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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marsh AC club match.

So it was off to the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge just outside Braintree in Essex today for what should be the last Marsh AC club match of the year (Though we might manage to sneak another one in somewhere ). It promised to feel a little strange as Dave Collier would be missing his first club match in nearly twenty years but I felt sure that we'd manage to muddle through without him .

The initial look through the bedroom curtains held the promise of a decent day ahead, and it was pleasantly mild as I loaded the kit into the car and set off for deepest Essex . An easy trouble free run down saw me pulling into the Top Lake car park just after 8am, where I found a few of the lads already sorting their kit and ferrying it down the hill to the lake. There were 16 of us today including two of our regular guests, Keith and Mick who had trekked down from Milton Keynes .

Now the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge is one of those picture book little lakes with trees trailing into the lake offering plenty of cover and features to fish to. Well it was !!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately someone appears to have acquired a chainsaw and has yet to discover the OFF switch .
To say that the pruning in some swims has been extensive would be an understatement. Brutal bordering on vandalism would be more accurate in my opinion . By way of example the following photo shows the view from peg 16 last May......

While the following photo shows the view from the same peg now  ......

Anyway rant over and back to the business of the day. With Dave absent, Colin and Tony had taken care of the pegging and collection of the cash and it was soon time for the draw. Into the draw-bag and I find myself holding Peg 14a . Last year I would have run to it, but I wasn't so enthusiastic today as it's right at the heart of the recent 'Pruning'. It's one of Dave's favourite swims, but in a way I'm glad he's not here today as he would probably have cried to see it as it is now .

Well it was my swim for the next 6 hours so it was a question of making the most of it. For company today I had Keith over to my left on Peg 16, a quality angler and if he's on a few fish, more than capable of doing the necessary . To my right there was Judy on peg 13 and Colin next to her on Peg 12. Tony has drawn peg 1 and there were a stack of fish in the corner to his right as we were drawing, and with Peg 22 drawn for Al (who hadn't made it as it turned out) he's got that corner to himself .

Time to set up and today I was going with a pellet and paste attack. The lake's level was about a foot down from its normal level and I was going to fish one line straight out at around 7mts where there was around 3ft of depth, and down both margins where there was around a foot. Rigs were my favourite Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hook to fish pellet as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·18 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook for paste on the 7mtr line with a couple of Malman MTD1 dibbers rigged up on 0·18 Power Match, one with a 16 Drennan for pellet and the other with a size 12 Ashima for paste. I had my feeder rod rigged up in it's ready sleeve but didn't really want to go down that route unless I was struggling. Bait for the day was simply a selection of various pellets and paste, while feed was taken care of with 6mm Skrettings pellets while a bag of groundbait was in the carryall if I needed it later .

So down to business as Colin signalled the All-In at 10am. Out with a pot of pellet at 7mtrs and some more by hand down the margins. A banded 8mm to start was shipped out to 7mtrs. A few little dinks, probably silvers pecking at the pellet. A few lift and drops, float dipped, missed it. Now something I noticed on a previous visit is how bad the condition a lot of the fishes mouths are  and I'm sure that's the reason for a lot of missed bites here, as it must be hard to get a hook-hold with the state of some of their mouths. Keith had landed his 1st fish "That's the blank saved" he remarked . I was in almost straight after and soon had a Common of around 2lbs safely in the net. I noticed that the fish was very slimy and hard to get hold of and made a mental note not to try lifting any into the keepnet. Another couple of fish followed for both Keith and myself, but sport was slow to say the least .

After a couple of hours I'd got 7 Carp and a couple of silvers, so out came the feeder rod and I knocked up a bit of groundbait, I'd banded an 8mm pellet and out went the method feeder to the corner of the island. An almost instant response in the form of a Mirror around the 2½lb mark didn't lead to better things however . Colin strolled up with his sandwiches. He'd been having a torrid time of it with just 3 Carp to show for his efforts . Keith meanwhile has suffered from 'slippery fish' syndrome and deposited a Carp safely back into the lake rather than his keepnet . With just 2 Carp to show for 45 minutes on the feeder I decided to cup in some loose groundbait and pellets on my 7mtr line and take a quick stroll with my camera to allow it to settle .

I took a stroll down to see Mick (Keith's travelling partner) on 11a. Tony had this swim on our visit last year and took a good bag from the left hand tree. It's not there any more, just a stump but Mick was nicking a few from the left hand margin ......

I could see Eddie over on Peg 5 with what appeared to be a nice patch of lilies on his right to fish to, so hopefully he would be picking up a few ......

Making my way back, I stopped off at Colin, but things weren't showing any signs of improving for him I'm afraid and he was at a loss as to what he could do to improve things  ......

while Judy was in pretty much the same boat as Colin, but was plugging away and at least keeping up with him ......

Back to my peg and I noticed a couple of bubbles coming up on the 7mtr line. Keith was a bit exasperated by the number of fish he'd had shed the hook and had managed to release yet another 'slippery fish' but he now appeared to be concentrating on his margin line ......

Bites for me were still finicky so I decided to fish the 6mm Skrettings I was feeding banded on the hook as they were really quite small compared with some other 6mm pellets.
That seemed to make all the difference for me, and while Keith started to put together a run of fish I felt that I was managing to match him and maybe even ease ahead a little bit . In fact it was all going pretty well apart from a couple of foul hookers, one of which trashed my pellet rig with 15 minutes to go . However swapping to my paste rig still kept the bites coming and I managed another 4 Carp before Colin called the All-Out at 4pm.

Packing away I couldn't help feeling a little frustrated at the way my match had gone , mostly due to the fact that the swim had been altered so drastically from the one I'd been expecting when I drew it, but on the plus side I felt confident that I'd beaten Keith and those around me . The Weigh-In was in full swing by the time that Keith and I caught up with it. Tony leading with a fine 79½lbs that would ultimately take his section and the honours on the day . Ron and Jim had managed a tie from adjacent pegs (3 & 4) with 28lbs each while Eddie had winkled out 21½lbs from peg 5 . Martin had managed a very creditable 63½lbs from Peg 7 only to be pipped by 1lb from the next peg when Terry placed 64½lbs on the scales.

Poor Zack had struggled and could only manage a meagre 11½lbs from peg 10 while John put a level 73lbs on the scales that would give him the section and 2nd overall on the day, but most importantly the bragging rights over Martin & Zack in the car on the way home .
Ken recorded 13½lbs from Peg 11, but it was Mick on Peg 11a with 42½lbs who took the section spoils after Colin and Judy tied from their adjacent pegs with a level 18lbs each .

Round to my peg and my 25 Carp along with a few silvers took the scales round to 67¼lbs for a section win and 3rd overall . Keith's 53½lbs at least saw him with the bragging rights over Mick on the way home . Roger round on Peg 20 weighed in 32½lbs but once again suffered the agony of losing a PB carp at the venue as he'd done last year, While Rod was the last to weigh with a level 14lbs.

All that just left us with just the slog back up the hill to the car park. Thank Heavens that Dave wasn't there to waltz up the hill with his powered trolley and take the mickey out of us all . So with the sections paid out the farewells were done, That's it officially for the Marsh AC club matches this year, though we hope to fit one final outing in next month as Kevin is coming back to visit from the Bahamas, so we'll try to sort out a day with him .
In the meantime it's been a most enjoyable series of matches oncemore, and I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dave for organising the matches as always and another BIG THANK YOU to all that have fished the matches, both members and guests who've made them great fun to fish as always . Here's to more of the same next year .

Marsh AC club match.

Down to a Private Lake in East Sussex today for a Marsh AC club match. This isn't really an official club match, but Dave managed to get a booking and felt that some of the members might enjoy the chance to have a days fishing there . We're expecting 16 of us to be fishing, including 5 guests. The Lake is a prolific fishery with a large head of Carp that's well capable of throwing up some very good weights . However the weather leading up to the match has been very changeable so just how it'll fish today is anyones guess .

Looking out through the bedroom window it looked like we were in for a decent day weather wise and I soon had the car loaded. A quick stop for a bit of breakfast on the way and I was pulling into the fishery car park just after 8am. A good number had arrived before me including the guests. Keith & Mick had come down from Milton Keynes, Bill and Clive had joined us as well for the day and Al arrived in the nick of time as usual .

Dave, in his usual efficient manner, soon had the monies collected and the draw under way. Keith drew Peg 1 and Bill couldn't disguise his delight at drawing Peg 4 in the other corner . I found myself holding Peg 12, up on the right hand bank with Terry on Peg 11 and Tony on Peg 13 for company today .

Reaching the peg I realised that I'd fished it once before, and caught bugger all off it , but that had been in the depths of winter, so hopefully today would prove to be better .

So down to business and get set up for the day. I set up a couple of Malman 4X12 Adam's on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hooks to fish pellet and corn as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·20 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook. I also set up a Malman Slapper on 0·18 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook for up in the water and to double up down the margins. Todays bait was various pellets, paste and corn with 6mm pellets for feed .

With a few minutes before the All-In I strolled down to see Tony who appeared to be covering all the options with half a dozen top kits set up ......

Keith and Mick appeared deep in thought , Keith no doubt wondering if he was going to get the better of Mick today, as Mick has developed the happy knack (for him ) of beating Keith when they fish together ......

So at 10am Dave blew the whistle for the All-In I shipped out a pot of mixed pellets and corn to the 8mtr line and some fed by hand into the margins, but before I could ship my rig out I could see both Bill and Colin into fish straight away !!!! Anyway out with the rig with an 8mm banded pellet A bit of lifting and dropping of the rig soon saw the float slide away and I soon had my first fish of the day, a nice plump Common of around 4lbs safely in the net .

Looking across Jim had an early fish on the feeder to get him off the mark and so had young Zack .......

Word had filtered round that Chris had got himself a decent Tench , and that Clive had found a couple of fish as well to get him off the mark . I'd taken another couple of Carp before I lost a fourth when the rig line parted for no apparent reason , it hadn't parted at a knot or where any of the stotz had been applied. Anyway back out with another rig and I was soon into a fish once more , this one being a better sized Mirror that must have been around 7lbs. So with about an hour gone I reckoned I had about 20lbs and felt things looked good for the rest of the match .

Tony had taken 3 fish by now ("1 about a foot deep, 1 at around 3 ft and another on the drop" ) while Terry to my right had 5 in the net ......

In the next half hour I managed just one more fish, a Common around 5lbs, but it was noticeable that sport had slowed all round the lake apart from Peg 15 that is, as Al seemed to be the only one catching regularly. I decided to re feed quite heavily to see if I could draw some fish, and took a stroll with the camera .

Indeed Martin on peg 10 hadn't even had a bite and was at a loss to explain why , while Terry seemed to have a re-occurrence of a problem he'd suffered with here before, in that he was losing 50% of the fish he hooked for no apparent reason
Chris was concentrating on the end of the bush in the right hand margin of his swim but was only admitting to 4 fish in his nets ......

Clive had resorted to casting a straight lead to the island, and as I arrived he was playing a Common that was giving a good account of itself, but was soon safely in the net ......

Colin was fishing his favourite paste down the right hand margin, but despite a decent start was now biteless ......

Bill tucked away in the corner had started off like a house on fire, his first to put in's having resulted in a couple of doubles, which had swiftly been followed by a couple of smaller fish, but he was struggling to and had resorted to fishing hard up to the reeds to try and tempt a bite from fish that could be seen moving in them ......

Indeed the tactic seemed to have worked for him, because as I reached Jim's peg I looked back just in time to see him playing a fish ......

Keith on Peg 1 was another having a bit of a frustrating time having been told he'd drawn one of the favoured swims. He'd managed a double early on followed by another couple of smaller fish, but was now struggling for a bite ......

Al however was now putting a steady run of fish together, though he reckoned they were mainly small ones , but at least he was catching regularly ......

I wish I could say that things improved from that point on, but I would be lying if I did . It was as if someone or something had switched the lake off with only the very occasional fish coming out in the next 4 hours. I had one more bite at around 3 pm which produced another Carp, but that was it for me . In fact there was a communal sigh of relief at 4pm when Dave sounded the All-Out to put us out of our collective misery.

As we packed away, the inquest on the days events started, with everyone scratching their heads and at a loss to explain just why the lake had appeared to have switched off, not that anyone could come up with a convincing answer though.

So to the Weigh-In, Keith kicked things off with a hard earned 30¾lbs, and just a single fish for both Zack and Jim. Bill registered 40¾lbs and was immediately overtaken by Colin with 42½lbs . Dave had just 2 fish while Simon managed 20½lbs. Clive managed 45¼lbs for the lead at that point, meaning that Bill had to part with a Golden Nugget and Chris recorded a level 31lbs. Round to the opposite bank where Martin had dry netted . Terry's seven fish came to 36¼lbs leaving him regretting those lost fish . My six fish totalled 29½lbs while Tony's six came to 26½lbs. Mick's fish weighed in at 20¼lbs meaning that Keith had done him for once today . Al was home and dry with his first keepnet and eventually recorded an even 122lbs for a very comfortable win on the day , and was also the last to weigh as unfortunately Graham had dry netted as well .

So back to the car park. Congratulations to Al and a lot of head scratching all round, as none of us had experienced a day like that on the lake before and were at a loss to explain it. Still it had been another good day in great company and pleasant surroundings, even if the fishing hadn't been up to expectations. We'll have to do it all again soon, just a few more fish would be nice though .

Marsh AC club match.

Today It's down to Colemans Cottage with Marsh AC for a club match on Pathfield Lake . It's the second time this year that the club have visited the fishery for a club match, and there should be 16 of us fishing, including guests today. I missed the seasons first club match here in May due to work, though as it transpired it fished quite hard then , so I didn't really miss much . Hopefully we'll have a better day today, though it wasn't the best of starts, as some idiot had crashed his Merc at the top of my road this morning, meaning that I left a bit late for the trip down. It was pretty overcast as I drove into the car park just after 8·15am and a fair old breeze blowing, which can effect the lake as it's quite shallow for the most part . However we had the whole lake booked and that should allow everyone a bit of space to draw a few fish .
Anyway first things first and into the fishery lodge for breakfast. Most were already tucking in. Keith Ashby was a guest again and today he'd brought fellow GOT Baits angler, Pete Thompson with him. It was great to see Pete, as he's a class angler with a particularly dry sense of humour . All to soon Dave was after our money and the draw was underway just as my breakfast arrived. Anyway into the hat and it's peg 6 for me today (much to Dave's disgust as it's a favourite peg of his )

Breakfast finished and it's back to the car park to collect my gear and the fishery supplied nets then off to my peg. It seems Clive is on peg 2 and Pete Thompson is on peg 4, while Martin and Graham were right in the bay to my left on pegs 7 and 8 with Colin opposite on peg 9.

Looking at the peg, the obvious feature is the point of the island opposite, but with the wind gusting from right to left it would be awkward to say the least so rig wise it was decision time ......

I settled on a 4X12 Malman Adam on 0·16 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook and a duplicate rig but with a 4X16 Adam should the wind require it. I also set up a rig with one of the new Malman Slappers, again on 0·16 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan carp match hook for up in the water, that could also double up for the margins, though with so much vegetation on both sides, both my margin swims were very limited. Indeed I decided that my main line of attack would be at 8mtrs down the track where I had around 2½ft of water. Everyone I'd spoken to about Pathfields had told me that it was pellet & corn, so that was the plan of attack today.

So with everything set Clive arrived complete with camera for a chat and Pete put in an appearance as well. Soon it was 10am and a blast on the whistle from Dave signalled the All-In . With a large pot of pellet and corn down the track and some pellet into both margins I picked up the 4X12 rig, hooked on a kernel of corn and shipped out to 8mtrs. There were already signs of fish with a few bubbles appearing over the fed area. 10 minutes later and the anticipation had faded a little, there were a few Carp cruising around but they appeared quite uninterested and I'd only had a couple of sharp taps on the float that I couldn't connect with . Banded pellet, expanders and corn were all alternated, but at the end of the first hour all I had to show for my efforts were 3 small Barbel and a couple of Roach that might have scraped 1lb in total. I'd heard Pete take a couple of fish (and curse the fishery landing nets ) but from what little I could see nobody was bagging up. The wind wasn't helping but at least it had blown the clouds away and bright sunshine was warming things up nicely, but after another 15 minutes biteless I dumped another 2 large pots of pellet and corn on the 8mtr line to try and kick start things and took a stroll with the camera . Pete was fishing corn down his left hand margin and was admitting to around 15lbs in the net......

Clive was taking a similar approach and it had already produced a few Carp for him, and he was hoping that things would improve as the match wore on ........

and I could see Terry on the next peg, and while he was fishing down the margins as well he looked as if he was having a bit of trouble with his presentation due to the wind......

Anyway, with others catching I decided to get back and see if I could improve on my performance so far. As I made my way back someone called out my name and it turned out it was Scott(scottymatch) who follows this Blog on Xanga and his partner who had come down to introduce themselves, and it was a nice surprise to meet them both . After a brief chat they left and I settled back in to get on with things. Second put in with corn and the float slid slowly away and a couple of feet of elastic indicated something with a bit of weight at last. A small Mirror of around 2lbs, and very welcome . It proved to be a bit of a false dawn however as just a solitary tiny Barbel followed with nearly 2 hours of the match gone.

I'd noticed that Colin was starting to pick up a few fish, while Martin and Graham were fairing no better than me, despite being on what looked like a couple of pegs to die for, especially with the wind blowing into them. Martin had managed to nick a couple of fish on the feeder, but Graham appeared to be having a real grueller and was struggling to even get a bite.......

Dave strolled round and stopped to see how I was doing and reckoned that although most were catching a few, nobody was really going well where he was, though Tony had been catching steadily. I then noticed what I was sure was a tail pattern just past the end of my keepnets. Decision Time!!! I had some GOT Atomic paste in my carryall, and decided to make it up. With that done I selected a small Malman SC Paste float and rigged it up on 0·18 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless. Plumbing up I found 2 ft at 3mtrs, so with the rig set I flicked a few pellets out and potted the 1st bit of paste in. The rig settled and 30 seconds later a couple of dips were followed by the float sliding steadily away and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net . That was the start of the improvement for me, nothing spectacular, but at last I started to put fish in the net on a regular basis .

Unfortunately I started having a bit of trouble with foul hooked fish . Now I wasn't feeding heavily, just the odd pinch of pellets that were pretty well spread as I didn't want to concentrate to many fish in to small an area, but it was stopping me from finding any sort of rhythm, and with just around 1½ hours remaining I was looking for a decent finish to the match. Checking on my clicker I realised that I'd missed a few fish off and didn't really know just what I had in the net. Now Colemans operates a weight limit (70lbs per net) and I was hopeful that I'd exceed that by the end of the match so I decided to go and get a 2nd carp net and put it in to be on the safe side. I was pretty careful putting it in, conscious that I didn't want to disturb the paste line to much. Not to worry though , first put in after sorting the nets and a decent Mirror of around 5lbs obliged, so no harm done .

So with an hour to go I was set, but how to avoid the foul hookers? I added 3 inches of depth to the rig and fixed a no1 shot 3 inches from the hook in an attempt to get round the problem . Colin by now was catching well and I knew it would be close between us at the end......

The adjustment to the rig had the desired effect and I was soon putting a much better run of fish regularly in the net, In fact I only suffered 1 more foul hooker in the last hour, and the swim was getting stronger and stronger when Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm. I felt reasonably happy with my match at the end, it was just a shame that I hadn't sorted things out earlier. I felt that I'd probably got around 80lbs to show for my efforts, but couldn't help feeling that the peg would have been good for a 'Ton+' if I'd sorted it earlier .

So with the kit packed away and back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In. Now I have to say that Colemans probably has the most efficient system for weighing in that I've seen at a fishery in some time .

Basically as the picture above shows, they have quad bikes with trailers that drive round. On the back of the trailer is a bar that supports the scales, along with a weighing container and carp mat. It drives round to the pegs, fish are transfered to the container weighed and returned and the fishery nets collected in the trailer. Fast, efficient and with minimal strain for the fish. The chat suggested that Tony had had a decent day round on the other side of the lake, and Keith was keeping things pretty close to his chest, hinting that he probably had 50lbs+. Clive kicked things off from peg 2 and put 53½lbs on the scales . Pete had obviously had a decent day on peg 4 and took the lead with a fine 95lbs. I was quite pleased and surprised to edge him out though when the scales recorded 96½lbs for my fish. That lead was short lived however as Colin put 97lbs on the scales to edge me out of it. Onward we went with the next weight of note being Tony's who finally put 86lbs on the scales.

We then arrived at Keith's peg!!! What can be said? somehow his 50lbs+ morphed into 142½lbs !!!!! An excellent weight given that his peg wasn't one of the most fancied (Be careful if you're standing besides Keith though, because if he turns round quickly he could have your eye out with his nose )

So with the Weigh-In completed it was back to the patio outside the fishery lodge where winnings were dispensed by Dave, and tea, coffee and bread pudding along with a load of banter brought yet another Marsh club match to a close . Another excellent day out at a decent fishery in good company, it doesn't get much better really .

Next Saturday I'm down at Monk Lakes for the Southern Intersite match where I'm fishing for the Maggotdrowning.com team. Vince is our Captain and I'll be looking to mug him and get one of my Golden Nuggets back. Will I manage it? you can find out here .

Marsh AC club match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marsh AC club match.

Todays venue for the Marsh AC club match is Rockells Farm. It's the venue where I set a new club match record last year of 293½lbs and the club recorded their all time best aggregate weight of 1991lbs weighed in between 18 anglers .
As usual I got round to Dave's at 6·45am to follow him and Colin down to the venue, It's not the easiest of venues to find without a Sat Nav, being somewhat off the beaten track, but we made good time despite quite a bit of fog on the trip up and pulled into the car park just after 8am.
There were 19 booked in for todays match, 15 club members and 4 guests, Clive and Al who are in danger of becoming permanent fixtures and Keith Ashby and Vic Nugent (both GOT Baits sponsored anglers) who enjoy the occasional trip out with the club due to the relaxed atmosphere and the banter and laughs that are had during the day .

With no permanent numbers allocated to the pegs at Rockells, Keith and I set off into the lifting fog to peg out while Dave sorted the monies out. Every peg appeared to have fish moving in front of it and in the margins promising a good days sport ahead. Pegs 1-3 went into the very end, and could all be regarded as flyers, while pegs 4-11 went in down the right hand side and 12-19 up the left (The high numbers being where you wanted to be ). With draw time approaching, 3 members hadn't arrived (Martin, Zack & Graham) but the draw went ahead anyway.

Keith & Vic drew pegs 1 & 2, and with them both being very positive anglers would take all the stopping on those pegs . My home for the day would be peg 17 , with Al for company on peg 18. At the end of the draw there were 3 pegs left which I drew for the missing anglers peg 3 for Martin and peg 19 for Graham (Both flyers ) and peg 14 for Zack.

Settling into peg 17 I have to say that I was happy with my draw . I'm pretty single minded in how I approach Rockells, always fishing paste as close in as I can and peg 17 looked tailor made for it, with nettles and reeds overhanging the left hand margin and boards in the right hand margin .........

The rigs were simplicity itself, 3 top 2's holding rigs that were made up of 4X12 Middy Paste Floats that are a really strong line through design made up on ·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a Drennan size 12 Carp Method hook to fish paste in both margins where I had around 2 feet of water on both sides. I had 6 pints of it made up, which was GOT Baits Atomic with some GOT Baits Pineapple Atomic Cloud added. Feed would be a mix of soaked 4 and 6 mm pellet. I had 2 extra sections of pole set up, but hopefully wouldn't be using them unless I hooked a real beast as I really wanted to be able to fish just the top 2's for speed and comfort.

Just along on peg 18 Al's swim looked well capable of pushing me all the way, especially as Al has been putting some good results together recently ...............

Martin, Zack and Graham had arrived meanwhile, and I fancied that Martin might be in with a chance on peg 3, as although he would only class himself as a pleasure angler, he'd had a good result here last year weighing in a total of 232¾lbs, so the venue obviously suits his approach .
Looking across I could see Keith, apparently lost in his thoughts, sitting on his flyer, so no pressure there then ..........

The fog had burnt off by now, but there was still a fair bit of cloud, so although it was warming up hopefully it wouldn't turn into the total scorcher that had been predicted . With the venues potential to produce big weights todays match was being split into two 3 hour sessions with a 1 hour break mid way through for a mid-match weigh-in taken at the fishery owners insistence, so with everyone set the All-In was called at 10am for the morning session .

A handfull of pellet into both margins, and with fish already showing on my left side that's where the 1st bit of paste was lowered into. A couple of knocks and the float slid away and the first Carp of the day, a small Mirror of around 12ozs was soon safely in the net, number 1 on the clicker . To be honest it was pretty much steady away for me from then on. Al however seemed to be having a few problems , it looked as if he was fishing pellet that was being intercepted by Roach and the smaller Carp, on top of which he seemed to be bumping a few better fish. I was getting a few to many small Carp for my liking, but I found last year that you just had to wade through them and keep the bait going in to draw the better fish, and I started to put a few better 2-3lb fish together . They were all coming from the left hand margin though as every time I looked down the right I was waiting to long for a bite before landing yet another 8oz Carp.

2 hours in with 44 fish on the clicker another look down the right hand margin resulted in an instant bite and a much better fish powered off and after an anxious couple of minutes a nice Leather Carp of around 12lbs was safe in the net . With a few tail patterns now showing by the boards I concentrated on that line for the last hour. With 5 minutes to go I fed 4 pints of pellet into the right hand margin and another couple down the left in an attempt to hold the fish during the hours break for the weigh-in, while a final put in produced a 5lb Common Carp as the All-Out was called at 1pm.

The weigh-in started from my side and my weight of 120lbs made up of 62 fish was comfortably leading till it came to the 1st 3 pegs. Keith on peg 1 put 148lbs on the scales (and he reckoned he was getting roached out, lying ****** ) while Vic on peg 2 ran him close with 133¼lbs, however it was Martin who put us all in our place when he put a staggering 180¾lbs on the scales for the half way lead . So with over 1100lbs of fish weighed it looked like all the club records set last year would be going, as it normally fishes better in the afternoon. In fact it had taken the whole hour to weigh-in meant that we delayed the start of the afternoon session to allow everyone to get back to their pegs.
As I strolled back I noticed that Clive was looking a bit numb as he'd struggled on peg 10 for a mere 22lbs and already needed snookers .............

............. it looks like his drawing hand has decided to get its own back on him big time, for all the punishment he's given it for mis-behaving recently .

Returning to my peg I could see that despite the disturbance of the weigh-in the fish had settled on the pellets by the boards as evidenced by the tail patterns I could see . So 2·15pm and the All-In was called for the afternoon session. 1st put in and away goes the float attached to a 3lb Common and that's the way it continued . Al seeing how successful paste had been for me gave it a go, and while it was an improvement he was having yet another nightmare as he suffered from hook pulls and foul hookers .

Elsewhere round the lake sport wasn't quite so fast and furious I'm afraid, in fact rumour had it that Clive had put a pair of ear plugs in, so that he didn't have to keep hearing the splashing of fish coming to others nets ........

 I suffered with a few foul hookers as well during the afternoon session, despite cutting down on the feed, there were just so many fish down by the boards, even hooked fish charging through them didn't spook them. I basically fished the right hand margin for the whole 3 hours as the bites kept coming and they were from a better stamp of fish than those from the left hand margin.

In fact, by the time the All-Out was called at 5·15pm I was quite relieved as my right shoulder was starting to ache, and a quick glance showed me that I had another 61 fish on the clicker .

I was soon packed away and dropped my kit back to the car, before making my way round to the weigh-in which was starting with Keith as the scales had been left there at the end of the morning session.
Well, What can I say , Keith put an amazing 234lbs on the scales for a total of 382lbs , Vic added 173¼lbs for a combined weight of 306½lbs , while Martin weighed 202½lbs to edge out Keith by 1¼lbs with a total weight of 383¼lbs . So that was over 1000lbs of fish weighed in from the first 3 pegs !!!
Dave had had a decent afternoon on peg 6 putting 167½lbs on the scales for a total of 254¼lbs . Tony on peg 8 recorded a total of 142½lbs and most had improved on their morning totals by the time we got round to Colin on peg 15 who added a net of 127½lbs for a total of 211lbs while Terry on peg 16 recorded a total of 140¾lbs .
When it came to my peg the scales recorded a weight of 210lbs giving me a total of 330lbs and 3rd place on the day . Alan put a hard earned 101½lbs on the scales for a total of 171¾lbs while Graham rounded off things with a total weight of 114lbs for the 2 sessions .

So there you have it, Martin is now the proud holder of the club match record at 383lbs 4ozs . The top 10 anglers recorded 4 'Triple Tons', 2 'Double Tons' and 4 'Tons' between them . A club record total of 2911lbs 14ozs was weighed in between 19 anglers, an average of over 153lbs per angler . I broke my 3 hour PB match weight as well as my PB overall match weight as did quite a few others. Hopefully we'll get a chance to try and better that next year, or is that being greedy?

Settling into my peg a few drops of rain started to fall, but thankfully soon stopped. I set up 3 top kits, the first was rigged up with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a line at 10mtrs where I had around 6ft of water, the gusting wind from left to right making it impractical to fish any longer. The second was a Malman 4x14 Snake 1 on 0·12 to an 0·10 bottom with a size 18 carbon maggot as an up in the water rig, should the Ide put in an appearance, while the third was a KC 4x12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had 2-2½ft of water. I also set up the feeder rod as I'd been told that it was possible to drop on some bream from some pegs. Bait was red maggots, corn and pellet, with some Special G groundbait and hemp for feed.

Breakfast arrived in the shape of a bacon & egg baguette and I was just finishing this as the all in was called.
Chris over on peg 6 was into a fish straight away, with plenty of black hydro streaming out of the pole and after about 5 minutes had the culprit in the net, a Barbel of around 2½lbs ................

I fed some pellet into the margins and potted out a mix of hemp, pellet and maggot at 10 mtrs and followed it out with 2 maggots on the depth rig. The float settled and slid away and an Ide of around 6ozs got me off the mark, soon followed by a similar sized Chub. An hour later and I was still waiting for a third bite !!!!!!!!!!! Half an hour on the feeder was no better, but gave me the opportunity to take some shots of the wildlife ..........

................ and already word was spreading along the bank that it was rock hard with just a few bits for most, although Dave had already snared a couple of Carp from the flyer, it seemed that most were struggling to get to grips with the venue on the day.
Terry had appeared around 12·30 eating a burger, that being his only bite so far !!!!!! and I made the decision having only added a foul hooked Gudgeon and a couple of blade skimmers to stick 5 balls of groundbait onto the 10mtr line and have a stroll. Dave was happily plugging away and admitting to 5 carp..............

..........but for the rest it was grim , with nobody admitting to more than a few silvers, so I decided to take the burger option and get a bite to eat. All I can say is that it's probably best to stick to bacon, as hand on heart I couldn't tell what the burger was made of ???????? Thank God for onions and mustard, at least it gave it some flavor .

Back at my peg I could see Judy over on peg 4 occasionally popping fish in her net, was I going to get beaten by the club's lady angler twice in a row ????????????

Had the groundbait done the trick Well I wasn't pulling up any tree stumps, but I started to put together a few small skimmers and Ide which was an improvement and I just kept pinging a few maggots over the top in an effort to keep them coming . Frustratingly though they wouldn't come up in the water, I could only get a bite at depth, but at least I was putting something in the net on a reasonably regular basis. Terry had at last had a couple of bites, but he'd missed both of them .

With around an hour to go my bites had dried up again, so I put in another 3 balls of groundbait, then Al wandered round and we decided to go and see what some decent swims looked like . We found Dave admitting to having had a few more Carp including one around the 10lb mark, but apparently engaged in a tug of war with a patch of reeds, It's amazing just how far Red Hydro can stretch !!!!!!!!!!!

Judy was plugging away on peg 4, but was frustrated, feeling she probably hadn't got the best from it, while Jim on peg 3 was in a bit of trouble with a Carp snagged in roots and struggling to net it, finally it was in the net though, a Common of around 7lbs, a real bonus on the day .

Back at my peg, and the groundbait had brought a few back to the swim with a few better skimmers around the 8-12oz mark coming to the net. Looking up Chris had plenty of pole in the air again before landing what looked to be a bonus Carp, while Terry reported that he had finally hooked a couple of fish, only to have them drop off .

Thankfully at 4pm Dave sounded the All-out to put most of us out of our misery. The weigh-in told the tale of the day really, Jim on peg 3 weighed 14¾lbs including his Carp to take 2nd place on the day, While Chris was just 4ozs behind him with 14½lbs. Dave had walked it off the flyer however, weighing in 46¼lbs (not a bad belated birthday present ). I was pleasantly surprised to find that my net of bits weighed 13¼lbs for 4th on the day . Overall the day had been a real struggle though with more than a few suffering their own "Mugger Moments©", though as usual there had been more than a few laughs with plenty of banter flying around to make up for the disappointing fishing . The next Marsh AC match is at Colemans Cottage on May 16th, but next up for me is a match at Broad Oak in Kent with the lads from Maggotdrowning.com next Saturday, that you'll be able to read about here as usual.

Marsh AC club match.

Well today saw the 1st Marsh AC match of the year taking place at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 2 . These matches are always light hearted affairs and there's bound to be a bit of banter flowing throughout the day, and hopefully a few fish to be had .

Loading up the car for the drive down it was dull grey and drizzling and by the time I arrived around 8am nothing had really changed. A cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie took care of breakfast . 15 club members and a couple of guests lined up for the draw One of those being Dave Talbot, who had received a new pole as a result of his daughter Faye's appeal on the Maggotdrowning.com forum at Christmas. (You can read the relevent thread HERE ). Bill G had come along too, but he was going to spend the day helping Dave get to grips with the pole has he hadn't used one previously .

Into the bucket and peg 51 stuck to my hand. Colin and Dave drew last and ended up with the two flyer's 66 and 45 . Settling into my peg, despite having a free peg to my left with Judy next up on peg 53 and what turned out to be a free peg to my right as Bill G had drawn it (but would spend the match coaching Dave Talbot) I can't say I was delighted with it, the wind was blowing straight into it and I would have to watch those on the opposite bank fishing with the wind off their backs for the whole match . Also it's a peg that doesn't get fished a lot during the week, pegs 45, 46 and 47 seeing a lot of action on a regular basis due to the resident Barbel.

Setting up I selected 2 top kits with Black Hydro, these were rigged with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a 10mtr line where I had around 6ft of water and a KC 4x12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a closer margin line where I had 2-2½ft of depth. I also set up my Shakespeare Mach 3 Micro - 11' Waggler which was rigged with a Premier 4AAA insert waggler. Bait wise, Got 6mm expander pellet along with 6 and 8mm hard pellet along with corn and meat would hopefully provide something appetising for the fish while 6mm pellet and some Special G groundbait took care of the feed.

10am and Dave blew the All-in. I fed 3 balls of ground bait on the 10mtr line and some pellet into both margins.
Dave Talbot on peg 49 had been under instructions from Daughter Faye to catch a Barbel, and got off to the perfect start as the 1st fish on his new pole proved to be a Barbel (Mission Accomplished ).

After about 5 minutes I had my first bite on the 10mtr line and with what felt like a decent fish taking elastic, was more than a little put out when the hook pinged free as i was getting ready to net it .
From that point on my day went downhill rapidly. Judy was sorting out a few of the lakes resident Ide and Dave T was taking some decent fish on a regular basis, much to Bill G's delight , was it Bill's coaching or was he sitting on a shed full? It didn't matter really because I couldn't buy a bite .

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was the last match of the year for Marsh AC, and the chosen venue was The Match Lake at Hawkhurst in Kent, to hopefully finish off the match calendar in fine style . With the car loaded I set off around 7am with the forecaster on the radio promising a fine sunny day ahead . By the time I reached Badgers Mount there was thick fog and I'd also had a phonecall from Keith (Gandhi) who was traveling down from Milton Keynes to guest on todays match. The fog hung around all the way down to Hawkhurst and I pulled into the car park just after 8am.
There was a reasonable turn out assembled as we had a total of 5 guests joining us today and as the on site café wouldn't open till 9am we decided to draw and set up beforehand and then have breakfast before starting the match around 10am .

Into the draw and I came away with peg 15, just about half way up the left hand bank as you look from the car park.......

...and there was quite an erie silence as everyone settled into their pegs shrouded in fog...........

I was going to keep the set up simple. 1 line at around 7mtrs and another in the margin against the boards. Rig wise i set up 3 rigs consisting of Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·18 to size 16 Drennan Carp Match hooks . 1 to fish at depth at 7mtrs (around 4 ft) another shallow and the 3rd for the margin where I had around 2ft on the shelf. I also set up the pellet waggler, but wasn't expecting to use it unless I struggled on the pole. Bait wise I went with 8mm fishery pellet with 6mm expanders and corn for change baits while feed was taken care of by 4 and 6mm fishery pellets .

With the fog still hanging around I could just see Clive trying for some atmospheric shots with his camera.........

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday saw me traveling down to Witham in Essex for a Marsh AC club match on Pathfield Lake at Colemans Cottage Fishery. I'd been looking forward to this match as I'd never visited the fishery before, but had heard good things about it . As usual I'd arranged to meet up with Dave and follow him down and by 7am we were on the road. Blue skies and sunshine held the promise of a decent day, though this was replaced by dull grey skies as we exited the Dartford Tunnel , but a trouble free trip saw us pulling into the fishery car park around 8am. Into the fishery lodge and we were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast as Dave took the monies and organised the draw.

There were 19 of us present including 4 guests so with the draw done it was back to the car park to sort the kit for the day ahead, and collect our keepnets and landing nets which are supplied by the fishery before we made our way to our pegs....

It had been interesting to watch peoples reactions to the pegs they'd drawn, Dave had been more than happy with drawing peg 6, a peg he'd fished on previous visits , and judging by his reaction peg 11 which I'd drawn wasn't bad either . Thank heavens for my barrow as peg 11 appeared to be just about as far away from the car park as it was possible to get.

Setting up it didn't look to bad, though there was a bit of green scum on the surface, but with a bit of an indent on the opposite bank and a few fish moving things were looking promising though the water level looked like it was about a foot down on its usual height.

Tackle-wise I set up a couple of Mk3 Malman self cocking paste floats on 0·16 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. one to fish the 18 inches of water in the margins and the other for the 4 feet that seemed to be consistent from 3mtrs out to 11mtrs, and I set up a Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match to fish pellet and corn at 6 and 10 mtrs as well as a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match that would double up as a shallow rig and margin rig for pellet and corn. I also set up a pellet feeder and pellet waggler for right across. Bait was sweetcorn, pellet and GOT Atomic paste with 6mm hard pellet for feed.

10am and Dave called the All-in and I shipped out 2 large pots of pellet and sweetcorn onto a line at 10mtrs and 5mtrs and fed some pellet down both margins. To give those lines a chance to settle I started off on the pellet feeder across, but despite signs of fish moving about didn't get a touch in the 1st half hour . Out with the pole onto the 10mtr line but despite switching baits and working the rigs couldn't buy a bite there either. A look on the pellet waggler was no more productive either and I was starting to worry. Jim Etherington to my right on peg 9 had managed 3 or 4 Carp by now but from what I could see others were struggling. Judy on peg 8 seemed to be in the same boat as me............

....... and Terry on peg 7 appeared to have had just a single fish............

About 2 hours in my float finally dipped , but rather than the elastic coming out with a Carp on the other end a small hand sized Skimmer flapped to the top, but was gratefully netted all the same. However with nearly 3 hours gone nothing had joined it. In desperation I filled it in at around 5mtrs pumped some expanders to try as a change bait, grabbed the camera and set off for a stroll looking for a bit of inspiration . Chris on peg 15 was admitting to a few silvers and 3 or 4 Carp and was soon sliding another into the net.............

Tony on peg 17 appeared to be struggling to get to grips with his peg, while Eddie down on peg 23 was handicapped by the painful effects of a slipped disc but was putting a few fish together ......

......... as was Jim Boase almost opposite on peg 26...........

Looking across to Wood Lake where there was an open being fished, I could see Browning's Dave Vincent but he didn't appear to be having much more luck than us, despite knowing the fishery really well ...........

Al on peg 28 was admitting to around 20lbs and with fish bubbling away down the track in front of him seemed to be firmly in the pound seats ..................

Meanwhile Paul on peg 34 was in danger of losing what little hair he had left trying to connect with bites that he was getting fishing the lead tight across to the island, mind you he had come to the match straight from a night shift so probably wasn't at his best, though it's always hard to tell with Paul  .........

Further along Clive had decided to target his margin and with 5 Carp in the net was hoping to crack on in the later stages .......

Dave up on peg 6 was struggling at this stage too with just 3 Chub and a Crucian, but as I passed Terry on peg 7 he was firmly attached to a rather angry Carp that he'd hooked into the tail, well not so firmly as it turned out as it departed rather abruptly without gracing the landing net after charging round most of Terry's swim ....................

Back at my peg and I noticed a few bubbles coming up on the 5mtr line, so an expander was slipped onto the hook and the rig shipped out. Within 10 seconds the float slid away and a firm lift met with a pleasing resistance and a Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net . Back out and almost straight away I was rewarded with another Carp, this time a Mirror of around 4½lbs . Unfortunately I also suffered from a number of foul hooked fish which with the shallow water tended to charge around like lunatics disturbing the swim preventing me from building up any sort of rhythm though I did manage to keep catching reasonably regularly through to the end when Dave called the All-out at 4pm.

The weigh-in at Colemans is a delight to watch as a bailiff comes round with a quad towing a trailer. The scales are attached to the trailer so that the fish are transfered to the weigh sling weighed and returned with the minimum of fuss and the fisheries nets collected all in one go. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fish weighed 55lbs , the second best weight at that point behind Jim Etherington's 66½lbs which contained a right lump of 15lbs. Chris put 64lbs on the scales but it was Al who took the honours on the day with a fine net of fish weighing 88lbs , while Clive took 2nd place with a level 70lbs .

Chatting with Dave Vincent afterwards in the car park it was plain that the Open on Wood Lake hadn't fish much better with some very good anglers struggling on the day . Back at the fishery lodge for a post match drink and the inquest was conducted. 3 guests had filled the top 3 spots, but all the club members seemed to have enjoyed the day even if the fishing had proved to be harder than expected. It's a cracking fishery and one I'd happily recommend that you pay a visit to if you're in the area. I know that I'll definitely be going back to it in the future .

Next up for me is the final match of this year's Jinx Series at Rolf's Lake next Saturday.

Marsh AC club match.

Today was the Marsh AC match at Rockells Farm in Essex and I'd arranged to meet Dave Collier at his house at 6.45am and follow him and Colin down to the venue as it's rather tucked away off the beaten track and a pig to find, Chris Withall had the same idea, and as we set off in convoy it was raining and the weather forcasts in the week previously hadn't been good, so it looked like we may be in for a wet old day . Round the M25 and onto the M11 and we were brought to a halt by a crash, though thankfully we were soon moving. Intent on following Dave I got a phonecall from Paul East, who had missed his turning and taken the scenic route via Colchester, and by the time we'd sorted that one out it was obvious we would have to draw for him.

Arriving in the fishery car park around 8·15am Kevin Loveland and I were dispatched to arrange the pegging for the 18 of us fishing while Dave organised the draw. We were under instructions to leave as many of the pegs close to the car park out as we could, so pegged 9 down the left and the other 9 round the top and down the right of the lake. Happily the rain had stopped and the sky was lightening as we started the draw so perhaps a decent day was on the cards .

I'd been looking forward to this match for a while as Rockells has a reputation of producing some decent weights, I'd only fished there once previously in the depths of winter and blanked, but last years club match which I missed as I was on holiday had produced a 200lbs+ winning weight and a few tons to back it up . I'd spoken to Trevor Price of GOT Baits prior to the match and he'd told me how he would fish it if he was there, so at least I had a good idea of how I was going to approach the day given a half decent draw .

Into the draw bag and I pulled out Peg 3, one of the three pegs at the top of the fishery, and I was more than happy with that . Tony Roberts had drawn Peg1, which I was informed by Dave was the out and out flyer, while Judy Hermite joined us on Peg2. Opposite I could see Martin Hucker who had won the previous match at Churchgate Lakes and Paul finally arrived to take Peg5.

Peg 3

 

Settling into the peg I just set up 3 top 2's, 2 fitted with Teepee's paste pots and Mk3 Malman self cocking paste floats, one to fish straight out into about 2ft of water and the other for the margin where there was around 18 inches depth. The third rig was just a Malman MTD1 Dibber for up in the water if the fish rose up to intercept the pellets I was planning to feed. Bait was simple, all I was planning to use was paste, which was the new Atomic Paste from GOT Baits. I'd been forewarned that you can use a fair bit at Rockells, so had premixed a good 6 pints of it the night before. For feed it would just be 4mm pellet and some hemp. The reason for the hemp was that todays match was being split into two 3 hour sessions with a 1 hour break mid way through for a mid-match weigh-in taken at the fishery owners insistence, and I wanted something that I could feed just prior to the break that would stand a chance of holding the fish during this break when we couldn't feed .

Tony was happy with his peg.

So 10am and Dave blew the whistle for the all-in. A pinch of pellet and hemp out in front of me and the same down the left hand side. Going out with the deeper rig in front I potted in the paste and the float settled and 5 seconds later buried and I was off and running with a little Mirror Carp of around the pound safely in the net . After that it was just a case of trying to get into some sort of rhythm with just a pinch of feed going into both swims regularly and trying to sort the liners from the real bites.
After an hour i had 30 fish in the nets but they were all pretty small, ranging from 6ozs to 1½lbs, but I could see that Martin opposite was getting a better stamp of fish. He was fishing floaters down his right hand margin and I could hear the fish slurping them off the top. Looking down the margin I could see a few tail patterns so decided to have a look down there to see if the fish were of a better stamp and straight away was rewarded with a Common around the 2½lb mark . One of the frustrating things was the number of missed bites, a lot of which you would think were liners, but with very few foul hookers I felt that it was due to the poor condition of a lot of the fish's mouths making it hard to get a decent hook hold . Sport remained pretty constant but I trashed 3 rigs when fish took me through brambles that were trailing into the water, and I took 15 minutes out to tie some new rigs, knowing that we would be stopping for an hour at 1pm for a mid match weigh-in. I knew that Tony was catching reasonably well along with Martin, but felt that it would fish even better during the afternoon session.
The problem would be keeping the fish in the margins during the hour's break for the weigh in and the ensuing commotion of the nets coming out and fish being returned, so with a couple of minutes to go I fed 3 pints of hemp into the margin swim along with a pint of pellet before Dave signaled the all-out .

A chat while we waited for the scales revealed that Judy wanted both Tony and I to give her an hours start in the afternoon , Tony was owning up to having around 70lbs on his clicker (but can you believe one of Pinocchio's relatives?) while I felt I should have a good 80lbs. By the time the scales arrived Colin had weighed 83½lbs from Peg17 and Martin 110¼lbs.
Tony's fish weighed in at a level 82lbs while my 2 nets registered 107½lbs. So 2 Ton weights caught in 3 hours and all to play for come the afternoon session .

 

Martin partakes of some mid match refreshment

Thirsty work this baggin.

Waiting for Dave to signal the afternoon all-in I mixed up another 3 pints of paste just to be on the safe side as I could see the tail patterns still in my margin swim so felt confident . Just after 2pm Dave blew the whistle for the all-in, straight down the margin and the float buried and I was off again as a bright silver Common around 2lbs nestled in the landing net . To be honest the sport remained pretty constant for the next 3 hours and while the average size wasn't big I did manage to find a few larger examples around the 6-8lbs mark in the last hour. Martin had another good session, but I was pretty confident that I'd caught more than him this time, especially as he'd run out of bait with 5 minutes to go and I'd had another 4 fish in that time .

With the scales starting from our side this time round, a quick chat with Tony revealed that he thought he was in with a chance of his 1st Double ton on aggregate, while I felt that just maybe I was in with a chance of a Treble Ton as I'd caught much better in the afternoon session . Soon the Weigh-in got underway with Tony posting a level 130lbs for an aggregate of 212lbs, Mission accomplished . Judy added 45½lbs for a total of 70¼lbs which is her best ever match weight. My turn next and lifting the 1st net I needed John to give me a hand. As it turned out I was a little bit short of what i needed for a Triple Ton as the 2 nets came to a level 186lbs giving me an aggregate of 293½lbs, by far my best ever match weight by over 100lbs .

Round to Peg4 and Martin had another great session weighing 123½lbs for a total of 232¾lbs and his best ever match weight . As the scales moved round everyone had improved on the morning weights with Dave, Al, John and Paul posting ton plus aggregate weights. Last but one to weigh was Colin, and by all accounts he'd had a cracking afternoon catching a decent stamp of fish and he was admitting to 41 fish in his 3 nets, they weighed 167½lbs giving him an aggregate of 251lbs and second place on the day.

So there you have it, the top 4 anglers all beat their previous best match weights and the top 3 also beat the previous Club match record held by Dave at 231lb. To top it all the final total of 1991lbs of fish weighed in was 300lb higher than the club had ever weighed in and represented an average of 110lb per angler. One hell of a days fishing by anyones standards .

Sorry for the lack of photos, but as you might have guessed from the report, I was a little too busy to take many today .

Position	Peg	Angler	Morning	Afternoon	Total Weight
1st	Peg 3	Peter Morton	107lbs 08ozs	186lbs 00ozs	293lbs 08ozs
2nd	Peg 17	Colin Sharrard	83lbs 08ozs	167lbs 08ozs	251lbs 00ozs
3rd	Peg 4	Martin Hucker	110lbs 04ozs	123lbs 08ozs	232lbs 12ozs
4th	Peg 1	Tony Roberts	82lbs 00ozs	130lbs 00ozs	212lbs 00ozs
5th	Peg 9	Dave Collier	41lbs 08ozs	83lbs 00ozs	124lbs 08ozs
6th	Peg 8	Alan Loader	26lbs 00ozs	94lbs 00ozs	120lbs 00ozs
7th	Peg 13	John Holdsworth	32lbs 12ozs	82lbs 08ozs	115lbs 04ozs
8th	Peg 5	Paul East	22lbs 00ozs	91lbs 08ozs	113lbs 08ozs
9th	Peg 14	Terry Goff	25lbs 04ozs	59lbs 08ozs	84lbs 12ozs
10th	Peg 12	Chris Withall	35lbs 00ozs	49lbs 00ozs	84lbs 00ozs
11th	Peg 2	Judy Hermite	24lbs 12ozs	45lbs 08ozs	70lbs 04ozs
12th	Peg 18	Roger Noakes	15lbs 08ozs	54lbs 08ozs	70lbs 00ozs
13th	Peg 7	Kevin Loveland	22lbs 00ozs	31lbs 08ozs	53lbs 08ozs
14th	Peg 6	Bob Hucker	14lbs 08ozs	35lbs 00ozs	49lbs 08ozs
15th	Peg 16	Graham Manning	14lbs 08ozs	30lbs 08ozs	45lbs 00ozs
16th	Peg 15	Ken Walker	7lbs 00ozs	31lbs 08ozs	38lbs 08ozs
17th	Peg 11	Eddie Dobson	8lbs 08ozs	15lbs 08ozs	24lbs 00ozs
18th	Peg 10	Rod Turner	3lbs 08ozs	5lbs 08ozs	9lbs 00ozs

Marsh AC club match.

Today is a Marsh AC club match at Churchgate lakes in Essex and I'd arranged to meet Dave at his house and follow him down to the venue. Dave's wife Gladys is fishing today, It's rare that she fishes club matches, the only one she'd fished previously was at Churchgate last year when she beat Dave much to a lot of peoples amusement, so there's no pressure today .

I managed to persuade Dave to stop at in Erith so that I could grab a couple of McMuffins for breakfast as the venue's Café won't be open today , and a smooth trip down in convoy with Dave and Colin saw us arrive just after 8am to find the majority of the 20 members due to be fishing today waiting in the car park for us. While Dave sorted things out Tony Roberts and I went round the lake sorting the pegs for the draw. Back to the car park for the draw and I find peg 8 is mine for the day, just one away from the peg I had last year.

Looks nice doesn't it ? The problem was the wind which was gusting strongly all over the place, but mainly from right to left as I looked. Plenty of clouds were scudding around as well and some of them were an ominous dark grey promising rain. I elected to go with the pole at no more than 10mtrs where I knew I would find about 7 feet of water, the rushes growing as far out into the water as they were made it difficult to set up a margin line, but I wasn't to bothered as previous experience told me that it normally only produced tiny Pumpkinseeds and razorblade Skimmers & Roach. I also set up the feeder to target the corner of the island on my right. Baitwise I'd brought a fair selection with me, maggots, sweetcorn and pellets along with some groundbait as there's supposed to be a fair head of Bream in the lake.

10am and the all-in and I cupped 6 big balls of groundbait laced with corn, pellet and maggot onto the 10mtr line and went out on the maggot feeder to let it settle. 20 minutes on the feeder yielded just a solitary 2oz Skimmer however. Onto the pole with a 6mm expander on the hook and an instant bite saw a 6oz Skimmer joining it's friend in the net. Then it went very dark and within seconds the heavens opened. Leaping up and struggling into my waterproofs I returned to find a couple of pints of maggots trying to re-enact "The Great Escape" before I managed to get a lid on the baitbox, while I tucked my phone, cigarettes etc away into dry pockets. Within 5 minutes it has eased and it stopped completely after another 10 as bright sunshine burst through.

Luckily I managed to riddle the maggots off and transfer them into some dry groundbait and dry off the sidetray and get back to things pretty quickly, but just another couple of Skimmers put in an appearance in the next half hour, but I still couldn't buy a bite on the feeder .

All round the lake people appeared to be struggling and that was confirmed when Tony(spamwham)Roberts came walking round as Tony is one of those anglers that never normally goes walkabout. However Martin Hucker to my left on peg 6 had got off to a flyer ...........

..... with a couple of decent Carp and 3-4 Bream in the net by halfway, all taken on the maggot feeder.

I heavily refed the pole line and went for a stroll myself to see who was catching what and noticed Kevin(The Catch) Loveland on peg 10 sliding the net under a small Carp that he'd tempted on the feeder out by the island......

Judy, tucked away down in the corner on peg 14 had suffered the misfortune of losing a couple of decent Carp in the 1st 10 minutes and was doing her best to winkle out a few, while Paul(nomorelongwalks) could be found staring at a stationary quivertip and hadn't had a single bite  despite some encouragement from Alan who was having a wander as it wasn't happening for him either..... 

While Dave was quietly starting to put a few together and Gladys was happily catching whatever was lurking down the margins on a top3.........

Continuing round, nobody else seemed to be doing much, Colin on peg 2 had nicked a couple on the feeder out by the island but was finding it hard going........ 

though John Holdsworth on peg 5 next to Martin was admitting to a decent Carp and Bream in the net .

Back at my peg a look on the pole line produced just another solitary Skimmer despite ringing the changes on hookbait, so I refed with a couple of pots of pellet and went back out on the maggot feeder. Casting to the same spot wasn't easy with the wind gusting all over the place, but after 15 minutes the tip wrapped round and after a couple of minutes a nice F1 of about 2lbs was in the net . In the next hour and a half I added 4 more but felt I was having to wait to long between bites so with about an hour to go went back out onto the pole line once more. Almost straight away the float buried, but this wasn't a Skimmer as yards of Black Hydro streamed from the pole . To be honest it felt more like a submarine and was obviously one of the large Carp present in the lake. On last years match I'd been fortunate enough to get one at the death that had won me the match, could lightning have struck twice? Well after 10 minutes and despite various encouraging??? shouts from around the lake, I still hadn't seen the fish and the feel of it told me that it was foulhooked  I'd applied as much pressure as I dared, I could even hear the Hydro humming through the pole in the wind and with my arms aching I sat down, lit a cigarette and smoked it while the fish just plodded around. Once more i piled on as much pressure as i dare even getting on my box in an effort to get it up in the water. It finally surfaced about 15 yards out, a Big Common Carp just before the hookhold gave way . This was followed by some language that's probably better not commited to print     . Needless to say several expressions of sympathy passed around the lake about my loss.....yer right .

For the rest of the match I stuck it out on the pole line hoping against hope that another might turn up, but only a few small Skimmers had obliged by the time Dave blew the whistle at 4pm for the all-out.

So on with the weigh-in, and we were treated to Bob Hucker looking well pleased to have caught a PB Carp of 10½lbs to make his day......

Kevin had managed 8 small Carp which took the scales round to 21½lbs for 3rd on the day, and with Dave's level 19lbs having beaten Gladys's 16lbs 2ozs I'd like to say that Dave was most understanding when my 15lbs 10ozs came up ounces short of what was needed to beat Gladys on the day . Of course it wasn't going to happen though, as Dave had taken more than enough stick from me over being beaten by his good lady last year, so I'm sure he'll enjoy getting his own back by publishing the result on the various internet forums we both use .

Winner on the day was Martin with 35½lbs, his 1st ever match win in 5 years of trying. Well done Fella  and here he is with the larger of his 2 Carp on the day......

Second place went to John Holdsworth with 31¼lbs which included a PB Carp of 13½lb and a PB Bream of 5lbs ......

So that's it for another Marsh AC match. Next stop for me is 3 days at Rolf's Lake at Holton in Oxfordshire from next Friday. The reports from that will appear in due course on my return.

Marsh AC club match.

Well today's the 2nd match of Marsh AC's season on the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge Fishery, just outside Braintree in Essex.
I met Dave at his house at 7am and followed him and Colin up to the fishery. Pulling into the car park just after 8am there were 17 of the usual suspects in attendance and with the weather apparently set fair for once everyone soon had their gear unloaded and down the hill to the lakeside.

I took a stroll round with Dave as he decided which pegs would be going into the draw, and in all honesty there didn't appear to be a bad one, but Dave having fished there on more than a few occasions had a pretty good handle on it anyway, so decisions made it was draw time.

Kevin's partner Jean, after accompanying him on all his trips had decided to fish today for the 1st time, so they drew 1st so that they could have adjacent swims, I came away with peg 16 while Dave could be heard bemoaning the fact that his favorite swim (14a) had remained in the bag undrawn.  

Settling into peg 16 it was "make your mind up time" for me. Now the nice part of Marsh matches is that they are just socials really, not even any money for winning, just the section winners get payed out, and that is only just enough to cover your ticket, so that the matches have a lovely relaxed atmosphere. Sure there are some personal rivalries, but essentially it's just a pleasant day out fishing with friends.

I'd already mentioned to Colin that I was going to go with one of 2 methods today, either paste on the pole or pellet waggler. Well the pellet waggler won, purely because I fancied doing something different today. Setting up took no time at all as my Shakespeare 11ft Micro was already set up in it's ready sleeve. I've teamed the rod up with a Daiwa Capricorn 2000. The float was a 2ssg Malman Styro. Hooks are the Drennan eyed Carp Match barbless with a hair rigged Gardner 3·2mm latex pellet band. these will take anything from a 4mm to a 11mm pellet and are the best on the market IMO. For actually banding I use a Mossella Band’a’Bait tool, again IMO an unbeatable tool for the job.( Dave was certainly impressed when he saw me using it.  )

             

Bait and feed was nothing more than 12 pints of Skrettings 6mm pellets with some 8mm's for an alternative hookbait. I also got the feeder rod out as it was all set up in a ready sleeve, but I was only planning to use it if things went wrong.

Looking around most were going with the pole, though a couple of others were going with rod set-ups. So 10am and the all-in and a couple of large pouches of pellet were catapulted to the edge of the overhanging tree about 20yds away to ring the dinner bell. Normally I would clip up if I was casting to an island or feature, but with plenty of water under the overhanging tree and some large fish present in the lake I decided against it preferring to rely on the accuracy of my casting. (I only lost 1 float all day, so can't have been to rusty  ) I soon got into a decent rhythm and a small Mirror of around ½lb got me off the mark. There were plenty of fish moving, but they were just mooching around and although I was putting a few together they weren't really having it.
I also lost a few fish, but after talking it over with a few of the others I've come to the conclusion that it was probably down to the fact that a large percentage of the fish have dodgy mouths making it awkward to get a decent hook hold.

A splash from round the lake signaled Kevin trying to join the fish as he transfered one to his net, though Dave refused to disqualify him for wading   and Jean had caught her 1st fish, but was under strict orders from Kevin not to beat him, and reports filtered round that one poor unfortunate had missed the net with a good double figure Carp, a fish that he was hoping to weigh and photograph as it was definitely his biggest ever.

Frustrated at not being able to put a run of fish together and with the beginnings of a headache, I took a break and went for a stroll. Dave and Colin appeared to be neck and neck, both owning up to 20+ fish, but I had to fancy Colin having the edge as the Carp appeared to be queuing up under the bush to his left waiting for him to drop a pellet on their noses........

Eddie on Peg 1 was into a decent fish.....

...... while further round Jim appeared to be getting bitted out by Roach. John was having a similar problem, but he proved to be a real lifesaver when he produced a couple of paracetamol from his box, that did the business on my headache, Cheers John.

Tony was looking pretty happy with himself, but claimed to be struggling having lost a number of fish, however his peg looked like it was solid to me...........

Kevin was doing OK and was happy that barring a total calamity he had the beating of Jean, though she was still knicking the odd one here and there.

Terry as usual was just keeping his his head down and putting a few fish quietly into the net, that's why they call him "Wily Coyote"   ........

Back at my peg and 1st cast I stuck it straight into the tree and cracked off (Told you I lost 1 float) so chucked out the feeder with a banded 8mm pellet on it while I re rigged the pellet waggler but didn't get as much as a tap on it.
Back out on the waggler and I was soon back into the rhythm which is all important when fishing this method, and although they still weren't really having it I managed to keep up a reasonably decent catch rate right up till 4pm when Dave called the all out. The frustrating part was that I hadn't had a single bonus fish, my best being a Ghostie of around 4lb with the majority around the 1½ -2 lb range and although I'd had what most would class as a decent day ( I thought I'd got 50lbs+), couldn't help feeling that the peg was worth more, but hey, that's fishing.

By the time Terry and I caught up with the weigh in, it was coming round to Tony who was admitting to around 40lbs, he must be related to Pinocchio , because he put 85¼lbs on the scales (he'll have someone's eye out with that nose one day  ). Jean had managed a very creditable 23½lbs, not enough to beat Kevin but a great 1st effort  , while Terry put a very decent 64lbs on the scales. Round to my peg and the tale of the scales gave me 79½lbs which pleasantly surprised me  . Dave's fish mustered 67¾lbs including a bonus 10lb Mirror, which just left Colin with 39 fish, only small ones according to him and probably about 70lbs. Well he must be another of Pinocchio's relatives  because they gave him a dead level 114lbs for the win on the day.

So that was it for another day with Marsh AC, well apart from the suicidal climb back up the hill to the car park, Thanks for the hand  Tony  , I might well still be there otherwise. A real fun day as usual and as a bonus I won my section and only needed a tee shirt all day. Roll on the next one. 

Marsh AC club match.

Well an early wake up call so that I could drop Maria off at work saw me with plenty of time to get back home and cook myself a bit of breakfast before donning the thermals and waterproofs and loading the car up in the pouring rain and setting off to Monk Lakes to meet up with the members of Marsh AC for our 1st match of the year on Match Lake 2. Now the main thing about Marsh AC is that it is a small friendly club with membership by invitation only, in essence it's a Social Club that organises a days fishing for it's members. The format of these days fishing loosely resembles a match in that there's a draw for pegs, but there is no Club Championship or Cups to be won, in fact the only cash that gets paid out is section money, no 1st, 2nd or 3rd place prizes. It suits the members and keeps the pot hunters away.

Pulling into the car park at around 8am it was good to see that the vast majority of the usual suspects were in attendance, along with a couple of guests (Bill G and Alan from the Maggotdrowning Forum), Paul East was missing however, it turned out that he'd forgotten to buy a new license and for some reason had forgotten that you can buy one on-line or over the phone . At least it had stopped raining, though the grey skies and brisk wind promised to make it a challenge.

Anyway to the draw, and anyone of 3 corner pegs would have been nice, 45 because it's an out and out flyer with a resident shoal of Barbel, or 56 and 66 at opposite ends of the causeway as these have aerators at their sides and unlike the other match lakes they aren't roped off allowing you to fish tight to them. No such luck though, 53 sticking to my fingers providing my home for the day.

One thing about the match lakes at Monk's is that there are plenty of fish, so that whatever the draw you're guaranteed to have a few fish in front of you to provide a decent days fishing. A stranger feature to this particular lake however is the fact that the depth shelves from around 5 feet in front of peg 55 to around 10 feet in front of 45, and when the wind blows straight down the lake as it was today it sets up a terrific tow!!

I set up 2 pole rigs to fish a couple of lines, the 1st at around 10mtrs where I had just over 6ft of water was a 4X18 KC Carpa2 on 0·16 straight through to a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook and the 2nd for the margins where I had a couple of feet of water against the reeds was a 4X12 Carpa shelf with similar line and hook that I could also use up in the water on the main line if need be.
I also set up a pellet waggler, though I suspected that it wouldn't be a realistic option due to the wind and tow.
Bait for the day was red maggot, corn and pellet, and I also made up some groundbait to get some feed down through the tow. This was Special G with some corn and a good helping of micro pellet added.

10am and the All-in, and straight away i fed 5 good balls of groundbait on the 10mtr line, with a good helping of pellet, corn and maggot down the right hand margin which I would continue to top up through the match as there was a vacant peg between me and the next angler.

Out to 10 mtrs with a single grain of corn, I just let the rig edge through the groundbaited area with the tow and was rewarded with a confident bite that produced the 1st fish of the day, a nice chunky FI of around 1½lbs . The wind and waves on the water meant that presentation wasn't ideal but by sticking at it i managed to put another 8 in the net along with around a dozen small Tench in the next 2 hours. Alan to my right was having a grim time and was struggling to buy a bite with only a couple of fish in the net  and Tony next to him was having trouble coming to terms with the tow that the lake was generating, but putting a few together holding a heavy rig back against the tow.
It seemed that every time I looked up towards Colin on peg 45 he was either playing or netting a fish and it was obvious he would take all the catching.

Looking across to the lads opposite fishing on the causeway, I could see Dave had turned his back on the wind and was fishing short to the channel where the aerator is and appeared to be putting a steady run of fish together, while terry next door to him was also catching close in to the margin, while Bill was fishing a longer line and sorting a few out .

With a lull in my fish, I fed 4 more balls of groundbait in a bid to kickstart things and had a quick stroll with the camera. Colin as I suspected was catching well despite trying to deny it and it was a pleasure to see that Judy on peg 46 next to him was putting a couple of tips I'd given her to good use and was enjoying some good sport too .

Back at the peg and a quick look at the margins revealed just a solitary small Chub so back out and I was soon into a run of small Tench and Skimmers with a couple of decent Ide for good measure .

Kevin to my left had resorted to a Polaris set up with a groundbait feeder to beat the tow and was starting to find a few fish, while Martin was really struggling to get a bite .

With a couple of hours to go Alan finally managed to find some Barbel down his margin line, while Tony having changed to a feeder to combat the tow was steadily starting to put fish in the net, Despite several looks, my margin just never came to life, forcing me to stick it out at 10mtrs, and while i caught steadily to the end it was mainly small Chub and Tench with just a couple of bonus Barbel around the 2lb mark.

With 15 minutes to go the skies grew darker and the temperature dropped noticeably and just to top it off it started to rain . 4pm and the All-out saw everyone hurriedly packing away followed by the weigh-in.

3rd to weigh, my 51¼lbs put me briefly into 1st place which I knew wouldn't last. Alan's 34½lbs was a decent return given that he had nearly the whole of that in the last 2 hours, while Tony's 48½lbs meant that I had at least won my section .

Judy put a very creditable 54¾lbs on the scales (Her best ever match weight) to briefly lead till Colin weighed his level 87lbs for the match win. Jim round on 56 managed  55¾lbs that would prove to be good enough for 3rd while Dave put a very decent 62½lbs on the scales for 2nd and might have run Colin even closer if it hadn't been for a few lost fish during the course of the day.

Still despite the weather trying it's hardest, overall it proved to be a decent day with no dry nets and an average of around 39lb per angler between the 17 of us. A decent days fishing by any standards. Roll on the next one .

Marsh AC club match.

Another cracking day out as usual with Marsh AC.

This was to be the last match of the year for the club on a venue that was a new one on the club calendar. I have to say what a lovely looking venue Churchgate Lakes is, consisting of 3 lakes (we fished Bottom Lake) but it switched off big time on the day for no apparent reason.

I had drawn peg 7 and I have to say I fancied it, with a nice comfortable chuck to the point of an island and a nice level 7ft of depth on the pole line at around 12mtrs.....

I couldn't buy a bite on the feeder though, not even a liner. Well I did have one bite, but of course that came while I was tying up another hook length with Dave the Fish chatting to me, so as you can imagine he was totally sympathetic.

I stuck it out with maggot on an 18 fishing on the deck for the majority of the session nicking small 4oz Skimmers and a solitary 3lb'er. I was briefly attached to a 'lump' which bottomed out my black Hydro in record time, but with 30 minutes to go and an estimated 7lb in the net I remarked to Terry that it looked like he had me beaten on the day. 'Knowing you, you'll probably mug a lump before the end ' was his reply. Nice to know that he had faith in my piscatorial skill and tenacity being rewarded .

Well with 5 minutes to go I lifted into another dip of the float only to be greeted by yards of black Hydro streaming out of the top kit !!!!!!! . Obviously a decent fish, it was a slow plodding fight and I managed to net it just as the whistle went for the end of the match . It was a chunky Mirror Carp which weighed 17lbs 6ozs, equalling my PB Carp and the largest fish that I've ever caught on the pole.  Added to the silvers it gave me 25lbs 14ozs  which proved to be enough for the win.

A special mention for Judy Hermite who managed to catch 2 decent Carp (1 of them a double) on her pole, Judy's more at home fishing with a rod and reel and these were her largest pole caught fish and gave her 2nd place on the day. Well done Judy .

Also to Gladys Collier, on her 1st Marsh AC match, doubling hubby Dave's weight off the next peg much to his delight. As you can imagine of course we were all full of sympathy for him at the weigh-in......................NOT .

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Peter Morton	25lbs 14ozs
2nd	Judy Hermite	21lbs 02ozs
3rd	Paul East	13lbs 10ozs
4th	John Holdsworth	13lbs 08ozs
5th	Gladys Collier	12lbs 04ozs
6th	Terry Goff	11lbs 08ozs
7th	Tony Roberts	10lbs 08ozs
8th	Roger Noakes	8lbs 08ozs
9th	Zack Johnson	5lbs 10ozs
10th	Dave Collier	5lbs 08ozs
11th	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 08ozs
12th	Graham Manning	3lbs 00ozs
13th	Arthur Thompson	2lbs 08ozs
	Martin Hucker	DNW
	Chris Withall	DNW
	Ed Dobson	DNW
	Rod Turner	DNW