Hawthorne AC club match.

Well stupidity overcame common sense this morning, as instead of just rolling over and staying under a nice warm duvet cuddled up with the wife when the alarm went off at 6am, I got up and decided to give it a go on my club's match. So at 7am there I was loading the tackle into the car for the drive down to Framfield Lakes just outside the village of Uckfield. Frost on the car didn't boad well, and the frost on the surrounding countryside got heavier as I approached the venue .

On arrival the catering wagon was closed, so no hot cuppa and bacon sarnie.

Now there are about 7 pegs you don't really want to draw as you can't reach the islands from them, so of course I drew peg 60 which is probably as far away from an island as it's possible to get. Out came the waggler, while the next peg set up a bomb rod, so between us we would see if anything was about. I also set up 4 sections of pole to target a dead reed bed in the margin to my right.

10am and all in, and after an hour the waggler had produced just a couple of plip Roach, while next door hadn't had a touch. Also a cold crosswind had sprung up ruining presentation, so it was pole time. Targetting a small gap about a foot square, it was a question of feeding 4 grains of corn and fishing a single grain till a bite or fish arrived .

Well apart from watching those fishing to the island catching, I actually managed to winkle a few small Carp out and at the final whistle managed to put a level 19lbs on the scales which was enough for 6th place on the day.

So hard work in the cold and wind, but given the limitations of my peg on the day I was reasonably happy with the result.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well I have to say that not for the first time I was doubting my own sanity this morning as I loaded the kit into the car. A near gale force wind and rain didn't bode well for a club match on a venue that was new to me.
The venue in question is called Horsham lake, just outside the village of Upchurch in Kent. Nothing out of the ordinary, holding around 35 pegs, but a tad exposed as it's situated about a mile inland from where the River Medway enters the Thames Estuary.

Into the draw bag and Peg 5 was mine for the day, and by now the wind is gusting to Gale Force . Thankfully the wind was blowing onto my back, and there's a small island in front of me at 14mtrs.

Peg 5

The picture below shows the view behind me, not a lot of shelter and the next stop is the Thames Estuary!!!!..........................

Plumbing up revealed 3ft all the way across, not a dip nor a hump to be found anywhere, but with the wind behind me at least I could fish the pole across. I had been told that it was mostly small stuff with Carp and Rudd in the majority, so I started as light as i could with single maggot on a 20 to begin with.

I have a digital thermometer that I take with me and the water temp was 6°C but the air temp at the 10am start was only 4·5°C and by midday it had dropped to just 2°C .

Keeping it tight was the name of the game, just 12 maggots in a T-Pot at the start, with another 4 after every bite or fish, kept just enough interest going with the odd small Carp and Rudd visiting the keepnet at regular intervals.

All around anglers were struggling to cope with the conditions with those on the opposite bank finding the pole an impossibility to fish in the conditions, indeed 4 packed up rather than risk hypothermia, while the rest resorted to feeder rods.

Just after 1pm we were treated to snow and hail. This caused 3 more of the lads to pack up, but with the odd fish still coming I stuck it out till the whistle at 3pm.

Round came the scales and I was pleasantly surprised to see 23lbs 2ozs register on the scales .

Back to the car park and I found that I'd finished 3rd, second beat me by an ounce while 1st was a further 6lbs in front.
Still a nice little brown envelope for me, hard earned but very welcome.

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??????

 

Hawthorne AC club match.

Up with the lark this morning for the drive down to Framfield Park Fishery, just outside the village of Uckfield. The sun was up as I pulled into the carpark, promising a second hot day on the trot Summer must be here at last .

Lots of banter and catching up over a Bacon sandwich and a cuppa as I had missed the last 2 club matches. We were fishing Spring Lake, a noted "bag-up" water down here in the SE, and this had encouraged a good turn out of 23 anglers.

Into the drawbag and it's the early pegs in the 50's that everyone wanted, but it was peg 45 for me, not the best of pegs as there's only a maximum of 3ft of water and the island is out of pole reach at 20mtrs+ .

Having already missed 2 club matches and with the prospect of missing at least another 4 during the course of the season, I've made up my mind this year to just enjoy the days fishing and I wanted to use today to try and get to grips with fishing paste, a bait that i don't use very often, and a method that i really need to improve on .

Peg 45.

Plumbing up revealed a change of depth of just 4" from the margin to 14mtrs and a couple of slurping sounds from the vegetation growing in the left hand margin made my mind up that that would be my main area to fish.

By the time of the all-in there were a good number of fish cruising around but despite a number of anglers targeting them they seemed reluctant to feed . Meanwhile i was sitting on my hands and trying to resist hitting every little dip and dink of the float as hordes of little Roach descended on my paste.
An hour in and the float just buried and the elastic ripped out of the pole as Carp no1, a nice Ghostie of about 3lbs got me of the mark .

The next few hours were what you might call character forming!!!
Lots of tail patterns in the swim with apparent sail away bites being nothing more than liners. Fiddling with the rig and laying about 6" of line on the deck and cutting back the feed meant that i managed another 9 fish, so that with just over an hour to go i probably had about 25lbs in the net.

Meanwhile news was traveling down that a couple of the lads on the 50's were sacking up and were in with a chance of doing the ton.
Me? i decided to increase the size of paste that i was fishing from a thumbnail piece to a bit the size of a 10p in the hope that the silvers wouldn't whittle it completely away before the Carp found it.

Well, whether it was sheer luck or inspiration I'm not sure but it certainly did the trick. The last hour was hectic to say the least as nearly every put in resulted in a sail-away and a Carp on the end. I couldn't get a bait in the water quickly enough and I had then queuing up .

When the scales arrived, sure enough 2 of the lads on the 50's had recorded tons, Paul (The club champ) with 119lbs 11ozs and Andy with a superb 159lbs 3ozs for a new club record weight.
Me? Thanks to that final hectic hour I managed 80lbs 12ozs which proved to be good enough for 3rd on the day .

The 23 members present managed to put a total of 1151lbs 9ozs on the scales today, representing an average of over 50lbs per man, A cracking days fishing by any standards.

Paste, Have I cracked it? Probably not, but a fun day that got me thinking about my fishing and definitely something that i shall be using on a more regular basis .

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well, the 1st match of the season for Hawthorne AC saw me driving down the M2 on the way to Lavender Farm on a bright warm sunny morning .
In the car-park all the usual suspects and a few new members were assembled for the draw, and with 25 members taking part peg18 stuck to my hand.
Now the match lake has what you might term a profusion of reeds,not just in the margins, but also on a number of sunken islands giving nearly every peg a feature to fish to .

Peg 18.......

The problem today however was that the recent spell of warm weather had encouraged the Carp to play Mums & Dads. They were soon thrashing the water to foam all over the fishery and those that weren't were cruising aimlessly in the upper layers sunning themselves .

Reeds Everywhere.......

Now the fact that the islands are sunk means that if you're not quick, any Carp that are hooked can swim straight through the reeds and out the other side, and 4 managed to do just that however 11 didn't manage it and when the scales arrived they totalled 23lbs exactly.
This gave me 7th place overall, which given the outlook half way through the match was i felt a fairly decent result.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well it was off to Lavender Farm today for a Hawthorne AC club match.
For a bit of added interest i was being joined by 3 guests (all Maggotdrowners) in the shape of Dave the Fish, Colin the Pike and last but not least Malc "The Jinx"

After various bits of banter in the car park it was time for the draw. Peg 92 was mine and low and behold Dave drew 93. Fortunately Malc drew on the dam wall which was about as far away from us as it was possible to get , though poor Colin only managed to get 4 pegs away. I was planning to start on the straight lead fishing corn, with a possible switch later on to the end of a dead reed bed on my left, into about 4 feet of water.

At the whistle Paul potted in 2 big cups of maggot at 11mtrs, and in his first 3 put ins had 3 carp for about 10lbs in the net.  My tip meanwhile refused to move.  A hasty change onto the pole and out to about 10mtrs in 9ft of water with corn on the hook, resulted in a couple of tentative bites and my first carp, but I was going backwards as Paul was off to a flyer .

At the start I had fed a couple of handfulls of micro halibut pellets into the reedbed on my left along with a few grains of corn, and after about an hour the stems started waiving as fish moved through them. I'd normally wait till later in the match before going onto that line, but i was getting battered by Paul and had to try something. Bites for the most part were tiny little dips, but slowly I felt that I was pulling back the deficit. Paul having seen me catching close, moved onto his margin and while not getting as many as me, seemed to be catching a better stamp of fish.

Dave had decided to concentrate on the other side of the reeds to me, and was slowly putting a few together. Malc was happily adjusting to a smaller stamp of Carp than he's been used to at Drayton & Stockton, but unfortunately Colin was having a hard time of it in his peg, fish proving hard to come by .
All to soon for me the scales arrived, with Paul weighing 66lbs 06ozs for 1st place, to my level 63lbs which gave me 2nd overall, Pauls better stamp of fish making all the difference. Dave managed 17lbs 12ozs for 8th on the day and Malc managed a creditable 34lbs 14ozs for 5th. Colin tipped his back without weighing.

Also today the club was fishing its Pairs Cup and with my partner on the day Mark Smith weighing in with 48lbs, we were the winners with 111lbs.
So a good day for me,and i hope that my 3 guests enjoyed themselves.

Hawthorne AC

AT Supercup match.

So off down to Harleylands for our Supercup match this morning.
On the way down in the car and the outside temp is reading -2°C, and the fields are so white with frost that it looks as if it had snowed.
On arriving at the fishery the temp has risen to a stunning 0°C but there doesn't appear to be any signs of frost! There's a bright blue sky and just a gentle breeze. The water temp is 4°C.

Into the draw, and I find myself making my way to peg 20, with a leasurely 1½hrs till the start of the match.

Peg 20,Looks lovely doesn't it?......

Well I've been told that feeder (either maggot or groundbait) with a ·08 hooklength and a 22 with single red maggot is the way to go dropped about a metre away from the island, so that gets set up 1st.
Can't resist setting up the pole as well and the main line of attack will be at 13mtrs where I've got 5ft,using a ·6grm Drennan Lake with a ·07 hooklength and a 22 again.Through the top2 I've got the new Drennan green dual core (6-8) set soft,as I'm expecting stockies no bigger than 12ozs max.

All in,and after cupping in a few micro pellets and a small amount of dry groundbait on the pole line,it's out on the feeder.
Well it wasn't happening for me but the lad to my left on peg 21 is catching steadily from the off while I can't buy a bite,but all the time I've been feeding 2-3 maggots every couple of minutes on the pole line.

After ½hr it's out onto the pole line and after 10mins the float dips,and I'm into a Carp at last,not huge at about 6ozs but at least it's a fish. Another 20mins and not another bite,so back onto the feeder and manage another couple and that's the way it went nearly all match for me. Even a pep talk from Red Leader had no effect other than to lighten the mood.

Well with about ¾hr to go I'm being battered by the next peg, I reckon he must have 20+lbs while I've got abour 6lbs if I'm lucky.
Back out on the pole once more and they're there and in the last 45 minutes I manage a fish a chuck. Why couldn't they have turned up earlier?
Come the weigh-in and the lad to my left puts 22lbs 2ozs on the scales which easily eclipses my 13lbs 9ozs.
The match is won by Medway Tackle (blue) by 14pts to 10pts, so that's us knocked out for another season .

Overall the 16 of us weighed in 235lbs 6 ozs, an average of over 14½lbs per man, which I feel given the conditions just goes to show what a good fishery Harleylands is to produce those sort of weights on a hard January day .

Hawthorne AC club match.

Off to Luck's Lane reservoir today for the club Fur & Feather match.
Stopped of for breakfast at the Oakdene Cafe before meeting in the venue car park for the draw.

Into the drawbag for peg 10 which was halfway along the lefthand bank with a cold NW wind howling straight into it.
That made my mind up straight away, I set up my new Boss Box which was having its 1st outing, and settled for fishing a feeder with hair-rigged corn. This was going to be my only line of attack because of the large number of crayfish that plague the venue. (any "meaty" bait gets ragged immediatly.)

Looking to the right from peg 10.....

Sport was slow but regular for me at least, with 9 Carp coming to the net at regular intervals during the match.
As the scales came round it became obvious that some had had a grueller with 10 dry nets recorded, My level 24lbs was enough to win the match by a clear 9lbs.

Back in the car park and time for the prizes, a 1½ltr bottle of Scotch for me, and a nice brown envelope.
Everyone took home a prize at the end of the day, even if it was only for sticking it out.

So 1st time out with my new box and a win, lets hope it's a lucky omen .

Well what a weekend!!!

First off it was down to Hartleylands farm to meet Dave the Fish and the lads of Marsh AC for their club match on Finches Pond.

Dave had kindly invited me to come along and fish as a guest of his club, so who was I to refuse .
An 8 am draw in the car park, and a brief chat with Vince (vg1037) the bailiff, who unfortunately wouldn't be fishing with us, saw the pegs allocated and off we strolled to set up.

Looking down over Finches....

It's a lovely intimate little pond, with only about a dozen pegs on it, and nearly everyone was occupied. I must admit that I had some reservations as to whether it would be able to handle this sort of pressure, as it's more of a pleasure venue in my eyes.
Still nothing ventured..........the pond itself holds a good head of fish, Carp up to 28lb, including good number of "high doubles", Roach up to 1½lbs, Skimmers, Perch and Chub up to 4lb, and of course Eric the Eel, who when last caught weighed 7lb.

I arrived at my peg, No4 and was faced with a good 16 mtrs to the far bank cover, possibly the widest swim on the pond, now given the fact that the peg is reached by about 15 steps down through trees and I was only guesting I wasn't about to spend all day shipping a pole back uphill, so out came the waggler rod (shock horror ) mind you I did set up a margin swim to tackle with my margin pole and some swimstim paste .

Peg 4...

Well come the off, and the pace wasn't exactly electric, and with 5 of us almost fishing the same bit of water, there was plenty of banter ( P*** taking) especially as Dave was on peg 2 and Colin was on peg 5.
A little further up the pool a few fish started to show after the hour mark, but nobody was setting the place alight, with mostly just small Roach putting in an appearance.
A while later Dave wandered round for yet another chat, by which time I had the margin pole out with a big bit of paste. As we chatted the float did a little dance and decided to vanish and my astonished strike met with an immoveable object, then the rig sprang back with a large scale firmly attached to the hook.
I was sure that I could hear laughter as Dave returned to his peg.
The day was wearing on and it was still all to play for with anyone that managed a good last hour in with a chance.
No more action on the paste, so back out on the waggler to see if a few more roach would play, away went the float and this wasn't the expected Roach!!!!!
Now on a 2lb bottom and size 20 a little care was called for, and after 5 minutes of supremely skillfull playing a 10lb Mirror Carp was safely in the net .........

and here's the resulting Carp..............

I'd love to say that things picked up from there, but it was not to be, just a few more small Roach for me, but Dave had the good last hour and managed 6 Carp to pick up the win on the day, while my 11½lbs left me somewhere in midfield.

A shy winner on Peg 2...

Still thanks to the lads at Marsh AC for an enjoyable day, shame about the crash on the A21 though that meant it took me nearly 3 hours to get home.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 2	Dave Collier	22lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 8	Tony Roberts	16lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 3	Jim Boase	15lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 7	Roger Noakes	12lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 4	Peter Morton  (Guest)	11lbs 02ozs
6th	Peg 5	Colin Sharrard	9lbs 06ozs
7th	Peg 6	Steve Wormall	5lbs 05ozs
8th	Peg 11	Dave Wormall	2lbs 07ozs
9th	Peg 10	Den Lambird	1lbs  02ozs
10th	Peg 12	Malcolm Norman	03ozs
11th	Peg 9	Ken Walker	01oz
12th	Peg 1	Tim Ford	DNW

Sunday, November 16, 2003.

Hawthorne AC club match.

A club match at Framfield Fisheries on Brookhouse lake. At the draw we always run a football sweep to raise club funds and yours truly won it (£28 nice )
Into the draw and it's peg 30 for me, a peg with no real form and on reaching it I have to say I wasn't inspired, as the water was icy despite the sun the previous day and the colour appeared to be dropping out of it.

Peg 30

Well I had a plumb around but couldn't find a feature but with the most depth at 11-13 mtrs that was going to be the line of attack. Meat is the going bait there at the moment, so it was going to be a question of just dripping in bait a bit at a time through a kinder pot, meat at 11mtrs and caster at 13mtrs with a couple of margin swims as a get out of jail job.

Well the lake was flat calm with nothing showing, all the action took place on the opposite side of the island, only odd little Roach and Skimmers showing on my side.

Still Life...

Well come the weigh-in and i've managed a meagre 3½lbs of small silvers for another midway finish, but there in the net lay a small Rudd of 2ozs. We run a Fish of the Day competition ( another of our treasurers little money making schemes), and guess who won another £10 for Fish of the Day. So at least i walked away £38 better off than I'd started the day.

 

Hawthorne AC club match.

Brookhall Lake just outside the village of Tiptree in Essex was the scene of the Hawthorne AC club match this weekend.
This is normally a prolific venue and I'd invited my fellow Maggotdrowner Dave the Fish to join us as a guest at the venue for the day .

One thing that I've noticed over the years is that regardless how good the weather is, the 1st Sunday of October is invariably darn cold. I'm sure that it's something to do with this day always marking the start of the Winter Leagues. Today there was a cloudless sky and a really biting North Westerly wind .

Just to make us feel better, Betty the bailiff informed us that the previous day had been very poor in terms of fish caught and that it had chucked it down overnight, so with 22 of us searching around in our car boots for fleeces and warm cloths it was draw time.
I drew peg 9 while Dave drew 23. On arrival at my peg it was obvious that the water level was down, as where the banker margin swim should be was bone dry. Plumbing up at 11mtrs where I was expecting to find at least 6ft revealed only 4ft and not a feature to be found. I had a look in what was left of the margins and could only manage 8 inches before it dropped down the ledge into about 3ft.
I set up a dead depth rig for 11mtrs and a heavy margin rig to fish paste, and a straight lead rig as a get out of jail option .

At the off nearly a pint of pellet and hemp went into the margin swim,and in such a shallow swim it wouldn't be touched until I saw a tail pattern or mud cloud disturb it.
Out to 11mtrs over a small pot of hemp and pellet, to no avail with just the odd small silver coming to single maggot, with the ripple and rising sun just adding to the difficulty.

Dave strolled past to retrieve some meat that he'd left in the car, by which time I'd gone over to a straight lead with a lump of paste, and as Dave came back past the tip pulled steadily round, and the strike met with.................... NOTHING!!!!!!! Guess which idiot had managed to knock the fighting drag off on the reel without noticing? Well it cheered Dave up.

Not another touch after that,and with very little coming out anywhere on the lake Dave arrived back later on, with his flask and sarnies and probably hoping for another faux pas on my part to entertain him.
So back out onto the pole line and no sooner had the float settled and away it went A nice little Tench of about 8ozs, a double bonus as it was the fish of the day, and if no others were caught it would pay my expenses. Dave wandered off back to his peg muttering to himself, I'm sure it was something about how skillfull I was.

Well the afternoon dragged on with just the occasional small Roach or Rudd breaking the monotony,when with 25 minutes to go I saw a tail pattern in the margin. On with a lump of paste on the margin pole and within 30 seconds it's sailing away..............MISSED!!!!!
Same again,back out and 30 seconds later away it goes again, only this time I connected. Off tears an angry Carp, and a few minutes later a nice 9lb'er is nestling in the landing net.
Nothing more till the end of the match, but that one fish had got me out of jail.
Weigh-in time and that one Carp and a few silvers gave me a level 13lbs, which was enough for 4th on the day.
Dave had managed 7lbs 5ozs for a creditable 9th.
The inquest in the car park after the match, laid the blame firmly on the cold weather and the biting wind. Everyone had to work for their fish today.

Well What a Weekend!!!!!

Saturday:

The Southern Intersite Match.

This has been pretty well detailed elsewhere, so I'll keep it brief.
I drew peg 72 on the big lake at Willow Park. You really need a good ripple on the surface, and the Culvert bank pegs were flat calm, so I knew it would be a grueller.

Looking across to the Bungalow bank from peg 72....

Pole at 12mtrs with the float at dead depth and dotted right down was the order of the day for a bag of small skimmers, roach and perch.
Onto the scales at the end for a weight of 11lbs 11ozs.
Only good enough for last in section.

11lbs 11ozs of hard earned fish......

Sunday:

Hawthorne AC club match.

Elphicks Fishery, Sandwich Lake.

Up at the crack of dawn again, and 19 of us met up for the draw, with peg 18 sticking to my hand, I have to say my heart sunk.
Peg 18 is in the far right hand corner as you look across from the car park bank, and Alan & Loz (who fished that peg on an MD's mini fish-in) will vouch for the fact that the average depth is about 18 inches.
Still got to make the most of it. I only set up 1 float rig for the pole fished dead depth (yes all 18 inches of it!) to fish pellet over pellet, with white hydro in the top kit, and I set up my feeder rod.(well I put it back in when i got home the previous night )

Looking over to the car park bank from peg 18....

Yet again flat calm conditions and warm sunshine turned it into hard work, but slowly I managed to get a few bites and put a few fish in the net.
Those that have fished it will tell you that Sandwich lake is a bit of an aquarium with such a wide range of species in it that you never really know what you're going to catch next.
Well by 1pm the pole line had dried up, so it was out with the groundbait feeder with hair rigged meat on the hook which managed to keep the fish coming till the end.
It was a real mixed bag that I took to the scales, Common & Mirror Carp, an ornamental Fantail, Crucians, Roach, Perch, Skimmers, Chub and green and golden Tench.
Nothing big, but they took the scales round to 35lbs 6 ozs, Good enough for 2nd on the day, and a nice way to end a busy weekend.

 

Well this weekend saw me spending a good part of my time at Hartleylands Fishery................

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was at the invitation of Dave (Dave the Fish), His club Marsh AC had booked the Reservoir for one of their club matches and as all the pegs weren't taken, Steve (beebs) Jason (NofinPhish) and Myself recieved an invitation to join them.
Assembling in the Carpark for an 8.30am draw, it was nice to meet John (tutu) and Colin who had accompanied Dave to the Welsh Fish-in. Also present, though in a working capacity was Vince (vg1037) the Bailiff at Hartleylands.

I drew in the high 30's and arrived at my swim to find the wind blowing in my face and the only shady peg on the whole fishery, so while others sat around in tee shirts & shorts, I was in a bib & brace and a fleece (M/D's of course )
I started on the poleline at about 10mtrs fishing pellet and managed to winkle out 6 skimmers and a small carp before the wind made presentation too awkward. Had I not been a guest I would have gone straight onto the method feeder as this is a banker for a few Carp, but sitting in my carryall was a ball of paste.
Now paste fishing is not one of my strengths, but having read a few of Malc's exploits, it's a bait I'm determined to get to grips with, so it was out with the margin pole, tie up a couple of rigs and lets have a go.

Paste in the margin.......

Well lets just say that it was fun , trying to condition myself not to strike every dip and tremor of the float, and towards the end of the afternoon having tried endless variations of rigs I felt as if i was coming to terms with it and a few decent fish had ended up in the net .

4pm and time for the weigh in and with Vince in charge we worked our way around.
Dave had set the pace with a 40lb bag, with everyone having caught a few.

Nice one for Dave........

Colin put just over 51lbs on the scales, all caught on the Method, which was to prove the winning weight. Steve had contented himself with using the day to practice his silver fish approach in readiness for the intersite match in a couple of weeks, and definatley caught more fish than anyone for a bag in the teens.

The Weigh-in......

Jason proved to be the dark horse, in what he professed to be his first ever fishing match, and duly put 49lbs on the scales for 2nd place. Well done Jason (I may have to rethink the team ).
Last but one to weigh was me and I was pleasantly surprised to see the needle creep round to 47lbs, nearly all paste caught .

So thanks to Dave and the lads of Marsh AC for a very pleasant day as their guest, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, I certainly did.

Hawthorne AC club match.

So Sunday morning and i'm in the Carpark again, this time for a Hawthorne AC match on Nicks Lake. Nicks is one of 3 new lakes that have just been opened at Hartleylands and was only stocked with fingerling Carp last November, but already these fish weigh around 6ozs.

A low turnout of only 15 anglers meant that we only put the even pegs in the draw to give everyone a bit of room, and peg 10 was mine, It was flat calm as we set up but as soon as the whistle blew so did the wind.

Peg 10..........

Now Vince had warned me that the fish tend to follow the wind, so you can imagine my joy to find the wind blowing from behind me and blowing my fish away.
I wish I could say that I fished a blinder, but I wasted far too much time on a pellet line scratching for bites. I finally started to get a few at 12mtrs to maggot, but it was to little to late. I managed to put 15lbs 6ozs on the scales for 6th, but only 17lbs was needed for 2nd. At least I got another 3 points for the fishing race, having caught a few small Ghosties.

Mint little Ghostie....

Mike Vincent ran away with it, with 28lbs 4ozs for 1st. Everyone caught though and in a couple of seasons time this is going to be an awesome match venue.

So that was my weekend, 1 fishery but two very different lakes,and mixed fortunes .

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well another club match today at Beaver Farm just outside East Grinstead. There are a number of lakes on site, catering for pleasure, match and specimen anglers. Today we were fishing Majors Lake, not the match lake (which is Maze Lake). It's supposed to hold a bit of everything.
True to Hawthorne AC form on arrival in the car park we were greeted with drizzle and a cool wind.  Well into the draw bag and it's peg 18 for me, so off to get set up and a pleasant surprise with 2 beds of lilies on the inside and another couple to attack on the farside.

Peg 18.....

At the all-in it was in with the pole alternating between the 2 inside lily beds. Unfortunately this only produced a few blade skimmers, which were attacked by jack pike if not landed in double quick time.

Well at least the drizzle had stopped and the sun had appeared,so tiring of doing battle with the jacks, I decided to try over with a cage feeder filled with pellet and 2 pellets hair rigged on the hook.

Well this didn't exactly set the world alight either, Indeed word had gone round that the whole lake was fishing badly, but it did produce a better stamp of skimmer to keep something going in the net.
Half an hour to go and another light pull on the tip and OOOOOH!!!!!!!! this isn't a skimmer. Luckily with a bit of open water in front, I was able to take my time and 10mins later a nice Mirror Carp of about 8½lbs was safely in the net leaving just enough time for another couple of skimmers before the final whistle.

When the scalesmen arrived the total came to 26lbs dead, which was good enough for 3rd place on the day.

Back at the car park,and there was just enough time to flog £50 of raffle tickets for Elvington . So that was it for another day, Next stop is at ELVINGTON Roll on the Weekend.

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well off to Old Bury Hill again today, this time it's Miltons Lake though. Strangely for a Hawthorne club match it's not raining or blowing a gale, in fact the sun was actually shining .

So 17 are at the draw and what sticks to my hand? Peg 19. Now Miltons Lake is home to some cracking Crucians, Tench, Bream, Roach and Rudd. The one thing missing is Carp, a deliberate policy by the fishery owner to stop the Crucians hybridising.

Now peg 19 had a large reed bed to the left of it and the normal approach is to fish as close to them as possible with Pellet, Meat or Corn targeting the Crucians and Tench. Put a maggot on the hook and you'll get bitted out by the Rudd.

PEG 19........

So at the all in, it was 2 big pots of pellet, meat & corn spread out along the reeds, and a pot of corn tight to the right as a back up. Three quarters of an hour in and nothing, not a bite on pellet or corn so on with some meat, a minute later and the float slides away, strike and all hell lets loose as a big orange tail waves at me before departing through the reeds and smashing me.
Now i've seen enough of those tails to know that it belonged to a Carp that was probably double figures. The commotion kills the swim so a drop onto the right hand side produces 1 small Tench of about 8ozs.
Back onto the left and the next 2½ hrs leave me totally frustrated as i get reeded by another 5 large Carp, and manage to get just 2 of the smaller ones out.

A chat with the bailiff as he strolled round revealed that a load of Carp have obviously been transferred from the adjacent Bonds Lake by Idiots that believe that there should be some Carp in Miltons.

The last couple of hours see me finally get a few small Tench and a couple of nice Crucians, but the disturbance caused by the Carp and having to scale up my rigs in case another Carp put in an appearance have killed off any chance of putting a good weight together on the day.

At the scales I managed 19lbs 6ozs, for 5th place on the day, not the worst but leaving me frustrated as I don't feel that I've got the best from the peg today .