Colemans Cottage Fishery. Cottage Lake.

Marsh AC club match.

Well it was down to Colemans Cottage today for an impromptu final match on Cottage Lake with Marsh AC to give Kevin a fitting send off before he and Jean leave for The Bahamas . Now Cottage Lake is the original more established lake at Colemans and doesn't get used for many matches, so it's a bit of a trip into the unknown for most of us.
With very little info available anywhere about this lake and the nights getting colder it was anyones guess how it would fish, but I always enjoy fishing a water that's new to me, so I soon had the motor loaded this morning and was away in good time and pulled into the fishery at around 7·50am to be greeted by Tony who'd already been for a scout round the lake . First things first, up to the lodge where Terry, Eddie, Kevin and Jean were already in attendance and a 'Full English' was soon ordered and dispatched , and as the rest of the crew arrived a few of us set off to peg the lake.
First impressions were that it looked a little gem , only 19 pegs but well established in comparison to the newer lakes at the fishery and having decided which pegs to leave out we made our way back to the lodge, where Dave got the draw under way for the 13 of us present. Today for a bit of fun Dave had drawn 3 teams, 2 teams of 4 and one of five, with the team of 5 being able to drop their worst result, and I was in the team of 5 along with Colin, Graham, Zack and Rod . Into the hat and Peg 2 was mine, so gear collected from the car and down to the lake. For company today I had Rod on Peg 1 to my left and Kevin on Peg 4 to my right. The platform on my peg had seen better days, but nothing that couldn't be sorted thanks to my box's telescopic legs.

From the little info I'd managed to glean it seemed that there was a fair head of Carp, including some proper lumps and plenty of silvers. Looking at my peg, I had a tree overhanging the left hand margin and a bush to the right. The wind made it feel pretty chilly though luckily it was off my back. I decided on a pole approach, setting up 3 rigs. The 1st being a 4X12 Malman Adam on 0·20 power match straight through to a size 14 QM1 for a line at around 8mtrs where I had around 3½ ft of depth, and 2 Malman MTD1's similarly rigged for down the margins 2ft deep in the left and 1 ft in the right hand. Bait for the day was going to be 6mm GOT expander pellets and corn with 6 mm pellets for feed.

10am and as Dave called the All-In I shipped out a pot of pellet with a few grains of corn to my 8mtr line and fed some pellet down both margins. Tony was in to a fish almost straight away while I shipped out my rig baited with a grain of corn. No instant response for me however despite lifting and dropping the rig to try and provoke some action, just little dinks that I couldn't connect with. Looking around a few people appeared to be taking the odd silver, but nobody appeared to be off to a flyer. 30 minutes in having changed to expander on the hook a good positive bite resulted in several feet of elastic, and after a spirited scrap a pristine Common of around 3lbs was safely netted to get me off the mark . A second followed soon after, a Mirror this time of a similar size.
I could see Colin over on Peg 8 fishing tight to the bush overhanging his left hand margin and he seemed to be matching me fishing his favourite paste......

Twenty biteless minutes followed before the next bite, this time however it felt like a much more solid fish as it plodded off, steady pressure took it's toll however and after about 5 minutes I slid the net under a Common that must have been close to 10lbs . Another couple of fish soon followed, sadly not of quite the same stamp, both of them being closer to 2lbs than 10, but very welcome none the less. So 5 fish in the net for around 20lbs and things were looking good, the next bite however resulted in me being attached to something that felt more like a submarine than a fish , It just steadily headed off across the lake and all I could do was hang on with the pole tip under the water till the hook pulled. Unfortunately it trashed the rig . With a new rig sorted it was back out, but it took a good 20 minutes till another bite produced a small but perfectly formed Mirror of around 8ozs. A look down both margins produced nothing at all, so I decided to re feed and have a stroll with the camera while things settled.

Rod appeared to be having a bit of a struggle with just a solitary skimmer to show for his efforts , while Graham was taking a steady stream of small silvers from his peg . Eddie seemed to have a decent feature to fish to, but the fish didn't seem to agree and he was working hard for little reward ......

Terry was another who was having trouble getting to grips with things and it was becoming pretty obvious that the overnight drops in temperature during the previous week had taken its toll on things . Young Zack had managed to winkle out a couple of Carp on the feeder however and was looking reasonably happy with his lot ......

Martin had nicked a Carp as well and had also encountered a submarine that had seen him off. Round to Dave who was plugging away fishing maggot which had produced some silvers and a couple of Carp for him......

Tony was in pretty much the same position as Dave and fishing for anything with fins, while Colin's paste attack had produced 5 Carp for him, though he'd lost 3 fish which he felt were foul hooked, and while Jean watched on from behind, Kevin had managed a couple of Carp on corn......

Back to my peg and I decided to try a banded 6mm on the hook and almost immediately it produced a plump Common of around 1½lbs swiftly followed by a 12oz skimmer. I struck into the next bite and all hell seemed to be let loose as a big Carp charged off then boiled on the surface, a large Mirror that was hooked in the tail!!!!! Steady pressure saw me making progress, but the fun was still to come. Colemans supply all the nets at the fishery, but the landing nets are only 18" spoons. Somehow and more by luck than judgement I managed to get the fish up and it's head in the net 1st time, then the hook fell out . The fish was a stunning Mirror of around 10lbs, the orange of it's tail contrasting wonderfully with its dark brown flanks. Dave arrived and was surprised that I'd got it in so quickly as he felt sure that I would still be playing it. A quick chat during which I missed a couple of bites then Dave was on his way.

The afternoon settled into a pattern where I would get a couple of fish then have to wait 15-20 minutes before I would get another couple, and I felt this could be down to the fish patrolling around rather than settling and the water starting to loose a bit of it's colour as it got cooler making the fish a little spooky. Still I was putting fish in the net though I always felt that Colin had the edge as he was keeping up with me and his fish seemed to be of a better average size .

Rod at last seemed to have had a a change of fortune hooking a decent Carp only to suffer one of those horrible moments as he played it all the way to the net only to have his 8lb line break for no apparent reason . Dave however had better luck when he latched into a decent fish, and although it gave him a bit of a runaround he soon had it safely in the net ......

My last fish proved to be a Tench of around 1¾lbs and when Dave called the All-Out at 4pm I'd taken 17 Carp to go with that Tench and the skimmer which I felt would be somewhere close to 60lbs .

So Kit packed away and on to the Weigh-In with Kevin once more taking up his familiar role of scalesman. Rod kicked things off with 1lb for his solitary skimmer, while my fish came to 62½lbs . Kevin recorded 15¼lbs while it was Colin who took the honours on the day with a fine 67¾lbs . Tony found that his 25¼lbs was only good enough for 4th on the day as Dave produced 27¾ for 3rd. Martin recorded a level 14lbs and Zack 12½lbs. Ken produced 8¼lbs while Terry had struggled for 8½lbs. Bob could only muster 3¾lbs and Eddie had only 3½lbs to show for his efforts. Graham being the last to weigh produced a hard earnt 10¼lbs as his reward for plugging away at the silvers.

So back to the Lodge for a welcome cuppa and a slice of bread pudding paid for by Dave .
It turned out that our team had won on the day, meaning that Zack received his first ever pick-up from a match .
While the weights had been a little disappointing in general I felt that the conditions hadn't shown the lake in it's best light, Match wise although it holds 19 pegs it probably can't hold more than 16 in comfort which restricts it a little, but I for one would be more than happy to fish it again.
So that's it, definitely the final Marsh AC match of the year, well unless we sneak out somewhere for an impromptu Christmas match .

Where am I off to next? Who knows? but the report will be here when I find out .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	67lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 2	Peter Morton	62lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 20	Dave Collier	27lbs 12ozs
4th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts	25lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 4	Kevin Loveland	15lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 11	Martin Hucker	14lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 12	Zack Johnson	12lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 19	Graham Manning	10lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 16	Terry Goff	8lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 13	Ken Walker	8lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 17	Bob Hucker	3lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 18	Eddie Dobson	3lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 1	Rod Turner	1lbs 00ozs

Now the club doesn't operate a championship as such but for a bit of fun I worked out a table of the seasons results using a 20 point system, allowing for an anglers worst result to be dropped and 1 point awarded for a DNW. Guests results were not included in the table and the matches at the Private Lake and Cottage Lake at Colemans weren't included as neither of them were official club matches. As you can see it was very close in the end with Colin and Tony tied at the top. However Colin had 3 match wins to Tony's 2 and also caught a greater weight of fish. My blow out on the 1st match at Monks and missing the 1st match at Colemans knocked me back. Perhaps I should have worked it out on aggregate weight .

Position	Angler	Monks	PeaLane	Colemans	Rockells	Nicks	Colemans	Rayne	Points	Total Weight
1st	Colin Sharrard	20 pts	14 pts	20 pts	17 pts	18 pts	20 pts	11 pts	109 pts	580lbs 04ozs
2nd	Tony Roberts	17 pts	15 pts	18 pts	16 pts	20 pts	18 pts	20 pts	109 pts	568lbs 12ozs
3rd	Dave Collier	19 pts	20 pts	19 pts	18 pts	15 pts	16 pts	d.n.f.	107 pts	535lbs 04ozs
4th	Peter Morton	9 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	19 pts	17 pts	19 pts	18 pts	99 pts	625lbs 04ozs
5th	Terry Goff	13 pts	1 pt	13 pts	15 pts	13 pts	13 pts	17 pts	86 pts	325lbs 12ozs
6th	Martin Hucker	6 pts	8 pts	11 pts	20 pts	10 pts	12 pts	16 pts	77 pts	499lbs 04ozs
7th	John Holdsworth	8 pts	12 pts	7 pts	d.n.f.	12 pts	13 pts	19 pts	71 pts	155lbs 00ozs
8th	Ken Walker	18 pts	11 pts	9 pts	9 pts	d.n.f.	10 pts	8 pts	65 pts	122lbs 00ozs
9th	Jim Boase	d.n.f.	19 pts	12 pts	8 pts	11 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	64 pts	134lbs 08ozs
10th	Judy Hermite	10 pts	16 pts	d.n.f.	12 pts	14 pts	d.n.f.	11 pts	63 pts	171lbs 04ozs
11th	Chris Withall	11 pts	18 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	16 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	62 pts	105lbs 08ozs
12th	Rod Turner	7 pts	1 pt	16 pts	7 pts	8 pts	14 pts	9 pts	61 pts	75lbs 08ozs
13th	Zack Johnson	14 pts	9 pts	8 pts	6 pts	9 pts	11 pts	7 pts	58 pts	96lbs 14ozs
14th	Roger Noakes	12 pts	13 pts	4 pts	11 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	15 pts	55 pts	109lbs 08ozs
15th	Simon Watkins	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	15 pts	d.n.f.	19 pts	17 pts	d.n.f.	51 pts	212lbs 08ozs
16th	Graham Manning	16 pts	7 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	d.n.f.	9 pts	d.n.f.	46 pts	154lbs 12ozs
17th	Eddie Dobson	d.n.f.	10 pts	10 pts	10 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	12 pts	42 pts	82lbs 04ozs
18th	Kevin Loveland	15 pts	d.n.f.	14 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	29 pts	48lbs 08ozs
19th	Ron Mannister	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	6 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	14 pts	20 pts	32lbs 00ozs
20th	Bob Hucker	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	5 pts	13 pts	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	d.n.f.	18 pts	94lbs 08ozs

(d.n.f. = Did not Fish.   20 pts = Match Winner.)

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Peartree Lake.

Well today is a rare midweek day out with a few of the lads from Marsh AC and Maggotdrowners . Not a club match as such, just a days fishing as Kevin has returned to these shores for six weeks before he and Jean finally make their move to The Bahamas. So that Kevin can get a final bit of fishing in ahead of their departure we'd arranged this trip down to Hartleylands today along with a final official club match at Colemans Cottage on Saturday .

I've still got a few days of Holiday to fit in before the end of the year, so booked the day off to venture out for an all to rare weekday session . Loading up the car just before 6am it was noticeably chilly and the car thermometer only read 4°C . I'd arranged to meet a few of the lads at The Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast beforehand and when I got there Kevin, Jean and Al were already tucking in and we were soon joined by Tony and Jim. Soon we made our way down to the fishery to find the car park packed as there was a Police match on Nick's and Bramley.

Dave soon had the draw organised and with just 13 of us fishing we just used the odd pegs on Peartree and I found Peg 19 in my hand. I soon had my gear round to the peg, though a soft trolley tyre made it harder work than usual .

Stopping for a chat with Terry he was struggling big time without a single fish to show for his efforts , despite there being fish moving in the reeds in his left hand margin.

Settling back into my peg I banded a 6mm pellet and shipped out and settled for feeding just 10-15 pellets every put in. 10 minutes of lifting and dropping finally produced a bite, and a chunky little Mirror of around 1½lbs was a welcome result . Jean and Al's wife arrived with the pies, and that Meat & Potato pie looked like it was going to be the best bite I was going to get on the day . I wish I could say it got better as the day progressed, but it didn't, apart from Jean turning up with a freshly brewed mug of tea courtesy of Dave . Far to long between bites was the story, but I plugged away and ended with 19 fish which I thought might scrape 20lbs, by the time Dave called the All-Out.

The Weigh-In didn't take long. Kev kicked off with just a couple of fish for 2½lbs. Dave had fared better with 28¼lbs to show for his efforts, while John managed 14¼lbs. Bill took the bragging rights on the day with a hard earned 49lbs while DaveT managed 30½lbs for second (Including his 8½lb PB Common ) Tony managed 22¼lbs to edge out my 19¾lbs. Terry managed to find a few in the end to weigh 16¼lbs while Al managed 30¼lbs for third on the day.

So no great shakes fishing wise, but good company and far better than a day at work . It's off to Essex and Colemans Cottage on Saturday and hopefully a few more fish.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 11	Bill Gibbins	49lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 15	Dave Talbot	30lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 23	Al Loader	30lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 3	Dave Collier	28lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 17	Tony Roberts	22lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 19	Peter Morton	19lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 21	Terry Goff	16lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 5	John Holdsworth	14lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 9	Martin Hucker	4lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 13	Jim Boase	3lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 1	Kevin Loveland	2lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 25	Roger Noakes	1lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 7	Rod Turner	DNW

PROTAK TR Design Clothing Review.

 

I'd been looking to purchase a new set of waterproofs for a while, and could postpone it no longer after the Southern Fur & Feather at Wylands when my old suit gave up the ghost leaving me soaked through .

Having done some homework, 2 companies products stood out as having consistently good reviews from their users. Halkon Hunt Gortex® and Protak TR clothing. To be honest the cost of the Halkon Hunt made it hard to justify for me so I decided to go with PROTAK.

I looked at all the combinations available in the TR Design Range to see what would suit my requirements. Doing a fair amount of pole fishing I wanted a Pole Jacket rather than a ¾length one along with a Bib & Brace. However both of these garments come with a 2oz quilted lining as standard and I was after a year round suit, that I could add a couple of layers to if needed come winter.

I phoned their order line (01625 590140) and spoke to a very helpful lady called Gail and explained just what I was after IE: both garments minus the quilted lining and an extra inch on the Bib & Brace legs along with my name and Maggotdrowning.com embroidered onto the jacket. Not a problem even though they would have to be specialy made with a cost to me of £122 with a delivery time of 3 weeks. Their attention to detail being exemplified by a phonecall I received after 2 weeks just to check the spelling before they embroidered the jacket.

1 week later the suit arrived and I have to say that I was very happy with the finished clothing.It's all made with Tactel® textured nylon with a breathable, delamination-proof Exeat® coating. The Jacket features storm cuffs, nylon zip with storm flap, 2 storm pockets and 2 hand warmer pockets, 2 inside pockets (one of them zipped) a Fleece collar and a detachable hood while the Bib and Brace has 2 chest and 2 leg pockets, 2 way zip with storm flap and zipped gussets on the legs to allow ease of putting on over boots. All the garment seams are fully taped and sealed. It's all machine washable as well .

1st time out the weather threw the lot at me, wind, torrential rain and hail. I sat it out for the full 5 hours of the match without an umbrella and was warm and dry at the end, with not a single leak to be found . This clothing has now had 6 months of reasonably continuous use so far and has confirmed my initial impression that it's a quality bit of kit and Made in England by an English Company and well worth consideration if anyone is thinking of getting some new gear. I will however return to this review at a later date to update my thoughts on it so that everyone is kept up to date on how it continues to perform .

Rayne Lodge Fishery. The Top Lake.

Marsh AC club match.

So it was off to the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge just outside Braintree in Essex today for what should be the last Marsh AC club match of the year (Though we might manage to sneak another one in somewhere ). It promised to feel a little strange as Dave Collier would be missing his first club match in nearly twenty years but I felt sure that we'd manage to muddle through without him .

The initial look through the bedroom curtains held the promise of a decent day ahead, and it was pleasantly mild as I loaded the kit into the car and set off for deepest Essex . An easy trouble free run down saw me pulling into the Top Lake car park just after 8am, where I found a few of the lads already sorting their kit and ferrying it down the hill to the lake. There were 16 of us today including two of our regular guests, Keith and Mick who had trekked down from Milton Keynes .

Now the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge is one of those picture book little lakes with trees trailing into the lake offering plenty of cover and features to fish to. Well it was !!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately someone appears to have acquired a chainsaw and has yet to discover the OFF switch .
To say that the pruning in some swims has been extensive would be an understatement. Brutal bordering on vandalism would be more accurate in my opinion . By way of example the following photo shows the view from peg 16 last May......

While the following photo shows the view from the same peg now  ......

Anyway rant over and back to the business of the day. With Dave absent, Colin and Tony had taken care of the pegging and collection of the cash and it was soon time for the draw. Into the draw-bag and I find myself holding Peg 14a . Last year I would have run to it, but I wasn't so enthusiastic today as it's right at the heart of the recent 'Pruning'. It's one of Dave's favourite swims, but in a way I'm glad he's not here today as he would probably have cried to see it as it is now .

Well it was my swim for the next 6 hours so it was a question of making the most of it. For company today I had Keith over to my left on Peg 16, a quality angler and if he's on a few fish, more than capable of doing the necessary . To my right there was Judy on peg 13 and Colin next to her on Peg 12. Tony has drawn peg 1 and there were a stack of fish in the corner to his right as we were drawing, and with Peg 22 drawn for Al (who hadn't made it as it turned out) he's got that corner to himself .

Time to set up and today I was going with a pellet and paste attack. The lake's level was about a foot down from its normal level and I was going to fish one line straight out at around 7mts where there was around 3ft of depth, and down both margins where there was around a foot. Rigs were my favourite Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hook to fish pellet as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·18 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook for paste on the 7mtr line with a couple of Malman MTD1 dibbers rigged up on 0·18 Power Match, one with a 16 Drennan for pellet and the other with a size 12 Ashima for paste. I had my feeder rod rigged up in it's ready sleeve but didn't really want to go down that route unless I was struggling. Bait for the day was simply a selection of various pellets and paste, while feed was taken care of with 6mm Skrettings pellets while a bag of groundbait was in the carryall if I needed it later .

So down to business as Colin signalled the All-In at 10am. Out with a pot of pellet at 7mtrs and some more by hand down the margins. A banded 8mm to start was shipped out to 7mtrs. A few little dinks, probably silvers pecking at the pellet. A few lift and drops, float dipped, missed it. Now something I noticed on a previous visit is how bad the condition a lot of the fishes mouths are  and I'm sure that's the reason for a lot of missed bites here, as it must be hard to get a hook-hold with the state of some of their mouths. Keith had landed his 1st fish "That's the blank saved" he remarked . I was in almost straight after and soon had a Common of around 2lbs safely in the net. I noticed that the fish was very slimy and hard to get hold of and made a mental note not to try lifting any into the keepnet. Another couple of fish followed for both Keith and myself, but sport was slow to say the least .

After a couple of hours I'd got 7 Carp and a couple of silvers, so out came the feeder rod and I knocked up a bit of groundbait, I'd banded an 8mm pellet and out went the method feeder to the corner of the island. An almost instant response in the form of a Mirror around the 2½lb mark didn't lead to better things however . Colin strolled up with his sandwiches. He'd been having a torrid time of it with just 3 Carp to show for his efforts . Keith meanwhile has suffered from 'slippery fish' syndrome and deposited a Carp safely back into the lake rather than his keepnet . With just 2 Carp to show for 45 minutes on the feeder I decided to cup in some loose groundbait and pellets on my 7mtr line and take a quick stroll with my camera to allow it to settle .

I took a stroll down to see Mick (Keith's travelling partner) on 11a. Tony had this swim on our visit last year and took a good bag from the left hand tree. It's not there any more, just a stump but Mick was nicking a few from the left hand margin ......

I could see Eddie over on Peg 5 with what appeared to be a nice patch of lilies on his right to fish to, so hopefully he would be picking up a few ......

Making my way back, I stopped off at Colin, but things weren't showing any signs of improving for him I'm afraid and he was at a loss as to what he could do to improve things  ......

while Judy was in pretty much the same boat as Colin, but was plugging away and at least keeping up with him ......

Back to my peg and I noticed a couple of bubbles coming up on the 7mtr line. Keith was a bit exasperated by the number of fish he'd had shed the hook and had managed to release yet another 'slippery fish' but he now appeared to be concentrating on his margin line ......

Bites for me were still finicky so I decided to fish the 6mm Skrettings I was feeding banded on the hook as they were really quite small compared with some other 6mm pellets.
That seemed to make all the difference for me, and while Keith started to put together a run of fish I felt that I was managing to match him and maybe even ease ahead a little bit . In fact it was all going pretty well apart from a couple of foul hookers, one of which trashed my pellet rig with 15 minutes to go . However swapping to my paste rig still kept the bites coming and I managed another 4 Carp before Colin called the All-Out at 4pm.

Packing away I couldn't help feeling a little frustrated at the way my match had gone , mostly due to the fact that the swim had been altered so drastically from the one I'd been expecting when I drew it, but on the plus side I felt confident that I'd beaten Keith and those around me . The Weigh-In was in full swing by the time that Keith and I caught up with it. Tony leading with a fine 79½lbs that would ultimately take his section and the honours on the day . Ron and Jim had managed a tie from adjacent pegs (3 & 4) with 28lbs each while Eddie had winkled out 21½lbs from peg 5 . Martin had managed a very creditable 63½lbs from Peg 7 only to be pipped by 1lb from the next peg when Terry placed 64½lbs on the scales.

Poor Zack had struggled and could only manage a meagre 11½lbs from peg 10 while John put a level 73lbs on the scales that would give him the section and 2nd overall on the day, but most importantly the bragging rights over Martin & Zack in the car on the way home .
Ken recorded 13½lbs from Peg 11, but it was Mick on Peg 11a with 42½lbs who took the section spoils after Colin and Judy tied from their adjacent pegs with a level 18lbs each .

Round to my peg and my 25 Carp along with a few silvers took the scales round to 67¼lbs for a section win and 3rd overall . Keith's 53½lbs at least saw him with the bragging rights over Mick on the way home . Roger round on Peg 20 weighed in 32½lbs but once again suffered the agony of losing a PB carp at the venue as he'd done last year, While Rod was the last to weigh with a level 14lbs.

All that just left us with just the slog back up the hill to the car park. Thank Heavens that Dave wasn't there to waltz up the hill with his powered trolley and take the mickey out of us all . So with the sections paid out the farewells were done, That's it officially for the Marsh AC club matches this year, though we hope to fit one final outing in next month as Kevin is coming back to visit from the Bahamas, so we'll try to sort out a day with him .
In the meantime it's been a most enjoyable series of matches oncemore, and I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dave for organising the matches as always and another BIG THANK YOU to all that have fished the matches, both members and guests who've made them great fun to fish as always . Here's to more of the same next year .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	79lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 10	John Holdsworth	73lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 14a	Peter Morton	67lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 8	Terry Goff	64lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 7	Martin Hucker	63lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 16	Keith Ashby       (guest)	53lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 11a	Mick Wright      (guest)	42lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 20	Roger Noakes	32lbs 08ozs
9th=	Peg 3	Ron Mannister	28lbs 00ozs
9th=	Peg 4	Jim Boase	28lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 5	Eddie Dobson	21lbs 08ozs
12th=	Peg 12	Colin Sharrard	18lbs 00ozs
12th=	Peg 13	Judy Hermite	18lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 21	Rod Turner	14lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 11	Ken Walker	13lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 9	Zack Johnson	11lbs 08ozs

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick's Lake.

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2009.

 Down to Hartleylands Farm today just outside the village of Cranbrook to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Individual Championship on Nick's Lake. Nick Gilbert had kindly taken care of organising this match and there promised to be a good turn out for it .

The view out of the window first thing was a little dull and grey, but the forcast predicted a bright warm sunny day so hopefully things would pick up. With the car loaded it was off to The Knoxbridge Cafe for breakfast, quite a few of the lads had the same idea so there was a good bit of banter and a couple of new faces introduced themselves before we made our way down to the fishery for the draw . Arriving at the fishery it was obvious that we had a pretty decent turn out for todays match, 24 of us to be exact. Nick finally got the draw under way with Matt's help. Peg 34 for me, a nice short walk from the car, but not where I really fancied and with Vince drawing peg 23 I feared the loss of a Golden Nugget was very much on the cards .

With my kit at my peg it was time to set up, but for some reason today I really couldn't get into it and remarked on it to Terry who was on peg 33 to my right......

Anyway with 1½hrs to get ready I finally managed to get things done. 1st thing set up was the feeder rod with a small method feeder to drop to the edge of the island. For the pole I set up 3 rigs......

These were essentially similar to those I'd used the previous weekend ie: a couple of Malman 4X12 Adam's on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hooks to fish pellet as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·20 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook for paste down the edge. Bait was a selection of various pellets and paste with 6mm pellet for feed, while the groundbait was Sonubaits Method Mix......

11am saw Nick call the All-In and I potted in 2 large pots of pellet and groundbait at 6mtrs and a handfull of pellet down the margins, then went out on the method feeder to allow the pole line to settle. Well that was the plan but as I picked up the rod I noticed that somehow I'd managed to miss out threading the line through the bottom rod rig !! (told you I wasn't really focused when setting up ) So I had to strip things down and start again. Anyway having re-rigged I dropped it to the edge of the island. A couple of taps and the tip wrapped round, the 1st fish was on, only for it to slip the hook halfway to the net . Better luck next cast however and a small Common of around 1lb had me off and running. I managed another couple of similar examples in the next 20 minutes but got the impression that there weren't any number of fish there so decided to try the pole line while catapulting some pellets over to the island in an attempt to draw some fish .

Unfortunately the pole line was no more productive, 45 minutes producing just another couple of small Carp and a skimmer. Time for another look on the method. Dropping the feeder close to the island, I'd just set the tip when it wrapped round, lifting into the fish I noticed a boil in the water by the island and a Duck paddling off at a rate of knots. Unfortunately I was attached to the Duck . Well the subsequent fight caused a deal of hilarity , but Terry managed to do the honours with the net. 'Jemima' was freed and appeared none the worse for her ordeal and Clive kindly did the 'David Bailey' bit for posterity .......

With that episode out of the way I went back to the pole. It produced another couple of small Carp and a couple of small Roach, but it was still a struggle so I re fed all the lines and took the camera for a quick stroll. In fact I could hear splashing from Terry's swim as I stood up, and was just in time to catch him sliding a Carp into the landing net ......

Looking across from Terry's swim I could see Vince and Jessebobs staring straight out in front of them, either they were concentrating hard or was it trying to ignore the bloody awful row singing coming from Al on the next peg ......

Meanwhile Clive was attached to something that was giving his purple Hydro a decent work out and giving him a bit of a run around ......

Simon and Mick were engaged in exchanging witty repartee, though some may have mistaken it for ripping the pee out of each other and wonder of wonders Mick was actually fishing the pole ......

Over on the other side thing were obviously not going to plan however as Matt (MD's very own slapper ) was fishing short down the margin !!!!!!!!!......

On the way back to my peg I noticed that Clive was now concentrating his line of attack down the margin ......

...... and felt that it was probably my best chance of getting anything decent, so out came the paste rig for the final part of the match.
Jeff D had started fishing his margin as well and was having a good run of fish, but it really never happened for me. Just 4 Carp in the last hour, though they were of a better stamp than I'd been getting previously. When Nick called All-Out at 4pm I have to say that I was glad it was all over and I soon had the gear packed up and back in the car .

The Weigh-in was soon under way and Jeff's 59lbs+ was the first weight of any note. My meagre total of 30¼lbs being last in section .
Roy's (Anglingman) 61lbs+ was beaten by Nick's level 69lbs, while Al took the section and 3rd overall with 78¾lbs . Vince, despite suffering almost as bad a match as me (Including snapping his waggler rod) had managed 31½lbs and had a rather large grin as I handed him a Golden Nugget . Nick (BAG UP) had walked the section with 114½lbs that also won him the match . Ian Carley (CasterBlaster) put 70lbs on the scales to take the next section while Neil Beard's 107lbs took the final section and 2nd overall .

Back to the car park for a quick presentation, then the inquests and pee taking started in earnest. Congratulations to Nick(BAG UP)Costar who now holds the title of MD's Southern Champion, but more importantly 'The Bragging Rights' for a year . Thanks to Nick Gilbert for organising the whole thing and Thank You to all the anglers that turned up, without whom there wouldn't have been a match . Let's do it all again next year.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 17	Nick Costar (BAG UP)	114lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 8	Neil Beard (neilbeard)	107lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 25	Alan Loader (al)	78lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 3	Kevin Pack (Backintheday)	72lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 14	Ian Carley (CasterBlaster)	70lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 28	Nick Gilbert	69lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 32	Roy Gudgeon (Anglingman)	61lbs 14ozs
8th	Peg 35	Jeff Driscoll (Jeff D)	59lbs 06ozs
9th	Peg 16	Greg Andrews (Splitshot1)	53lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 24	Steve Burgess (Jessebobs)	46lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 21	Matt Love	45lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 13	Sven Castle (Svenc)	40lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 33	Terry Goff (Wily Coyote)	33lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 36	Clive Pritchard (clive)	33lbs 06ozs
15th	Peg 12	Dai Thomas (Dai Fish)	32lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 23	Vince Gould (Vince G)	31lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 34	Peter Morton (Mugger)	30lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 27	Richard Pearson (dhl man)	27lbs 12ozs
19th	Peg 2	Andy Hodd (Maver1)	26lbs 08ozs
20th	Peg 6	Mick Pearson (mickthechippy)	20lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 20	Keith Powell (Keith74)	16lbs 08ozs
22nd	Peg 5	Simon Elsey	7lbs 08ozs
23rd=	Peg 9	Phillip Starkey (Crabpellet)	DNW
23rd=	Peg 30	Keith Driscoll (Disco)	DNW