Marsh AC club match.

 Essex is the destination for me today with another Marsh AC club match at Colemans Cottage on Wood Lake. It's a venue that's always popular with the club members and today is our second visit this year so hopefully it will provide a good days fishing for the lads. I was awake before the alarm went off and soon had the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee drunk before loading up the car before sunrise. I couldn't help noticing how cold it felt though , the car themometer registering just 11°C and for the first time in a while I put the car heater on as I set off. It's a great time to be travelling though with little traffic on the roads and as I cleared the Dartford Tunnel the sun was just rising, promising a lovely day ahead weather wise .

I pulled into the fishery car park at just past 7am and indeed it appeared that I was the first one to arrive. A quick look at the lake revealed that the level was down from our previous visit with the platforms a good 2 feet clear of the water.
Gerry and Jayne has opened the lodge so the first order of the day was one of Jayne's large breakfasts to set me up for the day ahead. Lee was next to arrive, he was guesting today and is always good company so we were soon catching up as breakfast was consumed and the others arrived. I then got a phonecall from Terry, his car wouldn't start so he wouldn't be joining us today .

With breakfast out of the way Dave soon had the money collected and got the draw out of the way. Peg 27 was to be mine for the match, not one I was familiar with , so gathering up my kit I set off to get aquainted with it .

Arriving at the peg it turned out that I had Dave on peg 25 for company on my right and young Zack to my left on peg 29, with Lee and Chris opposite on pegs 13 and 15.

The carp run to a decent size in Wood Lake and the Barbel are getting bigger all the time so I made up 3 rigs, the first for straight out in front at 5mtrs where I had around 3½ft of water was a 0·4g NG XT Mugger HD on 0·18 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911Xs while the other 2 were for the margin while the other 2 were 0·2g NG Springer Sampson Margin's on on 0·18 Ultima power match with size 14 Kamasan B911X's. Feed would be a mix of corn and damp 4mm pellet while hookbaits would be a mix of pellet, corn and some paste.

10am and Dave called the All-In and I fed both margin lines then dropped a banded 6mm over a few loose pellets on the 5mtr line. A few of the lads were into quick fish but I wasn't one of those and 30 minutes in I still hadn't had as much as a bite so I fed a full pot of pellet and corn to see if it would tempt anything in. Well after about 5 minutes the swim started fizzing like a jacuzzi but the bites still refused to come . However Tony over on peg 11 had started to put one or two fish together ......

Finally after around 45 minutes the float slowly slid away and a gentle lift saw a pleasing amount of elastic stretching from the top kit, The fish was quickly subdued and slid over the landing net, a common of around 3½lbs to finally get me off the mark . Back out but it appeared that it had been a solitary fish as no more bites were forthcoming, a bit more feed and a few more bubbles but no bites despite varying the depth and the baits I just couldn't buy another bite.

Chris was opposite on peg 15 and I've often taken the micky out of him telling him that his kit looks like a throw back to the 70's but he was definately having the last laugh on me today as he started to take fish from his peg while I could only look on enviously .......

After 90 minutes I noticed a couple of carp moving in the left hand margin, normally I would have left it longer but I was already getting deperate so dropped a banded 8mm in there. The float buried almost straight away and I connected with a big fish that powered off towards Zack, but almost straight away the rig came pinging back with a large scale on the hook .

A look down the other margin with corn looked like being no more productive until the float vanished from sight, yeilding a common around the 5lb mark to add to my meagre total. Lee was having no such problems over on peg 13 however though he was surprised at just how hard the fish fought, giving his hydro a good work out ......

Another try on the 5mtr line finally produced a couple of F1's after around half an hour but again nothing followed them. I could see odd fish constantly moving through the swim in front of me but nothing appeared to want to settle. Was it because the water was down and I was sitting so high up above the water? had the cold nights upset things? I couldn't work it out today whatever it was .

Chris's guest Gary Luck was over on peg 13 and it looked as if he was pretty much in the same boat as me, as I could see his swim fizzing but only producing the odd fish for him ......

Back to the margins for me and I finally managed to tempt another couple of carp from the left hand side, but in all honesty I was going nowhere fast. Around 2pm Chrissy arrived with Dave's two grandchildren Lily and Alfie who both wanted to catch a fish with Grandad. It's a good job they hadn't arrived earlier or they would have undoubtedly battered me today .

More in desperation than anything else I took my feeder rod out and decided to give that a go, but after 3 casts that tangled and snapped off, pretty much summing up the match for me in a nutshell . Meanwhile young Alfie was getting well into helping Grandad catch and land his fish ......

John (tutu) was suffering a similar match to mine over on peg 21 but as the match drew to a close started to find one or two fish from his margin ......

I battled on with the margins and actually managed to get another couple of carp before Dave called the All-Out at 4pm.
I have to say that I was glad to hear the whistle today, 6 hours for just 8 fish for around 30lbs wasn't the outcome I'd expected and with hindsight I got it horribly wrong, getting sidetracked by fish I could see in the margins despite them not wanting to co-operate today.

It took me a while to get the kit packed away meaning that I didn't follow the Weigh-In round as usual and when it got round to me Keith was leading with 118lbs from peg 3 from Tony with 88lbs. Dave with Lily and Alfie's help had 85½lbs. My fish weighed a level 30 lbs and Zack had 54½lbs leaving me like a bit of cod "battered both sides" . The Weigh-In moved on at pace as it does at Colemans and I made my way back to the car park with my kit and loaded it away.

Back at the lodge for the results and Jean had asked Jayne to lay on a buffet complete with Birthday Cake ......

........ for Kevin's Birthday (which was on Sunday) and I have to say it offered the best bites of the day as far as I was concerned.

Dave announced the results after everyone had tucked in and the winner today was Al with a fine 139lbs from peg 35 Keith was second with 118lbs and regained the MK Nugget from Mick and Tony was 3rd on the day .

The next club match is at The Private Lake in East Sussex in a couple of weeks time, but before that next Saturday is the penultimate round of The Jinx Series at Rolf's Lake which will hopefully give me the chance to get this match out of my system .

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 35	Al Loader		139lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 3	Keith Ashby		118lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 11	Tony Roberts		88lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 25	Dave Collier		85lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 13	Lee Rose	Guest	75lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 37	Clive Pritchard		72lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 23	Mick Wright		71lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 33	Simon Watkins		65lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 19	Jim Boase		57lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 29	Zack Johnson		54lbs 08ozs
11th=	Peg 15	Chris Withall		54lbs 00ozs
11th=	Peg 9	Kevin Loveland		54lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 39	Eddie Dobson		46lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 5	Graham Manning		36lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 21	John Holdsworth		31lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 27	Peter Morton		30lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 7	Martin Hucker		29lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 1	Ron Mannister		21lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 25	Lily & Alfie Bondeau	Guests	18lbs 08ozs
20th	Peg 17	Gary Luck	Guest	15lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 31	Tony Watkins	Guest	14lbs 00ozs

 

Marsh AC
Alders Farm Fishery

Once again I'm travelling up toward Milton Keynes to Alders Farm Fishery just outside the village of Great Brickhill. It's for a Marsh AC match that's been arranged by club member Keith Ashby who lives reasonably close to the fishery. Today is really just a friendly knock up though with a few of the venue regulars invited to make up the numbers today, but it's a fantastic venue that's capable of throwing up some mega match weights, so well worth taking the day off work for .

Living down in South London an early start was called for to avoid the London rush hour, so the alarm went off at some ungodly hour and with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee consumed, the car was loaded up in the dark and I was on my way by 5·30am. The plan worked a treat and gave me a clear run up the M1 and A5 meaning I pulled into the car park just after 7am . Trev's van was already parked up and young Mark Quick has obviously been dropped off as he was sitting on his box surrounded by the rest of his kit in splendid isolation.

Dinah soon appeared and set up the dip so we could rinse our nets off and Trev staggered into view with a couple of gallons of maggots that he had to riddle off ready for the anglers today. With that done it was time to open the shop and we were soon chatting over the prospects for the day ahead as other anglers started to arrive including Keith, the organiser of todays match and pretty soon the banter was starting to flow back and forth . Anyway with some fishery pellets purchased my stomach was telling me it was time to make my way down to The Pumphouse for breakfast, so I collected my kit and headed off down the hill.

Dinah already had breakfast under way when I got there, in fact Kevin and Jean were already tucking in . A coffee and a full English soon had me ready to face the day ahead as the rest of todays anglers arrived. One of those was Mal Talbot who Trev describes as 'Mad as a box of frogs ' but he's fished at the top level for many years and now helps out presenting the Alders Farm and GOT Baits video's that Trev produces, so spends a fair bit of time at the fishery. Standing out on the veranda taking in the sunshine you could see that there were plenty of fish moving, an encouraging sign but with the recent colder nights I had a feeling that it could be a little harder than expected today .

Around about 9·30am Keith called everyone to order (no small task ) and got the draw under way. Into the bag and peg 34 finds it's way to me. I was more than happy with that as Vic had told me it was a good peg to draw .

So off to collect my kit and make the short trip to the peg. Kev was settling into peg 38 along with Dave on peg 36, while to my right I could see Mal on peg 32, so no pressure there then !!!

Peg 34 is a lovely looking peg that had a decent view over the rest of the lake, There's a big bush overhanging the water to the left and a smaller one in the margin to the right. It's quite shallow with a maximum of around 2 feet of water but that doesn't normally have an adverse effect on the fishing.

I set up 3 identical rigs that were freshly tied, all 0·2g NG Springer Sampson Margin's on on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 16 Kamasan B911X's to finish them off that would be fished on a top 2 +1 at around 18 inches deep. Bait was simply 4mm fishery pellets that I damped down for feeding while hook baits were just hard 6mm's along with corn as a change bait.

With a bit of time before the All -In I strolled round for a chat with Mal and found him perched on his trusty red ASI making the most of the glorious sunshine ......

 and was soon joined by Dave and Kevin. After a while I left them chatting and made my way back to my peg for a quick check that everything was ready before we started. At 11am Keith called the All-In so I fed some pellet along the bush to my left and some pellet and corn into the right hand margin before shipping a banded pellet out to the bush. a couple of tentative dinks before the float vanished but the lift offered little resistance before a rudd surfaced and promptly fell of the hook, not the start that I was looking for , so I re-fed and dropped in again. This time the float just buried and a lot more resistance this time as a hooked carp tore off in the shallow water. I soon had it under control however and in the net, a 2½lb mirror to get me up and running. It was steady away from there on in if I'm honest, I wasn't catching quickly but I did catch steadily, the only real problem was lost fish, but with hooked fish charging off when they're hooked in shallow water it's inevitable that you'll lose a few if the hook hold isn't spot on.

I could see that Mal appeared to be matching me fish for fish, but looking round the rest of the lake, although people were catching, it didn't appear to be at the expected rate that the lake is capable of. Indeed after around an hour Dave appeared to see how I was doing and reckoned that he only had around 15lbs to show for his efforts .

I just kept feeding the two lines but concentrated on the left hand bush as I didn't want to disturb the margin to early. After a couple of hours I had around 25 fish in the nets and could see that Vic over on peg 2 appeared to be putting a few together as well ......

I could hear Al over on peg 6 complaining that all he could find were small fish in the 1lb - 1½lb range, but knowing Al he was probably fibbing . Clive however seemed to be doing OK when my camera lens caught him in the act of landing a fish ......

My fish appeared to back off just before 1pm, so as is my custom I re-fed quite heavily and took a stroll with the camera to allow things to settle. Terry was tucked away on peg 29 and struggling to come to terms with it today and only taking the occasional fish ......

Keith was on peg 28 and with nobody on the next 3 pegs he was targeting the margin with corn, the fish were certainly there as he could see their tails waving at him, but getting them to take his bait was proving to be a frustrating exercise as they continued to ignore it in favour of the free offerings ......

As I made my way back Mal was still plugging away steadily taking a succession of fish in glorious sunshine, at least that's the way it appeared ......

Returning to my peg it was now in the shade and with the breeze blowing onto my back I felt the need to put my fleece on.
Back out with the bait and the fish had settled again and I took a look down the margin for the first time as I could see fish moving in and out of it. It did produce bites but the fish were much smaller than I had been taking from the bush so after around 30 minutes I reverted back to there.

With around 2 hours to go Kev was having a bit of a grueller on peg 38 as it just wasn't producing for him today, but Dave started to catch at a better rate which cheered him up no end ......

Things had obviously picked up for Al as well as he was heard to ask Keith if the match could be extended for a bit longer, a request that Keith declined .

I managed to keep the fish coming steadily till the end of the match and by the time that Keith called the All-Out at 4pm I had 67 fish in my nets. Packing away my kit Mal appeared reckoning that I'd beaten him and shook my hand. I wasn't so sure as it seemed to me that he'd been catching at a similar rate, but the scales would have the last say on that .

Trev had come down to start the weigh in on the pumphouse bank and as Dave had the club scales with him Keith started to weigh-in on our side. Kev had indeed had a frustrating day with just 28½lbs to show for his efforts . Dave's peg had come good in the last couple of hours allowing him to put 126½lbs on the scales. At my peg my fish weighed 177½lbs and Mal was proved to be right when his fish came in at 119½lbs . Simon had quietly put together 74¼lbs from peg 30 while Terry's fish registered 58½lbs. Finally Keith weighed in with a level 87lbs and with the weigh-in on our side concluded we made our way back to The Pumphouse for the results.

Trev had laid on Tea and Coffee and broken out the biscuits which was very welcome as the assembled anglers discussed their experiences of the day. Finally Keith had the results collated and was ready to announce them.
It turned out that my weight had been good enough for me to take the win today with Al taking second place and Vic taking third .

I'd just like to say a big Thank You to Keith for organising the match for us, and another Big Thank You to Dinah,Trev, and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, it's hard to ask for more unless it can be moved closer to where I live .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 34	Peter Morton	177lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 6	Al Loader	147lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 2	Vic Nugent	146lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 10	Josh Blavins	136lbs 04ozs
5th	Peg 36	Dave Collier	126lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 32	Mal Talbot	119lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 7	Troy Hillier	114lbs 12ozs
8th	Peg 1	Charlie Lancaster	93lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 28	Keith Ashby	87lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 30	Simon Watkins	74lbs 04ozs
11th	Peg 5	Mark Quick	69lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 8	Clive Pritchard	68lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 3	Pete Iles	65lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 29	Terry Goff	58lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 16	John Holdsworth	51lbs 04ozs
16th	Peg 4	Martin Hucker	32lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 38	Kevin Loveland	28lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	19lbs 00ozs

 

 

Marsh AC club match.

I'm off down to Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrook in Kent today for the seventh match of the Marsh AC year. It's a match that I really look forward to fishing as it's one of my favorite  waters with the potential for a cracking days sport . An early start was in order as I was meeting a few of the lads for breakfast at The Knoxbridge Café and with the promise of some decent weather for today it didn't take long to get the gear loaded into the car and set off.

A nice smooth drive down saw me pulling into the car park at around 7·30am just as Al and Keith Powell who was guesting today arrived. Kevin and Jean were already there along with Keith and Mick who'd made their usual trip down from Milton Keynes and Rusty who was also guesting today and we were soon joined by John, Martin and Zack. With the pangs of hunger taken care of by a Knoxbridge Special it was time to get up to the fishery for the draw, but not before Keith Powell noticed Keith's wallet that had dropped on the floor by his seat and phoned him to let him know he had it .

Arriving at the draw most of the usual suspects were in attendance along with our third guest today Mick the Chippy who I struck a side bet of a Golden Nugget with as usual. Dave soon had the monies collected and the draw underway. Peg 25 proved to be mine today, a short stroll from the car park and shaded by trees. Kev had peg 29 and it looked good for a few today while Mick the Chippy was next up on 28 with Rusty to my left on 26 and Mick W next up on peg 23.

Settling into the peg it was time to decide how to approach it. I'd considered fishing the pellet wag today but with the wind blowing from right to left across the peg it was going to be very awkward , so although I set one up I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to figure. Instead it was going to be 3 pole rigs, one at 5mtrs straight out with another for the willow to my right and a third for the left hand willow. The first two were once again Nick Gilbert's handmade 0·5g Power Pencils that were made up on 0·21 Ultima power match with size 14 Guru MWG's to finish off with while the third rig was a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 14 Guru MWG. Bait was 4 and 6mm pellet for feed along with some hemp while hook bait would be 8mm hard pellet with some GOT Atomic paste if I needed it.

Kev provided a cup of coffee courtesy of Jean when he popped down for a chat and Dave called the All-In at 10am and I fed a couple of handfuls of hemp and pellets to the two willow swims and a handful of pellet straight out at 5mtrs before following them out with a banded 8mm to 5mtrs. I could hear that Rusty was in almost straight away but I was being plagued by sharp bites that I couldn't connect with and I suspected that these were from roach snatching at the 8mm pellet and this was confirmed when I landed one of around 6ozs that had somehow managed to engulf the pellet.

Thankfully my first carp of the day was soon on its way, the carp in the reservoir give a good account of themselves with the deep water encouraging them to keep their heads down and making you work to get their heads up and into the net but after a spirited fight a nice mirror of around 7lbs was safely in the keepnet .

You couldn't class the sport as fast and furious though and the general banter around the lake made it obvious that most were struggling after around an hour, apart that is from Kev who was into a steady run of fish and Mick the Chippy if the rumours were to be believed . I was picking up the odd carp on my 5mtr line but looks over at both willow swims were producing nothing apart from the odd roach and skimmer. Rusty had taken a few carp fishing shallow but they weren't really having it either and gradually faded away.

By 12·30pm I had around 6 carp and a few silvers to show for my efforts so took a little stroll to see how others were doing on my bank. Mick W reckoned that he'd had a few but seemed to be doing OK to me judging by the amount of elastic coming from his top two as he played a carp and it was obvious that he had hopes of taking the MK Nugget from Keith today ......

but the pegs in the early twenties didn't seem to be producing as I would have expected them to. However over on the other side the one person that did seem to be getting among a few was Terry and with the wind blowing into the margins there I fancied that he had the chance of a good weight on the cards today ......

Back down on peg 29 Kev was enjoying himself taking a succession of fish from under the willow to his left ......

Mick was enjoying himself as always but had suffered with a few lost fish in the course of the morning and looking to up his catch rate ......

and while Rusty was his usual jovial self , with his shallow line having dried up was looking to explore other lines in an effort to put a few more in the net ......

Back at my peg it was just a question of keeping some feed trickling into the three lines and waiting for some fish to turn up, which I was certain would happen at some point given the head of fish present in the water . Dave the Fish popped round for a stroll and it obviously wasn't going well for him and you could sense his frustration with not being able to get to grips with things today .

As the afternoon wore on things did start picking up for me. I had to rotate round the three lines, but by doing this I started to pick up carp on a regular basis, nothing big, most were around the 4-5lbs mark but good weight builders if you can keep them coming.

Others weren't so fortunate and I could hear Al bemoaning the fact that he couldn't reach the spot where he felt the fish were in his swim ......

Things had picked up a bit for Tony, but he'd still found time to pop along and check out what Keith Powell was doing on peg 13 as it was obviously starting to produce for him ......

Keith was having one of those matches that we all dread, putting a few fish together but having to watch travelling companion Mick W catching just a few more which would surely result in the loss of an MK Nugget today ......

My afternoon was then rudely interrupted by a pain in the neck ..... I'd been stung by a bee . Fortunately Rusty came to my aid and removed the sting with the aid of a pair of styl pliers, ad hoc surgery at its finest which allowed me to resume fishing again .

Things seemed to pick up for most as the match drew to a close, unfortunately not for Dave who had to suffer more frustration as Tony on the next peg found a late run of fish to save his day while Dave got seen off by a couple of foul hookers .

The All-Out was called at 4pm and with a set of scales on our side Kevin and I decided to get the weigh-in underway before packing up. We started with Rod on peg 19 who put 26½lbs on the scales followed by Simon with 79½lbs. Next up was Graham with 33lbs and Chris with 36¾lbs. Mick W recorded 94¾lbs and my 19 carp with a few silvers weighed 114½lbs . Rusty had managed 96¾lbs but Mick the Chippy had suffered a frustrating second half to his match with just 36½lbs meaning a Golden Nugget was coming my way . Finally Kevin put his fish onto the scales and recorded 132½lbs and a new PB Match Weight ......

Time to pack away the kit and get back to the car park where Dave worked out the results and sorted out the section money. First today was Terry with a fine 163½lbs Kevin had secured second place and I had finished in third .
Today's sections had gone to Al, Terry, Mick W and Kevin to bring an enjoyable day to a close .

The next club match is at Colemans Cottage on September 15th, but we also have a midweek match at Alders Farm a couple of days before that which Keith has kindly organised for us, so plenty to look forward to .

 

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 15	Terry Goff		163lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 29	Kevin Loveland		132lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 25	Peter Morton		114lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 13	Keith Powell	Guest	106lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 26	Russell Graves	Guest	96lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 23	Mick Wright		94lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 20	Simon Watkins		79lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 16	Zack Johnson		76lbs 04ozs
9th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts		75lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 1	Al Loader		75lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 11	Keith Ashby		68lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 7	Clive Pritchard		64lbs 12ozs
13th	Peg 5	John Holdsworth		40lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 22	Chris Withall		36lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 28	Mick Pearson	Guest	36lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 21	Graham Manning		33lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 4	Martin Hucker		27lbs 12ozs
18th	Peg 19	Rod Turner		26lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 8	Dave Collier		22lbs 12ozs

 

Marsh AC club match.

Once again it's Rockells Farm in Essex that is the venue for the Marsh AC match today. It's renowned as a bagging water, in fact it's where Martin Hucker set the clubs best ever match weight of 383lbs 04ozs back in 2009 so it's a venue that we always look forward to fishing . However I'd heard from a couple of people recently that it wasn't producing like it had in the past. Was the reason down to the terrible weather we've experienced recently or had something changed? We would find out today .

I met up with Dave at his house at around 6·45am to follow down to the venue. It was already a pleasant morning with the promise of a warm sunny day ahead as we set off , but Dave must have been using his Beatles Sat Nav as we went on a Magical Mystery Tour of Stanstead Airport and the surrounding villages before we arrived at the venue car park around 8am .

Everyone was looking forward to this one and a few of the lads soon had it pegged out while Dave sorted out the money and organised the draw. Peg 14 was mine for the day, pretty much where I'd drawn last year and with plenty of water today hopefully it would produce better sport . Turning left from the car park with my kit I found Eddie, Al, Vic and Kev on the first 4 pegs. My peg was actually the one Simon had last year while Dave had the flyer on the point then Zack and Clive was back on his peg last year. Elsewhere John had peg 1 with Simon on 2 and Martin had run to his peg having drawn peg 3 the same peg he'd broken the club match record on in 2009 .

Settling into the peg I couldn't help noticing a couple of things. The first was the water colour or lack of it, it had that somewhat slate grey appearance that you normally see when the first frosts knock the colour out of the water, and the second thing was that there didn't appear to be any signs of fish moving . Rockells is so heavily stocked that the fish are always competing for food, colouring up the water and you normally see tail patterns and swirls along with cruising fish as you set up, but hardly anything was showing ..... Very Strange .

The venue is that prolific that the match format is slightly different from our usual in that we have two, three hour matches with a weigh -in after each to avoid keeping too many fish in keepnets for long periods and to make things easier for the scales men. Rigs a simple and strong as you're looking to catch on a top 2 from the margins to do a really big weight and as such were just 0.3 NG Edger's on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for pellet and size 12's for paste. Bait for today was just 6mm hard pellets and strawberry GOT Atomic paste.

With a bit of time before the start Kev strolled down with a coffee and a freshly cooked bacon and sausage roll which set me up nicely for the start .

10am saw the All-in called and some pellets were fed into both margins and right away alarm bells rang again as I could see them fall through the first 12-18 inches of water which is really unusual as the water is normally so coloured. I banded a 6mm and dropped it into the left hand margin, the float dipped and a lift produced a 1oz roach, not what I was looking for. Now normally at the start of the matches here you start to hear splashing as people are landing carp straight away but today it was very quiet, nobody was into fish straight away .

10 minutes in and I had my first carp, but it was an 8oz stockie, absolutely mint which still had the curtain in its mouth intact, definitely not what's expected at Rockells.
I'd like to say it got better but it didn't . Dave strolled round expressing surprise that nothing was coming to floaters and he strolled down the bank and returned with news that Al and Vic were struggling to put any fish together along with everyone else.

I'd added a couple of sections to try further out but after a couple of hours just had another 3 stockies and a few roach added to my catch so took a stroll looking for some inspiration. Kev was fishing a feeder but was in the same predicament as the rest of us.......

Strolling down to Al he was trying his margins, but all the while we chatted he didn't have a single bite yet alone a fish ......

Vic was totally disheartened with the lack of fish as well and it was fast becoming obvious that all was not well ......

I strolled back up to see Clive and it was the same story at his peg, just the odd stockie and roach showing, Zack was fairing no better, but Dave was getting the odd stockie from the margins and this was probably due to the fact that he only fed floaters at the start so didn't overfeed the swim ......

John was on peg 1 and was getting a few, but nowhere near the quantity expected ......

Just before 1pm Dave strolled down with another coffee and bacon and sausage roll for me and with no sign of any improvement we cancelled the first weigh -in and decided to fish straight through. Meanwhile over on peg 9 Ken had managed to connect with a decent sized carp and after carefully playing it had it safely in the net and weighed at 11¼lbs before returning it . I heard that Tony was getting a few but couldn't really see him although I could see Keith who was having the odd fish ......

Vic had decided that he'd had enough in the meantime and tipped back and gone home , and I have to admit that the idea had crossed my mind as well .

Around 2pm there was one hell of a splash from Kev's peg, he'd tripped and lost his footing as he returned to his peg and gone straight in, by the time I got round to see if he was alright he was back on the bank and draining out and declined my invitation to get back in so I could get a photo ......

Meanwhile over on peg 8 Graham had latched onto something that was capable of stretching his elastic as he was fortunate enough to latch onto a decent carp ......

I kept searching the swim adding sections exploring further out but to no real effect as no matter where I tried it just produced the odd stockie or tiny roach and it was a blessed relief when the All-Out was called at 4pm . I really couldn't wait to get the kit packed away and the weigh-in had to be one of the quickest in the clubs recent history. on our bank Eddie had 7¼lbs, Al 10¾lbs and Kev had 6¾lbs. My few fish made 9lbs. Dave had the best weight on our bank with 19½lbs, Zack had a meagre 3½lbs and Clive ended with 11½lbs.

The owner appeared while we were weighing in and when I asked him about the lack of fish he was adamant that no fish had been lost or netted and no stockies had been introduced, but I'm afraid that I don't believe that to be the truth and as a result of what we experienced today I think it's fair to say that we won't be returning to Rockells any time soon.

Back at the car park the results were soon sorted John taking the win today with just 41¼lbs , Tony was second with 32lbs and Mick's 31¼lbs gave him third place and the MK Nugget. The sections went to John, Ken, Al and Dave . Next up for the club is The Reservoir at Hartleylands Farm and hopefully a better days fishing for all .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 1	John Holdsworth	41lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 7	Tony Roberts	32lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Mick Wright	31lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 2	Simon Watkins	22lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 15	Dave Collier	19lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 5	Keith Ashby	16lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 9	Ken Walker	14lbs 08ozs
8th=	Peg 17	Clive Pritchard	11lbs 08ozs
8th=	Peg 8	Graham Manning	11lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 11	Al Loader	10lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 14	Peter Morton	9lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 3	Martin Hucker	7lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 10	Eddie Dobson	7lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 13	Kevin Loveland	6lbs 12ozs
15th	Peg 16	Zack Johnson	3lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 6	Terry Goff	3lbs 04ozs
17th	Peg 12	Vic Nugent	DNW

Marsh AC club match.

Well it's off to Essex for me today for another Marsh AC club match at Colemans Cottage on Wood Lake. That first glance out of the window didn't look too promising though there was a bit of sun among the clouds but the forecast wasn't that good for the day ahead . Anyway with the two cats fed and the kit loaded up it was time to go. Through the Dartford Tunnel and down the A12 proved to be straightforward and I arrived around at 7·30am to find Simon just returning from a walk round the lake with his brother Tony who had come along as a guest today .

First things first and it was into the clubhouse for one of Colemans Big Breakfasts a great way to fortify yourself for the day ahead.

Terry and Rod were already tucking into theirs and slowly but surely the rest arrived and the banter started to flow. A few were concerned that the weather may have unsettled the fish making for patchy sport, but I was fairly sure that given the quality of the venue most would have a decent days sport . Chairman Dave had daughter Chrissy along for company today and fishing as a guest, she's not a bad angler and having had a bit of coaching from Tommy Pickering at Lindholme recently there were a few that were worrying about the possibility of being CHRISSIED today .

By 8·45am it was time for the draw and having dipped my hand in I found peg 12 was to be mine for the match, just a couple away from the one I'd had in the corresponding match last year.

With the gear collected I made my way to my peg, Al was on peg 6 a strongly favoured peg and he would be looking to make it five wins out of five on this years club matches. With just an hour to set up it was make your mind up time as there are so many possibilities on the pegs with the islands running down the centre, The carp in woods run to a good size and the barbel keep growing and fight like hell. I opted for just 3 pole lines. so the rigs would be similar to those I use at Rolfs to take any possible wear and tear. One straight out in front at around 6mtrs where I had around 5 feet of water, one at the end of the bush to my left with around 4 feet of depth and the final one for the right hand margin which had 18 inches of water close in. All the rigs were freshly tied and made up with NG XT Mugger HD's in sizes 0·3gm and 0·4gm on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's. Bait for today was a mix of 4 and 6mm pellet for feed along with some 6 and 8mm pellets for banding along with some corn and GOT Baits soft hookers .

The All-In was called at 10am and I fed a large pot of mixed pellets with a few grains of corn at 6mtrs, a handful at the end of the bush and another handful down the margin. I banded a 6mm and shipped out to 6mtrs where some bubbles were already coming up and was hopeful of some quick action. Unfortunately it wasn't to be the wind had picked up a bit and was blowing into me and bringing with it the odd shower (no surprise there then ) but I was just getting little digs and dips on the float and only managed to connect with a couple of small roach that I bumped off . despite swapping through the hook baits I couldn't tempt a thing and while nobody that I could see had got off to a flyer Tony had taken a couple of carp as had Graham next to me on peg 11.

After half an hour of total frustration I gave it up as a bad job and swapped over to target the end of the bush with a banded 8mm. Still a bit slow but the float finally buried and a lift saw plenty of elastic stream from the top kit as the fish powered off and after a minute the culprit popped up by my nets, a barbel of around 3lbs. Not the expected carp but very welcome none the less to get me off the mark . Jean had also brought me a mug of coffee so things were starting to look up despite the showers. A couple of small carp followed and an F1 before yet another barbel put in an appearance and it was these that kept me ticking over for the next couple of hours.

 I could hear a bit of banter between Kevin and Al that suggested that Al was catching reasonably well on peg 6 but from what I could see Tony opposite on peg 29 had made the best start but nobody seemed to be heading off into the distance, though .......

By about 12·30 I got a shout to bring my mug round to Jean if I wanted another cup off coffee and with sport remaining slow took the opportunity to fill in the bush and margin and take a stroll with my camera .

Terry was still tucked away under his brolly and didn't look like he was having a particularly good time of it despite having the fun of watching Dave trying his best to get the better of Chrissy on the opposite bank ......

A quick chat with Al revealed that he was struggling though it didn't look like it to me when he shipped out, gave a couple of taps and he shipped back with an F1 attached that was soon netted ......

Mick was being a bit cagey as to just how well he was doing on peg 2, but it was obvious that he fancied his chances of taking home the Milton Keynes Nugget today . As I got to the car park I stopped to take a picture looking down the lake so that those reading this who aren't familiar with Colemans can get some idea of Wood Lake......

Carrying on round Chris's guest Gary Luck on peg 38 was playing a bream and soon had it safely in the net .......

I soon reached Jean and collected a fresh mug of coffee , while Kevin seemed to be relatively happy with the way his match was progressing. Chrissy on peg 32 had just dropped her rig in short of the bush to her left to see if she could tempt something .......

While Dad Dave next up on peg 31 seemed to be targeting silvers fishing maggot down his left hand margin, and although he declared himself confident of being ahead of his daughter at that point, it looked like the actions of a desperate man to me . Tony seemed to be going along steadily with his favourite method, fishing up in the water .......

Keith wasn't looking to happy with his lot and was struggling to get to grips with peg 25, though he probably had one eye on how fellow GOT Bait angler Vic was doing over on peg 17......

Tony Watkins on peg 22 seemed quite happy taking carp on the method feeder, which was more than could be said for his brother Simon on peg 20 who was really struggling to get a bite from anywhere in his peg ......

Keith Powell was on peg 18 and had just started to have a look down his right hand margin as he'd started to see signs of fish there .......

Vic was trying hard to sort his peg out but reckoned it wasn't really happening for him today and he would be lucky if he had 30lbs to show for his efforts so far. Ken on peg 14 was fishing his usual relaxed match on the waggler and was into a carp as I passed by ........

When I returned to my peg Graham was catching from his margin, but he had the advantage of a reed bed there and I could see fish there. I flicked some more feed to the edge of the bush and the margin, but with no sign of fish in my margin targeted the end of the bush first off. The rest seemed to have done the trick as a couple of minutes in the float buried as a carp picked up the bait and after a spirited tussle was soon in the net . It wasn't fast and furious but I started to pick up regular fish for around an hour. All the while I was feeding the margin and with an hour and a half to go I finally saw a couple of tail patterns there. First put in with a banded 8mm produced a positive bite and another barbel of around 3lbs, but from then on it was carp all the way . A good common had me thinking I was back at Rolfs, giving a really good account of itself and it was obvious why when I finally slid the net under a big common that must have been close to 15lbs which was to be my best fish of the day . This was followed by a stunning Ghostie of around 10lbs and a few smaller fish.
Graham was having trouble connecting with bites and I suggested that he changed to 8mm pellet and let him have some to try and it seemed to do the trick for him in the last hour. I finished with another five carp including another double before Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm. Shouts of Fish-On came from Graham and Chrissy and I couldn't help wondering if Chrissy had done enough to beat her Dad ......

The gear was soon packed away and I was pretty confident I had around a 'Ton' in the nets despite having lost track of just what was in them at the end. I soon had my gear back in the car and had a chat with Gerry before following the Weigh-In Round. Mick set a good target with a first weight of exactly 100lbs followed by John with 84½lbs. Next up was Rod with 59½lbs a new PB match weight . Al had a storming end to the match getting decent carp lined up in the margin on paste for 194lbs . Jimmy had 32½lbs and Terry 43½lbs. Graham put 84½lbs on the scales while my fish came to 113lbs . Ken had 80½lbs another PB match weight and Roger 29lbs. Vic had managed 64½lbs.
Keith Powell weighed 83lbs while Simon's meagre 24lbs left the bragging right firmly with brother Tony who also recorded a new match PB of 70lbs . Keith's 65½ meant he was waving farewell to the MK Nugget today . Jim's 53lbs and Martin's 45lbs brought us round to Tony with an excellent 126lbs . Next up was Chairman Dave with a weight of 67½lbs, but he didn't look to confident, and rightly so when Chrissy put a new PB match weight of 93lbs on the scales . Sympathy for Dave? ................... No Chance, it was like a pack of hounds with a 3 legged fox ............ Merciless . Kev was next with 62lbs followed by Zack with 79lbs while Chris was the fifth angler to claim a new PB match weight today with 118lbs . Gary had 28lbs while Ron was last to weigh with 14lbs.

Back to the clubhouse for drinks and sausage rolls while Dave worked out the results. Todays winner was Al (his fifth on the trot) with Tony taking second place and Chris third .
The sections today went to Al, Myself, Keith Powell, Tony and Chris .

Next up for the club is Rockells in two weeks time. Can Al make it six in a row or will someone else get a look in? Time will tell .

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 6	Al Loader		194lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 29	Tony Roberts		126lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 37	Chris Withall		118lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 12	Peter Morton		113lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 2	Mick Wright		100lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 32	Christine Collier	Guest	93lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 11	Graham Manning		85lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 3	John Holdsworth		84lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 18	Keith Powell	Guest	83lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 14	Ken Walker		80lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 35	Zack Johnson		79lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 22	Tony Watkins	Guest	70lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 31	Dave Collier		67lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 25	Keith Ashby		65lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 17	Vic Nugent		64lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 34	Kevin Loveland		62lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 5	Rod Turner		59lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 26	Jim Boase		53lbs 00ozs
19th	Peg 28	Martin Hucker		45lbs 00ozs
20th	Peg 9	Terry Goff		43lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 8	Jimmy Etherington	Guest	32lbs 08ozs
22nd	Peg 15	Roger Noakes		29lbs 00ozs
23rd	Peg 38	Gary Luck	Guest	28lbs 08ozs
24th	Peg 20	Simon Watkins		24lbs 00ozs
25th	Peg 40	Ron Mannister		14lbs 00ozs

 

 

Maggotdrowning.com

Alders Farm Match

Like a lot of these things today's trip to Alders Farm all started when back in early April, Linda (Mermaid) made quite an innocent post on The Maggotdrowning Forum asking whether there would be any interest in a match of some sort at the venue . It was soon obvious there was a bit of interest and before long Linda found herself entering into a new job, that of 'Match Organiser' having managed to get a Saturday in June sorted .

I travelled up with Dave the fish today and it was around 8·20am when we arrived at the fishery, First things first and a quick trip to the new on site tackle shop tackle shop for some fishery pellets and a chat with Trevor Price and then getting the nets dipped while Dave dropped our gear at the bottom of the hill. A good few were in attendance and I found Linda to check in, she handed me a name badge, a nice touch so that everyone would know who was who . Next stop was down to to The Pumphouse overlooking the lake to grab a quick breakfast and catch up with some more of todays participants. Much chat over the prospects for the match and the general consensus was that the unsettled weather and rain during the week would keep the weights down today, though everyone should enjoy some good sport .

Around 9am Linda called everyone to the draw. Gary Thorpe had kindly sorted the choice of pegs for the draw, so into the draw bag and peg 5 was attracted to my hand, not a bad peg and I was happy with that . So off to collect my kit and make my way to my peg......

There were a fair few of us pegged on the pumphouse bank with Jonny on peg 1, Lee peg 2. Fellow Jinx Squad members Fred and Clive had pegs 3 and 4 while to my left was Linda's husband Chris on peg 6. It was nice to see Chris fishing as he tends to be employed as Linda's ghillie normally . Next up was Rod on peg 7 and Nick on peg 8, while Keith had plenty of space to himself on peg 12.

Settling into the swim the first thing that was noticeable was that yet again the wind was blowing firmly into me, not a bad thing in itself, but it meant that I'd be sitting there all match with a fleece on looking across to those sitting there in polo shirts, or in Andrew on peg 27's case a very poor taste in football shirt .

Trev had told me that the end of the bush on the right was the sweet spot in the swim, with a back up at 5mtrs straight out so setting up was quite straight forward. Just 3 rigs all pretty much identical as the swim is pretty shallow(around 18 inches at the end of the bush and around 2½ feet at 5mtrs) . These were all Nick Gilbert's handmade NG Power Pencil's, two 0·4 gm and a 0·5 gm, all made up on on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's nice and simple and strong enough to stand up to what would hopefully turn into a good bagging session. Bait was simply 2 bags of 6mm fishery pellets, a couple of pints of red maggots and a couple of tins of corn.

With everything set there was a bit of time for a quick chat with Rod, Chris, Clive and Fred before Linda called the All-In at 10·30am. A couple of pots of mixed pellet maggot and corn at 5mtrs and a similar handful fed to the end of the bush but before I can get a bait in the water Clive is playing his first fish of the day .......

I soon had a banded 6mm on the hook and dropped at the end of the bush. The float simply buried and produced a..............rudd , not the hoped for carp, there's loads of them in Ash Lake and it's normally just a case of working through them and keeping the feed going until the carp move in and push them out. After about 5 rudd the next bite produced firm resistance as a carp powered off. Now these carp aren't huge, indeed the average size is probably around 3lbs, but being that the water is shallow they just power off when you hook them and fight well above their weight . In that respect it's probably handy that I'm used to fishing Rolfs where the carp are of a far larger average size. It's just a question of getting their heads up so they take a gulp of air and sliding them over the net .

I felt that Clive had got off to a better start in the first hour as I was only picking up odd fish, but as we moved into the second hour I was starting to catch him up as he had longer gaps between his fish. In fact looking around it was obvious that this was going to be one of those days where you had to work for your fish as nobody seemed to be really bagging up , but I was reasonably confident that if I could keep the fish coming at the same rate a 'Ton' was definitely on the cards . My back up line at 5mtrs however was only producing the odd fish so that was written off pretty early on .

Looking on I could see Clive hanging on as increasing amounts of red hydro appeared from the end of his top kit, obviously a decent fish it appeared hell bent on reaching the island, steady pressure finally told though and it was a very relieved Clive that finally netted another fighting fit carp .........

Chris was having a bit of a mare however as the rudd stubbornly refused to make way for carp close in, forcing him to fish long to find any carp, but even then a few to many were slipping the hook as he played them ......

About 2pm Trevor Price had a stroll round taking a few pictures and seeing that I thought I'd better have a quick session with my camera so I had a few pictures for this report . I strolled down to Rod (isis) to find him cursing the rudd, they seemed to have settled into his peg and were doing a great impression of Piranhas devouring anything he cared to put on the hook . Nick (pastie) on peg 8 was starting to get among a few however and looked to be getting one over on his Dad, Steve (rookery54) who was across on peg 16 .......

While over on peg 20 I could see Trev (grannyspodder) who seemed to be waiting far to long between bites today .......

Meanwhile on peg 22 it looked to me like Gary (shooter560) had decided to try paste in an effort to up his catch rate .......

On peg 27 Andrew (lemon1) had at least covered up his rather dubious taste in football tops, while Keith was wishing for an upturn in sport like he'd had on his previous visit here when he'd set a new match best for himself .......

and tucked away on peg 30 was Dave the fish, I'd noticed that he'd been catching as well as anyone on that bank, and with this sort of fishing suiting his style felt he was bound to be in with a shout at the end ......

Back on peg 3 Fred (Milo) was smiling but it hid the frustration of not getting the best from his peg as he was suffering with to many foul hookers and lost fish ........

While a look across to Lee (red baron) saw him with a smile on his face as he slid another carp over the waiting landing net ......

Steve (big Stump) seemed lost in concentration on peg 38, probably hoping to avoid being beaten by the next peg .......

Which happened to be occupied by the Match Organiser herself, Linda (Mermaid) who was obviously targeting fish in the margins ......

As was Simon (sidev77) who obviously had the same aim as Steve .......

Back at my peg I'd just netted my first fish on my return when what sounded like a rifle shot came from the left , Nick had destroyed a Tri-Cast top kit when a carp had buried itself in the margin reeds. Moving into the last hour I was still taking fish on a steady basis from the edge of the bush in between being heckled by Clive and Chris to the effect that I was bagging and it must be solid with fish in the peg................... hurtful that neither of them felt that it may be down to my superior piscatorial ability . Anyway despite this harassment I soldiered heroically on till the All-Out was called at 3·30pm. Looking down at my clicker I had 49 carp recorded on it and I felt that I had a comfortable Ton+ in the nets, which I felt was a decent effort given how hard the lake had fished today .

As we packed away our kit and waited for the scales the chat turned to how the day had gone. Rod now understood why Gary Thorpe refers to rudd as 'Vermin' having suffered a peg full of them all day and Nick showed off his new multi piece top kit. Clive felt he may have 50-60lbs though I was convinced he had more. The scales were moving around the lake pretty fast so it was obvious that it hadn't fished as it can today and when they got to Keith (Gandhi), my travelling partner Dave the fish was leading with 117lbs the only 'Ton' so far......

Rod followed with 15½lbs and Chris put 40¼lbs on the scales ......

My 3 nets weighed a total of 132lbs 07ozs to take the lead with 4 still to weigh ......

Clive did indeed have a bit more than his estimate with 89lbs to show for his efforts ......

and while Lee was last but one to weigh with 102lbs 06ozs ......

and Jonny was last to weigh in with a fine 123lbs 06ozs .

Back to the Pumphouse for the results where we found that the staff had kindly laid on hot drinks for us, a really nice touch . Linda then called us all to order and paid out the sections.......

Section A:
1st: Peter (Mugger) Morton £20
2nd: Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent £15

Section B:
1st: Nick (pastie) Allen £20
2nd: Keith (Gandhi) Ashby £15

Section C:
1st: Dave (dave the fish) Collier £20
2nd: Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs £15

Section D:
1st: Simon (sidev77) Watkins £20
2nd: Linda (Mermaid) Billington £15

Third overall on the day went to Dave the fish , Second to Jonny and the winner was Me and I have to say that I was both surprised and delighted when Linda presented me with an engraved tankard as a trophy, a lovely end to the day ......

In conclusion I have to say a Big Thank You to Linda and Chris on behalf of all who attended, spot on organisation, right down to badges so that everyone knew who was who . I think you may have created an annual fixture for the MD's calender in the future .

Another Big Thank You to Trev, Gary and all the staff at Alders Farm, Top Breakfast, great fishing, even on a hard day, fully deserving of the Stillwater of the Year Award that the fishery won in the National Angling Awards last year .

Finally,Thanks to all the forum members that attended, plenty of good banter along with more than a few laughs as expected on a Drowner's match and good to meet up and put some faces to names from the forum .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 5	Peter (Mugger) Morton	132lbs 07ozs
2nd	Peg 1	Jonathan (jonny_b1989) Broadbent	123lbs 06ozs
3rd	Peg 30	Dave (dave the fish) Collier	117lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 2	Lee (red baron) Mitchell	102lbs 06ozs
5th	Peg 29	Tony (Tony_grig) Grigorjevs	94lbs 06ozs
6th	Peg 4	Clive (Black Hydro) Pritchard	89lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 8	Nick (pastie) Allen	85lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 24	Keith (Gwinear13) Webb	83lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 12	Keith (Gandhi) Ashby	71lbs 14ozs
10th	Peg 28	Keith (keith74) Powell	69lbs 10ozs
11th	Peg 22	Gary (shooter560) Funnell	68lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 34	Simon (sidev77) Watkins	66lbs 06ozs
13th	Peg 36	Linda (Mermaid) Billington	59lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 27	Andrew (lemon1) Stevens	51lbs 14ozs
15th	Peg 38	Steve (big Stump) Chadwick	51lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 3	Fred (Milo) Parker	50lbs 01ozs
17th	Peg 16	Steve (rookery54) Allen	50lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 32	John (John-Tutu) Holdsworth	40lbs 09ozs
19th	Peg 6	Chris (Mermaid's Ghillie) Billington	40lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 20	Trev (grannyspodder) Matthews	20lbs 00ozs
21st	Peg 7	Rod (isis) Rose	15lbs 08ozs

 

The Jinx Series 2012
Match 2

I'm back to Rolfs Lake today for match 2 of this year's Jinx Series, just 2 weeks after the first match and having suffered a mare 2 weeks ago when I changed my pre match routine I wasn't about to let it happen again, so after loading the car this morning and setting off my first stop was my customary one in Battersea for breakfast at the Jimmy's Griddle café  and a 'Full English' soon had me set up for the day ahead and feeling that all was right with the world before I climbed back into the car and headed for Rolfs. There was a bit of a hold up on the M40 due to a crash just after Junction 4, but the hold up wasn't to costly and it was just after 10am when I pulled into the car park.

There were quite a few already in attendance as they had fished a night match the previous evening and after collecting a cup of coffee I was soon catching up with the events of the previous night , including a first hand account from Terry of how he'd been for a moonlit swim on peg 4, luckily he'd survived to see the funny side of it despite not being able to swim .

One of the big questions today was who would be the first wearer of the new Pink Hat, unfortunately Geoff couldn't be there today, but with 13 victims of the previous match attending Gem would be spoilt for choice, in fact a couple of us tried it for size, Lisa W-P catching me on camera ......

..... but others strangely melted away at the very site of it, it didn't do Fred any good though as The Minx selected him to be this season's first wearer ......

With Geoff unable to make it today Dave Wall had seized the chance and stepped stepped into fish for him, so of course it was only polite on my part to offer the chance to reclaim the Golden Nugget he'd handed to me on the previous match . Gem and I had our usual side-bet of a Nugget and I also had one with Neil . For once Malc actually called the draw early at 11·50am with a full house of 21 assembled for the draw, everyone moving along one section today from the previous match.

C section for me today and with the wind blowing down toward the Little Lake not the most favourable of sections I felt although it had produced 1st and 2nd in the previous night's match. Into the bag and it's peg 26 on the car park bank for me today with Ade on peg 28 to my left for company and Neil to my right on peg 24 along with Dave Wall on peg 22. The Minx had drawn peg 30 so it should be easy to keep an eye on the possible destination of the Nuggets today. It didn't fill me with confidence though as Simon had won the night match from peg 28 with 175½lbs and with Ade being his partner in the 'Pairs' he'd fully briefed him on how he'd fished the peg. Mat had fished Dave Wall's peg and come second with 121lbs while Malc had fished Neil's peg and weighed 74¼lbs. Mine had been fished by Nick Williams who'd only managed 17lbs for last place, so it looked like I might have it all to do .

A nice short walk meant that it didn't take long to settle my gear into the peg despite there being about an inch of water covering the platform. I don't seem to draw the car park bank that often but decided to keep it relatively simple with just 3 pole lines all on a top 2 + 2, a comfy 5mtrs. One straight out in front where I had around 7 feet of water, one at the base of the slope in front of the bush to my right with around 6 feet of depth and the final one on my left in line with peg 9 in around 4½ ft of water. All the rigs were freshly tied and made up with NG XT Mugger HD's in sizes 0·3gm, 0·4gm and 0·6gm on 0·21 Ultima power match straight through to size 16 Kamasan B911X's. Bait for today was a mix of 4 and 6mm fishery pellet for feed along with some 6, 8 and 11mm pellets for banding along with some corn and soft hookers .

The All-In came at 2pm and I fed two small pots of mixed pellet and corn straight out and one on the other 2 lines. Nothing straight away but Neil had started on the feeder cast to the aerator and snared a bream straight away which was soon followed by a carp. It's times like this that you start questioning your own approach. Should I have set up a feeder? No point worrying about it now though, Neil is a regular at the lake and has had his fair share of results there, so time to file that away for future reference and get on with fishing my own match .

I made the mistake of leaving the first couple of indications to let them develop.......... they didn't, so at the next dip a lift brought some resistance and a decent skimmer was soon in the net to get me off and running . I just kept feeding a pinch or two of mixed 4 and 6mm's every minute or so and soon had my first carp in the net as well, nothing big at around 7lbs but it really scrapped well, staying deep and reluctant to come to the surface and it set the pattern for my match. I seem to get my fair share of draws next to Neil and it always makes for a good day as he likes a bit of banter and there's always a few laughs to be had along the way .

Neil had definitely got off to the better start but I had the feeling that I was staying in touch over the first couple of hours with 4 more carp and another skimmer. John Bennett had strolled up to retrieve Ollie who was trying to cadge some luncheon meat from Neil while he was playing what looked like a decent fish that took him a bit of time to get to the net...............

A cracking Mirror that looked a good 15lbs but rather disappointingly only showed as 12½lbs on the scales , obviously spawned out. Ade had picked up a few as well and in fact looking around the Big Lake everyone seemed to be getting a few at one time or another and one of those was Mat on peg 8 who seemed to be catching pretty regularly ......

I soon spotted Dave Moore, to be fair he's a big lad and hard to miss, even more so in his fluorescent orange bib and brace and a quick chat soon revealed that he was suffering down on peg 40 getting blasted by the wind in his face without as much as a bite to show for his efforts so far.

I opted for a look at my left hand line with a banded 8mm on the hook and first put in the float just kept on going, the fish set off for the middle and put up dogged resistance before succumbing to the pressure, a nice common of 13½lbs , but I couldn't tempt another bite from that line so opted to take a look down the slope by the bush. That produced a decent skimmer straight away followed by a common that made a bee-line for safety under my platform but I was lucky and managed to grab the line and pull it out from under there before it broke me and soon added it to my net .

Meanwhile Neil had broken his landing net handle returning a weigher, but luckily had a brand new spare in his holdall. The Minx however was struggling on peg 30, it hadn't been fished on Friday night and it looked like the lack of feed previously was handicapping her as she still had nothing to show for her efforts today ......

With nothing more to show from the edge of the bush it was back to straight out in front for me and things started to pick up from there on in as I started to put together a steady run of fish, mostly net fish but still decent weight builders. Meanwhile Neil had lost a big common right at the net that he'd played for ages after foul hooking it in the tail on his feeder rod, and then just to add further insult to injury had the thread fall off his new landing net handle Luckily he managed to borrow another from Paul Jay who was at the lake.

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS rang round the lake as Gem finally had a carp to show for her efforts and this was swiftly followed by another, was she going to have a good end to her match? Opposite me on peg 14 Dai was starting to pick up some big weighers fishing tight down his right hand margin ......

...... but had a disaster when a big double that he was unhooking rolled in the landing net and with a big splash was back in the lake before he could weigh it .

The last hour saw my bites become very iffy and I bumped a few on the strike despite changing the hook although it didn't seem to have lost it's point. I did manage to put another 5 in the net though, and Neil reported the same, losing six fish on the trot before the All-Out sounded a 7pm. Neil felt I may have edged it, but I felt that he may have the advantage with more weighers on the board, Whichever way I felt it would be close as I reckoned on having around 120lbs . Dave Wall would be there or there abouts as well as he'd had a good second half tucked away on peg 22 and had a few weighers on the board. Ade would be in contention as well although he felt he'd had to many skimmers among his carp.

With the kit packed away and back in the car I said farewell to Neil , he had to leave early as he had somewhere to go, then it was time for the Weigh-In, all would be revealed.

Simon in A Section was first to weigh with 87lbs followed by Steve who'd finally caught late for 76¼lbs. Paul's 43½lbs was followed by Dave M's 51¼lbs so he'd got a few in the end . Nick W-P had 66lbs and Clive 94lbs but it was The Jinx who'd walked the section when his peg came to life late on giving him a weight of 167½lbs . Into the first part of B Section and Budgie's 69¼lbs was soon eclipsed by Mat with 122lbs while Tony had suffered a day of total frustration for his 44¼lbs . Kevin had 52¼lbs while Fred had managed 71¼lbs from peg 13. Onto C Section and Dai recorded 89¼lbs missing out on a 'Ton' due to that big double escaping . Terry had 61lbs followed by Nick with 53lbs. Round to peg 22 and Dave Wall recorded his first Rolf's 'Ton' with 107½lbs . Neil's weight was 117½lbs and my weight showed how close it was with my 121¼lbs proving good enough to take the section . The final part of B Section saw Ade put another 'Ton' on the board with 105lbs, The Minx however was a little despondent with just 3 carp for 28½lbs leaving a lot of people very relieved . Last to weigh was Dave C who's 69lbs brought matters to an end.

Back to the hut and the winner on the day was The Jinx himself , Mat taking second while I'd taken third overall which meant that the section money was ours as well along with 3 Golden Nuggets for me .

Who's got The Pink Hat for the next match? Well with no victims today it looks like The Minx will be wearing her own hat next time, but before anyone gets to cocky beware ............ I'm sure she'll be looking for revenge next time out .

Overall Result

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 6	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	167lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 8	Mat Edwards	122lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 26	Peter Morton	121lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 24	Neil Riddy	117lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 22	Dave Wall(Guest)	107lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 28	Ade Williams	105lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 4	Clive Pritchard	94lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 14	Dai Thomas	89lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 34	Simon Mound	87lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 36	Steve Wilson	76lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 13	Fred Parker	71lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 7	Marcus Burgess	69lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 32	Dave Collier	69lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 2	Nick Watkins-Price	66lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 16	Terry Goff	61lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 18	Nick Williams	53lbs 00ozs
17th	Peg 10	Kevin Loveland	52lbs 04ozs
18th	Peg 40	Dave Moore	51lbs 04ozs
19th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts	44lbs 04ozs
20th	Peg 38	Paul Roberts	43lbs 08ozs
21st	Peg 30	Gem (The Minx) Doyle	28lbs 08ozs

  No names in Pink as nobody was "MINXED"  

A Section

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 6	Malc (The Jinx) Doyle	167lbs 08ozs	1
2nd	Peg 4	Clive Pritchard	94lbs 00ozs	2
3rd	Peg 34	Simon Mound	87lbs 00ozs	3
4th	Peg 36	Steve Wilson	76lbs 12ozs	4
5th	Peg 2	Nick Watkins-Price	66lbs 00ozs	5
6th	Peg 40	Dave Moore	51lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 38	Paul Roberts	43lbs 08ozs	7

B Section

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 8	Mat Edwards	122lbs 00ozs	1
2nd	Peg 13	Fred Parker	71lbs 04ozs	2
3rd	Peg 7	Marcus Burgess	69lbs 04ozs	3
4th	Peg 32	Dave Collier	69lbs 00ozs	4
5th	Peg 10	Kevin Loveland	52lbs 04ozs	5
6th	Peg 9	Tony Roberts	44lbs 04ozs	6
7th	Peg 30	Gem (The Minx) Doyle	28lbs 08ozs	7

C Section

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight	Points
1st	Peg 26	Peter Morton	121lbs 04ozs	1
2nd	Peg 24	Neil Riddy	117lbs 08ozs	2
3rd	Peg 22	Dave Wall	107lbs 08ozs	Guest
4th	Peg 28	Ade Williams	105lbs 00ozs	3
5th	Peg 14	Dai Thomas	89lbs 12ozs	4
6th	Peg 16	Terry Goff	61lbs 00ozs	5
7th	Peg 18	Nick Williams	53lbs 00ozs	6

Marsh AC club match.

It's off to what is a new venue for Marsh AC for todays club match, Puddledock Farm Fishery just outside Brentwood in Essex where we will be fishing The Road Lake on the complex .

Chris was picking me up today and he arrived just after 7am, and with my kit loaded into his van we were off. It wasn't a long drive and we pulled into the fishery car park at around 7·45am. Climbing out of the van it was immediately noticeable just how windy it was and looking across it was noticeable that one half of the lake was very exposed to this, while the other half was sheltered. Anyway without further ado we made our way over to the on-site Lakeside Café to start the day with a Full English as they had agreed to open up early for us today. I have to say that the food and service was 1st Class , easily rivalling that of any fishery I've visited in recent times and one that I'd happily recommend.

Clive unfortunately missed out as he was stuck in traffic on the M25 though he did arrive just in time for the draw and from what I'd seen pegs 1-14 were ones to avoid unless you wanted to battle the wind today, so it will come as no surprise that it was peg 6 that stuck to my hand today, right in the teeth of the prevailing wind . Tony had the shortest walk to peg 1, just as well really as having loaded his trolley wheel into the car he found on arrival that he'd forgotten to load his actual trolley............ not that we weren't sympathetic to his plight of course .

It wasn't to far to my peg, but settling into it I really didn't fancy it today as it promised to be an uncomfortable six hours in an area Dave and Tony had struggled to catch from on a visit a couple of weeks previously, in fact Tony's advice on the forum had been "take as long as you like for breakfast ". Anyway nothing ventured.......nothing gained.

I was going to keep things simple today Just a couple of rigs for the pole and the method feeder which would be the main line up against the island at 20mtrs. The first of the two pole rigs was a 0·8gm NG XT Gimp on 0·16 Ultima power match straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911X for straight out at around 5mtrs where I had around 4ft of heavily towing water while the other rig was a 0.3 NG Edger again on 0·16 Ultima power match straight through to a size 18 Kamasan B911X for the margin line that had around 2 feet of depth. Bait was simply 4mm coarse pellet for feed (dampened down for the method feeder) and 6mm and 8mm's for the hook along with some sweetcorn and 6mm GOT Rippers as alternative hookers.

Somewhere in the course of the morning I'd misplaced my glasses so had wandered back to the café to see if I'd left them there. I hadn't, but luckily spotted them on the floor by Chris's van still in one piece, but this meant that I only just made it back to my peg before the All-In was called at 10·15am . I potted in a mixed pot of pellet and corn at 5mtrs and the margins and followed that out with a banded 6mm at 5mtrs. It was immediately apparent just how strongly the wind was gusting, making presentation even at that distance difficult especially coupled with the tow .

Tony appeared to get off the mark with what looked like a Goldfish after around 30 minutes and a little while later Kevin had taken a Tench. An hour in for me and I hadn't managed as much as a bite. I'd tried on several occasions to ping a few 8mm pellets over to the island to prime it for the method, but the wind had blown them back every time. Anyway with no action on either of the pole lines it was time to have a look across with the method feeder, a 6mm pellet was banded and pressed into the dampened 4mm's and cast across tight to the island.

Not a knock, tap or liner followed, it wasn't looking good, just a question of keep recasting in an attempt to get some feed across there and hopefully draw some fish at some point. Finally after around 45 minutes of this the tip flew round and after a bit of spirited resistance a common of around 2lbs was safely in the net to get me off the mark . However it took another 30 minutes before this was repeated again with a similar result. Another 45 minutes passed after this with nothing to show for it when I decided to take a walk and see how others were doing.

Jim was struggling with just a few small roach taken on maggot from his margin, but Keith was just sliding a decent carp into the net as I approached is peg. The wind was making it awkward for him but he was just sitting it out on a line at around 6mtrs and picking up what he claimed to be the odd fish ......

Next up was Chris who'd taken a few early fish fishing a 4AAA waggler across to the island though those fish had drifted away and he was now back to fishing the pole. Martin and Graham were both struggling with the wind and going nowhere fast and Mick (or was it Petal? ) was searching his margin and already fearing the Milton Keynes Nugget would be heading home with Keith today ......

Round to Clive and the change was amazing , just a gentle breeze from behind as the swims were relatively sheltered by some trees. He reported that he'd had a decent start before it faded. I'm not sure that I believed him though as his float promptly buried resulting in a carp that he swiftly netted before I strolled off ......

Terry was fishing the feeder across, but for some reason couldn't get bite on it , a situation that was even more annoying for Terry as Al was having success a couple of pegs away ......

Indeed Al seemed to be fishing a completely different match from most sitting there in a tee shirt and shorts , regularly taking fish on the method feeder fished across to the island ......

Dave had departed for a spot of lunch at the café along with Kevin and Jean, while Eddy was suffering along with a lot of us on what was his first club outing of the year. Rod was having an enjoyable day fishing a feeder half way across what looked like a Mill Pond and was just about to net his eighth carp of the day ......

Tony had added a few silvers from his margin swim as had Ken who was having a similar battle to me with the wind.

I wish I could say that the second half of the match was an improvement, but it wasn't it remained just as dire for me with just another 3 bites on the method feeder producing another 3 carp of a similar size to the first two and to be honest it was a blessed relief when the All-Out was called at 4·15pm . I soon had my kit packed away and back to the car park and all that remained was the Weigh-In.

Tony kicked things off with 20¼lbs while Kevin solitary Tench made 2¾lbs and Ken's silvers 6¼lbs. My 5 carp came to 11½lbs and Jim's roach and skimmers 7¼lbs. Keith's claimed 4 fish morphed into a few more and stopped the scales at 40½lbs. Chris put 24½lbs on the scales and Martin and Graham managed to tie on 7½lbs each. Mick waved farewell to the MK Nugget with just 12lbs while Clive's fish came to a level 25lbs. Terry was muttering about taking up Golf as his catch came to just 3¾lbs . Al had romped it for the 4th match on the trot with a fine 94¼lbs (I think it's time he was banned from using a method feeder ) Dave had 37½lbs despite stopping for lunch while Eddie recorded 8½lbs and Rod finished off with 16¼lbs.

Back to the car park for the results and of course Al took the win , Keith was second and Dave third . The section money went to Tony, Keith, Clive and Al.

Thoughts on the day? Puddledock Farm is certainly a nice venue with good facilities, we caught it on a bad day when the weather didn't allow it to do itself justice, so on balance it's got to be worth another visit in my opinion .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 23	Al Loader	94lbs 04ozs
2nd	Peg 10	Keith Ashby	40lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 25	Dave Collier	37lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 19	Clive Pritchard	25lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	24lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	20lbs 12ozs
7th	Peg 29	Rod Turner	16lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 18	Mick Wright	12lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 6	Peter Morton	11lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 27	Eddie Dobson	8lbs 08ozs
11th=	Peg 16	Graham Manning	7lbs 08ozs
11th=	Peg 14	Martin Hucker	7lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 8	Jim Boase	7lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 4	Ken Walker	6lbs 04ozs
15th	Peg 21	Terry Goff	3lbs 12ozs
16th	Peg 2	Kevin Loveland	2lbs 12ozs

 

Marsh AC club match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 14	Al Loader		176lbs 08ozs
2nd=	Peg 23	Clive Pritchard		113lbs 00ozs
2nd=	Peg 31	Mick Wright		113lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 24	Tony Roberts		106lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 7	Lee Rose	Guest	105lbs 12ozs
6th	Peg 21	Keith Ashby		85lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 26	Rosie	Guest	77lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 9	Terry Goff		73lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 8	Kevin Loveland		63lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 16	Peter Morton		59lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 32	Dave Collier		51lbs 12ozs
12th	Peg 34	Graham Manning		40lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 37	John Holdsworth		39lbs 04ozs
14th	Peg 18	Jim Boase		38lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 4	Gary Luck	Guest	36lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 2	Chris Withall		31lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 35	Zack Johnson		23lbs 08ozs
18th	Peg 17	Martin Hucker		13lbs 08ozs
19th	Peg 13	Rod Turner		11lbs 08ozs
20th	Peg 20	Simon Watkins		DNW

 

 

Marsh AC club match.

The Top Lake at Rayne Lodge just outside of Braintree in Essex is yet again the venue for the second Marsh AC club match of the year. However we normally visit the venue in late may once things have started to warm up a bit. The view through the bedroom window today promised a decent start to the day ahead, but the forecast was for heavy showers after midday . I soon had the cats fed, while cereal and coffee fuelled me to load up the car and set off. A good traffic free run saw me arriving in the car park just after 7·30am along with Kevin & Jean. Soon the others started to arrive and with just 14 of us fishing today things were soon underway. Dave asked Keith and I to sort out the pegs to use today so we set off round the lake while others ferried their gear down the hill and Dave collected the monies. Virtually every peg looked good for a few fish and Keith and I made the picks trying to give most anglers a bit of room and our 14 choices went into the hat ready for the draw .

Into the hat and it's peg 14A for me, the 2nd time in the last 3 visits (the other one was peg 14) I never seem to be able to get out of this corner of the lake when we visit, but it's normally good for a few fish .

Knowing the area so well it didn't take long to get set up, just 3 top kits with black hydro. It can tow a bit in this corner if the wind gets into it so I set up a couple of rigs to fish at 6mtrs where there's around 3 feet of water, the first was an 0·4 NG XT Gimp on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X while the second was a, 0·3 NG XT Power Pencil Mk 2 again on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X which was a little more delicate and would see use if it wasn't towing. The third rig was my customary 0.2 NG Edger again on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for the margin lines that had around 2 feet of depth. Bait was simply 6mm coarse pellet for feed and the hook along with some sweetcorn and 6mm GOT Rippers as alternative hookers.

There was still a good 30 minutes to go so I took a stroll to see how others were going to tackle things. Al and Dave were already exchanging banter on the prospects for the day that lay ahead . Kev was settling into peg 1 which I'd fancied for a few fish when Keith and I selected it earlier. Jean kindly provided a freshly cooked sausage and bacon roll and a mug of coffee to wash it down . Chris had set up for a catch anything with fins approach. Most seemed to be going with the pole, though Martin next to me on peg 14 was going for the feeder to the island in front .

10am and the whistle sounded for the All-In. A cup of pellets with a few grains of corn was fed at 6mtrs along with a handful of pellet into the left hand margin before I shipped out with a banded 6mm pellet, Dave over on peg 21 had got off to a flyer with 6 fish in his first 6 put in's!!!!!!!!! and I had seen Al netting a couple of quick fish as well.
A few more pellets flicked over my rig and a couple of lift and drops soon saw the float slide away and a spirited fight from a small common followed before I netted it to get myself off the mark . The first hour was nice and steady, keeping a little bit of feed going in and working the rig kept the bites coming and a few small carp and skimmers coming to the net.

Word was filtering down that Dave was already in the pound seats as he'd found the fish in the margins and feeding from the off, while Al had reverted to the method to the point of the island in an attempt to keep up with him as he couldn't buy a bite from his margin . I could hear the two of them talking and tales of 3-4lbs fish, which meant I was going to need some more and larger fish than I'd already got, especially when my next fish was this mint little common ......

I took an early look down my margins but to no avail so it was back to 6mtrs to keep working it, occasionally adding another section to see if anything had backed off the feed, but they didn't seem to be there in any numbers. I would take 2 or 3 fish and then have to wait 10-15 minutes for a bite. This seems to be the pattern in this part of the lake since 2009 when all the overhanging trees that provided cover were cut down and it now seems that fish just move through the area and you almost have to ambush them as they pass through as they seem reluctant to settle for any length of time.

Mick over on peg 16 was putting a few together but having to work for them, though this was disturbed when a passing duck snaffled his bait as he was laying his rig in. Thankfully Mick managed to get the duck to the bankside where he finally managed to unhook it after some deft work with a disgorger, the duck swimming off with just a few feathers and its dignity ruffled . Martin was having a hard time of it, latching into various snags round the island and then seeing his reel handle fly off and land in the lake. Undaunted he soon changed reels and was back in action ......

For me it was just a question of plugging away and keeping a few fish going into the net as apart from Dave and Al nobody else seemed to be getting among the fish from what I could see or hear. I kept having the odd look down the margins but they steadfastly refused to produce as much as a bite, and after a blank spell of nearly 20 minutes at 6mtrs I re-fed it pretty heavily and set of for my customary stroll with the camera . John was struggling next door to Martin and it looked like the two travelling companions would be battling to the end of the match for the bragging rights today .......

Clive was settled into peg 11A and having a look down his left hand margin, having struggled to catch from the right hand side of his peg ......

Keith was on peg 10 and working hard to put a few together and beat Mick in another battle of the travelling companions, though I did manage to bring a smile to his face when I related the tale of Mick's encounter with the duck .....

Simon and Graham had similar tales of struggle, though Graham's did ring a little hollow as he lifted into a fish as I passed by ......

Ken seemed quite content with his lot tucked away in a corner on peg 5 and was happily putting a few together today ......

Chris on peg 3 was also putting a mixed bag together with his approach, but felt that he could be doing better .......

Kev on peg 1 was having a mare in all honesty, not only was he struggling for bites from his swim, he also had the perfect view of Dave and Al apparently bagging up just across from him ......

Dave had vanished for a stroll by the time I got round there, but I probably shouldn't have asked Al what the crack was, as it wasn't a pretty site ......

Back at my peg it was just a question of head down and get on with it, nick a couple of fish then wait a while before getting another couple. At least they were getting a little larger as time wore on with a few 2-3 pounders mixed in among the smaller ones . After yet another blank spell I took another look down the margins with 45 minutes to go and the float buried by a feisty little mirror that was soon in the net and thankfully this continued right up to the whistle sounded the All-Out at 4pm .

Packing away my kit I couldn't help wondering what the outcome would have been had they turned up earlier in the margins? I was sure that Dave and Al were way out in front but reckoned that my late run of fish should see me with around 70lbs of fish to put on the scales.

The Weigh-In started with Kev on peg 1 who only managed a meagre 12lbs . Chris recorded 38½lbs while Ken was happy to see his fish weigh 53lbs , Graham's 42¼lbs was followed by Simon's 36½lbs and Keith chipped in with 39½lbs. Clive had a smile on his face due to his 56½lbs while Martin and John both recorded a level 16lbs to share the bragging rights in the car. My fish came to 77lbs leaving me happy with what I'd got from my peg . Mick's 36½lbs meant that Keith had the bragging rights for their trip home and Terry could only muster 26½lbs for his days efforts. that just left Al who was admitting to 70lbs (meaning he probably had a Ton+ ) and Dave who was owning up to 80lbs and he's normally pretty close with his estimates. Al in fact put 106lbs on the scales and Dave 87½lbs .

So back up Heart Attack Hill to the car park where Dave sorted out the days results and the monies. The Winner today was Al with Dave taking 2nd and third place for me . The sections went to Ken, myself and Al .

Next up for Marsh AC is an Inter-club match at Hartleylands Farm against Morefax AC , but before that I'm off on my first trip of the year to Rolf's Lake next Friday for a 2 day Special Jinx Match.

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 20	Al Loader	106lbs 00ozs
2nd	Peg 21	Dave Collier	87lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 14A	Peter Morton	77lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 11A	Clive Pritchard	56lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 5	Ken Walker	53lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 7	Graham Manning	42lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 10	Keith Ashby	39lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 3	Chris Withall	38lbs 08ozs
9th=	Peg 16	Mick Wright	36lbs 08ozs
9th=	Peg 9	Simon Watkins	36lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 18	Terry Goff	26lbs 08ozs
12th=	Peg 14	Martin Hucker	16lbs 00ozs
12th=	Peg 13	John Holdsworth	16lbs 00ozs
14th	Peg 1	Kevin Loveland	12lbs 00ozs

 

Al's Match.

Marsh AC club mate and fellow Maggotdrowner Al Loader had booked the Match Lake at Hawkhurst for a knock up today and with a good few booked on for it everyone was hopeful of a good days sport . Unfortunately the view from the bedroom window was a bit bleak when I looked out, dull grey and overcast with rain falling, but with the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee to fortify me I soon had my waterproofs on and the car loaded up and headed for Hawkhurst. Thankfully the rain soon stopped, but with the temperature showing just 6°C and some fog outside Tonbridge it looked like a none to glorious spring day ahead .

I pulled into the car park just before 8am to find most already assembled and the last couple followed me in. A cool North easterly wind was noticeable as Keith collected the match fees for Al, before we headed to the fishery Restaurant for breakfast before the draw. The breakfast served at Hawkhurst is one of the best (2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 eggs, mushrooms, beans/tomatoes, fried slice + toast and tea or coffee) which sets you up nicely for the day ahead, and as we chatted over this, Mick the Chippy was adamant that the Golden Nugget would be returning to him today .

With breakfast taken care of it was back to the car park for the draw. With 16 anglers present all 20 pegs were in and when my turn came peg 3 was mine for the day. Collecting my kit I chatted to Mick McMillan who was happy to have drawn peg 5 , though he wasn't quite so happy when he found out that I'd drawn peg 6 for Al .
A short walk to my peg revealed Tony on peg 1 while Brodie was on peg 2 and Dave Hough to my right on peg 4. Happiest angler on the day should have been Derek Lockwood on the other bank as he had one empty peg to his right and three to his left. You can see where everyone else drew on the peg plan below ........

My set up for Hawkhurst was pretty simple. 3 top kits loaded with black hydro and the first 2 rigs were identical, made up of a 0·3 NG XT Power Pencil Mk 2 on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for a 5mtr line (top 2 + 2 sections) on the deck where I had around 4ft of water, while the third was a 0.2 NG Edger again on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for a margin line against the boards. Bait for the day was going to be hard 6mm fishery pellet along with some 6mm GOT Rippers .

With the match being fished from 10·15am till 4·15pm I had a bit of time before the start to have a stroll round and have a chat prior to the All-In so I strolled along the top of the banking behind the pegs to get a better view. Mick McMillan and Al were settled into pegs 5 and 6, a couple of the favoured pegs and would be hard to beat today as they're both more than capable of doing a big weight ......

On peg 7 Mick was hoping that the power of Beechams powders would hold his cold at bay in his quest to gain back his Golden Nugget and Clive obviously had a cunning plan that was focused on the contents of a tin ......

I had a quick chat with Keith who wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Mick today, while Terry was having a chat with Paul on peg 10, picking his brains as Paul has a very good record fishing here ......

John seemed happy enough on peg 12, as he had Dave for company today on peg 11 and the 3 empty pegs to his right ......

Derek was in splendid isolation on peg 16, Rod was going with the waggler from peg 19 and Mick Wright was tucked into the corner on peg 20 and hoping to get the bragging rights for the trip home to Milton Keynes with travelling companion Keith today, while over in the opposite corner Tony seemed lost in contemplation of the day ahead ......

10·15am and the whistle was blown signalling the start of the match. Before I could even pot in a cup of pellet Mick was netting his first fish of the day!!!!!! and was netting a second before I shipped out a rig with a 6mm banded pellet on the hook . The hoped for instant bite didn't materialise for me and others were already into fish before a bit of lift and dropping of the rig was rewarded with the float jagging under. A quick lift resulted in a pleasing resistance and a small common of around 1lb was soon in the net to get me off the mark . That set the tone for me, a pinch of pellet every put in and keep working the rig produced the bites and kept the small carp coming and I ended the first hour with 14 fish in the nets. That north east wind was really chilling despite the sunshine, but kept a decent ripple on the swim.

In the second hour the wind dropped a couple of times but it was noticeable that without the ripple the bites dried up, only returning with the wind. This was especially noticeable as Terry opposite me had the wind off his back leaving his peg a lot calmer, which resulted in him really struggling for a bite ......

Despite the lulls in sport when the wind dropped I managed to maintain my catch rate and at the end of the second hour I'd added another 17 fish to the nets, and felt that I was holding my own with Tony and Brodie, though Dave to my right seemed to be catching at a slightly faster rate ......

Steady away was the story of the third hour for me though Brodie felt that he needed to try a different approach to maintain his catch rate and switched to fishing shallow in an effort to keep them coming ......

Derek over on peg 16 was getting his head down, catching regularly and was obviously profiting from having those empty pegs around him ......

...... as well as being able to keep an eye on Mick and Al who, according to the grapevine were neck and neck and both catching well, though Al did have to take a break to go and get some more pellet as he had run out.

Strangely though I hadn't seen Dave having his customary stroll during the match and looking up toward his peg I could see him hunched over and concentrating on his right hand margin, so he was obviously catching well .......

into the 4th hour I had 50 fish on my clicker when a bit of a disaster struck. As I netted another carp which thrashed around and broke the line on the rig , and despite going straight back out with a second identical rig I couldn't buy a bite, no apparent reason for it, but I decided to take a couple of minutes to retie the original rig and once I'd done that had a bite first put in with it.

Mick was still plundering his right hand margin over on peg 20, but the fish that he was getting seemed to be quite small ......

However it was soon apparent that all was not well as sport seemed to slow down for most around the lake, The margins beside the boards were devoid of fish for me and I couldn't get a bite when I tried there indeed in that 5th hour I only managed to put 8 fish in the net.

The final hour was no better for me either, and in all honesty I was quite relieved when the whistle sounded the All-Out leaving me with 65 fish to weigh-in.

I soon had my kit packed away and back to the car and chatting to others they had all seemed to suffer a poor last couple of hours.

First to weigh-in was Paul on peg 10 putting 97¾lbs on the scales. Keith and Clive had 66½lbs and 71½ respectively while Mick the chippy's cold had finally caught up with him as he weighed 31½lbs . Al placed a fine 139lbs on the scales but it would only be good enough for second today as Mick McMillan topped that with 148½lbs to take the win on the day . next up Dave Hough's 123½lbs would give him 3rd . I weighed 105lbs, Brodie 87½lbs and Tony 81lbs. Round to the opposite bank and Mick secured the bragging rights over Keith with a level 98lbs. Rod recorded 23lbs and Terry 34½lbs. Derek recorded a fine 114½lbs to finish just out of the frame. John put 91½lbs on the scales and Dave was last to weigh with a decent 104½lbs.

So Thanks to Al for organising the day , just over 1400lbs of fish put on the scales averaging over 80lbs per man can't be a bad days fishing on a cold spring day, and Thanks to Mick the Chippy for another Golden Nugget .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 5	Mick McMillan	148lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 6	Al Loader	139lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Dave Hough	123lbs 08ozs
4th	Peg 16	Derek Lockwood	114lbs 08ozs
5th	Peg 3	Peter Morton	105lbs 00ozs
6th	Peg 11	Dave Collier	104lbs 08ozs
7th	Peg 20	Mick Wright	98lbs 00ozs
8th	Peg 10	Paul East	97lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 12	John Holdsworth	91lbs 08ozs
10th	Peg 2	Brodie Vowles	87lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	81lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 8	Clive Pritchard	71lbs 08ozs
13th	Peg 9	Keith Ashby	66lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 18	Terry Goff	34lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 7	Mick Pearson	31lbs 08ozs
16th	Peg 19	Rod Turner	23lbs 00ozs

 Marsh AC club match.

Well today would see me fishing the first Marsh AC match of the season down at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 4 . Having not fished since the last club match in the middle of October I was really looking forward to this, getting back on the bank and blowing a few cobwebs away. I was soon back into the old routine, up early, get the cats fed and a couple of cups of coffee for myself before loading up the car and setting off for the venue.
It was a dull grey overcast morning as I drove down toward Staplehurst with the temperature showing just 8°C . I'd like to say that it was an uneventful trip, but a bit of debris falling from a truck I was following shot under the car, with a bang signalling that it had hit something!!!!! The centre box of the exhaust as it happens, which will now need fixing . Anyway I made it to the fishery with Rod and Clive arriving behind me. Getting out of the cars Clive looked around and uttered the immortal words "Well at least it isn't windy"....he really should have known better .

Over to the food bar for a breakfast roll and a cuppa where a healthy turn out of club members was assembling along with Mick the Chippy who was my guest for the day .
The draw took a little longer than usual as Dave had club fees to collect, but the draw was soon underway and I found peg 154 was mine while Mick drew 155 meaning we would have a good old chat today if nothing else.

Into the cars and up to the lake, I soon had my gear at my peg as I was able to park within 20 yards of it. I can't say I was delighted with it as pegs 154-160 are generally regarded as "The Corner of Death" and not the most favoured to say the least, but hopefully we would still get a few .

As we started to set up the wind got up, a nasty chill north easterly from my right blowing down into the corner, making it feel cooler still . Having not fished for a while it took a bit longer than usual to get set up, even though I was going to keep it pretty simple today. Just 2 top kits loaded with black hydro and a couple of rigs the first was an 0·4 NG XT Gimp on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X to fish on the deck at around 10mtrs, while the second was a, 0·3 NG XT Power Pencil Mk 2 again on 0·14 Ultima power match straight through to a size 16 Kamasan B911X for a 4mtr line on the deck. Both lines had a similar 4ft of depth. Bait for the day was going to be a mix of maggot and hard 6mm pellet along with some 6mm GOT Rippers .

Mick meanwhile had the site of a couple of randy swans on his pole line that decided it was the perfect time and spot to make cygnets !!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankfully they soon departed though.
Kev also appeared with a welcome cup of coffee from Jean . Dave signalled the All-In at 10am and I fed a mixed pot of maggot and pellet at 10mtrs, before starting with double red maggot over it, while Mick started on the method just short of the island. Mick was soon off the mark with a gudgeon which led to a discussion of the merits of the humble gobio and soon followed it with a small carp and another gudgeon before my float dipped and I bumped a bottle top off. However it was soon followed by another, all of 2 inches long, but at least I landed it saving myself the dreaded DNW .

I could already hear splashing from up on peg 151 though where Al was able to fish across to the side of the island in relative comfort and seemed to be catching carp already.
Mick was ticking along till he got broken by an unseen denizen of the deep, but I was starting to worry about the destination of the Golden Nugget that was riding on our head to head. Maggot appeared to just attract tiny skimmers and roach so a pot of 6mm's was followed by the rig with a 6mm ripper on the hook. a bit of lifting and dropping resulted in a positive bite and finally a carp was on it's way to the net, a nice plump little mirror of around 1½lbs .

It was still hard graft for me, though Mick kept slipping one or two into the net. By 12o'clock I just had 6 carp and that solitary tiny skimmer to show for my efforts so I fed 3 handfuls of pellet onto the 4mtr line and decided to take a stroll with the camera .

Rod and Ken on the other bank of the Corner of Death were having an ever worse time of it than Mick and I as they had the North Easterly blowing full into their faces ......

Graham at least was sheltered by the island, but was still having a struggle to find some fish and had an early look down his margin with some paste to try and snare a carp or two ......

Vic's peg looked lovely but he was having to work hard for fish that really didn't want to play ball ........

Kev was also struggling despite encouragement from Jean (at least I think that was what it was ) I found Tony fishing his right hand margin as his main swim appeared to have died on him, and was lucky enough to get him to pose for a photo with his next fish ........

Simon was struggling as well despite using his new Maver Elite Carp for the first time and I managed to talk him into letting me have a go with it. A nice pole, but not for me as the balance didn't feel quite right I'm afraid even after I got Simon to fit the 13mtr extension the right way round .

Round to Keith who complained he was being battered by Mick on the next peg, but he was soon into a fish, but as I raised the camera for an action shot the hook gave way. The curse of the camera? who knows but I felt it best to depart before copping a top two round the ear-hole .

Chris was whittling a few out on his first session since recovering from his broken arm, while Dave had gone for a stroll. Looking back though I could see that Keith and Mick were having a good old ding-dong with the two of them both playing fish ......

Clive seemed utterly miserable as he found fishing at 16mtrs to reach the island to much in the wind that was buffeting him and had resorted to the feeder but with little joy . It didn't help that he had to watch Al on the next peg catching well from the side of the island as it sheltered him from the wind, and it was pretty obvious already that he would be the one to beat today ......

As I returned to my peg Jean arrived with a welcome cuppa and a cheeseburger from the food bar, so that was consumed before I got back to the business in hand.
Time to attack the 4mtr line and see if I could make something happen. Feed a small handful of 6mm's and swing a banded 6mm out to the same spot. A couple of lift and drops and the job's a good un as the float buried resulting in a nice little Mirror . It was never hectic but by sticking at it I soon had small carp and F1's coming regularly to the net, forcing Mick into trying a similar approach in an effort to avoid the loss of a Golden Nugget.

Fortunately for me, I managed to keep them coming at a greater rate than Mick and when Dave called the All-Out at 4pm we both knew the destination of the Nugget.

With the kit back in the cars the Weigh-In started at Mick's peg with a hard earned 39½lbs while my net came to a level 63lbs . John chipped in with 23½lbs. Al had made the most of his island peg with a fine 113½lbs . Clive had suffered with just 29lbs and Martin had fared even worse with 17¾lbs . Dave and Chris had had 84lbs and 53lbs and Jim 27½lbs. Mick's 83lbs left him short of Keith's 97½lbs. Zack added 23lbs to the total and Simon could only muster 20lbs while Terry was rewarded with 46lbs. Tony put 61½lbs on the scales, while Jean's coaching had resulted in 37lbs for Kev. Vic's hard work produced 70¼lbs for him while Graham could only muster 20½lbs. Rod and Ken finished things off with 9½lbs and 18¾lbs respectively.

Back to the car park for the results, with Al taking the win . Keith second and Dave 3rd  .   Al, Dave, Keith and Vic taking the sections on the day and Mick's Golden Nugget found a new home in my pocket .

Next up for me is Al's Knock Up at Hawkhurst on the 14th so keep your eyes out for that report .

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 151	Al Loader		113lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 141	Keith Ashby		97lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 146	Dave Collier		84lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 142	Mick Wright		83lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 162	Vic Nugent		70lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 154	Peter Morton		63lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 136	Tony Roberts		61lbs 08ozs
8th	Peg 145	Chris Withall		52lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 137	Terry Goff		46lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 155	Mick Pearson	Guest	39lbs 08ozs
11th	Peg 163	Kevin Loveland		37lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 150	Clive Pritchard		29lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 143	Jim Boase		27lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 152	John Holdsworth		23lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 139	Zack Johnson		23lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 161	Graham Manning		20lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 138	Simon Watkins		20lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 158	Ken Walker		18lbs 12ozs
19th	Peg 148	Martin Hucker		17lbs 12ozs
20th	Peg 159	Rod Turner		9lbs 08ozs

 

Marsh AC club match.

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

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

Paul East was actually fishing today!!!! complete with new shuttle, space station and pole that he's treated himself to, but unfortunately there were a few faces missing due to a combination of work, illness and prior engagements , which meant there were just 15 of us fishing, but with the whole reservoir booked it meant that we would have plenty of space. A quick chat with the bailiff revealed there had been a frost this morning and the day before, not the best of news as it may have had an effect on the fish feeding, though it promised to be a nice sunny day with what wind there was, blowing toward the earlier pegs.

Just after 8·30am Dave started the draw and I found peg 16 sticking to my hand, probably the furthest walk, but the end of the reservoir I prefer. You can see where it is, and where everyone ended up on the peg plan below ......

As I made my way round I found Terry was on peg 18, where he'd fished a couple of weeks ago, while Zack was on peg 20, the peg I'd fished with Dave keeping him company on peg 21 along with Chris who'd come along to watch again as his hand is still in plaster . Settling my gear into the peg I planned to tackle it in a similar way to the way I'd fished peg 20 a couple of weeks ago, and that was to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 4 feet of water and the second down the left and right hand margins. Rigs were two 4x12 CX pencils on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 14 Guru MWG's for straight out and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm pellet for the hook ......

With a bit of time before the off, I took a stroll down to see Mick and Paul who were on pegs 12 & 10 and the side bet of a 'Golden Nugget' was struck with Mick who was obviously confident in the pulling power of MaryQ . Jean had provided a welcome cup of coffee which went down well as the breeze had a bit of a nip to it as we waited for the start. As I sat there I couldn't help noticing that some of the colour seemed to have dropped out of the water, no doubt due to those first frosts, would it effect things? We'd soon find out .

10am and Dave called the All-In, I was determined to be positive and fed a good handful of pellet straight out and down the margins before shipping a banded 8mm out in front. The first couple of put ins resulted in a couple of tentative dips of the float that I didn't connect with, but the third put in saw me connect with what was obviously a carp, they do pull a bit these reservoir carp as they seek the deeper water, but steady pressure soon took its toll as a feisty Mirror found its way to the waiting landing net, at around 4lbs a nice way to get off the mark .

Bites weren't coming instantly like they were a couple of weeks ago, but by feeding every put in and continually working the bait there were bites to be had, and in what seemed like no time at all I'd put 8 carp in the nets . The reality was that it had taken 50 minutes as I looked at my watch which said 10 to 11. I really shouldn't have looked though, as that seemed to be the signal for the fish to switch off .

The next hour or so was pure torture as there wasn't a bite to be had, but from what I could hear and see everyone else seemed to be pretty much in the same boat, though I was sure I'd heard a top kit smash from down toward Paul's peg . I could see that nothing had touched the bait in the margins as the water hadn't coloured up at all, but I kept bait trickling in on all the lines as I didn't want fish to move in and find nothing to hold them. Around midday I'd heard that Mick and Paul had taken a few fish, so fed a good handful straight out and took a stroll with the camera to see what was happening and take my mug back to Jean .

It appeared that Mick was alternating between a pole line and the method feeder to tempt a few fish and he was owning up to around 25lbs in the net, though as I strolled away he was into another fish on the feeder ......

Paul revealed that the earlier sound of splintering carbon had indeed coming from his peg, his top kit not being up to the task of heaving a double figure carp into his landing net when it had other ideas ......

Kevin was having a real struggle as were Rod and Martin on that bank, in fact it was hard to tell if Martin was watching the tip of his feeder rod or just staring despondently into the distance ......

Round to peg 29 and there was Clive struggling for a bite on the peg that according to the bailiff had won the last match with 176lbs, talk about "You should have been here last week" added to which was the fact that the peg was in almost total shade, it would be fair to say that the moustachioed one wasn't exactly ecstatic with the prospect of another few hours sat there .......

Ken wasn't fairing a whole lot better on 27, another shaded peg, though he had a few small silvers in the net to show for his efforts ......

Graham was next up on the last of the shaded pegs and was just unhooking a small roach as I arrived, always positive he was hopeful that a few carp would put in an appearance later in the day .....

onto 23 and Nick at least had a carp in the net to show for his efforts, while Dave had managed 3 carp early before they switched off, but he was now feeding small pinches of hemp with a tare on the hook trying to tempt some roach, and while he was getting the odd one or two, even they were proving reluctant to feed .......

On peg 20 Zack had concentrated on his right hand margin from the off and it had yielded a carp and a few silvers for him, while Terry had been unable resist a look down his left hand margin having seen a fish down there .......

Back at my peg and a glance down both margins revealed that nothing had visited for a munch so it was back out with a banded 8mm in front, followed by some pellets. A quick dip of the float followed by a lift saw me attached not to a carp but a skimmer, still it was something to add to the net even if it did slime me .
Next put in and the same again only this time it wasn't a skimmer, obviously a substantial carp it powered off in unstoppable fashion, the rig returning with a straightened out hook Luckily I had a second identical rig to hand and the next 3 put ins saw 3 more skimmers deposited in the net. Next put in and a lift was met with stronger resistance, a carp this time, a chunky Common around the 6lbs mark and very welcome. This was rapidly followed by a similar sized Mirror that took a bit of getting in as it was hooked in the pectoral fin, but come in it did .

This stirred the peg up a bit and led to a lull, but after around 10 minutes another skimmer joined its mates in the silvers net. By now Dave was targeting his margins and I watched as he landed a couple of carp, and I knew that if there were fish there he would give me a run for my money. Next put in and I was briefly attached to a lump that took off before launching itself out of the water like a Polaris missile and crashing back on the line smashing the rig .

Time to compose myself and tie up another couple of rigs, and with that done get back to fishing. Kev appeared with another cup of coffee, but it dropped to the floor, emptying its contents before I could reach it . Kev trundled off with the empty cup after I retrieved it from the water promising a refill. 10 minutes later and Dave came wandering along to bring me the refill and tried to convince me that I already had 100lbs in my nets.............I wish .

Unfortunately it was back to scratching for bites after that, though Dave gave us all a bit of amusement with the length of time he spent playing a Ghostie , but he had the last laugh as it ended safely in the net. Meanwhile I was just picking up the odd skimmer here and there. Terry however suddenly seemed to have the carp turn up in front of him with an hour to go , and Dave was still getting the odd fish from the margins. Thankfully I managed 3 more carp among the skimmers while Terry suffered a run of bumped bites and lost fish in the last 20 minutes .

4pm and Dave called the All-Out. it had been a hard days fishing and the reservoir hadn't fished up to its potential. I felt I had around 70lbs in the nets, but I'd soon find out for sure come the Weigh-In .

I packed my gear away but left it at my peg and went to get on with the Weigh-In. Rod kicked things off with just 9¼lbs while Martin could only muster 6lbs. Kev had 20¼lbs and John 14lbs proving just how hard the fishing on that bank had been . Paul despite his early woes had managed to get the better of a few decent lumps down the margin and put 77½lbs on the scales and take 2nd on the day . Mick had enjoyed his day with 52lbs, but Jim had suffered a torrid day with just 5¾lbs. I was next and my carp nets came up short of Paul's weight, but 15lbs of skimmers gave me a total of 81¾lbs and the win today . Terry had 50½lbs and Zack 29¼lbs. Dave's 69¼lbs took 3rd overall . Nick weighed 15lbs while Graham did manage some afternoon carp to take 42¼lbs to the scales. Ken had 8¾lbs while Clive was last to weigh with a level 20lbs.

Back at the car park Dave collated the scores and monies with the top 3 taking their sections on the day and I relieved Mick of a 'Golden Nugget' before we loaded our gear up, bade our farewells and headed off for home .

Position	Peg	Angler		Weight
1st	Peg 16	Peter Morton		81lbs 12ozs
2nd	Peg 10	Paul East		77lbs 08ozs
3rd	Peg 21	Dave Collier		69lbs 04ozs
4th	Peg 12	Mick Pearson	Guest	52lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 18	Terry Goff		50lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 25	Graham Manning		42lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 20	Zack Johnson	Guest	29lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 6	Kevin Loveland		20lbs 12ozs
9th	Peg 29	Clive Pritchard		20lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 23	Nick Bondeau	Guest	15lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 8	John Holdsworth		14lbs 00ozs
12th	Peg 2	Rod Turner		9lbs 04ozs
13th	Peg 27	Ken Walker		8lbs 12ozs
14th	Peg 4	Martin Hucker		6lbs 00ozs
15th	Peg 14	Jim Boase		5lbs 12ozs

The club does run a points table over the course of the matches (Guests results are not included in the table) and as you can see Dave Collier reaped the rewards of a very consistent season that included 3 match wins, coming out on top with 218 points while I was Runner-Up with 204 points and Al finished 3rd on 194 points  despite missing the final Match. I'd just like to say Thank You to all the club members and guests who've fished this years matches. They've been great company on the bankside, with some hilarious banter meaning the matches have been enjoyable as always, and I'm looking forward to next year already .

Finally, MANY THANKS to Dave Collier (Mr Chairman) for his organisational efforts on behalf of the club, we give him plenty of ribbing at times, but we do appreciate his efforts. .

Position	Angler	Monk	Rayne	MillBarn	Colemans	Blasford	Private	Rockells	Hartlylands	Total Weight	Points
1st	Dave Collier	21	30	28	27	30	24	30	28	695lbs 12ozs	218 pts
2nd	Peter Morton	29	27	29	29	17	25	22	30	628lbs 00ozs	208 pts
3rd	Al Loader	30	25	30	28	27	28	29	d.n.f	702lbs 00ozs	197 pts
4th	Keith Ashby	28	26	25	26	25	29	27	d.n.f	567lbs 12ozs	186 pts
5th	Clive Pritchard	27	28	d.n.f	25	26	30	19	24	453lbs 04ozs	179 pts
6th	Terry Goff	25	18	24	24	12	22	20	27	308lbs 08ozs	172 pts
7th=	John Holdsworth	20	d.n.f	20	20	19	23	28	23	330lbs 00ozs	153 pts
7th=	Kevin Loveland	23	19	21	15	14	19	17	25	172lbs 00ozs	153 pts
9th	Martin Hucker	d.n.f	29	15	14	23	20	26	20	350lbs 12ozs	147 pts
10th	Jim Boase	22	21	15	12	29	d.n.f	21	19	211lbs 08ozs	139 pts
11th	Tony Roberts	d.n.f	23	26	30	21	d.n.f	25	d.n.f	411lbs 04ozs	125 pts
12th	Simon Watkins	18	25	18	18	d.n.f	21	23	d.n.f	291lbs 04ozs	123 pts
13th	Graham Manning	24	d.n.f	19	22	28	d.n.f	d.n.f	26	178lbs 04ozs	119 pts
14th	Rod Turner	15	d.n.f	22	17	21	d.n.f	18	22	109lbs 12ozs	115 pts
15th	Paul East	26	d.n.f	16	16	d.n.f	27	d.n.f	29	227lbs 12ozs	114 pts
16th	Ken Walker	19	d.n.f	27	21	13	d.n.f	d.n.f	21	127lbs 00ozs	101 pts
17th	Vic Nugent	d.n.f	20	d.n.f	d.n.f	22	26	24	d.n.f	264lbs 12ozs	92 pts
18th	Judy Hermite	16	16	17	13	24	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	87lbs 08ozs	86 pts
19th	Chris Withall	17	17	23	19	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	101lbs 12ozs	76 pts
20th=	Ron Mannister	d.n.f	15	d.n.f	11	16	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	31lbs 04ozs	42 pts
20th=	Roger Noakes	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	23	19	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	63lbs 08ozs	42 pts
22nd	Eddie Dobson	d.n.f	22	d.n.f	d.n.f	15	d.n.f	d.n.f	d.n.f	59lbs 04ozs	37 pts

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

 

Marsh AC
Alders Farm Fishery

Well today sees me and some other members of Marsh AC visiting Alders Farm Fishery just outside the village of Great Brickhill. It's really nothing more than a friendly mid-week knock up that's been arranged by club member Keith Ashby who lives reasonably close to the fishery. It's a venue that's capable of throwing up some mega match weights, so it will be interesting to see how we get on fishing the Match Lake today .

However that means an early start for me today to avoid as much weekday traffic as I can, so I'm up at silly O'clock and have the car loaded and ready to go in time to drop Maria off at work at 6am, then it's a case of driving straight through Central London to get onto the M1, then onto the A5 to get to Alders Farm. This saw me pulling into the car park just before 9am along with Al and Keith P . We soon had our kit unloaded and with our nets dipped and feed pellet purchased from Gary who pointed us in the right direction and we made our way down to the pump house where Gwen had kindly opened up so we could get a pre match bacon sarnie and a cuppa that was much appreciated . Joining us today were Trev and Bert from GOT Baits along with Mick and John B who work with Keith. Standing outside on the patio you could see plenty of carp cruising around Peg 1 and a couple of crusts were eagerly devoured by them. Trev as usual was a mine of information for those that hadn't fished the venue before . Unfortunately Simon phoned to say he'd had been delayed, so at 9·30am we went ahead with the draw and peg 1 was the one that ended up in my hand. Nice short walk then .

Unfortunately the weather had taken a bit of a turn for the worse after the glorious sunshine we'd had for the past few days with grey overcast skies and just the odd glimpse of sun along with a stiff wind blowing straight into the peg, but having been advised by Trev to stick to fishing top 2's and 3's hopefully that wouldn't be to much of a problem. Jean provided a welcome cuppa so I set about sorting out my gear. I elected to keep it simple and set up just 3 identical rigs. these were all 0·2 NG Mk 2 Edger's on 0·20 Ultima Power Match straight through to size 14 Guru MWG's. As it was just a friendly knock up bait was simply going to be the fishery 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm hard pellet for the hook, though Trev did give me some new 6mm hookers he's working on to try as well .

Simon had arrived by now and Keith delayed the start to give him a chance to set up, so I took a stroll to chat with Al and Keith on pegs 2 & 3. Unfortunately over on the other side Dave had taken a tumble getting down to his peg but Trev and the rest of the lads on his side rallied round to check that he was OK . Al appeared to be well up for it today with visions of breaking his match PB today from what was a decent peg ......

......... while Keith had been put under a bit of pressure from the Alders regulars among us as they were of the opinion that he'd drawn 'The Flyer' in Peg 3, though in Keith's defence it should be noted that he doesn't fish that many matches there, not that it seemed to make any difference to Trev, Vic or Bert .

Looking across I could see Keith P on Peg 28, another guest today taking advantage of a sunny interlude and apparently lost in thought, he'd never had a 'Ton' in a match, and was hoping that today would be the day. Trev has sorted him out with some advise on how to tackle the peg and even given him one of his own rigs so hopefully today would be the day ......

So at 10·45 Keith called the All-In and this seemed to be the cue for the sun to vanish and the wind increase in my corner . A handful of pellet toward the pump house wall and another to the bush to my right and out with a banded 8mm to the bush. This led to a number of super fast bites which turned out to be from small rudd trying to engulf the pellet, but they weren't what I was after so I switched across toward the wall. Within a minute the float sailed away and soon the first Alders carp of the day was safely in the net, a Common of around 2lbs to get me off the mark . What I had hoped to do was alternate between the wall and the bush and take fish from both sides and then come back to a top 2 in the edges as the day wore on, but with the bush seeming to be solid with small rudd I had to concentrate on the wall swim and I felt that slowed my catch rate down.

Meanwhile Simon opposite me was targeting the end of the bush on his left hand margin, however it was turning into a day of frustration for him which would end up costing him a damaged top kit and No4 section before the match was over .......

Steady away probably describes my progress, the wind gusting into the peg was the real problem as I was having to wait for lulls to feed as when it was gusting I couldn't even throw 6mm's 3 sections out!!! By around 1·30pm my calf was starting to ache, a legacy of pulling it at Rockells Farm, so I had a stroll up to see how Al and Keith were doing.
Al was going along steadily, feeding and fishing off the end of his nets, taking fish regularly and obviously on his way to a decent weight ......

Meanwhile Keith was targeting his right hand margin and although he was catching reasonably steadily felt that Al was pulling away from him ......

A quick chat with Kev revealed that he was enjoying his day and although his catch rate was nowhere near either Keith or Al's he was regularly putting the odd fish in the net fishing down his right hand margin .....

Back at my peg the bush was still solid with rudd, however I'd been feeding close in as well and felt it was time to take a look and see if I could pick up some bonus margin fish.
Indeed the fish were there, but they seemed to be much smaller fish around the 8-12oz mark, not quite what I'd planned so back to the wall swim. Thankfully this was still producing and I ended up fishing there for the rest of the match as it steadily produced fish right up to when Keith called the All-Out at 3·45pm. I'd ended up with 76 carp which I felt should give me somewhere around 150lbs .

As I was packing my kit away Kevin came round for the scales. He and John were planning to fish on after the match, so they were going to start our half of the weigh-in straight away. I soon caught up with them, JohnB had a day fishing the method on Peg 9 and had 34½lbs. Next up was Vic who'd made full use of his knowledge of the water to put an excellent 310lbs on the scales . John was next with 136½lbs and Kevin 74½lbs. Keith had 199¼lbs just short of a 'Double Ton'. Al had a fantastic day shattering his best ever match weight with 343lbs.

  However Alders operates a strict 100lbs per net limit and he was over on all 3 nets resulting in a disqualification . Finally my fish took the scales round to 176¼lbs .

With our part of the Weigh-In completed we assembled back at the pump house for the results. Gwen had kindly returned and opened it up and had left us a tin of cakes and tea and coffee, an unexpected treat and greatly appreciated . Keith collated the final results and as a result of Al's misfortune it meant that Trevor took the honours on the day with 333¼lbs while Vic was second and Bert's weight of 229lbs taking third so a clean sweep for the GOT Bait lads. A hard lesson for Al as he'd never caught anything close to that weight of fish before, but a mistake I'm sure he won't repeat again . Keith P was well made up however as his weight of 186¼lbs had enabled him to record his first ever match 'Ton'.

Overall a very enjoyable day and Thanks to Keith for organising it today  , Alders Farm is a very special fishery that unfortunately attracts some unwarrented criticism for the weights it produces, however the most noticeable thing is that while a lot of waters are way down on their normal levels this year Alders has maintained its normal levels as it's spring fed and it's this that allows it to sustain the large head of fish and indeed allows them to breed successfully. Dinah and Gary have a quality, well managed fishery in beautiful surroundings that I'm sure Marsh AC and its members will be returning to in the future . Just a pity that it's not a bit closer to home for me, as I could see myself becoming a regular there with the other lakes and facilities that the fishery has on offer .

Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	Peg 2	Al Loader	*343lbs 00ozs*
2nd	Peg 32	Trevor Price	333lbs 12ozs
3rd	Peg 7	Vic Nugent	310lbs 00ozs
4th	Peg 30	Bert Gibbs	229lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 3	Keith Ashby	199lbs 04ozs
6th	Peg 28	Keith Powell	186lbs 04ozs
7th	Peg 1	Peter Morton	176lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 36	Mick Wright	160lbs 00ozs
9th	Peg 34	Clive Pritchard	145lbs 00ozs
10th	Peg 29	Dave Collier	143lbs 12ozs
11th	Peg 5	John Holdsworth	136lbs 08ozs
12th	Peg 38	Simon Watkins	84lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 4	Kevin Loveland	74lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 9	John Button	34lbs 08ozs

* Alders operates a strict 100lbs per net rule in matches, and unfortunately Al was over on all 3 of his nets resulting in a disqualification.*

 

Day out at Hartleylands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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