First outing of 2008.

My 1st outing of the New Year saw me driving down to Monk Lakes to meet up with Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury from the Maggotdrowning Forum in the car park at 8am. The weather didn’t look to promising . A leaden grey sky holding the promise of rain, with heavy clouds scudding across at a rate of knots didn’t bode well as Monks is one of the most exposed fisheries going, and with the object of the day being to help Andy refine his waggler fishing I felt we could be in for a struggle .

The original plan was to set up on one of the heavily stocked match lakes, but with matches on all 4 of the match lakes, we elected to try one of the pleasure lakes. A leasurely drive round saw us settle on Bridges, the larger of the 2 pleasure lakes where we could fish 2 adjacent swims with the wind off our backs. Although the temperature was 10°C the wind made it feel like half of that .

Now the thing is that although I fish Monks fairly regularly, it’s mostly one of the four match lakes. Andy and I hadn’t fished Bridges since November 2004 when the lake hadn’t been open long, so neither of us really knew what to expect.

I was soon set up, having brought my Shakespeare 11ft Micro all set up in its ready rod sleeve, selecting a Drennan 3AA peacock insert waggler fishing 3lb straight through to an18 Drennan barbless carp match hook, with red maggot for bait. Andy was using his 11/13 John Wilson rod at 13ft in more relaxed mode fishing from his chair .

The maximum depth I could find was around 3ft about 25mtrs out towards the island, so a pouch of red maggots was followed by my float as I settled back to see if anything showed an interest. The wind was making things difficult, with Andy having to blacken his float tip to see it in the chop.

Soon my float slid away resulting in a nice plump Skimmer of around 2lb in the net and 5 minutes later its twin followed it …………….

 Andy finally got of the mark with a little Ide, not quite what he was hoping for but at least it was a start………….

I couldn’t help notice that we were getting the odd curious glance from other anglers on the lake as we were the only ones using float tackle, all the others tucked behind brollies or bivvies with the seemingly obligatory pair of Carp rods for the larger Carp that most anglers target on this lake.

Next up for Andy came a Skimmer……………..

………. but we were both struggling to put a run of fish together, I seemed to get a couple then nothing for a half hour, indeed despite trying numerous changes the only way I could get a bite was to lay 6″ of line on the deck. Finally I managed to connect with something that felt a little different, and it proved to be the 1st of several Chub of around 1lb, good to see as the last time i’d fished the lake they had been freshly stocked at around 4ozs in an effort to provide year round sport. I’m sure they’ll drive the carpers nuts as they’re large enough now to swallow a boilie .

Andy spent a while watching me and soon spotted the difference in my approach to his, with my match background I was always doing something, feeding, twitching the bait through my feed and casting more often, whereas Andy with his background in carping was more content to leave his rod in the rest for longer after casting and feeding less frequently.

Around about 1pm I hooked what was obviously a bonus, probably a Carp but i’ll never know as it just plodded off and shed the hook .

By 2pm i was getting ready to pack up when Andy was in again…………

…………….. It was soon apparent that this was something better as a Carp surfaced about 20 feet out, Andy’s landing net was looking a bit inadequate so I acted as ghillie with mine. On the mat it was obvious that the fish was a bit of an old warrior as unfortunately its fins weren’t in the best of condition and it had a nasty scar on one gill cover. A quick weigh before it was returned showed 15lbs, a nice bonus fish, meaning that we had both managed around 20lbs of fish during our session .

With my gear packed Andy decided to fish on for a while, so I bid him farewell after discussing the possibility of a session after Crucians at Marsh Farm later in the year once its warmed up a bit, that should be fun .

For those of you that are interested the following is Andy’s take on the day.………… 

Posted by Andy Spreadbury.
The object of the exercise was to carry forward what I’d learnt on my first session with the waggler. There were a number of issues to address – what sort of waggler for which conditions, shotting patterns, that sort of thing, and I started off by showing Peter my float-box. He suggested I try an insert peacock carrying 4 AAA and in addition to the bulk, to shot it with a couple of number 8s – one about half-way down, the other nine inches or so from the hook. This was a fairly heavy rig (as wagglers go), unlike the little six-inch jobbies I’d got which only take a few shot to cock them; it was so windy, even the heavy waggler was a job to cast.

Peter was out of the blocks almost immediately and was into a little run of skimmers, unfortunately, the shoal must have moved off as their presence was short-lived. I managed to bag one but as usual was falling way behind Peter’s catch-rate. A problem I identified almost immediately was visibility.

I tried to match the distance Peter was casting – quite a long way for float-fishing, about twenty-five meters or so, maybe thirty – I’m not too sure, it seemed an awful long way though and I have to confess I really couldn’t see the float properly and often not at all. Although the fine tip of the insert is great for lack of resistance to a biting fish, its slimness was a real disadvantage to the optically-challenged such as myself. I struggled with the thing for a good couple of hours before finally admitting defeat and fished shorter – even picking up a couple of fish. As Peter continued to reel ‘em in from his long-range presentation I changed the float for something else.

I’d got several other patterns with me, mostly of the straight variety made of reed, clear plastic, and peacock quill, but after several changes I eventually settled on a Premier Windbeater with a balsa body and straight stem carrying a shed-load of lead. At least this was manageable in the extremely strong wind which got stronger as the day wore on. I finally got the visibility issue sorted and could see the bright orange of the tip pretty well and with some fiddling about managed to get the shotting about right too. Peter however had out-caught me by a ratio of about five to one and I began to get ever so slightly frustrated by my lack of action – whereas Peter was picking up fish (albeit the odd fish, but fish nonetheless) a matter of only a few metres away.

Peter of course had the reason – and not for the first time during our sessions together it was FEEDING.

If there is one thing that is more important than anything else it is giving the fish feed in a consistent and regular manner sufficient to keep them interested in looking around for and finding hookbaits. Almost every time we go fishing, Feeding is the number one issue and today was no different. Peter reckoned it was my carp-fisherman mindset that made me adopt the sit-and-wait style I was using – whereas he was always busy, either feeding, twitching the bait back, re-casting, re-baiting, casting spells, talking to the fish – and whatever other devices he employs to coax, cajole, and coerce fish into taking his bait.

True, twitching the bait by giving the reel handle a turn every minute or so I am sure persuades an otherwise disinterested fish to snatch the bait back, but it is the constant and continual investment of effort that really does the trick, an investment that resulted in Peter far out-fishing me.

It was not only the amount and frequency of feed going in that made a difference – but where it was going also. Peter was pin-pointedly accurate – even in what was at times, a howling wind; my catapulted maggots were often going all over the place, blown by a gusty wind veering in sometimes unpredictable directions. There is a definite knack to it – you must aim low and snappy, not high and gentle – allowing the wind to blow the feed near the float, for it will inevitably blow it exactly where you don’t want it. The feed must be little, often, and in exactly the right place. Easy to talk – more difficult to do.

The carp was a total fluke and I claim no great skill in either luring it or landing it. The skimmers fought ten times harder! I am convinced the fish must have been laying-up – and for some considerable time too as it had a number of leech-like organisms on it.

Carp lay-up in the very harsh weather and I have often noticed that sick or mangy fish are particularly prone to doing this. The one I caught was a very sad individual who had obviously had a hard summer – the evidence of disease was obvious – lesions, partially rotten fins, and poor condition resulting in a fish that was in the recovery stage of previous ill-health.

Peter had to go early as his leg was playing him up (poor old thing) and I spent the last hour doing much better than the previous few hours catching some of the Chub and this Tench.

All in all, not only an enjoyable day in good company, but once again, I learnt a lot from my ‘mentor’.

Thanks Peter.

So Bank Holiday Monday and Maria is working today, so after dropping her at work at 6am I popped back home to load my kit up and set off towards Dorking, having decided to take the opportunity to reacquaint myself with The Old Estate Lake at Bury Hill Fisheries . Surprisingly for a Bank Holiday the traffic was very light and in just under an hour I was pulling into an already busy car park at the fishery.

Stopping off at the Boathouse to get my day ticket I notice that things have moved on since I last visited with a much better stocked tackle and bait section now in place and a quick glance along the Front Bank reveals that most of those swims are already taken. I really want to get among a few of the Bream that the lake is known for, so set off along the Long Bank in the hope of getting one of the swims amongst the lily pads .
Carpers, carpers everywhere, but just as it looks like I’ll be unlucky I find a swim 2 shy of the culvert that will do nicely for the day, allowing me to reach the pads on both sides at 14½mtrs and with a decent amount of open water in front should I hook a Carp.

The rig was simplicity itself, a top2 rigged with black Hydro with a 4×12 KC Carpa Tricky float rigged up on 0·17 Carptec line straight through to a barbless 18 fox series2 hook to fish on the bottom in about 4ft of water. Bait was to be GOT Baits  6mm expanders, with a few of these being fed along with their 4mm hard pellets.

It wasn’t hard fishing really just a question of feeding the 2 opposite lines and alternating between them till a bite came along, which it finally did after about 30mins. A little dip and it just slid away and within a minute there in the net was one of OBH’s smaller Bream going around 3lbs ………….

The promise of another bright hot sunny day looked as if it may have an adverse effect on sport but by sticking at it I’d had 10 between 3 – 4½lbs by 11am.

Next put in and a similar bite sees a lot of Hydro heading through the pads, cranking the pressure onto my Super PowerLite a tug of war ensued, slowly and surely the pressure told and the fish (still attached ) came out into open water. The commotion had brought the angler from the next swim round to watch and within a couple of minutes there in the net is a nice Common Carp of around 10lbs……..

The chap in the next swim is called Paul, fishing more conventional Carp gear of matched rods and baitrunners on a pod, and soon he’s into a Carp that has taken a hair rigged Halibut pellet. It’s soon netted and weighs in at 12lbs. He’s only got a basic camera so I capture it on my digital to e-mail to him later………

Another couple of Bream for me and then I’m into another tug of war, this time in the other set of pads!!!!!!! Once again the constant pressure tells and the fish pops out into the open water and after 3-4 minutes of dogged plodding it slides over the net, a much chunkier fish this time coming in at just over 12lbs , with Paul snapping a picture for me………..

A quick phone call to Malc to find out how he’s doing on a pole only match at Drayton reveals he isn’t!!!!!!!!! Yep, the Peugeot has let him down once again and he’s waiting for the recovery truck……………… Somethings never change. Another quick call to Dave reveals that he and Stu are on a Barbel hunt on a river somewhere in deepest Yorkshire, but at that point in time they hadn’t had one.

Paul meanwhile has had another nice Common while I’ve had 3 more Bream in successive put in’s followed by another Carp, a Mirror this time, which thankfully charges out into open water allowing me to bring it to the net relatively easily. In the net it looks a little weird as it appears to have a massively underslung mouth, hasn’t affected it’s appetite though as it appears otherwise fit and well at around the 10lb mark…………

Yet more Bream put in an appearance and around 3pm I’m thinking of packing up to avoid catching the Bank Holiday traffic on the way home the float slides away and I’m attached to another Carp, yet another Common and with Paul doing the honours it proves to be my best of the day at 14lbs . As I start to pack my gear away Paul is in again once more, and after a spirited fight I find myself doing the honours again, this time it’s another lovely Common tipping the scales at 17lbs……….

So that’s it for me, a very pleasant days fishing with some good company and a final tally of 17 Bream and 4 Carp. Paul was stopping on for a few more hours so I bade him farewell having made sure I had his E-mail address to forward the pictures on to him.
Next up it’s the final round of The Jinx Series at Rolf’s Lake next Saturday, Hopefully Malc will get there but with his car you wouldn’t bet on it .

Well Saturday at 7·20am found me waiting in the Little Chef car park at South Godstone waiting for Dave the Fish, Colin, Jess (jackcatcher) & Szabi (Tinkerbelle) to arrive for a days fishing at Tanyards Lakes.
Everyone soon arrived and we set off for Tanyards getting there around 8am. As we drove in I noticed that all the lakes had their airators running, something I hadn’t seen on previous visits. Kit assembled, we all set off for lake4, the Tench Lake.

I settled into the 1st swim by a dying reed bed with Szabi & Jess further round and Dave next to them. Colin had a look round lake2 but finally settled in a swim with another dying reed bed at the top opposite Dave.

Plumbing up revealed n even 3ft of depth alround my swim even hard up against the reeds but 1st put in revealed a very noticable flow caused by the airator. I fed 2 swims, 1 at 11mtrs straight out and another at 11mtrs hard against the reeds with a pot of 4mm hard pellet and a few red maggots fed into each, Hookbait was 6mm expanders.

Szabi soon let out a squeel of delight as she landed a small Pumpkinseed and Jess was soon pressed into service as her photographer with increasing regularity as more species came her way including a nice Perch, while Dave was heard to remark that a stick float would be more appropriate in his swim due to the proximity of the airator.

I managed a couple of Bream around the 2½lb mark and a male Tench from my open water swim but the flow seemed to be making the fish finicky, so trying the swim against the reeds semed to be a better option. However around 10am a halt was called as we adjourned to the fishery lodge for a spot of brekkie.

Suitably fortified we returned and Dave set about instructing Jess in the delights of THE DARKSIDE!!!!!

Jess had spoken to Dave of his interest in trying a spot of pole fishing and Dave had brought an old pole that had been gathering dust for Jess to have a go with.
Soon Obiwan Dave was instructing his paduan Jess in the dark arts………

Soon we were treated to the site of Jess hanging on as his 1st pole caught fish turned out to be a Skimmer of the acrobatic variety trying to do an impression of a Trout.

Colin was having a bit of a hard time of it but was plugging away at it and finally managing to find a few fish through the sheer persistance of his approach………

Meanwhile I was managing to sneak out a few more Bream from my swim hard against the reeds, but my efforts were being hampered by the angler fishing the other side of the reedbed. Everytime that I hooked a fish, his response was to ball more groundbait into his swim and despite his getting no response in the way of bites. Unfortunately the only effect was to kill my swim.

By 12 o’clock I had had enough and decided to move, and Colin came round and decided to join me. We moved up to lake2 but were shocked to find that the depth appeared to be no more than 18 inches in any swim. I set up in a swim with a small island and decided to go for it anyway, while Colin found a bit more depth in a corner peg on the far side.
Ist put in and a confident bite resulted in a good scrap with a nice Common and things were suddenly looking up……….

Next put in and a decent Bream of around 3lbs was soon followed by a couple of identical examples. Dave soon wandered over to see how i was doing, just intime to see another Bream saving me having to unhook it as it shed the hook just as I got it into the net, and wandered off muttering and shaking his head, I’m sure it was something about about how skillfull I was, teaching fish to unhook themselves.

Jess & Szabi arrived bearing a welcome cup of tea payed for by Dave just as I had pulled out of a lump and soon returned to their swims after commiserating. Sport continued steadily for me all afternoon including a nice Tench that had a slight kink in its tail………

A change to maggot on the hook, produced plenty of Roach, Rudd and Gudgeon…………..

 while the pellet seemed to sort out better Carp and Bream…………

Colin was also getting into some fish in the corner including some decent Perch.

All too soon the sun had dropped out of the sky and the cold decended as the light faded and it was time to pack up. Back in the carpark farewells were exchanged and plans made to do it all again.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Southern Fish-in.

Well I arrived at Sumners Ponds at around 10·30am on Friday to find a few of the participants already ensconced for the weekend ahead .

Already in situ were Geoff and his grandaughter Amy, Dai and Daniel, Ady (BigLadWigan) , Sven C (with Gemma to follow on Saturday), Alex(Fish-Fingers), Dave(Scouse) with Neil(bluenose), Larry, Terry(Wily Coyote) and Jess & Szabi (Jackcatcher & Tincabelle)

I decided to drop into the swim next to Scouse and Neil so that I could keep an eye on my hubcaps, and as I was setting up my bivvy Dave(theFish) and Colin (thePike) arrived, and the usual round of greetings and abuse ensued .

Strange things these bivvies and bedchairs, No drawers for your tackle and only available in a rather drab green or heaven forbid CAMO!!!!!! You could lose them on the bankside.
I set up my 2 carp rods and baitrunners with method feeders and placed them on my pod, not quite a PUPSS but it would have to do .

What! No Burgundy????

So time to start fishing? Well not quite, a quick tour round the pond to meet and great everyone, and try out the new camera consumed another hour before i was settled in, with Sven obliging with a well timed bream as a subject ……..

Pineapple & Tutti antbait softee’s on both rigs gently lobbed to midway were greeted after a while by a couple of respectable Bream, both around the 4lb mark, so off the mark and cause for a celebratory beer.

Wind and squally showers were doing their best to put a damper on the day, and Jason (NoFinPhish) arrived late on and managed to slide into a swim between Geoff & Dai.
Neil finally managed a carp on his pole between phonecalls and texts as can be seen in the pic below……

Unfortunately, not being fishery members we weren’t allowed to nightfish (apart from Sven who’s a member) so most adjourned to the local hostelry (The Queens Head) to sample a few pints, before the evening soiree round Geoffs bivvy.

Saturday, weatherwise brought more of the same, with the odd fish for most and Jason probably winning the numbers game with a good run of fish in the morning and Szabi showing up Jess, who in his defence spent a fair bit of time showing Fish-Fingers the ins and outs of various rigs. The morning only provided a single bream for me almost identical to the pair from friday.

With the day moving on Jess, Szabi and Wily departed citing other engagements for the Sunday, while a few of the lads were tempted by the lure of the small pond, which appears to have a higher stocking level than the main lake. Daniel brimming with confidence went for a £1 side bet with Jason on who would have the largest carp of the day .

3pm and I had a screamer on the rod I had cast close to the marginal tree on my right, and I thought I was winning the tug of war till the fish turned 180° and buried intself into the roots.
Having to rerig I could resist no longer and set up a waggler to see if I could mug anything in the margins. Sure enough after a few small skimmers and roach an unsuspecting tench obliged, not big at a couple of pounds, but most welcome none the less..

Once more the pub won the battle of the early evening, but after a curry and a couple of pints I sneaked off to return for a last hour before dusk. No action I’m afraid but we ended with a small gathering at my peg over a coffee before decending on Dai for the evening entertainment. Biglad was in his usual superb form, if a tad restrained by the presence of young Amy while Jason thoughtfully checked out the depth of Dai’s Margin and Dan waved farewell to his £1.
June it may be, but Flaming it certainly wasn’t and with a cold dew forming the party was curtailed earlier than it could have, though probably much to the relief of those in the mobile homes and campers on the other bank .

We had been warned that a real gail was expected overnight, but thankfully it never materialised. A few of us decided to take a quick trip up to look at the new match lake that’s just been opened on the site. It’s still very new with construction still in progress, but plenty of planting has taken place, I can’t say that it inspired me to make a visit, but who knows, maybe in a couple of years when it’s more established .

With it still being grey and overcast and very few fish showing, most were thinking of getting bivvies packed away ready for the trip home.
I was just starting to pull my bivvy pegs when a steady run developed on my rod baited with 4 bits of hair rigged corn and after a short but spirited fight I was rewarded with a plump common weighing in at 14lbs, a lovely end to the weekend .

Having packed all my kit up, it was time for farewells, and is always the case at these sort of meetings that tends to take a couple of hours in itself . Dai had managed to bag a carp as I passed  ……

Dave and Colin were packing away his bivvy, while the final site as I headed to the carpark was of Geoff and BigLad trying for a final fish before departing as Amy looked on……

The end of another MD’s weekend away in good company, some great laughs and a few fish caught by everyone. Well done to Dave the Fish for organising it all .

The only Mystery?
Where was Beebs? Comatose under a Duvet somewhere no doubt .

First outing of 2005.

I don’t know about you, but the 1st trip out of the New Year is one that I always look forward to, so when Dave the Fish sent me a PM asking if I would like to join him and Colin for a session at Tanyards Lakes, a water that I hadn’t visited before, I was only to pleased to accept .

Leaving home at 6·30am to meet up I noticed it was quite mild, 8°C according to the car thermometer. However as we got closer the temperature dropped, till on arrival it said only 3°C with a heavy frost on the ground and cat ice in the margins of the lakes .

The decision was made to fish the Tench Pond, as both Dave and Colin had fished it previously, and they reckoned that it didn’t contain any of the large Carp that are present in most of the lakes, and which Tanyards is renowned for.

1st Fish of 2005

At this point we adjourned to the lodge with its wood burning stove for breakfast and a mug of hot tea .

Suitably fortified we returned and Dave was among the Perch as well, one of them a new P.B. for Dave at 2lbs.

My 1st fish from the reed swim was a small golden Carp of about 2lbs, and by alternating between the 2 swims I managed to keep the fish coming regularly nearly all day. Variety was the catch word, with Roach, Rudd, Bream, a Crucian, various ornamentals, Tench and even a humble Gudgeon making up my catch.

   

   

My best fish of the day was a Tench of 2lbs 15ozs ………………….

 My total bag must have been close to 30lbs, which was a lovely way to get 2005 off the mark .
Thanks to Dave and Colin for the company, It certainly won’t be my last visit to Tanyards .

Well MrsM told me that she would be working today,so i decided that I’d grab the chance to pop down to Elphicks and have a session on Sandwich Lake and see if i could get a few species for the Maggotdrowning.com Fishing Race .

I arrived at the lake at about 9am and although it was dull and overcast it felt quite mild. I have to say that i was happy to see pegs 10 & 11 were empty and plumped for peg 11 as it allows you to fish 11mtrs to the overflow stack which is the only real feature on the whole lake apart from 1 small island.

PEG11….

I know this swim pretty well, so the set up was pretty simple, Just the 1 top kit with white hydro with the rig consisting of a Drennan Lake carrying 3 no6′s and a no10 and a size 20 PR24 all mounted on 0·12 Silk Shock Ultegra to fish at dead depth (about 4½ft).
Bait was to be 6mm expanda’s with micro Halibut pellets for feed. I also had some sweetcorn for a change bait.

3 good pouches of pellet and about a dozen expanda’s set the table, and 1st put in the float buried and a Bream of about 2½lb was safely banked.

1st Bream….

By the time that Vince arrived at about 10·30am I’d managed about a dozen Bream,a small Common Carp and 4 Tench one of which was the reason for me choosing Elphicks for the days fishing.

A Golden Tench….

A lovely looking fish, not huge at just over a couple of pounds, but very welcome all the same.

Vince set up on peg 12 to my left eager to christen his new pole, as i found a few nice Roach that took a fancy to the expanda’s.
It was easy fishing for me, just a question of loose feeding a pouchfull of micros after every fish. The Roach eventually vanished but not before i’d managed to get about a dozen of them, with the largest weighing 1¼lbs.

Largest Roach….

The dissapearance of the Roach however, only meant that the Tench and Bream had returned………. Well they had for me, Vince was having one of those nightmare sessions where no matter what he tried all he could do was watch me land fish after fish and pray that his own float would finally vanish.

A typical peg 11 Tench….

Vince finally got a Bream, but i’m afraid this only proved to be a stray that had somehow mistaken peg 12 for peg 11.
Meanwhile Mr Pheasant had come down to have a feed on my redundant sweetcorn……………………………..

The only real fly in the ointment was the fact that as the day progressed it was getting colder and colder.
Still the regular pouches of micros kept the fish coming for me, among them 1 small Mirror and and a Crucian Carp

By 3·30 however even my fish were reluctant to feed as it had got colder still, and poor Vince despite trying some of my corn and expanda’s and different rigs couldn’t buy a decent bite, so we decided to call it a day.
I finished up with 25 Bream to 4lbs, 11 Tench to 3lbs including 1 Goldie, a dozen Roach to 1¼lbs and a Common, a Mirror and a Crucian Carp.
As we were pulling out of the car park Vince told me “Your boys (CHELSEA) are losing 2-1 to Wolves” with a large grin on his face.
Well by the time I got home the final score was CHELSEA 5-2 WOLVES
Kind of sums up mine and Vince’s day.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well after the giddy heights of yesterday, it was back down to earth today with a 20 peg club match at Old Bury Hill.
We had pegs 1-20 on the front bank of the old Estate Lake.

Now some of you may remember me mentioning that Hawthorne AC seem to have a peculiar talent for attracting the worst of the weather. Well today was no exception!!!!!!!!! Stepping out of the car in the carpark, the first drops of rain began to fall, this was soon followed by Fork Lightning, Thunder & Driving rain.
A hurried draw was arranged, and having drawn no7, off I set to my peg.

Looking across the lake from peg7…..

Now I really hate fishing the pole in the pouring rain, and holding 14mtrs of carbon with fork lightning about has never struck me as too sensible, so I set up a waggler & feeder rod and left the pole in the rodbag.
At the off it was out with the wag at 3 rod lengths, fished 3″ overdepth. 6mm expander on the hook and a pouch of 3mm expanders fed over the top. Nobody was doing much, just a few small Roach falling to those fishing maggot when 1½ hrs in, news came down that peg 1 had caught a 13lb Common.

Finally after 2½ hrs of continual feeding the float slid away,and a minute later a 2½lb Bream was safely in the net. In the next hour I added another 5 and things were looking up, which prompted the knob head angler on the next peg to fill it in with groundbait, which promptly killed it stone dead.

So out on the feeder for the last part of the match with luncheon meat on the hook and 4 more Bream before the whistle.
At the weigh-in I had 21lbs 2ozs for 3rd on the day, a result that puts me through to the semi-final of the club KO Cup, which will be fished in 2 weeks time back at Old Bury Hill, but this time on Miltons Lake.

Hawthorne AC club match.

5.55am “RING RING” “It’s Malc, I’m downstairs ,where are you?”

“OH GOODNESS IS THAT THE TIME !%*$$$*!!!! YOU GET OFF AND I’LL MEET YOU THERE “
Not the best start to the final club match of the season, so a mad charge round gathering up all the kit and chucking it in the car for the 40 mile trip to Willow Park at Ash Vale, just outside Guildford.
A quick phonecall to the chairman to let him know I’m on my way and to get him to draw for me .

Pulling into the car park just in time to find everyone making their way to their pegs I’m told that i have drawn peg 71 on the bungalow bank of the Main Lake. Now the Main Lake isn’t used much for matches anymore as the carp have grown rather large, much more the territory of the “Boilie & Bivvy Brigade”
As usually befits a Hawthorne match the weather that had been nice and springlike in the SE for the last fortnight, had transformed into a dull grey overcast day with a biting cold North wind that had dropped the temperature more than a couple of degrees.

Well running late and trying to play catchup, I quickly set up my feeder rod with a groundbait feeder so that I would have something to fish with at the start.
What I really wanted to do though was go at it with the pole, as there wasn’t a lot of colour in the water, and I had a feeling that it would be hard, so it was soon out with the pole and a quick plumb up revealed a nice flat area 8ft deep at about 11mtrs.

Now bearing in mind that it was the last match of the season and with everything decided clubwise I decided to attack it , so 6 big balls of Sensas Crazybait Black with a good helping of casters & hemp went in on this line to fish caster or red maggot over the top of it.

Well after about 40mins the first 6oz skimmer was netted and a steady stream of these,along with a couple of better examples continued throughout the whole match.
Four of the lads had close encounters with rather large carp during the course of the day, but the score ended Carp 4-0 Anglers.   Come the end of the match I put 26lbs 10ozs on the scales, which was only beaten by Paul (the club champ) on the end-peg putting 43lbs 2ozs on the scales for 1st place.

So that’s it for another season of club matches, just the 2nd round of the Supercup to be fished on the 27th.
It’s been a good season for the club though with a total of 5122lbs 13ozs being weighed-in during the 17 matches, an average of just over 300lbs per match, with an average of 17 anglers attending each match.

Well as Maria had to work late today I thought I’d grab the opportunity of a few hours down at Elphicks,and see if I could catch another couple of species for the Maggotdrowning.com Fishing Race.
I had a leisurely drive down and after stopping for brekkie arrived about 10am.
A quick chat with the lads in the onsite tackle shop confirmed my worst fears, as it hadn’t been fishing well,and with heavy rain yesterday, and more showers promised for today + a falling barometer, things didn’t look too promising .
I drove up to Sandwich lake and was greeted with a howling wind and the first of the many showers to come. Comfort being the order of the day I chose peg 11 as the wind would be at my back .

The plan of attack was to feed a few micro pellets and a pinch of damp pellet crumb + 3 grains of corn every put in, to the left of the concrete overflow at 9 mtrs in about 5 feet of water using a rig consisting of an 8 elastic and a Preston 4×14 durafloat shotted with a bulk of 10′s on 0·10 to a 0·08 hooklength ending in a size 18 PR24 fishing a single grain of corn.
The three lads fishing the bank to my right were all on the feeder,but were only getting the odd small Roach.

Well it was a very slow start and after an hour without a bite I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen, when all of a sudden the float slid away, Strike! NOTHING……. MISSED IT!!!!!!
Back out and 5 mins later it went again, This time I connected and was relieved to feel a pleasing resistance, and a minute or two later there in the net was a nice Bream of about 3lb.
After that I didn’t look back as slowly but surely one after another came to the net in the course of the next 4 hours. The smallest was about 2lb while the largest may have scraped 4lbs.
All in all I had 28 of them.

A real nice session,given the conditions but the real icing on the cake was the 3 Tench that decided to add themselves to the mix.
Firstly this one at about 3lb spiced things up………………….. 

but the last one was the clincher in an already good session, My 1st Goldie of the year ………………………

So there you have it…….. 5 hours & 70lbs+ from what some may call a “Commercial Puddle”. A decent days fishing, given the conditions.

Well back to Elphick’s today for another go!  As I said in my previous report, today I would be accompanied by Fred
(one of only two founder members of our club,which is celebrating 40 seasons this year ). However a couple of phonecalls from him and we were joined by Peter W, Ron & Roy. Sandwich Lake was selected again (Remember….No Carp ).

Well what a difference two days makes  !!!! After yesterdays torrential rain down here in the SE, The level had risen 3 inches putting the platforms on the other side under water. A clear sky and a biting cold NW wind greeted us as we made our way to our pegs. As we tackled up the wind seemed to increase. It was obviously going to be awkward to say the least .

Here’s the lineup (front-back) Me (taking the pic ) Fred, Pete W. Ron & Roy……

I had peg 10 again, but action was far from fast & furious. Corn & pellet both went untouched as the others started to connect with some nice Roach around the 6-8 oz mark .
After an hour a switch to maggot produced a series of lightning fast unhitable bites. However adding 3 inches to the depth of the rig to nail the bait down had the desired effect and I was soon rewarded with a nice skimmer of about a pound . Next put in and a bit more elastic comes out………… this was more like it , a nice Golden Tench weighing about 1½ pounds.

By now Ron & Roy had succumbed to the cold and forsaken their poles for the relative comfort of the feeder fished from behind their brollies. Fred & Pete W had come in close to try and sneak a few fish from the margins while I stuck it out at 11mtrs to pick up a dozen hard earned Roach and Rudd, the best of which might have just topped the pound!

Roy had managed 1 Bream on the feeder, but poor Ron was still struggling to prevent the dreaded blank. 
Fred was having trouble spotting bites in the choppy conditions and Pete W was still nicking the odd one from almost under his feet fishing caster. Me? I got another bar of gold about 2lbs this time

Towards the end bites dried up for everyone as the temperature continued to fall. We were all getting ready to call it a day as the cold started to creep into old joints   when down went my float and all of a sudden there was an awful lot of elastic heading for the other side of the lake.  Softly softly catchee monkey (or in this case fish ) and 9mins later (timed by Ron) the prize was in the net, A pristine Mirror Carp of exactly 10lbs……….

Did it count????? There aren’t supposed to be any Carp in this lake. Of Course it did
Well that was all folks, a much harder day than Tuesday, but still some fish to be had, except for poor Ron…… Yes folks he had suffered the dreaded BLANK.

Well after my struggle at Mapledurham I Needed to catch a few fish to restore the old confidence. Looking out of the bedroom window at a grey leaden sky I wasn’t in any great hurry to venture out, but then thought “Why Not” (It’s nice when you have a week off and no decorating to do )

So after a leisurely breakfast it was of to Elphicks Fisheries, Horsmonden, in Kent. There are 6 lakes offering something for everyone, but the one that I was interested in is the fourth lake on the complex called The Sandwich. This lake holds virtually everything with one exception…… No Carp!!!!!!!!! The Sandwich is about 1.2 acres with a small island in the middle,and arriving there I had the whole lake to myself .

I picked swim 10 as it holds the only obvious feature (an overflow stack) on the lake apart from the island.

It’s a comfortable 11mtrs to the stack, and from previous experience i knew that there is an even 4ft of water covering an area about the size of a table tennis table there.
Now knowing that there’s a good head of fish present I went for a positive approach and put in 4 large pouches of 2mm pellets and 2 of casters and went straight out with a soft pellet fished 2 inches overdepth.
30 seconds later and the float slid away and I missed my first bite
Try a caster, float slides away, a gentle lift and Bingo a fin perfect Roach of about 8ozs gets me off the mark, and for the next hour I catch one a chuck, feeding a small pinch of pellet or caster in a kinder pot every time. The best of which I weighed at 1lb 2ozs . Then all of a sudden they appeared to switch off???

Well I’d already caught about 25lbs so decided to attack it again, 3 more large pouches of pellet and another of caster and back out with a soft pellet.
Nothing……….. keep lifting the bait about a foot and let it drop, then after about 20mins the float lifted of it’s own accord, I lifted into it and ohhhhhh  this was a bit better, a nice Bream of about 3lbs .
And so it continued for the rest of the afternoon, I had 27 Bream in total, the best one I weighed at 4lbs 12ozs, Mixed in among them was 1 Tench and 5 Carp???????? (obviously they didn’t realise that they shouldn’t be there) .

Some time ago Gray Catchpole put a photo in one of his posts showing a Golden Tench that he’d caught. Trev phoned me enthusing in his usual fashion, that he would love to catch one as it was such a glorious fish. Alas it was not to be as he didn’t make it to the Welsh fish-in at Hazel Court (the venue where Gray caught his).

My last fish of the session, Need you ask? This one’s for you Trev ……

So a great day, with confidence fully restored, In fact I enjoyed myself so much I’m going back on Thursday for another go, only this time I’m taking our club chairman Fred (He’s one of only two remaining founder members of our club from 40 years ago) I’ll let you know how we get on .

Brother-in-law Chris has just got back into fishing via his boy Fraser (7 years old), after a 15 year lay off, and on the couple of times he has come with me most of the day has been devoted to making sure that Fraser catches.
The other day Chris confessed that he wouldn’t mind a days fishing without Fraser, and that he’d love to catch a Tench as he’d never caught one.
There is only one venue that I could think of to virtually guarantee this, so first port of call was the boat house at Old Bury Hill to pay for our day tickets and collect the punt that would transport us to “The Jungle” on the Estate Lake .

Settling into an area hard up against an uprooted tree, I fed a couple of handfulls of pellets and sweetcorn into mine and chris’s swims. The sun was already starting to climb and not a cloud in the sky signaled that the early mist would soon burn off .
After about half an hour my waggler vanished,and after a brief tussle a fighting fit male tench of just over 3lb was safely in the net .

Chris meanwhile was suffering from some lightning fast unhittable bites, which I felt could be due to skimmers.
I could see the frustration in his face,when suddenly the float lifted up and laid flat. “STRIKE”  The rod hooped over as one angry fish sought out the shelter of the bushes that were so close. Fortunately it was unsuccessful, and after 5 mins Chris’s first ever Tench was netted, and at 4lbs 2ozs a great fish to start with …….

Soon however the sun was beating down, and the tench retreated deep into the shade of the bushes, Chris had a close encounter with a Carp, which sadly for him the Carp won .
Still the Bream continued to feed, nothing huge but large enough to keep Chris happy for the rest of the day .

At the end of the day as we stepped out of the punt, his first words were “When are we coming back ?” I don’t think it will be too long somehow .

Gary Hamilton’s Kid’s Fishing Day.

For the 2nd year running I had the privilege of travelling down to Ash to help out at a kids fishing match at Gold Valley .

This is organised by Gary Hamilton who is the Team Captain of Fox Match Banstead.
It’s a fun day out, more than a serious match with the emphasis being on making sure that the kids have a good time and catch a few fish , the proceeds of which are donated to a charity of the owner, John Raison’s choice.

Arriving nice and early it was straight into the clubhouse for a full english breakfast to set us up for the day, then into the tackle shop to collect the bait.
Then it was back into the clubhouse for “The Draw”.
Now at this point we had all forgotten to allow for the enthusiasm of a group of youngsters , and by the time everyone had drawn and Gary got up to announce the rules etc, he was speaking to an empty clubhouse as the cavalry charged off to Syndicate Lake

Syndicate Lake…..

At least we had plenty of time to set up, as the all in was at 10·15am.
Fishing with me was young Patrick Corneille 6½, and the idea was to keep it simple, just a feeder rod and a 6 mtr pole .
It was a gorgeous day, real t-shirt and shorts stuff  and to start off it was straight out on the feeder to try and get an early Carp.

“Come on tip,go round”

Well !!!!!!! The best laid plans and all that . This turned out to be the day that the fish didn’t want to play, but we soldiered on, and after about an hour the tip sailed round resulting in not the expected Carp,but a Bream of about 1lb. Still we were off the mark and it was soon followed by it’s twin brother! At least we were catching, some others were not so fortunate .
15 minutes till the lunchtime break and BINGO!!! Mr Carp decides to try and take Patrick for a swim, but after a dogged tug-o-war Patrick wins with a nice 5½ lb common nestling in the net.

And now the civilised part, all back to the clubhouse for a spot of lunch & a cold beer before the start of the 3-7 shift.

Patrick wanted to try the pole in the afternoon, first put in on the 6 mtr line and CRASH-BANG-WALLOP, Patrick was briefly connected to a real lump until the hookhold gave way. 
Try as we might for another, the only fish to oblige for the rest of the session were a few hungry Roach & Perch.
Then with a ½hr to go the heavens suddenly decided to open and soak everyone, but it couldn’t dampen the kids enthusiasm come the weigh-in.

“What does it weigh?”

Young Talen couldn’t lift his net,so enlisted some help..

and he got his Dad and Gary to help show off his biggest Carp

So with the weigh-in completed, it was back to the carpark for the results and Presentations .

All the children received a reel & goody bag of tackle, with the 1st & 2nd getting landing nets and bait waiters to go with everything else. But the biggest prize of all were the smiles on everyones faces at the end of the day .

Thanks again to Gary Hamilton for organising the whole thing, and rest assured I’ll be there to do it all again next year if needed.