Hawkhurst Fishery. The Match Lake. April 19th, 2008.

“Who would be up for a bash at Hawkhurst fish farm on the match lake, if you are interested let me know and i will sort a list out”. That was the post that Bill G put up on the Maggotdrowning Forum in the middle of March that led to us arriving for a 20 peg knock-up.

Pulling into the fishery car park at around 7·45am a host of the usual suspects were in attendance along with a couple of 1st timers for what we hoped would be a good day with plenty of fish for everyone. The weather however obviously had other ideas with a dull grey sky and a cold easterly wind promising the threat of rain during the day.

Hawkhurst is primarily a Carp fishery, a fact that’s rather given away by the carving of an old tree stump outside the bailiff’s office overlooking the fishery.

I can’t say that Hawkhurst is my favorite venue in all honesty. The Match Lake is a strip lake with 10 pegs on either side with very few features for most to fish to except the boards down the edge, however it does have fish in abundance and is well capable of throwing up lots of ‘Ton+’ weights of Carp in matches, so it’s normally a great confidence booster.

A decent Full English in the on site Café and a couple of side bets (£2 with Vince & £1 with Bill) was followed by the draw, which saw me drawing peg 11 at the far end.

 

but at least I would have the wind off my back. Vince had drawn the flyer, peg 1 that was black with fish when we arrived while Dave Collier had the other flyer (peg20) opposite him. I had Colin opposite on 10 with Bill G to his left on 9, with Jeff D (on his 1st match with us) to my right on 12.

I set up a couple of top 2′s, the 1st around 18″ deep to fish tight to the boards on either side and another around 3ft deep to fish at 2mtrs out. These were both 0·14 Antares Silk Shock with size 18 Fox Series 2 hooks with 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf’s and I set up another kit using the same line and hook but with a 4X14 Carpa Tricky to fish the 5ft deep 6 mtr line.
Bait was 4mm fishery pellet for feed with 4 & 6mm GOT expanders for the hook, with sweetcorn and GOT paste as alternatives.

10am and the All-in and Jeff on the next peg was straight in having dropped his unbaited rig in to double check it’s shotting has a Carp take his bare hook!!!!! I dropped my expander baited 2mtr rig in and the float buried straight away and a nice little Common was soon in the net, Game On.

Or not as it proved. The 1st hour saw me put just 5 fish in the net and from what I could see nobody was exactly taking their peg apart, with Bill suffering a few liners and just a solitary fish in the net.

Jeff and Jay to my right having a few, but from what I could see smaller fish than mine. Fishing tight to the boards is normally a banker for a few fish at Hawkhurst but despite keeping a few pellets trickling into both margins I couldn’t find a bite there and moved back out to the deeper water at 6mtrs where at least I was picking up the odd fish.

Bill had gone walkabout after about an hour and had completed a circuit of the lake by the time he got to me. His report was grim with most struggling, though Dave Collier seemed to be getting a few from peg 20 and to top it all off it started to rain. Kevin’s partner Jean however appeared with a very welcome cuppa from the Café and with bites few and far between I re-fed all my lines and went for a walk of my own.

Clive down on peg 14 was putting a few together but felt that Paul over on peg 7 was doing a shade better.

Ryan next door on peg 15 was struggling and pinning his faith on finding a few from the margins.

while Matt on 18 had managed a run of fish up in the water but hadn’t had a bite for 40 minutes. 

Dave Collier on 20 was indeed putting a few together, he was fishing at 9mtrs to the stump of a cut down tree that had made the peg a real flyer in earlier days.

Over on fancied peg 1 Vince was having one of those matches we all dread with just a couple of fish to show for his efforts, while having to watch Dave opposite steadily pull away in terms of fish caught, and Trevor on peg 2 wasn’t fairing much better.

Nick on peg 3 had forgotten about the pole and was fishing the waggler…………

with Terry next to him struggling as well. Pete was soldiering on and managing the odd fish from peg 5.

While Mike Jameson was racking his brains trying to put a few in the net and amazing us all that he hadn’t packed up and gone home as he’s well known for doing if he isn’t enjoying himself.

Paul East appeared to be going reasonably well though on peg 7 and a chat with Al next to Bill revealed he was getting bites on banded pellet but having trouble hitting them.
Bill had finally managed to find a couple by fishing corn long at 12 mtrs.

Back at my peg, out came the bait bands and a banded 4mm at 6mtrs soon produced a bite and a 4lb’er in the net. Bill’s bites on the corn however appeared to have dried up on him again, though Al was nicking the odd one. Jeff D was catching by swapping lines, though his fish seemed smaller than mine which prompted me to stick to the 6mtr line as my fish still seemed to be of a bigger stamp………..

Jay next to Jeff however seemed to be the only one catching down the margin next to the boards and was also taking some better fish long when he rested the margin line.

Thankfully 4pm saw the all out, and the speed that the scales came round signalled that the lake hadn’t produced the expected weights, with Paul East leading the way with a very creditable 69lbs 08ozs from peg 7. My fish came to 43lbs 08ozs which was good enough for 6th on the day and took my 4 peg section. Down to the last peg and it was a question of whether Dave Collier had done enough to edge Paul out of 1st place, but a combination of the cold and Dave’s arthritis saw Paul hang on as Dave’s fish only came to 62lbs 08ozs, still a very good effort on the day.

So that was it for another day, not the expected weights, but a £2 coin from Vince (we didn’t give him much stick for blowing the flyer honest) a £1 coin from Bill, some good laughs and plenty of banter helped out.Thanks to Bill G for sorting out the day, just remember to have a word with the weather Gods next time Bill.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	peg 7	Paul East	69lbs 08ozs
2nd	peg 20	Dave Collier	62lbs 08ozs
3rd	peg 13	Jay Lay	59lbs 00ozs
4th	peg 19	Kevin Betts	50lbs 08ozs
5th	peg 14	Clive Pritchard	47lbs 00ozs
6th	peg 11	Peter Morton	43lbs 08ozs
7th=	peg 8	Alan Loader	37lbs 08ozs
7th=	peg 18	Matt Love	37lbs 08ozs
9th	peg 2	Trevor Little	36lbs 00ozs
10th	peg 12	Jeff Driscoll	31lbs 00ozs
11th	peg 5	Pete Midgley	30lbs 08ozs
12th	peg 16	Tony Roberts	27lbs 00ozs
13th	peg 6	Mike Jameson	25lbs 00ozs
14th=	peg 1	Vince Gould	17lbs 08ozs
14th=	peg 10	Colin Sharrard	17lbs 08ozs
16th	peg 4	Terry Goff	17lbs 00ozs
17th	peg 9	Bill Gibbins	15lbs 00ozs
18th	peg 17	Kevin Loveland	13lbs 00ozs
19th=	peg 15	Ryan Wells	DNW
19th=	peg 3	Nick Gilbert	DNW

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