Well having got back into the swing of things with last weeks Match at Holly Farm, I was keen to get back out onto the bank again to make up for some of the fishing I had missed out on in the preceding weeks.
A couple of jobs to do 1st thing in the morning meant that I didn't arrive at the fishery till 10am, and with a match on Peartree and the Reservoir a comfy peg on Nick's Lake would do nicely.

Unloading the car I could see there was an angler on peg 29 in the corner, so i took a short 20 yard stroll up to peg 32 that had plenty of cover in the margins which would be suitable as I was planning to try out a couple of paste baits and some solid 22 rated Vespe elastic that I had rigged up in my margin pole.

A couple of hand fulls of mixed pellet into both margins while i set my gear up was all the prep needed, and although it was cloudy, hopefully the wind would keep any rain at bay, after the torrential downpours we had experienced in London the day before.

Plumbing up revealed a comfy 3 ft in the margins allowing me to fis a simple dibber rig cocked with a single BB shot at just under half depth on 0·21 MAP Carptek straight through to an eyed size 10 barbless Raptor. The real object of the day was to see how soft a paste I could get away with using, so all the paste would be shipped out with the aid of a small paste pot made up to Teepee's design.
I had made up plenty of paste (six pints) in 2 different varieties, as I would be relying on just the paste coming of the hook to feed the swims.

1st put in at 6mtrs down the left hand margin and the float just slid away after 30 seconds and a nice little Common Carp of about 2½ lbs was soon in the net to get me off the mark.
Bites continued to be almost instant, but a lot of them were from the hordes of small palm sized Skimmers that seemed to have invaded the swim, though doubling the size of the paste bait meant that the bait lasted long enough for yet more Carp to find it before the Skimmers polished it off.

By about 12·30 the sky had darkened ominously and the angler on peg 29 had packed up and left, and I made the decision to move down there despite the fact that I had landed 25 Carp by then.

Yet again a couple of hand fulls of mixed pellet into both margins as I sorted the gear out and went back to the car to get my umbrella. Plumbing up revealed another 6 inches on the depth of the previous swim so I tied up another rig to suit the extra depth.
Soon the threatened rain arrived and much as I hate fishing under an umbrella I was glad I had it with me, even though the shower only lasted for about ½ hour. Just as the rain eased off I glanced round to see the familiar face of Vince (vg1037) who had popped down to check on my progress. Whether it was his presence standing there behind me in a cream sweatshirt (Sky-lining me? ) or a change brought on by the rain, sport slowed as yet again the Skimmers put in an appearance, however with the return of the sun the Carp started to return as Vince left to take his other half shopping.

Soon I was into a nice rhythm taking 2 or 3 Carp from each margin before resting it and swapping to the other.
One of the nice features of Nick's is the variety of Carp in there. Mostly Commons and Mirrors, there are also some Ghosties present along with some really dark Mirrors that are almost black. Another nice feature are the Tench. Normally I've found that Tench don't fare well in waters where they have to compete with a large head of Carp, but through the session I caught a dozen Tench, and while not large they were all fit as fiddles and pleasantly plump.

Here's a few photo's showing the condition of the Carp present in the lake.....................

As the afternoon wore on a better stamp of Carp moved into both margin swims, taking both varieties of paste confidently, the best of them weighing maybe 9lbs. By 5pm they had noshed their way through 6 pints of paste and I called it a day having landed 93 Carp, 12 Tench and a few Skimmers. At a conservative estimate I would think I had 200lbs+ of fish making for a cracking days fishing.

Next weekend it's the Maggotdrowning Pairs Event at Rolf's Lake and if I can manage a similar sort of performance I'll be well pleased.

After yesterdays trip to Monk Lakes with the lads I had a pint of maggots to use up.

Well to be honest I'd forgotten them the day before and left them in the fridge .

The weather today had definitely taken a turn for the worst, with a drop in temperature, rain and a fair bit more wind . I was in two minds whether to go but had the car loaded and set off around 10·30am. The venue today was to be Hartleylands Farm, with The Reservoir and 6 other lakes and ponds there is always somewhere on the fishery where you can tuck yourself away from the worst of the weather and catch a few fish .

Arriving at around noon I had a look round and decided to fish Nick's lake, settling on peg 35 for no other reason than it was only 10 yards from the car, meaning I could leave the rod bag and carryall in the car and save them getting soaked .

Just the 1 top kit with white Hydro was set up allowing me to fish at the bottom of the shelf about 5 feet from the bank into around 3ft of water. In summer the fish will come in closer on top of the shelf, but with the fall in water temp and a bit of colour dropping out I didn't feel it would be a goer.

The main line would be to my left at around 10mtrs with a throwaway straight in front just fishing the top 2. A pinch of maggot, fed every few minutes with double maggot on an 18 completed the picture for the session.

A quick chat with Dave on the phone revealed that those on the MD's Fur & Feather up at Lindholme were experiencing even colder and windier conditions.

Sport was pretty continuous throughout the session, I rarely had to wait more than 60 seconds for a bite, with a succession of Roach, Rudd and Skimmers coming to hand interspersed with the odd pastie Carp. Every time i tried the top 2 line it was a bite every 5 seconds from the hordes of Pongo's that had settled in............

With the light starting to fade and the weather closing in once more it was time for just one last put in down the left hand side.
Sure enough the float slid away once more, only this time there was rather a lot of white Hydro streaming out!!!!!
A couple of minutes later the culprit surfaced and showed itself as it slid into the waiting landing net........

an absolutely glorious Mirror of around 6lbs+, the perfect way to end my fishing for 2006, making me glad I had forgotten those maggots the day before .

Having a bit of time off I was pleasantly surprised when Maria suggested i might fancy a days fishing last night, as she was going over to visit a friend today. I should have known

After my disaster at Lemington last Saturday I really needed to catch a few just to get the confidence back, so it was off to a favorite of mine ............ Hartleylands Farm.

So 8·30am brings a nudge in my back as my beloved enquirers whether I'm going fishing today?
A peak out of the window reveals it's been pouring down all night, but a hint of sun breaking through promises better for the day ahead.
By 9·15 the car's loaded and I'm on my way with a clearing sky, but as I reach Tonbridge the sun has vanished and the sky is getting greyer.

Reaching the fishery about 10·30 I'm a little disappointed to find a match on the reservoir, so that's the 1st plan scuppered. A steady drizzle is starting to fall as I have a look around and a chat with a couple of anglers that have already been fishing for a couple of hours with only a couple of carp to show for their efforts between them. I settle for peg 8 on Finches, sheltered amongst the trees and with a comfy 8yds to the far bank it will do for me .

Before I've even finished setting up, the rain starts hammering down, so just a couple of simple rigs are set up, 1 for paste and the other for 6mm expander pellet both to be fished over 4mm pellet (all G.O.T baits) both across and in the margin to my left.
Both rigs are KC Carpa 2's on 0·16 carptek with Fox match series2 in a 14 for paste and a 16 for the expanders.

1st put in across with paste, and 30secs later the float has buried and the black hydro stretches out and safely into the net is the 1st of the day, an nice ghost common .

A couple of looks over with expander produces a couple of gudgeon, so back to the paste. This is definitely what the carp want with most bites coming within a minute of cupping the paste in, and the bites are nice and definite, no messing about with the float, just vanishing straight down the plughole.

With the rain still pouring down I get a phone call from Dave about 12, and he remarks that he can hear the rain, but it's lovely in Leeds. The action that I've been having encourages the chap in the next but one peg down from me to come over for a chat to see what I'm doing differently from him. 10 mins under the brolly showing him how to prepare expanders with a pump and explaining the basics of paste and he's off back to his peg with a box of prepared expanders to give them a go.

Back out with the paste and the rain is starting to ease, but the carp are still there .............

By 1·30 the rain has finally stopped but because I'm under the trees it's still coming down on me, so a move is called for if I'm ever going to get anything dried out. A quick look over the back reveals that there are only 4 anglers on Nick's, so I move all of 10yards onto Nick's peg 3. With nobody on the adjacent pegs it was going to be margins all the way and 1st put in on the right hand margin produced an instant bite resulting in a super common gracing the net .

The afternoon proved to be fairly hectic, I doubt if I had to wait much more than 30 secs for a bite on paste, with most being so positive that the elastic just streamed out without any need to strike, smaller fish in general than those in Finches, mostly commons but occasionally a nice example of the resident ghosties putting in an appearance ............

4·30 and as I'm packing away after what has been a good confidence building session Paul Ward, the owner pops round for a chat, always interesting, he tells me that he's finished digging another new lake and is just letting it fill naturally as he's in no hurry to stock it yet.
Packing up, thankfully almost everything has dried out and on the way out I decide to stop and have a look at the new lake........

As you can see there's a quite wide marginal shelf around 2-3 ft below water level and it then drops to around 6-7ft, while it just rises up to the island without a noticeable shelf.
It promises to be another decent addition to the fishery once it's up and running, probably not until next summer though at the earliest, as Paul likes to let things settle and establish themselves before he allows fishing.

Marsh AC club match.

Well what a day!!!!!!!

I was at Hartleylands today on the reservoir to fish a match as a guest of Dave the Fish and his clubmates of Marsh AC. A glance round the car park revealed I wasn't the only one, as Jess & Szabi (jackcatcher & tinkerbelle), Terry (wily coyote) appeared, and a brief walk round revealed that the Carp's thoughts had turned to Lurrrrrrrrrrve as they thrashed around in the marginal reeds.

Draw time saw me get peg20 in the far corner where the inlet pipe comes in. The initial plan was to fish the baggin waggler as it had produced well for me on a previous visit to the venue with Terry the previous month, with the option of fishing paste in the margins later on.

At the all in, I immediately fed 3pints of hemp into each margin, then went out with the Baggin wag. An hour in and despite recasting every 60 seconds to get plenty of bait in I only had 3 small Carp to show for it. The wind was blowing from left to right and into my bank and I was having problems with the presentation, so decided to have a look at the margin.

Out with a bit of paste into the left hand margin, and almost straight away the float buried and a plump little Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net. I started to put a few together but was having trouble with liners, it seemed that there were to many fish in the swim despite me relying purely on struck off paste to do any feeding.

Jess wandered up to try and gather a few tips, but all i could advise was to stick at it, as trying to perfect paste fishing is hard enough, without the added complication of getting used to a pole for the 1st time in a match, which is what Jess was trying to do.

Dave arrived with a welcome hot pie from the farm shop at around 1pm, and shortly after disaster struck. I had latched into a very decent double that appeared jet propelled and it managed to bottom out Red Hydro . Something had to give and unfortunately it was the number 4 section with a BANG followed by a rather loud expletive . The reservoir is deep and all to soon the topkit and what was left of the number 4 was re-enacting The Titanic . Why is Malc never around when you need him????

With no spare number 4 with me it was out with the margin pole to resume once I had calmed down, and slowly started to get a few more by alternating between the left and right hand margins.

With an hour to go Dave wandered up from 2 pegs down to see how I was doing, and ponder whether he should stick with the paste for the last hour.
My swim was getting stronger & stronger and I took my empty silvers net out and replaced it with another carp net as I was pretty sure that there were a good few fish in the 1st one.

The last hour went well with fish coming from both margins, until with 5 mins to go, another lump took off and just kept going!!!!. Something had to give and this time it was the dual core that the kit was rigged up with , and that was it for the match.

Weigh in time and Paul the bailiff arrived to do the honours. John on peg 1 (the willow) got things started with a 50lbs+ net, Terry on peg 8 with another despite protesting that he'd struggled. Colin was well up with a 60lb+ net and the lad next to him just missed out on 50lbs by ounces.

I was next up and I pulled my 2nd net first, which weighed 45lbs, not bad for 55 minutes fishing . Pulling up the other net I realised that I would need a hand, and sure enough there was over 100lbs of fish in there!!!
My total weight came out at 152lbs 4ozs, and represents my best ever weight in a match. To top it off Paul (The Bailiff) told me it was the best weight of the Reservoir so far this year.

Tony, next peg down also manage a 100lb+ bag at 107lbs though he had taken most of his fish on corn whereas I had had all mine on paste bar the 3 i had on the Baggin Wag at the start.

Next up was Dave the Fish with a 70lb+ bag, a third of which came in the last hour as he stuck with the paste.

Finally we got to Jess & Szabi and while Jess managed a creditable 30lb bag in his 1st match with a pole, however Szabi inevitably beat him with a 40lb bag.

So there we are a smashing days fishing (in more ways than one) in excellent company.
Finally a BIG THANK YOU to Dave and the lads & lasses of Marsh AC for allowing me to join them, a pleasure as always and I look forward to doing it again if they'll allow me.

Good Friday, and Maria declares this morning that she's going over to visit one of her friends, so why don't I pop out for a days fishing?
Why not indeed, I've got plenty of pellets and corn, so fill the flask and load up the car and by 9·30am i'm pulling into the carpark at Hartleylands.

Plenty of cars and people gave notice of a busy day, so I popped up to the reservoir to have a look round.
Right on cue as I got out of the car the drizzle started, but I had a stroll round anyway, but as I reached peg 8 i spotted a friendly face in the shape of Terry aka Wily Coyote.
After a brief chat I retieved my gear and settled down on peg 7 next to Terry. It was bit windy from our right to left, but a relatively mild 12 degrees and overcast. Most anglers including Terry were fishing feeders or ledger rigs of various descriptions, but one chap on what looked like peg 13 was catching on a Baggin Wag, showing that some of the fish had to be up in the water.

I set up a waggler to give the pellet a go up in the water, but after an hour without a touch that's up the bank and it's time to christen my new Okuma Twin tip Avon rod, pairing it up with my Capricorn 3500 to fish a Baggin Wag with hair rigged corn 2ft deep. Groundbait was simply GOT Baits pure brown crumb with a couple of handfulls of Swimstim Micro's added.

Within 10 minutes I was into my 1st carp of the day, a really plump fish that Terry and I thought might scrape 10lbs

Terry on seeing this decided to have some of that, as he'd only managed 4 of 5 skimmers up to that point.
He was soon into action

The resulting fish while not being the largest was at least most welcome

I soon had another mirror of a similar stamp to my 1st

however sport was never fast and furious with gaps between bites, then 2 or 3 fish and another gap, well for me at least, Terry was having one of those days where he couldn't buy another bite.

About 12·30 the sky became greyer and the wind got up a bit more, brollies were raised and then the rain came.
At this point Terry's umbrella decided to snap and collapse on him.
Such was the change in the weather that I phoned Malc just to check whether he was in the area???
Having been told it was sunshine and Teeshirt weather in Wales followed by howls of laughter, i bid him a fond farewell just as the rain started to ease.

I seemed to get a run of fish, either mirrors or commons, 2 or 3 at a time, it was if the fish were cruising in small pods.

The commons, while not the largest at the moment, are truely lovely fish, fighting fit and as fat as butter, indeed all the fish appear to have wintered well and bulked up.

As the afternoon went on the wind dropped and the sun tried to poke through the clouds. Terry reverted to the feeder, but alas it wasn't going to produce anything for him, Meanwhile I managed my 20th carp of the day and tried to look apologetic as Terry did the honours with the camera for me once more.

Back to the Baggin Wag for Terry, but still no joy as I coaxed another couple, and as 4·30 arrived I slid my 25th carp of the session over the net, a nicely marked mirror around the 12lb mark

Terry and I looked at each other and decided to call it quits. A good day for me, but one of almost total frustration for Terry, hard to credit that at times our floats were a matter of feet from each other with such wildly different results, but I suppose that's the enigma of fishing.

My thanks to Terry for his company on the day, we must do it again, hopefully with a more even result next time.

Dave the Fish's 

Fur and Feather Fun Match.

22 hardy souls headed down to Harleylands in Kent yesterday to take part in a Xmas match organised by Dave the Fish from Maggotdrowning.com

I met up with a few of the lads at the Knoxbridge Cafe at around 7·30am to find it a tad busy, a party of shooters had obviously beaten us to it, meaning that the service was about as far removed from "Fast Food" as you could imagine.
By the time that Jess & Szabi and The Welsh Contingent (Dai, Neo, Geoff & Malc) arrived it had slowed even more, and as we left for the draw they were still waiting!

With the delays making the draw run late we decided that we would fish from 10·30 to 3·30pm so we all dipped in and made our way to our respective pegs.
I found myself on 22 with The Jinx for company on 23. Not only were our pegs in the shade but we had the wind howling into them and although there was no ice on the lake it was soon obvious that the only people that would be at home on them would be Eskimos. Looking across to the other bank it was bathed in sunlight with barely a ripple on the water!

I set up a pole and a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder, while Malc elected to fish the feeder all day to the island in front of him.

All in and I went out on the pole, and needless to say with both Malc and Dave standing behind me my first bite, a small very delicate affair, (don't believe Malc when he tells you "it speared the bottom" ) resulted in me missing it horribly and wrapping the rig round the tip.

I stuck it out on the pole for an hour for 4 small fish (1 Skimmer, 1 Roach, 1 Perch and a Gudgeon). In the meantime Malc had managed 3 Carp and Neo a few pegs down had managed a few small stockies. I could see Omega Mike (who I regard as something of a venue expert) pegged further round and bathed in sunlight starting to put a few together on the long pole.

Sven on peg8 (The Flyer) and Colin opposite me appeared to be catching regularly,
and with my hands starting to become numb with the cold the pole was replaced with the feeder rod.
Looking round it appeared that a Garden Gnome had turned blue with the cold , but it was only Malc staring at his tip willing it to go round..

Slowly i started to put a few small Carp together by dropping the feeder as close to the island as I dared.

Just after Noon the best part of the day arrived in the shape of Dave & Jean bearing Hot Pies & Pasties along with a bottle of Canadian Club. Truely Inspired and most welcome, even if Malc did complain that they weren't served on Daves usual Silver Tray.

Into the fading light, and a few missgivings were being aired about the wisdom of fishing to 3·30pm, it was getting that cold that I had a couple of feeders crack up where they had become so brittle in the cold.
With 5 mins to go I'm sure that I heard the ominous sound of breaking carbon from further down the bank followed by a softly muttered Welsh curse, though I could be wrong.

Finally the whistle sounded, and it transpired that Malc and I would have to perform Scales Duty. My 27lbs 2ozs started the ball rolling (and secured £1 from Malc ), Omega Mike came up just short with what was still a creditable bag as he'd fished the pole all day. Colin was soon in the box seat however with a 50lb+ bag, a worthy winner on the day. Sven & John on adjacent pegs had obviously had a close match, with Sven just having enough for 2nd on the day pushing John down to 3rd and me to 4th. A very good result for Sven as I'm sure he would admit that matchfishing isn't his thing. Nick Gilbert also managed 27lbs on the day.

Gathering up our kit Malc and I returned to find our nets frozen solid (told you it was cold ) so back to the car park for the prizes and farewells.
I have to say that given the conditions the lake fished well on the day, even though the fish were shoaled up in pockets.

A big thank you to Dave for organising the match and to all those that attended from near and far, making the day the success it was. We'll have to do it again, preferably in warmer conditions though.

The final results were :-

Well today was one of those spur of the moment days, I've been off with MrsM for a couple of weeks, and one of our golden rules is that if we're both off I don't normally go fishing, but as she had brought me a new pole last week I was itching to try it out, just to make sure I'd set up the elastics right you understand.

Maria said last night that she was going to visit a friend today so I thought I may as well snatch a few hours down at Hartleylands on the Reservoir.

There was a bit of rain about as I woke up this morning, so a leisurely breakfast meant that I didn't load the tackle up till 10·30am, and a bit of traffic meant that I didn't arrive at the farm till noon. There were eight people already fishing on the Reservoir as I settled in on peg 5.

Bait for the day was GOT Baits 6mm expanders and paste, with their 4mm hard pellets as feed. I've been using GOT Baits since a visit to Rolf's earlier in the year and feel that quality wise their range is second to none.
I set up 1 swim in the left hand margin where there was a nice 2ft of water, and a comfy open water swim at 7mtrs with about 7ft of depth. The margins would be fed by hand and wouldn't be touched until clouds of mud betrayed fish feeding with confidence. 2 large pots of pellet primed the 7mtr line.

1st put in on the 7mtr line with an expander at dead depth brought a positive bite straight away and a sharp lift resulted in a few feet of Black Hydro streaming out of the top kit and after a brief tussle a nice plump mirror of about 4lbs was in the net, a nice way to christen a new pole.

1st on the new pole.

Let me say at this point that I tried Hydrolastic when it 1st came out and didn't get on with it. However having visited the likes of Stockton, Clattercote and Rolf's this season I've decided to give it another go in the new pole.I've taken the No1's out of the match kits and cut the power tops back to match, resulting in very stiff kits that I've elasticated through 2 sections. The stiffness of the kits seems to be the key with Hydro. Throughout the afternoon I alternated between 7mtrs and the margin using kits with both red and black hydro fine tuning the tension till I was happy with it.

Typical Reservoir carp

Sport was nice and steady all afternoon despite the occasional flurry of rain and by 5·15pm I'd managed 32 carp, the best being around 8lbs, 3 tench and a dozen skimmers, a great workout for the new pole.

Popped down to Harleylands today for a session with Dave the Fish & Wily Coyote.

I arrived about 8am and was just going to have a walk round when Dave arrived. We could see Wily already set up in peg 8 so strolled over to find he'd already had 4 carp on his feeder set up. So out with the gear with peg 5 for me and 6 for Dave.

1st off for me was the Bagging Waggler, a method I hadn't used till I fished at Drayton and Clattercote in The Jinx series, and I wanted to see if it would work on the Reservoir as I had never seen it used there.

Dave set up a top 4 to fish tares over hemp to try for some of the roach before the carp moved in, while Wily managed another couple of carp on the feeder.

Out with the Bagging Wag and busy, busy , busy with a fresh cast every minute to get some groundbait in, 20 minutes in and the line tightened as the 1st carp of my day found the bait, a nice fit mirror .

Throughout the morning I managed 10 on the bagging wag in total, the best of them being a couple at around 10lbs each.

With the sun beating down it was hard work though and about noon a break was called with Dave returning from the farm shop with pasties and drinks. We were all agreed that since last season the carp here have beefed up, packing on plenty of muscle and giving a really good account of themselves.

For the afternoon session I changed over to my margin pole fishing paste, while Wily had gone to a dibber in the margins to try for some of the lumps that were showing in his swim. Dave stuck to his guns but did try paste as well.
Plenty of pellets soon had the swim full of silt clouds as the carp got their heads down, resulting in plenty of bites and regular fish throughout the afternoon.
Wily did the honours weighing my 2 best fish, a nice 13lb mirror......

and a fully scaled mirror that Wily gave me 14lbs for..........

Dave was having a bit of trouble getting to grips with paste, but stuck to it and got a few before swapping to pellet for some more later in the session.

Wily was having some trouble getting seen off by a few larger lumps, but with a bit of encouragement from Me & Dave connected with a goody.............

Dave got into position to act as ghillie as Wily guided it to the net...........

A nice mirror that took the scales round to 12lbs being his reward.

5pm and time for Me & Dave to go. I managed 25 carp on the paste, making 35 fish for the day, while Dave had a few less. I left Wily the last of my paste as he was fishing on until about seven by which time he caught over thirty fish including a 14lb, a 13lb and four others around 12lb.

So in conclusion, a very pleasant days fishing in good company with a few laughs shared.
Couldn't ask for much more really.

Maria had to work today, and wanted a lift as she had to start at 6am, so I arranged with a pal of mine Dave Collier to pop down to Hartleylands today for a session on the Reservoir .

The drive down was wet but uneventfull and I arrived at 7am to find there was a small match booked on the Reservoir, but as only pegs 7-17 were being used a phonecall was made to Dave who was about half an hour behind me, and we decided to go for it.

I settled for peg 30 and on his arrival Dave settled into peg 28.
As we tackled up the sun was starting to break through and things were looking promising, even though some of the carp were still spawning .

Baitwise for me it was just what was in my carryall, some 3 & 6mm expanders, corn and meat. Dave had brought some cockles with him as he finds that these are ignored by the silvers that are present.

I fed a margin swim and another at around 8mtrs, and sure enough pellet whether it was 6mm or 3mm produced roach, skimmers and hybrids, while Dave had a swift couple of carp with his first two put ins at around 4mtrs.

A change to corn finally produced a couple of carp for me but the weather was threatening a turn for the worse as the sky was darkening to our left and the wind was getting up .

A better carp from my margin swim on corn gave a good account of itself, and as I was playing it Dave was into one himself that was only marginally smaller .

All to soon thunder was rumbling and lightning flashing in the distance and I shot off to the farm shop to get us a couple of hot beef pasties for lunch.

With the pasties eaten the rain arrived with a vengence, and it was a question of just sitting it out under the brollies and leaving the poles well alone as lightning flashed across the reservoir and thunder crashed over our heads.
After about half an hour it stopped, the sky cleared and once again the sun was shining .
Dave had made a discovery that his Gortex overtrousers weren't as waterproof as they once were, probably due to all the fish slime, mud etc that had accumulated over time and decided to dry off in his car.

The fish were still feeding and another couple of carp and yet more silvers came my way, but over to my left I could see grey skys building again and decided to quit while the going was good.
Dave emerged from his car, dry oncemore and declared that he was going to fish on for a while.

Thankfully we weren't far from the car park and as I loaded the last of my tackle, the rain started again .
A quick farewell to Dave with the assurance that I would see him next Friday at Sumners for a 3 day Fish-In with some people from MD's and I was on my way.

How did Dave fare? Well he phoned me when he got home to tell me what a wimp I was and that after I left the rain stopped, the sky cleared, the sun came out and it was glorious for a while.
A bit later it got really dark again, chucked it down and then finished off with hailstones .

He ended up with 15 carp and a load of silvers for about 80lb in total.

Watching the weather forcast last night before Match of the Day, Maria remarked "Looks like being nice tomorrow, Why don't you pop out fishing?"

Well no further invitation was needed , so 7am saw me loading the tackle into the car. I had decided to go down to Hartleylands Farm, as with 8 different lakes & ponds you can normally find somewhere to fish on even the busiest day. Well on arrival 6 of these were booked for matches, just leaving a choice of 2 of the smaller ponds, Finches & Woodside.

I popped up to Finches and with only 3 other anglers fishing at the far end settled on a swim to the right of peg 7. This is the narrowest point, being just 8mtrs to the far bank.

Bait owing to the unplanned nature of the trip, was to be whatever was in my holdall, which was 4mm & 6mm GOT Baits expanders and sweetcorn

The rig was simplicity itself, an eyed series2 fox match, knotless knotted to 2½ft of 0·17 Carpteck with a Drennan Carp1 cocked with a no6 and a no10 dropper.

An underarm flick with a pinch of 4mm pellets and 6 grains of corn primed the swim and off I went. Within a couple of minutes the float slid away and a gentle lift contacted the 1st fish of the day which proved to be a fighting fit Mirror Carp of around 2½lbs .

The pattern continued for most of the session, the disruption caused by each fish neccesitating refeeding and a patient wait till the next found the bait. Around 11am an angler who had set up next to me on peg 6 came round for a chat as he couldn't buy a bite .
I ended up giving him one of my identicle rigs and some corn, but for him it was not to be and he packed up at 1pm without so much as a bite .

I carried on getting fish probably every 15mins, and when I decided to pack up at around 2pm, the obligatory 'Last Cast' produced the best fish of the session at around 6lb.

A nice finish to an unplanned session with 21 carp for around 50lb+ of fish on a sunny spring day .

It all started with a phone call a couple of weeks ago.
"I need to take Fraser fishing, where and when can we go?"
It was Maria's brother Chris asking the questions, so Saturday was chosen with the venue being Hartleylands Farm .
Now Chris being Chris, didn't arrive at my place till just after 9am, so we didn't arrive at the fishery till just after 10am.

I knew that i could guarantee that they would catch a few fish and with only The Reservoir booked we had our pick of the ponds and lakes. We settled on Woodside Pond which is the smallest of the original ponds on the site with only 5 pegs, it's tucked away at the back of the fishery and doesn't get much pressure, but if it didn't produce the goods it's only a short hop over to the newer Peartree match lake .

Woodside Pond

Chris and Fraser settled in to peg 5 while i set up on peg 4. Chris set up a small feeder for himself and a light waggler for Fraser, with bait being maggot and corn, while i set up my pole and went with expander pellet as bait.

Father & Son

With a couple of feet in the margins and maybe five feet down the middle it's nice simple fishing and Chris was soon off the mark with a small Carp. Fraser and I were soon following, me with with a Carp and Fraser with his 1st ever Tench.

Chris

Fraser

All day long sport continued with a succession of small Carp and Tench keeping things interesting for both Father and Son. I sneaked over to Peartree for a final couple of hours and found that the bottom must have been carpeted with small Tench, nothing big, with a pounder being a bonus but a fish virtually every put-in .

All to soon, it was time to pack away the gear, and seeing them off from the car park the final site was Fraser's grinning face looking back and waving. I don't think it will be to long before they're back.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Hawthorne AC club match.

Next up Sunday, and a Hawthorne AC club match on Milton Lake at Old Bury Hill. One of the most popular venues in this part of the country, and the usual suspects turned up along with Omega Mike from TotalFishing.Com and Peter9000uk, both eager to guest and have the chance of getting amongst the Crucians and Tench that the venue is so well known for .

Everything looked lovely at the draw and i found myself with peg 19. (The same as i had drawn in our last club match there)

Peg 19

Shortly after the all in at 9am however, it soon became clear that all was not well, as the fish seemed to have almost entirely switched off . I have never seen this lake fish so badly, whether it was the rainwater that had gone in the previous week, or the couple of cold nights leading up to the match I don't know, but the half time weigh-in took all of 5 mins as only a couple of anglers had enough to trouble the scalesmen.
Omega Mike decided that the comforts of home were more attractive and left half way through and i can't say i blamed him . Stiffy, another TotalFishing poster turned up for a short chat as he was fishing the Estate Lake and had a similar tale of woe as all but a couple of pegs on there were struggling.

I finally managed to extract 4 Crucians and a similar number of Rudd for a grand total of 4lbs 9ozs and 7th place. The winner managing 33lbs 1 oz off of peg 4 which is an out and out flyer, but with 3 dry nets and a similar number only weighing in ounces, it was overall a very disappointing day .

Just to add insult to injury walking back to the car park i passed Bonds Lake only to see 7 anglers all playing carp at the same time. How can 2 lakes just 10 yards apart fish so differently on the same day??????

 

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship.

A rather threadbare turn out of only 8 anglers assembled in the car park at Hartleylands, on a bright sunny morning for the Southern round of the M/D's Individual Knockout Championships that was fished on the Reservoir at Hartleylands Farm just outside Cranbrook in Kent .

Little did we know that we were to experience the full range of weather in the course of the day ranging from warm sunshine to torrential rain, wind, Thunder & lightning and hailstones.

Ay the draw I was fortunate enough to pull out peg1, that has a small willow overhanging the water and is normally capable of providing a framing weight in matches .

Having fished the reservoir the previous Saturday, I'd already decided that contrary to normal practice, I was going to try a close in attack at around 3mtrs (the length of a power top2) in an effort to put a net of silvers together, but with a strong enough rig to stand a fighting chance with any Carp that put in an appearance .

The top2 was elasticated with yellow Drennan Bungee (rated 10-12) with a straight through rig made up on 0·17 carptek line, a 4X14 Preston PB13 ending in one of the new Fox series2 carp match hooks in a size 18. Bait was my favorite 6mm expanders coated in VDE pellet oil, sweetcorn and ¼inch cubes of luncheon meat that had been soaked in VDE Predator+ overnight. Feed was taken care of with a mix of Swimstim natural and green 3mm pellets.

At the all in, it was a generous handfull of pellets under the willow and another straight out at 3mm. 1st put in to the front and the float buried resulting in me getting off the mark with a 3oz Roach,and a top up with a pinch of pellet every put in as I alternated between out front and under the willow kept the bites coming all match.

 Periodically I would connect with a Carp and when this happened it was a matter of adding the rest of the pole and letting it play itself out away from the catching area before netting it, thus avoiding wrecking the swim I'd been catching in .

Malc finally managed to sort things out and put a few fish together towards the end of the match ......

but poor Vince's insider knowledge of the venue rather let him down today as he struggled being between Malc and me, though he did manage to put a few in the net, it was a case of to little to late.......

It did get a little lairy in the afternoon when we were treated to a combination of torrential rain accompanied with thunder & lightning (very very fightening ) but even during this i managed to keep a few going in the net.

Thankfully it stopped before 4pm when Paul,one of the fishery bailiffs came to do the weigh in for us.......

 The weights were as follows.......

Vince very kindly donated a trophy for the winning angler,and here he is presenting it

Finally a word of thanks to Malc & Vince for organising a thoroughly entertaining day and a word of thanks too for Paul Ward (the owner) and his staff at Hartleylands. Once again despite the weather throwing the lot at us, the fishery produced the goods, proving what a consistent fishery Hartleylands is .

Thought I had better try and get some practice for the MD Individual Knockout Championships Southern Qualifier that's taking place on the Reservoir at Hartleylands next Saturday . The weather wasn't looking to good on the drive down, with the odd shower and strong blustery winds .

I arrived at the fishery at 9·30am and seeing that there were no bookings on the reservoir drove straight up there. There were only 3 other anglers fishing. A walk round made me realise why they were tucked into one corner as the wind was really blowing across the water. I suppose I could have toughed it out, but I decided to join the 3 others and dropped into peg 31 right next to the car park .

During disscussions with Paul (The Owner) and Vince in the past, the fact that the good head of silver fish present tend to get ignored by most anglers who target the Carp, has always come up, and today I fancied seeing just how many of these I could catch. To keep count I was going to drop a pellet into an empty baitbox for each 10 caught. Plumbing up I had 3ft at a top 2 length increasing to 5ft at 8 mtrs. The wind was going to make it uncomfortable to fish any longer, and would probably make for a slower catch rate.

I set up 3rigs, The 1st a top2 set to fish to hand that would cover all depths, the 2nd at dead depth for 8mtrs and a shallow rig for the same line. Bait was 6mm expanders, cubed meat and sweetcorn. Micro pellet was to be the loosefeed.
Starting off I put 2 pots of micropellet in at 8mtrs and a ½ pot at 3mtrs. Out to 8mtrs with an expander at depth and within a minute the float slid away as a plump Roach of about 6ozs obliged . Bites and fish were pretty constant. All the while a pinch of micros were being flicked into the 3mtr line and my 1st put in on that line after about 45 mins found that the Roach were waiting.These fish were unmarked and a good average size (6-8ozs) with some examples over the pound .

It must have been solid with roach as in the course of 4hrs only 4 Carp managed to muscle their way in along with a few Skimmers and a solitary Tench of about 3lbs. A fifth Carp finally trashed the to hand rig after about 4½hrs, so it was time to count up the pellets in the baitbox. 31 pellets plus the five Roach caught before the rig went west = 315 silvers, mainly Roach!!!!!!  One hell of a session, it's at times like this that you wish you could use a keepnet .

After a well earned coffee and a sarnie I made another heavier rig up for a last hour targetting the Carp with big cubes of meat. The constant stream of micros had obviously resulted in a good few getting through to the bottom, and i managed another 11 Carp before packing up .
The largest of which is in the photo below.To give you some idea of size the net is a 24inch (2feet) pan.

What it doesn't show is how fat the fish was .

Another day like this next Saturday will more than do me, but as "The Jinx" is fishing it as well, I may be raising my hopes, only to have them dashed. ROLL ON NEXT SATURDAY!!!!!!!  

Well today was one of those "Just got to go fishing" days. No real forward planning, no Saturday trip to the tackle shop, didn't even set the alarm, just woke up and looked out of the window, load up the car and off .

Destination Harleylands, There were bound to be matches booked on the main lakes, but you always seem to be able to find a swim on one of the smaller ponds on the complex, unlike neighbouring Elphicks which is normally full with the gates shut by 7·30am at the weekends .

I got there at just after 8am to find all the main lakes booked as I thought, but was pleasantly surprised to find a newly installed Burger Van .

Breakfast taken care of (Very nice it was too) I had a wander and found peg 22 on Finches was free, which would do for me. A comfortable 13mtrs to the far side and with the odd patch of fizzing bubbles, I was soon set up and ready to go. Bait wise I only had some corn and some 4 & 6mm expander pellets, so that would have to do.

Peg 22...

Idealy I would have liked some meat, as i find that it works well here once the weather starts to warm up, but i didn't have any with me. Anyway a couple of large pots of 4mm pellets with some corn were deposited along the front of the Irises on the far bank and a 6mm was impaled on the hook and offered up .

After about 30 mins of the float dipping and dancing around as the silvers nibbled away at the pellets it stopped. Back out with a fresh pellet and a couple of minutes later it buried and the 1st Carp of the day was on its way to the net.............

1st of the day....

.................A fin perfect fully scaled mirror of about 4lbs. Sport was never fast and furious, but by sticking at it sport was at least regular. One of the delights of Hartleylands is the condition of the fish, No ripped mouths and every one fin perfect and such is the stock mix that you're never sure what the next fish will be. Common, Mirror, Ghost, Koi? they are all there to be caught .

As the afternoon became more overcast with rain threatening, the obligatory "One Last Cast" produced this lovely Linear Ghost carp of around 3lbs.......

A nice end to the session which produced a total of 15 carp for a weight of around 50lbs. Definately worth the 90 mile round trip.