Well it's off down to a Private Lake in East Sussex for an impromptu session at Bill Gibbins invitation as he's booked the Lake for today and invited a few of us down to join him for a bit of a Knock Up .
It looked like being a nice day as I loaded the car up and set off, though some idiot trying to drive through some roadworks to escape the attention of the local constabulary nearly stymied things at the off . However it didn't really delay me and I arrived at about 8·45am .

Bill was off round the lake pegging out so I dipped my nets and chatted with Roger, John, Ray, Al, Terry and Clive and as Bill returned Dave rolled up to complete the numbers for the day. Al collected the cash as Bill organised an impromptu draw. Peg 2 was my reward, while Al got peg 1 and Dave peg 3 (both rated pegs ). Roger had peg 4 with a comfy chuck to the small island, while John was just round the corner out of my site on peg 6. Bill had the back of the large island all to himself on peg 7. Terry had peg 8, while Ray and Clive had pegs 10 & 11 to round things off .

Not having fished the lake much I'd asked a bit of advise and the general consensus was a line around 10mtrs out in front and another down the left hand margin where the outflow to the lake is as it normally holds a few. Sitting there in the morning warmth with a mix of sun, clouds and a bit of breeze it didn't look bad at all .

Setting up was nice and simple as I was just after a nice relaxed days fishing so I wasn't about to over complicate things with numerous rigs and options. Just 2 4X12 Malman Adam's to 0·18 with size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks to fish 8mm banded pellet on the deck at 10mtrs straight out and a MW Trev with similar line and hook for up in the water that could double up down the inside. Bait was 8mm pellet with 6mm for feed.

10·00am and the All -In was called and I dumped a large pot of pellets out at 10mtrs and fed down the left margin by hand. Straight away I could see Roger was into what appeared to be a decent fish on the feeder, and indeed he was soon into a steady run of them .

I could hear a fair bit of splashing coming from Al's peg, but it turned out that apart from one early fish he was having a bit of a mare, with fish slipping the hook and trashing a couple of rigs .

I'd managed a couple of Carp of about 3lbs each by the hour mark........

......... but was being pestered by small roach snatching at the pellet, as a brief change down to a 6mm on the hook confirmed. From what I could see Terry was getting amongst a few, but it transpired that he was losing just as many as he was managing to get into the net .

Ray and Clive seemed to be ticking over nicely, with Clive seemingly having the better of it from his peg and rumour had it that he's had an absolutely cracking Tench .

Dave was fishing down into the corner on peg 3 and had around 9 fish when he went for a stroll at about 12·30, which was a couple more than I had. Bill came wandering round on the way to fetch his sunglasses and reckoned that John had 7 fish and was admitting to having had around 20 fish himself (though he reckoned they were on the small side )

By 1·30 I decided to stretch my own legs so Having topped up both pegs with a decent quantity of feed, strolled round with my camera. Dave had gone back to fishing short (4 sections) down the side as it was more comfortable for him and it was still producing for him . Roger was still catching on the feeder, even if he was having a bit of a fight to get them in the landing net .

Battling through the undergrowth I found Bill in the act of unhooking yet another Carp, and although he tried to play it down I'm sure I detected a quiet hint of confidence .

Terry, while having caught a few, had it seemed lost just as many again including a proper lump that gave him no chance .
Ray was suffering the attention of to many Roach, hindering his attempts to build a weight, but Clive was looking happier than I've seen him look for a few weeks as he was starting to put together a decent bag as his margin swim got stronger .

Al had finally come to terms with his swim as well, and after his initial troubles early on was starting to put some decent fish in his nets .

Back to my peg and I continued to pick up fish to the end of the session, but try as I may finding one over 3lbs seemed beyond me  

while Dave was catching at pretty much the same rate as I was, his fish were of a noticeably better stamp than mine.

The All-Out was called at 4pm and I knew that it wasn't going to be a place for me today . Chatting to the owner as I packed up he reckoned that with 24 fish I should have a comfortable ton, but I knew that my fish were small, and told him I would be lucky to have 75lbs. Anyway we would soon see as the scales were starting at Al's peg. It was immediately obvious that Al had caught a much better stamp of fish as he recorded 140¼lbs to set the standard . My fish went 74lbs 6ozs, so I wasn't far out . Dave had a little more than he thought with 103¼lbs, while Roger suffered with to many small fish recording 122½lbs. John's fish only came to 61lbs but none the less represented his best ever weight from the lake . Bill was next up and halfway through things were looking close, but he came up just short with 136lbs meaning the loss of a Golden Nugget to Al . Terry was left a bit frustrated with his 85lbs, which left him ruing the loss of so many fish during the course of the day. Ray had the lowest weight on the day with 60½lbs, but it was Clive who finally took the honours on the day, and a Golden Nugget off Bill , with a fine 149lbs which included a cracking Tench, which if it hadn't recently spawned would have gone way better than the 7lbs 2ozs that it actually weighed.

So that was it for the day, 9 anglers putting over 900lbs of fish on the scales, in lovely surroundings, with good weather and even better company. It doesn't get much better than that .

Marsh AC club match.

Todays venue for the Marsh AC club match is Rockells Farm. It's the venue where I set a new club match record last year of 293½lbs and the club recorded their all time best aggregate weight of 1991lbs weighed in between 18 anglers .
As usual I got round to Dave's at 6·45am to follow him and Colin down to the venue, It's not the easiest of venues to find without a Sat Nav, being somewhat off the beaten track, but we made good time despite quite a bit of fog on the trip up and pulled into the car park just after 8am.
There were 19 booked in for todays match, 15 club members and 4 guests, Clive and Al who are in danger of becoming permanent fixtures and Keith Ashby and Vic Nugent (both GOT Baits sponsored anglers) who enjoy the occasional trip out with the club due to the relaxed atmosphere and the banter and laughs that are had during the day .

With no permanent numbers allocated to the pegs at Rockells, Keith and I set off into the lifting fog to peg out while Dave sorted the monies out. Every peg appeared to have fish moving in front of it and in the margins promising a good days sport ahead. Pegs 1-3 went into the very end, and could all be regarded as flyers, while pegs 4-11 went in down the right hand side and 12-19 up the left (The high numbers being where you wanted to be ). With draw time approaching, 3 members hadn't arrived (Martin, Zack & Graham) but the draw went ahead anyway.

Keith & Vic drew pegs 1 & 2, and with them both being very positive anglers would take all the stopping on those pegs . My home for the day would be peg 17 , with Al for company on peg 18. At the end of the draw there were 3 pegs left which I drew for the missing anglers peg 3 for Martin and peg 19 for Graham (Both flyers ) and peg 14 for Zack.

Settling into peg 17 I have to say that I was happy with my draw . I'm pretty single minded in how I approach Rockells, always fishing paste as close in as I can and peg 17 looked tailor made for it, with nettles and reeds overhanging the left hand margin and boards in the right hand margin .........

The rigs were simplicity itself, 3 top 2's holding rigs that were made up of 4X12 Middy Paste Floats that are a really strong line through design made up on ·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a Drennan size 12 Carp Method hook to fish paste in both margins where I had around 2 feet of water on both sides. I had 6 pints of it made up, which was GOT Baits Atomic with some GOT Baits Pineapple Atomic Cloud added. Feed would be a mix of soaked 4 and 6 mm pellet. I had 2 extra sections of pole set up, but hopefully wouldn't be using them unless I hooked a real beast as I really wanted to be able to fish just the top 2's for speed and comfort.

Just along on peg 18 Al's swim looked well capable of pushing me all the way, especially as Al has been putting some good results together recently ...............

Martin, Zack and Graham had arrived meanwhile, and I fancied that Martin might be in with a chance on peg 3, as although he would only class himself as a pleasure angler, he'd had a good result here last year weighing in a total of 232¾lbs, so the venue obviously suits his approach .
Looking across I could see Keith, apparently lost in his thoughts, sitting on his flyer, so no pressure there then ..........

The fog had burnt off by now, but there was still a fair bit of cloud, so although it was warming up hopefully it wouldn't turn into the total scorcher that had been predicted . With the venues potential to produce big weights todays match was being split into two 3 hour sessions with a 1 hour break mid way through for a mid-match weigh-in taken at the fishery owners insistence, so with everyone set the All-In was called at 10am for the morning session .

A handfull of pellet into both margins, and with fish already showing on my left side that's where the 1st bit of paste was lowered into. A couple of knocks and the float slid away and the first Carp of the day, a small Mirror of around 12ozs was soon safely in the net, number 1 on the clicker . To be honest it was pretty much steady away for me from then on. Al however seemed to be having a few problems , it looked as if he was fishing pellet that was being intercepted by Roach and the smaller Carp, on top of which he seemed to be bumping a few better fish. I was getting a few to many small Carp for my liking, but I found last year that you just had to wade through them and keep the bait going in to draw the better fish, and I started to put a few better 2-3lb fish together . They were all coming from the left hand margin though as every time I looked down the right I was waiting to long for a bite before landing yet another 8oz Carp.

2 hours in with 44 fish on the clicker another look down the right hand margin resulted in an instant bite and a much better fish powered off and after an anxious couple of minutes a nice Leather Carp of around 12lbs was safe in the net . With a few tail patterns now showing by the boards I concentrated on that line for the last hour. With 5 minutes to go I fed 4 pints of pellet into the right hand margin and another couple down the left in an attempt to hold the fish during the hours break for the weigh-in, while a final put in produced a 5lb Common Carp as the All-Out was called at 1pm.

The weigh-in started from my side and my weight of 120lbs made up of 62 fish was comfortably leading till it came to the 1st 3 pegs. Keith on peg 1 put 148lbs on the scales (and he reckoned he was getting roached out, lying ****** ) while Vic on peg 2 ran him close with 133¼lbs, however it was Martin who put us all in our place when he put a staggering 180¾lbs on the scales for the half way lead . So with over 1100lbs of fish weighed it looked like all the club records set last year would be going, as it normally fishes better in the afternoon. In fact it had taken the whole hour to weigh-in meant that we delayed the start of the afternoon session to allow everyone to get back to their pegs.
As I strolled back I noticed that Clive was looking a bit numb as he'd struggled on peg 10 for a mere 22lbs and already needed snookers .............

............. it looks like his drawing hand has decided to get its own back on him big time, for all the punishment he's given it for mis-behaving recently .

Returning to my peg I could see that despite the disturbance of the weigh-in the fish had settled on the pellets by the boards as evidenced by the tail patterns I could see . So 2·15pm and the All-In was called for the afternoon session. 1st put in and away goes the float attached to a 3lb Common and that's the way it continued . Al seeing how successful paste had been for me gave it a go, and while it was an improvement he was having yet another nightmare as he suffered from hook pulls and foul hookers .

Elsewhere round the lake sport wasn't quite so fast and furious I'm afraid, in fact rumour had it that Clive had put a pair of ear plugs in, so that he didn't have to keep hearing the splashing of fish coming to others nets ........

 I suffered with a few foul hookers as well during the afternoon session, despite cutting down on the feed, there were just so many fish down by the boards, even hooked fish charging through them didn't spook them. I basically fished the right hand margin for the whole 3 hours as the bites kept coming and they were from a better stamp of fish than those from the left hand margin.

In fact, by the time the All-Out was called at 5·15pm I was quite relieved as my right shoulder was starting to ache, and a quick glance showed me that I had another 61 fish on the clicker .

I was soon packed away and dropped my kit back to the car, before making my way round to the weigh-in which was starting with Keith as the scales had been left there at the end of the morning session.
Well, What can I say , Keith put an amazing 234lbs on the scales for a total of 382lbs , Vic added 173¼lbs for a combined weight of 306½lbs , while Martin weighed 202½lbs to edge out Keith by 1¼lbs with a total weight of 383¼lbs . So that was over 1000lbs of fish weighed in from the first 3 pegs !!!
Dave had had a decent afternoon on peg 6 putting 167½lbs on the scales for a total of 254¼lbs . Tony on peg 8 recorded a total of 142½lbs and most had improved on their morning totals by the time we got round to Colin on peg 15 who added a net of 127½lbs for a total of 211lbs while Terry on peg 16 recorded a total of 140¾lbs .
When it came to my peg the scales recorded a weight of 210lbs giving me a total of 330lbs and 3rd place on the day . Alan put a hard earned 101½lbs on the scales for a total of 171¾lbs while Graham rounded off things with a total weight of 114lbs for the 2 sessions .

So there you have it, Martin is now the proud holder of the club match record at 383lbs 4ozs . The top 10 anglers recorded 4 'Triple Tons', 2 'Double Tons' and 4 'Tons' between them . A club record total of 2911lbs 14ozs was weighed in between 19 anglers, an average of over 153lbs per angler . I broke my 3 hour PB match weight as well as my PB overall match weight as did quite a few others. Hopefully we'll get a chance to try and better that next year, or is that being greedy?

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 .

 May Madness at Mansfield's.

Well it was back to Mansfield's Lake again today, for another MD's Knock Up organised by Mick(The Chippy)Pearson with the help of "The Committee", and with the promise of loads of banter, a few fish and a ready supply of bread pudding and cakes in the offing, it looked like it would be fun .
Now it's a bit of a trot for me (65 miles) but a nice sunny morning and a surprisingly clear A2/M2 saw me arrive just after 8am to find to find a number of reprobates fine upstanding members of the community already in situ and devouring humongous "Breakfast Rolls" courtesy of Paul and his Burger Van . As always these Knock ups are more of a social event than a serious match and the banter was soon flowing and the side bets made, with Vince and I having our usual £1 coin on the outcome . Anyway with full bellies, and the chat being about how well it might fish as some decent weights had come out recently we assembled for the draw. Hand into the bag and I found peg 17 on the North bank would be my home for the match.

I have to say that I was a little disappointed as I fancied one of the pegs on the South bank as they all had beds of lilies or rushes offering features to fish to. However I had nobody in the pegs to my left and Ryan to my right for company. Opposite I had Mike, with Richard(DHLman) to his right and Vince to his left, so at least I would be able to keep a check on the destination of the £1.
With a overhanging tree I was a bit limited, but set up 3 top kits. The 1st was for around 7mtrs where the old stream bed was and I had around 6½ft of water and that consisted of a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook, the 2nd for the left hand margin that shelved off into around 3ft of water towards the empty peg 16 was a smaller 4X12 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook while the third consisted of a Malman MTD2 dibber on 0·14 direct to a size 18 Drennan Maggot hook for tight into the right hand margin where there were a load of small roach apparently spawning in the weeds.
Bait for the day was a mix of pellets, punched meat, corn and hemp.

So at 10am Colin gave a blast on his whistle to signal the All-in and we were off . I potted a mix of pellet, hemp and a few grains of corn onto the 7mtr line and the left hand margin and just flicked some hemp into the right hand margin. Out with a pellet to 7mtrs, the rig settled and stayed there. An hour later and the float tip was still dry as a bone . Vince however had nicked an early Carp that looked around 3lbs on the waggler while he let his pole lines settle.......

and Mike had had a couple of small tench on paste tight to the lilies. Sport in general was very slow though with just the odd fish showing, and most of those appeared to be coming from the opposite end of the lake where the deeper water was. Ryan was getting the occasional tiny roach while Pete next to him was biteless like me.

Two hours in and Mike had added a small Carp, Richard had had a couple of small Roach and I still hadn't had a bite, it was starting to look grim . After another half an hour I decided to take a stroll and see what was happening elsewhere (and get some maggots off Mick ). Standing on the empty end peg (peg14) and looking down the lake it looked lovely....

and I could see a couple of tail patterns in the water, perhaps the fish had backed off into the quieter parts of the lake? Mike however wasn't happy with the lack of action , he's one of those anglers that likes to keep busy......

Vince was looking quietly confident as there were obviously fish in his swim (could this be the day he finally prized a Golden Nugget from my grasp?) Kev obviously had a shed load of fish in the reeds in his left hand margin, but could he solve the problem of interesting them in his bait? Mick had taken what he hoped was a first Crucian of many and kindly let me have some maggots and casters . Dean aka Marvin Waggler had accounted for a couple of Carp and Tony was determinedly trying to feed off the small roach. Meanwhile Mutley had extracted 3 Carp from the lilies next to his platform . Keith (Ryan's Dad) had snared a solitary Carp while Mick(Old Carper) was having a bit of a struggle (and dreaming of Manor House cake and Country Slices ).......

and at the same time having to watch Al opposite get amongst a few Carp, Indeed by the time that I got round to Al he was playing his 6th Carp of the day and already looking good to take the win ..........

Bill had had just 2 bites all morning, but at least had 2 Bream in the net..................

..........and Mick's brother Geoff was consentrating hard in an effort to get one over on his brother for once.............

.............. while Colin had a couple of Carp and missed an absolute sail away on the paste as I watched and Dave had just a solitary carp to show for his efforts.......

As I walked back I noticed Vince playing what looked to be another Carp, and as he netted it and popped it into the keepnet I'm sure I saw a little smile of satisfaction on his face .........

Settling back in at my peg, another look at 7mtrs produced nothing with a similar result in the left hand margin . Remembering the tail patterns I'd seen earlier I kept feeding the left hand margin heavily, in the hope that some fish might wander down late on and dropped a maggot on the dibber rig into the right hand margin in an effort to avoid the dreaded DNW. It did the job and in the next half hour I stuck around 25 tiny roach into the net that might have weighed a total of 8 ozs if I was lucky. Mike opposite had decided on a similar approach to keep himself busy but had been unfortunate enough to have hooked a couple of Carp that broke him in the lilies and when it happened to him for a third time around 2pm it was the final straw and he decided to pack up and head for home as he wasn't enjoying himself .

This however opened up an option for me, so I quickly got my feeder rod out of it's ready sleeve and changed the cage feeder that it was rigged with for a ½oz bomb with a hair rigged piece of punched meat. The overhanging branches were a bit of a problem but with a sideways flick I could drop it onto the edge of the pads opposite, now I just needed an inquisitive Carp to co-operate to be in with a chance of salvaging my £1 coin from Vince , and more importantly avoid the inevitable stick that would come my way on the forum should Vince take it off me in the assembled company . An hour later and I hadn't had a touch , Richard had managed to extract a couple from his patch of lilies and a few more fish had been caught further down the lake, most notably by Dean (Marvin Waggler), Geoff who was looking to put one over on his brothers Mick and Richard, while Colin had tempted a couple more from down his margin .

With 45 minutes to go it was looking as though Vince was going to mug "Mugger" when I noticed a tail pattern in the left hand margin that I'd kept feeding heavily. Having had no joy with punched meat on the feeder I tied up another hair rig to take 4 bits of corn hoping that a highly visible bait might do the trick and dropped it in and waited.
10 minutes later and the tip wrapped round and after a couple of anxious minutes a Common Carp of just over 3lbs was safely in the net . Could I get another? Dave walked up and as we chatted another fish topped, but the tip stayed still. I could hear Mick saying that the All-out was imminent when I remarked to Ryan that I could see a Ghostie hovering over where my bait was, but refusing to go down on the bait when the rod was almost wrenched out of my grasp , almost instantly the whistle blew for the All-out and I shouted "Fish On". From various parts of the lake I could hear shouts of disbelief or was it encouragement and I have to say that I was one very relieved angler when I slid the net under a Common Carp that looked to be just over 4lbs .

Looking across to the opposite bank Vince's face said it all, had he had his moment of triumph snatched away from him in the final seconds by "Mugger" ???????? As we packed away there was a lot of banter flowing back and forth. Ryan reckoned that I'd hooked the fish 8 seconds from the end of the match, now it would be all down to the scales.

As the scales made their way round Dean in his 1st ever match had taken the early lead with 26lbs 10ozs edging out Mutley by 4lbs, but I was taking my gear back to the car when Vince's fish were weighed and nobody would tell me what he had weighed as it came to my turn. As I tipped my fish into the net there were various mutterings and when the weight of 8lbs 10ozs was called Vince's face gave the game away , The Mugger had struck again and yet another Golden Nugget was coming my way .
Al was last to weigh and took the honours on the day putting a very creditable 44½lbs on the scales on what had proved to be a very hard day .

A quick mention should also be made of the fact that Mick (the chippy one ) is for the most part a confirmed rod & line man when it comes to his fishing, but Bill has taken Mick under his wing so to speak, in an effort to impart some of the dark arts of match fishing and the use of the pole. Well today the pupil beat his teacher and he fished the pole all match . Does this mean that Mick has graduated or will the teacher be putting him in his place next time out? We'll see .

Back to the car park and Mick (Old carper aka Mr Kipling ) had set the table for tea and cakes.......................

 while the Pearson brothers Mum had supplied Bread Pudding for all, as had Vince's Mum in Law . All in all a very civilised way of ending the match.
Vince somehow managed to raise a smile when he manfully posed for a photo as he handed over another Nugget ...............

While Mick had to part with a Golden Nugget to Geoff in the battle of the brothers ............

Al took home a nice tankard complete with a few beer tokens for 1st on the day .................

While Dean(Marvin Waggler) fishing what was his first ever match took more coin for his second place than he reckoned he'd spent on his rod .

A little bonus for me was that the assembled company reckoned that my last minute Carp, was best fish on the day, due to the amount of entertainment that it had provided for everyone at the end of the match, so £10 came my way .

Finally Vince presented The Chippy One with a little something to show our thanks for his efforts .............

evidently it's part of Mick's autobiography ......

Thanks to Mick and "The Committee" for organising the day, and to all that attended, making for a good day despite the fishing being a little harder than we would have liked .

Obviously you'll be able to read a report on the day here . 

Settling into my peg a few drops of rain started to fall, but thankfully soon stopped. I set up 3 top kits, the first was rigged up with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a line at 10mtrs where I had around 6ft of water, the gusting wind from left to right making it impractical to fish any longer. The second was a Malman 4x14 Snake 1 on 0·12 to an 0·10 bottom with a size 18 carbon maggot as an up in the water rig, should the Ide put in an appearance, while the third was a KC 4x12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had 2-2½ft of water. I also set up the feeder rod as I'd been told that it was possible to drop on some bream from some pegs. Bait was red maggots, corn and pellet, with some Special G groundbait and hemp for feed.

Breakfast arrived in the shape of a bacon & egg baguette and I was just finishing this as the all in was called.
Chris over on peg 6 was into a fish straight away, with plenty of black hydro streaming out of the pole and after about 5 minutes had the culprit in the net, a Barbel of around 2½lbs ................

I fed some pellet into the margins and potted out a mix of hemp, pellet and maggot at 10 mtrs and followed it out with 2 maggots on the depth rig. The float settled and slid away and an Ide of around 6ozs got me off the mark, soon followed by a similar sized Chub. An hour later and I was still waiting for a third bite !!!!!!!!!!! Half an hour on the feeder was no better, but gave me the opportunity to take some shots of the wildlife ..........

................ and already word was spreading along the bank that it was rock hard with just a few bits for most, although Dave had already snared a couple of Carp from the flyer, it seemed that most were struggling to get to grips with the venue on the day.
Terry had appeared around 12·30 eating a burger, that being his only bite so far !!!!!! and I made the decision having only added a foul hooked Gudgeon and a couple of blade skimmers to stick 5 balls of groundbait onto the 10mtr line and have a stroll. Dave was happily plugging away and admitting to 5 carp..............

..........but for the rest it was grim , with nobody admitting to more than a few silvers, so I decided to take the burger option and get a bite to eat. All I can say is that it's probably best to stick to bacon, as hand on heart I couldn't tell what the burger was made of ???????? Thank God for onions and mustard, at least it gave it some flavor .

Back at my peg I could see Judy over on peg 4 occasionally popping fish in her net, was I going to get beaten by the club's lady angler twice in a row ????????????

Had the groundbait done the trick Well I wasn't pulling up any tree stumps, but I started to put together a few small skimmers and Ide which was an improvement and I just kept pinging a few maggots over the top in an effort to keep them coming . Frustratingly though they wouldn't come up in the water, I could only get a bite at depth, but at least I was putting something in the net on a reasonably regular basis. Terry had at last had a couple of bites, but he'd missed both of them .

With around an hour to go my bites had dried up again, so I put in another 3 balls of groundbait, then Al wandered round and we decided to go and see what some decent swims looked like . We found Dave admitting to having had a few more Carp including one around the 10lb mark, but apparently engaged in a tug of war with a patch of reeds, It's amazing just how far Red Hydro can stretch !!!!!!!!!!!

Judy was plugging away on peg 4, but was frustrated, feeling she probably hadn't got the best from it, while Jim on peg 3 was in a bit of trouble with a Carp snagged in roots and struggling to net it, finally it was in the net though, a Common of around 7lbs, a real bonus on the day .

Back at my peg, and the groundbait had brought a few back to the swim with a few better skimmers around the 8-12oz mark coming to the net. Looking up Chris had plenty of pole in the air again before landing what looked to be a bonus Carp, while Terry reported that he had finally hooked a couple of fish, only to have them drop off .

Thankfully at 4pm Dave sounded the All-out to put most of us out of our misery. The weigh-in told the tale of the day really, Jim on peg 3 weighed 14¾lbs including his Carp to take 2nd place on the day, While Chris was just 4ozs behind him with 14½lbs. Dave had walked it off the flyer however, weighing in 46¼lbs (not a bad belated birthday present ). I was pleasantly surprised to find that my net of bits weighed 13¼lbs for 4th on the day . Overall the day had been a real struggle though with more than a few suffering their own "Mugger Moments©", though as usual there had been more than a few laughs with plenty of banter flying around to make up for the disappointing fishing . The next Marsh AC match is at Colemans Cottage on May 16th, but next up for me is a match at Broad Oak in Kent with the lads from Maggotdrowning.com next Saturday, that you'll be able to read about here as usual.

"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.

Well today saw the 1st Marsh AC match of the year taking place at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 2 . These matches are always light hearted affairs and there's bound to be a bit of banter flowing throughout the day, and hopefully a few fish to be had .

Loading up the car for the drive down it was dull grey and drizzling and by the time I arrived around 8am nothing had really changed. A cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie took care of breakfast . 15 club members and a couple of guests lined up for the draw One of those being Dave Talbot, who had received a new pole as a result of his daughter Faye's appeal on the Maggotdrowning.com forum at Christmas. (You can read the relevent thread HERE ). Bill G had come along too, but he was going to spend the day helping Dave get to grips with the pole has he hadn't used one previously .

Into the bucket and peg 51 stuck to my hand. Colin and Dave drew last and ended up with the two flyer's 66 and 45 . Settling into my peg, despite having a free peg to my left with Judy next up on peg 53 and what turned out to be a free peg to my right as Bill G had drawn it (but would spend the match coaching Dave Talbot) I can't say I was delighted with it, the wind was blowing straight into it and I would have to watch those on the opposite bank fishing with the wind off their backs for the whole match . Also it's a peg that doesn't get fished a lot during the week, pegs 45, 46 and 47 seeing a lot of action on a regular basis due to the resident Barbel.

Setting up I selected 2 top kits with Black Hydro, these were rigged with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a 10mtr line where I had around 6ft of water and a KC 4x12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a closer margin line where I had 2-2½ft of depth. I also set up my Shakespeare Mach 3 Micro - 11' Waggler which was rigged with a Premier 4AAA insert waggler. Bait wise, Got 6mm expander pellet along with 6 and 8mm hard pellet along with corn and meat would hopefully provide something appetising for the fish while 6mm pellet and some Special G groundbait took care of the feed.

10am and Dave blew the All-in. I fed 3 balls of ground bait on the 10mtr line and some pellet into both margins.
Dave Talbot on peg 49 had been under instructions from Daughter Faye to catch a Barbel, and got off to the perfect start as the 1st fish on his new pole proved to be a Barbel (Mission Accomplished ).

After about 5 minutes I had my first bite on the 10mtr line and with what felt like a decent fish taking elastic, was more than a little put out when the hook pinged free as i was getting ready to net it .
From that point on my day went downhill rapidly. Judy was sorting out a few of the lakes resident Ide and Dave T was taking some decent fish on a regular basis, much to Bill G's delight , was it Bill's coaching or was he sitting on a shed full? It didn't matter really because I couldn't buy a bite .

Maggotdrowning.com Knock Up.

 

It was a small Knock-up amongst a few members of the Maggotdrowning.com forum down at Buxted Oast today, but it didn't get off to the best of starts for me, as I went down to load the car and found that some scrote had tried to break into the car overnight . However I managed to fix the damage pretty quickly and was soon loaded up and on my way. Overcast but nice and mild, it promised to be a decent day and I even had time to stop off in East Grinstead for a spot of breakfast, arriving at the fishery car park around 8·45am .
The MD's knock-ups are always fun and today promised to be no different, Bill had already pegged out, so it was monies paid and into the draw bag, with peg 4 being my home for the match.

Settling in I had Trevor for company on peg 3 with Pete to his right on peg 2, while peg 5 to my left wasn't drawn. Bill had recommended fishing a comfortable 8-10 mtrs straight out where there was about 2½-3 ft and not to ignore the margins so that was the basic approach. I just set up two top kits and both of these were rigged with Malman 4x12 Snake 1's on 0·14 to an 0·12 bottom with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook and I also set up the pellet waggler rod as I could see a few Carp already cruising around the top. Bait for the day was Corn, GOT 6mm expanders and 6mm hard pellet, No maggots though as these tend to pull the Roach.

10am and Ryan called the All-in. I shipped out half a pot of mixed pellet and corn to 10mtrs and fed some pellet by hand into the margins and had a quick cast with the pellet waggler to see if I could "mug" and early fish , but with no interest shown that was quickly discarded in favour of the pole. Shipping out a 6mm expander to 10 mtrs the float had hardly settled when it disappeared down the hole and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon safely in the net , next put in and another smaller fish around 1½lbs joined its friend, Happy days . Trevor had had a couple of quick Carp too, as had Pete .

Dave tucked away in the corner on peg 6 had got off to the best start however, fishing tight into the corner under the willow, taking 5 Carp and a Frog !!!!!!!!!!!! You just know that Dave the Fish's nickname will become Dave Le Frog after that little episode .

After that initial burst however sport seemed to grind to a halt for most , leaving people scratching their heads as to why they couldn't get amongst the fish, and Trev being bored looking at a stationary float reverted to a top 2 and maggot to get some action with the roach, soon lining them up and regretting the fact that he hadn't packed a whip today . Around 12·30 I re-fed my main line and another to my left and went for a stroll round.
Dave's sport has slowed but fish were moving round the tree, while Bill on peg 7 by the outfall just had a solitary Carp, but frustratingly, fish that he could see taking pellet in front of him .
Colin tucked away in fancied peg 8 was another with just a solitary carp to show for his efforts, but was now being plagued by small Roach attacking whatever he put on his hook .

Vince meanwhile was fishing down his right hand margin on peg 9 and had taken a couple of Carp despite it being "Snag Central" and costing him a few hooks, and he managed to slide a third Carp into the net as I watched . Would he be taking a £1 coin from me today  ?

Back to my peg and out to 10mtrs and the float shot strait under as I laid it in !!!! A foul hooker that tore around a bit, but was soon safely in the net, with the hook in a pectoral fin and a good 5lbs added to my weight . Pete dropped by for a chat as I shipped out to my left hand line for the 1st time, and an instant bite resulted in Carp no 4 making it's way to join the others in the net.

Trev was getting into a decent rhythm and building a weight of silvers when the inevitable happened and he hooked a Carp, and he was connected to it just long enough for it to trash his swim before it shed the hook, leaving him to have to build it up again .

Tony strolled round and informed me that both he and Paul had a couple of Carp each, while Mick on peg 1 breathed a sigh of relief as he finally managed to snare a Carp , having endured a frustrating time watching them cruise round in front of him, leaving just Ryan staring at a dry float tip as it steadfastly refused to go under .

With a couple of hours to go Dave started to catch regularly, having fed a few floaters under the tree, and was looking uncatchable, leading Bill on the next peg to change rigs to just a couple of feet of line and a hook and fish long to try and tempt the fish that were still cruising in front of him, and it soon started to produce for him.
With nothing showing on the top within pole range in my swim I stuck it out alternating between my 2 long lines, as nothing apart from Roach could be tempted from the margins, and I managed another 5 Carp before Ryan called the All-out at 4pm .

The Weigh-in told the story, Dave Le Frog had won comfortably, taking 27 Carp in total for 52¼lbs and a very comfortable win . Bill had a good last hour weighing a level 27lbs to bump my 25lbs 6ozs down to third.
Trevor put a very creditable 21lbs 3ozs on the scales for 5th and may well have taken second place if he'd remembered to pack his whip. Of course poor Vince had to hand over another £1 coin to yours truly, so it seems normal service has been resumed in 2009 .

My next planned outing is in a couple of weeks time, to Wylands for a "Silvers" match on House Lake which should be fun providing we don't get a repeat of the weather we had on our last visit there, though if we do at least the Tea Hut will do a roaring trade .

"The Private Lake on Sunday, are ya coming? eight thirty if you are .  No keepnets just a days fishing."

With an invite like that from Bill G it would be rude to refuse, especially with the weather forcast predicting a nice mild 9°C. As with all good things though Sunday Morning revealed that Saturdays glorious weather had come to an end , but a smooth drive down stopping off in Bromley for a spot of breakfast on the way, saw me arrive at the fishery at 8·30am to find Vince waiting beside a locked gate, Bill soon arrived though with the padlock combination so we were soon parked up and decided on a walk round while we waited for the rest of the cast to arrive .

Usually when I've visited the Lake in the winter it's been brim full and today was no exception, with a fair bit of water running down the outflow pipe on the dam wall. As we strolled round Al was the next to arrive and was soon dropping his gear into the 1st peg by the gate, a peg he's been eager to have a go at for a while .
By the time we got back to the car park Dave, Colin and Tony had arrived.

Soon we had our gear together and set off for the session. Colin was traveling light only intending to have a crack on the river today and Tony also started with the bare minimum of gear hoping to sneak a Chub or two out of the river early on before settling down on the lake .

The surprise of the day was that Bill wasn't going to fish !!!! deciding instead to spend the day wandering and chatting with the rest of us collecting titbit's for his Blog, so he'd just brought a comfy chair with him and settled down with Al. Meanwhile Dave set up just just along from Al before the outlet on the dam wall.

Returning back to my swim a bit of a breeze had got up making presentation difficult and it was to cost me a couple of rigs in the island bushes before I decided to back off a bit and re feed a couple of feet short of the island. All along I'd been feeding to a tree in my left hand margin, but despite regular looks there hadn't had a bite from it. Tony had finally managed a carp around the 7lb mark and had come round to show me as he was surprised just how heavy it was when he weighed it, proving once more just how solid the fish are .

Vince finally managed to christen his pole with a couple of 5lb'ers while I added another to my tally from my new line.

Vince started to pack away around 2·30pm but managed one final Carp on his feeder rod before he said his farewells and departed . I had one final Carp just before 3pm, but with the breeze ever present I felt the temperature was dropping and I decided to call it a day as well. As I packed away my kit Colin reappeared having spent the day roving the river and reported having a thoroughly enjoyable day despite only having three chub .

As I wandered back Dave reported having had a few more Carp, while Al had firmly taken the honours on the day with a succession of Carp from his peg.
All in all a pleasant session with a few fish to keep things interesting, next Saturday it's a knock up at The Oast at Buxted, so until then............ That's All Folks .

Ryan's Winter Knock Up.

It was definitely a day for the thermals today as I loaded the car ready for the trip down To Harleylands Farm for a friendly little Knock Up on Nick's Lake that Ryan (Zephyr) has organised through the MD's forum . By the time I arrived at the car park it was around 8am and it appeared that I was the last of 17 lunatics to arrive. Fortunately Mick had managed to arrange for the catering wagon that had been at Broad Oak to turn up, so breakfast was taken care of courtesy of a cuppa from Andy and half of one of the monster breakfast rolls from Trevor Thanks lads .
Nick unfortunately had a black out and cracked his head , but after we had got him into the back of a van and Kevin had administered a spot of first aid he thankfully recovered enough to fish, especially once he realised that peg 9 was left in the hat for him .

My draw had yielded peg 36, not a great area in winter, but with a nice short walk from the car and a bit of shelter looked like being a bonus today , and as only sections were being payed out today instead of the top 3 I still had something to fish for. For company today I had Andy(The Hat) to my right on peg 36, and to my left 3 of my fellow Marsh club members, in Kevin, Terry and Dave on pegs 2,4 and 6.

The peg was comfy enough with just a short chuck to the corner of the island, and with it being so cold I only set the feeder up. Bait was simply a couple of pints of reds and some groundbait. The one doubt in the back of my mind was the colour or rather lack of it in the water. The recent frosts appeared to have knocked the colour right out of it which is unusual on Nick's regardless of how cold it gets.

So 10am and the All-In is called, feeder to the point, tighten up and wait for the action to start ................and wait .............and wait ..................and wait . Thankfully Kevin's partner Jean broke the monotony by providing me with a hot cup of coffee , but apart from Dave getting a small Carp and receiving all our hearty congratulations......NOT  there didn't seem to be much happening, In fact the only person that appeared to be doing anything was Steve Allen on peg 8. Now Steve normally fishes with his two sons Pete and Nick, but it was obviously a little to cold for the poor things so he'd brought his mate, Terry with him for company. A quick chat with Andy revealed that at least he'd had 3 small fish, better than me at that point with his more "speccie" orientated approach........

Well with 1½ hours gone without as much as a nibbled maggot to show for it, I decided I should get the pole out, at least shipping in and out would keep me warm. The rig was a Malman 4x10 Snake1 to ·12 finished with an 18 Drennan maggot hook. I set this up to fish at around 6mtrs where I had around 3½ ft of water with soft set white hydro in the top kit. A pinch of maggot followed by the rig soon rewarded me with a small roach, at least I hadn't blanked .

Terry was alternating between the feeder and a pole approach but was struggling like the majority of us, nothing really seemed to bring him a run of fish...............

Dave meanwhile had managed to nick another small carp on the feeder, but was also sorting out a pole rig in an attempt to find a bit of action...........

Indeed regardless of where I looked it was hard to find anyone who was getting amongst the fish apart from Steve whose could be seen with a bend in his rod on a regular basis.

I managed to keep the small roach coming, not quickly enough to build any real weight, but fast enough to pass the time and keep me focused .

With about 10 minutes to go Kevin finally had a bite on the feeder and was rewarded with a small carp , however in his enthusiasm to get back out there his next cast ended on the island and the resulting break ended his day with 5 minutes to go . I chucked the feeder out just in case there was another in the area, but the tip remained stationary till the All-Out was called at 3pm.

At least it didn't take to long to pack up and get the gear back to the car, and a stroll round with the scales showed just how hard it had fished today . Steve had walked the match today putting 42lbs 12ozs on the scales for a comfortable win, in fact everyone else only managed single figures apart from Trevor whose 10lbs 4ozs of silvers won him his section. Steve's mate Terry Goulding realised he had tipped back a weight that would have won his section but Hey Ho........ Thats fishing, and of course we were all very sympathetic..........NOT .

Thanks to Ryan for organising the day (his 1st attempt at organising a match) . Next up is the Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match at Wylands next Saturday. How will that turn out? You can read about it here next weekend .

Mick the Chippy's Knock Up.

Out with the lads from Maggotdrowning.com today for a Knock up arranged by Mick the Chippy with the aid of his brother Geoff. Loading up the car it was obvious that it was going to be a cold one, so the thermals were getting their 1st outing of the year. A smooth drive down saw me arriving at the lake around 8·30am, however a displayed temperature of just 3°C had left a small seed of doubt in my mind as to whether the fishing would be up to much.

The good news though was that Mick had persuaded a local snack wagon to put in an appearance so that we could get some hot food and a cuppa prior to the start. While the others arrived I strolled down for a 1st look at the lake................

So with 13 lunatics of us assembled and everyone fed and watered we dived into the draw then made our way to our pegs . Having drawn 11 I opted for the far side that offered a bit of shelter from the wind and found myself settling into peg 20 with Dave and Vince on my left on 19 & 18 respectively, with one of the Allen brothers to my right and Colin next to him.

The set up was going to be pretty simple, and a quick plumb up revealed around 3ft on a top 2 line but with lots of twigs etc making for a bit of a snagpit, while adding a section gave me a decent 4½ft straight out in front that was relatively free of clutter. The feeder rod was also set up with a tiny cage feeder,while bait was simply red maggots with a bit of corn by way of a change bait .

10·30am saw Mick call the All-in, and it was soon pretty apparent that we might be looking at a bit of a grueller. I heard a muttering from my left and heard Mike questioning Vince, it turned out that Vince had had a wrap round almost straight away on the feeder but hadn't connected. For most of us however it was just a case of nicking some small roach (though Mick was positive they were Rudd )

Mike on the opposite side was fishing long into the teeth of the wind and after about an hour was rewarded with yards of elastic streaming from his pole. He'd obviously connected with a Carp, but with only No4 elastic in his top kit was having a few problems. Mick stepped in to provide a ghillie service however meaning that Mike romped into the lead when Mick netted a small Carp of around 2½lbs for him .

45 minutes later and Mick was rewarded with a small Carp of his own, which he gingerly played on a pound bottom, and I'm sure his heart was gladdened by all the calls of support that accompanied it's capture .

No such luck for the rest of us, though Colin was rumoured to have had a half decent Skimmer to boost his Roach, Bill had strolled down and reported that he was getting small Roach regularly from his peg up he top end where he had 9-10 ft of water close in.

With not much happening for me I took a quick stroll to see what was happening elsewhere . Bill was indeed catching pretty regularly by keeping the feed going in..............

.......... but everyone else seemed to be plodding along just nicking the odd small Roach here and there..........

Indeed unlike bill I was finding that feeding was the kiss of death, and it was only by stopping feeding that I could attract any bites. Dave was finding the same despite alternating between a maggot and likkie line.........

I'd had a couple of looks on the feeder, but it hadn't produced as much as a tremble on the tip. Meanwhile Colin had netted a cracking Roach of 1½lbs and Mike had landed another small Carp to put himself firmly into the pound seats . With around an hour to go the Allen brothers decided they'd had enough and packed up (Youngsters these days, No staying power  or perhaps more common sense than the rest of us )

As we moved into the last half hour Mick's brother Richard got himself a small Carp, while Vince was having one last look on the feeder in an attempt to get a £1 coin from me for a change .............

Thankfully Mick called the All-out at 3pm. A quick weigh-in ensued, and sure enough Mike had taken the honours on the day with 6lbs 14ozs  while Bill and Colin shared second place with 3lbs 8oz each . Vince put 2lbs 4ozs on the scales, and initially my fish were called at the same weight, however the scalesman finally called it at 2lbs 5ozs to give me another shiny £1 coin .

Back at the car park and Mick presented Mike with a trophy for the winner...........

and we were all very pleasantly surprised to find that Mick had got us all engraved medals as a momento of the day, a really nice gesture on Mick's behalf .

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.........

Well today promised to be a little different as Dawn, the owner of Dawns Vale had invited some of the lads from the Maggotdrowning.com forum down to her fishery for a small match. This had turned into a weekend event for some though, as anglers from as far afield as Scotland, Yorkshire and Wales had accepted Dawn's invitation . Having met up with Dave and Colin at Dave's house we made our way out to deepest Essex arriving at the fishery just after 9·30am.
Parking the cars up it was obvious that a couple of the lads had already arrived. Dai, who was staying for the whole weekend had already pitched his bivvy and Mick and Vince were already tucking into egg and bacon rolls and a cuppa that Dawn had cooked up in the little 2 berth caravan at the side of the pool . As Dave, Colin, Tony and I unloaded our tackle, Webbo (and his lunatic boxer dog Max) and Geoff pulled in, Geoff having traveled down from Scotland the previous day to meet up with Webbo in Leeds .

Dawn soon had us all fed and I took the opportunity to take a first look around. Dawns Vale as the fishery's called is a small natural pool (about an acre I'd estimate) that's fed by 7 springs set in woodland that's situated on the side of a hill. Thankfully the trees shelter it to a degree from the wind, which was starting to get a bit of a blow on.
They'd had their 1st frost of Autumn overnight and a heavy grey sky held the promise of rain at some point. Today we were going to have a friendly little 6 hour Knock-up between the nine of us, and Dawn had even gone out and got a Trophy to present to the Winner .........

Now the pool isn't a venue that is match fished, it's normally fished by carpers and pleasure anglers, and with only about 12 pegs we decided to draw and have a walk off picking our own swims . Most opted for the shortest walk possible, leaving Mick and I to stroll to the far side and I ended up opposite the caravan, allowing me to keep an eye on everyone except Mick .

Settling into the swim I was happy to realise that I was pretty sheltered and would have the wind off my back. Dave has fished the pool once before in the summer and had told me that the margins were deep at around 4-5 feet with depths up to 25 feet in parts of the pool. There were some decent Carp present, along with Crucians, Tench and thousands of small Rudd that would rob any bait they could. I'd already made my mind up based on what I'd heard to target the Carp, but the frost and conditions were making me wonder if I'd made the right choice. Plumbing up down the right hand margin there was 5 feet of water with a similar depth at 5mtrs straight out so I settled for those 2 lines with a simple rig incorporating a MW Diamond to 0·18 to size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook, and also set up the feeder as a back up. Bait wise it was going to be 6mm pellet for feed and 8 and 11mm hard banded pellet to deter the Rudd.

At 11·30am I called the All-in and dumped 2 big pots of pellet into both pole lines, then chucked the feeder with soaked 6mm pellets and a hair rigged banded 11mm on the hook. After 30 minutes without a flicker on the tip it was onto the pole but neither of the 2 lines produced a bite just tiny little knocks from Rudd attacking the pellet and from my vantage point I could see that nobody was doing any good apart from Geoff and Dai who were both happily taking a succession of small Rudd.

With 2 hours gone I re-fed the margin swim heavily and went for a stroll to see how everyone was doing. Webbo was on the pole trying to tempt a Carp with Max keeping a carefull eye on proceedings and probably glad that he wasn't relying on him to catch his dinner ..........

Tony was ruing parting company with a decent fish earlier on the method feeder and was sticking at it hoping for another bite at the cherry ..........

Geoff and Dai were still getting amongst the Rudd making the most of their foresight in bringing some maggots with them , It was good to see Geoff on the bankside and catching a few as he hadn't been out since May and was quite content just catching and not bothered about the size of fish .

Vince was fishless, but concentrating on the job in hand (not losing a £1 to me in our usual side bet )..........

Birthday boy Colin(66) was biteless but determined to stick at it and if possible sneak a Carp out on the paste, though with the wind howling into his chosen swim which was one of the shallower ones, it wasn't looking to hopefull .

Dave was happily settled into the swim he'd fished before, and was taking it easy as his arthritis was playing him up in the cold and was only owning up to a couple of liners but nothing in the way of fish ..........

Finally I came to Mick, yet another Birthday Boy (50) who was getting a few Rudd on the waggler to christen his new rod .........

................Yes there is a fish there, as a close up proves .........

Back to my peg and I opened a tin of corn that Geoff and kindly let me have, and slipping a grain onto the hook I shipped it out to the margin line. After about 10 minutes of lifting and dropping the rig the float finally slid under and a firm lift met with a pleasing resistance as the elastic stretched from the top-kit. The fish stayed down but didn't tear off (probably due to the depth of the venue?) but steady pressure soon saw me get the upper hand and a couple of minutes later a nice plump Mirror of around 6lbs was safely in the net .

15 minutes later my 2nd bite of the day produced a similar result, though this time the fish was a little smaller at around 4lbs .

With another half hour gone and no further action I re-fed the margin and looked up to see Webbo with yards of pink Drennan bungee pouring out of his pole , so I grabbed the camera and strolled down to watch the action ..................

........Webbo was getting nowhere fast with the fish and soon had quite a crowd watching and giving him helpfull advise and encouragement . I even phoned Malc and put him on the loudspeaker to see if The Jinx effect would work long distance . Finally after what seemed like 10 minutes the fish was on the top and safely heading for the net.............

and you could tell from the grin on Webbo's face that all the micky taking had been worth it in the shape of a cracking Mirror what tipped the scales at 12lbs 4ozs .

Back to my swim, and the sky was getting darker and the wind was increasing. Back out to the margin and a change to double corn produced a 3rd bite after half an hour and resulted in a 3rd Carp, smaller again this time, a mint little Common of no more than 2lbs . Shortly after that Webbo popped round as he took Max for a stroll and he was soon followed by Dave and Colin, with Dave taking a few grains of corn away with him in an effort to get himself off the mark. No more fish followed for me, but Dawn appeared with a freshly cooked double cheeseburger and a hot cup of coffee to lift my spirits . Obviously the corn had the desired effect for Dave, for not long after I looked over and just caught him netting a decent fish .......

With around 1½ hours to go I decided to go back onto the feeder as I had seen a couple of fish crash out to my right. After about 20 minutes I had a couple of tentative knocks followed by a 6 inch pull and the strike met with a firm resistance and I could feel the fish kite out into the centre and judging by the angle of the line to the water it had obviously sought the deeper part of the pool. A couple of minutes of steady pressure saw me gain the upper hand though and I soon had my best fish of the day, another Mirror around the 9lbs mark . I only had one further bit of action before the end of the match, and that was when Bill G phoned, we were chatting away as the rod tip wrapped violently round!!!!!!!!!  I wasn't connected for long however and the hook returned embedded in a scale .

So 5·30pm and I called the All-out just as the 1st drops of rain threatened to fall. A quick weigh-in confirmed just how hard it had been on the day. Dai was 1st to weigh and put plenty of the pools small Rudd on the scales which weighed in at 20lbs.........

....... and with Geoff weighing another 15lbs of them for 2nd and 3rd places respectively, they had kept themselves busy and warm, however bags of Rudd like that may be the last for sometime as Dawn told me that they're being netted out at the end of this month. They'll never get them all though, so it's just a matter of time till they return .

My 4 Carp weighed 21lbs 8ozs to take the honours on the day and another £1 from Vince , and receiving the Trophy from Dawn was a nice end to the day .

Soon the kit was loaded up and farewells said. I have to say that I didn't envy the lads that were staying on overnight (Webbo, Geoff, Dai and Mick) but it will be interesting to see how they did overnight and Sunday before heading home .

I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU to Dawn for putting up with the Maggotdrowning Mob and making us feel welcome, I'm sure we'll be finding our way back sooner or later .