Maggotdrowning.com

Alders Farm Match

Like a lot of these things today's trip to Alders Farm all started when back in early April, Linda (Mermaid) made quite an innocent post on The Maggotdrowning Forum asking whether there would be any interest in a match of some sort at the venue . It was soon obvious there was a bit of interest and before long Linda found herself entering into a new job, that of 'Match Organiser' having managed to get a Saturday in June sorted .

I travelled up with Dave the fish today and it was around 8·20am when we arrived at the fishery, First things first and a quick trip to the new on site tackle shop tackle shop for some fishery pellets and a chat with Trevor Price and then getting the nets dipped while Dave dropped our gear at the bottom of the hill. A good few were in attendance and I found Linda to check in, she handed me a name badge, a nice touch so that everyone would know who was who . Next stop was down to to The Pumphouse overlooking the lake to grab a quick breakfast and catch up with some more of todays participants. Much chat over the prospects for the match and the general consensus was that the unsettled weather and rain during the week would keep the weights down today, though everyone should enjoy some good sport .

Around 9am Linda called everyone to the draw. Gary Thorpe had kindly sorted the choice of pegs for the draw, so into the draw bag and peg 5 was attracted to my hand, not a bad peg and I was happy with that . So off to collect my kit and make my way to my peg......

There were a fair few of us pegged on the pumphouse bank with Jonny on peg 1, Lee peg 2. Fellow Jinx Squad members Fred and Clive had pegs 3 and 4 while to my left was Linda's husband Chris on peg 6. It was nice to see Chris fishing as he tends to be employed as Linda's ghillie normally . Next up was Rod on peg 7 and Nick on peg 8, while Keith had plenty of space to himself on peg 12.

Settling into the swim the first thing that was noticeable was that yet again the wind was blowing firmly into me, not a bad thing in itself, but it meant that I'd be sitting there all match with a fleece on looking across to those sitting there in polo shirts, or in Andrew on peg 27's case a very poor taste in football shirt .

Trev had told me that the end of the bush on the right was the sweet spot in the swim, with a back up at 5mtrs straight out so setting up was quite straight forward. Just 3 rigs all pretty much identical as the swim is pretty shallow(around 18 inches at the end of the bush and around 2½ feet at 5mtrs) . These were all Nick Gilbert's handmade NG Power Pencil's, two 0·4 gm and a 0·5 gm, all made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's nice and simple and strong enough to stand up to what would hopefully turn into a good bagging session. Bait was simply 2 bags of 6mm fishery pellets, a couple of pints of red maggots and a couple of tins of corn.

With everything set there was a bit of time for a quick chat with Rod, Chris, Clive and Fred before Linda called the All-In at 10·30am. A couple of pots of mixed pellet maggot and corn at 5mtrs and a similar handful fed to the end of the bush but before I can get a bait in the water Clive is playing his first fish of the day .......

I soon had a banded 6mm on the hook and dropped at the end of the bush. The float simply buried and produced a..............rudd , not the hoped for carp, there's loads of them in Ash Lake and it's normally just a case of working through them and keeping the feed going until the carp move in and push them out. After about 5 rudd the next bite produced firm resistance as a carp powered off. Now these carp aren't huge, indeed the average size is probably around 3lbs, but being that the water is shallow they just power off when you hook them and fight well above their weight . In that respect it's probably handy that I'm used to fishing Rolfs where the carp are of a far larger average size. It's just a question of getting their heads up so they take a gulp of air and sliding them over the net .

I felt that Clive had got off to a better start in the first hour as I was only picking up odd fish, but as we moved into the second hour I was starting to catch him up as he had longer gaps between his fish. In fact looking around it was obvious that this was going to be one of those days where you had to work for your fish as nobody seemed to be really bagging up , but I was reasonably confident that if I could keep the fish coming at the same rate a 'Ton' was definitely on the cards . My back up line at 5mtrs however was only producing the odd fish so that was written off pretty early on .

Looking on I could see Clive hanging on as increasing amounts of red hydro appeared from the end of his top kit, obviously a decent fish it appeared hell bent on reaching the island, steady pressure finally told though and it was a very relieved Clive that finally netted another fighting fit carp .........

Chris was having a bit of a mare however as the rudd stubbornly refused to make way for carp close in, forcing him to fish long to find any carp, but even then a few to many were slipping the hook as he played them ......

About 2pm Trevor Price had a stroll round taking a few pictures and seeing that I thought I'd better have a quick session with my camera so I had a few pictures for this report . I strolled down to Rod (isis) to find him cursing the rudd, they seemed to have settled into his peg and were doing a great impression of Piranhas devouring anything he cared to put on the hook . Nick (pastie) on peg 8 was starting to get among a few however and looked to be getting one over on his Dad, Steve (rookery54) who was across on peg 16 .......

While over on peg 20 I could see Trev (grannyspodder) who seemed to be waiting far to long between bites today .......

Meanwhile on peg 22 it looked to me like Gary (shooter560) had decided to try paste in an effort to up his catch rate .......

On peg 27 Andrew (lemon1) had at least covered up his rather dubious taste in football tops, while Keith was wishing for an upturn in sport like he'd had on his previous visit here when he'd set a new match best for himself .......

and tucked away on peg 30 was Dave the fish, I'd noticed that he'd been catching as well as anyone on that bank, and with this sort of fishing suiting his style felt he was bound to be in with a shout at the end ......

Back on peg 3 Fred (Milo) was smiling but it hid the frustration of not getting the best from his peg as he was suffering with to many foul hookers and lost fish ........

While a look across to Lee (red baron) saw him with a smile on his face as he slid another carp over the waiting landing net ......

Steve (big Stump) seemed lost in concentration on peg 38, probably hoping to avoid being beaten by the next peg .......

Which happened to be occupied by the Match Organiser herself, Linda (Mermaid) who was obviously targeting fish in the margins ......

As was Simon (sidev77) who obviously had the same aim as Steve .......

Back at my peg I'd just netted my first fish on my return when what sounded like a rifle shot came from the left , Nick had destroyed a Tri-Cast top kit when a carp had buried itself in the margin reeds. Moving into the last hour I was still taking fish on a steady basis from the edge of the bush in between being heckled by Clive and Chris to the effect that I was bagging and it must be solid with fish in the peg................... hurtful that neither of them felt that it may be down to my superior piscatorial ability . Anyway despite this harassment I soldiered heroically on till the All-Out was called at 3·30pm. Looking down at my clicker I had 49 carp recorded on it and I felt that I had a comfortable Ton+ in the nets, which I felt was a decent effort given how hard the lake had fished today .

As we packed away our kit and waited for the scales the chat turned to how the day had gone. Rod now understood why Gary Thorpe refers to rudd as 'Vermin' having suffered a peg full of them all day and Nick showed off his new multi piece top kit. Clive felt he may have 50-60lbs though I was convinced he had more. The scales were moving around the lake pretty fast so it was obvious that it hadn't fished as it can today and when they got to Keith (Gandhi), my travelling partner Dave the fish was leading with 117lbs the only 'Ton' so far......

Rod followed with 15½lbs and Chris put 40¼lbs on the scales ......

My 3 nets weighed a total of 132lbs 07ozs to take the lead with 4 still to weigh ......

Clive did indeed have a bit more than his estimate with 89lbs to show for his efforts ......

and while Lee was last but one to weigh with 102lbs 06ozs ......

and Jonny was last to weigh in with a fine 123lbs 06ozs .

Back to the Pumphouse for the results where we found that the staff had kindly laid on hot drinks for us, a really nice touch . Linda then called us all to order and paid out the sections.......

Section A:
1st: Peter (Mugger) Morton £20
2nd: Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent £15

Section B:
1st: Nick (pastie) Allen £20
2nd: Keith (Gandhi) Ashby £15

Section C:
1st: Dave (dave the fish) Collier £20
2nd: Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs £15

Section D:
1st: Simon (sidev77) Watkins £20
2nd: Linda (Mermaid) Billington £15

Third overall on the day went to Dave the fish , Second to Jonny and the winner was Me and I have to say that I was both surprised and delighted when Linda presented me with an engraved tankard as a trophy, a lovely end to the day ......

In conclusion I have to say a Big Thank You to Linda and Chris on behalf of all who attended, spot on organisation, right down to badges so that everyone knew who was who . I think you may have created an annual fixture for the MD's calender in the future .

Another Big Thank You to Trev, Gary and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, even on a hard day, fully deserving of the Stillwater of the Year Award that the fishery won in the National Angling Awards last year .

Finally,Thanks to all the forum members that attended, plenty of good banter along with more than a few laughs as expected on a Drowner's match and good to meet up and put some faces to names from the forum .

Today saw me making an early start for the 55 mile trip from South London up to Alders Farm, just outside the village of Great Brickhill. A good run up the M1 and A5 saw me pulling into the car park just after 8am. Kit loaded onto the barrow for the decent down the hill from the car park and into the pump house cafe for a sausage sandwich and a coffee before the draw.

Now i very rarely fish at Alders, but today was more of an excuse to catch up with some of the GOT Baits anglers that I've been fortunate enough to get to know and fish with over the last couple of years. Chatting to Matt Nutt, Gary Thorpe and Trevor Price before the draw the general opinion was that a few fish would be caught as long as you didn't draw down in the corner (pegs 17-21). I was behind Matt at the draw and the look on his face said it all as he saw peg 19 stick to his hand, and I fared no better with peg 17 being my draw.

Matt was kind enough to fill me in on what to expect, and I have to say I didn't feel to bad as I set my kit up. as it was a nice bright sunny day, though the wind that was blowing into our corner kept it pretty cool. I set up a couple of kits, rigged with MW Diamonds to fish at 13mtrs and 7 mtrs, and with peg 18 not being in another to fish down the edge towards 18 where i would just keep trickling a little bait in for later in the match. I also set up a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder, though with not a lot of water to aim at in the corner it wasn't a real consideration.

Baitwise I had some soft hookers, red maggot and sweetcorn with micro pellet for feed. 10am and all in saw a small pot of micro's with with a pinch of maggot and 6 bits of corn deposited on the 7 and 13mtr lines with some corn and pellet going in next to peg 18 in the margin.

Nearly 3 hours in and all I had to show for my efforts were a few microscopic Rudd while the young lad to my left on peg 16 had managed a solitary Carp on the feeder.......

Matt was plugging away on 19 but at the time was faring no better, despite being familiar with the venue, with just a couple of the forementioned micro Rudd himself.

Lookng around the lake, I could see that Matt's prediction was coming true with other anglers getting amongst the resident Carp. Nobody was bagging, but at least most seemed to be getting one or two. Looking across to Matt I noticed he appeared to have a fair bit of elastic coming from his top kit.   Yes, he was into a Carp, and obviously a decent one, indeed it proved to be a near double. Suddenly my float dipped and I nearly forgot to strike such was the shock . To say that I played it gently may be a bit of an understatement, but I was determined to get it safely in the net. It proved to be only about 4lb, but it was most welcome. Matt even managed to get a similar one while i was playing mine without me noticing, so carefully was I playing my fish.

It would be nice to say that it was the start of a decent last couple of hours, but that was it for both myself and Matt  We didn't get another bite between us for the rest of the match. At the end Matt's fish gave him just over 14lbs while my solitary Carp and a few tiny Rudd made just 4lbs 3ozs, while poor Trevor Jeans on 21 suffered the dreaded DNW. The match itself was won by Gary Thorpe on peg38 at the opposite end of the lake with 10 Carp that he'd caught at 14mtrs on corn and pellet for 58lbs 14ozs.

Keith (gandhi) popped down to watch the weigh-in and he was kind enough to carry both mine and Matt's rodbags back for us. A bit of banter with the lads in the car park brought the day to an end while Trev was kind enough to let me have a couple of samples of as yet unreleased GOT Baits products for me to try. Not the best of days for me fishing wise, but a good crack with Matt for company and I'll definately be going back to Alders, though I may wait till it warms up a bit 1st and the Carp get a bit more spread out and re-discover their appetites.   

The JINX Series 2007

Match 4.

Well, off to Stockton today for the 4th round of the Jinx Series. A nice trouble free drive up saw me arrive in plenty of time enabling me to take a leisurely stroll round what I consider to be one of BW's most scenic waters and to have a look at the pegs we would be fishing today.

 In previous Jinx matches I've fished on the venue we have fished "The Boards" pegs, but for this match we were on those to the right as you enter from the car park including those known as The Animal pegs due to them being surrounded by masses of rushes which can make extracting any of the resident Carp something of a challenge. They are also home to plenty of bird life too.....................

Most of us arrived in good time allowing for a pre match drink in The Blue Lias Inn and the chance of a chin-wag and a chance to catch up.
As usual Malc had forgotten a number of things including the weigh sling and draw sheets so the draw was a little delayed, meaning that we would be fishing from 1·30 - 6·30pm.

The draw bag had dealt me peg 41, right on the end of the Animal Pegs so that I had relatively open water with just the end of the reeds reachable with a short cast on the feeder. To my left I had Paul Roberts accompanied by his good lady Jayne (Though rumour has it that she's really his community care worker ) on peg 42. While to my rightt on peg 40 was young Ant Haywood, current leader of this years Jinx Series, and only needing another section win to tie up the series with one match to go.

My plan of attack was going to be simple, just setting up a feeder rod  for the chuck to the edge of the reeds alternating baits between meat, catmeat, corn, pellet or worm until I could find what they wanted. Initially I didn't set up my pole intent on sticking with the feeder.

All in and most started on the feeder but Ant fed heavily at both 16mtrs and 8mtrs before spending a short time on the pole. Paul soon discovered that with Colin to his left and myself to his right he was surrounded by "Cockneys" and it would be fair to say that it set the tone for a sustained 5hrs of light hearted banter and mickey taking.

Sport was so slow that it was almost none existent, even this fella didn't seem to be having any luck..............

..................though Ant managed to foul hook a Carp and played it patiently to the net with plenty of encouragement from yours truly and a short while later this was followed by another similar fish.............

............ Me? I couldn't buy a bite and after 2½hrs out came the pole.

Dave Collier came up for a chat and almost right on cue the float dipped up up popped a foul hooked Perch, straight into the net and at least a DNW had been avoided, this was soon followed by a Rudd that swallowed a worm twice it's size, I was positively baggin..........NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul was getting a few bites on the paste by now but was having trouble keeping them out of the reeds, but at least he was getting some fish into the net. I sat the final hour out on the paste over pellet and was briefly attached to a couple of Carp before they vanished into the distance, but the reality was that the final whistle was a blessing, as I had the feeling that I could have sat there for another 5 hours and progressed no further.

So yet another £1 coin handed over to young Gemma due to her MINXING me as I weighed in an incredibly generous 4ozs from the scales-man.(The cheque's in the post Malc.)
Paul edged out Ant for the section, but he's still in pole position for the series. Matt Nutt won on the day with 6 Carp all caught on the pellet for 48lbs.

I still love the venue but it can be incredibly frustrating and it beat me today but I will return as it's one of those venues that I really enjoy.
Next weekend I'm out with the members of Marsh AC at Hartleylands Farm where we're fishing the Reservoir, hopefully I'll manage a few more fish than today, but who knows? I'll let you know the outcome. 

Matt Nutt's Charity Match
supporting
Disabled Angler.co.uk.

Well today was the day of Matt Nutt's match at Alders Farm in support of The Disabled Angler.co.uk 2007 Charities Championship, which this year is aiming to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Relief and Rainbows Children's Hospice. It's days like this that show just how the internet brings like minded individuals together for good causes, with members from Maggotdrowning, The Danglers, The GOT forum and Total-Fishing amongst those attending on the day .

A foggy trip down meant that I arrived at about 7·50, just in time to get my tackle together and head down to the fishery café for brekky and a chance to view one of the more off the wall fundraisers on the day. Trevor Price of GOT Baits had been persuaded to part with his old faithfull slippers after the lads on the GOT Forum pledged £200+ just to be allowed to burn them at the end of the match ..........

9am and the draw saw me with peg 33 for my match, with Gary Page of GOT Baits for company on 32, Nick Bryan on 34 and Dirk on 35..............

Plumbing up saw me facing pretty much the same as the previous Sunday with just 2½ ft at 12mtrs and a shallow bramble lined bay with maybe 18 inches depth to my right for a margin swim.

The all-in was called at 10·15 and a couple of pots of GOT 4mm sinkers were potted out on the 12 mtr line and a handful into the margin. Straight out to 12 mtrs with a GOT 6mm soft hooker at dead depth and within 30 seconds I was playing my 1st fish of the day, a small Carp of about 2lbs . Indeed the 1st hour went well for me with 10 Carp finding their way to the keepnet all falling to pellet fished at dead depth allowing me to keep pace with Gary on 32.

Nick on 34 however was suffering one of those matches ..........

The Carp in his peg were obviously related to Harry Houdini, slipping the hook on numerous occasions, Indeed 1½hrs into the match all he had to show for his efforts were a couple of tiny Rudd .

Unfortunately after my good start things slowed down, I would get 2 or three bites allowing me to nick the odd fish and would then have to wait 15-20 minutes for another run of bites. Gary however was catching more regularly, although he appeared to be suffering from a few lost fish, probably foul hooked at least he was managing to keep the bites and fish coming.

Further round on 30 Matt was having a bit of a struggle and resorted to impersonating a Jap Sniper as he tried to winkle a few lumps out from under his marginal bush ........

Along on 28 Wayne Panting was getting a fair few fishing meat up in the water (one of the few to catch up) along with Steve Wroe on 29 next door, while further along Keith aka Gandhi could be seen doing his best to sneak a few out of his margin .........

I finally managed to put a run of fish together in the last 40minutes, just a bit to little to late, and with the all-out called I knew Gary had battered me off the next peg . The weigh-in just confirmed it, my 25 Carp totaling just over 63lbs while Gary put 114lbs 11ozs onto the scales for a comfortable win .

Wayne from The Danglers had had a decent day on his 1st visit to the fishery, the scales recording his weight at 81lbs 7ozs for a very creditable 2nd overall..............

Back to the café for the results and a raffle and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had won my section thanks to Gary taking the win .

The really good news however was the presentation by Matt of the proceeds of the day.......
 £1417 !!!!! with the promise of more to come in, which was gratefully accepted by Dirk on behalf of Disabled-Angler.co.uk.

All that was left was to give the send off to Trev's slippers which was done with some style ..............

So a great day all round, A Big Thank You to Matt for organising the match, and to all the anglers that took part. I can't wait for next year .

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

At the back end of December last year Keith aka Gandhi had offered to organise a match for the members of the TalkAngling website who had expressed an interest in fishing at Alders Farm, and is often the way with these things the 20 places were soon filled. As with most of these type of events those with allegiances to more than one site ended up being involved, but that just adds to the banter and fun on the day.

A nice smooth journey from South London found me arriving in the car park by 7·30am, closely followed by MarkC, Royst and Eric.The biggest shock however was the arrival of Malc (The Jinx) and daughter Gemma (The Minx) a whole hour before the draw !!!!!!! Soon it was time to dip the nets and face "The Hill" down to the Match Lake and a waiting breakfast, and I have to say that it's a top brekkie that really sets you up for the day.

9am and it's draw time and a £1 side bet was agreed with The Minx before peg 3 stuck to my hand, a nice short walk. A quick chat with a couple of the GOT anglers saw my plan of attack formulated for the 5 hours ahead and I was soon settled in with Chris BT for company on peg 2 and Phil Young aka Madd on peg 4.

The plan was to be fishing on the deck at 12mtrs where it was about 3ft deep and to keep pinging a few pellets in to see if they would come up later while feeding a line under the bush to my left where hopefully a few lumps would show later. Bait wise I went with a mix of GOT expanders and soft hookers with 4mm hard feed pellets.

At the all in I put a handfull under the bush and 2 pots of pellet out on the 12mtr line before going straight out over it. Within a minute I'd bumped one but next put in came back with a nice chunky Mirror around the 2lb mark.

Looking over to the other side I could see Wilky taking in the sun in his shorts and Matt stripped to the waist while I was shielded from the sun by the bush to my left and with the wind blowing towards me sat shivering in bib & brace and fleece , even Malc remarked on it when he came down on one of his customary wanders.

Matchwise it proved to be a bit frustrating as I suffered runs of unhittable bites and a number of foulhookers . Laying a couple of inches of line on the deck, or moving up off the deck appeared to have no effect, with the fish only wanting it at dead depth and nothing showing under the bush. Numbers wise Chris and I probably had the same number of fish, but his appeared to be a better stamp.

Weigh in time rolled round at 3pm and it was noticable that the usual pegs hadn't produced while normally unfancied ones had and this was put down to the fact that ours was the 3rd match on the venue in 3 days. Never the less with a total weight of 1184lbs 12ozs weighed in between 20 anglers averaging out at just under 60lbs per peg it goes to show what a good venue Alders is.

Winner on the day was Vic Nugent who had 47 carp making up his winning bag of 111lbs 12ozs.

Many Thanks to Keith for organising the day, I certainly enjoyed it and will be back next Saturday to fish Matt Nutt's Charity Match in aid of Disabled Angler.Co.Uk .

Marsh AC. Christmas Match.

Well after 10 weeks without wetting a line I had received an invitation to join Dave (TheFish) Collier and the members of Marsh AC on their Christmas match at Rockell's Farm. I had heard some good reports about the venue and duly arranged to meet Dave at the services at junction 8 on the M11 at 7·30am.

A heavy frost greeted me as I loaded the car, matching the 1st one of the year that had arrived on Saturday morning, and the drive up saw the temp refuse to rise above 0°C which didn't bode well .

Now Dave had only returned the previous day from a Caribbean Cruise so may have been disorientated, but even with his sat-nav managed to take the wrong turn out of the services and lead us back towards London .

Arriving nearer to 8·30 than the planned 8am welcomes were soon exchanged with familiar faces amongst the others that had been invited including 4 of the lads from the GOT Baits Squad (Gary, Keith, Vic & Madd) and Terry Goff aka Wily Coyote (a fellow MD'er) .
Therefore pegging was carried out in a bit of a rush prior to the draw, but a bit of misunderstanding ensued that put a spanner in the works, and although it was finally resolved, it did make things a bit rushed for the start of the match as peg numbers had to be shuffled.

I ended up pegged between Keith and Madd, and just set up a pole to fish at around 6mtrs into around 4ft of water and down the left bank around 2½ft deep.
Bait for the day was corn and pellet, though in hindsight i should have set up a bomb rod to fish to the island at around 30yds .

The heavy frost had started to knock the colour out of the water, and for me it never happened, not a single bite .
Keith and Madd however both managed to get among a few fish, Keith ending up in 1st place with 7 carp for 22½lbs  ...........................

.......................while Madd took 8 carp for 20¾lb and 2nd overall ........................

.......................leaving me like a bit of Cod (Battered both sides ).

A peg draw in the car park after the match saw everyone getting a prize and these were boosted by a generous donation of goodies from Trev and Gary of GOT Baits, ensuring that everyone went home with a prize .

So not the best of days for me, but still great just to be back out on the bank in good company after a bit of a lay-off.
Thanks again to the lads from Marsh AC, I look forward to fishing with you again, though hopefully I'll put a few fish in the net next time .

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2006.

Well where can I start?

I suppose that the beginning is a good a point as any.
Anticipation had been building up for this weekend for a couple of months, Ian(Chin)Ward counting everyone down to the big day.

9·15 in the services at junction 8a and Adrian(BigladWigan)Wood was the 1st to greet me, closely followed by Vince Gould.
Soon the wafting aroma of chip fat and Chinese takeaway preceded the arrival of Northern Boy himself, Gaz Malman who was already halfway through the umpteenth pie of the day clutched in his right hand as he pulled up. Dave(Red Leader)Webster phoned to announce that both he, Tony Prentice and Geoff Palmer were in the services already so we headed off to join them, along with Ant Haywood, Ian Ward, Tom Little and Chris Ellis.
Dave fancied a Breakfast, but being faced with paying £8 for it brought back his Yorkshire frugality and he settled for a burger.

10am and it was "wagons roll" as a small convoy made it's way the short distance from the services to Rolf's Lake.
Into the car park and it's nearly full already, and there's a buzz about the place as a number of Rolf's "Virgins" got their 1st look at the venue, while others were renewing acquaintances and meeting others for the 1st time in person away from a computer screen.

Bivvies and Tents were soon in place for the evenings accommodation while elsewhere nets were dipped with military efficiency and feed pellets purchased for what lay ahead.

At 11am the pairing for the weekend ahead were announced and with those duly recorded and the pools paid, the individual draw for the day took place.

I had been paired with Dave Collier, almost inevitable really given the number of times we've fished together in the past. Dave getting peg24 on the car park bank, while I ended up with peg 36 on the little lake.

For company on the match I had Geoff Palmer to my right, in the corner on peg 34. While to my left on 37 I found Dave(Red Leader)Webster and Matt Nutt on 38. The sun was already blasting from the sky and we just knew that it was going to be a scorcher, but hopefully with us fishing from 1pm- 6pm hopefully everyone would get at least a couple of good hours towards the end.

1pm and the all in and within 5 minutes Geoff was walking over for me to witness his 1st weigher, all 16½lbs of Common Carp and a new PB for him.

I have to say that I wasn't inspired by my peg, although I knew it was capable of producing there are no real obvious features in comparison to a lot of the other pegs, so it was just a question of getting my head down and concentrating on putting a few together.

Looking across I could see David Ashby (under a bit of pressure as Gemma was fishing for the 1st time in 5 years) and Ian Ward and Nick Williams in front of me on 4 (though I had to look twice as his grey hair had vanished to be replaced by a deep brown dye job )

Plenty of splashing kept coming from Geoff's direction though some were doing a Houdini act .

I was slowly getting in on the act fishing paste on the deck at around 9 mtrs, while Dave struggled to get to grips with his peg, and Matt slowly started to edge ahead in the section.

Being pegged on the small lake we were somewhat removed from what was happening on the rest of the lake, though word filtered down that Keith on peg 25 was having a good un, and we were treated to the site of Brian Bevan in hot pursuit of his pole as a carp headed towards us with it, though Brian was fortunate enough to retrieve it, but not the fish.

Vince Gould, a Rolf's virgin was hidden away on peg13 out of my site but struggled to come to terms with things but still managed 41½lbs, better than some have managed on their 1st visit.

The last hour proved to be the best though a couple of the larger carp saw Matt having to resort to climbing onto his box to net them, while I managed a run of 6 fish right at the end.

So match 1 was completed, and that left the weigh in, a real eye opener for some in terms of the weights recorded and the efficiency with which it takes place.

Keith Ashby on peg 25 soon took the lead, and wasn't going to be caught on the day having put 242¾lb on the scales for a new PB match weight, nearly all caught on a top 3 with meat GOT soft hookers and GOT Paste. A superb result. Kevin Arathoon had pushed him all the way with a fine 230lbs and Brian Bevan had put together a fine 184¼lbs for 3rd individual on the day.

As the weigh in progressed peg after peg produced tales of new PB's both for total weights and individual fish.

Attention was however focused on a little match within a match between Gemma, Malc Doyle's daughter who had decided to fish for the 1st time in nearly 5 years and Keith Ashby's son David. (No pressure then)
With Gemma putting 92lbs on the scales.

David was always struggling to hang onto his £1 side bet,

even breaking his landing net at one stage , and unfortunately came up short on the day with 79½lbs, leading to a ribbing from all assembled that was to last all the way through the rest of the day and well into the next morning .

Ian (Chin) Ward had managed his 1st ever ton with a fine 115½lbs, and was looking a bit shattered as his arms hurt, and would continue to do so for the rest of the weekend,

Matt Nutt, using all his experience of the venue managed a 149½lb section winning bag, while Dave Webster who had struggled for 29lbs was the meat in a "Ton" sandwich as I weighed in 121½ lbs, Geoff Palmer also beating him with an 89lb bag (His PB match weight) that would surely have been his 1st Ton if he had had more than the 1 weigher.

So match day one ended with everyone retreating for a well earned beer in the bivvy village. Dave being Mr Efficient had brought his large gas barbecue down with him for the weekend and soon had it fired up and Tony(teepee)Prentice soon had a great selection of burgers and sausages flowing off the production line for willing mouths to devour.

With copious quantities of beer, Lager augmented by a bottle of rum and another of whiskey , the entertainment revolved around how much stick could be dished out to yound David, and I have to say that he took it all on the chin.
I'm sure you'll have the last laugh sooner or later David.

Things wound down around 1am as bodies retired ready for round 2 on Sunday.

Sunday at 7am and those same bodies in various states of disrepair emerged into the daylight craving nothing stronger than tea or coffee, while once more the Barbecue was fired up to provide breakfast from the mountain of food that was left.

Sundays draw was at 9am with a 10·30 start and joining us for the day were Steve Wilson fresh from his holiday and Gary (Gaza) Thorpe, fresh from a match win at Oakfield the previous day. They paired up with the pair with the worst result from Saturday which meant that Wily Coyote(Terry) was paired with Gaza the venue World Record Holder, so no pressure there then, while Nick Williams paired up with Steve.

I found myself fishing my partners swim from the previous day (peg24) with Matt for company on peg 25 (Keith's winning peg) and Ant Haywood to my right on 23.

Gary Thorpe drew my peg from Saturday, so i would see the pegs potential with a decent angler on it, with Kevin Arathoon on 34 (Geoff's peg) Ian Ward was on peg 7, a bit of a flyer, but would his arms hold out . While David and Gemma drew next to each other on pegs 9 & 10 in full view of their dads, Keith being on 12 with Malc opposite on 30.

At the all in I settled on a paste attack at around 7mtrs, a distance i could feed comfortably feed pellet by hand and fed a margin line by the small bush to my right. while Matt started on a longer line up in the water . Ant appeared to be into action straight away, and all around I could see people already into fish.

Terry Goff had somehow managed to draw the same peg twice in a row, but at least managed to put a few together  this time for a creditable 90¾lbs.

Next up on 17 was Dirk Williams who finished just short of a 2nd ton with 93lbs after suffering with a load of foul hookers.

Tony (teepee) Prentice managed a very creditable 164¼lbs from peg 18 to better his Saturday weight of 119lbs 2ozs (Thanks for showing me your paste pots Tony, I'm sure he'll be sharing the idea soon )

Colin, Keith's partner was on 19 and just missed out on a 2nd ton with 98lbs on the day.

I had a mare with foul hookers and lost a number of big fish that I had trouble controlling with Red Hydro!!! Thankfully a decent spell towards the end enabled me to get a 2nd ton with a level 110lbs.

Matt Nutt came short to the bush in his margin and had a magic last hour with a ton of weighers for a creditable 173lbs.

While Ant Haywood just made his 2nd ton of the weekend despite only having the 1 weigher all day, putting 104lbs on the scales.

Elsewhere David Ashby restored his pride in his peg to peg with Gemma weighing 85½lb to Gemma's 41½lbs and so reclaiming his £1 side bet.

Top weight on the day smashing his previous best match weight out of site with a fine display was young Ian Ward with an excellent 272lbs. Well Done Mate.

2nd on the day was Keith Ashby with a fine 230¾lbs again caught on a top 3 down the edge with meat and GOT Paste for 2 double tons in a row, an awesome display over the weekend.
Third on the day was Kevin Arathoon with 228lbs for another pair of double tons.

In 4th was Malc with 224¼lbs for a new personal best match weight.
5th was Gaz Malman with 219¼lbs, while a 6th and Final Double ton was added by Gary Thorpe with 206½lbs off my peg from the previous day. (it must have been down to my feeding on the Saturday )

One of the happiest on the day however must have been Steve Wilson who finally managed a match ton with a dead level 100lbs. It even made him smile, Well Done Steve.

So Presentation Time, and with two pairs,Keith Ashby & Colin Sharrard and Kevin Arathoon & Clive Pritchard tied on 26 points apiece it was probably appropriate that it was finally decided on weight with the verdict going in Keith and Colin's favour by 706½lbs to 638lbs.

Congratulations to them both.
A Big vote of Thanks to Dave for getting the whole thing up and running, I'm pretty sure that it will be an annual fixture from now on, and another Big Thank You to Rolf, for allowing us to use what is a very special fishery for the weekend.
Finally Thanks to all that attended and made it one of the Best Maggotdrowning Weekends i can remember, We must do it again sometime, now form an.a orderly queue for the next one.

Here's the full results list starting with the Pairs:
Saturday

Total weight caught over the weekend was 6,134lb

You can find Rolf's version of events HERE

The Southern Intersite Match.

Well, Saturday morning 8am and we all started to assemble in the Cafe at Willow for the Intersite match. It promised to be a grueller as the temperature was already up to 18°C and would make it to 30°C before the day was out.
Last to arrive were Neo and Brian who had travelled up from Wales at less than 24hrs notice to fill in for people that had to drop out, and Milo who had got caught in a bit of traffic.

The team on the day was as follows with the respective lakes we were fishing on...

1. Vince - Big (Team Captain)
2. Peter - Big
3. Milo(Fred P.) - Big

4. Matt Nutt - Middle
5. Gary Thorpe - Middle
6. Blackhydro (Clive)- Middle
7. NoMoreLongWalks(Paul) - Middle
8. Slimcatcher(Nick B.) - Middle
9. Neo1(Nick W.) - Middle

10. Me (Simon) - Small
11. RonB - Small
12. Badatfishing (Darren) - Small
13. Brian Bevan - Small
14. Andy222 - Small
15. Polepot(Nick J.) - Small

How did my match go??????

This was my draw, Peg 77, looks lovely doesn't it?

Unfortunately it proved to be almost entirely devoid of fish, or at least those that were in any way inclined to feed in the heat of the day. 3 hours on the feeder produced not so much as a bite, and the pole line appeared devoid of life as well apart from a few small perch that fell to some worms that polepot had let me have.

A quick visit to vince mid match revealed that he was having an even worse time than me, with just a couple of knocks on the feeder that had come to nothing, although he did lose a beast of a carp right at the death as it dragged his rig through the roots of a nearby bush in the margins.

4pm and the all out revealed the full horror of the battering with Milo weighing 2ozs, Vince recording a DNW and I ended up with 4lbs 4ozs of small Perch, to all finish last in our respective sections.

Our stars on the day were NoMoreLongWalks(Paul), Gary Thorpe and Matt Nutt who each scored section 2nds

Overall the top 5 on the day was as follows.........

Teams.........

Making the running totals for this years series.......

....... with the Northern match still to come.

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Lake Match.

Another cracking day in good company saw 19 of us assembled in the car park at Rolf's to take part in Matt Nutt's 1st attempt at organising a match.
A lot of us were survivors from The Jinx Series with a couple of new faces from the site attending their 1st MD's event. Even Webbo had come down from Yorkshire to try some proper fishing .

I drew peg 26 and was joined on the car park bank by Paul, Nick (Slimcatcher) and Webbo to my right and Young Dave & Gemma, Royst and Malc to my left.

Paul, Nick(Slimcatcher) with Webbo behind a bush.

Royst(playing a fish) Malc & Jason(JKG)

Sport was never fast and furious (An understatement in Paul's case ) but we all watched a lesson in how it should be done as most of us watched Gary opposite on Peg14 show us how it should be done with a superb display of up in the water fishing,  and I think we realised that we needed snookers when he got a 3rd keepnet out   !!!

Perhaps it was just having Rolf sitting behind "coaching" him that gave him the edge though .

Spare a thought for Mark C as he was pegged between Gary & Pete Thompson who finished 1st & 2nd. Mark stuck at it though and did manage a few .

During the match I managed to smash a top kit trying to get a lump's head up before it buried itself in the bush to my right much to various peoples amusement , I did manage a few though, one of which Gemma captured on camera .

However a thought should be spared for Paul on the next peg to me, who despite trying everything in his bait bag could only manage a 5½lb Orfe as the carp in his peg went on strike, Having escaped being pegged next to his nemesis Dirk, thought he was safe, He should have known better , naturally we were full of sympathy for his plight  .

At the end of the match it was those with the experience of fishing the venue that took the spoils, proving that it's not the easy venue that some seem to think, but I think it's safe to say that everyone has plans to return at a later date to try to get to grips with the challenge that the venue presents .

Here's the results of the day............

NB: On Sunday 25th September, Gary Thorpe smashed the World 5hr match record with a weight of 490lb 8oz from peg 19.