Maggotdrowning.com
Southern Fur & Feather.
Well where to start?
Back in early October, I remarked to Vince that it might be an idea to run a Fur & Feather before Christmas if anyone fancied it. The main criteria for a venue was that everyone should get a few bites and fish at a time of year when a lot of venues struggle if the weather takes a turn for the worst. A chat with Ron at Monks secured some pegs on Match Lake1 and a post put up on the Maggotdrowning Forum to see if there was any interest.
Soon the banter was flowing, generating a healthy response to the match, even in the days leading up to the match when the weather forecast predicted that the conditions might lead to an outbreak of Brass Monkeys searching for their Balls.
Come the day and it was heartening to see a turn out of 25 anglers with only 3 wimps no shows that couldn't be bothered to let us know either by PM or E-mail assembled for what in reality was no more than a knock-up. Just a £5 optional pool and a commitment to bring a prize ensuring that nobody would go away rich but nobody would depart empty handed.
Draw over we made our way up to the lake where the aerators had been left on overnight to try and stop ice forming, though in reality the lake is so exposed to the wind it was highly unlikely to happen.
I had drawn peg 6, with Paul (nomorelongwalks) and Sven for company on 2 & 4 and Matt (yalding bloke) on 8 and the prospect of watching Bill G opposite me on peg 18 for a full 5 hours.
Now in the past some have referred to me as a Tackle Tart, however it would seem that Matt has elevated the concept to another level. Sitting there in his bright red Santa Claus Milo fleece out came the £100 stainless steel/red foam Milo pole roller, followed by the red foam Milo rig roosts, kept in plastic cases to keep them clean (his excuse was that they were new, yeah right ) I think we may have to start calling him RED MAN. However disaster was about to strike as his pole dropped off the roller resulting in a snapped no5 section. I'm not sure I would have been able to raise a smile if I'd just done £200+ worth of section..................
Feeling lazy I had just set up the pole to fish about 10mtrs, bait was red maggot with a few pellets to feed. I really should have set up a feeder and waggler as alternatives and with hindsight it was a mistake, as when I did set up a feeder later on it was to little to late.
10 am and the All-in and I could see Vince over on peg 20 was straight into a fish............
.......... rapidly followed by Nick on 19...........
.......... and Matt was soon off the mark with an F1 on the waggler, while Bill and I were still gazing at an inactive pole line, though Bill did get the chance to christen his new pole sock when he used it as a landing net on a small fish to get off the mark . It was obvious that the lads opposite were in for a more comfy match with the wind off their backs (Nick's favorite ) while we had to endure the wind into us for the whole match.
Soon i was off the mark with an F1 followed by a Skimmer and a small Tench, but I would struggle to put a run of bites together throughout the whole match. Dave the Fish put in an appearance around 11am deciding against fishing, as the sub zero conditions were playing havoc with his arthritis but kindly provided me with a very welcome hot cup of tea. Bill switched over to the waggler in an attempt to keep up with Nick and Vince..............
......... while word filtered round that Mike and Trevor on pegs 36 & 35 were doing OK on the waggler.
Try as I might Matt was catching 2 fish to every one of mine, and with Sven starting to catch well on the feeder as well as Kevin opposite on peg 17.............
......... I swapped over to the feeder for the final part of the match. Just 4 more Carp proved that it wasn't a good move and that I should have stuck with the pole, but I was quite happy to hear the whistle for the All-out at 3pm.
Dave helped me to weigh half the lake while Vince and a helper weighed the other half, and it was pleasing to see that everyone had something to weigh. In total there was a total of 520lbs of fish weighed in, an average of just over 20lbs per angler, excellent given that the temperature never felt as if it had risen above freezing all day and just goes to show what a decent venue Monk Lakes is.
Back to the tearoom for the results, with Mike coming out on top with 54lbs 12ozs to Trevor's (MT Net) 44lbs 04 ozs with Matt taking 3rd with 37lbs 00ozs. Then the presentation of the prizes and a good table-full ensured that everyone went home with something from the day, a few more faces had been put to names from the forum, and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it in a perverse sort of way. I'd just like to add a word of thanks to Vince for his help and a special mention to Dave the Fish, who despite not feeling up to fishing still turned up and stayed to help out with the weigh-in, Many Thanks Mate. The long distance award as always went to Dai Thomas for making the trip up from the Welsh Valleys for a days fishing with his fellow Maggotdrowners, you're a star.
We'll have to do it again, though preferably when it's a little warmer.
Position | Peg | Angler | Weight |
1st | Peg 36 | Mike Jameson | 54lbs 12ozs |
2nd | Peg 35 | Trevor Little | 44lbs 04ozs |
3rd | Peg 7 | Matt Love | 37lbs 00ozs |
4th | Peg 19 | Nick Gilbert | 36lbs 12ozs |
5th | Peg 18 | Bill Gibbins | 35lbs 00ozs |
6th | Peg 10 | Jay Lay | 29lbs 14ozs |
7th | Peg 28 | Steve Clinch | 29lbs 04ozs |
8th | Peg 24 | Roger Harris | 21lbs 12ozs |
9th | Peg 17 | Kevin Loveland | 21lbs 08ozs |
10th | Peg 14 | Ian Jones | 20lbs 04ozs |
11th | Peg 4 | Sven Castle | 20lbs 00ozs |
12th | Peg 13 | Jim Boase | 19lbs 04ozs |
13th | Peg 6 | Peter Morton | 18lbs 10ozs |
14th | Peg 42 | Chris Withall | 18lbs 00ozs |
15th | Peg 20 | Vince Gould | 17lbs 00ozs |
16th | Peg 2 | Paul East | 14lbs 00ozs |
17th | Peg 31 | Tony Roberts | 13lbs 10ozs |
18th | Peg 38 | Clive Pritchard | 13lbs 00ozs |
19th | Peg 26 | Dai Thomas | 11lbs 08ozs |
20th | Peg 41 | Alan Loader | 10lbs 04ozs |
21st= | Peg 40 | Pete Midgley | 9lbs 00ozs |
21st= | Peg 37 | Andy Spreadbury | 9lbs 00ozs |
21st= | Peg 34 | Ron Bignold | 9lbs 00ozs |
24th | Peg 9 | Ryan Wells | 4lbs 02ozs |
25th | Peg 29 | Terry Goff | 3lbs 12ozs |
Recent Comments