he’d beaten me for the 2nd time this year. The lake had fished hard though in some of the worst conditions I’ve experienced there, though hopefully it will be better for the lads fishing the League there, starting next week.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	peg 9	Matt Love	35lbs 04ozs
2nd	peg 32	Alan Loader	34lbs 12ozs
3rd	peg 8	Jay Lay	33lbs 04ozs
4th	peg 23	Ekythump	24lbs 00ozs
5th	peg 21	Trevor Little	14lbs 06ozs
6th	peg 36	Vince Gould	13lbs 12ozs
7th	peg 25	Peter Morton	12lbs 12ozs
8th	peg 6	Nick Gilbert	11lbs 00ozs
9th	peg 34	Kevin Betts	DNW

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. February 16th, 2008.

Today’s little jaunt started off when Pete Midgley posted up on the Maggotdrowning Forum at the start of the week “Hi all. Have just spoken to Ryan and we are going down to Hartleylands this Saturday. If anyone else is interested in meeting up let me know and if there is enough we could even have a little friendly match“

Now while the day ticket is £7 a day at Hartleylands, peg fees for a small match are £6 and you can use keepnets, so with 6 of us committing to the day a ‘Match’ was booked.

An easy drive down saw me pulling into the car park at around 9·20am to be greeted by Pete, Ryan and Ryan’s dad Keith. Shortly after we were joined by Dave who had collected Alan on the way. A clear blue sky promised a decent day weather-wise though a heavy frost gave it away that the temperature was only 1°C.

Paul the Bailiff arrived to collect the peg fees and I managed to negotiate a £1 discount, which we put into a winner takes all pot. We had pegs 20-25 allowing everyone a feature to fish to, and after a quick draw made our way to our pegs.

I found myself with peg24 for the day.

I would have preferred 25 or 23 which would have given me some open water to have dropped a feeder into, but decided to set up a Drennan 2½AA peacock insert waggler and fish double red maggot to keep busy and warm, though I did set up a small Drennan maggot feeder as a back up, leaving the pole in the rod bag. Pete had kindly picked up a couple of pints of red maggots for me, however I had a bit of a shock to find that they’d sweated up rather badly, but half a bag of GOT Baits worm flavoured Atomic Cloud added to them just about managed to salvage the situation, and this little fella kept popping back all day to sample them.

To my left I had Keith (Ryan’s dad) for company, and having only recently returned to fishing, he contented himself to just set up the pole, while to my right on 23 Alan had set up a groundbait feeder and his pole. to his right Pete (peg22) had set up pole and feeder as well, while Dave (peg21) and Ryan (peg20) just set up feeders.

We got started around 11am and Keith was off the mark straight away with a small Carp.

A pouch full of maggots out to the island followed by my float soon saw me getting regular bites from small Roach and Rudd, nothing big, but regularly enough to keep me warm and interested. Alan was dropping his feeder just off the point of the island and was soon into his 1st Carp of the day.

Indeed everyone seemed to be getting a few and the banter was soon flowing. Pete was alternating between the feeder and the pole and it was while he was on the pole that he became the focus of a fair bit of stick.

He hooked into what most of us assumed was a ‘lump’ and with yards of elastic streaming from his top kit he soon reached the point where it appeared that he could do nothing with it, despite standing up, top kit reaching for the sky it wouldn’t come to the net and despite us exhorting him to stand on his seat, he steadfastly refused on the grounds that “I’m not going to get my new seat dirty” What a Tart. Finally the leviathan of the deep was netted, a Carp that might have weighed 4lbs on a good day!!!!!!!!!!!

 Obviously Preston 11 hollo set loose was not quite what the doctor ordered leading to a quick change of top kit.

Dave meanwhile was quietly putting together a few small Carp on the feeder, nothing large, averaging around the 1½-2lb mark, but regularly enough to put him out in front.

 Ryan was getting a few as well, though he couldn’t match Dave’s catch rate on the day.

I just kept plugging away with the waggler mostly keeping the silvers going with the odd small Carp. A couple of looks with the feeder had produced a couple of small Carp but the gaps between bites meant that the feeder was soon discarded in favour of the waggler.

All to soon 4pm rolled round and with the fishery closing at 5pm we had a quick weigh-in, with Dave taking the honours on the day and the £1′s with his level 28lbs, while I edged Alan out of 2nd with my 20lbs 4ozs to his level 20lbs, then Ryan and Pete with Keith bringing up the rear.

A good day all round, a few fish, great company with plenty of banter and laughs, a typical Maggotdrowning day really. Thanks to Pete for organising it, I’m sure it won’t be to long before we’re doing it all again.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Dave Collier	28lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peter Morton	20lbs 04ozs
3rd	Alan Loader	20lbs 00ozs
4th	Ryan Wells	14lbs 12ozs
5th	Pete Midgley	14lbs 02ozs
6th	Keith Wells	5lbs 00ozs

Private Lake, East Sussex. February 9th, 2008.

Today saw a few of the lads from the Maggotdrowning website meeting up for a friendly little knock-up on a Private Lake in East Sussex. Loading up the car it had all the makings of a decent day ahead, Nice and mild  at 10°C with hardly a breathe of wind. I stopped off for a bit of breakfast in Bromley and was greeted by blue sky and the rising sun as I got back into the car, however as  I reached branched off the M25 onto the A21 I started to run into fog and the temperature started to drop.
By the time I reached the venue and turned into the fishery car park it said 2°C and everything was covered in a heavy frost.

It was soon obvious that Bill’s enquiry as to whether anyone fancied “a fun day out plenty of banter and hopefully some of Dave the Fish’s rum bottle” had received a good response with a dozen of us assembled in the car park. Now the attraction of this lake is that it has a bit of a reputation as a bagging water, especially in the summer, however it had recently suffered two heavy floods and a visit soon after by some of the lads was far from fruitful, however with another couple of weeks for it to settle down we were hoping for better things today.

Bill had put in an appropriate number of pegs using his experience of the fishery and after a quick draw we made our way to our pegs. Kevin dropped into the 1st corner swim through the gate, while Bill and Tony shared the next corner. Pete, Alan, Dave and Colin were on the far bank while Terry, Vince, Myself, Paul and Ryan had adjacent swims on the near bank.

Setting up it was obvious that there was going to be a fair bit of banter with Paul to my left and Vince to my right…

Vince had the gap between the two islands in front of him while I had a short chuck to it in front of me. I set up a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder and a waggler rod as well as the pole, though the last two were more as back up. Bill called the All-in at 9·45am and I potted some micro’s and corn onto my pole line at 10mtrs and then went straight out with the feeder allowing the pole line to settle.

Kevin was quickly off the mark with a small Carp, but it was a bit of a false start as virtually everyone struggled for a bite from anything other than tiny Roach.Vince had had a couple of wrap rounds that came to nothing before connecting with a decent Carp that proved to be a near double and Paul had nicked a Carp from his end of the island.

while both the feeder and the pole line remained dead for me. By 1pm with just a few small Roach from the pole line I went for a stroll round. first port of call was Colin who was struggling.

and Dave, where Dave was kind enough to offer me a warming nip from his bottle of Mount Gay Extra Old  Rum.

Pete and Alan had managed a couple of Carp apiece while Bill and Tony were having their own silvers contest. Working my way back I could see Ryan landing a Carp which was to prove to be the 1st of three that he had in quick succession.

Vince had managed another small Carp, but poor Terry just couldn’t buy a bite from anywhere. Looking across however we were treated to a bit of fun as Tony having finally hooked a Carp played it in only to discover that he’d forgotten to set up his landing net, however he managed to land it by scooping it with the net minus handle. Meanwhile Pete ensconced on his new Space Station TX seatbox managed to land another couple of Carp to edge away into the lead.

Around 2pm I finally had a bite on the feeder resulting in a very welcome Carp of around 3½lbs, but as the afternoon wore on our side of the lake got cooler and cooler till even the tiny Roach stopped feeding though a few late Carp did show for those on the far side. Frankly the All-out was music to our ears and the quick weigh-in revealed just how hard the lake had fished.Pete took the honours on the day with six Carp and a few bits for 34lbs 6ozs followed by Alan with 26lbs 4ozs and Bill taking the last place in the frame with 22lbs 8ozs.

Still despite the lack of fish it was still a decent day out in good company. Thanks to Bill for organising the day. I’m already looking forward to doing it all again once it’s warmed up a bit and the lake has had more of a chance to settle down after it’s recent double flooding.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Pete Midgley	34lbs 06ozs
2nd	Alan Loader	26lbs 04ozs
3rd	Bill Gibbins	22lbs 08ozs
4th	Tony Roberts	17lbs 09ozs
5th	Dave Collier	16lbs 10ozs
6th	Ryan Wells	13lbs 00ozs
7th	Vince Gould	11lbs 00ozs
8th	Paul East	7lbs 10ozs
9th	Colin Sharrard	6lbs 00ozs
10th	Peter Morton	4lbs 00ozs
11th	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 06ozs
12th	Terry Goff	DNW