April 24, 2010

• Churchgate Lakes. The Bottom Lake.

  Marsh AC club match.

  

  Well it’s the second Marsh match of the year today. There’s a slight change of plan however as we were supposed to be fishing the Top Lake, but with only 22 pegs on there after some recent changes, and with 20 anglers booked in for todays match the decision was made to change to the Bottom Lake. I have to say that the last couple of matches that the club has had on there haven’t really been resounding successes so hopefully it will fish a bit better for us today . 

  I’d arranged to meet up with Dave at his house at 7am, and it’s a good job I did. As I got out of the car I saw that I hadn’t put my pellets in the car, Luckily Dave always has loads so I blagged some from him . Cars loaded and a quick trip through the Dartford Tunnel into darkest Essex saw us pulling into the fishery car park at Battlesbridge just before 8am .
  
  It promised to be a glorious day weather wise with the sun shining out of a clear blue sky, but the first order of the day was breakfast  in the café cooked by Tony Runnalls (the Fishery Manager) while everyone caught up with the latest gossip. It was Dave’s Birthday  today and his good lady Gladys had come with him on what has become her annual outing with the club. There’s a bit of history here as on her first visit here in October 2007 she had beaten Dave off the next peg, while on our last visit in July 2008, I was the one being beaten, so the pressure was on to avoid being “Gladys’d” so avoiding frightful amounts of stick in the future .
  
  Into the draw and I found peg 2 sticking to my hand, a nice short walk from the car park but not the best of draws as it’s always struggled to produce in our matches on the lake. The peg itself looks glorious……

  

  …….with the corner of an island that can be reached at around 20mtrs. For company today I had Keith on peg 1 ……

  

  …… so the competition would be stiff, but at least the banter would be good   while peg 3 wasn’t drawn.
  I decided to be positive in my approach today targeting the larger fish that are present in the lake. I set up a couple of Shakespeare 11 ft pellet waggler rods and a feeder rod with a small method feeder to attack the point of the island, while I just set up 1 pole rig for a late look down the margin as a back up. Bait for the day was simply 6mm hard pellet and some corn, while the groundbait for the feeder was the new GOT ‘Yellow Peril’ with some added Atomic micros.
  There’s a huge head of smaller fish that can be caught fishing maggot, but the matches always seem to go to those who get amongst the better specimens, especially the Carp and Bream, so they were my targets for today.
  
  So at 10am Dave called the All-In and we were underway, the method feeder being dispatched to the corner of the island with a banded pellet on the hook, while I pinged a few pellets over in preparation for the waggler later. Keith started on the lead to the island and was soon off the mark with a small Tench . I stuck at the method for 45 minutes before I was rewarded with my first fish, a small F1 that promptly dived at the keepnet and transfered the hook to it before I had the chance to net it. Carp 1-0 , Was it going to be one of those days?
  
  Out with the waggler and i was finally rewarded with an Ide of around 1lb+ to get me off the mark . Dave was on an early stroll round and informed me that Gladys was catching well and already had 35 fish to crank the pressure up. Gladys always fishes maggot on a top 2 for whatever swims and while I knew most of her fish would be small there was always the chance of the odd bonus and she would probably put 10lbs+ on the scales at the end, so no pressure there then .
  
  A Bream was my next fish and at around 2½lbs more than welcome, this was swiftly followed another, unfortunately this one was nearer 2½ozs. Keith however was reporting rather a lot of black Hydro being pulled from his topkit!!!!!!!!  The culprit proved to be a decent Common that was soon residing in the bottom of Keith’s landing net………

  

  I was then briefly attached to something that decided to vanish at a rate of knots round the back of the island before shedding the hook and killing sport in the process. Carp 2-0 . I took a look down the margin that I’d been feeding regularly from the off with a grain of corn on the hook but without an indication to give me any encouragement after 15 minutes I decided to have a stroll with the camera. Tony on peg 25 was getting amongst some decent Ide down on peg 25, but the chap that seemed to be doing the best on that bank was Clive fishing meat long he’d picked up some decent Bream and a couple of Carp, but had lost a Bream that he reckoned was bigger than his landing net!!!!! ……..

  
  

  

  Gladys had slowed down a bit (Thank heavens for small mercies ) while Dave fishing his customary 4 sections had the contented look of a man who felt he had the measure of his wife ……..

  

  Over on the far side the wind was putting a nice ripple onto the water and Jim could be found steadily putting a net of small fish together, but was a little frustrated that he couldn’t find any bonus fish  ……

  

  ……. especially as Mick (fishing as Keith’s guest having accompanied him down from Milton Keynes) was quietly putting together a good net with some decent Bream fishing his right hand margin………

  

  ……. Colin was having a bit of a struggle and had reverted to fishing the maggot, but Al was fishing hemp & tares up in the water and was finding a few Ide and bream. Tony (Wily Coyote) was tucked away in peg 5 but was having better luck catching the sun than getting the fish to co-operate  …….

  

  ……. and young Zack was sticking at it, but struggling to find a bite with just a couple of fish to show for his efforts…….

  

  Back at my peg and the waggler still failed to produce so I decided to fish the method for the remainder of the match in the hope that I could find a decent Carp to get me out of Jail. Tony meanwhile had hooked a decent Carp, a right lump in fact and was gingerly playing it on his new pole, and getting plenty of encouragement to give it a bit of teddy ……..
  
  ……. needless to say the hook pulled, but at least he got plenty of Sympathy ……..NOT!!!!!!!!

  
  

  

  Meanwhile Clive had come for a stroll round complete with camera, and right on cue the tip on my feeder rod shot round, Fish on, softly softly as it was obviously a Carp that could save my day……

  

  ……. Well retribution for taking the micky out of Tony was swift as everything went slack, a pigtailed line showing that a knot had failed at the swivel ……..

  

  ……. Mugger had been well and truly mugged. Carp 3-0 .

  

  So a couple of hours to go and it looked like I needed snookers. I tied a new rig up, paying special attention to the knots this time and set up a hair rig to take 3 grains of sweetcorn, sh*t or bust time. Time ticked on, Keith managed another a smaller Carp from his margin, but not so much as a rattle on my tip .
  3·55pm and just 5 minutes to go, time for one last cast before the inevitable stick that I just knew would be coming my way. 3 fresh grains of corn on the rig and back out accompanied with a little prayer……………. Well the tip had barely settled when it steadily pulled round and just kept going . I just had to lift the rod and as soon as I felt it I knew this was the fish that I needed. A nervous couple of minutes followed, not helped by various shouts of encouragement (or was it disbelief ) from around the lake, before I slid it safely over the net accompanied by a shout of relief that could be heard around the lake, a definite double, I slipped it safely into the keepnet just as Dave called the All-Out .

   

  As I packed my kit away I have to say that I felt pretty relieved, though I’m sure I could hear “Two Minutes  Two bloody Minutes “ coming from Dave’s direction. Keith and I were on the scales today and as we set off round the lake Tony on peg 25 took an early lead with a level 20lbs. Clive on peg 20 soon overtook that however with 45lbs . Gladys set the target of 12½lbs to avoid humiliation, which Dave sailed past with 22½lbs . Jim put 17lbs on the scales, but the main man on the day was Keith’s guest Mick who comfortably took the win with 63¼lbs of mainly Bream . Al’s 23lbs was to prove good enough for 3rd overall. My moment of truth arrived and that late Carp weighed just over 11lbs and boosted my total weight to 16¼lbs, so no ‘Gladysing’ for me . Keith rounded things off with a hard earnt 17¾lbs .

   

  Back to the car park for the results, and most seemed to think that it hadn’t fished that badly, and after a chorus of  for Dave we said our farewells  .  

   

  Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
  1st	Peg 10	Mick Wright              (guest)	63lbs 04ozs	n/a
  2nd	Peg 20	Clive Pritchard	45lbs 00ozs	30
  3rd	Peg 7	Al Loader	23lbs 00ozs	29
  4th	Peg 18	Dave Collier	22lbs 08ozs	28
  5th	Peg 25	Tony Roberts	20lbs 00ozs	27
  6th	Peg 1	Keith Ashby	17lbs 12ozs	26
  7th	Peg 11	Jim Boase	17lbs 00ozs	25
  8th	Peg 2	Peter Morton	16lbs 04ozs	24
  9th	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	15lbs 12ozs	23
  10th	Peg 14	Roger Noakes	12lbs 08ozs	22
  10th=	Peg 19	Gladys Collier             (guest)	12lbs 08ozs	n/a
  12th	Peg 12	Ken Walker	9lbs 08ozs	21
  13th	Peg 9	John Holdsworth	8lbs 04ozs	20
  14th	Peg 5	Terry Goff	8lbs 00ozs	19
  15th	Peg 16	Martin Hucker	6lbs 08ozs	18
  16th	Peg 21	Eddy Dobson	5lbs 08ozs	17
  17th	Peg 26	Judy Hermite	4lbs 12ozs	16
  18th	Peg 4	Zack Johnson	3lbs 00ozs	15
  19th	Peg 24	Kevin Loveland	1lb   00ozs	14
  20th	Peg 22	Rod Turner	DNW	5

   

  My next trip should be down to Monk Lakes for the Faye Match in support of http://www.postpals.co.uk which should hopefully raise a good few quid for a very good cause. A full report of the day will appear here in due course .

  

  

   

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