Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir. October 15th, 2011.

Marsh AC club match.

Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent is the venue today for the final Marsh AC match this year. The club has booked The Reservoir for today, which should make a nice change as we normally fish Nick’s Lake. It was an early start for me as I’d arranged to meet up with Mick Pearson who was coming along as my guest today for a spot of breakfast prior to the match.

There was a noticeable chill in the air as I loaded up the car, and as I made my way down the temperature was only registering 4°C on the car thermometer. I arrived at The Knoxbridge Café just after 7am to find Mick waiting for me. We were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast and catching up with events since we’d last met. Kevin & Jean along with Graham, John, Martin and Zack arrived for breakfast as well, and with that taken care of it was just a matter of a five minute drive up to the fishery.

Pulling into the car park it was the usual hive of activity as greetings were exchanged and tackle was assembled prior to the draw……

Paul East was actually fishing today !!!! complete with new shuttle, space station and pole that he’s treated himself to, but unfortunately there were a few faces missing due to a combination of work, illness and prior engagements, which meant there were just 15 of us fishing, but with the whole reservoir booked it meant that we would have plenty of space. A quick chat with the bailiff revealed there had been a frost this morning and the day before, not the best of news as it may have had an effect on the fish feeding, though it promised to be a nice sunny day with what wind there was, blowing toward the earlier pegs.

Just after 8·30am Dave started the draw and I found peg 16 sticking to my hand, probably the furthest walk, but the end of the reservoir I prefer. You can see where it is, and where everyone ended up on the peg plan below ……

As I made my way round I found Terry was on peg 18, where he’d fished a couple of weeks ago, while Zack was on peg 20, the peg I’d fished with Dave keeping him company on peg 21 along with Chris who’d come along to watch again as his hand is still in plaster. Settling my gear into the peg I planned to tackle it in a similar way to the way I’d fished peg 20 a couple of weeks ago, and that was to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 4 feet of water and the second down the left and right hand margins. Rigs were two 4×12 CX pencils on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 14 Guru MWG’s for straight out and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm pellet and various GOT Baits soft hookers for the hook……

With a bit of time before the off, I took a stroll down to see Mick and Paul who were on pegs 12 & 10 and the side bet of a ‘Golden Nugget’ was struck with Mick who was obviously confident in the pulling power of Mary Q . Jean had provided a welcome cup of coffee which went down well as the breeze had a bit of a nip to it as we waited for the start. As I sat there I couldn’t help noticing that some of the colour seemed to have dropped out of the water, no doubt due to those first frosts, would it effect things? We’d soon find out.

10am and Dave called the All-In, I was determined to be positive and fed a good handful of pellet straight out and down the margins before shipping a banded 8mm out in front. The first couple of put ins resulted in a couple of tentative dips of the float that I didn’t connect with, but the third put in saw me connect with what was obviously a carp, they do pull a bit these reservoir carp as they seek the deeper water, but steady pressure soon took its toll as a feisty Mirror found its way to the waiting landing net, at around 4lbs a nice way to get off the mark.

Bites weren’t coming instantly like they were a couple of weeks ago, but by feeding every put in and continually working the bait there were bites to be had, and in what seemed like no time at all I’d put 8 carp in the nets. The reality was that it had taken 50 minutes as I looked at my watch which said 10 to 11. I really shouldn’t have looked though, as that seemed to be the signal for the fish to switch off.

The next hour or so was pure torture as there wasn’t a bite to be had, but from what I could hear and see everyone else seemed to be pretty much in the same boat, though I was sure I’d heard a top kit smash from down toward Paul’s peg. I could see that nothing had touched the bait in the margins as the water hadn’t coloured up at all, but I kept bait trickling in on all the lines as I didn’t want fish to move in and find nothing to hold them. Around midday I’d heard that Mick and Paul had taken a few fish, so fed a good handful straight out and took a stroll with the camera to see what was happening and take my mug back to Jean.

It appeared that Mick was alternating between a pole line and the method feeder to tempt a few fish and he was owning up to around 25lbs in the net, though as I strolled away he was into another fish on the feeder ……

Paul revealed that the earlier sound of splintering carbon had indeed come from his peg, his top kit not being up to the task of heaving a double figure carp into his landing net when it had other ideas ……

Kevin was having a real struggle as were Rod and Martin on that bank, in fact it was hard to tell if Martin was watching the tip of his feeder rod or just staring despondently into the distance ……

Round to peg 29 and there was Clive struggling for a bite on the peg that according to the bailiff had won the last match with 176lbs, talk about “You should have been here last week” added to which was the fact that the peg was in almost total shade, it would be fair to say that the moustachioed one wasn’t exactly ecstatic with the prospect of another few hours sat there ……

Ken wasn’t fairing a whole lot better on 27, another shaded peg, though he had a few small silvers in the net to show for his efforts ……

Graham was next up on the last of the shaded pegs and was just unhooking a small roach as I arrived, always positive he was hopeful that a few carp would put in an appearance later in the day …

onto 23 and Nick at least had a carp in the net to show for his efforts, while Dave had managed 3 carp early before they switched off, but he was now feeding small pinches of hemp with a tare on the hook trying to tempt some roach, and while he was getting the odd one or two, even they were proving reluctant to feed ……

On peg 20 Zack had concentrated on his right hand margin from the off and it had yielded a carp and a few silvers for him, while Terry had been unable resist a look down his left hand margin having seen a fish down there ……

Back at my peg and a glance down both margins revealed that nothing had visited for a munch so it was back out with a banded 8mm in front, followed by some pellets. A quick dip of the float followed by a lift saw me attached not to a carp but a skimmer, still it was something to add to the net even if it did slime me.

Next put in and the same again only this time it wasn’t a skimmer, obviously a substantial carp it powered off in unstoppable fashion, the rig returning with a straightened out hook. Luckily I had a second identical rig to hand and the next 3 put ins saw 3 more skimmers deposited in the net. Next put in and a lift was met with stronger resistance, a carp this time, a chunky Common around the 6lbs mark and very welcome. This was rapidly followed by a similar sized Mirror that took a bit of getting in as it was hooked in the pectoral fin, but come in it did.

This stirred the peg up a bit and led to a lull, but after around 10 minutes another skimmer joined its mates in the silvers net. By now Dave was targeting his margins and I watched as he landed a couple of carp, and I knew that if there were fish there he would give me a run for my money. Next put in and I was briefly attached to a lump that took off before launching itself out of the water like a Polaris missile and crashing back on the line smashing the rig.

Time to compose myself and tie up another couple of rigs, and with that done get back to fishing. Kev appeared with another cup of coffee, but it dropped to the floor, emptying its contents before I could reach it. Kev trundled off with the empty cup after I retrieved it from the water promising a refill. 10 minutes later and Dave came wandering along to bring me the refill and tried to convince me that I already had 100lbs in my nets………….I wish.

Unfortunately it was back to scratching for bites after that, though Dave gave us all a bit of amusement with the length of time he spent playing a Ghostie, but he had the last laugh as it ended safely in the net. Meanwhile I was just picking up the odd skimmer here and there. Terry however suddenly seemed to have the carp turn up in front of him with an hour to go, and Dave was still getting the odd fish from the margins. Thankfully I managed 3 more carp among the skimmers while Terry suffered a run of bumped bites and lost fish in the last 20 minutes.

4pm and Dave called the All-Out. it had been a hard days fishing and the reservoir hadn’t fished up to its potential. I felt I had around 70lbs in the nets, but I’d soon find out for sure come the Weigh-In.

I packed my gear away but left it at my peg and went to get on with the Weigh-In. Rod kicked things off with just 9¼lbs while Martin could only muster 6lbs. Kev had 20¼lbs and John 14lbs proving just how hard the fishing on that bank had been. Paul despite his early woes had managed to get the better of a few decent lumps down the margin and put 77½lbs on the scales and take 2nd on the day. Mick had enjoyed his day with 52lbs, but Jim had suffered a torrid day with just 5¾lbs. I was next and my carp nets came up short of Paul’s weight, but 15lbs of skimmers gave me a total of 81¾lbs and the win today. Terry had 50½lbs and Zack 29¼lbs. Dave’s 69¼lbs took 3rd overall. Nick weighed 15lbs while Graham did manage some afternoon carp to take 42¼lbs to the scales. Ken had 8¾lbs while Clive was last to weigh with a level 20lbs.

Back at the car park Dave collated the scores and monies with the top 3 taking their sections on the day and I relieved Mick of a ‘Golden Nugget’ before we loaded our gear up, bade our farewells and headed off for home.

 

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 16	Peter Morton		81lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 10	Paul East		77lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 21	Dave Collier		69lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 12	Mick Pearson	Guest	52lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 18	Terry Goff		50lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 25	Graham Manning		42lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 20	Zack Johnson	Guest	29lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 6	Kevin Loveland		20lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 29	Clive Pritchard		20lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 23	Nick Bondeau	Guest	15lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 8	John Holdsworth		14lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 2	Rod Turner		9lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 27	Ken Walker		8lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 4	Martin Hucker		6lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 14	Jim Boase		5lbs 12ozs

The club does run a points table over the course of the matches (Guests results are not included in the table) and as you can see Dave Collier reaped the rewards of a very consistent season that included 3 match wins, coming out on top with 218 points while I was Runner-Up with 204 points and Al finished 3rd on 194 points despite missing the final Match. I’d just like to say Thank You to all the club members and guests who’ve fished this years matches. They’ve been great company on the bankside, with some hilarious banter meaning the matches have been enjoyable as always, and I’m looking forward to next year already.

Finally, MANY THANKS to Dave Collier (Mr Chairman) for his organisational efforts on behalf of the club, we give him plenty of ribbing at times, but we do appreciate his efforts. .

Position	Angler	Monk	Rayne	MillBarn	Colemans	Blasford	Private	Rockells	Hartlylands	Total Weight	Points
1st	Dave Collier	21	30	28	27	30	24	30	28	695lbs 12ozs	218 pts
2nd	Peter Morton	29	27	29	29	17	25	22	30	628lbs 00ozs	208 pts
3rd	Al Loader	30	25	30	28	27	28	29	d.n.f	702lbs 00ozs	197 pts
4th	Keith Ashby	28	26	25	26	25	29	27	d.n.f	567lbs 12ozs	186 pts
5th	Clive Pritchard	27	28	d.n.f	25	26	30	19	24	453lbs 04ozs	179 pts
6th	Terry Goff	25	18	24	24	12	22	20	27	308lbs 08ozs	172 pts
7th=	John Holdsworth	20	d.n.f	20	20	19	23	28	23	330lbs 00ozs	153 pts
7th=	Kevin Loveland	23	19	21	15	14	19	17	25	172lbs 00ozs	153 pts
9th	Martin Hucker	d.n.f	29	15	14	23	20	26	20	350lbs 12ozs	147 pts
10th	Jim Boase	22	21	15	12	29	d.n.f	21	19	211lbs 08ozs	139 pts
11th	Tony Roberts	d.n.f	23	26	30	21	d.n.f	25	d.n.f	411lbs 04ozs	125 pts
12th	Simon Watkins	18	25	18	18	d.n.f	21	23	d.n.f	291lbs 04ozs	123 pts
13th	Graham Manning	24	d.n.f	19	22	28	d.n.f	d.n.f	26	178lbs 04ozs	119 pts
14th	Rod Turner	15	d.n.f	22	17	21	d.n.f	18	22	109lbs 12ozs	115 pts
15th	Paul East	26	d.n.f	16	16	d.n.f	27	d.n.f	29	227lbs 12ozs	114 pts
16th	Ken Walker	19	d.n.f	27	21	13	d.n.f	d.n.f	21	127lbs 00ozs	101 pts
17th	Vic Nugent	d.n.f	20	d.n.f	d.n.f	22	26	24	d.n.f	264lbs 12ozs	92 pts
18th	Judy Hermite	16	16	17	13	24	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	87lbs 08ozs	86 pts
19th	Chris Withall	17	17	23	19	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	101lbs 12ozs	76 pts
20th=	Ron Mannister	d.n.f	15	d.n.f	11	16	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	31lbs 04ozs	42 pts
20th=	Roger Noakes	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	23	19	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	63lbs 08ozs	42 pts
22nd	Eddie Dobson	d.n.f	22	d.n.f	d.n.f	15	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	59lbs 04ozs	37 pts

(d.n.f = Did not Fish. 30 = Match Winner.)

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.