June 23, 2012

• Alders Farm Fishery. Great Brickhill. Buckinghamshire.

  Maggotdrowning.com

  

  Alders Farm Match

  

  Like a lot of these things today’s trip to Alders Farm all started when back in early April, Linda (Mermaid) made quite an innocent post on The Maggotdrowning Forum asking whether there would be any interest in a match of some sort at the venue . It was soon obvious there was a bit of interest and before long Linda found herself entering into a new job, that of ‘Match Organiser’ having managed to get a Saturday in June sorted .
  
  I travelled up with Dave the fish today and it was around 8·20am when we arrived at the fishery, First things first and a quick trip to the new on site tackle shop tackle shop for some fishery pellets and a chat with Trevor Price and then getting the nets dipped while Dave dropped our gear at the bottom of the hill. A good few were in attendance and I found Linda to check in, she handed me a name badge, a nice touch so that everyone would know who was who . Next stop was down to to The Pumphouse overlooking the lake to grab a quick breakfast and catch up with some more of todays participants. Much chat over the prospects for the match and the general consensus was that the unsettled weather and rain during the week would keep the weights down today, though everyone should enjoy some good sport .
  
  Around 9am Linda called everyone to the draw. Gary Thorpe had kindly sorted the choice of pegs for the draw, so into the draw bag and peg 5 was attracted to my hand, not a bad peg and I was happy with that . So off to collect my kit and make my way to my peg……

  

  There were a fair few of us pegged on the pumphouse bank with Jonny on peg 1, Lee peg 2. Fellow Jinx Squad members Fred and Clive had pegs 3 and 4 while to my left was Linda’s husband Chris on peg 6. It was nice to see Chris fishing as he tends to be employed as Linda’s ghillie normally . Next up was Rod on peg 7 and Nick on peg 8, while Keith had plenty of space to himself on peg 12.

  

  Settling into the swim the first thing that was noticeable was that yet again the wind was blowing firmly into me, not a bad thing in itself, but it meant that I’d be sitting there all match with a fleece on looking across to those sitting there in polo shirts, or in Andrew on peg 27′s case a very poor taste in football shirt .

  

  Trev had told me that the end of the bush on the right was the sweet spot in the swim, with a back up at 5mtrs straight out so setting up was quite straight forward. Just 3 rigs all pretty much identical as the swim is pretty shallow(around 18 inches at the end of the bush and around 2½ feet at 5mtrs) . These were all Nick Gilbert’s handmade NG Power Pencil’s, two 0·4 gm and a 0·5 gm, all made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X’s nice and simple and strong enough to stand up to what would hopefully turn into a good bagging session. Bait was simply 2 bags of 6mm fishery pellets, a couple of pints of red maggots and a couple of tins of corn.
  
  With everything set there was a bit of time for a quick chat with Rod, Chris, Clive and Fred before Linda called the All-In at 10·30am. A couple of pots of mixed pellet maggot and corn at 5mtrs and a similar handful fed to the end of the bush but before I can get a bait in the water Clive is playing his first fish of the day …….

  

  I soon had a banded 6mm on the hook and dropped at the end of the bush. The float simply buried and produced a…………..rudd , not the hoped for carp, there’s loads of them in Ash Lake and it’s normally just a case of working through them and keeping the feed going until the carp move in and push them out. After about 5 rudd the next bite produced firm resistance as a carp powered off. Now these carp aren’t huge, indeed the average size is probably around 3lbs, but being that the water is shallow they just power off when you hook them and fight well above their weight . In that respect it’s probably handy that I’m used to fishing Rolfs where the carp are of a far larger average size. It’s just a question of getting their heads up so they take a gulp of air and sliding them over the net .
  
  I felt that Clive had got off to a better start in the first hour as I was only picking up odd fish, but as we moved into the second hour I was starting to catch him up as he had longer gaps between his fish. In fact looking around it was obvious that this was going to be one of those days where you had to work for your fish as nobody seemed to be really bagging up , but I was reasonably confident that if I could keep the fish coming at the same rate a ‘Ton’ was definitely on the cards . My back up line at 5mtrs however was only producing the odd fish so that was written off pretty early on .
  
  Looking on I could see Clive hanging on as increasing amounts of red hydro appeared from the end of his top kit, obviously a decent fish it appeared hell bent on reaching the island, steady pressure finally told though and it was a very relieved Clive that finally netted another fighting fit carp ………

  

  Chris was having a bit of a mare however as the rudd stubbornly refused to make way for carp close in, forcing him to fish long to find any carp, but even then a few to many were slipping the hook as he played them ……

  

  About 2pm Trevor Price had a stroll round taking a few pictures and seeing that I thought I’d better have a quick session with my camera so I had a few pictures for this report . I strolled down to Rod (isis) to find him cursing the rudd, they seemed to have settled into his peg and were doing a great impression of Piranhas devouring anything he cared to put on the hook . Nick (pastie) on peg 8 was starting to get among a few however and looked to be getting one over on his Dad, Steve (rookery54) who was across on peg 16 …….

  

  While over on peg 20 I could see Trev (grannyspodder) who seemed to be waiting far to long between bites today …….

  

  Meanwhile on peg 22 it looked to me like Gary (shooter560) had decided to try paste in an effort to up his catch rate …….

  

  On peg 27 Andrew (lemon1) had at least covered up his rather dubious taste in football tops, while Keith was wishing for an upturn in sport like he’d had on his previous visit here when he’d set a new match best for himself …….

  

  and tucked away on peg 30 was Dave the fish, I’d noticed that he’d been catching as well as anyone on that bank, and with this sort of fishing suiting his style felt he was bound to be in with a shout at the end ……

  

  Back on peg 3 Fred (Milo) was smiling but it hid the frustration of not getting the best from his peg as he was suffering with to many foul hookers and lost fish ……..

  

  While a look across to Lee (red baron) saw him with a smile on his face as he slid another carp over the waiting landing net ……

  

  Steve (big Stump) seemed lost in concentration on peg 38, probably hoping to avoid being beaten by the next peg …….

  

  Which happened to be occupied by the Match Organiser herself, Linda (Mermaid) who was obviously targeting fish in the margins ……

  

  As was Simon (sidev77) who obviously had the same aim as Steve …….

  

  Back at my peg I’d just netted my first fish on my return when what sounded like a rifle shot came from the left , Nick had destroyed a Tri-Cast top kit when a carp had buried itself in the margin reeds. Moving into the last hour I was still taking fish on a steady basis from the edge of the bush in between being heckled by Clive and Chris to the effect that I was bagging and it must be solid with fish in the peg………………. hurtful that neither of them felt that it may be down to my superior piscatorial ability . Anyway despite this harassment I soldiered heroically on till the All-Out was called at 3·30pm. Looking down at my clicker I had 49 carp recorded on it and I felt that I had a comfortable Ton+ in the nets, which I felt was a decent effort given how hard the lake had fished today .
  
  As we packed away our kit and waited for the scales the chat turned to how the day had gone. Rod now understood why Gary Thorpe refers to rudd as ‘Vermin’ having suffered a peg full of them all day and Nick showed off his new multi piece top kit. Clive felt he may have 50-60lbs though I was convinced he had more. The scales were moving around the lake pretty fast so it was obvious that it hadn’t fished as it can today and when they got to Keith (Gandhi), my travelling partner Dave the fish was leading with 117lbs the only ‘Ton’ so far……

  

  
  Keith started the weights on the pumphouse bank with 71lbs 14ozs ……

   

  

  Rod followed with 15½lbs and Chris put 40¼lbs on the scales ……

  

  My 3 nets weighed a total of 132lbs 07ozs to take the lead with 4 still to weigh ……

  

  Clive did indeed have a bit more than his estimate with 89lbs to show for his efforts ……

  

  and while Lee was last but one to weigh with 102lbs 06ozs ……

  

  and Jonny was last to weigh in with a fine 123lbs 06ozs .

  Back to the Pumphouse for the results where we found that the staff had kindly laid on hot drinks for us, a really nice touch . Linda then called us all to order and paid out the sections…….

  

  
  

  Section A:
  1st: Peter (Mugger) Morton £20
  2nd: Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent £15
  
  Section B:
  1st: Nick (pastie) Allen £20
  2nd: Keith (Gandhi) Ashby £15
  
  Section C:
  1st: Dave (dave the fish) Collier £20
  2nd: Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs £15
  
  Section D:
  1st: Simon (sidev77) Watkins £20
  2nd: Linda (Mermaid) Billington £15

  

  Third overall on the day went to Dave the fish , Second to Jonny and the winner was Me and I have to say that I was both surprised and delighted when Linda presented me with an engraved tankard as a trophy, a lovely end to the day ……

  

  In conclusion I have to say a Big Thank You to Linda and Chris on behalf of all who attended, spot on organisation, right down to badges so that everyone knew who was who . I think you may have created an annual fixture for the MD’s calender in the future .
  
  Another Big Thank You to Trev, Gary and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, even on a hard day, fully deserving of the Stillwater of the Year Award that the fishery won in the National Angling Awards last year .
  
  Finally,Thanks to all the forum members that attended, plenty of good banter along with more than a few laughs as expected on a Drowner’s match and good to meet up and put some faces to names from the forum .

  Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
  1st	Peg 5	Peter (Mugger) Morton	132lbs 07ozs
  2nd	Peg 1	Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent	123lbs 06ozs
  3rd	Peg 30	Dave (dave the fish) Collier	117lbs 00ozs
  4th	Peg 2	Lee (red baron) Mitchell	102lbs 06ozs
  5th	Peg 29	Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs	94lbs 06ozs
  6th	Peg 4	Clive (Black Hydro) Pritchard	89lbs 00ozs
  7th	Peg 8	Nick (pastie) Allen	85lbs 04ozs
  8th	Peg 24	Keith (Gwinear13) Webb	83lbs 12ozs
  9th	Peg 12	Keith (Gandhi) Ashby	71lbs 14ozs
  10th	Peg 28	Keith (keith74) Powell	69lbs 10ozs
  11th	Peg 22	Gary (shooter560) Funnell	68lbs 12ozs
  12th	Peg 34	Simon (sidev77) Watkins	66lbs 06ozs
  13th	Peg 36	Linda (Mermaid) Billington	59lbs 08ozs
  14th	Peg 27	Andrew (lemon1) Stevens	51lbs 14ozs
  15th	Peg 38	Steve (big Stump) Chadwick	51lbs 00ozs
  16th	Peg 3	Fred (Milo) Parker	50lbs 01ozs
  17th	Peg 16	Steve (rookery54) Allen	50lbs 00ozs
  18th	Peg 32	John (John-Tutu) Holdsworth	40lbs 09ozs
  19th	Peg 6	Chris (Mermaid’s Ghillie) Billington	40lbs 04ozs
  20th	Peg 20	Trev (grannyspodder) Matthews	20lbs 00ozs
  21st	Peg 7	Rod (isis) Rose	15lbs 08ozs

  

  

   

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