Marsh AC club match.

It's off down to Hartleylands Fishery at Cranbrook in Kent for what should have been an Inter-club match against Morefax AC but unfortunately they haven't been able to get a team together so it's just a regular club match today. However as we booked the whole of Nick's Lake we've invited a few guests along so hopefully everyone will have a decent day . A glance out of the window offered a glimpse of what promised to be a decent day weather wise, so after taking care of the cats and swigging a couple of cups of coffee the kit was loaded into the car and off I went .

First stop was the Knoxbridge Café to take care of breakfast Mick the Chippy and grand daughter Rosie had just arrived as I pulled up and we entered to find that Keith and Mick already there and waiting for breakfast after their trip down from Milton Keynes. John. Martin and Zack weren't far behind and once breakfast was taken care of we made our way down to the fishery for the draw.

The usual banter was flying around as we waited . Lee was there, the sole Morefax angler who could make it, so he would be fishing as a guest along with along with Gary who was Chris's guest today and fishing his first match for about 30 years . There were two areas I wanted to draw today, either the spit (pegs 7-9) or the mid twenties. Into the bag and the drawing hand didn't co-operate leaving me with peg 16, not where I really wanted to be .

Making my way round to the peg with my gear I found that Rod had peg 13 and Al was on peg 14, while Martin had 17 and Jim 18. You can see where everyone else was pegged on the peg plan below ......

Settling into my peg it was a question of sorting out a plan of attack. The obvious approach was method feeder to the island, but it only ever seems to produce small carp of around a pound and if I'm honest it's a style of fishing that bores me to tears, so today I was going to target the bigger fish that tend to lurk around the margins so I set up four top kits. Two had Nick Gilbert's handmade NG Power Pencil's, 0·4 g made up on on 0·18 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's for a line in front at 6mtrs where I had around 4 feet of water, while the other 2 were 0.2g NG Edger's again on 0·18 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's for the margins where I had around 2½ft of water. I also set up a pellet waggler should I see fish moving around up in the water. Bait was my usual combination of 6mm coarse pellet for feed and the hook along with some 8mm's, sweetcorn and 6mm GOT Rippers as alternative hookers.

With around 15 minutes to the All-In I took a little stroll. Al had set up to fish long and shallow on the pole along with a method feeder and pellet waggler ......

and I found Lee down on peg 7 with a big grin on his face and itching to get started ......

So at 10am Dave called the All-In, a pot of pellet onto the 6mtr line and a handful down both margins was followed by a banded 8mm out to the 6mtr line, Sport was far from instant though and a good 10 minutes passed before I had my first bite which I promptly missed . Al had gone straight out on the method and was soon into a run of small carp, but apart from him sport seemed to be pretty slow up our end of the lake. My second bite produced a feisty little mirror of around 1½lbs so at least I was off the mark, but my next couple of fish were small skimmers and the first hour saw me add just another 3 small carp to my nets. The second hour was a little better, but only just with another 6 small carp to show for my efforts, but at least the sun was shining allowing me to ditch the fleece and sit comfortably in a polo shirt for the first time this year . However I was getting nowhere fast, while Al was still catching on the method, although he was complaining that fish were knocking off the groudbait as soon as the method hit the water, so I decided it may be time to get the feeder rod out. However I rigged it with a small cage feeder as opposed to the method, and was going to feed dampened 6mm's in an attempt to stop it getting ragged. So with a couple of pints of pellets damped down I took a stroll while the pellets soaked.

Simon had started on the feeder, but it hadn't really produced for him so he had reverted to the pole in attempt to find some action ......

Next up was Keith, another who'd started on the feeder but reverted to the pole and while he insisted that he wasn't really getting to grips with it he was soon into a carp as we chatted ......

Clive was looking a little happier with things today fishing the bush to his right and soon had plenty of elastic streaming out of his top kit, and the culprit a carp that he'd foul hooked in the tail soon found its way to his waiting net ......

Next up was Tony, back with us today having missed the Rayne Lodge match, he was targeting his left hand margin and seemed to be reasonably pleased with his progress , while down on peg 26 Rosie was having a fine old day in fact she was having such a good time that Grandad Mick had stopped fishing himself and contented himself with being Rosie's Ghillie for the day ......

Round to peg 31 and Mick W was being his usual laid back self and although he was being a bit cagey about how he was doing the large tail pattern by his float when he dropped his rig in rather gave the game away that he was probably sitting on a good few fish ......

On the next peg Chairman Dave reckoned he was having a similar day to me (I won't call it a Grueller as I know one of my readers would take issue with me on this ) but having returned from a stroll of his own had managed a couple of quick fish on paste down the margin ......

It was pretty much the same story until I got round to the point where I found Lee targeting his margin and getting among a few carp to keep him happy with his progress .......

Kevin was happily fishing the feeder on peg 8 and having one of his best days of the year so far ......

Terry was also having a decent day on peg 9 although he's lost a couple of lumps during the morning that just didn't want to play ball and as I made my way back to my peg Al was giving the method a rest, and seeing if he could find some action on the pole line ......

Back at my peg, and with the feeder loaded and a banded 8mm on the hook it was out to the island. Within 30 seconds the tip wrapped round and a regulation 1lb carp was heading to the net, this rapidly became eight in eight casts forcing Martin to get his feeder rod into the action. For the next couple of hours fish came regularly and with around an hour to go I had 50 carp in the nets. The trouble was they were like peas in a pod, all around the 1lb mark and I wasn't enjoying it so with an hour to go the feeder rod was up the bank and I spent that final hour looking for some lumps in the margins. However it wasn't to be, they just weren't there and I only added another half a dozen small carp to the nets before Dave called the All-Out at 4pm.

Packing my gear away I felt that I had something approaching 60lbs to show for my efforts. I would almost certainly have topped the 'Ton' if I'd fished the feeder all match, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it as I like to have something larger to target nowadays. I was pretty sure that Al had won the match though as it had suited his style of fishing as he just likes to be busy and doesn't mind what he's catching as long as he keeps busy, and he'd certainly been that today .

When I caught up with the weigh-in they had just weighed Lee in with 105¾lbs and judging by his smile he was happy with that . Kevin had 63lbs and Terry 73½lbs. Rod had 11½lbs while Al certainly had been busy recording a fine 176½lbs . Next up my estimate proved to be almost spot on with 59¾lbs. Martin managed just 13½lbs and Jim 38lbs. Simon had tipped back as he'd had to leave early. Keith had managed 85½lbs but Clive topped that with 113lbs while Tony put 106½lbs on the scales . Mick was a very proud Grandad when Rosie weighed in with a fine 77lbs, "its just like catching roach on the canal Grandad, but bigger ". Mick W bagged 'The Milton Keynes Nugget' today with 113lbs but did himself no favours beating Chairman Dave's 51¾lbs from the next peg . Graham managed a level 40lbs to Zack's 23½lbs and John rounded things off with 39¼lbs.

So back to the car park for the results and Al had taken the win today , while Clive and Mick W had tied for second . The sections today were won by Al, Lee, Clive and Mick W. Overall just over 1250lbs of fish were weighed in, making an average of just over 66lbs per angler. Not a bad day I think you'll agree .

Marsh AC club match.

Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent is the venue today for the final Marsh AC match this year. The club has booked The Reservoir for today, which should make a nice change as we normally fish Nick's Lake . It was an early start for me as I'd arranged to meet up with Mick Pearson who was coming along as my guest today for a spot of breakfast prior to the match.
There was a noticeable chill in the air as I loaded up the car, and as I made my way down the temperature was only registering 4°C on the car thermometer . I arrived at The Knoxbridge Café just after 7am to find Mick waiting for me. We were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast and catching up with events since we'd last met. Kevin & Jean along with Graham,John,Martin and Zack arrived for breakfast as well, and with that taken care of it was just a matter of a five minute drive up to the fishery.

Pulling into the car park it was the usual hive of activity as greetings were exchanged and tackle was assembled prior to the draw ......

Day out at Hartleylands

It's off down to Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent today. I'm meeting Dave, Terry, Simon and Gino for a days fishing on the reservoir. Our club Marsh AC have a match there in a couple of weeks time, and as none of us have fished the reservoir for quite a time it seems like a good idea to have a session before the match to try and suss out what works and what doesn't .

No point in an early start today as I'd arranged to meet the lads at 9·30am at the fishery, and that was when I arrived to find Terry, Simon and Gino there already and just about to set off to pick their swims . A quick discussion ensued and with a few anglers already ensconced in pegs we decided to fish what I refer to as the 'Finches Bank' as it runs parallel to Finches Pond. The lads set off to bag their pegs while I unloaded my kit, and with my trolley loaded set off to claim a peg. It was promising to be scorcher of a day, not a cloud in the sky and the first peg I came to was 24 between two overhanging trees and pleasantly shaded, but I felt that Dave would probably like that one (once he finally got there ) so left that one. Next up was Gino on 23 with Simon on 22. Terry had gone further round to Peg 18 as he'd always fancied fishing that one, so I settled on peg 20 to leave Simon a bit of space ......

With the sun climbing higher and barely a breathe of wind, the water looked like glass. It definitely was going to be a warm one today . First things first, so the kit was unloaded and as it wasn't a match I fed a couple of good handfuls of pellet down the left hand margin straight away , then started to set my kit up. One of the things I noticed was that hardly anything was showing on the surface, which I felt was a little strange given the conditions. I knew that Simon was going to try the pellet wag, so left mine in it's ready sleeve, It wouldn't take long to set up if I decided to give it a go later. Instead I decided to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 5 feet of water and the second down the left hand margin.. Rigs were a 4x12 CX pencil on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with a size 14 Guru MWG and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and plenty of it with 8mm pellet for the hook ......

By now Dave had arrived and strolled up to see where we all were, and as I expected he did indeed decide to settle into Peg 24 . It was around 10·30am by now so time to get started. I could see that fish were already in the margins over the bait I'd fed, but I was going to ignore them for now and just keep some bait going in and take a look there later in the day. At the start I fed 2 good handfuls of pellet straight out and another down the margin before shipping out a banded 8mm straight out. A couple of lift and drops of the rig and the float sailed away and it was immediately apparent that I was attached to one of the reservoirs hard fighting carp . They give a good account of themselves and make full use of the deep water there, but I soon gained the upper hand and had it sliding over the landing net, a nice chunky Mirror, longer than the width of my 22 inch net and around the 10lbs mark ......

With us not using keepnets today I decided to use my clicker to keep track of what I had today and it soon started to tick over as I started to pick up regular fish. I was feeding a good handful of pellet every put in as well as keeping some bait going into the margins and was soon picking up a mix of Mirrors and Commons on a regular basis, the average size of which seemed to be around the 4-5 lbs mark with the odd better fish .

Around 11·30am Dave called out that the kettle had boiled, so I strolled round for a cup of coffee , to find that Dave was playing what turned out to be his first carp of the day ......

Simon's mate Gino was also into a fish, he's quite new to fishing and was taking it easy as the fish gave a good account of itself and refusing to get it's head up, but steady gentle pressure won the day and he was rewarded with a lovely ghostie ......

With refreshments taken care of it was time to get back to my peg. Unfortunately the pellet wag had failed to produce anything of note for Simon, just a couple of small carp and a skimmer , so he'd reverted to the pole as he'd seen me catching regularly. The fish were still there on my return and it was really just a question of keeping the feed going in to keep the bites coming, The margin was still coloured up as well, so I just kept the feed going in, but still left it for later . Over on Peg 18 however Terry was having a bit of a struggle and getting a few to many skimmers rather than the carp he'd been hoping for, though the odd carp was getting a look in ........

Dave had come up for a stroll, it seemed that the carp I'd seen him playing had been his only one !!!!! and all he was getting were roach, and although they were of a decent stamp around the 8-12oz mark, they weren't what he was really after . From where I was sitting I had a pretty good view of what was going on around the reservoir and there must have been around 20 anglers in total, however the majority appeared to be struggling with just the odd fish coming out and despite the heat there was still nothing showing on the top. My peg seemed to be the exception however and I can only put that down to the amount I was feeding . Whatever it was the fish kept coming and by 1pm I had 103lbs on my clicker. So with a 'Ton by One' I decided to take a break and go and put the kettle on for another cuppa .

By now Dave had opted to try paste in an effort to try to tempt another carp, but it's probably not a good idea to try and hit sharp paste bites when you've got an audience of piss taking supportive mates watching your every move and they're ripping it out of you offering you their support . Dave gave it up and joined us for a coffee as we mulled over the mornings sport or lack of it in some cases.

With the inquest over we returned to our respective pegs. More feed onto both lines, but it seemed I'd left it a little to long as my line out in front seemed to be devoid of carp now, though there were plenty of skimmers that seemed only to happy to engulf an 8mm pellet . Time to target the margins. All morning I'd fed where the shelf dropped off and by laying the rig out so that the bait rested on the slope I had a bite straight away . Fishing against the slope the fish tend to dive off for the deeper water which limits any disturbance and once that initial run is contained they can be played out away from the swim. That first fish turned out to be a nice Mirror around the 7lb mark, and once again it was really just a case of steady away and taking fish on a regular basis ......

With the water well coloured up there was really very little chance of the fish vanishing on me as long as I kept the feed going in to hold them. Simon had taken another look on the pellet wag but that had proved to be fruitless. He'd had a couple of carp on the paste but had now decided to take a look at his right hand margin, but with an empty peg between us it wasn't producing nearly as well for him ......

As the afternoon wore on Terry finally managed to start picking up a few more carp among the skimmers that steadfastly refused to go away .......

Gino was still enjoying himself and managing to winkle out the odd carp here and there alternating between fishing the method and the pole ......

and Dave had finally managed to find a few carp from a swim that had frustrated him for a good part of the day, even though he was forced to fish a bit further out than he really wanted to ......

For me it was an easy afternoons fishing with just the odd foul hooker upsetting things and breaking the flow as fish came steadily to the net......

..... and by 4pm it was time for one last coffee as I had 201lbs showing on my clicker . Simon had decided to concentrate on one margin spot and up his feed and it was finally starting to pay off for him as he started to take fish on a regular basis .......

My fish were still there and feeding well and just after 5pm I had my best fish of the day, a nice plump Mirror at around 14-15lbs that Simon kindly caught on camera for me ......

That was my final fish as the rig parted on the strike on my next bite, but with 265lbs showing on my clicker I was happy enough to leave it at that , and I packed my gear away. Terry , Simon and Gino were going to fish on for a bit and Dave managed a final carp before he to decided to call it a day .......

So what did we learn today? If the fish are there it's possible to do a really decent weight, It's possible to struggle in some pegs, even if it holds some obvious feature to fish to, and don't ignore the margins . Thanks to Dave, Terry, Simon and Gino for their company today, let's hope it's a decent day for the match on the 15th, but I somehow feel it may just be a little bit different on the day .

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2011.

 Today is the day of the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Championship which means that I'm off down to Nick's Lake at Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrooke in Kent . Nick Gilbert had kindly taken care of organising the match this year. The early morning glance out of the window revealed a cloudy overcast morning, and the weather forecast wasn't for much in the way of improvement. I soon had the car loaded up and by 7am I was on my way.
The first port of call today was The Knoxbridge Café, where a few of the lads were meeting for breakfast . I got there just after 8am to find most of the usual suspects were already in attendance a 'Knoxbridge Special Breakfast' soon had me set up for the day ahead, and it was then just a matter of jumping back into the car for the five minute trip down the road to the fishery.

As we waited for the draw word came through that Tony was marooned on a stationary M25, and a quick phone call to him confirmed that he wouldn't be able to make it today , which left 16 of us fishing today. Prior to the draw Nick was doing a brisk trade in his floats which he had with him, but we were soon picking our pegs ......

I found peg 13 was to be mine for the day, not a peg that I would have chosen, as I've never fished there before and it's not considered one of the noted pegs. Nick Costar (Bag Up) had drawn peg 8 , and would take some beating with his Method approach, while Al had drawn 9, another good peg .
Matt and Mick had 23 and 24 and Nick Gilbert was on peg 17, on his own at the top of the lake with the wind blowing into it .

Reaching my peg I took stock, a comfy chuck to the island for a feeder, and a promising reed lined margin to the right and a overhanging bush to the left, with the wind blowing from right to left across me ......

I set up 3 top kits. The first with a 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil made up on 0·16 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 16 Guru MWG for straight out in front at around 6mtrs where I had around 4ft of water. Then a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG for tight to the reeds in my right hand margin where I had 2 feet of water and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG that would be used tight to the bush on my left. I also set up the feeder rod to fish the method to the island. Bait was a selection of 4, 6 and 8mm pellets along with some soft hookers and some paste.

Kevin appeared with a welcome cup of coffee courtesy of Jean and after a brief chat made his way back to his peg for the start of the match. With everyone set Nick called the All-In at 11am. I fed a pot of mixed pellet at 6mtrs and a handful in each margin before shipping an 8mm pellet out to the 6mtr line. a couple of dips then the float buried resulting in a hand sized skimmer to get me off the mark, which was followed by a couple more identical examples. Not quite what I was hoping for especially as the two Nick's both appeared to be off to flyer's along with Al, in fact rumour had it that Bag Up had taken a couple of near doubles in consecutive casts within the first 15 minutes!!!!!!

Up to my left on peg 15 was Toby(vassago)Wells, and from what I could see it appeared that he was suffering with a similar slow start to the match like I was ......

After upping my feeding on the 6mtr line my next fish was a Carp, only a small one at around 1½lbs, but it gave a good account of itself before sliding across the rim of the landing net . This signalled the start of a run of Carp, but after about an hour I could tell that I wasn't catching fast enough and was already falling behind . Time to take a look on the method. I'd previously soaked some 4mm pellets for use on the feeder, so using those in conjunction with a hair rigged banded 8mm pellet it was out to the island with the feeder. It was quite shallow out by the island and I could see fish turning toward the splash of the feeder as it landed, and while it soon started to produce fish for me, they were all small fish of around the 1lb mark . Nick on peg 17 was making serious inroads into the lake's Carp population and still taking fish regularly ......

I stuck it out in the hope that a few better examples would show up, but it just didn't seem as if it was meant to be today. Sipping a second cup of coffee from Jean I decided to have a quick look with the pellet waggler, as I had been catapulting 6-8 8mm pellets to the island every couple of minutes while fishing the method and it was already set up in it's ready sleeve. The set up was ideal to reach the island but after half a dozen casts it was all to obvious that the wind was making presentation to difficult for it to be effective .

I could see that Al was still catching at a steady rate, and his commentary on Bag Up's progress kept everyone aware of how well he was catching . I could also hear plenty of splashing coming from Nick's peg although the bush to my left stopped me from seeing quite how well he was doing. However I could see Micky over on peg 24 and he seemed to be catching well down his left hand margin ......

A quick look down both margins produced nothing apart from a solitary small Roach, so it was back to the 6mtr line for me. I was soon back among the Carp, still not large fish, but a slightly better stamp at around 1½-2lbs to those I'd been catching on the method . The problem was that I couldn't increase the catch rate, it was just steady away. Finally with about 30 minutes to go the fish turned up in my right hand margin and I managed to take a few better fish around the 3-4lb mark before Nick called the All-Out at 4pm, but it was to little to late for me.

Packing up and chatting to Toby it was obvious that we'd had pretty similar matches, and I felt that I probably had around 70lbs to show for my efforts.
So with my gear back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In.

Mick r kicked things off with 39½lbs, but Simon recorded the days first 'Ton' with a fine 137lbs . Kev could only manage 37lbs 10ozs. Bag Up put 185lbs on the scales , but Al topped that with 197lbs 10ozs . My fish came to 88¼lbs, while Toby had 79¼lbs. Nick showed just what a busy day he'd had 140 Carp for a weight of 222¼lbs . Lee had 82lbs and Matt had 128¼lbs but Mick won their peg to peg tussle with 177¾lbs . Dave had 50½lbs while new boy Gino had 30lbs. On peg 32 Terry's 112½lbs was just 4ozs better than Rusty's 112¼lbs from peg 33 , and Keith was last to weigh with 49¾lbs.

So back to the car park for the results. The Winner on the day and Maggotdrowning Southern Champion 2011 was Nick Gilbert . Al Loader took second place on the day while Nick Costar was third overall .

Thanks to Nick for organising the match and to all those that supported it on the day .

Lastly to Hartleylands Farm, what a fishery Over 1700lbs of fish weighed in, meaning an average of over 100lbs per angler, it shows the quality of the fishing on offer .

Marsh AC v  Morefax AC

Well I'm down at Hartleylands today for a small Knock Up on Nick's Lake. A couple of weeks ago Dave Collier posted the following on my club forum...... " Some of my son-in-laws mates have invited me and a few Marsh members for a little knock up on 23rd April. They normally fish as a small club with usually 8 or 10 of them. Between their organiser and myself we have booked the whole of Nicks lake for Saturday 23rd of April. So how many of you want to risk the wrath of SWMBO and come fishing on Easter Saturday"   Well after an invitation like that, it would be rude not to wouldn't it .

We had been hoping to have a Marsh club match around this time, but a combination of Easter, Royal Wedding and a lack of available bookings on suitable venues meant that the invitation from the Morefax lads offered a welcome opportunity for about a dozen of us to get out on the bank .

With plenty of time to set up before the All-In at 10am the pellet wag and feeder rod were taken out of their ready sleeves, though in all honesty I was only expecting to fish the pole. 3 rigs took care of my options, once again all Sackup CX 4x12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG's. pretty much the same rigs I'd used at Monks on the previous Marsh match ......

The first to fish at around 10mtrs where there was around 4ft of water and the other two to cover two margin lines. Bait for the day being a combination hard pellets and soft hookers.

 while second and third had come from adjacent pegs with Dave Collier's 90lbs from peg 21 giving him 2nd place ahead of Lee Rose (peg 20) whose 79lbs gave him 3rd overall .
Kevin on peg 24 had 64lbs to give him the section on the day while Nick Bondeau on peg 27 managed 59½lbs to take the final section and his first ever pick up in a match . All in all a good day, with everyone having some fish and I'm sure it won't be the last time that the Marsh and Morefax clubs get together for a friendly Knock Up .

Marsh AC club match.

It's off down to Hartleylands fishery at Cranbrook in Kent for another club match today. We've booked the whole of Nick's Lake and invited a few guests so hopefully all will have a decent day . A dark damp picture greeted me as I looked out of the window this morning and as I loaded the car there was a definite chill in the air , Autumn had well and truly arrived .
By 7·15am I was sitting down in the Knox-Bridge Café for a 'Full English' and I was soon joined by Mick the Chippy who was my guest for the day while John, Martin & Zack were soon followed by Graham, Al, Keith and Pete Thompson, all in search of some pre-match sustenance . So with breakfast taken care of it was back to the cars and off to the fishery for the draw.

Most of the usual suspects were present and with the sun beaming down hopes were high for a decent days fishing, though a cool north easterly wind made sure that everyone was glad that they were well wrapped up . Into the draw bag and peg 4 revealed itself as my home for the day at head, a nice short walk once I'd moved my car and I would have the sun on me all day to take the edge off the chill . I had Martin for company on my right on peg 2, while to my left I had Dave Collier along with daughter Chrissy and her partner Nick on pegs 7, 8 & 9.

Set up for the day would be nice and simple. Feeder rod with a small method feeder to fish to the island and 3 pole rigs. the 3 pole rigs were all Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·16 Power Match with size 18 QM1 hooks set at various depths to cover from the margins where I had around 2ft out to 5mtrs were there was around 4ft. I wasn't planning to fish any further out on the pole as the wind would make it awkward. Bait today was my usual selection of GOT Baits soft hookers, expanders and 6mm hard pellets while feed would just be a mix of 4 & 6mm hard pellets and some groundbait for the method.

While I waited for the All-In I had a few misgivings in that I hadn't seen many fish showing on what is normally a very prolific venue and the water had what I can only describe as a cloudy look to it as the algae was starting to break down with the onset of the cooler weather. Anyway at 10am Dave blew the whistle for the All-In and I cupped 2 pots of pellets in on the 5mtr line and fed both margins before going out to the island with the method feeder. Ken seemed to be straight into a few fish on the waggler ......

....... while Dave, Chrissy and Nick all seemed to be into fish as well . Twenty minutes in and I hadn't had as much as a knock on the method which was very unusual , however I noticed a couple of bubbles on the 5mtr line and soon swapped over to the pole line.

A couple of lift and drops and the float slid away, the culprit being a mint little Common of around a pound to get me underway .
Now I wish I could say that this was the start of a major bagging session but if I did I would be telling porkies . I did start to put a few fish together but it was far from fast and furious despite Jean arriving with a welcome mug of coffee . Two hours in and I'd only managed 10 small Carp from the 5mtr line and despite another couple of looks across on the method, had still not had as much as a tap on it .

Going nowhere fast I re-fed both pole lines and went for a stroll with the camera to try and suss out how others were catching, if indeed they were. Dave was dropping a bait by the young willow in his left margin and was soon into a fish as I watched ......

Chris was a picture of concentration and while he was getting quite a few small silvers had only had 2 small carp to go with them and boost his catch .......

Keith was having a bit of a struggle, but being comfortably ahead in the points table was using the day to experiment fishing paste which was producing some very positive bites but little in the way of fish .......

....... while Clive wasn't fairing much better, and I'm sure I heard him telling his drawing hand that he'd be teaching it another sharp lesson after today .......

Carrying on round I came to Colin who I knew had been down a couple of times practising during the week along with Tony, Terry and Dave. He'd caught well on paste (no surprise there ) but the drop in temperature looked to have scuppered his plans as he was having a struggle today .......

...... on the next peg Kevin had been struggling too, but he was just in the process of landing a small Carp, so hopefully things would start to pick up for him ......

 Al was ticking along and owning up to around 15 Carp in the net and Pete was a little frustrated that his plans for a days skimmer bashing was being thwarted by the fact that the skimmers were to small and Carp kept muscling in on the act .......

Mick seemed happy enough with his lot and was getting a few fishing the method but felt that he was waiting just a little to long between bites to do any real damage .......

Terry was another of those anglers who was finding that the fishing today bore no resemblance to that which he'd experienced earlier on in the week ......

Ken's bright start had slowed somewhat though he was still picking up the odd fish on the waggler and Graham was another of those who was finding to many small silvers and not enough Carp in the mix ......

Back at my peg it was just a case of getting my head down and getting the most from my peg for the rest of the match ......

It was far from fast and furious but by working away at it, constantly lifting, dropping and dragging the rig I kept picking up the odd Carp nothing bigger than 2 pounds and mostly smaller. My feeder line just refused to produce a fish despite another couple of looks and neither margin line produced a bite either . Dave's fish had slowed right up on him as well, but he'd got off to such a good start that I knew he was out of my reach. John and Zack came round to collect Martin as they were leaving early and John took the honours in the 3 way car sweep with his 18½lbs . I managed a bit of a spurt with 10 Carp in the last hour and when Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm I'd managed 36 Carp.

So to the Weigh-In and my fish gave me a weight of 45¾lbs which would be good enough for a section win on the day . Chrissy's 35½lbs had beaten Nick's 27lbs, but Dave had won the family battle with a very decent 72¼lbs for 2nd overall . Keith had suffered his worst result of the series with just 12¾lbs to show for his efforts , while Clive's 45¾lbs tied my weight . Tony's 55½lbs secured 3rd on the day , but todays winner was Al with a fine 84½lbs . Pete ended with a creditable 53½lbs for 4th on his first ever visit to the fishery , while Mick managed 41¾lbs and Ken took the honours from the car park bank with 32½lbs .

So that's it for this years Marsh AC matches. Thanks to Dave for organising yet another enjoyable series of matches .
Well Done to Keith, Mr Consistent topping the points table . Thanks to all the members and guests who have fished, you're the ones who make it such an enjoyable day out each and every time .

Finally a special Thank You to Jean for those mugs of coffee during the matches, they were much appreciated .

The club doesn't operate a Championship as such but this year Dave's collated a table of the seasons results using a 30 point system. Guests results were not included in the table. As you can see Keith has been Mr Consistent over the course of the season coming out on top with 212 points  while Tony was Runner-Up with 204 points and Colin finished 3rd on 194 points .

(d.n.f. = Did not Fish.   30 pts = Match Winner.)

Well today is a rare midweek day out with a few of the lads from Marsh AC and Maggotdrowners . Not a club match as such, just a days fishing as Kevin has returned to these shores for six weeks before he and Jean finally make their move to The Bahamas. So that Kevin can get a final bit of fishing in ahead of their departure we'd arranged this trip down to Hartleylands today along with a final official club match at Colemans Cottage on Saturday .

I've still got a few days of Holiday to fit in before the end of the year, so booked the day off to venture out for an all to rare weekday session . Loading up the car just before 6am it was noticeably chilly and the car thermometer only read 4°C . I'd arranged to meet a few of the lads at The Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast beforehand and when I got there Kevin, Jean and Al were already tucking in and we were soon joined by Tony and Jim. Soon we made our way down to the fishery to find the car park packed as there was a Police match on Nick's and Bramley.

Dave soon had the draw organised and with just 13 of us fishing we just used the odd pegs on Peartree and I found Peg 19 in my hand. I soon had my gear round to the peg, though a soft trolley tyre made it harder work than usual .

Stopping for a chat with Terry he was struggling big time without a single fish to show for his efforts , despite there being fish moving in the reeds in his left hand margin.

Settling back into my peg I banded a 6mm pellet and shipped out and settled for feeding just 10-15 pellets every put in. 10 minutes of lifting and dropping finally produced a bite, and a chunky little Mirror of around 1½lbs was a welcome result . Jean and Al's wife arrived with the pies, and that Meat & Potato pie looked like it was going to be the best bite I was going to get on the day . I wish I could say it got better as the day progressed, but it didn't, apart from Jean turning up with a freshly brewed mug of tea courtesy of Dave . Far to long between bites was the story, but I plugged away and ended with 19 fish which I thought might scrape 20lbs, by the time Dave called the All-Out.

The Weigh-In didn't take long. Kev kicked off with just a couple of fish for 2½lbs. Dave had fared better with 28¼lbs to show for his efforts, while John managed 14¼lbs. Bill took the bragging rights on the day with a hard earned 49lbs while DaveT managed 30½lbs for second (Including his 8½lb PB Common ) Tony managed 22¼lbs to edge out my 19¾lbs. Terry managed to find a few in the end to weigh 16¼lbs while Al managed 30¼lbs for third on the day.

So no great shakes fishing wise, but good company and far better than a day at work . It's off to Essex and Colemans Cottage on Saturday and hopefully a few more fish.

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2009.

 Down to Hartleylands Farm today just outside the village of Cranbrook to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Individual Championship on Nick's Lake. Nick Gilbert had kindly taken care of organising this match and there promised to be a good turn out for it .

The view out of the window first thing was a little dull and grey, but the forcast predicted a bright warm sunny day so hopefully things would pick up. With the car loaded it was off to The Knoxbridge Cafe for breakfast, quite a few of the lads had the same idea so there was a good bit of banter and a couple of new faces introduced themselves before we made our way down to the fishery for the draw . Arriving at the fishery it was obvious that we had a pretty decent turn out for todays match, 24 of us to be exact. Nick finally got the draw under way with Matt's help. Peg 34 for me, a nice short walk from the car, but not where I really fancied and with Vince drawing peg 23 I feared the loss of a Golden Nugget was very much on the cards .

With my kit at my peg it was time to set up, but for some reason today I really couldn't get into it and remarked on it to Terry who was on peg 33 to my right......

Anyway with 1½hrs to get ready I finally managed to get things done. 1st thing set up was the feeder rod with a small method feeder to drop to the edge of the island. For the pole I set up 3 rigs......

These were essentially similar to those I'd used the previous weekend ie: a couple of Malman 4X12 Adam's on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hooks to fish pellet as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·20 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook for paste down the edge. Bait was a selection of various pellets and paste with 6mm pellet for feed, while the groundbait was Sonubaits Method Mix......

11am saw Nick call the All-In and I potted in 2 large pots of pellet and groundbait at 6mtrs and a handfull of pellet down the margins, then went out on the method feeder to allow the pole line to settle. Well that was the plan but as I picked up the rod I noticed that somehow I'd managed to miss out threading the line through the bottom rod rig !! (told you I wasn't really focused when setting up ) So I had to strip things down and start again. Anyway having re-rigged I dropped it to the edge of the island. A couple of taps and the tip wrapped round, the 1st fish was on, only for it to slip the hook halfway to the net . Better luck next cast however and a small Common of around 1lb had me off and running. I managed another couple of similar examples in the next 20 minutes but got the impression that there weren't any number of fish there so decided to try the pole line while catapulting some pellets over to the island in an attempt to draw some fish .

Unfortunately the pole line was no more productive, 45 minutes producing just another couple of small Carp and a skimmer. Time for another look on the method. Dropping the feeder close to the island, I'd just set the tip when it wrapped round, lifting into the fish I noticed a boil in the water by the island and a Duck paddling off at a rate of knots. Unfortunately I was attached to the Duck . Well the subsequent fight caused a deal of hilarity , but Terry managed to do the honours with the net. 'Jemima' was freed and appeared none the worse for her ordeal and Clive kindly did the 'David Bailey' bit for posterity .......

With that episode out of the way I went back to the pole. It produced another couple of small Carp and a couple of small Roach, but it was still a struggle so I re fed all the lines and took the camera for a quick stroll. In fact I could hear splashing from Terry's swim as I stood up, and was just in time to catch him sliding a Carp into the landing net ......

Looking across from Terry's swim I could see Vince and Jessebobs staring straight out in front of them, either they were concentrating hard or was it trying to ignore the bloody awful row singing coming from Al on the next peg ......

Meanwhile Clive was attached to something that was giving his purple Hydro a decent work out and giving him a bit of a run around ......

Simon and Mick were engaged in exchanging witty repartee, though some may have mistaken it for ripping the pee out of each other and wonder of wonders Mick was actually fishing the pole ......

Over on the other side thing were obviously not going to plan however as Matt (MD's very own slapper ) was fishing short down the margin !!!!!!!!!......

On the way back to my peg I noticed that Clive was now concentrating his line of attack down the margin ......

...... and felt that it was probably my best chance of getting anything decent, so out came the paste rig for the final part of the match.
Jeff D had started fishing his margin as well and was having a good run of fish, but it really never happened for me. Just 4 Carp in the last hour, though they were of a better stamp than I'd been getting previously. When Nick called All-Out at 4pm I have to say that I was glad it was all over and I soon had the gear packed up and back in the car .

The Weigh-in was soon under way and Jeff's 59lbs+ was the first weight of any note. My meagre total of 30¼lbs being last in section .
Roy's (Anglingman) 61lbs+ was beaten by Nick's level 69lbs, while Al took the section and 3rd overall with 78¾lbs . Vince, despite suffering almost as bad a match as me (Including snapping his waggler rod) had managed 31½lbs and had a rather large grin as I handed him a Golden Nugget . Nick (BAG UP) had walked the section with 114½lbs that also won him the match . Ian Carley (CasterBlaster) put 70lbs on the scales to take the next section while Neil Beard's 107lbs took the final section and 2nd overall .

Back to the car park for a quick presentation, then the inquests and pee taking started in earnest. Congratulations to Nick(BAG UP)Costar who now holds the title of MD's Southern Champion, but more importantly 'The Bragging Rights' for a year . Thanks to Nick Gilbert for organising the whole thing and Thank You to all the anglers that turned up, without whom there wouldn't have been a match . Let's do it all again next year.

Marsh AC club match.

Today it's another Marsh AC club match and we're on Nick's Lake at Hartleylands Farm. There's a few guests joining us today as is usual and with the whole lake booked hopefully it will throw up a few decent weights . Loading up the car the weather looked set fair and it was a smooth run down to the Knox Bridge Café for breakfast where I'd arranged to meet up with Keith and his pal Mick who were travelling down from Milton Keynes. Stomachs filled it was a short run down to the fishery and we pulled into the car park around 8·20am .
Along with Keith and Mick there were 2 other guests fishing with us today. Clive, who's rapidly becoming a fixture and Dave Talbot (Faye's Dad) who'd been able to accept the invite to join us .

With 17 anglers and 37 pegs on the lake there would be plenty of space for everyone today, and Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw under way. Soon it was my turn and when peg 23 came to hand I was happy enough and pretty sure it would provide a decent days fishing . You can see where we all ended up on the pegging plan below .............

I soon had my kit in situ and found that I had Tony on peg 21 and Jim on peg 25 for company today, while I could see Clive opposite on peg 12. Now Nick's is one of those lakes that responds to a variety of methods, and with a bit of space the pole fished shallow is normally the way to go at this time of the year, but I really fancied fishing the waggler today, as I don't do it often enough and while it probably wouldn't win, I was sure it would provide me with a decent days fishing , the only fly in the ointment being the wind blowing from my left to right straight up into pegs 17 & 18. So the Shakespeare 11ft Micro was set up with a Shimano Stradic spooled up with 4lb Maxima, the business end was a Dave Brittain pellet waggler while the hook was a size 14 Drennan Match Carp with a hair rigged pellet band. With and hour and a quarter to set up I did get the feeder rod out as a back up, but didn't really plan on using it and I also set up one top kit with a margin rig as It's possible to nick a couple of lumps late on down the margins if needed. Bait was 6 & 8mm pellet with a bit of hemp and sweetcorn for the margins.

Jim and John came up for a chat while we were waiting for the off, Jim remarking that with so long to set up he could have had another half hour in bed . Tony had said that he was going to go for it shallow on the pole as he had plenty of water to go at, and it's a method he enjoys. Looking across I could Clive see sitting at his peg and looking quite serene, obviously happy that he'd got his drawing hand back under control and looking forward to the day ahead on a water that I just knew would be more to his liking after his recent grueller of a session at Drayton Reservoir ............

So at 10am Dave blew for the All-in and I fed a couple of pints of hemp and pellet into the margins before starting on the feeder to the corner of the island, to allow me to catapult some pellet out to the front of the island to prime it for the waggler. Lot's of little taps on the feeder resulted in a couple of small Carp in the 1st 10 minutes, but as I could already see signs of fish coming for the feed in front of the island I soon had the waggler out and was into a Carp 1st put in . The wind was making things tricky however, as well as some Ducks and Moorhens that were doing their best to mop up any loose pellets . I could hear by the splashing coming from my right that Tony was getting amongst a few, and from what I could see around the lake he appeared to be out catching everyone............

My problem was that I had to drop the float within 18 inches of the island to get a bite, any further away and I couldn't buy a bite, and feeding a bit further away had no effect. Then a couple of disasters befell me . firstly the float adaptor split, so I had to re-rig, however this time I went with a Drake 3AAA peacock waggler that I felt I could control better, then first cast out a Moorhen dashed out to the splash of the float landing and tangled with the rig. Thankfully I managed to retrieve the rig complete with Moorhen which I netted and the bird was released none the worse for it's experience, before I could once more get down to the task in hand.

Dave had come round for a stroll and confessed that he was experiencing his own "Mugger Moments©" as were a few of those pegged down to my left where it was much more sheltered, though I could see Simon down on peg 31 putting fish in the net on a regular basis, and Dave was soon followed by Colin, who reckoned that he'd only got 7 small carp to show for his first 2 hours of effort. Judy up on peg 16 appeared to be concentrating on a margin swim to put a few fish together ........

I managed to get back into some sort of rhythm and started to put a run of fish together, but a couple of times the wind got up making presentation awkward and on those occasions I took the opportunity to take a look down the margins and while this produced a couple of small Carp I soon got back out on the waggler when the wind eased . Just past halfway Tony strolled down as he took a break to have a bite to eat and was admitting to 60+ fish.

Round the other parts of the lake people were having their own private battles. Keith on peg 6 was trying to get to grips with a venue that was new to him, and with the wind blowing straight into him had come shorter allowing himself to feed comfortably and was starting to put a few fish together ...........

While his friend Mick was having quite an enjoyable day, having drawn peg 9 (one of the noted pegs) he was happily putting together a good net of fish on the pole ............

while Chris on peg 8 to his right looked to be doing OK from what I could see as he did battle with one of the lakes resident Carp.........

With time marching on, I kept plugging away on the waggler and apart from Tony who was catching really well, I felt that I was holding my own against everyone else from what I could see . Clive was fishing his right hand margin, and while he was putting fish in the net, he seemed to be suffering a few blank periods in between...........

Colin however was experiencing a really good end to the match and in the last 2 hours was absolutely flying, taking decent fish regularly from the margin over on peg 14 ............

Jim was having a bit of a struggle and confessed to a bit of frustration as he felt he wasn't getting the best from his swim as it seemed that wherever he looked others were doing better than him ......

with 20 minutes to go the wind got up again so I took a final look down the margin with the pole, but only managed 2 more fish, they were however better fish and probably added about 15lbs to my net before Dave blew the All-out at 4pm.

So with the kit packed up and back in the car it was time for the weigh-in. Terry kicked off from peg 1 with 44¼lbs and was immediately overtaken by Dave with 48lbs. Keith had finally sorted things out to record 76¼lbs , but his mate Mick was to take the bragging rights on the trip home to Milton Keynes with a fine 101lbs . Clive had 78lbs to show for his efforts while Colin had a final 2 hours "To die for" as he put it weighing 112¼lbs . Dave T declared he'd really enjoyed his day and the 60¼lbs he put on the scales . Tony's nets rather gave the game away as they were lifted out, and when his catch was totalled up 176¼lbs was always going to be enough for the win . My own fish came to 106lbs which would prove to be good enough for 4th on the day . While Simon was last to weigh and put a fine 129lbs on the scales for 2nd on the day .

So 5 Ton weights in a total of 1155½lbs weighed in resulting in an average of 68lbs per angler made for another good day out for the members of Marsh AC and their guests, and I think shows just what a good venue Hartleylands Farm is . Thanks to all that made it another enjoyable day out . The next Marsh club match is at Colemans Cottage next month, while my next outing is to Rolf's Lake for the 4th match in The Jinx Series next Saturday.

Ryan's Winter Knock Up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 .

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.

Marsh AC club match.

Well, it's out with the members of Marsh AC today for a club match on The Reservoir at Harleylands Farm, Cranbrook, Kent.
A quick look out of the window reveals a dull grey day with the rain falling, so after a spot of breakfast it's time to load the car up, not forgetting the waterproofs as it looks like being a wet old day. Harleylands is about 40 miles away from home and a relaxed run down takes about an hour meaning that I arrived just after 8am as it stopped raining, in plenty of time for the 8·30am draw.

Holidays, weather and a number of other factors mean that there are only 12 of us present for this match, meaning that there is plenty of room for us as we have the whole of the Reservoir booked. Into the hat and I find that I've drawn peg 25, not a draw that particularly excites me, but as with most pegs on the water it should be good for a few fish.

Today is really going to be a day for me to try a few things out. I've become more and more disenchanted with the Hydrolastic that I've been using over the past 18 months/2years. I really don't feel that it gives me the control especially when it comes to decent sized carp. With this in mind I've stripped the red hydro out of the power kits of my main pole and my margin pole. I've replace these with solid yellow Vespe (22+) in 2 of the kits for my main pole and solid orange Vespe (25+) in the margin pole kits, all set as soft as possible.
I also had a bucket of unbranded feed pellets that my local tackle dealer had asked me to try out and give him my thoughts on. They're green 4mm with a strong fishmeal smell, lighter than swimstim ones though and when they're dampened the colour doesn't leach out of them. Bait was to be paste made up with bait-tech Special G Green groundbait, though I did have some Dedra's with me as a back up.

Setting up didn't take long with just 3 top kits, a margin rig, another for 4mtrs in front and another for 7mtrs.
Looking across I could see Colin and Terry discussing their prospects for the day ahead.......


.............. and Dave making sure he had everything with him as he settled into peg 17, which had set a new fishery record of 288lbs the month before................


Tony, my partner on the recent MD's pairs weekend was just up from me on peg 21, while Paul, my guest on the day settled into peg 29 close to the car park.

10am and the all in and I fed 3 large handfulls of pellets into both margins along with a handfull at 4 and 7 mtrs. Straight out to 7mtrs with a large knob of paste and after a minute the float buries and after a short but spirited scrap the 1st fish of the day is in the net, a scale perfect Common of around 4lbs. Straight back out with the paste and a few pellets over the top and a minute later I'm in again resulting in a similar sized Mirror resting safely in the net. Back out and within a minute the elastic streams out and a 5lb Mirror slides over the net, Happy Days!!!!!

At this point the day takes a turn for the worst, the bites just stopped!!!! Despite rotating through all the lines nothing!!!!
I can see that others are still managing the occasional fish. Just after 11·30 I get a bite down my left hand margin and after a spirited fight manage to put the net under a nice mirror around the 8lb mark, but then things go quiet for me again. Just after 12noon Vince puts in an appearance, he had hoped to be fishing today but family commitments scuppered that , however he found the time to pop down for a brief chat just as Dave came round with a hot steak slice from the farm shop, always very civilised affairs the matches Dave runs.

A change to double Dedra's on the hook resulted in a couple of bites to which I was only briefly connected, hard to imagine that the worms had covered the hook point to prevent a proper hook up, so maybe they were foul hookers? However I did manage to land a couple of smaller Carp before Vince left, but felt I was dropping behind in the match as I could see Tony further up still sneaking a few out from the margins though a couple of better fish had managed to get the better of him as revealed by his comments.

Young Zack, the club Junior was nicking the odd fish on the feeder.......

and Chris on the opposite side to me was starting to put together a run of decent fish.

With an hour to go I decided to concentrate on the 4mtr line but all it produced was a couple of Skimmers while Tony appeared to be getting a fish a chuck now. Finally with 10 minutes to go I got another Carp, another decent Mirror around the 8lb mark swiftly followed by another of a similar stamp just before the all out.

Weigh in time and all was revealed, Colin, Terry, Dave and Chris had all been amongst the fish with Chris's good late run earning him 2nd on the day with 88lbs 8ozs. Graham Manning on peg 15 managed 81lbs 8ozs for 3rd on the day, but everyone was eclipsed by Tony's level 116lbs for a fine win on the day.

1st	Tony Roberts	116lbs 00ozs
2nd	Chris Withall	88lbs 08ozs
3rd	Graham Manning	81lbs 08ozs
4th	Terry Goff	69lbs 12ozs
5th	Dave Collier	69lbs 08ozs
6th	Colin Sharrard	54lbs 08ozs
7th	Peter Morton	43lbs 00ozs
8th	Jim Boase	33lbs 12ozs
9th	Zack Johnson	28lbs 08ozs
10th	Paul East	28lbs 00ozs
11th	Kevin Loveland	24lbs 04ozs
12th	Martin Hucker	17lbs 00ozs

So to sum up, a decent days fishing in good company as it always is with the gang from Marsh AC. Maybe not the best of days for me personally, but far from the worst. Nice to get out and catch a few fish after my nightmare at Stockton the previous week, and it didn't rain at all until I got into the car to start the drive home.

Where to next? Well it's back to Rolf's in 2 weeks time for the last round of the Jinx Series, unless of course I manage to get out over the Bank Holiday Weekend.