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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First outing of 2008.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks Peter.

Last outing of 2007.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Fur & Feather.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just a quick visit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Southern Intersite Match.

Well today saw me making the relatively short trip down to Willow Park Fishery at Ash Vale for the Southern Intersite match and within an hour of leaving home I was pulling into the car park to see many of the participants already there, ready and eager for hopefully a good days fishing, despite the fact that it was obviously going to be a scorchingly hot day.

Breakfast taken care of, most of the anglers were eager for the draw and while we waited many took the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones that they had only spoken to on the various forums before. In that respect it was nice to meet up with bad.boy bagger and baging up art, two lads from Bath who use the TalkAngling forum and had told me how much they had enjoyed reading this blog, Cheers Lads.

A quick phone call meanwhile revealed that unfortunately Dai Thomas wouldn't be joining us as an electrical problem with his car had forced him to return home to Wales. However a local stepped in to make up the numbers for us ensuring that we would not be short on the day.

Vince's team meeting was short and to the point, with just 1 instruction.......DON'T WIN!!!!!!!!.
I should probably explain at this point that Maggotdrowning.com team members don't take the Intersite Team matches too seriously, indeed when the series started, it was designed to be light hearted, and an opportunity for anglers from other sites to meet each other, put faces to names and have a bit of fun. We have just carried on with that ethos despite a competitive edge creeping in for some other teams.

So with the draw over it was time to make our way to our pegs. I already knew that I would be fishing the Big Lake and peg 73 on the culvert bank was going to be "home" for the next 5 hours.

 A nice comfy peg and with the pegging leaving every other peg out, plenty of room to operate. Given the good head of Bream present I set up 2 feeder rods and paced them both out to around 45yds and clipped them both up.
Groundbait was the new Bait-Tech Special'G' Green with Casters and chopped worm added and worm, caster or a combination of both as hookbaits. I did set up a pole for a line at 8mtrs but this was very much a get out of jail option as I wanted to concentrate on the feeder.

All set up with 25 minutes to go I took a stroll round to see Vince who was on peg 59 over on the Bungalow Bank in what can be a good Bream swim with the wind blowing into it, though todays bright sunshine rather negated that. He had Perry Stone, one of the local experts for company on end peg 57 but seemed relaxed enough when I left him to get back for the start.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2007.

So there i was 6·30am on Saturday with the car all loaded up and ready to get off to Rolf's Lake for the 2nd Annual Maggotdrowning Pairs Tournament.
A quick stop off on route in Battersea for a spot of breakfast followed by a trouble free run down the M40 saw me pulling into the services just after 8am, closely followed by Paul East (NoMoreLongWalks) along with Dai and his good lady Anne and Vince (vg1037).
A short phone call soon revealed that Ady (BigLadWigan) was doing a passable impression of lost & confused driving around Holton trying to remember where the lake was, so he elected to return to the services and follow us down there.

Soon it was a case of back into the cars and down to Rolf's, arriving just after 9am you can imagine my shock to find Malc and his daughter Gemma already there, indeed the car park was almost full as various Maggotdrowners arrived from all corners of the country.
Geoff P had taken the long distance award, having been chauffeured down from Scotland by his son for the weekend. While looking around you could see a mini Maggotville emerging as a number of bivvies went up.

Talk as usual was about just how many "tons" would come out over the weekend but as I took a walk round the lake, nagging away in the back of my head was a little voice telling me that things might prove to be a lot harder than many people thought owing to all the water that had been in and out of the venue during the preceding weeks.

It was good to see that pegs 16-18 had been reinstated opening up the choice of pegs available, indeed standing in the car park it was hard to believe that the lake had been bursting it's banks the previous weekend and it was a tribute to the efforts of John and his helpers even going to the trouble of running a pump round the clock in order to make sure that the venue was eminently fishable, leading many to wonder why another website's match due for the Friday had been canceled by them the previous Monday.

Finally Dave Webster (RedLeader) arrived, having collected Tony Prentice (teepee) on the way he'd obviously had a "Blonde" moment setting the Sat Nav so that the route from Yorkshire to Wheatly was via the M25??????

So finally we're all assembled and the draw takes place for pairs, which finds me paired for the weekend with Tony Roberts (spamwham) a fellow Marsh AC member, and then the draw for pegs. Dave and I were the last to draw and I found myself holding Peg 34, considered by many to be a flyer, so no pressure. However on arriving I found that the rope that marks the far edge of the swim had been moved away from it's usual position???? Tony. my partner had drawn peg 38 so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

Settling into the peg I set the box up on the submerged platform and elected to concentrate on the margins which were about 18" deeper than usual, but also taking advantage of the new ruling that allows the use of rod and reel, set up a feeder rig to cover my options.

Next door on peg 35 I had Dave "Yorkie" Moore for company, a fellow competitor in The Jinx Series of matches, so if nothing else a good bit of banter was assured.

12noon and the all in sounds, and it would be nice to say that we all got off to flyers, but it was Gazmalman who had flown off his platform before the match had even started, Malman Floats? well it would appear he does, even if he is well dotted down due to consuming a few to many pies ..................

.............the crazy bit is that he did it again during the match, this time losing a weigher in the process that probably cost him the section.

For a lot of the anglers it proved to be a hard old day, most had fish in their swims at some point in the day but getting them to show an interest in a bait was another matter. Try as they might it proved to be a struggle, some like Dave grafted away for 5 hours and were only rewarded with a single fish proving once again that there is more to it than just turning up at Rolf's to guarantee a ton-up bag.

I was lashing in the pellet on the margin line while fishing the feeder out by the rope but for no reward, while teepee opposite on peg 6 had landed 1 and lost a couple. However we all had to watch as Ian Ward (Chin) on peg 7 and Gemma on peg 8 caught steadily from the off and with the lake not fishing to it's potential strolled away from the rest of us. Ian winning the day with 108lbs 8ozs, while Gemma was unfortunate enough to lose a good fish in the final minutes that could have pushed Ian all the way, but still finishing in overall 2nd place with 98lbs, a really top performance on the day allowing her to take more than a few £1 coins off of the assembled company.

I had been fortunate enough to nick a  few decent fish at the end with a final 12½lb'er with 5 mins to go, my 73¼lbs pushing up to 9th on the day while Tony had found out about the power of Rolf's fish, putting 45lbs on the scales for 13th overall but losing many more. A lesson learned hopefully.

As most know Rolf's health has not been the best so it was especially good to see him put in an appearance during the afternoon and have a gentle stroll round having a chat with those present.

The weigh-in proved just how hard it had been for most with only the 1 "ton" and more weights under 50lbs than above it, Rolf's had indeed shown us it's hard side, though hopefully with plenty of feed having gone in, things would improve on Sunday.

Soon the Barbecue was lit and the beers cracked open with Rolf stopping on for a bite to eat before returning home.
Around 9pm the rain stared to fall, but with Dave's gazebo and countless brollies available the banter continued for some long into the night.

Sunday dawned dry and sunny and with breakfast cooked once more on the barbecue for most it was just a question of waiting for Pete Archer (Vespe) and Keith Arthur (Fishermans Blues) fresh from his morning radio show to join us for the draw. Both duly arrived and the draw was underway.

I found myself on peg 9 this time while Tony had draw sock on with peg 8, while I had Chin to my left on 10.
with the all in at 12noon, Ady on peg 31 was looking like Raison, Nudd & Wilson rolled into one as his paste attack brought immediate rewards, alas it was not to last, but he looked good while it lasted, unfortunately all to briefly.

I started off with an absolute nightmare , there were fish in front of me but regardless of what I put on the hook or the depth I fished at, all I got were foulhookers that proved to be unlandable. By the time that Ian walked past with his 5th weigher and yet another fish trashed another rig, my pole was thrown up the bank, to stop myself from smashing it in a fit of temper.
Once again I reverted to meat fished in conjunction with a feeder full of fishery pellet, which finally allowed me to put a few fish together.
Ian meanwhile was putting another decent net together but was losing a few under the submerged platform costing him several damaged top kits

Tony however was going along steadily and managed to beat his PB Chub 3 times during the course of the match, culminating in a glorious 5¾lb'er.

Tony (Teepee) had drawn peg 6 for the second day running and although he managed to improve on his day 1 weight, it wasn't by enough to have any effect overall.

Throughout the match even though I couldn't see him I could hear Malc (The Jinx) mostly as he traded banter and insults with young Ian .........

......... however he played a bit of a blinder edging to a win on the day with a level 143lbs, pushing Tony down to 2nd place with a creditable 136lbs. I managed 91lbs for 7th on the day and both days results gave us a total of 52points which proved to be enough for us to take the title of MD's Rolf's Pairs Champions for 2007 and receive our trophies from Fisherman's Blues himself.

Finally I would like to add my thanks to Dave for organising the whole weekend. To John & Pauline Bennett & John Walker whose efforts to get the fishery ready for us were very much appreciated. To Keith Arthur for joining us on Sunday along with Pete Archer & his sponsor Vespe for providing some goodies for the winners. To Rolf, It was good to see you at your fishery once more and Finally to all The Maggotdrowners in attendance, it's you that make the weekend the success it is. Let's do it all again next year.

Off down to Monk Lakes today to meet up with a few lads from the Maggotdrowning site. Overcast skies but a really mild 10°C on the way down held the promise of a few fish to be had.
8·45 in the car park and Nick and Tony had arrived, shortly followed by Dave(TheFish) and Colin. Vince had already told me that he would be arriving late and a quick chat with Ron the bailiff had ensured we could use keepnets for what was to be a light hearted knock up.

Making our way over to Lake 2 we passed the heavy plant that is in the process of re-excavating the old catfish lake to a deeper depth.
Parking up we decided to fish the closest pegs which included the corner flyer, peg 45. We had an impromptu draw to ensure fairness and Colin ended up with the flyer, then Nick, myself, Dave and Tony. We decided Vince could tag onto the end as penance for late arrival .

A leisurely tackle up session interrupted only by Nick moaning that the cold wind was blowing towards him and why couldn't he fish the opposite bank so the wind was off his back and there were fish topping over there, finally came to an end when Nick swung in a gudgeon that had hung itself on his hook that was already baited .

Most of us has settled for the pole, though Nick had set up a waggler as well. Colin was soon into a fish......

....... as was Nick, while the rest of us we a little slower off the mark .

15 minutes in and Vince arrived and was soon set up and fishing.....

.....Tony has started to get a few but was having to chop and change baits in an effort to keep the bites coming.

I was having a bit of a struggle, having wasted a bit to much time trying to catch close in, before moving out to 9mtrs and alternating baits to start catching with any regularity.
Dave's arthritis was giving him a bit of jip in the cool conditions, but by fishing short and sticking at it, he was still managing to put a few together .
The beauty of the match lakes at Monk is the wide variety of fish that are stocked, Carp, F1's, Barbel, Chub, Ide, Orfe, Tench(Green & Golden) Bream and Perch amongst the species on offer.

Colin and Nick appeared to have the bulk of fish in front of them, with Colin always seeming to have the edge, though we were all catching if not as regularly as the dynamic duo .

About 3·30 we decided to call it a day as the sun started to set....

Dave had brought the scales so a quick weigh in was done.......

Vince managed 17lbs.

Tony had a creditable 49lbs.

Dave put 28lbs on the scales.

My net came to 41lbs.

Nick had 59lbs, 10lbs of that caught while we were weighing the rest in .

Finally Colin was the star of the day with a tremendous 118lbs!!!!!
(Only part of which is in the photo.)
Doing justice to the flyer .

So farewells made and Happy New Years wished, we packed up for the day. Over 300lbs of fish between the 6 of us, plenty of good natured banter and great company had made for another good day .
Must do it again sometime (as if we really need an excuse ).

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship.

Having dropped Maria off at work at 6am and then loaded the car up, I took a leisurely drive down to Monk Lakes arriving earlier than anticipated at around 8am. Once again the fishery had put the "Welcome Maggotdrowners" sign out, and after parking up I thought I'd take a quick look at match lake 2, only to find that Terry (wily) Clive (blackhydro) & Darren (badatfishing) along with RonB had beaten me to it .

A quick look confirmed that you would either have the wind full in your face all day or off your back depending on your draw.

Some seemed to fancy peg 45, whether for the short walk or the fact it was a corner end-peg was open to debate. whoever drew it would have the wind full in their face however with very little chance of getting a brolly up should the threatened bad weather appear .

Back for a bit of breakfast and the draw, and pulling into the car park is a white Carlton estate and Dai's arrived for his 1st outing since he had his operation. He'd spoken to me a couple of days earlier saying that he fancied it having not been out for months, and my mention that he just might just finally catch a GOLDEN TENCH here, probably made his mind up though.

At the draw Vince announced that the previous match had been won from peg 45, so you can imagine just how delighted he was to see it resting in my hand when I pulled it out of the hat .

Setting up it was obvious that fishing long up in the water would be hard work, and as I had been off work for the previous 3 days with a pulled muscle in my back it wasn't really an option for me . Plumbing up though revealed a good 2?feet on a top 2 line with just 3 feet at about 5 meters.
With every other peg missed out I was pretty sure that I could catch close, so made up my mind to go for it from the off, and with Clive (blackhydro) to my left setting up to fish further out I would be able to see if I needed to lengthen my line as things progressed .

11am and Vince called all-in and I fed 3 lines, 2 just a comfortable underarm for 4mm pellets and another cupping in at 5 meters. Baits for the day were just GOT 6mm expanders and Paste, but before I could put a pellet on a shout from Dai had me running down the bank to capture this moment .....

.......... Just the sort of thing that makes it all worthwhile, the smile wouldn't leave Dai's face for the rest of the match .
Back on my peg and I dropped the top2 rig in and the float just kept going!! Had I overshotted it? obviously not as the black hydro streamed out of the top. 30 seconds later and an 8oz Barbel is safely in the net and I'm off and running.
Looking around it was soon evident that plenty of people were putting a few fish in their nets and miraculously the wind was holding the threat of rain off despite plenty of grey clouds scudding past.
It soon became evident that my peg appeared to be solid with small Barbel, super fit fish in perfect condition that gave a good account of themselves on soft set Black Hydro.

Now a constant bone of contention on forums is Barbel in still waters, I can only say that these fish in Monks are as fit as any that I've caught in rivers over the years and appear none the worse for wear due to their environment.
Indeed they have been bred at the fish farm that adjoins the Monk Lakes complex.

Sport was steady and with 3 and a bit hours gone Dave the Fish came along for his customary chat while he had a sarnie, and admitting to around 40lbs for his efforts so far . I estimated I had around 100 fish split between my 2 nets and decided to use a 3rd net for the final part of the match. Getting up to reposition my nets, I slipped !!!!!! Both feet straight in past my ankles , thankfully I had a spare pair of boots in the car, so a quick time out to change and sort things out left me with around 1hrs to go.

Thankfully despite this disruption they were still there and I caught steadily right up to the end at 4pm landing my last fish as Vince called the all out.

Weigh in time, and our bank had obviously been Barbel Alley, Dave starting off with 65lbs just edging RonB's 63lbs. Dai proving he was back in the groove putting a very creditable 81lbs on for a section win, Clive just missing out with 78lbs.

My 3 nets totaled 100lbs putting me into pole, but with Nick Gilbert admitting to 80lbs or maybe a tad more.

Next up was Polemad who had been opposite me, just missing out on a "TON" with 95lbs.

Then we came to Mr Gilbert. What can I say? other than "I'll NEVER BELIEVE ANOTHER OF HIS ESTIMATES AGAIN!!!!!!!" as his 80lbs guesstimate transformed itself into 170lbs!!!!!!. a superb weight on the day comprising of nearly all carp as with the wind behind him he had been able to catch up in the water on banded pellet all day.

It proved to be Nick's biggest ever match weight making him a worthy winner and MD's Southern Champion 2006.

The rest of the weigh-in Produced yet more weights between 50-80lbs, even Vince's daughter Jessica managing a creditable 21lbs with dad's help.

While Vince himself despite spending time with Jessica putting together a nice bag weighing 52lbs .

So back for a welcome cuppa and the results revealing that the 16 anglers present had put 1120lbs on the scales, an average of 70lbs per angler.

All that remains is to say a BIG THANK YOU to Vince for organising the day, and all those that turned up to make it a most enjoyable day, I'm sure we'll be doing it all again in the not to distant future.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2006.

Well where can I start?

I suppose that the beginning is a good a point as any.
Anticipation had been building up for this weekend for a couple of months, Ian(Chin)Ward counting everyone down to the big day.

9·15 in the services at junction 8a and Adrian(BigladWigan)Wood was the 1st to greet me, closely followed by Vince Gould.
Soon the wafting aroma of chip fat and Chinese takeaway preceded the arrival of Northern Boy himself, Gaz Malman who was already halfway through the umpteenth pie of the day clutched in his right hand as he pulled up. Dave(Red Leader)Webster phoned to announce that both he, Tony Prentice and Geoff Palmer were in the services already so we headed off to join them, along with Ant Haywood, Ian Ward, Tom Little and Chris Ellis.
Dave fancied a Breakfast, but being faced with paying £8 for it brought back his Yorkshire frugality and he settled for a burger.

10am and it was "wagons roll" as a small convoy made it's way the short distance from the services to Rolf's Lake.
Into the car park and it's nearly full already, and there's a buzz about the place as a number of Rolf's "Virgins" got their 1st look at the venue, while others were renewing acquaintances and meeting others for the 1st time in person away from a computer screen.

Bivvies and Tents were soon in place for the evenings accommodation while elsewhere nets were dipped with military efficiency and feed pellets purchased for what lay ahead.

At 11am the pairing for the weekend ahead were announced and with those duly recorded and the pools paid, the individual draw for the day took place.

I had been paired with Dave Collier, almost inevitable really given the number of times we've fished together in the past. Dave getting peg24 on the car park bank, while I ended up with peg 36 on the little lake.

For company on the match I had Geoff Palmer to my right, in the corner on peg 34. While to my left on 37 I found Dave(Red Leader)Webster and Matt Nutt on 38. The sun was already blasting from the sky and we just knew that it was going to be a scorcher, but hopefully with us fishing from 1pm- 6pm hopefully everyone would get at least a couple of good hours towards the end.

1pm and the all in and within 5 minutes Geoff was walking over for me to witness his 1st weigher, all 16½lbs of Common Carp and a new PB for him.

I have to say that I wasn't inspired by my peg, although I knew it was capable of producing there are no real obvious features in comparison to a lot of the other pegs, so it was just a question of getting my head down and concentrating on putting a few together.

Looking across I could see David Ashby (under a bit of pressure as Gemma was fishing for the 1st time in 5 years) and Ian Ward and Nick Williams in front of me on 4 (though I had to look twice as his grey hair had vanished to be replaced by a deep brown dye job )

Plenty of splashing kept coming from Geoff's direction though some were doing a Houdini act .

I was slowly getting in on the act fishing paste on the deck at around 9 mtrs, while Dave struggled to get to grips with his peg, and Matt slowly started to edge ahead in the section.

Being pegged on the small lake we were somewhat removed from what was happening on the rest of the lake, though word filtered down that Keith on peg 25 was having a good un, and we were treated to the site of Brian Bevan in hot pursuit of his pole as a carp headed towards us with it, though Brian was fortunate enough to retrieve it, but not the fish.

Vince Gould, a Rolf's virgin was hidden away on peg13 out of my site but struggled to come to terms with things but still managed 41½lbs, better than some have managed on their 1st visit.

The last hour proved to be the best though a couple of the larger carp saw Matt having to resort to climbing onto his box to net them, while I managed a run of 6 fish right at the end.

So match 1 was completed, and that left the weigh in, a real eye opener for some in terms of the weights recorded and the efficiency with which it takes place.

Keith Ashby on peg 25 soon took the lead, and wasn't going to be caught on the day having put 242¾lb on the scales for a new PB match weight, nearly all caught on a top 3 with meat GOT soft hookers and GOT Paste. A superb result. Kevin Arathoon had pushed him all the way with a fine 230lbs and Brian Bevan had put together a fine 184¼lbs for 3rd individual on the day.

As the weigh in progressed peg after peg produced tales of new PB's both for total weights and individual fish.

Attention was however focused on a little match within a match between Gemma, Malc Doyle's daughter who had decided to fish for the 1st time in nearly 5 years and Keith Ashby's son David. (No pressure then)
With Gemma putting 92lbs on the scales.

David was always struggling to hang onto his £1 side bet,

even breaking his landing net at one stage , and unfortunately came up short on the day with 79½lbs, leading to a ribbing from all assembled that was to last all the way through the rest of the day and well into the next morning .

Ian (Chin) Ward had managed his 1st ever ton with a fine 115½lbs, and was looking a bit shattered as his arms hurt, and would continue to do so for the rest of the weekend,

Matt Nutt, using all his experience of the venue managed a 149½lb section winning bag, while Dave Webster who had struggled for 29lbs was the meat in a "Ton" sandwich as I weighed in 121½ lbs, Geoff Palmer also beating him with an 89lb bag (His PB match weight) that would surely have been his 1st Ton if he had had more than the 1 weigher.

So match day one ended with everyone retreating for a well earned beer in the bivvy village. Dave being Mr Efficient had brought his large gas barbecue down with him for the weekend and soon had it fired up and Tony(teepee)Prentice soon had a great selection of burgers and sausages flowing off the production line for willing mouths to devour.

With copious quantities of beer, Lager augmented by a bottle of rum and another of whiskey , the entertainment revolved around how much stick could be dished out to yound David, and I have to say that he took it all on the chin.
I'm sure you'll have the last laugh sooner or later David.

Things wound down around 1am as bodies retired ready for round 2 on Sunday.

Sunday at 7am and those same bodies in various states of disrepair emerged into the daylight craving nothing stronger than tea or coffee, while once more the Barbecue was fired up to provide breakfast from the mountain of food that was left.

Sundays draw was at 9am with a 10·30 start and joining us for the day were Steve Wilson fresh from his holiday and Gary (Gaza) Thorpe, fresh from a match win at Oakfield the previous day. They paired up with the pair with the worst result from Saturday which meant that Wily Coyote(Terry) was paired with Gaza the venue World Record Holder, so no pressure there then, while Nick Williams paired up with Steve.

I found myself fishing my partners swim from the previous day (peg24) with Matt for company on peg 25 (Keith's winning peg) and Ant Haywood to my right on 23.

Gary Thorpe drew my peg from Saturday, so i would see the pegs potential with a decent angler on it, with Kevin Arathoon on 34 (Geoff's peg) Ian Ward was on peg 7, a bit of a flyer, but would his arms hold out . While David and Gemma drew next to each other on pegs 9 & 10 in full view of their dads, Keith being on 12 with Malc opposite on 30.

At the all in I settled on a paste attack at around 7mtrs, a distance i could feed comfortably feed pellet by hand and fed a margin line by the small bush to my right. while Matt started on a longer line up in the water . Ant appeared to be into action straight away, and all around I could see people already into fish.

Terry Goff had somehow managed to draw the same peg twice in a row, but at least managed to put a few together  this time for a creditable 90¾lbs.

Next up on 17 was Dirk Williams who finished just short of a 2nd ton with 93lbs after suffering with a load of foul hookers.

Tony (teepee) Prentice managed a very creditable 164¼lbs from peg 18 to better his Saturday weight of 119lbs 2ozs (Thanks for showing me your paste pots Tony, I'm sure he'll be sharing the idea soon )

Colin, Keith's partner was on 19 and just missed out on a 2nd ton with 98lbs on the day.

I had a mare with foul hookers and lost a number of big fish that I had trouble controlling with Red Hydro!!! Thankfully a decent spell towards the end enabled me to get a 2nd ton with a level 110lbs.

Matt Nutt came short to the bush in his margin and had a magic last hour with a ton of weighers for a creditable 173lbs.

While Ant Haywood just made his 2nd ton of the weekend despite only having the 1 weigher all day, putting 104lbs on the scales.

Elsewhere David Ashby restored his pride in his peg to peg with Gemma weighing 85½lb to Gemma's 41½lbs and so reclaiming his £1 side bet.

Top weight on the day smashing his previous best match weight out of site with a fine display was young Ian Ward with an excellent 272lbs. Well Done Mate.

2nd on the day was Keith Ashby with a fine 230¾lbs again caught on a top 3 down the edge with meat and GOT Paste for 2 double tons in a row, an awesome display over the weekend.
Third on the day was Kevin Arathoon with 228lbs for another pair of double tons.

In 4th was Malc with 224¼lbs for a new personal best match weight.
5th was Gaz Malman with 219¼lbs, while a 6th and Final Double ton was added by Gary Thorpe with 206½lbs off my peg from the previous day. (it must have been down to my feeding on the Saturday )

One of the happiest on the day however must have been Steve Wilson who finally managed a match ton with a dead level 100lbs. It even made him smile, Well Done Steve.

So Presentation Time, and with two pairs,Keith Ashby & Colin Sharrard and Kevin Arathoon & Clive Pritchard tied on 26 points apiece it was probably appropriate that it was finally decided on weight with the verdict going in Keith and Colin's favour by 706½lbs to 638lbs.

Congratulations to them both.
A Big vote of Thanks to Dave for getting the whole thing up and running, I'm pretty sure that it will be an annual fixture from now on, and another Big Thank You to Rolf, for allowing us to use what is a very special fishery for the weekend.
Finally Thanks to all that attended and made it one of the Best Maggotdrowning Weekends i can remember, We must do it again sometime, now form an.a orderly queue for the next one.

Here's the full results list starting with the Pairs:
Saturday

Total weight caught over the weekend was 6,134lb

You can find Rolf's version of events HERE

The NKH Club Weekend.

Due to a few matters arising from the cancellation of this years Northern Fish-In, a few of us decided to have a weekend away, and that's how we ended up in the car park at Yateley on Friday morning.

Those present were Dave, Stu, Jason, Beebs and Myself.

Unfortunately Trogg with his 24/7 work pattern and Dirk with a previous commitment to the South Cerney Festival couldn't attend, but Jason (NoFinPhish) living about 5 minutes away decided to join us.

The plan was for a 48hr session from Friday to Sunday, and Friday 11·30am saw us all pulling into the carpark for a recce round the lake.

With the temperature edging into the 30's, we settled for 5 pegs on the left hand bank (11-15) that offered plenty of shade amongst the trees and allowed us to unload the cars at our pegs rather than cart it right round the lake. Slowly we settled into our pegs, the heat even in the shade ensuring we all worked up a sweat.

I was in peg 11 and in common with the others soon realised that this wasn't your average gravel pit. Instead of the expected variations in depth and features, there appeared to be a constant depth of 4-5 ft as far as you could cast. There was even a distinct lack of weed as it had been treated as there had evidently been complaints that there was to much earlier in the year.

I set up both my rods with method feeders, 1 with a Pulse boilie and the other with maggots, hoping to gradually lay down a bed of bait, and I also set up a float rod for a bit of fun if needed.
As the afternoon moved on we all settled down and with 14 baits in the water awaited developments.

By 7pm we hadn't managed a run between us so it was decided to adjourn to the local pub for a pint (purely to replace lost fluids) and to get some grub in the form of a takeaway as the pub didn't serve food on a Friday night.

Fed and watered we all settled back in, sure that the evening would bring a drop in temperature would encourage the fish to have a graze and provide some action.

7am on Saturday with the temperature already climbing and the 5 of us were still fishless, not quite the plan but thing were sure to pick up sooner than later as a chap 2 pegs up from Dave had managed a 23lb'er during the night.
I decided that I needed to avoid a complete blank and cheated by sneaking over to the River Blackwater that ran behind with my float rod and some maggots and managed my 1st fish of the river season, a little chublet.

After another couple of similar size it was back to reality, and it was decided that a trip into Yateley for breakfast at the Café, though Beebs declined in favour of a bit more sleep.
Full and with the Saturday papers collected, we returned with renewed vigour, as fish could be seen moving so it was just a matter of time surely???

Well the day moved on, but still no fish, but at least the family of Great Crested Grebes were catching, allowing Dad to feed the kids.

Still no action to our rods, and with us all trying various combinations of baits and rigs, the papers were read from cover to cover and the only thing that moved apart from the Grebes & Coots were the swarms of Damselflies in the margins.

By 3·30pm with something like 350 rod hours and nothing to show for it Dave, Jason and I decided to watch the England match down the pub, while Stu and Beebs decided to stick it out as they didn't want to miss the moment when the fish switched on.

The match is probably best glossed over except to say that with England playing on a Saturday at 4pm with the temperature in the 30's, along with extra time and penalties it must qualify as a publicans idea of heaven.

On our return we were greeted with the news that there had been loads of fish in front of Stu and Beebs pegs but they had still refused to feed.
However Beebs had the barbecue going and if nothing else we were fed. A couple of beers, cider in Beebs case and it was back to the swims for another concerted effort.

Around 10pm I heard an alarm off to my left, and looking up could see Stu running towards Dave's swim, grabbing the camera I was off in hot pursuit.
I arrived to find Dave obviously into a decent fish with Jason standing by ready to do the business with the net. Slowly Dave was gaining line as we all held our breath and there it was in the net.
Onto the mat and as the net was pulled back we could see it was an absolutely cracking Mirror which pulled the scales round to 27lbs on the button and a new PB for Dave.

Handshakes and back slaps all round and we were all off back to our swims with renewed vigour, leaving Dave alone with his thoughts.
The early morning brought nothing more than a couple of runs, 1 for Stu and 1 for Beebs but alas no more fish.

Around 9·30am we had started to break our bivvies down in preparation as we had to vacate the swims at noon.At 10am I had just driven my car down to start loading up when I heard a buzzer go and Beebs call that he was in!!!
The fish was giving a good account of itself, but with no snags to speak of, there was only going to be one outcome and it was soon safely netted.
The fish itself turned out to be a fully scaled Mirror with a marked kink in it's tail that weighed just over 14lbs, and the look on Beebs face shows just how pleased he was with it.

So that was it, session over. With the temperatures in the mid 30's all weekend it wasn't the most productive by a long way, but the good company made up in some measure for the lack of fish. Hopefully we'll do it all again, but with a few more fish.