The Southern Intersite Match.

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

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

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2008.

Having been fortunate enough to receive an invite to Dave Moore's Birthday Bash the previous day, I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning as I looked out of my bivvy on Saturday morning in preparation for the weekend ahead . However as I stuck the kettle on for an early morning cuppa I noticed Teepee sitting on the bench that looks out over the Little Lake. Strolling over for a chat with him it was soon obvious that all was not well, as his face was as white as a sheet. A quick chat revealed that Tony was in a fair bit of pain, and while he thought he ought to go to hospital, he was reluctant to go in case he got stuck down in Oxford. Luckily a few of the lads that had fished Dave's match had stopped overnight and they volunteered to take Tony home to Rotherham, so we bade him farewell before the weekend had had a chance to begin. ( Subsequently Tony had to undergo an operation to fix a hernia and he's thankfully fully recovered. See you soon Tony, you'll be due a result next year )

So with the Draw for The Pairs not due to take place till 11am to allow those traveling down from far away places ample time, a few that had fished the previous day made some running repairs to depleted rigs etc while others geared up in anticipation for battle with Rolf's "Babies" .
Webbo was manfully struggling trying to tie some hair rigged pellet bands and suddenly realised he could see once I'd popped a pair of reading glasses on his nose, should have gone to Spec-Savers fella !!!!!

By 10am the car park had filled up once more as the usual suspects and a couple of new ones assembled. The Malman brothers had arrived, announced by a blast on a airhorn and a few of us had made a beeline to Gaz's motor to stock up on floats while stocks lasted, Others were setting about getting their bivvies and tents pitched, while John and Pauline were doing a roaring trade in pellets and advise about what to expect in the couple of days ahead .

11am and Dave and I did the all important draw for The Pairs. With Teepee's unfortunate departure young Mitch who had traveled up to watch on Friday was the fortunate recipient of the spare place while Steve B was promoted to the Venue Expert/Experienced Matchman class , with the draw over there was quite a bit of discussion as to who would be the pairs to beat and favoured swims prior to the draw for the actual match. Noon and draw time, with us fishing the match from 1·30pm till 6·30pm in an effort to get the best from the venue, however with the temperature steadily rising I did have a few miss-givings .

Into the draw bag and 26 was mine (it had fished well for teepee the day before ), a nice short walk to the car park bank and it would be shaded as the match progressed, which was most welcome after my treks round the lake on Friday, and my partner Paul(tommyturtle)Thompson had drawn peg 40 which I felt would be good for a few fish . Simon had drawn peg 2 for the second day in a row and practically ran to his peg having 200lbs+ from it the day before . Tony(spamwham)Roberts had peg 9 which had fished really well on Friday and appeared to be one of the form pegs .

I had Alex and Ady(biglad) for company on pegs 25 & 24 so £1 side bets were struck for fun, along with one with Chin and another with Vince .

Settling into the swim I elected to keep it simple with a line at 5mtrs straight out in front and another to the edge of the bushes on both sides. I also set up my pellet waggler and feeder rod as I had both of them with me in their ready sleeves. Tommy came along for a chat along with a cold can for refreshment , and soon we were ready for the off.

1·30pm rolled round and with the All-in called we were off, 2 good handfuls of pellet onto the 5mtr line and 1 each to the edge of the bushes, Alex had opted to go shallow at 13mtrs and it would be interesting to see who's approach worked.
Well I wish I could say that the sport was fast and furious, but for the vast majority of us it was anything but, With temperatures pushing into the 30's and fish crashing around I got the distinct impression that the temperature increase had made the Carp think about spawning for a 2nd time . The big problem for most appeared to be foul hooked fish and it didn't seem to matter how you presented a bait, up in the water or hard on the deck, everyone seemed to be having problems. Also the ever present silvers didn't seem to want to play either. Alex was faced with a swim that resembled a jacuzzi and it seemed that every fish he hooked came adrift at some point . By halfway I'd managed 4 Carp when Webbo appeared for a chat as he was fishing my peg (19) from the previous day, Apparently Tony(spamwham) and Vince were doing OK on pegs 9 & 10 and Clive had got among a few on peg 31 but most were finding it hard. Fortunately I connected with another Carp on cue which gave Dave the opportunity to do the honours with my camera ..........

By 4pm we had some relief from the sun on the car park bank as it became shaded by the trees, and John was doing a roaring trade in cold bottles of water and cans of Coke that he'd thoughtfully laid on . I managed another 4 fish in the last couple of hours but others weren't so fortunate and it was probably a relief to most when the All-out was called at 6·30pm. The weigh-in told the tale of the day. Simon on peg2, was unable to repeat his feat of the day before, struggling to put just 52½lbs on the scales , Chris(cybermanc) had got off to a flyer fishing the feeder on peg 7 only to see it die and weighed 81¼lbs. Tony however had made the most of peg 9 with a fine 161¼lbs for the win on the day , Next up Vince on peg 10 put 96lbs 14ozs on the scales for 3rd on the day, just missing out on a 1st Rolf's Ton . My 9 fish came to 72lbs and at least gave me the consolation of a section win while Clive on peg 31 weighed 117¾lbs for 2nd overall and just the 2nd Ton recorded on the day .
So, at the end of day one Ant(antwood)Haywood and Tom(tommodiesel)Little were leading with 25 points from Dave(DTF)Collier and Vince on 23 points and Clive and Tim Westmoreland in third on 21½ points .

So with the gear stowed away it was time to fire up the barbecue and start the inquests. Dave and I shot off to Asda for some grub, but were dragged kicking and screaming into the pub by Dirk, Paul, Chris, Vince & Tom and forced to drink cold beer before returning . Sitting round with a beer later in the evening spirits soon started to rise in anticipation of the day ahead. Tales and jokes were told, beer cans exploded on barbecues and Dave came up with one of those ideas that only he can. Needless to say it scared the life out of John Bennett , but that's all that can be said for the time being . Gradually folk drifted off to bed, and it was gone 1am when I finally climbed into my sleeping bag for some much needed sleep .

Sunday, July 27, 2008.

7am Sunday morning and another bright sunny day greeted us as we rose from our slumbers, I boiled up the kettle for a cuppa while Gaz and Alex got the barbecue fired up to cook everyone breakfast . Time to get the bivvy packed away as it was planned to be a 10am draw with fishing from 11·30am - 4·30pm so that people could get away. After a couple of sausage rolls and a coffee I somehow managed to get the bivvy and all the kit packed away and into the car just as Keith(Fisherman's Blues)Arthur pulled into the car park closely followed by Pete Archer. For the 2nd year running they had both agreed to come down and fish with us on the Sunday(Pairing up with the lowest placed pair from Saturday) and Pete once again brought some goodies from his sponsors Vespe to give out .

All to soon 10am rolled round and it was draw time. Peg 32 for me.........

.......and another short walk to the car park bank peg that Malc fished yesterday. Clive drew well with Peg 8 but had Pete Archer for company on peg 7.

Paul my partner was on peg 23, a peg Colin struggled on yesterday. I'd got Chris(looney)Kendall for company on peg 31 with Terry(WilyCoyote)Goff opposite on 9 and Alex and Webbo on 10 & 11. A quick chat with John Bennett led to me choosing the end of the bush and out at 8mtrs as the 2 lines of attack for the day. It was double or quits for the £1's I won from Alex and Chin yesterday and the chance to get my £1 back from Vince that he took from me yesterday .

11·30am and at the All-in I fed a handful of pellet to the end of the bush and a big pot of pellet at 8mtrs. Straight over the potfull with an 8mm banded pellet and the float buried!!!! Happy Days NOT as a foul hooked Carp took off at a rate of knots towards the Little Lake before the hook pulled. So started one of the most frustrating 5 hours fishing I've experienced in all the time I've fished at Rolf's .
Pete Archer was off to a flyer , fishing shallow at 16mtrs he'd taken 3 weigher's in his first 3 put ins. Chris next to me was fishing long on the deck and soon had a swim that was bubbling away, but he started to suffer with foul hooked fish. Me? 3 more bites resulted in 3 more foul hookers and no fish in the net .
Terry was starting to find a few fish and seemed to be alternating between Carp and 2" Perch ...........

While Webbo appeared to be doing a serene impression of Bhudda  ..................

I finally managed a weigher to get me off and running, but I was already trying to play catch up. Dave"Yorkie"Moore was tucked away on peg 5 and starting to find a few close in at the bottom of the shelf ...................

opposite him though things appeared to be slow with Vince and Paul(nomorelongwalks)East struggling to get any action from their pegs .............

Halfway through and I was struggling with just 1 more weigher and another in the net while Chris was starting to put a run of fish together, Clive was getting into his stride on peg 8 as well and had probably edged ahead of Pete Archer .........

Looking around I could see that a lot were struggling like yesterday, Dave the Fish was sticking at it over on 14 with little to show for all of his efforts ........

but Webbo finally had a fish on only to have his landing net head fall off. Alex lent him his landing net, but then hooked a fish of his own while Webbo was still playing his, and Terry could't lend his to Alex as he was also into a fish of his own. Great entertainment for all of us watching and finally resolved with all fish landed safely .
Steve B over on peg34 in the corner was plugging away and finally getting a few .........

Keith Arthur had taken a Carp that would prove to be a contender for Largest of the Day at 17lbs 07ozs, while Dave(rockyroads)West had a happy smile on his face having bagged a PB carp of 17lbs 04ozs ....................

In the last couple of hours Chris(looney)Kendall was absolutely flying and well on the way to a Ton+ bag ...........

Chris(Cybermanc) and Tom(tommodiesel) had been having a rare old tussle during the match on pegs 29 & 30, and Chris was more than a little chuffed to get a new PB in the shape of this glorious 14lbs 4oz Common Carp  .........

My day was summed up with a half hour to go as what would have been my 7th Carp disappeared under my platform and smashed me . 4·30pm and the All-out signaled the end of my torture and at least I didn't have far to carry my gear to the car.

Once again the weigh-in told the tale of the day. Steve B missing out on a Ton by just 8ozs from peg 34. Dave Moore's 101½lbs giving him 4th on the day while Pete Archer's 116½lbs took 3rd place. Clive had come good, using his experience of Rolf's to muster 166¼ lbs for the match win  while Terry had managed a very creditable 90¾lbs. Chris had managed 148lbs for 2nd overall on the day, but for many the shock of the day had to be Malc's DNW .

So prize giving time and the Winners and MD's Pairs Champs for 2008 proved to be Ant(antwood)Haywood and Tom(tommodiesel)Little, finishing 10 points clear of the field with 49 points after a very consistent weekends fishing  .............

Thanks must go to John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their fishery for the weekend, a pleasure to visit as always .

To Webbo for making sure it all happened , Keith Arthur, Pete Archer and Vespe .

 Finally to all of the anglers that attended and helped to make it the event it is .
Let's do it all again next year .

  Dave"Yorkie"Moore's Birthday Bash.

Well 24 of us assembled at Rolf's Lake at Dave Moore's invitation to help him celebrate his 40th Birthday .
An early start so that I could drop Maria off at work meant that my favorite Café in Battersea hadn't opened by the time I got there , but rather than wait for it to open I pressed on reasoning that if I arrived early it would give me a chance to get my bivvy set up in preparation for the weekend, ahead of the draw for the morning match . A couple of burgers and a coffee on route sufficed and saw me arrive at Rolf's by 7·30 am. A good few of the lads from the North had traveled down the previous afternoon and were already buzzing with anticipation, as quite a few of them had never visited before.
So 1st things 1st, nets dipped and laid out to dry, then bivvy pitched and with Dai providing a welcoming cup of coffee I had time for a brief chat with John Bennett before the draw. John had been a busy chap since my last visit and it was good to see that he'd managed to finish the refurbishment of the hut..........

Pride of place however went to the Rolf's Memorial Bench paid for and provided by the members of the total-fishing.com forums, that John's sited looking out over the Little Lake, one of Rolf's favorite views. A great gesture from a really decent bunch of lads .

So with an 8am draw planned for the days 2 matches, the car park soon filled up, though as Dave had asked Malc to organise the draw it was bound to be late of course, even though he'd arrived the day before . Anyway by the time Malc had finished embarrassing  Simon and Gemma , the draw got underway, with everyone going round twice to draw for both matches. I ended up with peg 40 for the morning and 19 for the afternoon. Opposite ends of the lake !!!!!!!!! and definitely a barrow job.
For company on peg 2 I had Mr Maggotdrowning himself, Dave(Webbo)Webster.
It's quite rare for matches to start so early at Rolf's and the general feeling was that the morning could prove difficult, with hopefully better weights coming on the afternoon match. Arriving at the peg I found a Party Bag, thoughtfully provided at Dave's wife's insistence which straight away set the tone for the day ahead .

With the sun shining and a gentle breeze blowing into the peg I was quite hopeful of a few fish to kick the long weekend off and opted to keep things simple, just 2 pole rigs, the 1st to fish at depth at 6mtrs and a margin rig to fish the bush to my left, that would double up as an up in the water rig. I also set up the pellet waggler and my feeder rod as I had them both with me in their ready sleeves. A quick stroll before the off revealed Gemma on peg 7 with just a feeder rod set up, could another Minxing be in the offing ?..........

Clive was tucked round the corner on peg 9, a peg that in the past has been his Nemesis as he'd blanked on it the 3 times he'd previously draw there .

Looking across to the hut I could see the Birthday Boy  himself chilling out with his thoughts prior to the off................

So All-in and a big handful of pellets by the bush to my left (it wasn't hiding from me, unlike the last time Clive fished the peg ) and 2 similar ones at 6mtrs and straight over it, but no instant action. However Gemma was soon shouting signifying her 1st fish of the day (could this mean that another Minxing was on the cards ) and Paul Roberts was off to a quick start as well on peg 4.................

Dave was fishing long and shallow on peg 2 but having no joy, and I had just had a single steamer that resulted in a scale coming back on the hook .
Dave the Fish having had a quiet start, had come down to compare notes with Colin after about an hour and a half...........

and the word was that Clive was actually going well on peg 9 while most were struggling . Tony(Teepee) had drawn peg34 which is normally good for a few fish, but like most he was finding it hard going this morning.....

With nothing much happening for me on the Little Lake I decided to fill it in on the 6mtr line and have a stroll round while it settled.
Clive was indeed having a decent time on peg 9 and although he was having a lot of foul-hookers he was managing to get most of them out...............

Dave Lloyd had managed a couple from peg 19, my peg for the afternoon, so I made a mental note of where he was feeding and filed it away for later use . Next door on peg 20 I found Eric(ejayar) having his 1st visit to Rolf's for a while as he hasn't fished The Jinx Series this year, and it wasn't going well for him (maybe it had something to do with his taste in football shirts ).................

Meanwhile Dai on peg 22 was having a grueller too and was beginning to wonder whether he was going to get as much as a bite, let alone a fish as it was proving to be a real struggle ............

While Steve Wilson had managed a decent Carp that weighed in at 16lbs 4ozs putting him in pole for the mornings largest Carp ..........

Malc was winkling a couple out on peg 28, but Simon was obviously worried that he was on for a Minxing and had decided to distract Gemma .........

Returning to my swim I could see that Dave was still sticking at it on peg 2, still without any reward though ...............

 

Settling down I shipped back out to 6mtrs where there was now a healthy patch of bubbles, and I was soon rewarded with a weigher to get me off the mark at last , which was swiftly followed by a net fish. Cyber and Tommo arrived at this point and must have thought that it was o so easy, and although it wasn't, I managed a fish about every 20 minutes till the end .
So with the All-out called I got busy and quickly shifted my kit the length of the fishery up to peg 19 prior to the weigh in. Come the weigh-in and my 7 fish scaled 60lbs and proved to be enough for a section win . Gemma despite having got off to a flyer had only managed 46lbs for 2nd in section, losing her £1 to me as I avoided a Minxing .
Clive had managed the only Ton of the match with his 139¼lbs giving him the match win and firmly burying his peg 9 hoodoo . On the next peg Mick King had taken 62lbs for 3rd overall, while up on peg 16, 3 late Carp had allowed Simon to take 2nd place with 75½lbs. Dave Lloyd on peg 19 had managed a section winning 35lbs, while Dai had managed to snare a solitary Skimmer and took the prize for largest Silver and on peg 28 Malc had managed to win the final section with 55½lbs .

So time for a quick drink and a sandwich and it was onto the 2nd match of the day. Starting at 4pm, it had started to cloud over and I had Clive for company on peg 20, a peg he'd been eager to fish as it's one of the few he'd never fished before . I was pretty relaxed having decided to concentrate on the bar at around 7mtrs that Dave Lloyd had fed in the morning match.

So All-in and out to the bar with some pellets followed by the rig and within 5 minutes I had my first Carp of the session in the net . Clive was fishing at a similar distance and had plenty of fish fizzing in his swim but was having trouble getting bites while I was nicking a fish around every 15 minutes, Then when he did get one it wasn't staying on the hook .
All through the afternoon more of the lads that were fishing the MD's weekend turned up and as they strolled round watching word came back that Simon was really bagging up on peg 2 and Paul was going well from Clive's morning peg . Malc of course had one of his moments leaping in at one point to retrieve his landing net head complete with Carp that came off as he tried to land it !!!!!!!!!
Clive and I both had loads of trouble with foul hookers during the match , with both of us playing the same fish on more than one occasion as they ploughed through our swims, needless to say Clive pulled out of all of them . I had one snag me by the boat that's moored in the swim, and with a few of the lads watching I climbed into it to try and retrieve the rig. Of course the mooring rope came free much to the watching lads amusement and while I managed to get the rig back the assembled company had a right good laugh at my expense .
That was the highlight I suppose, and I just fished steadily after that taking a dozen fish by the time the All-out was called at 8pm. The Lake had certainly fished better than the morning, with Simon taking the win with an excellent 204½lbs (his best ever match weight), which is some going in 4 hours . Paul Roberts with 159¼lbs and Steve Wilson with 151½lbs taking 2nd and 3rd . Dave(Webbo) managed his 1st ever Ton in a match with 132½lbs , as did young Mitch...........

............ who had fished the afternoon match in place of Dai putting 122½lbs on the scales from peg34 to win his section , while Malc and Tony(teepee) took the other sections with bags of 146¼lbs & 137½lbs respectively . My weight of 117lbs was the final Ton of the match. Mick King just missing out on a Ton by 4ozs but was probably most relieved that his £3000 worth of Airity pole had survived the day in one piece (mind you he fished the feeder down the edge for most of the 2nd match, playing safe) .

So with the fishing out of the way for the day the pools were distributed amongst the winners as some of Big Dave's lads were returning North that night. Then the barbecue got fired up and the beers cracked open as everyone relaxed and discussed the days events and looked forward to the weekend ahead .
Of course someone had to provide the amusement as the day drew to a close, and on this occasion it was Malc who decided to remove all the tent pegs from the tent that Simon and Gemma had retired to for the evening. It's amazing how quickly an erection can collapse, at least I think that's what Malc said before we headed to our bivvies in anticipation of the matches that lay ahead, but that's for another report .

		Morning Match
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	9	Clive Pritchard	139lbs 04ozs
2nd	16	Simon Mound	75lbs 08ozs
3rd	10	Mick King	62lbs 00ozs
4th	40	Peter Morton	60lbs 00ozs
5th	28	Malc Doyle	55lbs 08ozs
6th	7	Gemma Doyle	46lbs 00ozs
7th	26	Steve Wilson	35lbs 04ozs
8th	19	Dave Lloyd	35lbs 00ozs
9th	30	Terry Oaks	29lbs 08ozs
10th	4	Paul Roberts	24lbs 12ozs
11th	5	Keith Fisher	18lbs 12ozs
12th	34	Tony Prentice	18lbs 00ozs
13th	20	Eric Robothan	16lbs 00ozs
14th	38	Ken Leedham	13lbs 12ozs
15th	2	Dave Webster	13lbs 08ozs
16th=	14	Phil Shackleton	13lbs 00ozs
16th=	24	Dave Collier	13lbs 00ozs
18th	36	Colin Sharrard	12lbs 04ozs
19th	11	Geoff Eggison	9lbs 08ozs
20th	8	Jim Leedham	8lbs 00ozs
21st	23	Robin Clarkson	5lbs 00ozs
22nd	32	Dave Moore	4lbs 04ozs
23rd	22	Dai Thomas	1lb  04ozs
24th	18	Nick Williams	1lb 3½ozs
25th	13	Tim Westmoreland	DNW

		Evening Match
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	2	Simon Mound	204lbs 08ozs
2nd	9	Paul Roberts	159lbs 04ozs
3rd	4	Steve Wilson	151lbs 08ozs
4th	16	Malc Doyle	146lbs 04ozs
5th	26	Tony Prentice	137lbs 08ozs
6th	11	Dave Webster	132lbs 08ozs
7th	34	Mitch Auger	122lbs 08ozs
8th	18	Colin Sharrard	121lbs 12ozs
9th	19	Peter Morton	117lbs 00ozs
10th	28	Mick King	99lbs 12ozs
11th	7	Terry Oaks	84lbs 08ozs
12th	36	Phil Shackleton	79lbs 12ozs
13th	24	Eric Robothan	72lbs 12ozs
14th	22	Dave Lloyd	70lbs 08ozs
15th	40	Dave Moore	70lbs 00ozs
16th	5	Geoff Eggison	68lbs 12ozs
17th	13	Nick Williams	67lbs 00ozs
18th	32	Dave Collier	64lbs 08ozs
19th	14	Keith Fisher	54lbs 08ozs
20th	20	Clive Pritchard	53lbs 00ozs
21st	30	Ken Leedham	38lbs 08ozs
22nd	10	Gemma Doyle	34lbs 00ozs
23rd	38	Jim Leedham	24lbs 00ozs
24th	23	Robin Clarkson	21lbs 04ozs
25th	8	Tim Westmoreland	15lbs 04ozs

 

Marsh AC club match.

Today is a Marsh AC club match at Churchgate lakes in Essex and I'd arranged to meet Dave at his house and follow him down to the venue. Dave's wife Gladys is fishing today, It's rare that she fishes club matches, the only one she'd fished previously was at Churchgate last year when she beat Dave much to a lot of peoples amusement, so there's no pressure today .

I managed to persuade Dave to stop at in Erith so that I could grab a couple of McMuffins for breakfast as the venue's Café won't be open today , and a smooth trip down in convoy with Dave and Colin saw us arrive just after 8am to find the majority of the 20 members due to be fishing today waiting in the car park for us. While Dave sorted things out Tony Roberts and I went round the lake sorting the pegs for the draw. Back to the car park for the draw and I find peg 8 is mine for the day, just one away from the peg I had last year.

Looks nice doesn't it ? The problem was the wind which was gusting strongly all over the place, but mainly from right to left as I looked. Plenty of clouds were scudding around as well and some of them were an ominous dark grey promising rain. I elected to go with the pole at no more than 10mtrs where I knew I would find about 7 feet of water, the rushes growing as far out into the water as they were made it difficult to set up a margin line, but I wasn't to bothered as previous experience told me that it normally only produced tiny Pumpkinseeds and razorblade Skimmers & Roach. I also set up the feeder to target the corner of the island on my right. Baitwise I'd brought a fair selection with me, maggots, sweetcorn and pellets along with some groundbait as there's supposed to be a fair head of Bream in the lake.

10am and the all-in and I cupped 6 big balls of groundbait laced with corn, pellet and maggot onto the 10mtr line and went out on the maggot feeder to let it settle. 20 minutes on the feeder yielded just a solitary 2oz Skimmer however. Onto the pole with a 6mm expander on the hook and an instant bite saw a 6oz Skimmer joining it's friend in the net. Then it went very dark and within seconds the heavens opened. Leaping up and struggling into my waterproofs I returned to find a couple of pints of maggots trying to re-enact "The Great Escape" before I managed to get a lid on the baitbox, while I tucked my phone, cigarettes etc away into dry pockets. Within 5 minutes it has eased and it stopped completely after another 10 as bright sunshine burst through.

Luckily I managed to riddle the maggots off and transfer them into some dry groundbait and dry off the sidetray and get back to things pretty quickly, but just another couple of Skimmers put in an appearance in the next half hour, but I still couldn't buy a bite on the feeder .

All round the lake people appeared to be struggling and that was confirmed when Tony(spamwham)Roberts came walking round as Tony is one of those anglers that never normally goes walkabout. However Martin Hucker to my left on peg 6 had got off to a flyer ...........

..... with a couple of decent Carp and 3-4 Bream in the net by halfway, all taken on the maggot feeder.

I heavily refed the pole line and went for a stroll myself to see who was catching what and noticed Kevin(The Catch) Loveland on peg 10 sliding the net under a small Carp that he'd tempted on the feeder out by the island......

Judy, tucked away down in the corner on peg 14 had suffered the misfortune of losing a couple of decent Carp in the 1st 10 minutes and was doing her best to winkle out a few, while Paul(nomorelongwalks) could be found staring at a stationary quivertip and hadn't had a single bite  despite some encouragement from Alan who was having a wander as it wasn't happening for him either..... 

While Dave was quietly starting to put a few together and Gladys was happily catching whatever was lurking down the margins on a top3.........

Continuing round, nobody else seemed to be doing much, Colin on peg 2 had nicked a couple on the feeder out by the island but was finding it hard going........ 

though John Holdsworth on peg 5 next to Martin was admitting to a decent Carp and Bream in the net .

Back at my peg a look on the pole line produced just another solitary Skimmer despite ringing the changes on hookbait, so I refed with a couple of pots of pellet and went back out on the maggot feeder. Casting to the same spot wasn't easy with the wind gusting all over the place, but after 15 minutes the tip wrapped round and after a couple of minutes a nice F1 of about 2lbs was in the net . In the next hour and a half I added 4 more but felt I was having to wait to long between bites so with about an hour to go went back out onto the pole line once more. Almost straight away the float buried, but this wasn't a Skimmer as yards of Black Hydro streamed from the pole . To be honest it felt more like a submarine and was obviously one of the large Carp present in the lake. On last years match I'd been fortunate enough to get one at the death that had won me the match, could lightning have struck twice? Well after 10 minutes and despite various encouraging??? shouts from around the lake, I still hadn't seen the fish and the feel of it told me that it was foulhooked  I'd applied as much pressure as I dared, I could even hear the Hydro humming through the pole in the wind and with my arms aching I sat down, lit a cigarette and smoked it while the fish just plodded around. Once more i piled on as much pressure as i dare even getting on my box in an effort to get it up in the water. It finally surfaced about 15 yards out, a Big Common Carp just before the hookhold gave way . This was followed by some language that's probably better not commited to print     . Needless to say several expressions of sympathy passed around the lake about my loss.....yer right .

For the rest of the match I stuck it out on the pole line hoping against hope that another might turn up, but only a few small Skimmers had obliged by the time Dave blew the whistle at 4pm for the all-out.

So on with the weigh-in, and we were treated to Bob Hucker looking well pleased to have caught a PB Carp of 10½lbs to make his day......

Kevin had managed 8 small Carp which took the scales round to 21½lbs for 3rd on the day, and with Dave's level 19lbs having beaten Gladys's 16lbs 2ozs I'd like to say that Dave was most understanding when my 15lbs 10ozs came up ounces short of what was needed to beat Gladys on the day . Of course it wasn't going to happen though, as Dave had taken more than enough stick from me over being beaten by his good lady last year, so I'm sure he'll enjoy getting his own back by publishing the result on the various internet forums we both use .

Winner on the day was Martin with 35½lbs, his 1st ever match win in 5 years of trying. Well done Fella  and here he is with the larger of his 2 Carp on the day......

Second place went to John Holdsworth with 31¼lbs which included a PB Carp of 13½lb and a PB Bream of 5lbs ......

So that's it for another Marsh AC match. Next stop for me is 3 days at Rolf's Lake at Holton in Oxfordshire from next Friday. The reports from that will appear in due course on my return.

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2008.

Sunshine and a bit of a breeze greeted me today as I loaded up the car for the trip down To Hartleylands Farm for the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Individual Championship match.
First port of call was the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast with a few of the lads that were fishing the match. The best part of the Maggotdrowning matches are that they're not taken to seriously and there's always some decent banter amongst the lads irrespective of whether the fishing proves to be good or not. So having fueled the inner man we made out way down to the fishery for the match .

Into the car park where 19 anglers assembled for the draw. The match this year had been organised by Nick Gilbert, and as usual with Nick's matches Matt Love gave him a hand conducting the draw. So money paid and into the bag and I find I've drawn peg 1, a decent peg normally and one that I had won the corresponding match from back in 2004 . However today I'd fancied a draw in the early teens as with the wind blowing into them I thought that's where the fish would be. Never mind though, at least it was a short walk from the car so no barrow needed.

Settling into the peg I noticed that the fishery staff had pruned the willow quite heavily making it easier to feed and fish under it, but would it produce without the wind blowing into it? I set up the pellet wag and feeder + 3 top kits for the pole. 1 for the margins. 1 for 5mtrs where I had 5ft of water and another for 7mtrs where I had 8ft of water, Bait for the day was pellet, both hard and expander, paste and sweetcorn and the feed was 4 & 6mm pellet and hemp.

11am and the all-in and I fed pellet and hemp into both margins and pellet onto the 5mtr line and followed it with the rig baited with pellet. Matt Love on peg 10 was into a Carp straight away on the waggler swiftly followed by another, as was Dean Lockwood to my left on peg 2 as he had an early look on his margin swim.........

Nick Gilbert had been into fish almost straight away, but had trouble landing them losing the first 4 Carp that he hooked. Me? I couldn't even buy a bite. 2½hrs in and I still didn't have a fish in the net, just a large scale on my sidetray where I'd lost a foul-hooker .

Trevor on peg 7 having heard of the Reservoir's large head of silvers had decided to target them as it's the sort of fishing he enjoys , however they didn't seem to want to play today............

Terry up on peg 13 however had had a fowl (alright a duck actually ) but had safely managed to catch and release it.

Finally I managed a fish, only a small Skimmer from my 7mtr line, but at least I would avoid a dreaded DNW , and more importantly kept me in with a chance of not having to part with £1 to Vince, who seemed to be struggling almost as badly as me though he had owned up to a couple of Skimmers earlier.

Looking straight across I could see Bill on peg 15..........

.......... he was having one of those days we all dream of , with the fish lined up at 4 mtrs and apparently ravenous for his paste bait, resulting in a bite every put in, and he was obviously going to take all the stopping.

Indeed poor Tony Roberts next to him on peg 16 was finding it hard to concentrate on his own fishing and seemed to have resigned himself to a next peg battering of epic proportions.........

......... steadily putting fish in the net, a good performance considering that he'd come straight from work the previous night.

For the rest of the match I struggled on, managing 6 Carp and a few more Skimmers, all from my 7mtr line which was the only place I could get a bite, and to be honest I was glad to hear the whistle blow at 4pm signal the all-out and put an end to my struggles .

So to the weigh-in and Paul soon took the lead putting 91lbs 7ozs onto the scales, but this was soon eclipsed when Bill put a match winning 156lbs on the scales which was also a new PB match weight. Well Done Bill .
Round to peg 10 and Matt Love put 105lbs 11ozs on the scales to seal 2nd place on the day .
My meager total scaled 23lbs, but was enough to take Vince's £1 coin , though Vince had been close till he lost an estimated 15lb'er near the end, unlucky Vince .

So that was it for the day. Congratulations to Bill G, The Maggotdrowning Southern Individual Champion 2008 .
Thanks to Nick for organising the day, and to all the anglers that attended. We'll have to do it all again next year .

 The JINX Series 2008

Match 3.

Back down to Rolf's Lake today for the 3rd match of THE JINX SERIES, and after my second place and a new PB match weight on my last visit to Rolf's 2 weeks ago on a TalkAngling forum match I was really looking forward to this one .
Loading up the car it was quite sunny, but a stiff breeze was blowing plenty of cloud about and the forecast wasn't the best and when I reached the M40 after my customary Brekkie stop the heavens opened . Thankfully it had stopped by the time I reached the services at junction 8 and as I was running early I stopped off for a coffee where I found Kevin and Jean having breakfast.
We soon arrived at the lake and John was just opening the gate so we were soon parked up and got our nets dipped in readiness for the day ahead.

Soon the usual suspects started to turn up. John (Hatchye) stoically taking plenty of stick that he knew was coming his way over his lost (not) car keys on the previous match . Dave(The Fish) was on tenterhooks as his daughter was expecting his 1st grandchildren (twins) and Mark C was missing as his 1st grandchild had arrived early that morning . However it also appeared that Simon And Gem were loved up again and all touchy feely, with Malc threatening to pour a bucket of water over the pair of them .

The previous night Simon and I had discussed where we fancied drawing and I said that as I'd never drawn between pegs 2-8 I'd love one of them, so into the draw and out popped peg 7 for me . A quick chat with John who said it was an out and out feeder peg at the moment put me right. So gear loaded onto the barrow and round to the peg.

For company I had Colin on peg 8 and Slim on Peg 6 . John had told me that it was possible to catch short on the pole if the feeder didn't produce, but I decided to be single minded and just set the feeder up. The rod I use is a Shakespeare Mach3 11ft medium feeder that I've paired with a Shimano Stradic and although a couple of people have remarked that they feel it's not up to the job I find it spot on. It's got a lovely through action which coupled to the clutch on the Stradic I finds eliminates the risk of hook pulls at the net .
Bait for the session was simply dampened 6mm fishery pellets with a good helping of hemp added to put through the feeder and 8mm fishery pellet and punched meat for the hook.

Of course having just the one rod to set up, and that was in a ready sleeve, I had a fair bit of time on my hands to take a few of the photos that I use to illustrate these reports on my blog, but while i was looking for subjects Clive caught me with his camera .................

1pm and the all-in, out with the feeder and the tip pulled round as I tightened up and the resulting Carp was safely in the net before Slim had even cupped his first pot of feed onto his pole line .
Kevin was soon off the mark with a 14lb weigher from peg 34, followed by Colin who also snared an early one on the feeder .

A couple of hours in and Kev's match took a turn for the worse when The Jinx struck as a Carp ripped his rod off of the rest and dragged it out to the pads before he could retrieve it . However Malc was on hand and was soon stripped and in.........

but although he found a few mangled top kits amongst the pads there was no sign of Kevin's rod . I'd had a steady start, though I did experience a lull for around half an hour after Malc's bath, while a concerned Slim finally managed his 1st fish, a Skimmer and that was soon followed by a cracking Perch .........

Colin had a lovely Chub on the feeder that was a new PB for him at 5lbs 8ozs ..........

From my peg I could see up the car park bank on the big lake and there seemed to be a few fish being landed, especially by Tony who seemed to have a fair bit of elastic out at frequent intervals .

As the match wore on I just managed to keep up a steady catch rate and the little lake seemed to wake up for a few of the lads. Dave had a few from down the edge of his peg as did Simon.........

Slim finally managed to get amongst a few, but it was to little to late to enable him to notch up a third double ton in a row..........

Meanwhile Colin decided that as he couldn't match my catch rate on the feeder he would have a look on the pole down by the bush to his left, and although it produced a few fish for him, he had a pretty frustrating time as he lost a fair few as well .

 One of the funniest tales of the day went to Clive on peg 40.........

.......who having fed to the bush on his left at peg 40 during the match, finally went to fish to it, only to find that it had vanished !!!!!!!! The wind being so strong that It had blown it back onto the bank .

With around an hour to go I had 4 weighers on the board and around 10 fish in each of my two nets, so put a third net in, just to avoid crowding the fish that were already in the nets, and by the time the all-out came at 6pm I'd added another five in that net and a weigher to the board . I was pretty confident that I'd beaten everyone that I could see, but felt that Tony could be in contention as I'd seen him catching well up on the car park bank during the match.

So off with the scales, and Clive put the 1st ton on the scales and left him wondering what he could have had if his bush hadn't hidden during the match . With nobody overtaking Clive the scales reached my peg, I nervously watched as the scales gave me a total of 186lbs, and another new PB match weight . Colin also managed to top the ton and we moved on to Nick W-P. Now Nick is a confirmed pleasure angler who only fishes the Jinx matches, and we've all been encouraging him to try and break the ton. Unfortunately he hadn't managed it this time, but his weight of 64lbs 14ozs was a new PB match weight for him so he's getting there . Malc had managed yet another Jinx Ton and we finally came to the car park bank. Gem on 22 had one of her quieter days (Other things on her mind ) and a £1 coin came my way, though she still managed to hand out 7 Minxings. Dai on 23 looked shattered and 129¼lbs was the reason why, his PB match weight and 1st Jinx Ton. Next up Steve finally after 7 years of trying registered 128½lbs for his 1st Jinx Ton. Roy, who seems to have a season ticket for the car park bank weighed 126lbs. Then we came to Tony who with 70lbs+ in weighers on the board was going to run me close. Luckily for me he came up a little short, having to settle for 170lbs, still a great days fishing though. A final mention for young Mitch who was last to weigh-in. It's his 1st season fishing The Jinx Series and he dearly wants a Ton, and has improved his weights on all 3 matches, today it was not to be, but I'm sure he'll get there if he just sticks at it .  

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 7	Peter Morton	186lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 30	Tony Roberts	170lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 23	Dai Thomas	129lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 24	Steve Wilson	128lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 28	Roy Ravenhill	126lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 16	Malc Doyle	107lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 40	Clive Pritchard	106lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 8	Colin Sharrard	102lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 38	Dave Collier	87lbs 04ozs
10th	Peg 6	Ade Williams	85lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 36	Simon Mound	84lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 32	Mitch Auger	83lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 2	Ant Haywood	69lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 22	Gemma Doyle	67lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 9	Nick Watkins-Price	64lbs 14ozs
16th	Peg 14	Nick Williams	55lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 18	Jon Hatch	50lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 26	Paul Roberts	49lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 4	Keith Fellows	47lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 13	Dave Moore	35lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 34	Kevin Loveland	14lbs 00ozs

So that's it but I'll be back at Rolf's on Friday 25th July for 3 days. The Friday is Dave Moore's 40th Birthday Bash and the Saturday and Sunday is the Maggotdrowning Pairs Championship which I won last year with Tony Roberts. It promises to be great fun and of course a report will be forth coming, but before that there's the MD's Southern Championship at Hartleylands and a Marsh AC match at Churchgate Lakes. I'll keep you posted .
 

 

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

I was lucky enough to get my name down for this match when it was posted on the TalkAngling forum back in January by Ian Hornby as i really enjoy visiting Rolf's whenever I get the chance.

Pulling back the curtains a grey day with rain greeted me, and to think that today was the longest day !!!!!! Anyway car loaded in good time along with the waterproofs and off. With my usual stop in Battersea for a spot of brekkie I made good time with a trouble free trip down, pulling into the car park at around 8·30am. There were a few of the usual faces from the lads that fish The Jinx Series there, though Malc who should have been fishing was a noteable absentee due to the fact that yet again his car had expired on the roadside the previous day , but it was good to catch up with the TalkAngling lads, some of whom I'd met previously and some who were new faces. It was also good to see that not only was the lake back down to something like it's usual level with all the platforms above water, but the colour had returned to somethind approaching its normal hue after the flooding of a couple of weeks ago.

9am and draw time. Into the bag and peg 24 appeared in my hand !!! A bonus for me as it's on the car park bank, somewhere I rarely get a sniff of and it has a bit of form. No barrow today, just a nice short walk. With a grey cloudy sky and rain still falling it looked like it would be a bit of a grueller, especially as we were fishing from 11am - 4pm which is earlier than most of the summer matches at Rolf's that are normally fished from 2pm - 7pm as the Carp don't seem to get their heads down till around 3pm.

Maggotdrowning.com

Individual Championship 2008.

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Well an early start saw me have a trouble free 120 mile run up the M40 and beyond to Packington Somers Fishery arriving around 8am in plenty of time to dip my nets and grab a cuppa and a sausage sarnie, Soon the car park started to fill but a phonecall from Keith to let me know that his car had expired on the M6 put a bit of a downer on things.(Hope it's fixed soon mate )
Linda, Bucko's wife was soon into full raffle ticket selling mode parting us from our pennies, and i have to admit to a bit of a shock when I looked round to see Mark Downes (The England Manager) and Ken Giles unloading their kit !!!!!!!!!! but they were there for another match.

9am and Vince got the draw underway for the 41 of us in attendance with his usual efficiency. Into the draw bag and 48 stuck to my fingers. Into the car and round I drove to find my peg. On arrival I found that I had Nick (Monkey) and Bucko for company on the day.

I have to say that the peg looked 1st rate A solid concrete slab to fish from with a raft of lilies in the margin to my left, a large bush overhanging the right and a comfortable chuck of around 25yds to the island. The only thing was that I didn't see a single sign of fish moving.
I just set up a couple of rigs for the pole, one for the 6ft of water that I had at 11mtrs and another for the margins that would double up as a shallow rig. I also got the feeder out of its ready bag, but did change the hooklength from the one that had been previously employed at Rolf's.
Bait would be a selection of dendra's, casters, corn and pellet with the groundbait being Special'G' with a selection of hook baits added.

With a bit of time to spare I had a stroll over to the pegs behind me to have a chat with Colin and Lee Richards (missabite) from where I could also see Vince setting up on his peg which he had got me to draw for him, and I have to say that it looked like i'd done him proud.

Just before the all in Vince popped over for a quick chat and blew the whistle for the off before returning to his peg.

I flicked a pinch of caster and pellet into my 2 margin lines and cupped 3 balls of groundbait onto the 11mtr line before picking up my margin rig and dropping it in next to the lilies with 2 casters on the hook. Almost instantly the float slid away and a small Tench of around 8ozs was soon into the net. Next put in resulted in a hand sized Skimmer. 2 fish in 2 put ins, unfortunately it all went pear shaped after that. The margin line appeared to contain nothing more than 1" long Perch that seemed to be having their own competition to see who could swallow a bait the deepest.

Moving out to the 11mtr line to get away from the suicidal little buggers succeeded, but unfortunately the line seemed utterly devoid of any fish whatsoever. I tried under the bush to my right but apart from a couple of 2oz Roach that was it, while another look to the lilies showed the Perch were still in residence.

Looking across it didn't appear that anyone else was setting the place alight, so the feeder was put into action baited with half a Dendra. After about 30 minutes of inactivity Paul (nomorelongwalks) phoned for an update just as I had a 2" pull and connected with a Skimmer of around 1lb, but my report to him was hardly upbeat . I was having to wait far to long between bites to do any damage. Vince phoned but hung up abruptly, phoning me back to let me know that he'd just lost a decent Carp at the net, but had followed up by netting a decent Tench and Bream .
I sat it out adding the occasional small Skimmer and losing the one decent Tench, a fish of around 4lbs that I hooked when it spat the hook about a foot from the net .

Thankfully 4pm signaled the All-out to put an end to my torture, and at this point I have to say thanks to John Burchell's team on the scales, because I can't remember seeing a weigh-in conducted with such speed and efficiency for a long time, not that my 5lb 9ozs of bits taxed the scalesmen too severely .

So Back to the clubhouse where £1 coins were handed over to Besty, Dave and Dirk though somehow I'd not had a £1 with Vince today , and a buffet was laid on prior to the prize giving and the raffle.

So to the winners the spoils (apologies for the picture quality, must have set the camera wrong )

1st place..... Lee Richards taking the Trophy and a new Matchbox S series seatbox system supplied by Jim Burton of Matchbox.


2nd place..... Matt Nutt and a Matchbox seatbox.


3rd place..... Mike Globe and a Matchbox seatbox.

The Section winners all received Shimano reels supplied by John at The Matchmen, Nottingham.

The raffle was very well supported raising £224 which will be split between the Kent Air Ambulance and Great Ormond Street Hospital, and almost everyone appeared to take home a prize of some sort. .

In closing I'd just like to say Very Well Done to Vince and his team of helpers for his usual Superb Organisation.
A Big Thank You to Besty for all his efforts in sourcing the prizes that were generously donated by Jim Burton and all at Matchbox Tackle and by John at The MatchMen in Nottingham.
Thanks to Jon Burrell and his Team for the use of their fishery .

The JINX Series 2008

Match 2.

Sunshine greeted me as I loaded the car up for the trip to Rolf's for the second match in the JINX SERIES. With plenty of time I was able to make my usual stop for Breakfast in Battersea.
While I was there I phoned Malc to find out the state of the fishery as I knew he'd been there since the previous day with Dai, Mitch & Gemma helping John after the flash floods that had hit the area on Wednesday. Telling me that the lake was high but fishable, he then passed on some information that Nick Williams was threatening to fish in his underpants if the lake was too flooded, suffice to say that it nearly put me off my breakfast . However wiping the image from my mind that Malc had described I managed to polish off breakfast and carry on.

Pulling into the fishery car park at around 10·30am people were already arriving for the 11am draw. A chat with John revealed that at it's height the lake had been within 2 inches of overflowing into the car park. With 2 pumps running the effort that John & Pauline had put in along with his helpers had once again got it to a fishable state even if it was still at least 3 feet above normal.

Mind you just how the lake would fish on the day was open to debate though John felt that the huge influx of water into the lake and the fact that some of the fish were still spawning would lead to a hard match.

Inevitably the draw was delayed as Malc sorted out which pegs were fishable, but it wouldn't be a JINX match if it ran smoothly would it !!!!!!!!!

Into the draw-bag and peg 14 stuck to my hand, quite a shock as I always seem to draw on the little lake. Loading up my barrow I set off round the lake and seeing everyone setting up so far up the bank was a bit strange.............

Anyway after lugging all my gear round I found that I had got Mitch to my right on 13 and Neo to my left on 15.....

.....along with Clive on 16 for company today. A quick chat with Clive who spends a fair bit of time at Rolf's reveals I'd got the end of the bar at around 20yds straight out, so I set up the pellet wag and feeder and plumb up a pole line at around 6mtrs where I could feed by hand to fish pellet and paste, though I also had sweetcorn and meat as change baits. Feed was the fisheries 6mm pellets and hemp.

So 1·30 and the all in, 2 big handfuls of pellet and hemp onto the 6mtr line and a pouch of pellet out to the bar followed by the pellet wag, and straight away it buries, softly softly into the net, a nice Common Carp around 6lbs , another pouch of a dozen pellets, into the keepnet with the fish, another dozen pellets followed by the wag which buries again and another Common joins its pal in the net . Well it slowed a bit after that, it seemed that there were a ton of silvers pecking at the pellet and I did connect with a couple of Skimmers, I tried upping the feed but that just turned it into a jacuzzi . I kept altering the depth and managed another 3 Carp, but in all honesty I wasted far to much time trying to make it work . With the swim still fizzing I went out with the feeder onto the bar, but had only had a couple of half hearted taps after about 20 minutes when the rod was ripped off the rest!!!!! This was a big old lump and it just plodded around stubbornly refusing to get its head up. Slowly I gained ground on it and it finally popped to the top, a bleedin great Common, it was certainly the largest fish I've ever hooked at Rolf's, but just as I reached for the net it rolled on the line which parted like cotton.

Now at that point I should have changed my approach as the lads on the car park bank had all started to catch, but I re-tackled and went back out on the feeder and wasted another 40 biteless minutes .

Out onto the 6mtr line that I'd been feeding regularly and 1st put in the float buried resulting in Carp number 6 in the net, then a couple of foul hookers that I parted company with followed.

Roy over on peg 28 was starting to motor taking decent fish regularly...........


Paul on 24 also seemed to be over his Rolf's block, and having got his Ton in the previous match was motoring on towards another ............


While Dave Collier on peg 30 was also romping along after a slow start to the match ..........


I'd blown it after letting my frustration get the better of me and chopping and changing rather than sticking at one approach. With an hour to go I picked up the shallow rig with a banded pellet, shipped out to 13mtrs and just kept firing hemp & pellet at it and had my best hour of the match with another 7 Carp including a weigher that I mugged as the all out was called  ..........

It was to little to late though as I knew in my heart of hearts that I didn't have enough in the net to compete on the day.
The scales told the tale of the day however with their slow progress round the lake. Kevin Loveland had drawn the same peg as his previous match where he'd had a mare, however today he'd managed 136½lbs, to record his 1st ever match TON . Paul had broken the 150lb barrier and Roy put 177lbs on the scales which would only be good enough for 3rd on the day !!!!!!

Meanwhile down on peg 40 Ade Williams (Slim Shady) following up from his DOUBLE TON on the 1st match had managed a 2nd successive DOUBLE TON.........

 but had still been beaten by Simon, fishing his 1st JINX match of the year he had a battle with Ade throughout the whole match............

.......Finally coming out on top with an excellent 221¾lb, a great performance on the day .

My weight? 92½lb only good enough for 15th on the day, though I did have one small consolation in that at least I managed to get my £1 back from Gemma and avoid a Minxing. .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 2	Simon Mound	221lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 40	Ade Williams	206lbs 04ozs
3rd	Peg 28	Roy Ravenhill	177lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 32	Malc Doyle	154lbs 12ozs
5th	Peg 24	Paul Roberts	150lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 22	Kevin Loveland	136lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 30	Dave Collier	128lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 35	Mark Causer	126lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 34	Keith Fellows	122lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 16	Clive Prithard	121lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 9	Colin Sharrard	118lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 6	Tony Roberts	112lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 7	Jon Hatch	110lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 15	Nick Williams	100lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 14	Peter Morton	92lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 4	Dai Thomas	69lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 13	Mitch Auger	69lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 23	Ant Haywood	68lbs 04ozs
19th	Peg 37	Dave Moore	61lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 8	Tim Westmoreland       (Guest)	48lbs 04ozs
21st	Peg 38	Gemma Doyle	23lbs 00ozs

Marsh AC club match.

Well today's the 2nd match of Marsh AC's season on the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge Fishery, just outside Braintree in Essex.
I met Dave at his house at 7am and followed him and Colin up to the fishery. Pulling into the car park just after 8am there were 17 of the usual suspects in attendance and with the weather apparently set fair for once everyone soon had their gear unloaded and down the hill to the lakeside.

I took a stroll round with Dave as he decided which pegs would be going into the draw, and in all honesty there didn't appear to be a bad one, but Dave having fished there on more than a few occasions had a pretty good handle on it anyway, so decisions made it was draw time.

Kevin's partner Jean, after accompanying him on all his trips had decided to fish today for the 1st time, so they drew 1st so that they could have adjacent swims, I came away with peg 16 while Dave could be heard bemoaning the fact that his favorite swim (14a) had remained in the bag undrawn.  

Settling into peg 16 it was "make your mind up time" for me. Now the nice part of Marsh matches is that they are just socials really, not even any money for winning, just the section winners get payed out, and that is only just enough to cover your ticket, so that the matches have a lovely relaxed atmosphere. Sure there are some personal rivalries, but essentially it's just a pleasant day out fishing with friends.

I'd already mentioned to Colin that I was going to go with one of 2 methods today, either paste on the pole or pellet waggler. Well the pellet waggler won, purely because I fancied doing something different today. Setting up took no time at all as my Shakespeare 11ft Micro was already set up in it's ready sleeve. I've teamed the rod up with a Daiwa Capricorn 2000. The float was a 2ssg Malman Styro. Hooks are the Drennan eyed Carp Match barbless with a hair rigged Gardner 3·2mm latex pellet band. these will take anything from a 4mm to a 11mm pellet and are the best on the market IMO. For actually banding I use a Mossella Band’a’Bait tool, again IMO an unbeatable tool for the job.( Dave was certainly impressed when he saw me using it.  )

             

Bait and feed was nothing more than 12 pints of Skrettings 6mm pellets with some 8mm's for an alternative hookbait. I also got the feeder rod out as it was all set up in a ready sleeve, but I was only planning to use it if things went wrong.

Looking around most were going with the pole, though a couple of others were going with rod set-ups. So 10am and the all-in and a couple of large pouches of pellet were catapulted to the edge of the overhanging tree about 20yds away to ring the dinner bell. Normally I would clip up if I was casting to an island or feature, but with plenty of water under the overhanging tree and some large fish present in the lake I decided against it preferring to rely on the accuracy of my casting. (I only lost 1 float all day, so can't have been to rusty  ) I soon got into a decent rhythm and a small Mirror of around ½lb got me off the mark. There were plenty of fish moving, but they were just mooching around and although I was putting a few together they weren't really having it.
I also lost a few fish, but after talking it over with a few of the others I've come to the conclusion that it was probably down to the fact that a large percentage of the fish have dodgy mouths making it awkward to get a decent hook hold.

A splash from round the lake signaled Kevin trying to join the fish as he transfered one to his net, though Dave refused to disqualify him for wading   and Jean had caught her 1st fish, but was under strict orders from Kevin not to beat him, and reports filtered round that one poor unfortunate had missed the net with a good double figure Carp, a fish that he was hoping to weigh and photograph as it was definitely his biggest ever.

Frustrated at not being able to put a run of fish together and with the beginnings of a headache, I took a break and went for a stroll. Dave and Colin appeared to be neck and neck, both owning up to 20+ fish, but I had to fancy Colin having the edge as the Carp appeared to be queuing up under the bush to his left waiting for him to drop a pellet on their noses........

Eddie on Peg 1 was into a decent fish.....

...... while further round Jim appeared to be getting bitted out by Roach. John was having a similar problem, but he proved to be a real lifesaver when he produced a couple of paracetamol from his box, that did the business on my headache, Cheers John.

Tony was looking pretty happy with himself, but claimed to be struggling having lost a number of fish, however his peg looked like it was solid to me...........

Kevin was doing OK and was happy that barring a total calamity he had the beating of Jean, though she was still knicking the odd one here and there.

Terry as usual was just keeping his his head down and putting a few fish quietly into the net, that's why they call him "Wily Coyote"   ........

Back at my peg and 1st cast I stuck it straight into the tree and cracked off (Told you I lost 1 float) so chucked out the feeder with a banded 8mm pellet on it while I re rigged the pellet waggler but didn't get as much as a tap on it.
Back out on the waggler and I was soon back into the rhythm which is all important when fishing this method, and although they still weren't really having it I managed to keep up a reasonably decent catch rate right up till 4pm when Dave called the all out. The frustrating part was that I hadn't had a single bonus fish, my best being a Ghostie of around 4lb with the majority around the 1½ -2 lb range and although I'd had what most would class as a decent day ( I thought I'd got 50lbs+), couldn't help feeling that the peg was worth more, but hey, that's fishing.

By the time Terry and I caught up with the weigh in, it was coming round to Tony who was admitting to around 40lbs, he must be related to Pinocchio , because he put 85¼lbs on the scales (he'll have someone's eye out with that nose one day  ). Jean had managed a very creditable 23½lbs, not enough to beat Kevin but a great 1st effort  , while Terry put a very decent 64lbs on the scales. Round to my peg and the tale of the scales gave me 79½lbs which pleasantly surprised me  . Dave's fish mustered 67¾lbs including a bonus 10lb Mirror, which just left Colin with 39 fish, only small ones according to him and probably about 70lbs. Well he must be another of Pinocchio's relatives  because they gave him a dead level 114lbs for the win on the day.

So that was it for another day with Marsh AC, well apart from the suicidal climb back up the hill to the car park, Thanks for the hand  Tony  , I might well still be there otherwise. A real fun day as usual and as a bonus I won my section and only needed a tee shirt all day. Roll on the next one. 

A Charity Match in support of

with support from

Well today was the day for a Charity match organised by Vince Gould with a little bit of help from myself, taking place at Monk Lakes at Marden in Kent supporting the fund raising efforts of Disabled-Angler.co.uk for Macmillan Cancer Support & Rainbows the East Midlands Children's Hospice, and hopefully with nearly 40 anglers booked in we would raise a few quid for the charities.

Loading up the car didn't bode well  A solid grey sky was already dropping rain and with 4 large boxes of Braham & Murray Pure Hemp products to load up along with my gear, the car was a little full to say the least.

A phone call from Dirk as I drove down to the venue informing me that he was held up on the M25 and might be late, wasn't good either. Arriving about 8am I met up with Vince and it was soon obvious that despite the weather most had made it. Simon Edwards had endured the TomTom trip from hell on the way down from Northampton as it warned him about the M25 hold up and diverted him through Central London!!!!!

9am and Dirk arrived just in time for the draw, which saw a few £1 side bets placed, with Vince and Paul East joining in with Dirk and myself, for a four-way battle of the £1 coins and bragging rights . Peg 75 on the causeway was to be my peg for the match..........

with Vince and Dirk in the 60's on the other side of the causeway while Paul, Clive and Alan were opposite me on the far bank. To my right I had Simon and to my left young Nick Allen. With plenty of time to set up prior to the 11am start I set up 3 pole rigs, a 4X14 KC Carpa Tricky on 0·14 Antares Silk Shock with size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook to fish at dead depth which would cover from 5mtrs to 13 mtrs due to the even bottom, a 4X12 KC Carpa dibber on 0·16 Antares Silk Shock with size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook for up in the water, and a 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf on 0·16 Antares Silk Shock with size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook for the margins. I also set up the pellet waggler (though I felt the conditions would rule it out today) and a feeder rod as a get out of jail option, however I'd forgotten my cage feeders, but fortunately I managed to borrow one from Vince. Bait wise for me, with it being the middle of May it was pellet, pellet and more pellet, with some meat as a change bait. Simon however was committing mass murder on a bait box full of worm & caster with some Atomic and hemp added for good measure!!!!!!

11am and with Vince blowing the whistle for the start I fed a pot of mixed pellet on the 11mtr and 5mtr lines and fed the margins by hand. Meanwhile young Nick had already landed his 1st fish and was into a second . Simon lost the 1st fish he hooked as a Skimmer did a passable impression of a Trout and shed the hook as it took off  however he was soon into a few fish.

I was really struggling to buy a bite but finally got off the mark with a F1 of about a pound. However I couldn't put a run of fish together unlike Nick and Simon who were catching regularly and a combination of a cold NE wind and the rain made conditions unpleasant to say the least (Strange how it never bothers you if you're catching ) but at least I had the wind off my back.

After about 2 hours of going nowhere fast I re-fed my pole lines and got up for a leg stretch and popped down to see how others were doing.......

 Vince was huddled under his brolly trying to escape the wind and rain that was blowing straight into his bank and was fishing the feeder.........

........ but although he was admitting to around 15lbs in the net, was having trouble as his bites seemed to be very finicky.

Dirk was a couple of pegs further down, and was starting to wonder why he'd made the trip down from Rugby? He's enjoyed his previous visits to Monks and had won his section the last couple of times, but sitting there with the wind blowing straight into him and his hands starting to lose all feeling, it was turning into a struggle as he had to go out to 14½ mtrs just to find a bite.

Meanwhile Matt Love, just behind Dirk was suffering as well, despite having won a match on the lake the previous Saturday with a fine bag of 114lbs fishing the pellet up in the water, it wasn't working for him today however and he'd reverted to a method feeder to see if it would bring him a few fish.

Back at my peg, there was still no action on any of my pole lines and I decided that the feeder was the way to go with soaked 4mm pellet in the feeder and a hair rigged banded 8mm hard pellet for bait............

After about 10 minutes I was rewarded as the tip wrapped round and after a short fight, a nice Mirror of around 3lb was welcomed to the net.

Looking across I could see that the far bank was struggling with nobody getting anything other than the occasional fish. Paul was sticking at it and seemed to be concentrating on his margin swim in an effort to put a few together.......

While Clive appeared to be alternating his approach between the margin and his line straight out in front, though apparently for little reward ..........

Meanwhile a few more Carp and F1's along with a couple of Barbel kept things ticking over for me, though I won't pretend that I wasn't pleased to hear Vince blowing the whistle to signal the end of the match at 4pm. The weigh in soon confirmed that I was about as close to a bit of Cod as I could be (Battered both sides.) with Nick to my left weighing 73¾lbs for the match win and Simon to my right putting 52½lbs on the scales to eclipse my 34¼lbs and take my £1 . However every cloud they say has a silver lining, and on this occaision I had the pleasure of releiving Vince, Dirk and Paul of their £1 coins.

Back to the car park for the presentations it was generally agreed that the fishing had been as hard as most could remember given the time of year, However the aim of the match had been achieved with £540 in total being raised for the Charities and all the anglers taking away some Braham & Murray Hemp Products for their efforts, so a big vote of Thanks to all those that attended.

Chatting in the car park as we all set off for home, I remembered something in my pocket that I handed back to Vince with my thanks, Yes the cage feeder that he'd lent me and enabled me to take his £1. His face was a picture  and I can't repeat what he actually said to me. 

The JINX Series 2008

Match 1.

Well Today saw the 1st match of this years Jinx Series run by Malc (The Jinx) Doyle at Rolf's Lake. The entire series this year is being fished at Rolf's Lake.
There's 24 lunatics anglers booked in for this years series, all hopeful that some decent weights will be recorded.

One of the nice things about fishing the series is that the matches start around lunchtime and todays plan was for a 10·30am draw and to fish from noon to 5pm. I arrived at the fishery at about 10am to find plenty already in attendance and eager for the start. I have to say at this point that it was great to see that all the effort that John Bennett and his wife Pauline and their team of helpers have put into the venue since he took over from Rolf are beginning to bear fruit, with all the new platforms and a lot of pruning haven taken place since I last visited. I'm sure Rolf will have approved.

The 1st shock was Malc arriving early , but needless to say the draw still didn't take place on time, and with the delay it meant that we would be fishing from 12·30pm to 5·30pm. As usual I had my customary £1 side bet with Gemma (The Minx) and another with Dirk, as Midge Milnes had asked me to get his pound back that Dirk had taken from him on a previous match.

The weather looked half decent, plenty of Carp were showing on top, and there had been some decent weights recorded the day before, so could we be in for a decent day? Well into the draw bag and I found that peg 40 was to be my home for the day.

Now coincidently Clive had fished this peg on the Open the previous Sunday and I had read the details of the day on Clive's Blog so I had at least an idea of how to tackle it . On the Little Lake I had Colin on peg34 (a peg that's really suited to his style of fishing) Ant was on 38 while to my left I had Dai on peg2 for company with Nick Williams over on 4, while the last angler I could see was Dave Collier on peg7. All the rest were pegged on the Big Lake, but hopefully the recent warmer weather meant that the fish would be spreading out from their winter quarters and we would all be in for a few fish today .

I just set up the 2 pole rigs. The 1st a ·4g MW Diamond to fish dead depth (about 5ft) straight out at 11mtrs, though I could come in to 5mtrs with it as the depth was pretty constant and the 2nd a 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf for the margin that I could utilise as an up in the water rig if need be. These were both made up straight through with 0·16 Antares Silk Shock with size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks. I also had my pellet waggler rod set up as a back up. Feed was about 12 pints of the fishery 4 & 6mm feed pellets with GOT Baits Liver and Catmeat 6 & 11mm soft hookers and their 6mm expanders for hook baits.

12·30pm and at the All-in I cupped 2 big pot-fulls of pellet in on the 11mtr line and a pot down the right hand margin at about 7mtrs. By the time I had baited my rig and shipped out to 11mtrs there was already a fizz of bubbles coming up, After a minute the float vanished and a sharp lift saw me attached to what was obviously a decent Carp . Looking up as I played it I could see both Colin and Ant already netting their first fish of the day. Something just didn't feel right about my fish though and after a couple of minutes everything went slack and the hook came back with a large scale attached to it.

That set the tone for the first couple of hours, with just 3 Carp to show for my efforts and quite a collection of scales on the sidetray, despite swapping depths, baits and varying the amount of feed I was plagued with foul hookers, none of which I managed to land. A couple of looks in the margin proved it to be "Silvers" city and a session with the pellet waggler had resulted in just a solitary foul hooker which of course came off.

Nick had gone onto the feeder and was catching regularly if not particularly quickly. Ant had started to have a look down his margin swim and was starting to bag up. I got up to stretch my legs and decided to heavily feed at 5mtrs to see if I could make them have it. Dai had had a miserable start but was finally getting some action .

I strolled up to see Dave but although he'd had a few including a decent Chub by chucking the feeder across to the far bank, he'd reverted to the pole as he was more comfortable. Rumours were circulating that the Big Lake was fishing well, but rather than investigate I made my way back determined to avoid too bad a battering .

Back out at 5mtrs and there were fish there, but Skimmers and Roach were ragging the bait before the Carp could get a look in . In an attempt to avoid this I decided to fish the 6mm feed pellet banded onto the hook, and this finally seemed to make the difference . In the final 2 hours I got into a decent run of fish, finishing with 17 Carp though only 3 of them were weigher's.

5·30 and the All-out was called with me still playing a fish which proved to be my largest of the day, a 13½lbs Common .
Packing up it was soon obvious that it had fished well (You can always tell by how long it takes for the scales o come round ). Ant was soon leading with an excellent 228¾lbs, 180lbs+ of which was made up of weigher's . My fish came to 142¾lbs, my best weight from Rolf's and pretty satisfying given my frustrating start to the match . Dirk dipped out, just missing a 'Ton' with 94lbs after his fish dried up towards the end of the match, and had to hand over £1 to me .

The 'Tons' kept coming and Paul Roberts could be found wandering around beating himself up, convinced that he had blown yet another chance to get his first ever Rolf's Ton , but the scales put him out of his misery when they revealed a weight of 118½lbs. I'm sure we were all pleased for him and he was soon walking around like a Cheshire Cat .

Gemma also got her Ton with 149lbs adding yet more members of The Minx Club in the process and relieving me of my £1.

Hard luck story of the day has to be Steve Wilson who found a great big hole in one of his keepnets meaning he only weighed 57lbs. Of course we were all full of sympathy.
Star of the day however was Ade Williams aka Slim Shady, who on his first ever Jinx match weighed a mighty 266¾lbs from peg 24 to set a new Jinx Record.

So there it is, Two Double Tons, Nine Tons and a total of 2316lbs of fish put on the scales between 21 anglers which is an incredible average of 110lbs+ per angler.
Have we peaked to early? We'll find out when we're back for Match 2 on June 7th .

Something a little different today as I took a trip up to Stoneleigh Park in Warickshire for the TCF show as I had won a ticket.
Ist nice surprise was that not only was the parking free, but also undercover and with security on duty as well.

On the way from the car park to the show hall there was a large Bivvy village set up allowing people to get a good look at those on show...........

Strolling in I was handed a goody bag, that was well worth having, containing the latest issue of the TCF magazine, 2 DHP Angling DVDs (Derek Ritchie & Darren Cox) a few stickers, a pair of Match Box threaded accessory tubes, a packet of Sonu Baits 8mm Hook Pellets, Cotswold Baits pop-ups, a pack of Cypry ledger stops, Dinsmore shot, a couple of spools of line from Shakespeare and Ultima, along with a copy of FACT's Code of Conduct for Coarse Anglers and Preston, Garbolino and Greys catalogues.

The initial impression was of a totally Professional Show with plenty of space in a pair of light airy carpeted halls.
With nothing for sale on the day there was a nice relaxed atmosphere with plenty of opportunity to have a really good look at the gear on display and have a chat the staff on the stalls. The shame was that some of the major companies weren't in attendance such as Daiwa, Shimano, Fox, Maver, Nash, Solar, Korda, Drennan, etc, However it was their loss and hopefully they'll reconsider should the show take place next year.

Really nice to catch up with a few friends amongst the exhibitors.
Ray Best (tackle tart) was manning the Braham & Murray stand alongside the lads from GOT Baits and with Trevor (tonup trev),Gary, Matt, Simon, Madd and others kept constantly busy demonstrating Atomic Cloud and the rest of their range.

I also had the opportunity to pass on The Maggotdrowners thanks to Jim Burton, the owner of Match Box who after a bit of negotiation by Besty on our behalf (Thanks Ray ) is generously supplying a New S -class Seatbox and 50 of his Add Adapters as prizes for the Maggotdrowning.com Individual Champs 2008 that's taking place on Moland Mere Lake at Packington Somers Fishery on Saturday 14th June 2008.

Despite the lack of some major brands it was good to see the likes of Garbolino, Trambucco, Preston Innovations, Grey's, Masterline, MAP, Ultima and other popular and well respected brands supporting the show, and 3 discussion forums in action at various times catering for all aspects of coarse fishing.

All in all it wasn't as busy as I expected, but that could be down to it being the 1st one and a lack of Major exhibitors, however the vast majority of comments I heard were very positive.
Congratulations to DHP for putting on a 1st class show, and all the Manufacturers and Companies that did attend, hopefully they will reap the rewards that they deserve to for supporting this new venture. I must say that it's what I expect of a show, an opportunity for companies to showcase their latest gear to anglers, and not a glorified car boot sale, long may it continue.

"Who would be up for a bash at hawkhurst fish farm on the match lake, if you are interested let me know and i will sort a list out". That was the post that Bill G put up on the Maggotdrowning Forum in the middle of March that led to us arriving for a 20 peg knock-up.

Pulling into the fishery car park at around 7·45am a host of the usual suspects were in attendance along with a couple of 1st timers for what we hoped would be a good day with plenty of fish for everyone. The weather however obviously had other ideas with a dull grey sky and a cold easterly wind promising the threat of rain during the day.

Hawkhurst is primarily a Carp fishery, a fact that's rather given away by the carving of an old tree stump outside the bailiff's office overlooking the fishery................

I can't say that Hawkhurst is my favorite venue in all honesty. The Match Lake is a strip lake with 10 pegs on either side with very few features for most to fish to except the boards down the edge for most, however it does have fish in abundance and is well capable of throwing up lots of 'Ton+' weights of Carp in matches, so it's normally a great confidence booster .

A decent Full English in the on site café and a couple of side bets (£2 with Vince & £1 with Bill) was followed by the draw, which saw me drawing peg 11 at the far end...................

but at least I would have the wind off my back. Vince had drawn the flyer, peg 1 that was black with fish when we arrived while Dave Collier had the other flyer (peg20) opposite him. I had Colin opposite on 10 with Bill G to his left on 9, with Jeff D (on his 1st match with us) to my right on 12.

I set up a couple of top 2's, the 1st around 18" deep to fish tight to the boards on either side and another around 3ft deep to fish at 2mtrs out. These were both 0·14 Antares Silk Shock with size 18 Fox Series 2 hooks with 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf's and I set up another kit using the same line and hook but with a 4X14 Carpa Tricky to fish the 5ft deep 6 mtr line.
Bait was 4mm fishery pellet for feed with 4 & 6mm GOT expanders for the hook, with sweetcorn and GOT paste as alternatives.

10am and the All-in and Jeff on the next peg was straight in having dropped his unbaited rig in to double check it's shotting has a Carp take his bare hook !!!!! I dropped my expander baited 2mtr rig in and the float buried straight away and a nice little Common was soon in the net, Game On .

Or not as it proved . The 1st hour saw me put just 5 fish in the net and from what I could see nobody was exactly taking their peg apart, with Bill suffering a few liners and just a solitary fish in the net ........

Jeff and Jay to my right having a few, but from what I could see smaller fish than mine.
Fishing tight to the boards is normally a banker for a few fish at Hawkhurst but despite keeping a few pellets trickling into both margins I couldn't find a bite there and moved back out to the deeper water at 6mtrs where at least I was picking up the odd fish. Bill had gone walkabout after about an hour and had completed a circuit of the lake by the time he got to me. His report was grim with most struggling , though Dave Collier seemed to be getting a few from peg 20 and to top it all off it started to rain. Kevin's partner Jean however appeared with a very welcome cuppa from the café and with bites few and far between I re-fed all my lines and went for a walk of my own.

Clive down on peg 14 was putting a few together but felt that Paul over on peg 7 was doing a shade better...................

Ryan next door on peg 15 was struggling and pinning his faith on finding a few from the margins.......................

while Matt on 18 had managed a run of fish up in the water but hadn't had a bite for 40 minutes ................

Dave Collier on 20 was indeed putting a few together, he was fishing at 9mtrs to the stump of a cut down tree that had made the peg a real flyer in earlier days ...........

Over on fancied peg 1 Vince was having one of those matches we all dread with just a couple of fish to show for his efforts, while having to watch Dave opposite steadily pull away in terms of fish caught , and Trevor on peg 2 wasn't fairing much better .............

Nick on peg 3 had forgotten about the pole and was fishing the waggler............

with Terry next to him struggling as well. Pete was soldiering on and managing the odd fish from peg 5...........

While Mike Jameson was racking his brains trying to put a few in the net and amazing us all that he hadn't packed up and gone home as he's well known for doing if he isn't enjoying himself ..........

Paul East appeared to be going reasonably well though on peg 7 and a chat with Al next to Bill revealed he was getting bites on banded pellet but having trouble hitting them.
Bill had finally managed to find a couple by fishing corn long at 12 mtrs.

Back at my peg, out came the bait bands and a banded 4mm at 6mtrs soon produced a bite and a 4lb'er in the net. Bill's bites on the corn however appeared to have dried up on him again, though Al was nicking the odd one. Jeff D was catching by swapping lines, though his fish seemed smaller than mine which prompted me to stick to the 6mtr line as my fish still seemed to be of a bigger stamp...........

Jay next to Jeff however seemed to be the only one catching down the margin next to the boards and was also taking some better fish long when he rested the margin line.

Thankfully 4pm saw the all out, and the speed that the scales came round signaled that the lake hadn't produced the expected weights, with Paul East leading the way with a very creditable 69lbs 08ozs from peg 7. My fish came to 43lbs 08ozs which was good enough for 6th on the day and took my 4 peg section . Down to the last peg and it was a question of whether Dave Collier had done enough to edge Paul out of 1st place, but a combination of the cold and Dave's arthritis saw Paul hang on as Dave's fish only came to 62lbs 08ozs, still a very good effort on the day .

So that was it for another day, not the expected weights, but a £2 coin from Vince (we didn't give him much stick for blowing the flyer honest ) a £1 coin from Bill, some good laughs and plenty of banter helped out.
Thanks to Bill G for sorting out the day, just remember to have a word with the weather Gods next time Bill.

Marsh AC club match.

Well an early wake up call so that I could drop Maria off at work saw me with plenty of time to get back home and cook myself a bit of breakfast before donning the thermals and waterproofs and loading the car up in the pouring rain and setting off to Monk Lakes to meet up with the members of Marsh AC for our 1st match of the year on Match Lake 2. Now the main thing about Marsh AC is that it is a small friendly club with membership by invitation only, in essence it's a Social Club that organises a days fishing for it's members. The format of these days fishing loosely resembles a match in that there's a draw for pegs, but there is no Club Championship or Cups to be won, in fact the only cash that gets paid out is section money, no 1st, 2nd or 3rd place prizes. It suits the members and keeps the pot hunters away.

Pulling into the car park at around 8am it was good to see that the vast majority of the usual suspects were in attendance, along with a couple of guests (Bill G and Alan from the Maggotdrowning Forum), Paul East was missing however, it turned out that he'd forgotten to buy a new license and for some reason had forgotten that you can buy one on-line or over the phone . At least it had stopped raining, though the grey skies and brisk wind promised to make it a challenge.

Anyway to the draw, and anyone of 3 corner pegs would have been nice, 45 because it's an out and out flyer with a resident shoal of Barbel, or 56 and 66 at opposite ends of the causeway as these have aerators at their sides and unlike the other match lakes they aren't roped off allowing you to fish tight to them. No such luck though, 53 sticking to my fingers providing my home for the day.

One thing about the match lakes at Monk's is that there are plenty of fish, so that whatever the draw you're guaranteed to have a few fish in front of you to provide a decent days fishing. A stranger feature to this particular lake however is the fact that the depth shelves from around 5 feet in front of peg 55 to around 10 feet in front of 45, and when the wind blows straight down the lake as it was today it sets up a terrific tow!!

I set up 2 pole rigs to fish a couple of lines, the 1st at around 10mtrs where I had just over 6ft of water was a 4X18 KC Carpa2 on 0·16 straight through to a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook and the 2nd for the margins where I had a couple of feet of water against the reeds was a 4X12 Carpa shelf with similar line and hook that I could also use up in the water on the main line if need be.
I also set up a pellet waggler, though I suspected that it wouldn't be a realistic option due to the wind and tow.
Bait for the day was red maggot, corn and pellet, and I also made up some groundbait to get some feed down through the tow. This was Special G with some corn and a good helping of micro pellet added.

10am and the All-in, and straight away i fed 5 good balls of groundbait on the 10mtr line, with a good helping of pellet, corn and maggot down the right hand margin which I would continue to top up through the match as there was a vacant peg between me and the next angler.

Out to 10 mtrs with a single grain of corn, I just let the rig edge through the groundbaited area with the tow and was rewarded with a confident bite that produced the 1st fish of the day, a nice chunky FI of around 1½lbs . The wind and waves on the water meant that presentation wasn't ideal but by sticking at it i managed to put another 8 in the net along with around a dozen small Tench in the next 2 hours. Alan to my right was having a grim time and was struggling to buy a bite with only a couple of fish in the net  and Tony next to him was having trouble coming to terms with the tow that the lake was generating, but putting a few together holding a heavy rig back against the tow.
It seemed that every time I looked up towards Colin on peg 45 he was either playing or netting a fish and it was obvious he would take all the catching.

Looking across to the lads opposite fishing on the causeway, I could see Dave had turned his back on the wind and was fishing short to the channel where the aerator is and appeared to be putting a steady run of fish together, while terry next door to him was also catching close in to the margin, while Bill was fishing a longer line and sorting a few out .

With a lull in my fish, I fed 4 more balls of groundbait in a bid to kickstart things and had a quick stroll with the camera. Colin as I suspected was catching well despite trying to deny it and it was a pleasure to see that Judy on peg 46 next to him was putting a couple of tips I'd given her to good use and was enjoying some good sport too .

Back at the peg and a quick look at the margins revealed just a solitary small Chub so back out and I was soon into a run of small Tench and Skimmers with a couple of decent Ide for good measure .

Kevin to my left had resorted to a Polaris set up with a groundbait feeder to beat the tow and was starting to find a few fish, while Martin was really struggling to get a bite .

With a couple of hours to go Alan finally managed to find some Barbel down his margin line, while Tony having changed to a feeder to combat the tow was steadily starting to put fish in the net, Despite several looks, my margin just never came to life, forcing me to stick it out at 10mtrs, and while i caught steadily to the end it was mainly small Chub and Tench with just a couple of bonus Barbel around the 2lb mark.

With 15 minutes to go the skies grew darker and the temperature dropped noticeably and just to top it off it started to rain . 4pm and the All-out saw everyone hurriedly packing away followed by the weigh-in.

3rd to weigh, my 51¼lbs put me briefly into 1st place which I knew wouldn't last. Alan's 34½lbs was a decent return given that he had nearly the whole of that in the last 2 hours, while Tony's 48½lbs meant that I had at least won my section .

Judy put a very creditable 54¾lbs on the scales (Her best ever match weight) to briefly lead till Colin weighed his level 87lbs for the match win. Jim round on 56 managed  55¾lbs that would prove to be good enough for 3rd while Dave put a very decent 62½lbs on the scales for 2nd and might have run Colin even closer if it hadn't been for a few lost fish during the course of the day.

Still despite the weather trying it's hardest, overall it proved to be a decent day with no dry nets and an average of around 39lb per angler between the 17 of us. A decent days fishing by any standards. Roll on the next one .