Hawthorne AC club match.

Well I have to say that not for the first time I was doubting my own sanity this morning as I loaded the kit into the car. A near gale force wind and rain didn't bode well for a club match on a venue that was new to me.
The venue in question is called Horsham lake, just outside the village of Upchurch in Kent. Nothing out of the ordinary, holding around 35 pegs, but a tad exposed as it's situated about a mile inland from where the River Medway enters the Thames Estuary.

Into the draw bag and Peg 5 was mine for the day, and by now the wind is gusting to Gale Force . Thankfully the wind was blowing onto my back, and there's a small island in front of me at 14mtrs.

Peg 5

The picture below shows the view behind me, not a lot of shelter and the next stop is the Thames Estuary!!!!..........................

Plumbing up revealed 3ft all the way across, not a dip nor a hump to be found anywhere, but with the wind behind me at least I could fish the pole across. I had been told that it was mostly small stuff with Carp and Rudd in the majority, so I started as light as i could with single maggot on a 20 to begin with.

I have a digital thermometer that I take with me and the water temp was 6°C but the air temp at the 10am start was only 4·5°C and by midday it had dropped to just 2°C .

Keeping it tight was the name of the game, just 12 maggots in a T-Pot at the start, with another 4 after every bite or fish, kept just enough interest going with the odd small Carp and Rudd visiting the keepnet at regular intervals.

All around anglers were struggling to cope with the conditions with those on the opposite bank finding the pole an impossibility to fish in the conditions, indeed 4 packed up rather than risk hypothermia, while the rest resorted to feeder rods.

Just after 1pm we were treated to snow and hail. This caused 3 more of the lads to pack up, but with the odd fish still coming I stuck it out till the whistle at 3pm.

Round came the scales and I was pleasantly surprised to see 23lbs 2ozs register on the scales .

Back to the car park and I found that I'd finished 3rd, second beat me by an ounce while 1st was a further 6lbs in front.
Still a nice little brown envelope for me, hard earned but very welcome.

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 .

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to recieve an Invite from Simon Hughes to visit his new fishery at Monk Lakes with a few friends, so that was the reason that 5 of us arrived at Simon's house at Riverfield Fish Farm in the pitch black at 7am this morning . Dawn was just breaking as we set off following Simon's Landcruiser along the private road that passes through the fishfarm to the fishery.

This was an eyeopener in itself . I've seen an ariel photo of the fishfarm before, but it's not until you drive through it that you appreciate the sheer scale of the operation, which would be worthy of an article of it's own, if Simon ever finds the time to write it.

Assembled in the car park Simon gave us a brief rundown, arranged for our breakfast needs to be seen to, then left us to it giving us carte blanche to fish where we wanted . The five of us decided on a walk around the complex at first to get a feel for things.
Up to the 2 elevated Match Lakes and these are very regular looking, with platforms in every peg but with no visible features. On the same level is the Catfish Lake, which looks very natural with a profusion of features and islands.
On the other side of the car park are the 2 main pleasure fishing lakes, Puma and Bridges, both with totally natural banks and plenty of islands and features, Indeed Bridges takes its name from the bridges that allow you to reach the islands to fish from them .

Running behind these lakes and threading its way through the fishery runs the River Beult offering what promises to be some fine small river fishing, and leads past the Specimen Lake, home to some 40lb Carp.

After walking round that lot, break fast was definitely the order of the day, so retiring to the canteen behind the lodge 5 Full English Breakfasts were disposed of, all washed down with Tea while we decided on our plan of attack.
The main worry was the weather , It's turned pretty cold down here in the SE in the last couple of weeks and the fishery is quite exposed, but today there wasn't a breathe of wind although it was still cold.

Jess & Szabi had their sights set on the Specimen Lake, despite Simon's earlier warning that it hadn't been fishing well, so off they went, hoping for a 1st 'Twenty'. Terry, Andy(The Hat) and Myself plumped for Puma, and within 100 yds of the car park had settled on 3 swims, Terry with an island to fish to..............................

A range of 10mtrs gave me a comfortable 5ft of water, and with flat calm conditions a slim Preston B series 4X12 float with just 4 strung droppers and a size 20 PR23 was the rig of choice to fish single and double red maggot over the fisheries micro pellets .

1st up came a run of Chublets that were more than welcome as they happily feed on even the coldest of days, and as far as I'm concerned are an inspired bit of stocking on Simon's part ..........................

Once these have grown on a bit they are going to be well Worth going for.

Next came a run of smallish Tench for me, and as I unhooked one I remarked to Andy that rather than the little red eye the are known for these has golden eyes, to which he replied that perhaps they were Golden Tench, but that he'd never seen or caught one.
Well after a statement like that, you can guess what happened next  ...... My float dipped, and the next fish I landed was a Golden Tench .
Well it was the least I could do , though doubts were voiced by Andy that this capture was down to my sheer blinding skill and tenacity, this did inspire him to concentrate on capturing one for himself, but alas all he could manage were some examples of the wrong coloured (green) ones and a solitary Gudgeon , while i rubbed it in even further during the course of the day by catching another 7 goldies amongst the 30 or so Tench that I caught .

While all this was going on Vince appeared for a short visit, and in the way that is so typical, offered all his sympathy to Andy in his hour of need .

Terry meanwhile in his typical way was quietly doing his best to empty his swim of small Chub with a waggler, and by the end of the day must of had close to 100 of them .

During the course of the session a number of the smaller Carp that have been stocked also decided to put in an appearance. I don't know what strain these fish are, but they are picture perfect deep bodied fish that already give a good account of themselves despite going no more than 1½ lbs on average.

The fish kept coming right till the end, with a couple of Rudd thrown in for good measure, and although Andy hung on to the bitter end in the gathering gloom, he didn't manage to get his Goldie , though he did get the only Gudgeon of the day .

Jess & Szabi? Well athough they had been warned stubbornly sat it out, and didn't manage to contact any monsters, though they had one screaming run at around midday, but the strike didn't connect .

Overall I had a most enjoyable day. The stock are a testament to Simon's skills as a fish farmer, and are of the highest quality.
Puma is one of the two pleasure lakes on the complex, and it certainly lived up to its description and it was a Pleasure for me to fish there today .
I'll certainly be going back in the not to distant future, though next time I fancy travelling light and adopting a roving approach to see what I can tempt from the River.

In closing I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Simon Hughes for his invite, and his staff at MONK LAKES for a most enjoyable day. If you're ever in the area give it a try, there's something for almost everyone there .

A couple of weeks ago I had made arrangements with a friend of mine, Andy "The Hat" Speadbury to visit Monk Lakes. This is a new fishery in Kent. This is the one that featured in Angling Times a while back as a new "Super Fishery."

We had arranged to meet in the lodge at 7·30am. My initial impression on arrival was "WHERE DO YOU START??????"
To say it's a big site doesn't begin to do it justice. The level of investment in the venue is obviously major. Not only is there A good variety of fishing, but the facilities are all there as well - more than ample car parking (closely situated to the lakes), security, quiet, burger bar, bait and tackle from the lodge, Ladies and Gentlemen’s toilets on site as well as toilets for the Disabled located in the car park. In the summer some temporary toilets will be dotted around the site for convenience.
Oh! nearly forgot , something I had never seen at a fishery before - mains electric and water placed at around twenty points around the site!

The site itself covers over 120 acres, and the plans are that eventually it will be able to cater for 2000 anglers!  The fishery opened on 29th October and at the moment only the 1st part is open as work continues on the rest of the venue.

To give you all some idea of the present layout, I've taken the liberty of scanning the fishery pamphlet, which you can see below.....................

It has to be said that for a 1st visit to a new water the weather did us no favours at all, The 1st frost of the year down here and only 3°C on the car thermometer coupled with a biting northerly wind meant that the day was never going to be easy .

ME? I couldn't buy a bite . It was noticable during the day that the frost had had an effect with the colour noticably dropping out of the water.
Pellet or maggot, It didn't matter, after 1½hrs of watching Andy's grin I nicked a few of his reds as I only had whites and bingo, straight away a bite and a plump fin perfect Chub of around 8ozs to break my duck .

This was the cue for a stroll back to the car park for a ½pint of reds from the lodge, and a ½ lb cheeseburger from the catering wagon on site. Well one has to look after the inner man .

The red maggots made all the difference, and after a bit of playing around with the shotting of the rig so that it would pick up the tow a steady procession of small Chub followed for the rest of the session. By the end of our session I probably had 20lbs+ of them and as Andy said, I'm sure that these will prove to be an inspired bit of stocking as they should provide decent sport in even the coldest conditions, though whether the Carp anglers will share this view as they grow and develop a taste for boilies is another matter .

 

 

I'm going back for another visit next Saturday and it will be interesting to see how it fishes if the weather has settled down a bit . 

 

 

It all started with a phone call a couple of weeks ago.
"I need to take Fraser fishing, where and when can we go?"
It was Maria's brother Chris asking the questions, so Saturday was chosen with the venue being Hartleylands Farm .
Now Chris being Chris, didn't arrive at my place till just after 9am, so we didn't arrive at the fishery till just after 10am.

I knew that i could guarantee that they would catch a few fish and with only The Reservoir booked we had our pick of the ponds and lakes. We settled on Woodside Pond which is the smallest of the original ponds on the site with only 5 pegs, it's tucked away at the back of the fishery and doesn't get much pressure, but if it didn't produce the goods it's only a short hop over to the newer Peartree match lake .

Woodside Pond

Chris and Fraser settled in to peg 5 while i set up on peg 4. Chris set up a small feeder for himself and a light waggler for Fraser, with bait being maggot and corn, while i set up my pole and went with expander pellet as bait.

Father & Son

With a couple of feet in the margins and maybe five feet down the middle it's nice simple fishing and Chris was soon off the mark with a small Carp. Fraser and I were soon following, me with with a Carp and Fraser with his 1st ever Tench.

Chris

Fraser

All day long sport continued with a succession of small Carp and Tench keeping things interesting for both Father and Son. I sneaked over to Peartree for a final couple of hours and found that the bottom must have been carpeted with small Tench, nothing big, with a pounder being a bonus but a fish virtually every put-in .

All to soon, it was time to pack away the gear, and seeing them off from the car park the final site was Fraser's grinning face looking back and waving. I don't think it will be to long before they're back.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Hawthorne AC club match.

Next up Sunday, and a Hawthorne AC club match on Milton Lake at Old Bury Hill. One of the most popular venues in this part of the country, and the usual suspects turned up along with Omega Mike from TotalFishing.Com and Peter9000uk, both eager to guest and have the chance of getting amongst the Crucians and Tench that the venue is so well known for .

Everything looked lovely at the draw and i found myself with peg 19. (The same as i had drawn in our last club match there)

Peg 19

Shortly after the all in at 9am however, it soon became clear that all was not well, as the fish seemed to have almost entirely switched off . I have never seen this lake fish so badly, whether it was the rainwater that had gone in the previous week, or the couple of cold nights leading up to the match I don't know, but the half time weigh-in took all of 5 mins as only a couple of anglers had enough to trouble the scalesmen.
Omega Mike decided that the comforts of home were more attractive and left half way through and i can't say i blamed him . Stiffy, another TotalFishing poster turned up for a short chat as he was fishing the Estate Lake and had a similar tale of woe as all but a couple of pegs on there were struggling.

I finally managed to extract 4 Crucians and a similar number of Rudd for a grand total of 4lbs 9ozs and 7th place. The winner managing 33lbs 1 oz off of peg 4 which is an out and out flyer, but with 3 dry nets and a similar number only weighing in ounces, it was overall a very disappointing day .

Just to add insult to injury walking back to the car park i passed Bonds Lake only to see 7 anglers all playing carp at the same time. How can 2 lakes just 10 yards apart fish so differently on the same day??????

 

NKHC in the punts at Old Bury Hill.

A most enjoyable day.

I was drafted into HMS Pension Book to bring down the average age of the crew , and by the time we set sail it looked more like a naval review moored up in The Jungle so we settled for mooring just off of a reed bed (somewhere around peg 75 where the Island bank meets the edge of The Jungle, for those of you that are familiar with OBH.)

The weather was warm and there was plenty of cloud cover, but recent rain had added a fair bit of cold water to the lake, which didn't bode well.
Anchored on our port side was HMS Taffy, and Geoffs 1st Perch soon ellicited the familiar refrain of "It's a fish, I haven't blanked".

Dave the Fish managed to winkle out a few Skimmers on his jelly pellets, Colin despite ringing the changes baitwise was getting nowhere fast and I resorted to fishing out into open water to snare a couple of better examples of the resident Bream.
The Highlight of the morning however was the sight of Jason aboard HMS Bag-up doing battle "Stand up & Fight" fashion with a cracking Carp, A super fish of 26lbs 8ozs at any time, but from a punt, it has to be something special .

With nothing really having it, we upped sticks (in fact the mud weights) and moved across to the island, Dave and Colin fishing towards it and me fishing out into open water again. Colin hit into what was obviously a Carp, and despite doing the hard bit and keeping it out of the undergrowth surrounding the island was unlucky to have the hook pull once the fish was into open water .
I'd managed another couple of Bream when the swim was wrecked by by HMS Bag-up ploughing through bearing a mooning Beebs (No photo's, this is a family website)

This so traumatised our crew, that we were forced to return to the boathouse for burgers and tea.

Nerves calmed and refreshed we returned to the Island. Sport was slow for myself and Dave, but Colin found a few Perch and silvers while i very briefly connected with a Carp for all of a couple of seconds till the hook pulled .
Almost straight after this Colin connected with another Carp on his double maggot set up and this time despite it putting up a spirited fight, it was in the net. Not up to Jasons standard at 8lbs, but very welcome none the less .

All this commotion having trashed the swim, it was time for one last move round the island, and having settled in my 1st cast resulted in a positive bite. A brief scrap and a nice Tench which when weighed went 4lbs 4ozs proved to be the final fish for HMS Pension book .

On the row back we passed HMS Taffy who had returned Geoff to port suffering from a bit to much sun.
A final cup of tea and a session feeding the tame Carp under the boathouse (Mr Wilson's swim?) ended the day. Not the most prolific session, but still a good day out in good company.

 

Maggotdrowning.com

 Fish-in.

Dave the Fish and I arrived at about 3pm having endured the road to hell that is the A1. (roadworks & roundabouts)
A few of the lads were already fishing, so we decided to set up camp in Maggotville. The 1st challenge was to set up my Defender bivvy that had never been out of its bag, and of course doesn't come with any instructions!!!!!! Luckily Alan P has a 2 man Defender and was able to supply a few clues as to where everything went .

So all set up and settled in, it was time for a stroll around to see what was on offer. It's quite strange to find a fishery like this which is essentially set on an Industrial estate, but with the heavily wooded surroundings you would never know it. Paths through the woods lead to lots of small ponds and lakes dotted all over the complex, and sitting on the Tench pond I came across Norm and his young son Chris who were busy getting amongst the small Carp & Tench which inhabit it.....................

Carrying on round the complex it was becoming apparent that all the ponds and lakes contained not a lot of colour, in fact the water was amazingly clear, also the lilies had been allowed to run riot and could do with some serious attention. Marginal shelves appeared to be almost non existent, and most of the anglers fishing appeared to have at least 5ft of water just a rod length out.

The Match Lake.

Looking across the Match Lake which is the largest lake on the complex, lots of Carp could be seen cruising around and topping everywhere, although they didn't seem to be all that interested in feeding. On the way back, I bumped into Dave (Red Leader) who was trying to tempt one of the Carp on a mixer. To say that these Carp were wise to the method would be a bit of an understatement, as they proved to be well practiced at mopping up the freebies and ignoring the one with a hook in it. Finally dapping a bait in the lilies resulted in a take, but the action proved to be short lived as the hook parted from the line, due it appeared to a poorly tied knot.

The frustrated Stalker.

At this point Beebs finally arrived having also endured the road to hell, and a few of us decided to retire to the local pub (The Mallard) and partake of the carvery and a couple of pints.  Returning fully refreshed I couldn't resist having an hours dabble on the match lake, but with not a single bite and the light fading fast, it was back to base camp to christen the barrel of beer and a bit of banter before turning in for the night.

7am saw myself and Red Leader setting up for a feederfan match on the match lake.To say that sport was fast and furious would be a total lie. A heavy mist that covered the lake at first soon burnt off and we were obviously in for another scorching day.
My 1st bite resulted in an obvious foulhooker that set off for the other side of the lake before the hook pulled. It would be nice to say that everyone bagged up, but a combination of gin clear water, scorching sun and mostly flat calm conditions meant that most struggled on the day. Dave and I ended our session with honours even with 3 Carp each!

My Catch.

Dave the Fish who had spent the day in the swim to my right finished with 6 Carp, all taken on dapped pellet for a total bag that must have approached 30lb.

Graham further up the lake had managed 4 with the best being a nice Common, estimated at around the 15lb mark, while bigladwigan managed to get amongst a few late on fishing casters.
A wander around the lakes during the day found Jeff and Dave Scouse fishing the Scummy pond next to the Tench pond, and merrily baggin up on the stockies,but getting sorted out by some of the larger samples that weren't meant to be in there!

Saturday night was Barbecue night with hot dogs and burgers all round and another attempt at emptying the beer barrel.
"Deckchair Pants" made sure that the raffle ran smoothly, Well done Haydn.
Then once more it was banter time with discussions ranging from leg length, to gratitude, female attendance at fish-ins, Hovis and various other subjects till midnight.

Sunday morning, and a chance of a final couple of hours before packing up and heading home saw me and Dave the Fish on the scummy pond.

A few small Carp and Tench, with a few better examples to Dave and his dapped pellets made for a pleasant morning.
A chat with me, no I wasn't talking to myself but me (Simon) and another with bigladwigan as he got himself amongst a few of the small Carp was interrupted when Chris decided to plunge into the pond head first, while Norm to his credit got his priorities right by saving the pole before helping Chris out.

bigladwigan and a small stockie.

Strolling back past the match lake to pack up and Craig (Bashy) was into one on the corner peg and despite a few nervous moments soon had it in the net.

Dave, a couple of swims along was also putting a few into the net, but for us it was time to pack up and get going, Via the M1 this time rather than face the A1.

So there it is for another year, impressions of Yaddlethorpe? Hard to truly judge given the heatwave conditions, but i would say that it needs some serious management to get to grips with the lilies that appear to have run riot and make life very difficult in most swims on all the lakes . A lovely looking venue though that really brings a touch of the countryside to an urban area .
To Dave and Stu, thanks for all your efforts once again , and to all those that attended, Thanks for your support. It was great as usual to meet some new faces and catch up with others met at previous Fish-ins once again.
The fishing itself may not have been up to much, but the company and banter was superb as usual.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Up with the lark this morning for the drive down to Framfield Park Fishery, just outside the village of Uckfield. The sun was up as I pulled into the carpark, promising a second hot day on the trot Summer must be here at last .

Lots of banter and catching up over a Bacon sandwich and a cuppa as I had missed the last 2 club matches. We were fishing Spring Lake, a noted "bag-up" water down here in the SE, and this had encouraged a good turn out of 23 anglers.

Into the drawbag and it's the early pegs in the 50's that everyone wanted, but it was peg 45 for me, not the best of pegs as there's only a maximum of 3ft of water and the island is out of pole reach at 20mtrs+ .

Having already missed 2 club matches and with the prospect of missing at least another 4 during the course of the season, I've made up my mind this year to just enjoy the days fishing and I wanted to use today to try and get to grips with fishing paste, a bait that i don't use very often, and a method that i really need to improve on .

Peg 45.

Plumbing up revealed a change of depth of just 4" from the margin to 14mtrs and a couple of slurping sounds from the vegetation growing in the left hand margin made my mind up that that would be my main area to fish.

By the time of the all-in there were a good number of fish cruising around but despite a number of anglers targeting them they seemed reluctant to feed . Meanwhile i was sitting on my hands and trying to resist hitting every little dip and dink of the float as hordes of little Roach descended on my paste.
An hour in and the float just buried and the elastic ripped out of the pole as Carp no1, a nice Ghostie of about 3lbs got me of the mark .

The next few hours were what you might call character forming!!!
Lots of tail patterns in the swim with apparent sail away bites being nothing more than liners. Fiddling with the rig and laying about 6" of line on the deck and cutting back the feed meant that i managed another 9 fish, so that with just over an hour to go i probably had about 25lbs in the net.

Meanwhile news was traveling down that a couple of the lads on the 50's were sacking up and were in with a chance of doing the ton.
Me? i decided to increase the size of paste that i was fishing from a thumbnail piece to a bit the size of a 10p in the hope that the silvers wouldn't whittle it completely away before the Carp found it.

Well, whether it was sheer luck or inspiration I'm not sure but it certainly did the trick. The last hour was hectic to say the least as nearly every put in resulted in a sail-away and a Carp on the end. I couldn't get a bait in the water quickly enough and I had then queuing up .

When the scales arrived, sure enough 2 of the lads on the 50's had recorded tons, Paul (The club champ) with 119lbs 11ozs and Andy with a superb 159lbs 3ozs for a new club record weight.
Me? Thanks to that final hectic hour I managed 80lbs 12ozs which proved to be good enough for 3rd on the day .

The 23 members present managed to put a total of 1151lbs 9ozs on the scales today, representing an average of over 50lbs per man, A cracking days fishing by any standards.

Paste, Have I cracked it? Probably not, but a fun day that got me thinking about my fishing and definitely something that i shall be using on a more regular basis .

Thought I had better try and get some practice for the MD Individual Knockout Championships Southern Qualifier that's taking place on the Reservoir at Hartleylands next Saturday . The weather wasn't looking to good on the drive down, with the odd shower and strong blustery winds .

I arrived at the fishery at 9·30am and seeing that there were no bookings on the reservoir drove straight up there. There were only 3 other anglers fishing. A walk round made me realise why they were tucked into one corner as the wind was really blowing across the water. I suppose I could have toughed it out, but I decided to join the 3 others and dropped into peg 31 right next to the car park .

During disscussions with Paul (The Owner) and Vince in the past, the fact that the good head of silver fish present tend to get ignored by most anglers who target the Carp, has always come up, and today I fancied seeing just how many of these I could catch. To keep count I was going to drop a pellet into an empty baitbox for each 10 caught. Plumbing up I had 3ft at a top 2 length increasing to 5ft at 8 mtrs. The wind was going to make it uncomfortable to fish any longer, and would probably make for a slower catch rate.

I set up 3rigs, The 1st a top2 set to fish to hand that would cover all depths, the 2nd at dead depth for 8mtrs and a shallow rig for the same line. Bait was 6mm expanders, cubed meat and sweetcorn. Micro pellet was to be the loosefeed.
Starting off I put 2 pots of micropellet in at 8mtrs and a ½ pot at 3mtrs. Out to 8mtrs with an expander at depth and within a minute the float slid away as a plump Roach of about 6ozs obliged . Bites and fish were pretty constant. All the while a pinch of micros were being flicked into the 3mtr line and my 1st put in on that line after about 45 mins found that the Roach were waiting.These fish were unmarked and a good average size (6-8ozs) with some examples over the pound .

It must have been solid with roach as in the course of 4hrs only 4 Carp managed to muscle their way in along with a few Skimmers and a solitary Tench of about 3lbs. A fifth Carp finally trashed the to hand rig after about 4½hrs, so it was time to count up the pellets in the baitbox. 31 pellets plus the five Roach caught before the rig went west = 315 silvers, mainly Roach!!!!!!  One hell of a session, it's at times like this that you wish you could use a keepnet .

After a well earned coffee and a sarnie I made another heavier rig up for a last hour targetting the Carp with big cubes of meat. The constant stream of micros had obviously resulted in a good few getting through to the bottom, and i managed another 11 Carp before packing up .
The largest of which is in the photo below.To give you some idea of size the net is a 24inch (2feet) pan.

What it doesn't show is how fat the fish was .

Another day like this next Saturday will more than do me, but as "The Jinx" is fishing it as well, I may be raising my hopes, only to have them dashed. ROLL ON NEXT SATURDAY!!!!!!!  

J Sainsbury's National Angling Championships 2004.

Down to Gold Valley today for the annual J Sainsbury National Angling Championships.
This is a match that has been pretty good to me, over the last 6 years I've had 4 top 5 finishes . The match is open to all Sainsbury's employees and members of their staff assocciation. I qualify as Maria (Mrs M) works for them and I'm a paid up member of their staff assocciation.

Normally this is a 110 peg match, but this year only 80 entries had been recieved so the match was pegged on Syndicate, Middle and Bungalow Lakes. The weather forcast for the day promised sunshine and showers, but on the drive down there was nothing but blue skies and bright sunshine although the wind was quite cold and blustery.

I arrived at 7am in plenty of time for breakfast in the clubhouse that is laid on as part of the day, and after that it was time to get the nets dipped and collect my bait from the onsite tackle shop before returning for the draw .

The Clubhouse.

Into the pot and peg 114 on Syndicate was my alloted spot for the day. I was quite chuffed with the draw as pegs 110 - 114 have a gravel bar to fish to that is about 25ft short of the ropes that run down the middle of the lake to stop anglers casting past ½ way, and once the weather warms up the carp normally move onto this bar .

Peg 114.

With an 11am start there was plenty of time to set up, so the feeder was set up to fish to the bar, set up on a snap swivel so that i could easily swop feeder size, or from a cage to a maggot feeder if needed. The pole lines were simplicity themselves as the bottom was perfectly flat and level from 3mtrs out all the way to 14mtrs with a depth of around 6ft. 3 rigs were set up, 1 at depth, 1 at a foot deep and a third that i could adjust to fish between the two. 1 other rig was set up for the margins that still had 3½ft of water, and would hopefully produce some lumps in the later part of the match .

All the while i was setting up, I hadn't seen a single fish move which is unusual on Syndicate , and with 45 minutes to the off I went for a walk around. Reaching the end pegs 99 -102 it was soom obvious where the fish were!!! sheltered and calm these pegs were alive with fish and those anglers in them all had large grins on their faces .

11am and the all in, and with a large cage feeder 20 casts were made to the bar to put a bed of groundbait down on it. Then out on the pole with a couple of balls of groundbait with pellet, corn and grated meat at 5mtrs and 12mtrs to see if there were any silvers about.
The lad to my left started on the waggler and the one to my right was on the feeder. A slow start all round and after the 1st hour i just had 6 Roach, then the lad to my right had a Carp on the feeder which he lost at the net. Out onto the bar with the feeder and a piece of hair rigged meat. The lad to my right had another Carp which looked close to double figures as he netted it which was followed by another next cast. Despite swapping between meat, maggot and corn all i was getting was the odd minute tap in the next 2 hours which resulted in another couple of Roach .

2 hours to go and the tip pulled firmly round and kept going, something had picked up the piece of meat and after a spirited fight, there in the net was a nice double figure Common Carp . "Here we go" I thought, WRONG!!!! Not another bite for the rest of the match!
Just before the end the lad to my left had a large Mirror on the waggler, a good double, but placing it into his keepnet it flipped back into the lake. The language to say the least was industrial!!!!!!

The end of the match came, and I knew that I'd come nowhere even in my section, so I tipped back about 5lbs of silvers when the scales arrived.Talking to the scalesmen it appears that this year for some reason not a single decent weight has come from this swim this year which even they can't understand (Now they tell me! ) I got them to weigh the Common as they were there and it went 11lbs 2ozs, so i probably had about 16lbs in total.

The Winner? he had 102lbs from end peg 101 and reckoned that he had lost as much again .

To the Winner the spoils.

Back to the clubhouse for the presentations, with a buffet and bar laid on it soon became apparent that the complex as a whole hadn't fished up to expectations. Having said that if it was easy we would probably get bored. I'll just have to try harder next year .

Well today was one of those "Just got to go fishing" days. No real forward planning, no Saturday trip to the tackle shop, didn't even set the alarm, just woke up and looked out of the window, load up the car and off .

Destination Harleylands, There were bound to be matches booked on the main lakes, but you always seem to be able to find a swim on one of the smaller ponds on the complex, unlike neighbouring Elphicks which is normally full with the gates shut by 7·30am at the weekends .

I got there at just after 8am to find all the main lakes booked as I thought, but was pleasantly surprised to find a newly installed Burger Van .

Breakfast taken care of (Very nice it was too) I had a wander and found peg 22 on Finches was free, which would do for me. A comfortable 13mtrs to the far side and with the odd patch of fizzing bubbles, I was soon set up and ready to go. Bait wise I only had some corn and some 4 & 6mm expander pellets, so that would have to do.

Peg 22...

Idealy I would have liked some meat, as i find that it works well here once the weather starts to warm up, but i didn't have any with me. Anyway a couple of large pots of 4mm pellets with some corn were deposited along the front of the Irises on the far bank and a 6mm was impaled on the hook and offered up .

After about 30 mins of the float dipping and dancing around as the silvers nibbled away at the pellets it stopped. Back out with a fresh pellet and a couple of minutes later it buried and the 1st Carp of the day was on its way to the net.............

1st of the day....

.................A fin perfect fully scaled mirror of about 4lbs. Sport was never fast and furious, but by sticking at it sport was at least regular. One of the delights of Hartleylands is the condition of the fish, No ripped mouths and every one fin perfect and such is the stock mix that you're never sure what the next fish will be. Common, Mirror, Ghost, Koi? they are all there to be caught .

As the afternoon became more overcast with rain threatening, the obligatory "One Last Cast" produced this lovely Linear Ghost carp of around 3lbs.......

A nice end to the session which produced a total of 15 carp for a weight of around 50lbs. Definately worth the 90 mile round trip. 

Having been told by Maria that she would be working late today, I decided that I'd sneak off and have a few hours at Harleylands today .
Looking out of the window at 7am, the car was covered in frost, so it was another ½hr under a nice warm duvet followed by a leisurely breakfast before loading the car.
I got to Hartleylands just after 10am, and with just 3 other cars in the car park, and with a layer of cat-ice on Samsons pond, I drove up to have a look at the reservoir. Getting out of the car i realised just how strong and cold the wind was and decided to go for a bit of comfort and fish Finches which sits in a hollow about 20 feet below the reservoir and would be nicely sheltered.

Looking down Finches...

I fancied fishing the pole,and given the steep nature of the banks at the car park end, elected to have a stroll down to the far end where the flatter banks make it easier to fish at 13 mtrs to the far bank cover.
Setting up on the end peg I noticed that yet again the fishery staff had been hard at work renewing all the platforms on the pegs, Nice solid 1 mtr square wooden platforms that are covered in chickenwire so that they are non-slip .

End peg...

I just set up the one top kit threaded with white Hydro, with a rig comprising of a Drennan Carp 6 float with 4lb line straight through with a bulk and two no10 droppers ending with a 18 Kamasan Animal. Bait was to be sweetcorn fished over micro halibut pellets, with a few expanda pellets prepared as an alternative hookbait.

I wasn't expecting any fireworks, but after 20mins the float slid away and I connected with a nice Common that after a brief scrap, slid over the net to brighten up the day. A nice plump fish in mint condition that went just over 5lbs......................

1st of the day...

Slow and steady would be the best description of the day, 13 bites produced 12 Carp and 1 Submarine that just wandered off down the lake without stopping. I don't think it even knew that it was hooked!!!!
The rest were a mix of Commons and Mirrors, all plump fish between 3 & 5 lbs, and in beautiful condition .

...

Part of the days catch...

...

So all in all, a nice little session with about 40lbs of fish on a day that didn't promise an awful lot at first. Yet again Hartleylands had come up with the goods.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well it was off to Lavender Farm today for a Hawthorne AC club match.
For a bit of added interest i was being joined by 3 guests (all Maggotdrowners) in the shape of Dave the Fish, Colin the Pike and last but not least Malc "The Jinx"

After various bits of banter in the car park it was time for the draw. Peg 92 was mine and low and behold Dave drew 93. Fortunately Malc drew on the dam wall which was about as far away from us as it was possible to get , though poor Colin only managed to get 4 pegs away. I was planning to start on the straight lead fishing corn, with a possible switch later on to the end of a dead reed bed on my left, into about 4 feet of water.

At the whistle Paul potted in 2 big cups of maggot at 11mtrs, and in his first 3 put ins had 3 carp for about 10lbs in the net.  My tip meanwhile refused to move.  A hasty change onto the pole and out to about 10mtrs in 9ft of water with corn on the hook, resulted in a couple of tentative bites and my first carp, but I was going backwards as Paul was off to a flyer .

At the start I had fed a couple of handfulls of micro halibut pellets into the reedbed on my left along with a few grains of corn, and after about an hour the stems started waiving as fish moved through them. I'd normally wait till later in the match before going onto that line, but i was getting battered by Paul and had to try something. Bites for the most part were tiny little dips, but slowly I felt that I was pulling back the deficit. Paul having seen me catching close, moved onto his margin and while not getting as many as me, seemed to be catching a better stamp of fish.

Dave had decided to concentrate on the other side of the reeds to me, and was slowly putting a few together. Malc was happily adjusting to a smaller stamp of Carp than he's been used to at Drayton & Stockton, but unfortunately Colin was having a hard time of it in his peg, fish proving hard to come by .
All to soon for me the scales arrived, with Paul weighing 66lbs 06ozs for 1st place, to my level 63lbs which gave me 2nd overall, Pauls better stamp of fish making all the difference. Dave managed 17lbs 12ozs for 8th on the day and Malc managed a creditable 34lbs 14ozs for 5th. Colin tipped his back without weighing.

Also today the club was fishing its Pairs Cup and with my partner on the day Mark Smith weighing in with 48lbs, we were the winners with 111lbs.
So a good day for me,and i hope that my 3 guests enjoyed themselves.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Off to Luck's Lane reservoir today for the club Fur & Feather match.
Stopped of for breakfast at the Oakdene Cafe before meeting in the venue car park for the draw.

Into the drawbag for peg 10 which was halfway along the lefthand bank with a cold NW wind howling straight into it.
That made my mind up straight away, I set up my new Boss Box which was having its 1st outing, and settled for fishing a feeder with hair-rigged corn. This was going to be my only line of attack because of the large number of crayfish that plague the venue. (any "meaty" bait gets ragged immediatly.)

Looking to the right from peg 10.....

Sport was slow but regular for me at least, with 9 Carp coming to the net at regular intervals during the match.
As the scales came round it became obvious that some had had a grueller with 10 dry nets recorded, My level 24lbs was enough to win the match by a clear 9lbs.

Back in the car park and time for the prizes, a 1½ltr bottle of Scotch for me, and a nice brown envelope.
Everyone took home a prize at the end of the day, even if it was only for sticking it out.

So 1st time out with my new box and a win, lets hope it's a lucky omen .