Well today is the day of the Maggotdrowning.com Individual Championship, and this year's venue is the Match Lake at Larford Lakes. It meant an early start for me as it's about 150 miles for me to drive. So with the car loaded up by 5am I was off, and a nice smooth trip with just a stop for coffee on the way found me pulling into the fishery car park just after 8am . It's a small world, as I parked next to Andy(andy222)Feltham an MD's member who hadn't posted for a while, and was there to fish a club match on the Specimen Lake.

Soon after people started to arrive in force, Vince who had organised today's match was soon joined by Clive and after dipping our nets we decided to get in quick for breakfast. A Full English for £5 was soon dispatched and fishery pellets purchased. I have to say that I find it strange that you can only feed a maximum of 4 bags of fishery pellets(2 pints of skrettings in a bag costing £2·50p), but you can feed unlimited amounts of meat or corn, which can't be good for water quality Waiting for the draw it was good to catch up with faces, both old and new , The customary side bet of a Golden Nugget was struck with Vince and Gemma(The Minx), while John's good lady Lynn parted us from our cash in exchange for raffle tickets, the proceeds of which will be going to The British Heart Foundation, and by the time that Vince called the draw at 9am, 38 of us were ready to go, meaning that we could leave out the even pegs giving everyone a bit of space . Into the hat and I'm rewarded with peg 37, while Vince asks me to draw for him and receives peg 51 as a present from me .

At least peg 37 being on the clubhouse bank means I can drive up and almost park behind it. It doesn't look to bad to be honest with a chuck to the island on the feeder and a nice bed of lilies in front of the bush to my left and should be good for a few.

Looking around I've got my fellow Marsh AC member,Tony(spamwham)Roberts to my left, so there should be a good bit of banter during the day ..........

To my right I've got Andrew(Marginman)Willet and next up fellow blogger and Jinx Series partner Clive, who appears to be knocking up some groundbait, though he might have had the prayer mat out and be offering up a plea to the fishing gods ...........

Looking across I can see Vince over on peg 51, so at least I'll be able to keep tabs on the likely destination of the Golden Nugget .

The set up today is 2 4X12 Malman Adam's to 0·16 with a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hooks to fish 6mm banded pellet and meat on the deck at 7mtrs straight out and on the edge of the lilies to my left where there's about 3feet of water and a Malman MTD2 dibber, again on 0·16 with a 18 Drennan Carp Match hook for up in the water. I also set up a Malman SC paste to 0·22 Power Match with a size 12 Drennan Carp Feeder hook for paste, just in case any lumps put in an appearance and the feeder rod.
Bait for the day was a mix of pellets, meat and paste, with feed taken care of by dampened 4mm fishery pellets.

So 11am and Vince calls the All-In. A handfull of pellet straight out to 7mtrs and another to the edge of the lilies and before I can ship out a banded pellet to 7mtrs a shout rings out signifying The Minx has her 1st fish in the net, sending a shudder down the spines of more than a few blokes .
Out to 7mtrs and after lifting and dropping the rig a couple of times the black hydro rips out of the top kit and soon a plump F1 of around 1½lbs is safely in the net ...........

This was swiftly followed by a small stockie of around 8ozs and than a bit of frustration started to set in , I had a spate of very finicky bites, but I managed to hit them, only to have them shed the hook as they came to the net for no apparent reason, the hook certainly hadn't blunted. Indeed I wasn't the only one to suffer like this, as I found out talking to others after the match. I was still managing to put a few in the net, though there were a few to many small stockies rather than the better stamp of F1's..........

To clear my head I took a quick stroll along with the camera to see how others were fairing. Dai was getting a few, but it was proving to be a bit of a struggle ...............

Dirk seemed to be happy enough with his lot, and while not pulling up any trees appeared to be catching with a degree of regularity .............

While tucked away on the other side of the lake I could see Malc(The Jinx) on peg 55, and judging by the way he was concentrating, he was obviously catching ............

Tony was looking as if he was in for a good day with a nice lily pad at a comfy 8mtrs he was catching a decent stamp of fish fishing shallow , though he had been seen off a couple of times by lumps that had found the sanctuary of the pads ...........

Clive meanwhile was having a bit of a mare, he was another suffering from lost fish , though he did manage to successfully land one as I looked on ............

Back at my peg I continued to put a few in the net, but yet again they were mostly small skimmers and stockies though as Clive strolled past I was into something a little better .........

Which proved to be one of the better F1's that gave a pretty good account of itself, I did ask Clive to stay for a while as he seemed to bring me a bit of luck, but for some reason he didn't think much of my offer .........

As the match wore on Vince had managed to bag a couple of what seemed to be reasonable fish on the feeder, but still needed to find something to up his catch rate and avoid the loss of yet another Golden Nugget ............

Weather wise we seemed to have just about everything during the course of the match and with half an hour to go it started to rain , and while my bites had become few and far between, Tony was still catching steadily and continued to put fish regularly in the net right up to the All-out being called at 4pm.

As we packed away at least the rain eased off and chatting to Tony I felt he must be in with a chance of at least a section as I thought he had something approaching the 'Ton'. The scales soon arrived and Tony's fish weighed in at an ounce shy of 97lbs to place him into the lead , while my net went 50lbs 5ozs. Clive had indeed suffered with a mere 19lbs 3ozs to show for his 5 hours . Poor Vince having slipped on the wet bank and pulled his thigh as he was packing his kit away suffered the loss of yet another Golden Nugget with just 17lbs 11ozs . I followed the scales round as far as Malc's peg where he put an excellent 89¾lbs on the scales before I returned to make my way back to the club house.

Back at the club house I was pleased to find I'd avoided a Minxing as Gem had struggled today so I managed to retrieve the Golden Nugget she'd taken from me on the previous Saturday at Rolf's . A buffet was laid on for us, with plenty to go round for all, despite Steve(Steak) doing his best to decimate it single handedly . Vince soon had the results sorted and the presentation underway.......

The section winners on the day being.........

Alan(Genus9)West
Lee(Hicko1)Hicking
Malc(The Jinx)Doyle
Wayne(Baggingman)Panting

The main honours going to ..........
3rd place..........Tony(spamwham)Roberts.

2nd place..........Mark(Bungee)Collinson.

and the winner on the day and MD's Individual Champion 2009...............
Steve (Fordy1) Ford.

The day was rounded off with the Raffle

Which thanks to Lynn's efforts selling tickets
raised £200 for The British Heart Foundation .

A few Thank You's are in order at this point, Firstly to Vince for organising the match, and doing his usual Excellent Job . To Lynn for a great job flogging the raffle tickets . To Phil Briscoe and all his staff at Maver Larford for their efforts during the day . Finally to all those members of Maggotdrowning.com that supported and took part in the match, making it the success that it was, it couldn't be done without you. Looks like we'll have to do it all over again next year .

The JINX Series 2009

Match 2.

The second match of the series today, I'd heard that it had fished hard last weekend in adverse weather conditions and the midweek match was held on the Big Lake as the Carp were finishing their spawning in the Little Lake so it will be interesting to see how things go today . With Maria working today I was up early to take her to work, before setting off to the fishery. A leisurely stop for a 'Full English' and another for coffee at the services still saw me arriving ahead of the rest about 10·30am. John was cutting the grass and almost ended up in peg 34 when he got a little adventurous on his ride-on mower .
Soon the car park was filling up with a full compliment of 28 anglers, with Simon E having replaced Pete Thatcher in the series as he can't spare the time off work, and Dave and Steve having travelled down from Yorkshire again to take 2 guest spots as they'd enjoyed the 1st match so much .

With the draw on time again, the general consensus was that The Little Lake was still the place to draw. Webbo couldn't believe his luck, pulling out Peg 6 this time (Golden Hand or what? ) and immediately struck a £1 side bet with me knowing that he's again drawn a form peg, while Clive (my Pairs partner ) remarked that the one peg he didn't want to draw was Peg 23 on the car park bank.................... so of course he drew Peg 23 (it looks as if his drawing hand is going to be spending some serious time on the naughty step ). I drew Peg 13, and drawing it on the 13th wasn't the best of omens as I'd struggled on the same peg on the last match . On peg 14 I had Gemma The Minx for company and again the omens didn't look good as Eddie Turner-Green was coming down today to take some photo's for John, and Gem always does well when he's around.

Setting up took a matter of minutes as it was just a question of opening my box and picking out the 3 rigs I'd used the previous match , a MW 0·4g XT for the 8mtr line on the deck on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match and a MW Trev with similar line and hook for up in the water that could double up down the side, while a third rig consisting of a Malman SC paste to 0·22 Power Match with a size 12 Drennan Carp Feeder hook for paste down the Side. Bait for the day was once more a mix of various pellets, paste, corn and meat, with feed taken care of by 4 and 6mm fishery pellets.

1·30pm and Malc called the All-In, and I shipped out 2 big pots of mixed pellets onto the 7mtr line, and fed the right hand margin by hand. The experience of déjà vu was ominous , having baited the rig with a 6mm expander and shipped out, my first two put ins resulted in foul hookers just like the previous match. Malc however was soon into the lake for an early bath, playing the good samaritan this time and retrieving Tony's spectacles that had dropped into his peg ......

Indeed 1½hrs passed before I hooked into a proper fish which proved to be a weigher, a nice 11½lb Common . After another 45 minutes of inactivity and a phonecall from Webbo telling me that he'd only had 7 fish (  Oh how my heart bled for him......NOT ) I decided to feed heavily and take a stroll to see how the rest were doing .

As I walked past Gem was into a fish, and was taking her time playing it as it was obviously a decent one..................

.........indeed her patience was amply rewarded in the shape of a new PB Mirror Carp that swung the scales round to rest on a weight of 15lbs 2ozs ...................

Jon on peg 17 obviously had the Gods shining down on him, as I strolled past he lifted into a small roach, but as he started to ship back yards of elastic streamed out of his top kit, the roach obviously having been bumped off, a hungry carp had snaffled the hook and whatever was left on it on the drop !!!!!!!!!!!!...................

Nick and Malc were both struggling at this point and looking down the car park bank nobody appeared to be taking the place apart...................

Indeed Clive found that Peg 23 was living up to his worst expectations , with just a single fish that he'd had on his first put in, just to cruelly raise his expectations ..............

.................. only to dash them, as he tried in vain to add a second to his tally ................

Simon E on peg 29 appeared to be putting a few together alternating between fishing shallow and fishing big balls of paste on the deck, while Dave on peg 28 was admitting to 4 fish.......................

Ant on peg 34 was having a few, but Simon on peg 35 seemed to be having the mother of all 'Mugger Moments©' as he hadn't been able to tempt a single fish and was looking at the very real possibility of a Minxing (as were a good few of us at this point ).....................

Slim on peg 37 had landed a carp before the off on a bare hook and was fishing long up in the water to try and tempt a few.......

While Al on peg 38 was having to chop and change to keep his bites coming.............

Steve(steak) on peg 40 was putting the odd fish in the net, but was to suffer a minor disaster as one his keepnets top rings collapsed releasing 2 Carp before he could rectify the situation ........

Terry (Wily Coyote) had taken 4 fish down the margin on peg 4, but by the look of things they were all out in front of him ........

Webbo was quite content on peg 6, though he was mourning the loss of one of his new Malman 'Elvis' floats, though looking at his peg I found it hard to feel to much sympathy for him ...............

Keith was ticking along nicely on peg 7, but Nick was having a real struggle getting to terms with peg 8.............

Andy on peg 9 was getting a bit desperate and had filled in the margin with pellet in a kill or cure attempt to make something happen.............

While Dave on peg 10 and Dai on peg 12 were both struggling, Dave having a skimmer and a perch to show for his efforts, while Dai couldn't buy a bite ................

Back on my peg with a few fizzes of bubbles coming up and a few fish cruising I resumed, but despite going through the card, all I could muster were another couple of scales on the sidetray from foul hookers that had taken off at a rate of knots . I did hook one decent fish but that did me under my keepnets and despite managing to thread my top kit under them to maintain contact, it shed the hook soon after .

With about an hour to go I had another foul hooker, but with the hook firmly in it's pectoral fin I managed to get it into the net, Dave on peg 10 had finally managed a couple of Carp and Dai had snared a Roach to avoid the dreaded DNW and would add a small carp as well before the end.

With half an hour to go Ieuan strolled past having surrendered and resigned himself to a DNW. I managed a final fish, yet another foul hooker, this time in the tail, that did a great job of trashing the swim before I managed to net it.
6·30pm and Malc called the All-Out ending what had been a very frustrating time for me and a few others .

As always the scales told the tale of the day. A DNW and a Minxing for Simon, Al briefly leading with 74¾lbs till Webbo put 94½lbs on the scales that would eventually net him A Section and 3rd place . My own meagre 24½lbs was nowhere near enough to save me from a next peg Minxing once Gemma put 33lbs 2ozs on the scales and took a Golden Nugget off me. Steve had a quietly steady match on peg 15 to register 101lbs for 2nd , while Jon took the honours on the day off of peg 17 with 104¾lbs for B Section and the win . Simon E taking C Section and 4th overall with a level 93lbs to round things off .
So 2 Golden Nuggets lost on the day, one to Webbo and the other to Gemma, along with my 1st Minxing of 2009, mind you I was just one of 13( There's that number again) that she added to her list today .

So that's it for today , next up for me is the Maggotdrowning.com Individual Championship at Maver Larford's Match Lake next Saturday. How will it go? I've not got a clue as I've never fished there before, but it should be a good day out. I'll let you know next weekend.

The JINX Series 2009

Match 1.

Well today saw 26 nutters lunatics fools anglers assembled at Rolf's for the start of this years JINX Series . This has become a "Must Fish" series of matches for me since I started fishing it back in 2005, and with 5 rounds to the Series this year, and there's bound to be more than a few tales to tell over the course of the matches .
I'd been looking forward to today with a fair deal of anticipation as the matches are more like great days out with a bunch of mates rather than a match , so I was up bright and early and soon had the car loaded and was off to Battersea for my customary breakfast stop. Suitably fortified by a Full English and with the sun beaming down from a gloriously blue sky it was back into the car for a smooth drive down, with a further stop at the Services for Coffee before pulling into Rolf's car park around 10am, to be greeted by John and a few of the Welsh contingent who were already there, having stayed down for the whole week.

1st things 1st, so the nets were dipped and laid out to dry, before John filled me in with how the place had been fishing and what he'd been up to since my last visit. The most notable addition being the aerators that he's purchased and is in the process of installing. Soon the car park started to fill up, including Simon Enticott along with Dave(Webbo) and Steve(Steak) who'd travelled down from Yorkshire to fish as guests .

 Even Malc (With Liam and Crystal in tow) was early , which was hard to get used to, especially as in a moment of madness he'd volunteered to loose his ponytail to raise money for MD's. I'd brought my clippers with me, so at 11·30am Mugger's Barber Shop was open for business .
Fair play to him, he didn't cry much as his beloved ponytail escaped to freedom ................

swiftly followed by the rest of his locks ....................

With suitable moral support from the assembled crowd ..................

Click this link to see Simon's video of Malc losing his hair.

So with the hairdressing done for the day it was time for the draw. Into the bag and I found Peg 13 was my home for the match. I'd never fished it before, but John confirmed that it could be good, a comfy 8 mtrs out in front and down the edge to the right once the fish move in being the plan . Settling in there was plenty of time to prepare as the All-In wasn't till 2pm. With this years JINX Series being 'Pole Only' setting up was reasonably easy.

A MW 0·4g XT for the 8mtr line on the deck (it's a line through the body design that's nice and strong )on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match and a MW Trev with similar line and hook for up in the water that could double up down the side, while a third rig consisting of a Malman SC paste to 0·22 Power Match with a size 12 Drennan Carp Feeder hook for paste down the Side. Bait for the day was a mix of various pellets, paste, corn and meat, with feed taken care of by 4 and 6mm fishery pellets.

It was turning into scorcher but a bit of a breeze kept things comfortable. I must admit that I would have preferred to have drawn on the Little Lake today as I'd seen plenty of fish there earlier, but with any peg capable of throwing up a decent weight I wasn't to despondent .
So 2pm and Malc called the All-In and in a matter of seconds a scream arose from the Little Lake as Gemma netted her 1st fish of the day (and had a load of us worrying about being on the wrong end of a Minxing ) Shipping out to 8mtrs with a 6mm expander on the hook followed by a handfull of pellet the float settled and after about 30 seconds buried!!!!!! Fish on and a good un by the feel of it, then the rig flew back with a scale on the hook. Another handfull of pellet out to 8mtrs and another down the edge before I shipped the rig out to 8mtrs once more. Again after about a minute the float buried with exactly the same outcome . Now I've experienced this before at Rolf's and it can be very hard to overcome. I altered the rig to lay a couple of inches of line on the deck and baited with double corn. Keep topping up the pellet in both swims and ship out. Nothing !!! keep lifting and dropping the rig and after around 5 minutes the float slid gently away. Lifting into it there was solid resistance but it didn't power off like a lunatic and gentle pressure saw me soon net the fish, a scale perfect Common and a definite weigher, it went 12lbs 4ozs on the scales, a lovely way to get off the mark .

Unfortunately another 5 minutes went by without a bite. I'd seen that Tony over on peg 31 had a couple of weighers as had Paul on peg 32........

Sprucey over on peg 23 was really struggling and from what I could see hadn't had a bite yet alone a fish ........

and Ant on peg 10 to my right appeared to be in a similar boat and doing a blinding impression of a Garden Gnome .........

My reverie was broken however by the float sliding away to the depths once more, and after a spirited fight another weigher slid into the landing net, this time a Mirror of 9½lbs . Young Ryan Hughes on peg 28 (fishing his 1st Jinx match) was starting to put a few together............

In fact most of the anglers that I could see on the car park bank seemed to be getting the odd one or two with the exception of Pete Thatcher on peg 29. Indeed, not long after he packed up and left !!!!!!!!!
I was still struggling with just another couple of foul hookers and a few bumped roach to show for my efforts as Malc did his customary lap of the fishery offering words of encouragement (Yeah, Right ) with Liam and Crystal in tow.

I had a few fish cruising around in pairs in front of me, but despite switching to the shallow rig couldn't interest them.
Meanwhile Terry over on peg 27 (Who was fishing his 1st Jinx Match) was getting the odd one that stretched his elastic right out ..........

Malc returned with news that the Little Lake looked like the place to be today with pegs 4,6,7 and 8 all producing fish.
I had a look down the edge with the paste rig, more in hope than expectation as I hadn't seen a single sign of a fish there, and after 30 minutes gave it up as a bad job. However there were a few shouts of encouragement from the car park bank directed towards Malc's swim, so I decided to investigate only to find him up to his armpits in the water . A fish had snagged him in a sunken branch, and as he could feel that it was still tethered he'd gone in to free it. Well that was his excuse, I reckon he fancied a bath to go with his new haircut ..............

Up on peg 19 I could see Clive (my Pairs Partner for the Series ) plugging away, not the best peg on the day, but if anyone could find a few from it, Clive should be capable as he's fished that peg more than a few times...........

With nothing down the edge or up in the water I decided to concentrate at 8mtrs on the deck for the remainder of the match.
Back out with a single grain of corn on the hook, and after about 10 minutes fish no3 arrived in the form of a 6lb Common , quickly followed by another couple of foul hookers that vanished at a rate of knots towards the Little Lake .

By now Simon E was really getting into the swing of things over on peg 6 and steadily pulling away.............

and Dave was making the most of having drawn noted peg 7 and was well on the way to recording his best ever match weight  ...................

With around an hour to go I managed 2 fish in 2 put in's , a couple of Commons, both around the 7lb mark. However it didn't herald the start of a great last hour as I only managed 1 more fish and that was foul hooked in the tail and fought like something twice it's size.

Malc called the All-Out at 7pm to end what had been a frustrating match for me . As I walked my gear back to the car park it was obvious that the Big Lake hadn't really produced the goods today, and this was born out as we made our way round with the weigh-in.
Keith Fellows on peg 34 kicked things off with the discovery that one of his nets had a large hole in it, so missing out on a certain 'Ton' weighing just 85lbs. Simon leapt into the lead on peg 4 with 161lbs 6ozs, though it would only prove to be good enough for 3rd as next up Simon E on peg 6 put a match winning 222¼lbs on the scales . Next up Dave(Webbo) put a new PB match weight of 138lbs on the scales from peg 7 that would only give him 4th place as it was beaten of the next peg by Al's 162¼lbs, giving him 2nd on the day .
Nick on peg 9 managed 79¾lbs, a new PB match weight (That first 'Jinx Ton' can't be far away now ) while my fish came in at 46¾lbs, which if nothing else saved me a Minxing and got me a £1 off Gemma . Steve won his section with 91¼lbs from peg 16 and young Ryan won his with 96¾lbs from peg 28 .

So that was it for the 1st match of the Series. Not quite the result that some of us were looking for, but I'm sure the fish are ready to spawn any day now, so hopefully when we're back there in 2 weeks time they'll have spawned and be ready for a proper munch. Well that's the theory anyway, we'll see for sure on the 13th .

Faye's Match.

Organised by Maggotdrowning.com
With all proceeds going to support

Back in December last year a young lady contacted the Maggotdrowning.com website with the following appeal...................

Dear whoever is reading this letter.

My name is Faye and I’m 19. I have been seriously ill for 7 years and am bedridden, in a wheelchair and fed by a tube. My doctors have told me that I don’t have long left now and that this will more than likely be my last Christmas. I am trying to make it special for my family so we have great memories. If you would like to find out more about my illnesses you can look at this site http://www.lovequiltsuk.com/FayeT.html . I don’t have any money to buy any nice presents for them so I was wondering if you could help out at all. If there was anything you could send me to give to my Dad who loves fishing and fish, it would mean so much to me and I would never forget your kindness. I do understand completely if you are unable to help me though.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter, I know you must be very busy.

Faye.

Needless to say the members of the forum rallied round, and you can read about the results of their efforts HERE.

Anyway Faye remarked that she would love to meet up with as many of us as possible, so Bill arranged this light hearted match down at Monks, where Faye could come down and meet us, and as a bonus we could raise a few bob for an organisation that is close to Faye's heart Post Pals . Which is why we are down at Monk's today.

Well Dave(Webbo)Webster had stopped overnight at my place, having travelled down from Leeds the day before to fish this match, so there were 2 loads of kit to load up as we set off around 7am in bright sunshine, and good trip down saw us pulling into the car park at Monks at around 8am . Most of the usual suspects were in attendance along with a few new faces who had travelled from further afield to support the day and the reason behind it. Various combinations of rolls and sandwiches were soon consumed by the assembled company and around 8·30 Bill got the draw underway aided and abetted by Matt .

Vince walked past having drawn peg 54, so of course being a polite sort of chap I was duty bound to draw peg 55 and did . It would give the day a little extra edge as Vince had previously suggested that the loser of todays Golden Nugget would add an extra £5 to the charity pot and he was feeling confident having done a bit of "homework" on the venue and sorted his tactics ahead of time .

Thankfully "The Management" allowed us to park up by the lake today, so our kit was quickly in place and setting up commenced. Peg 55 is a corner peg, but not one that I was particularly chuffed to have drawn, as it never seems to produce like the others . Setting up was pretty easy. I'd earmarked 2 pole lines, the 1st at around 7mtrs and the other down the left hand margin. The rigs were actually the 2 that I'd used previously at Mansfield's, a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook, and a smaller 4X12 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook. I also set up a 3AAA waggler on my Shakespeare 11ft Micro. Bait was red maggot, pellets and meat with pellet for feed.

Tony(spamwham) had remarked on my arrival, that he couldn't believe that the lake was flat calm without a ripple on it. He should have known better, because as 10am approached I could feel the wind starting to get up and a few grey clouds coming into view. Both aerators were running that I felt would generate a tow as well.......

As we waited a look down the bank to my right revealed Vince taking a photo of me (Surely this would be used in his Blog when he related how he'd battered me and finally taken the Nugget today )

So 10AM and with the breeze making things feel noticably cooler I slipped on my fleece just in time before Bill called the All-In. I potted a large cup of maggot and pellet onto the 7mtr line and a handfull of pellet into the margins..........

.........while Vince fed 5 balls of groundbait onto his pole line . I shipped out 2 maggots to 7mtrs, while Vince started off on the pellet waggler.

The float soon slid away and the 1st fish of my day, a small Ide was soon residing in the keepnet , a couple of small skimmers soon arrived to keep it company followed by a humble Gudgeon, but alas nothing substantial.

Looking across the lake Al appeared to be into a fish every time I looked.............

and Steve(badpegpicker)Oswick opposite on peg 66 seemed to be trying to find out just how far his elastic would stretch as he was into a regular run of fish ..........

NB: I must give a mention at this point to Jon(Mutley)Reed who while not fishing himself, spent the day strolling round taking photos and gave me permission to use as many as I liked for this report. Nice one Jon .

In general though, the fishing wasn't as good as everyone was hoping for , though most were putting one or two in their nets. Although I couldn't see from my peg, rumour had it that the far side of the causeway was proving just as hard. MD's answer to Jan Porter, Matt Love having a bit of a grueller on a water that he knows well .........

It can't have been that bad though as I could see that Mike(Omega Mike) Jameson was still at his peg, which meant that he must have been catching something .............

Tony(spamwham)Roberts was reported as having his own "Mugger Moment©" (payback for him taking the micky when I'd had a mare in a recent club match ) and was having a real struggle to find anything to add to his net.......

while Kevin(the catch)Loveland under the watchful eye of partner Jean was having a most enjoyable session, netting a regular succession of fish .........

For some of the watching audience though, the excitement of the day was proving to be just too much ................

Simon Elsey was having fun on his end peg next to Al, and while not able to keep up with his catch rate was still sticking a few decent fish in his net ............

Over on peg 46 Mick the Chippy was having a fine old day , having drawn between Trevor(MT Net)Little and Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard, he was simply fishing the feeder and regularly popping fish in the net...........

In fact poor Clive was having one of those days when no matter where he looked, it seemed that everyone appeared to be catching more than him ........

with Steve(jessebobs)Burgess in his pink sweatshirt to his left enjoying his first visit to Monks and finding the fish in his swim in a particularly obliging mood............

Which is more than could be said for Vince and I . I had managed to add a solitary small Barbel from my margin swim...........

while Vince converted his waggler rod over to the feeder in an attempt to put something in the net ..........

Indeed with the feeder seeming to produce for so many, I took mine out of it's ready sleeve and rigged it with a maggot feeder as the pole was proving hard work for little reward, but I'd noticed that Colin on the peg to Vince's right was starting to get a few on his feeder rod.........

Further up my bank could be found Linda(mermaid)Billington, who despite claiming little or no knowledge of match fishing had turned up with a fully equipped Rive seatbox along with a sherpa in the form of hubby Chris to transport it all ..................

Jay over on the causeway appeared to be making hay with a good run of fish and appeared to be giving Al a run for his money...........

while Roger(upyah)Harris had started to get the odd one or two from peg 49............

The feeder seemed to have the desired effect for Vince as he put a run of 3 Carp together, threatening me with the loss of a Golden Nugget , but by dropping a maggot feeder up against the marginal rushes to my left, I managed to keep enough Barbel coming to stay ahead ...........

Around about 2pm Dave T arrived with wife Liz and the young lady the day was in aid of ..... Faye , and they spent the last hour of the match touring the lake with Bill meeting the anglers.

3pm and the All-Out was called, and with Faye taking the weights down and Bill and Kevin performing the weighing duties it was soon apparent that although the weights hadn't matched the expectations a few scalps had been taken on the day and Golden Nuggets exchanged, with Al taking the honours with a final weight of 94¾lbs for a fine win .

The final 2 to weigh were Vince and I, and for Vince it was an all too familiar story with his 13½lbs not matching my 25¼lbs meaning he waved farewell to yet another Golden Nugget .

Back to the car park for the results, and a number of the days winners generously returned their winnings to the pot , Then the fun really started with Bill removing his beard for the cause (and a few bob in the pot), only to reveal that he was actually "Razor"Ruddock in disguise !!!!!!!!!!!

More good news followed when it was announced that Monk Lakes owner Guy Harrison was returning £5 from every £8 peg fee to add to the pot, and that the fishery staff had been round the rest of the fishery with a bucket raising over £100 on the condition that Fishery Bailiff Andy sacrificed his curls to the cause which duly happened .........

To round things off Faye got stuck in and drew the raffle, which went down a treat with plenty of banter flying around as some improbable prizes found new homes. Bill announced that the total raised on the day was £580 and with more to come as a result of a tackle auction, a very decent effort .

Dave T made a little speech of Thanks on behalf of Faye and her whole family, and very moving it was, I'm sure I saw a tear in the corner of a few rough, tough fishermen's eyes .
A team photo of the day to bring proceedings to a close  .......

......... before farewells were made, and we departed for homes far and wide.

A few Thank You's are in order at this point .......

Bill G who organised the whole thing and didn't even fish, spending the day walking the banks offering help and encouragement, as well as taking the pee on the day. Well Done fella, a great effort .

Matt, Kevin, Vince and Paul for helping Bill at various points during the day, and to Jean (Kevin's partner) for doing the business flogging the raffle tickets .

Guy Harrison, the owner of Monk Lakes and his staff at the fishery for all their help and support on the day .

Finally, all the members of Maggotdrowning.com and the anglers who attended on the day, as well as those who supported the day from afar, a very big Thank You as we couldn't do it without your support. The day was a real success, we may just have to do it again next year .

"Easter Friday Hawkhurst Fish Farm. I've just been up there and the bailiff tells me it's free on this day, with everyone being off anyone fancy a knock up?" That's the post that Paul(paulvis69)Slater put up on the Maggotdrowning forum which has led to 19 of us travelling down to Kent today.

Loading up the car it appeared to be pleasantly mild, which considering the previous weeks weather forecasts was a bonus as they had been promising rain. A smooth trip down saw me pulling into the fishery just after 8am to find almost everyone already there and eager for the draw.(Unfortunately Kevin had been called into work at 4am forcing him to miss it ) With the on-site café not due to open till 9·15am Paul soon had the draw underway so that we could get set up and then have breakfast before the start of the match at 10·30am.
Dipping my hand into the bag peg 1 was my reward . Some regard it as a flyer as it's an end peg in a corner, but I'm not so sure as everyone seems to congregate round it during and prior to the draw which must disturb the fish there and in all the matches I've fished there it's never framed yet alone produced the winner.

Settling in I had Vince for company on peg 2, so the battle for our customary £1 coin was going to be up close and personal today , while opposite on peg 20 was Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff coming out of hibernation for his 1st outing of the year. Vince must have thought that I wasn't all that confident because he took the following picture thinking that I was praying to the fishing gods, however he had only caught me pumping some expander pellets .......

My set up was pretty simple today, just 3 top kits, 2 rigged with 4X12 Malman Champers on 0·16 to 0·14 bottoms with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hooks, one for 4mtrs straight out in front where I had around 4ft of water and the other for up against the boards to my left where there was around 2½ft, while the third was a Malman MTD2 dibber on 0·16 direct to a size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had around 18" and would also double up as an up in the water rig. Bait for the day was simply 6 & 8mm fishery pellet (Skrettings) that would be banded and some 6mm GOT expanders as a change bait, with feed taken care of by more 6mm fishery pellet.

With the kit all set up most of us made for the café and and a Full English. 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 eggs, Mushrooms, beans/tomatoes, fried slice + toast & marmalade and tea or coffee for £5 setting everyone up for the five hours ahead . So with everyone full it was back to our pegs................

.................... and at 10·30am Paul called the All-in. A large pot of pellet was dumped at 4mtrs and another spread along the boards to my left while I fed some more by hand down the left hand margin into the corner where there was a build up of scum. Out with the 4mtr rig and a banded 6mm pellet produced a couple of lightning fast bites without connection which I'm sure were Roach just snatching at the pellet, while Vince was soon into his 1st fish of the day and putting a Carp safely into his net . A more positive bite soon saw some Black Hydro coming from my top kit and a nice little Common of around 1½lbs get me off and running. After around an hour I had around 10 fish, no great shakes but at least I was getting fish regularly unlike Terry opposite who appeared to have got off to a bit of a slow start and having a bit of a struggle ................

Just after the half way mark I was starting to struggle on the 4mtr line so after dumping another large pot of pellet in I had a look over to the boards on my left, taking 4 Carp in 4 put in's before the Roach turned up, a look to the corner proved fruitless, so I decided to stretch my legs and see how the others were doing. It was soon obvious that the middle pegs were the place to be with Paul (nomorelongwalks) who always seems to do well here at Hawkhurst catching steadily, Tony was into a fish.....................

.........as was Dave..................

................. though as usual they were both cagey as to just how well they were both doing . Clive who had made the trip up for the day as he always enjoys it here had settled on a margin attack..............

......... as had the match organiser, Paul (paulvis69) over on the other bank on peg 13....................

Back to my peg and onto the 4mtr line and the fish were ready for it once more, though I was still getting some of those lightning fast bites that I couldn't connect with . By keeping the pellet going in I was keeping fish going into the net, even taking a few shallow, but I was having to wait to long between fish on the shallow rig so reverted back to the deck to keep my catch rate ticking over. Vince however was starting to struggle a bit having to wait a bit to long between fish to keep pace with me ................

With around an hour to go I had 50 fish in my nets but the sky had darkened and it was obvious that we would be finishing the match in the rain . Terry on peg 20 had started to put a run of fish together playing catch up after his poor start, and looking a bit further across I could see that Nick(pastie)Allen on peg 16 and Keith(Disco)Driscoll on peg 15 were having a good old battle with both anglers taking fish regularly.............

With the arrival of the rain however my bites dried up while Jay to Vince's right on peg 3 seemed to have a great last hour ........................

I really struggled and only managed to put another 2 fish in the net in the last hour, leaving me with 52 fish when Paul called the All-out at 3·30pm. I was first to weigh in and 86½lbs was my reward for the day, not good enough for the frame but more than enough against Vince's 32½lbs to see yet another shiny £1 coming my way . Paul on peg 7 took the win on the day with 125lbs (Told you he likes it at Hawkhurst ) while Keith had edged Nick out to third with 112lbs to 101lbs in their peg to peg battle.

So that was it for another day, A Nicely organised match by Paul(paulvis69), Thanks fella .  and Paul(nomorelongwalks) kindly treated us to coffee's in the café from his winnings before we bade our farewells and set off for home. Next up for me is a Club match at Pea Lane in Essex in 2 weeks time, a new venue to me. How will it go?????????? not got a clue, but all will be revealed in the fullness of time .

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was the last match of the year for Marsh AC, and the chosen venue was The Match Lake at Hawkhurst in Kent, to hopefully finish off the match calendar in fine style . With the car loaded I set off around 7am with the forecaster on the radio promising a fine sunny day ahead . By the time I reached Badgers Mount there was thick fog and I'd also had a phonecall from Keith (Gandhi) who was traveling down from Milton Keynes to guest on todays match. The fog hung around all the way down to Hawkhurst and I pulled into the car park just after 8am.
There was a reasonable turn out assembled as we had a total of 5 guests joining us today and as the on site café wouldn't open till 9am we decided to draw and set up beforehand and then have breakfast before starting the match around 10am .

Into the draw and I came away with peg 15, just about half way up the left hand bank as you look from the car park.......

...and there was quite an erie silence as everyone settled into their pegs shrouded in fog...........

I was going to keep the set up simple. 1 line at around 7mtrs and another in the margin against the boards. Rig wise i set up 3 rigs consisting of Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·18 to size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks . 1 to fish at depth at 7mtrs (around 4 ft) another shallow and the 3rd for the margin where I had around 2ft on the shelf. I also set up the pellet waggler, but wasn't expecting to use it unless I struggled on the pole. Bait wise I went with 8mm fishery pellet with 6mm expanders and corn for change baits while feed was taken care of by 4 and 6mm fishery pellets .

With the fog still hanging around I could just see Clive trying for some atmospheric shots with his camera.........

The JINX Series 2008

  Match 5.

So down to Rolf's Lake once more for the fifth and final match of this years Jinx Series. Maria had decided to join me for the day as the weather promised to be decent and she'd heard that Paul's wife Jayne and Nick's wife Lisa were going to be there as well. So with the car loaded up with a few extra bits and pieces we set off around 8am and with my usual stop for breakfast and a smooth trip down we arrived in the car park at Rolf's just after 10am. I soon had my nets dipped and after introducing Maria to the assembled throng paid my cash in and topped up on pellets for the match ahead.

The Draw was of course LATE, and surprise surprise Malc had forgotten the days paperwork ensuring that the Series placings would remain unknown at the end of the day, so no change there then . I'd asked Maria to draw for me today and when she pulled out Peg 31 and I was quite happy with that , a nice short walk and a peg with a bit of form. Gem had pulled peg 8 leaving a few to worry about another Minxing and I had Clive for company to my left on peg 32 and Nick to my right on Peg 29.

I was looking to keep things simple today, just fishing a line at around 10mtrs where I had around 5 feet of water and a back up line by the bush to my right.
Both of the rigs were Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·18 to size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks and I also set up the pellet waggler as I could see a few Carp cruising around on top. I had the feeder with me in its ready sleeve but left it in there as I didn't think it would come into play today. Bait was 6,8 and 11 mm pellet that would be fished banded along with meat and 6mm expanders and I also had ½ pint of maggots with me in case things proved tough. Feed was simply the fishery 6mm pellets.

So 12·30 and Malc called the All-in. 2 pots of pellet out to the 10mtr line and a couple of hand fulls by the bush took care of the initial feed. A banded 8mm pellet was shipped out to the 10mtr line and I was in business, A yell was heard from peg 7 as Dai netted his 1st fish of the day and within five minutes my float slid away, but all to soon the elastic snapped back as I parted company with my 1st foul hooker of the day and for the next 2 hours I was to suffer this another 4 times without putting anything in the net . Nick Williams was over on peg 13 and was starting to put a few together fishing down the margin to his left...........

Indeed looking around most appeared to be struggling with most having just one or 2 fish to show for their efforts apart from Keith on peg 9 and Nick. With 3 hours gone I lifted into another bite and realised that I was connected to a decent fish and after a tense few minutes was delighted to slide the net under one of the better inhabitants of Rolf's ...........

Maria was delighted as she was beginning to believe that she had Jinxed me and soon had the camera out to record the event, even capturing the weight recorded on the scales....

.......... 14lbs 04ozs. at last I was off the mark .

Well I wish I could say that it improved from then on, but really it didn't , not for me anyway, and not for most others either. indeed looking down the car park bank it was starting to resemble a still life.............

Clive however was starting to nick the odd fish though he was still suffering from the odd foul hooker. With just over an hour to go I was attached to another fish, this one hooked in the tail, however despite it's best efforts I managed to get it's propeller out of the water and slide it into the landing net. Young Mitch had appeared having weighed a super looking Mirror that was a new PB for him at 15lbs 08ozs and Maria did the honours by getting a photo for him .........

Looking across to peg 14 I could see Alan who was guesting on the day, doing what is commonly know as a 'Garden Gnome' impression, and a particularly good job he was doing of it too ........

With around 20 minutes to go I was attached to another torpedo.........

...... yes another one hooked in the tail, but after another tug of war this one ended up in the net as well and weighed 13lbs 12ozs. Nothing more for me though Clive did manage one final fish before Malc called the All-out at 5·30 pm ..........

Chatting as we packed up it was obvious just how hard it had fished for most, indeed poor young Nick (monkey)to my right hadn't had a single bite during the whole 5 hours .

Come the weigh-in my 37lbs wasn't going to cause any stirs and Clive's section winning 60¾lbs held the lead all the way round to peg 7 where Dai's 88¼lbs wrapped up his section and Gem's 13½lbs saved a lot of people a final day Minxing (and gained me a £1 ). Round to peg 10 and Keith put a match winning 146½lbs on the scales, a very good performance on the day . Hard on his heels came Nick on peg 13 with 119¾lbs to wrap up second place . Slim edged out Steve in their £5 side bet leaving Malc to tie up first place in his own Series with a section winning 56¼lbs from peg 22 .

So that's The Jinx Series over for yet another year. Congratulations to Malc for his series win, and a big THANK YOU for organising what continues to be the friendliest and light hearted set of matches its been my pleasure to fish . Congratulations as well to Clive and Tony for their 2nd and 3rd places, and also to Malc and Dai for taking the pairs title.

This has to be the most successfull series ever with 8468lbs 02ozs of fish being brought to the scales over the course of the Series.(8645lbs 02ozs if you include the fish caught by guests .)

A new Series record winning weight set by Ade Williams at 266lbs 12ozs in match 1 .
Overall there were four 200lbs+ weights recorded. Two for Ade Williams and one each for Simon Mound and Ant Haywood with another thirty four 100lbs+ weights over the course of the series of 5 matches .

Another big THANK YOU to John and Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of Rolf's for the entire series and all their efforts.

Finally another big THANK YOU to all that have fished the series, it's all of you that make it so enjoyable to fish, and long may it continue. See you all to do it again next year you bunch of nutters .

Overall Individual Series Result.

NB: Anglers were allowed to drop their worst section result during the series so that the Overall Series results were decided by best 4 out of 5 section points.
Overall weight counting in the result of anglers tieing on points.

Overall Pairs Result.

NB: Pairs were allowed to drop their worst points total during the series so that the results were decided by best 4 out of 5 points scores.
Overall weights counting in the result of pairs tieing on points.

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday saw me traveling down to Witham in Essex for a Marsh AC club match on Pathfield Lake at Colemans Cottage Fishery. I'd been looking forward to this match as I'd never visited the fishery before, but had heard good things about it . As usual I'd arranged to meet up with Dave and follow him down and by 7am we were on the road. Blue skies and sunshine held the promise of a decent day, though this was replaced by dull grey skies as we exited the Dartford Tunnel , but a trouble free trip saw us pulling into the fishery car park around 8am. Into the fishery lodge and we were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast as Dave took the monies and organised the draw.

There were 19 of us present including 4 guests so with the draw done it was back to the car park to sort the kit for the day ahead, and collect our keepnets and landing nets which are supplied by the fishery before we made our way to our pegs....

It had been interesting to watch peoples reactions to the pegs they'd drawn, Dave had been more than happy with drawing peg 6, a peg he'd fished on previous visits , and judging by his reaction peg 11 which I'd drawn wasn't bad either . Thank heavens for my barrow as peg 11 appeared to be just about as far away from the car park as it was possible to get.

Setting up it didn't look to bad, though there was a bit of green scum on the surface, but with a bit of an indent on the opposite bank and a few fish moving things were looking promising though the water level looked like it was about a foot down on its usual height.

Tackle-wise I set up a couple of Mk3 Malman self cocking paste floats on 0·16 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. one to fish the 18 inches of water in the margins and the other for the 4 feet that seemed to be consistent from 3mtrs out to 11mtrs, and I set up a Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match to fish pellet and corn at 6 and 10 mtrs as well as a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match that would double up as a shallow rig and margin rig for pellet and corn. I also set up a pellet feeder and pellet waggler for right across. Bait was sweetcorn, pellet and GOT Atomic paste with 6mm hard pellet for feed.

10am and Dave called the All-in and I shipped out 2 large pots of pellet and sweetcorn onto a line at 10mtrs and 5mtrs and fed some pellet down both margins. To give those lines a chance to settle I started off on the pellet feeder across, but despite signs of fish moving about didn't get a touch in the 1st half hour . Out with the pole onto the 10mtr line but despite switching baits and working the rigs couldn't buy a bite there either. A look on the pellet waggler was no more productive either and I was starting to worry. Jim Etherington to my right on peg 9 had managed 3 or 4 Carp by now but from what I could see others were struggling. Judy on peg 8 seemed to be in the same boat as me............

....... and Terry on peg 7 appeared to have had just a single fish............

About 2 hours in my float finally dipped , but rather than the elastic coming out with a Carp on the other end a small hand sized Skimmer flapped to the top, but was gratefully netted all the same. However with nearly 3 hours gone nothing had joined it. In desperation I filled it in at around 5mtrs pumped some expanders to try as a change bait, grabbed the camera and set off for a stroll looking for a bit of inspiration . Chris on peg 15 was admitting to a few silvers and 3 or 4 Carp and was soon sliding another into the net.............

Tony on peg 17 appeared to be struggling to get to grips with his peg, while Eddie down on peg 23 was handicapped by the painful effects of a slipped disc but was putting a few fish together ......

......... as was Jim Boase almost opposite on peg 26...........

Looking across to Wood Lake where there was an open being fished, I could see Browning's Dave Vincent but he didn't appear to be having much more luck than us, despite knowing the fishery really well ...........

Al on peg 28 was admitting to around 20lbs and with fish bubbling away down the track in front of him seemed to be firmly in the pound seats ..................

Meanwhile Paul on peg 34 was in danger of losing what little hair he had left trying to connect with bites that he was getting fishing the lead tight across to the island, mind you he had come to the match straight from a night shift so probably wasn't at his best, though it's always hard to tell with Paul  .........

Further along Clive had decided to target his margin and with 5 Carp in the net was hoping to crack on in the later stages .......

Dave up on peg 6 was struggling at this stage too with just 3 Chub and a Crucian, but as I passed Terry on peg 7 he was firmly attached to a rather angry Carp that he'd hooked into the tail, well not so firmly as it turned out as it departed rather abruptly without gracing the landing net after charging round most of Terry's swim ....................

Back at my peg and I noticed a few bubbles coming up on the 5mtr line, so an expander was slipped onto the hook and the rig shipped out. Within 10 seconds the float slid away and a firm lift met with a pleasing resistance and a Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net . Back out and almost straight away I was rewarded with another Carp, this time a Mirror of around 4½lbs . Unfortunately I also suffered from a number of foul hooked fish which with the shallow water tended to charge around like lunatics disturbing the swim preventing me from building up any sort of rhythm though I did manage to keep catching reasonably regularly through to the end when Dave called the All-out at 4pm.

The weigh-in at Colemans is a delight to watch as a bailiff comes round with a quad towing a trailer. The scales are attached to the trailer so that the fish are transfered to the weigh sling weighed and returned with the minimum of fuss and the fisheries nets collected all in one go. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fish weighed 55lbs , the second best weight at that point behind Jim Etherington's 66½lbs which contained a right lump of 15lbs. Chris put 64lbs on the scales but it was Al who took the honours on the day with a fine net of fish weighing 88lbs , while Clive took 2nd place with a level 70lbs .

Chatting with Dave Vincent afterwards in the car park it was plain that the Open on Wood Lake hadn't fish much better with some very good anglers struggling on the day . Back at the fishery lodge for a post match drink and the inquest was conducted. 3 guests had filled the top 3 spots, but all the club members seemed to have enjoyed the day even if the fishing had proved to be harder than expected. It's a cracking fishery and one I'd happily recommend that you pay a visit to if you're in the area. I know that I'll definitely be going back to it in the future .

Next up for me is the final match of this year's Jinx Series at Rolf's Lake next Saturday.

 The JINX Series 2008 

Match 4.

Well after a gap of eight weeks The Jinx Series returned to Rolf's today for the penultimate round of the Series. Blue sky and sunshine greeted me as I set off which was nice as the weather in the past week hadn't been the best . A trouble free run down after my customary breakfast stop saw me arrive with plenty of time to spare, with just Dave, Tim and Nick along with John there to greet me. First things first, so nets dipped and laid out to dry then a look at the Lake. John's got some plant on site digging out some flood defenses so pegs 19 and 20 are out of the match today as the work is going on right behind them, and I couldn't help wondering if it might just have an effect on the fishing today for those pegged on the Big Lake .

Soon the car park was filling up and the usual banter and micky taking was starting to flow as is customary on these matches . Even Malc was on time as he'd traveled up with Dai (Yes the Rover is still dead ) and today he had his 2 youngsters in tow (Crystal & Liam) could Rolf's survive the presence of 4 members of The Jinx Family ? Indeed many were wondering whether the change in weather would affect things too as a lot of venues have been fishing poorly recently.

Anyway with 23 anglers assembled it was time for the draw (yes it was late ) and I was hoping for the car park bank and a nice short walk, and peg 29 was my reward, a stroll of around 5 yards as my car was parked right behind it .

For company today I had Keith to my left on peg 31 and Mitch on 32 with Kevin to my right on peg 28 and Dave on peg 26.

I was planning on keeping it reasonably simple today and just set up 3 rigs. I to fish paste just on the slope of the shelf at the ends of the bushes to my left and right and this was simply a Mk3 Malman self cocking paste float on 0·21 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. The second was to fish pellet straight out at around 6mtrs where I had around 5ft and was a Malman 4x12 Adam on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match and I also set up a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·18 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match in case they wanted it up in the water. I also set up the feeder as I had it there in its ready sleeve, but wasn't expecting to use it. Bait wise it was just 6 and 8mm fishery pellets and some paste.

With plenty of time till the all in people could be seen discussing the prospects for the day ahead............

...... or maybe not in some cases .....................

So 1pm and Malc called the All-in, a handful of pellet by each bush and 2 big pots of pellet went out onto the 6mtr line which I followed out with an 8mm banded pellet onto the 6mtr line just as I heard Malc's shout signifying his 1st fish from peg 7. After raising and dropping the rig a couple of times the float buried and a Common of around 7lbs was safely in the net to get me off the mark . This was swiftly followed by another Common around the 9lb mark, a great start, but short lived .

Looking to my left I could see that Keith was into his 1st fish of the day which appeared to be a Skimmer while across on peg 10 Clive was also into his first of the day............

I then went through a frustrating spell, suffering from a number of foul hooked fish resulting in a collection of scales on my sidetray but nothing added to the net . Kevin with nothing to show from his pole line except a solitary Roach decided to go for it on the feeder, and it seemed to be the right choice as it produced the occasional fish for him throughout the rest of the match .

Keith meanwhile seemed to be bringing a steady stream of fish to the net, but this was deceptive as a number of them were lost as it turned out . Dave Moore meanwhile having been through numerous variations in an attempt to find a fish had been back to his van to retrieve his pellet waggler rod to implement 'PLAN Z' as he put it .

By around 3·30pm it was obvious that most were struggling. I hadn't seen Tony on peg 14 land a single fish and he was having a stroll around. Slim was having a bit of a mare losing a few fish while Clive next to him on 10 continued to slip the odd fish into the net .........

Having tried my 2 inside lines with no success and with just a lone skimmer taken on the feeder, I decided to concentrate on the 6mtr line which I'd been feeding regularly for the remainder of the match. I soon had a couple of Carp one of which was a weigher, to add to the net and as Tony arrived for a chat I latched into a slightly better one. Into the waiting landing net and it proved to be a weigher and at 14lbs was just the inspiration that Tony needed to get back to his peg and try and avoid the dreaded DNW .

The pellet wag finally produced a very welcome Carp for Dave as I was attached to a rather fed up foul hooker, a decent Common which I briefly saw before it did me underneath the right hand bush. This seemed to kill things for me as i couldn't buy a bite in the following 30 minutes .

With an hour to go I was in again and had a run of fish including another weigher of 16lbs . With around 10 minutes to go I had another 5lb'er and Kevin asked me what I thought I had. I reckoned that one more fish could see me reach the 'Ton'.
Sure enough the float buried once more and an obviously decent fish tore off bottoming the elastic!!! Fortunately the rig held and as a rather disoriented Common with the hook firmly in it's pectoral fin surfaced on it's side I scooped it into the net, a weigher that went 16½lbs and before I had the chance to get the rig in again Malc called the All-out.

Chatting to others while packing up it was obvious that a lot had struggled, though Malc was owning up to a 'Ton' and I was sure that Clive had won the match, but Slim was really worried that he could be on the receiving end of a Minxing. However while we waited for the weigh-in, Slim's good lady showed fine form demonstrating to Slim how it should be done when she had a go .......

What a star she proved to be, even coming round with the iced lollies during the afternoon . While I'm at it, I mustn't forget a big Thank You to Kevin's partner Jean who kept me supplied with cups of coffee during the day and a sticky bun at the end .

Soon the weigh-in revealed just how hard it had been. My fish weighed 113lbs for the early lead that I felt sure I would to lose to Clive. Ant had managed 76½lbs. Gemma managed 31¼lbs from peg 2 leaving Slim looking nervous, much to everyone's amusement . Malc's fish went 109½lbs, a very relieved Slim just avoided a Minxing with a level 35lbs and sure enough Clive took the win on the day when he put 154lbs on the scales. Nice one Clive .

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Pairs Match 2008.

Twenty of us assembled at Hawkhurst today on the Match Lake for the 1st ever Maggotdrowning Southern Pairs organised by Vince .
Pulling into the car park most of the usual suspects were already assembled along with a few "virgins" in the form of Keith 'Disco' Driscoll, Gary 'alltackledup' Page and Steve Allen and his 2 lads, Pete & Nick and the banter was soon flowing .
Breakfast was soon consumed in the Café and the draw made so that we could get to our pegs and with the sun beaming down it looked like we could be in for a decent day with a lot of fish on the cards .

Now Hawkhurst has a reputation for producing big weights and as I settled into peg 3 it was obvious that Matt, my Pairs partner for the day was expecting a real bagging session as he already had 4 keepnets in place !!!!!!!!

I just set up 3 rigs,all on top 3's as I was planning to fish at no more than 3mtrs. 1 with a Mk3 Malman self cocking paste float on 0·18 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Match for paste and 2 for pellet, a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·18 to a size 18 Drennan Carp Match for shallow and a Malman 4x12 Snake IV on 0·18 to a size 18 Drennan Carp Match for on the deck. Bait wise I was going to keep things simple, with just 6mm hard pellet for both feed and hookbait and 8mm hard pellet and a few 6mm expanders along with some GOT Atomic paste as alternative hookbaits. 10 minutes prior to the off the aerators were switched off and plenty of fish could be seen moving around as anglers sat and considered the 5 hours ahead.

10·30am and Vince blew the whistle for the All-in and I fed a handful of pellet into the margin and another straight out at 3mtrs and followed it with a banded 6mm pellet on my deck rig. Bill over on peg 17 was into a Carp straight away as was Paul to my right on peg 4, but overall it wasn't the hectic start that most of us had expected. Vince even had time to try out his new camera, I'm sure he must have been asking me how many fish I'd caught when he took this one ..........

Indeed within half an hour of the start things appeared to slow down all round the lake . Matt however did have his fan club turn up and caused a bit of excitement as they watched him take the nice fishy for a swim, though when Bill started singing a Gary Glitter song I thought Paul and I were going to split our sides  ...........

I was really struggling to find as much as a bite, though Terry didn't seem to be having to much trouble, it was just getting them to stay on the hook that was proving troublesome .............

Paul had put as good a run of fish together as anyone, but then went through a stage of getting a load of foul hookers, none of which found their way to the net before he to suffered a lull in sport..........

Fed up with struggling I went for a stroll to see if anyone had found the secret to putting a decent bag together on the day.
I found Dave Collier up on peg 6 admitting to 7 fish and preparing to have a go under the bush in his left hand margin ..........

Clive was concentrating on his right hand margin over on peg 11, not that it appeared to be reaping any huge rewards ........

Kevin seemed to be searching for some inspiration anywhere he could find it and was having an absolute mare with hardly anything to show for his efforts ..............

Trevor was also fishing the margin to his right , but was handicapped by having to face Bill who was next door on peg 17 ........

Back to my peg and it was just a question of sticking at it, cutting back on the feed and fishing for bites and this finally started to produce a couple of fish for me though I did suffer with a few foul hookers.

With sport being so slow the banter was flying however. Keith"Disco" Driscoll on my left having been rechristened "Nightclub" by Bill and Nick on peg 1 and Vince on peg 20 being accused of having a separate competition to see who could make the best (Worst?) job of blowing a noted Flyer. Indeed at one point Nick obviously worried that Vince might win that one spent a good 10 minutes trying to lose a Carp, even wrapping it round his platform legs in an attempt to avoid netting it  ..........

Thankfully Vince blew the whistle for the All-out at 3·30pm to put us all out of our misery . With so little caught however at least the weigh-in didn't take to long and it was going to make for a close result to the pairs competition.

Back at the Café for the results it was revealed that Dave Collier and Clive Pritchard were the Maggotdrowning Southern Pairs winners for 2008, tying on points with Paul East and Terry Goff but taking the result on weight with myself and Matt Love in Third just 1 point behind .

I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU to Vince who did his usual excellent job of organising the day's proceedings, even managing to lay on the best weather for quite some while, Oh and he had to give me yet another £1 coin . Just a shame that the fishing wasn't up to expectations, though everyone appeared to enjoy themselves. Here's to the next one .

Pairs Result

NB: Where points were tied, position was decided on weight.

The Southern Intersite Match.

A nice smooth run saw me pulling into the car park at Monk Lakes at around 8am. I'm fishing for the Maggotdrowning.com team today in The Southern Intersite Match. The Intersite matches were originally conceived as friendly get-togethers where members of the various angling forums could meet and put faces to names from the various forums and enjoy a light hearted day out at the same time. However there's quite a competitive element to these matches nowadays though the Maggotdrowning ethos is still to enjoy ourselves and enjoy the day without winning .

By 9am all the teams were assembled for the draw, with only the Total Fishing team being an angler short . Our team for the day was Nick Gilbert(captain). Matt Nutt, Gary Thorpe, Matt Love, Vince Gould, Paul East, Bill Gibbins, Clive Pritchard, Trevor Little and Peter Morton(myself). We were fishing Match Lakes 1 & 3 today and my draw gave me peg 112 at the end of the causeway by the aerators on Lake 3. Settling in to my peg i fancied it for a decent days fishing as I had a vacant peg to my left and the wind off my back. I had Ant Sparrow(antmusic) of Total Fishing for company behind me on 113, the other aerator peg and looking across I could see Fred Parker(milo) from TalkAngling and Vince to his right.