"Anyone coming out to play Easter Monday?" That was the perfectly innocent post put up by Pete Midgley on the Maggotdrowning Forum that resulted in this little episode.

Loading up the car, a sunny day appeared to be in the offing and with just a light frost I felt we could be in for a decent day.
A smooth traffic free drive of 40 miles down to Uckfield in East Sussex even allowed me to stop off at  for a bit of breakfast, where I found Pete Thatcher, Martyn Dwayne and Mark Hathaway too, meaning I pulled into the fishery at around 8·20am.
Worryingly the car thermometer still only said 1°C though.

Today was the 1st time that I'd been down to Framfield since March 2005, so I really didn't have a clue what to expect. Anyway into the draw bag and peg 64 stuck to my hand. They say that a good indication of how well you've drawn is how many keepnets they hand you. I was given just the one while Kevin, who had drawn 63 and a few others were given two, so I figured I may have drawn out of the favoured areas.

As i settled into 64 I was faced with probably 17½mtrs to the island which had seen some vigorous pruning since the last time I'd seen it.
Having hurt my ribs at work the previous week long pole was out of the question, so I set up for around a comfortable 8mtrs and found a reasonably level 3ft all over, and with it being just a couple of inches shallower in the margins 1 rig covered all. I also set up a waggler to fish across if need be. Bait was simply sweetcorn to be fished over the fisheries own pellets with a few expanders as a change bait.

To my left I had Bill G for company on peg 65, so a decent bit of banter was guaranteed if nothing else..........

10am and after a warming cup of coffee fortified with a drop of Bushmills generously provided by Kevin, I potted in some pellet and sweetcorn at 8mtrs and fed some pellet by the dead rushes in both margins for later. Straight out to 8mtrs and after 20 mins the 1st bite of the day resulted in a nice Common Carp of around 3lbs gracing the net. I just kept topping up the feed with a T-pot containing a dozen pellets and 3-4 bits of corn at regular intervals, with the same being fed by hand into the margin swims. After a couple of hours I'd managed 6 Carp which had been matched by Bill, though I felt my fish had been a little bigger. Weather wise the day had deteriorated with a mix of rain sleet and snow coupled with the wind making things very cold and unpleasant.

Of course as with all things Maggotdrowning there had to be some Pee taking somewhere along the line and todays target was Pete Midgley, who in the run up to the day had posted........
"I think I would still beat Ryan if I had a bit of bamboo, a length of rope and a lump of cheese."

So of course Bill G hadn't been able to resist producing the relevant bit of Preston Imitations kit ..........

Pete however took it all in the spirit that was meant and even had the good grace to pose for the obligatory photo

Meanwhile word was circulating Mark Hathaway and Martyn Dwayne were doing relatively well with Stephen Tanner putting a few together from the supposed flyer.

Kevin had changed over to a set up incorporating a maggot feeder and polaris float and was soon into a run of Carp as he cast into the gap between the islands. Unfortunately he hooked up on the island after a while losing his float in the process. Not having another he reverted to a straight maggot feeder, but for some reason this didn't seem to be so productive and he reverted to the pole.......

Quite a few were struggling for even a bite however and people were ringing the changes in an attempt to buy a bite. Colin may have taken things a shade to far however, disguising hinself as a bush in attempt to draw fish into his margin swim  ........

Bill meantime had gone for a stroll to stop himself from seizing up and by the time he returned it had allowed me to sneak a couple of fish ahead of him.
With about an hour to go things had started to pick up with Tony Roberts finally getting amongst a few on the maggot feeder hard across to the island, Colin getting a couple of decent Perch as reward for his efforts and even Trevor Little getting a couple although he was to tip back without weighing in.

I managed to tempt 5 more Carp from down the edge in the last hour, though a lump snagging me in the reeds in the last 10 minutes was to cost me at the death.

At last 3·30pm rolled round and the all out, quickly followed by the weigh-in. Mark Hathaway leading with a very decent weight on the day of 55lbs 2ozs followed by Stephen Tanner on 48lbs 12ozs, a very creditable effort as it was his first match.

As the scales reached me I thought I might scrape 40lbs, so it was a pleasant surprise when they recorded 54lbs 8ozs putting me into 2nd place, though it left me ruing that lost fish.

So that was it, just leaving the 14 anglers to pack up and get home to thaw out. Despite the conditions we had caught some fish and had a few laughs as always. We must do it again, but please, can we have some better weather next time?

Well the day promised to be a bit of fun as I was off down to Hartleylands to join a few of the lads that are fishing Nick Gilbert's 1st Invicta Angling Match League and were looking to have a bit of a practice prior to the 1st match there next week. Loading up the car at 7am in Sydenham it looked as if we could be in for a decent day with the sun rising into a bright blue sky, just a breathe of wind and a pleasant 7°C showing on the car thermometer.

By the time I pulled up at the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast things had taken a turn for the worst however , with wind, thick grey clouds and the 1st hint of rain replacing the sun. A quick bit of breakfast with Matt, Nick, Alan and Ekythump and it was off to the fishery for the draw. Already there were Vince, Trevor, Jay and Kevin and while Nick sorted out the draw we sorted our kit out. Mistake no1 !!!! I'd left my jacket at home !!!!! Thankfully Matt saved the situation lending me his spare jacket for the day. Nice one Matt .

With the wind increasing I fancied one of the pegs in the 30's which were reasonably sheltered and almost flat calm. It was not to be as peg 25 was to be my home for the next few hours............

The wind was already starting to gust strongly as I settled in and set up and I just set up a maggot feeder and a couple of top kits to fish short, as i didn't fancy battling with a long pole in the conditions, not that I was jealous looking across to Alan on peg peg 32 setting up with what appeared to be a millpond in front of him !...........

10·30am and Vince blew the whistle for the All-in. I'd made up a slop of crushed hemp and Pineapple Atomic Cloud to feed the inside line and fished white maggot on the hook and this soon started to produce few small Roach . Sport in general appeared to be slow for most though Jay was getting a few Carp on the feeder over on peg 8, Nick had the wind full in his face on peg 6 (a most unusual occurrence for him ) while Matt was blasting maggot and fishing the waggler on peg 9 but this was producing mostly Roach for him rather than the hoped for Carp. In fairness though most of the lads were trying to sort methods for the upcoming League so it was more of a question of sorting out wouldn't work as opposed to sitting it out on a banker method.

Just after midday I had a look over on the feeder. 3rd cast and I stuck it into a tree on the island and cracked off. Temper? Laziness? I really should have stuck with it but didn't. Instead I had a cup of coffee and went for a walk with the camera to warm up.

Up on peg 21 Trevor was sheltered behind his brolly and had settled on the waggler with a fair bit of open water in front of him, and while it was mostly Roach the occasional Carp was putting in an appearance to keep it interesting........

while Ekythump 2 down on peg 23 was fishing his top 2 and finding a few more Carp amongst the Roach...........

Back down on peg 32 Alan was getting a few on the Waggler but had been feeding a margin line that as it turned out, was to come good for him in the last hour ..........

Kevin on peg 34 was having a bit of a grueller and was sitting it out on the feeder.........

Vince was on peg 32 and complaining that he was freezing despite being sheltered from the worst of the conditions. The feeder was producing the odd Carp for him as it appeared the fish wanted a dead still bait.......

Nick on peg 6 (a peg he didn't want to put in, so you just knew he would draw it) spent most of his time chopping and changing trying various methods out when he wasn't having a walk about chatting and trying to get out of the wind  .........

That just left Jay and Matt on pegs 8 & 9..........

........ and while Jay stuck it out on the feeder all day, Matt started the match on the waggler spraying maggot before switching to the method halfway through .............

I spent the rest of the match fishing the top 2 but unlike Ekythump, couldn't find a Carp for love or money, I did however manage a Barbel which was a bit of a surprise because as far as I'm aware Paul only stocked about 14 of them into the lake originally !!!! (needless to say it was in perfect condition )

3·30 and Vince blew the All-out, a most welcome sound , which was quickly followed by the weigh-in. 12lbs 12 ozs was my reward for the day, leaving Vince happy that he'd beaten me for the 2nd time this year. The lake had fished hard though in some of the worst conditions I've experienced there, though hopefully it will be better for the lads fishing the League there, starting next week.

Today's little jaunt started off when Pete Midgley posted up on the Maggotdrowning Forum at the start ot the week "Hi all. Have just spoken to Ryan and we are going down to Hartleylands this Saturday. If anyone else is interested in meeting up let me know and if there is enough we could even have a little friendly match "

Now while the day ticket is £7 a day at Hartleylands, peg fees for a small match are £6 and you can use keepnets, so with 6 of us commiting to the day a 'Match' was booked.

An easy drive down saw me pulling into the car park at around 9·20am to be greeted by Pete, Ryan and Ryan's dad Keith.Shortly after we were joined by Dave who had collected Alan on the way. A clear blue sky promised a decent day weather-wise though a heavy frost gave it away that the temperature was only 1°C.

Paul the Bailiff arrived to collect the peg fees and I managed to negotiate a £1 discount, which we put into a winner takes all pot. We had pegs 20-25 allowing everyone a feature to fish to, and after a quick draw made our way to our pegs.

I found myself with peg24 for the day...........

I would have prefered 25 or 23 which would have given me some open water to have dropped a feeder into, but decided to set up a Drennan 2½AA peacock insert waggler and fish double red maggot to keep busy and warm, though I did set up a small Drennan maggot feeder as a back up, leaving the pole in the rod bag. Pete had kindly picked up a couple of pints of red maggots for me, however I had a bit of a shock to find that they'd sweated up rather badly , but half a bag of GOT Baits worm flavoured Atomic Cloud added to them just about managed to salvage the situation, and this little fella kept popping back all day to sample them ...........

To my left I had Keith (Ryan's dad) for company, and having only recently returned to fishing, he contented himself to just set up the pole, while to my right on 23 Alan had set up a groundbait feeder and his pole. to his right Pete (peg22) had set up pole and feeder as well, while Dave (peg21) and Ryan (peg20) just set up feeders.

We got started around 11am and Keith was off the mark straight away with a small Carp..........

A pouchfull of maggots out to the island followed by my float soon saw me getting regular bites from small Roach and Rudd, nothing big, but regularly enough to keep me warm and interested. Alan was dropping his feeder just off the point of the island and was soon into his 1st Carp of the day........

Indeed everyone seemed to be getting a few and the banter was soon flowing. Pete was alternating between the feeder and the pole and it was while he was on the pole that he became the focus of a fair bit of stick ..........

He hooked into what most of us assumed was a 'lump' and with yards of elastic streaming from his top kit he soon reached the point where it appeared that he could do nothing with it, despite standing up, top kit reaching for the sky it wouldn't come to the net and despite us exhorting him to stand on his seat, he steadfastly refused on the grounds that "I'm not going to get my new seat dirty" What a Tart . Finally the leviathan of the deep was netted, a Carp that might have weighed 4lbs on a good day!!!!!!!!!!!

 Obviously Preston 11 hollo set loose was not quite what the doctor ordered leading to a quick change of top kit .

Dave meanwhile was quietly putting together a few small Carp on the feeder, nothing large, averaging around the 1½-2lb mark, but regularly enough to put him out in front............

 Ryan was getting a few as well, though he couldn't match Dave's catch rate on the day...........

I just kept plugging away with the waggler mostly keeping the silvers going with the odd small Carp. A couple of looks with the feeder had produced a couple of small Carp but the gaps between bites meant that the feeder was soon discarded in favour of the waggler.

All to soon 4pm rolled round and with the fishery closing at 5pm we had a quick weigh-in, with Dave taking the honours on the day and the £1's with his level 28lbs, while I edged Alan out of 2nd with my 20lbs 4ozs to his level 20lbs. then Ryan and Pete with Keith bringing up the rear.

A good day all round, a few fish, great company with plenty of banter and laughs, a typical Maggotdrowning day really . Thanks to Pete for organising it, I'm sure it won't be to long before we're doing it all again.

Today saw a few of the lads from the Maggotdrowning website meeting up for a friendly little knock-up on a Private Lake in East Sussex.
Loading up the car it had all the makings of a decent day ahead, Nice and mild  at 10°C with hardly a breathe of wind. I stopped off for a bit of breakfast in Bromley and was greeted by blue sky and the rising sun as i got back into the car, however as  I reached branched off the M25 onto the A21 I started to run into fog and the temperature started to drop.
By the time I reached the venue and turned into the fishery car park it said 2°C and everything was covered in a heavy frost.
It was soon obvious that Bill's enquiry as to whether anyone fancied "a fun day out plenty of banter and hopefully some of Dave the Fish's rum bottle" had recieved a good response with a dozen of us assembled in the car park. Now the attraction of this lake is that it has a bit of a reputation as a bagging water, especially in the summer, however it had recently suffered two heavy floods and a visit soon after by some of the lads was far from fruitfull, however with another couple of weeks for it to settle down we were hoping for better things today.
Bill had put in an appropriate number of pegs using his experience of the fishery and after a quick draw we made our way to our pegs. Kevin dropped into the 1st corner swim through the gate, while Bill and Tony shared the next corner. Pete, Alan, Dave and Colin were on the far bank while Terry, Vince, Myself, Paul and Ryan had adjacent swims on the near bank.

Setting up it was obvious that there was going to be a fair bit of banter with Paul to my left and Vince to my right..........

Vince had the gap between the two islands in front of him while I had a short chuck to it in front of me. I set up a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder and a waggler rod as well as the pole, though the last two were more as back up. Bill called the All-in at 9·45am and I potted some micro's and corn onto my pole line at 10mtrs and then went straight out with the feeder allowing the pole line to settle.
Kevin was quickly off the mark with a small Carp, but it was a bit of a false start as virtually everyone struggled for a bite from anything other than tiny Roach.
Vince had had a couple of wrap rounds that came to nothing before connecting with a decent Carp that proved to be a near double and Paul had nicked a Carp from his end of the island.........

............. while both the feeder and the pole line remained dead for me.
By 1pm with just a few small Roach from the pole line, i went for a stroll round. 1st port of call was Colin who was struggling.............

............... and Dave, where Dave was kind enough to offer me a warming nip from his bottle of Mount Gay Extra Old  Rum.

Pete and Alan had managed a couple of Carp apiece while Bill and Tony were having their own silvers contest. Working my way back I could see Ryan landing a Carp which was to prove to be the 1st of three that he had in quick succession.

Vince had managed another small Carp, but poor Terry just couldn't buy a bite from anywhere. Looking across however we were treated to a bit of fun as Tony having finally hooked a Carp played it in only to discover that he'd forgotten to set up his landing net  however he managed to land it by scooping it with the net minus handle. Meanwhile Pete ensconced on his new Space Station TX seatbox managed to land another couple of Carp to edge away into the lead.

Around 2pm I finally had a bite on the feeder resulting in a very welcome Carp of around 3½lbs, but as the afternoon wore on our side of the lake got cooler and cooler till even the tiny Roach stopped feeding though a few late Carp did show for those on the far side. Frankly the All-out was music to our ears and the quick weigh-in revealed just how hard the lake had fished.
Pete took the honours on the day with six Carp and a few bits for 34lbs 6ozs followed by Alan with 26lbs 4ozs and Bill taking the last place in the frame with 22lbs 8ozs.

Still despite the lack of fish it was still a decent day out in good company. Thanks to Bill for organising the day. I'm already looking forward to doing it all again once it's warmed up a bit and the lake has had more of a chance to settle down after it's recent double flooding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First outing of 2008.

My 1st outing of the New Year saw me driving down to Monk Lakes to meet up with Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury from the Maggotdrowning Forum in the car park at 8am. The weather didn't look to promising . A leaden grey sky holding the promise of rain, with heavy clouds scudding across at a rate of knots didn't bode well as Monks is one of the most exposed fisheries going, and with the object of the day being to help Andy refine his waggler fishing I felt we could be in for a struggle .

The original plan was to set up on one of the heavily stocked match lakes, but with matches on all 4 of the match lakes, we elected to try one of the pleasure lakes. A leasurely drive round saw us settle on Bridges, the larger of the 2 pleasure lakes where we could fish 2 adjacent swims with the wind off our backs. Although the temperature was 10°C the wind made it feel like half of that .

Now the thing is that although I fish Monks fairly regularly, it's mostly one of the four match lakes. Andy and I hadn't fished Bridges since November 2004 when the lake hadn't been open long, so neither of us really knew what to expect.

I was soon set up, having brought my Shakespeare 11ft Micro all set up in its ready rod sleeve, selecting a Drennan 3AA peacock insert waggler fishing 3lb straight through to an18 Drennan barbless carp match hook, with red maggot for bait. Andy was using his 11/13 John Wilson rod at 13ft in more relaxed mode fishing from his chair .

The maximum depth I could find was around 3ft about 25mtrs out towards the island, so a pouch of red maggots was followed by my float as I settled back to see if anything showed an interest. The wind was making things difficult, with Andy having to blacken his float tip to see it in the chop.

Soon my float slid away resulting in a nice plump Skimmer of around 2lb in the net and 5 minutes later its twin followed it ................

 Andy finally got of the mark with a little Ide, not quite what he was hoping for but at least it was a start.............

I couldn't help notice that we were getting the odd curious glance from other anglers on the lake as we were the only ones using float tackle, all the others tucked behind brollies or bivvies with the seemingly obligatory pair of Carp rods for the larger Carp that most anglers target on this lake.

Next up for Andy came a Skimmer.................

.......... but we were both struggling to put a run of fish together, I seemed to get a couple then nothing for a half hour, indeed despite trying numerous changes the only way I could get a bite was to lay 6" of line on the deck. Finally I managed to connect with something that felt a little different, and it proved to be the 1st of several Chub of around 1lb, good to see as the last time i'd fished the lake they had been freshly stocked at around 4ozs in an effort to provide year round sport. I'm sure they'll drive the carpers nuts as they're large enough now to swallow a boilie .

Andy spent a while watching me and soon spotted the difference in my approach to his, with my match background I was always doing something, feeding, twitching the bait through my feed and casting more often, whereas Andy with his background in carping was more content to leave his rod in the rest for longer after casting and feeding less frequently.

Around about 1pm I hooked what was obviously a bonus, probably a Carp but i'll never know as it just plodded off and shed the hook .

By 2pm i was getting ready to pack up when Andy was in again............

................. It was soon apparent that this was something better as a Carp surfaced about 20 feet out, Andy's landing net was looking a bit inadequate so I acted as ghillie with mine. On the mat it was obvious that the fish was a bit of an old warrior as unfortunately its fins weren't in the best of condition and it had a nasty scar on one gill cover. A quick weigh before it was returned showed 15lbs, a nice bonus fish, meaning that we had both managed around 20lbs of fish during our session .

With my gear packed Andy decided to fish on for a while, so I bid him farewell after discussing the possibility of a session after Crucians at Marsh Farm later in the year once its warmed up a bit, that should be fun .

For those of you that are interested the following is Andy's take on the day............. 

Posted by Andy Spreadbury.
The object of the exercise was to carry forward what I’d learnt on my first session with the waggler. There were a number of issues to address – what sort of waggler for which conditions, shotting patterns, that sort of thing, and I started off by showing Peter my float-box. He suggested I try an insert peacock carrying 4 AAA and in addition to the bulk, to shot it with a couple of number 8s – one about half-way down, the other nine inches or so from the hook. This was a fairly heavy rig (as wagglers go), unlike the little six-inch jobbies I’d got which only take a few shot to cock them; it was so windy, even the heavy waggler was a job to cast.

Peter was out of the blocks almost immediately and was into a little run of skimmers, unfortunately, the shoal must have moved off as their presence was short-lived. I managed to bag one but as usual was falling way behind Peter’s catch-rate. A problem I identified almost immediately was visibility.

I tried to match the distance Peter was casting – quite a long way for float-fishing, about twenty-five meters or so, maybe thirty – I’m not too sure, it seemed an awful long way though and I have to confess I really couldn’t see the float properly and often not at all. Although the fine tip of the insert is great for lack of resistance to a biting fish, its slimness was a real disadvantage to the optically-challenged such as myself. I struggled with the thing for a good couple of hours before finally admitting defeat and fished shorter – even picking up a couple of fish. As Peter continued to reel ‘em in from his long-range presentation I changed the float for something else.

I’d got several other patterns with me, mostly of the straight variety made of reed, clear plastic, and peacock quill, but after several changes I eventually settled on a Premier Windbeater with a balsa body and straight stem carrying a shed-load of lead. At least this was manageable in the extremely strong wind which got stronger as the day wore on. I finally got the visibility issue sorted and could see the bright orange of the tip pretty well and with some fiddling about managed to get the shotting about right too. Peter however had out-caught me by a ratio of about five to one and I began to get ever so slightly frustrated by my lack of action – whereas Peter was picking up fish (albeit the odd fish, but fish nonetheless) a matter of only a few metres away.

Peter of course had the reason – and not for the first time during our sessions together it was FEEDING.

If there is one thing that is more important than anything else it is giving the fish feed in a consistent and regular manner sufficient to keep them interested in looking around for and finding hookbaits. Almost every time we go fishing, Feeding is the number one issue and today was no different. Peter reckoned it was my carp-fisherman mindset that made me adopt the sit-and-wait style I was using – whereas he was always busy, either feeding, twitching the bait back, re-casting, re-baiting, casting spells, talking to the fish – and whatever other devices he employs to coax, cajole, and coerce fish into taking his bait.

True, twitching the bait by giving the reel handle a turn every minute or so I am sure persuades an otherwise disinterested fish to snatch the bait back, but it is the constant and continual investment of effort that really does the trick, an investment that resulted in Peter far out-fishing me.

It was not only the amount and frequency of feed going in that made a difference – but where it was going also. Peter was pin-pointedly accurate – even in what was at times, a howling wind; my catapulted maggots were often going all over the place, blown by a gusty wind veering in sometimes unpredictable directions. There is a definite knack to it – you must aim low and snappy, not high and gentle – allowing the wind to blow the feed near the float, for it will inevitably blow it exactly where you don’t want it. The feed must be little, often, and in exactly the right place. Easy to talk – more difficult to do.

The carp was a total fluke and I claim no great skill in either luring it or landing it. The skimmers fought ten times harder! I am convinced the fish must have been laying-up – and for some considerable time too as it had a number of leech-like organisms on it.

Carp lay-up in the very harsh weather and I have often noticed that sick or mangy fish are particularly prone to doing this. The one I caught was a very sad individual who had obviously had a hard summer – the evidence of disease was obvious – lesions, partially rotten fins, and poor condition resulting in a fish that was in the recovery stage of previous ill-health.

Peter had to go early as his leg was playing him up (poor old thing) and I spent the last hour doing much better than the previous few hours catching some of the Chub and this Tench.

All in all, not only an enjoyable day in good company, but once again, I learnt a lot from my ‘mentor’.

Thanks Peter.

Last outing of 2007.

Well after planning on going to Hartleylands but not being able to confirm that the fishery would be open, 4 of us (Dave, Tony, Bill and I) from the Maggotdrowning Forum  arrived at Monk Lakes today at around 9·30am to have a light hearted knock-up on match lake 4. We were expecting Vince to join us but a text message at 8am telling me that he'd spent the night chatting to God on the big white phone ruled him out .

The weather was dull and overcast, but at least it wasn't raining, and though the temp said 10°C the howling wind made it seem a fair bit cooler. With Bill, Dave & Tony looking to fish the pole I let them take the 3 vacant pegs with the wind on their backs.......

........ while I went round to the left hand side and settled into a swim that would allow me to cast to the lee of a small island...............

................ as I was going to try out my new Christmas Present from Maria, a Shakespeare Mach 3 11ft feeder rod and 1oz tip which I'd teamed up with a Stradic 3000. the rig was just a small free-running Drennan Carp Feeder with an 8" hooklink to a Fox Series2 18 hook with double red maggot as bait. I'd also set up my Mach 3 Micro with a Malman Floats 3SSG styro pellet wag set at 18" deep with a Fox Series2 18 hook again just in case anything was up in the water.

1st cast out and a gentle tap on the tip followed by a 2" pull produced what was to be the 1st of many Chublets around the 4oz mark.
Likewise Bill was straight into action with a run of small Carp.
Dave and Tony were having to work a bit harder for their fish to start with but soon started to put a few together, indeed Tony managed the best fish of the session when he he landed this Tench that tipped the scales at 4½lbs as well as a cracking Roach of 1lbs 10ozs .........

The whole session was really just a social, with breaks taken for chats and the sampling of a rather fine 12 year old Rum that Dave had brought back from his recent cruise adding a warming glow to proceedings.

Later on I tried the waggler and despite not being able to feed the line owing to the wind almost every cast produced either another Chublet, small F1 or Mirror.

Around 3pm we called a halt and a quick weigh-in revealed 28lbs for me, Bill had 30lbs, Tony 20 lbs and Dave 13lbs. Quite satisfying given the conditions. If we had concentrated I'm sure we would all have doubled our weights but that wasn't really the name of the game today. It was just good to be out on the bank with a few friends enjoying ourselves, and a nice way to end my fishing in 2007.

Well todays little jaunt promised to be something of a slightly different nature with no actual fishing involved.
I had been contacted a few days earlier by Ray Best of GOT Baits  to see if I could lend him a hand with a bit of a cloak and dagger mission .

So a 3 hour journey of hellish proportions due to fog and roadworks on the M1 saw me pulling into the car park at Alders Farm at around 3·10pm to meet up with Ray and his wife Maria.
The reason for all this? Well....... The lads that are sponsored by Trevor Price's company GOT Baits  had a whip round to buy Trevor a new seat box, to say that his old box had seen better days is an understatement (and that's being diplomatic about it )
Ray had sourced a new Matchbox Pyramid and Stax System complete with graphics, and we thought that we may as well get some photos while it was pristine as it probably will never look as good again  ........

The object of the exercise was to surprise Trevor with it after the 3rd round of the Winter League that was being fished today, which explains why the 3 of us were hiding in the car park slowly freezing this afternoon .

How cold was it? Well...... even a Robin flew into Maria's car to get warm .............

 Around 4pm Ray popped down to the Pump House next to the Match Lake to make sure that every thing was in place, and a phone call 15 minutes later confirmed that the coast was clear as I made my way down the hill from the car park with the kit in the dark, illuminated by a full moon.

Tea and hot minced pies were being served after the end of the days match and Trev didn't have a clue till he was presented with it, and then he was genuinely lost for words.
It was a truely great moment to see one of Anglings Nice Guys on the recieving end for once, after all the support that he's given his sponsored anglers and various angling websites and charities over the past seasons  .

Congratulations Trev, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving fella.

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Fur & Feather.

Well where to start?
Back in early October, I remarked to Vince that it might be an idea to run a Fur & Feather before Christmas if anyone fancied it. The main criteria for a venue was that everyone should get a few bites and fish at a time of year when a lot of venues struggle if the weather takes a turn for the worst. A chat with Ron at Monks secured some pegs on Match Lake1 and a post put up on the Maggotdrowning Forum to see if there was any interest.

Soon the banter was flowing, generating a healthy response to the match, even in the days leading up to the match when the weather forecast predicted that the conditions might lead to an outbreak of Brass Monkeys searching for their Balls.

Come the day and it was heartening to see a turn out of 25 anglers with only 3 wimps no shows that couldn't be bothered to let us know either by PM or E-mail assembled for what in reality was no more than a knock-up. Just a £5 optional pool and a commitment to bring a prize ensuring that nobody would go away rich but nobody would depart empty handed.

Draw over we made our way up to the lake where the aerators had been left on overnight to try and stop ice forming, though in reality the lake is so exposed to the wind it was highly unlikely to happen.

I had drawn peg 6, with Paul (nomorelongwalks) and Sven for company on 2 & 4 and Matt (yalding bloke) on 8 and the prospect of watching Bill G opposite me on peg 18 for a full 5 hours.

Now in the past some have referred to me as a Tackle Tart, however it would seem that Matt has elevated the concept to another level. Sitting there in his bright red Santa Claus Milo fleece out came the £100 stainless steel/red foam Milo pole roller, followed by the red foam Milo rig roosts, kept in plastic cases to keep them clean (his excuse was that they were new, yeah right ) I think we may have to start calling him RED MAN. However disaster was about to strike as his pole dropped off the roller resulting in a snapped no5 section. I'm not sure I would have been able to raise a smile if I'd just done £200+ worth of section..................

Feeling lazy I had just set up the pole to fish about 10mtrs, bait was red maggot with a few pellets to feed. I really should have set up a feeder and waggler as alternatives and with hindsight it was a mistake, as when I did set up a feeder later on it was to little to late.
10 am and the All-in and I could see Vince over on peg 20 was straight into a fish............

.......... rapidly followed by Nick on 19...........

.......... and Matt was soon off the mark with an F1 on the waggler, while Bill and I were still gazing at an inactive pole line, though Bill did get the chance to christen his new pole sock when he used it as a landing net on a small fish to get off the mark . It was obvious that the lads opposite were in for a more comfy match with the wind off their backs (Nick's favorite ) while we had to endure the wind into us for the whole match.

Soon i was off the mark with an F1 followed by a Skimmer and a small Tench, but  I would struggle to put a run of bites together throughout the whole match. Dave the Fish put in an appearance around 11am deciding against fishing, as the sub zero conditions were playing havoc with his arthritis but kindly provided me with a very welcome hot cup of tea. Bill switched over to the waggler in an attempt to keep up with Nick and Vince..............

......... while word filtered round that Mike and Trevor on pegs 36 & 35 were doing OK on the waggler.

Try as I might Matt was catching 2 fish to every one of mine, and with Sven starting to catch well on the feeder as well as Kevin opposite on peg 17.............

......... I swapped over to the feeder for the final part of the match. Just 4 more Carp proved that it wasn't a good move and that I should have stuck with the pole, but I was quite happy to hear the whistle for the All-out at 3pm.
Dave helped me to weigh half the lake while Vince and a helper weighed the other half, and it was pleasing to see that everyone had something to weigh. In total there was a total of 520lbs of fish weighed in, an average of just over 20lbs per angler, excellent given that the temperature never felt as if it had risen above freezing all day and just goes to show what a decent venue Monk Lakes is.

Back to the tearoom for the results, with Mike coming out on top with 54lbs 12ozs to Trevor's (MT Net) 44lbs 04 ozs with Matt taking 3rd with 37lbs 00ozs. Then the presentation of the prizes and a good table-full ensured that everyone went home with something from the day, a few more faces had been put to names from the forum, and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it in a perverse sort of way. I'd just like to add a word of thanks to Vince for his help and a special mention to Dave the Fish, who despite not feeling up to fishing still turned up and stayed to help out with the weigh-in, Many Thanks Mate.  The long distance award as always went to Dai Thomas for making the trip up from the Welsh Valleys for a days fishing with his fellow Maggotdrowners, you're a star.

We'll have to do it again, though preferably when it's a little warmer.

"hi pete what are the chances of a days practice before the big day so as you can show me how to snare a whiskery critter or two lol"  that was the PM that I received from Bill on the Maggotdrowning.com Forum. He'd also posted our intent on the forum and a couple of the newer members, Petemid and Ryan (Zephyr) soon agreed to join us as Ryan also wanted a Barbel.

So there I was loading my kit into my frost covered car for the trip down with the temperature registering 2°C . Suitably wrapped up as I know just how exposed Monk Lakes can be, the thermals were getting their 1st outing for a while.

Bill and I had decided that there was no need for an early start, and to meet at the fishery around 9 - 9·30am. I stopped for a couple of Sausage & Egg McMuffins on the way down and arrived just ahead of Bill, while a quick phone call revealed that that Pete and Ryan were already ensconced in pegs on Lake 2. Bill soon arrived and after he'd demolished a breakfast baguette we made our way up to Lake2, which i was pleasantly surprised to see was flat calm, a real bonus as the lakes normally catch the slightest breeze.

Pete had set up on peg47 with Ryan on peg48 and had been fishing for around an hour, so I let Bill take peg45 as I was positive that he would get his Barbel from there while i dropped into peg46.
On arrival I 'd had a chat with Ron the bailiff and he'd agreed that we could use keepnets for a little knock-up, and I'd brought a spare for Ryan as I knew he didn't have one.

We started the knock-up at around 10·45am after Pete & Ryan had gone and got something to eat and Bill and I finished setting up. Ryan was using a pole he'd borrowed from Pete for the 1st time and was soon into fish.

I set up a couple of rigs, a top 3 for dead depth at around 3ft deep for an inside line, which would double as an up in the water rig on my main line at around 8mtrs. My other rig was set to fish dead depth at around 6ft on the 8mtr line.Bait was to be double red maggot on the size 18 Fox series2 hooks attached to both rigs. I started with ½ a pot of micro's and a couple of dozen red maggots at 8mtrs and a pinch of maggots on the inside line, though I doubted whether the inside line would work today as the water was icy cold.
Bill appeared to set up just a single rig to fish at 6-7mtrs and was feeding pellet and maggot as well and alternating between corn and maggot on the hook.

1st fish for me was a little Tench followed by an Ide and I think Bill got off the mark with a Chub. I elected to pot more Micro's and maggots in, and for a horrible minute thought that I'd killed it, but the bites soon returned. Pretty soon I had the 1st Barbel, much to Bill's delight , soon followed by another couple, Vince phoned and found it hard to believe that Bill hadn't managed a Barbel at that point, especially as I managed another couple while chatting on the phone .
No sooner had Vince hung up and Dave(Red Leader) phoned for a report and much to Bill's delight, reckoned that he must be using Barbel-less hooks.

Both Bill and I were catching reasonably regularly and at one point I tried some cat food as a change bait and managed a run of 6 Barbel in 6 put ins, not that I was counting, Bill was though as he waded through the Chub, Tench and Carp to try and find a Barbel . A quick look down the bank revealed that Ryan was catching steadily, but Pete was struggling with big gaps between his bites .

Good to see as well, that the EA's bailiffs were out and about checking licences in the cold. On a day when there were no matches on and the weather ensuring very few anglers were at the fishery, they could easily have given it a miss and stayed in the warm without anyone being any the wiser.

Around 1pm the wind started to get up, blowing straight into us and realistically both Bill and I should have changed our light rigs to combat it, but we were both to lazy as we were still getting bites. Soon I looked up and could tell by the grin on Bills face that the fish sliding towards his net was a Barbel, which was soon captured for posterity .........

Shortly after Paul(nomorelongwalks) phoned for a progress report and let us know that he was off for a pint or two in a nice warm pub . Meanwhile I was building a nice mixed bag of Barbel, Mirrors, F1's, Tench (both green & golden) Golden Orfe and Ide, nothing big but regularly enough to keep warm .

By 3pm we decided to call time as the skies threatened rain and both Pete & Ryan had realised that trainers weren't the ideal footwear to keep your feet warm

My bag came to 26lbs, but you'll have to excuse the picture as Ryan was so cold by then that he couldn't hold the camera steady .................

Finally Bill weighed in with 21lbs including 4 Barbel that all beat his previous PB .............

Not the greatest of weights but given the light hearted nature of the day and the conditions, not to bad. Farewells made we set off, but we'll soon be doing it all again on the 15th December at the MD's Southern Fur & Feather match .

Well with Maria working today and arranging to meet up with a friend after work I took the opportunity to pop down to Monk Lakes for a session today. I was thinking of having a session on Match Lake 4 providing I could get on there, to see if I could get amongst a few of the better Tench that have recently been stocked.

Arriving just after 8am I stopped off and had a chat with Ron the bailiff while I paid my day ticket. He informed me that apart from a club match on Lake 1 there was nothing on any of the remaining 3 match lakes. I drove up to the top car park and could see that there were a few people on Lake 4 but still plenty of swims left, however as I got out of the car I could see that apart from a solitary angler on Peg 47 there was no one else on Lake 2, and that meant that Peg 45 was free.

All thoughts of Lake 4 vanished, and my kit was soon occupying Peg 45. It's a corner peg which the prevailing wind normally blows into and usually provides a good days fishing.

A quick chat with the angler on Peg 47 (Mick) revealed that he'd looked in on the Maggotdrowning.com forums for some information on the lakes before his visit, and he was already catching well on the pole.

With it being a mild overcast day and the surface of the lake being smooth as glass I decided to set up a 2ssg styro pellet waggler from Malman Floats so that I could give my Shakespeare Mach 3, 11ft Micro Pellet Waggler Rod a work out later on with the prolific stock of F1's that are in the venue. I also set up a couple of top 2's for the pole to tackle the margins as it's normally possible to catch well close in especially on a day like today when there's very little pressure on the venue.

Bait for the day was pretty simple, just a combination of  GOT Baits  4mm pellets for feed that I could also fish banded on the pellet wag and a pint of red maggots.

So a handfull of pellet fed at my feet and straight in with a top 2 rig and as soon as the float settled it slid away and a minute later a fin perfect Tench of about 1lb slid over the net. The fish were just lined up and hungry for the bait and soon it was one a chuck from a variety of Chub, Barbel, Carp and Tench, both green & golden with even a few Gudgeon sneaking in amongst them.

Around 10·30am a car pulled up behind and a chap got out with his son. He came over for a chat and it turned out that his son was just getting into fishing and he'd brought him down to try his luck here. They strolled over to Lake 4 to set up, but seeing them take a couple of uncut loaves over for bait, I did wonder in the back of my mind whether they might struggle.

Anyway back to the fishing and out with the pellet wag. 2 good pouches of pellet at around 25 yds followed by the float soon produced a plump F1 around the 2lb mark and by regularly feeding around 10 pellets a time these were soon coming regularly with the odd better Mirror muscling in on the action when they could beat the F1's to the bait.

About 1pm I decided to have a stroll over to lake 4 to see how the father and son (Stuart & Jack) who had spoken to me earlier had got on. Dad had a carp rod and baitrunner set up with a small float set a couple of feet deep, while Jack has a small 4 mtr whip with the same set up but way too much line. A brief chat revealed that they were struggling with just a couple of small stockies to show for their mornings efforts.
With his Dads permission I spent 5 mins sorting out Jack's kit, showing him how to plumb the depth etc and shortening the rig down to a more manageable set up. Apart from the bread they had some corn, so I showed him how to bury the hook into a kernal and as he settled down we fed a few grains round the float.
Soon his float shot under and he was into a small Mirror of about 1lb, netted by his dad and layed on the unhooking mat for hook removal and a picture. A couple more followed then a Golden Tench much to Jack's delight so I left them to it with Stuarts Thanks.

Back to my peg and Mick came along for a chat, He was a little taken aback by the number of fish he'd caught, telling me that after 30 years angling he mostly fished rivers and natural lakes these days, and he couldn't get over the condition of the Barbel he was catching as he'd always been led to believe that they didn't florish in lakes!!!!
By now the wind had got up blowing straight into me and while there were still fish to be caught on the pellet wag, feeding and presentation were proving problematical. Jack appeared holding his whip explaining that the float seemed to be behaving strangely, and a quick look revealed the shot weren't locking the float properly, and with the wind getting up he was having trouble so I changed it over to a Drennan blue from my box and reshotted it and he was soon back in action.

After this I went back onto the top 2 feeding maggot with double red on the hook. Soon it was obvious that the Barbel had moved in with a vengance. Most of these were in the 1-2lb mark and all super fit, giving the Black Hydro a good work out.

3pm soon rolled round and Stuart and Jack stopped by as they were leaving to thank me for my help. Jack watching me land another Barbel remarked that he would love to catch one, so sitting him down on my box I handed him the top2 and told him to hang on, Soon the float slid away and he was in, the look of surprise as the elastic shot out was priceless, but he soon had it under control and I netted it for him,

with both maggots still on the hook I told him to drop it in again and sure enough another Barbel obliged. Stuart managed to capture the moment on his camera phone, hopefully to provide treasured memories to a confirmed angler in years to come. I think Jack's fishing could cost Stuart a few bob in the years ahead.

That seemed to be a good point to call a halt to proceedings, Soon the kit was packed away, leaving me to reflect on what had proved to be a most enjoyable day both in terms of fish caught and helping Stuart and Jack with a few pointers in the right direction.

Marsh AC club match.

Another cracking day out as usual with Marsh AC.

This was to be the last match of the year for the club on a venue that was a new one on the club calendar. I have to say what a lovely looking venue Churchgate Lakes is, consisting of 3 lakes (we fished Bottom Lake) but it switched off big time on the day for no apparent reason.

I had drawn peg 7 and I have to say I fancied it, with a nice comfortable chuck to the point of an island and a nice level 7ft of depth on the pole line at around 12mtrs.....

I couldn't buy a bite on the feeder though, not even a liner. Well I did have one bite, but of course that came while I was tying up another hook length with Dave the Fish chatting to me, so as you can imagine he was totally sympathetic.

I stuck it out with maggot on an 18 fishing on the deck for the majority of the session nicking small 4oz Skimmers and a solitary 3lb'er. I was briefly attached to a 'lump' which bottomed out my black Hydro in record time, but with 30 minutes to go and an estimated 7lb in the net I remarked to Terry that it looked like he had me beaten on the day. 'Knowing you, you'll probably mug a lump before the end ' was his reply. Nice to know that he had faith in my piscatorial skill and tenacity being rewarded .

Well with 5 minutes to go I lifted into another dip of the float only to be greeted by yards of black Hydro streaming out of the top kit !!!!!!! . Obviously a decent fish, it was a slow plodding fight and I managed to net it just as the whistle went for the end of the match . It was a chunky Mirror Carp which weighed 17lbs 6ozs, equalling my PB Carp and the largest fish that I've ever caught on the pole.  Added to the silvers it gave me 25lbs 14ozs  which proved to be enough for the win.

A special mention for Judy Hermite who managed to catch 2 decent Carp (1 of them a double) on her pole, Judy's more at home fishing with a rod and reel and these were her largest pole caught fish and gave her 2nd place on the day. Well done Judy .

Also to Gladys Collier, on her 1st Marsh AC match, doubling hubby Dave's weight off the next peg much to his delight. As you can imagine of course we were all full of sympathy for him at the weigh-in......................NOT .

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Peter Morton	25lbs 14ozs
2nd	Judy Hermite	21lbs 02ozs
3rd	Paul East	13lbs 10ozs
4th	John Holdsworth	13lbs 08ozs
5th	Gladys Collier	12lbs 04ozs
6th	Terry Goff	11lbs 08ozs
7th	Tony Roberts	10lbs 08ozs
8th	Roger Noakes	8lbs 08ozs
9th	Zack Johnson	5lbs 10ozs
10th	Dave Collier	5lbs 08ozs
11th	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 08ozs
12th	Graham Manning	3lbs 00ozs
13th	Arthur Thompson	2lbs 08ozs
	Martin Hucker	DNW
	Chris Withall	DNW
	Ed Dobson	DNW
	Rod Turner	DNW

 

Just a quick visit.

Well today promised to be a bit of fun as I was taking Dave, the owner of Maggotdrowning.com down to Monk Lakes for a few hours. Nothing strange in that you might say except for the fact that Dave lives in Leeds!!!!!

He'd actually brought his Wife and eldest daughter down to London as they had tickets to the Prince concert at the O2 arena, so we thought we would make the most of  the opportunity to sneak a few hours fishing while he was down. Word had got out however and it seemed like there may be a few more members of Maggotdrowning making the trip down to Monk Lakes to meet up with him.

So Dave finally rocked up at my place at around 12·30 and by the time we arrived at Monks it was close to 2pm. We went up to match lake 4 to find Vince, Dave Collier and Bill Gibbins already ensconced. Welcomes over Dave and I settled in, with Dave opting for the pole while I had travelled relatively light with just my new Shakespeare Pellet Waggler rod, a chair and a box of bits chucked into my carryall.

The others had been there since around noon and had built their swims up so that they were all catching well, mostly small stockie Carp and Tench, though a few of the better Tench had shown up including a near 5lb'er for Vince who had managed a decent bag from the lake a few days previously.

While Bill contented himself with taking the stockies at the rate of 1 a chuck.........

I however was soon caught out as having made a schoolboy error .  Playing my 1st fish of the session, a small Carp, things didn't feel quite right and a quick look soon revealed that I had missed out one of the eyes on the rod when I threaded the line through them while setting up , not that the lads got any pleasure from taking the mickey out of my mistake.

Dave Collier was getting a few, but soon went into "Butler" mode popping down to the snack wagon and returning with the burgers and the teas  so a halt was called as those were consumed. Behind us on match lake 1 a match had recently finished and I could see a few fish moving in the margins where the departing anglers had disposed of their unused bait. As I was finding sport slow in my own swim I took the decision to move over onto the closest swim to see what I could manage from the margins.

Dave meanwhile was sticking at it, even though he took a bit of convincing that his normal "Yorkie" frugal feeding regime needed stepping up now that he was down south where the fish are hungry and need a decent feed, not pidgeons portions .

I'm sure he could be heard sobbing quietly to himself as he stepped up the feed from 1 pellet every 10 minutes to a hand full every couple of minutes, but it soon started to reap rewards as he found some better fish including a nice Tench...............

Meanwhile I had settled in and with the margins appearing to resemble fish soup I just needed to keep the pellet going in and  using either a GOT Baits  6mm expander or corn on the hook resulted on a fish  virtually every put in, a mixture of Carp, Tench and Barbel with even the occaisional Skimmer thrown in for good measure.

Chatting to Bill earlier he had mentioned that he had only ever caught 1 Barbel and that had only weighed a couple of ounces, and with the Barbel in Monks now going around the 2lb mark I invited him over to see if he could get one as I had had a dozen already. Well Bill sat there for a good ½hr with me feeding the swim for him, but try as he may all he could manage was a succession of Carp and Tench with me performing the Ghillies duties. It did at least give him a chance to try my rod out with which he was suitably impressed, but of course you don't need me to tell you that as soon as he passed the rod back to me the 2nd fish I caught was.............. A Barbel.

Just to rub Bill's nose in it Vince wandered over and dropped into a peg next to me and promptly had a Barbel as well.

With home time fast approaching Dave came over to try his hand with my gear.........

............ and was soon into a fish, not the hoped for Barbel but the first of a few Carp that came in a hectic few minutes, topped off with a nice chunky little Mirror Carp...................

So that was it, session over, short and sweet but a real fun session in good company and more than a few fish thrown into the mix as well, It would be greedy to ask for anything more really.

The JINX Series 2007

Match 5.

Well it's the final match of this years Jinx Series today at Rolf's Lake and for a change there's no driving for me as a fellow Maggotdrowner Paul East aka NoMoreLongWalks had said that he would pick me up as he had managed to secure a guest spot on the match . A sunny morning held the promise of a good day and with Paul arriving in good time we had time to stop of in Battersea on the way for a hearty breakfast, and a smooth trouble free trip down saw us pulling into the car park at Rolf's around 11am allowing us plenty of time before the supposed 12 noon draw. The one worry was that as we had driven down the sunshine had disappeared to be replaced with a heavily overcast grey sky.
A stroll round the lake soon revealed that the lake was almost back at it's normal level with most of the platforms finally being above water and that John Bennett had been busy gardening, with a lot of work having been done on the swims.

At the draw there was plenty of discussion, Could Ant hang onto the lead in the series or could a permutation of results today see the long time leader lose out to either Royst, Mark, Brian or Nick and could Dave(yorkie)Moore and Eric maintain their narrow 6 point lead in The Pairs over Mark C and Paul Roberts. The actual draw was a little late (as usual ) which meant that we would be fishing from 2pm till 7pm.
Into the draw bag and I draw peg34 on the little lake, a peg widely regarded as a flyer. I've only fished it once before on the Saturday of the MD's Pairs weekend, when the lake was still a fair way above it's normal level and had managed 73¼lbs from the peg . With plenty of time before the start I set up a feeder and a new Shakespeare Mach3 11ft pellet waggler rod that I've just brought as well as a couple of top kits for the pole. I was hoping to nick a couple of early fish on the feeder or waggler before concentrating later on the right hand margin.

Looking across I could see Clive who must have run to peg8 as he had drawn it on Bank Holiday Monday and had 202lb 4oz , while the previous Saturday John Walker had 530lbs from the peg, so no pressure there. For company on peg7 Clive had Nick Jones (Polepot) and on 6 Dirk(The Dangler)Williams, with Royst further down on peg 4 and Steve Wilson on 2. While to my left I had Colin on peg36 and Nick(Neo1)Williams on 38 while Mark C was on 40.

So 2pm and the All-in, a big handfull of pellet into the bush to my right and another couple in front of it then out to the lily pads with hair rigged meat on the feeder. Looking up I could see that Clive was already in to his 1st Carp, swiftly followed by a Skimmer.

My tip didn't as much as flicker, normally you would expect lots of little twitches as silvers attacked the bait or even a couple of liners if Carp were present somewhere in the swim, but nothing moved it at all.
Polepot appeared to have snared one on the feeder.........

while Mark C had had one and Steve Wilson had had a couple of fish...........

but looking down, the bank to my left resembled a still life as both Colin and Nick were in the same predicament as me..........

I'd been religiously feeding my margin swim, but it it was far to early to take a look and as I had seen a couple of fish topping I decided to take a look with the pellet waggler after 40 minutes of inactivity on the feeder. A couple of pouch fulls of pellet and first cast out the rod is nearly ripped from my hand!!!
The fish put up a spirited fight but the rod dealt with it all, despite the fish at one stage tangling itself in the line giving the appearance to some of it being foulhooked and was soon safely in the net. An obvious weigher, it tipped the scales at 14½lbs, a lovely way to get off the mark and christen a new rod at the same time . In the next 30 mins I managed another couple of 6lb'ers and then it died on me.

All the time it had been getting cooler, so much so that I went back to the car for my bib & brace and a fleece. Having a chat with a few of the lads on the car park bank on the way back revealed that it was hard graft for everyone with only the odd fish being caught.

As the afternoon drew on Colin had finally got a Carp of about 5lbs while Neo1 had got one as well along with a couple of Skimmers. Poor Steve had had a bit of a disaster however, while playing a decent Carp his no4 section of his pole had snapped clean in two and he could only watch helplessly as the top 3½ sections of his pole slid below the surface of the lake like Excaliber..........

things had picked up however for Dirk and Royst with them both appearing to be walking away with the match and matching each other fish for fish, although Dirk appeared to have the edge with more of his fish being weighers and including a clonking Golden Orfe that tipped the scales at 6lbs 4ozs.

 

With just an hour to go I noticed that Clive had started to finally find a few fish, to little to late, but at least he was catching which was more than the majority of us were doing.........

Finally 7pm rolled round putting most of us out of our misery. While my 3 Carp only weighed 26½lbs, amazingly it was enough to give me a section win!!!!!!  Due to the low weights the weigh-in didn't take as long as usual and it was soon confirmed that Dirk had won the day with his 1st ever Jinx Ton  and Royst just missing out due to losing a number of fish, costing him not only the match but the overall win in the Jinx Series  as well

Ant despite the horror of a DNW on the day hung on to win the Jinx Series  with Royst taking 2nd overall, while the Pairs was won by Dave Moore and Eric Robathan in a close finish with Mark Causer and Paul Roberts.

So another Jinx Series survived.

A big THANK YOU to Malc for organising what still remains the friendliest series of matches that I've ever had the pleasure to fish in, and the reason for that is the anglers that compete in the Series. Thank you all for making it the event it is.

Highlight for me was seeing the look on Nick Jones's face when he picked up his 1st ever Jinx section at Holly Farm and then repeated it again at Stockton. Well Done Nick, couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.
Can't wait to do it all again next year . Nurse, Time for my medication.

Overall  Series Result.

So Bank Holiday Monday and Maria is working today, so after dropping her at work at 6am I popped back home to load my kit up and set off towards Dorking, having decided to take the opportunity to reacquaint myself with The Old Estate Lake at Bury Hill Fisheries . Surprisingly for a Bank Holiday the traffic was very light and in just under an hour I was pulling into an already busy car park at the fishery.

Stopping off at the Boathouse to get my day ticket I notice that things have moved on since I last visited with a much better stocked tackle and bait section now in place and a quick glance along the Front Bank reveals that most of those swims are already taken. I really want to get among a few of the Bream that the lake is known for, so set off along the Long Bank in the hope of getting one of the swims amongst the lily pads .
Carpers, carpers everywhere, but just as it looks like I'll be unlucky I find a swim 2 shy of the culvert that will do nicely for the day, allowing me to reach the pads on both sides at 14½mtrs and with a decent amount of open water in front should I hook a Carp.

The rig was simplicity itself, a top2 rigged with black Hydro with a 4x12 KC Carpa Tricky float rigged up on 0·17 Carptec line straight through to a barbless 18 fox series2 hook to fish on the bottom in about 4ft of water. Bait was to be GOT Baits  6mm expanders, with a few of these being fed along with their 4mm hard pellets.

It wasn't hard fishing really just a question of feeding the 2 opposite lines and alternating between them till a bite came along, which it finally did after about 30mins. A little dip and it just slid away and within a minute there in the net was one of OBH's smaller Bream going around 3lbs .............

The promise of another bright hot sunny day looked as if it may have an adverse effect on sport but by sticking at it I'd had 10 between 3 - 4½lbs by 11am.

Next put in and a similar bite sees a lot of Hydro heading through the pads, cranking the pressure onto my Super PowerLite a tug of war ensued, slowly and surely the pressure told and the fish (still attached ) came out into open water. The commotion had brought the angler from the next swim round to watch and within a couple of minutes there in the net is a nice Common Carp of around 10lbs........

The chap in the next swim is called Paul, fishing more conventional Carp gear of matched rods and baitrunners on a pod, and soon he's into a Carp that has taken a hair rigged Halibut pellet. It's soon netted and weighs in at 12lbs. He's only got a basic camera so I capture it on my digital to e-mail to him later.........

Another couple of Bream for me and then I'm into another tug of war, this time in the other set of pads!!!!!!! Once again the constant pressure tells and the fish pops out into the open water and after 3-4 minutes of dogged plodding it slides over the net, a much chunkier fish this time coming in at just over 12lbs , with Paul snapping a picture for me...........

A quick phone call to Malc to find out how he's doing on a pole only match at Drayton reveals he isn't!!!!!!!!! Yep, the Peugeot has let him down once again and he's waiting for the recovery truck.................. Somethings never change. Another quick call to Dave reveals that he and Stu are on a Barbel hunt on a river somewhere in deepest Yorkshire, but at that point in time they hadn't had one.

Paul meanwhile has had another nice Common while I've had 3 more Bream in successive put in's followed by another Carp, a Mirror this time, which thankfully charges out into open water allowing me to bring it to the net relatively easily. In the net it looks a little weird as it appears to have a massively underslung mouth, hasn't affected it's appetite though as it appears otherwise fit and well at around the 10lb mark............

Yet more Bream put in an appearance and around 3pm I'm thinking of packing up to avoid catching the Bank Holiday traffic on the way home the float slides away and I'm attached to another Carp, yet another Common and with Paul doing the honours it proves to be my best of the day at 14lbs . As I start to pack my gear away Paul is in again once more, and after a spirited fight I find myself doing the honours again, this time it's another lovely Common tipping the scales at 17lbs..........

So that's it for me, a very pleasant days fishing with some good company and a final tally of 17 Bream and 4 Carp. Paul was stopping on for a few more hours so I bade him farewell having made sure I had his E-mail address to forward the pictures on to him.
Next up it's the final round of The Jinx Series at Rolf's Lake next Saturday, Hopefully Malc will get there but with his car you wouldn't bet on it .