Mick the Chippy

  • Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir.

    Marsh AC club match.

    Hartleylands Farm Reservoir

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

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

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

    Res002.jpg Pete's peg today

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

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

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

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

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

    Res009.jpg Mick on peg 23

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

    Res014.jpg Terry, todays Winner

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

    Res006.jpg Kevin on peg 29

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

    Res004.jpg Mick on peg 28

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

    Res003.jpg Rusty on peg 26

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

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

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

    Res005.jpg Al on another flyer

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

    Res011.jpg Tony watches Keith

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

    Res007.jpg Keith

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

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

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

    Res012.jpg Kev with the catch

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

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

     

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

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

     

  • Hawkhurst Fishery. The Match Lake.

    Al’s Match.

    Hawkhurst Match Lake

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

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

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

    Peg Plan for this match

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

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

    Getting ready for the All-In

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

    Clive had a cunning plan today

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

    Terry was picking Paul's brain, it wouldn't take long

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

    John was happy with peg 12 today

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

    Tony Roberts on peg 1

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

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

    Terry was struggling on peg 18

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

    Dave Hough had a good start on peg 4

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

    Brodie tried up in the water on peg 2

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

    Derek Lockwood was all on his own on peg 16

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

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

    Dave was on his way to a 'Ton' on peg 11

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

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

    Mick was still catching on peg 20

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

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

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

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

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

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

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

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4.

     Marsh AC club match.

    Match Lake 4 at Monk Lakes.

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

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

    Peg Plan for the match.

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

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

    Peter had drawn peg 154 today

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

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

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

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

    Rod and Ken had the wind in their faces all match

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

    An early look down the margin for Graham

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

    Vic was working hard on peg 162

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

    A gudgeon for Tony

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

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

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

    Keith and Mick were having a good battle on adjacent pegs

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

    Al had the island to himself on peg 151

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

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

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

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

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

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

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

     

  • Hartleylands Farm Fishery. The Reservoir.

    Marsh AC club match.

    Hartleylands Farm Reservoir

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

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

    Gathering up all the kit prior to the draw

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

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

    Peg Plan for todays match

    As I made my way round I found Terry was on peg 18, where he’d fished a couple of weeks ago, while Zack was on peg 20, the peg I’d fished with Dave keeping him company on peg 21 along with Chris who’d come along to watch again as his hand is still in plaster . Settling my gear into the peg I planned to tackle it in a similar way to the way I’d fished peg 20 a couple of weeks ago, and that was to just fish 2 lines, the first at 2 sections and a top 2 straight out where I had around 4 feet of water and the second down the left and right hand margins. Rigs were two 4×12 CX pencils on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 14 Guru MWG’s for straight out and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·20 Ultima Power Match finished off with a size 14 Guru MWG for the margin line. Bait today was simply 6mm pellet for feed and 8mm pellet for the hook ……

    Peg 16 was mine for the match

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

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

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

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

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

    Mick playing a fish taken on the feeder

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

    Chris chatting to Paul on peg 10

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

    Not the best of days for Martin

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

    Clive was having a grueller today

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

    Ken on peg 27

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

    Graham was taking a few silvers and waiting for the carp to show

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

    Dave was trying to tempt a few roach with tares

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

    Terry hoped there were carp in the margins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

     

    Weight

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

    The club does run a points table over the course of the matches (Guests results are not included in the table) and as you can see Dave Collier reaped the rewards of a very consistent season that included 3 match wins, coming out on top with 218 points 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 while I was Runner-Up with 204 points 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123and Al finished 3rd on 194 points 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123 despite missing the final Match. I’d just like to say Thank You to all the club members and guests who’ve fished this years matches. They’ve been great company on the bankside, with some hilarious banter meaning the matches have been enjoyable as always, and I’m looking forward to next year already .

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

    Position

    Angler

    Monk

    Rayne

    MillBarn

    Colemans

    Blasford

    Private

    Rockells

    Hartlylands

    Total Weight

    Points

     1st

     Dave Collier

    21

    30

    28

    27

    30

    24

    30

    28

    695lbs 12ozs

     218 pts
     2nd Peter Morton

    29

    27

    29

    29

    17

    25

    22

    30

    628lbs 00ozs

     208 pts
     3rd Al Loader

    30

    25

    30

    28

    27

    28

    29

    d.n.f

    702lbs 00ozs 

     197 pts
     4th Keith Ashby

    28

    26

    25

    26

    25

    29

    27

    d.n.f

    567lbs 12ozs

     186 pts
     5th Clive Pritchard

    27

    28

    d.n.f

    25

    26

    30

    19

    24

    453lbs 04ozs

     179 pts
     6th Terry Goff

    25

    18

    24

    24

    12

    22

    20

    27

    308lbs 08ozs

     172 pts
     7th= John Holdsworth

    20

    d.n.f

    20

    20

    19

    23

    28

    23

    330lbs 00ozs

     153 pts
     7th= Kevin Loveland

    23

    19

    21

    15

    14

    19

    17

    25

    172lbs 00ozs

     153 pts
     9th Martin Hucker

    d.n.f

    29

    15

    14

    23

    20

    26

    20

    350lbs 12ozs

     147 pts
     10th Jim Boase

    22

    21

    15

    12

    29

    d.n.f

    21

    19

    211lbs 08ozs

     139 pts
     11th Tony Roberts

    d.n.f

    23

    26

    30

    21

    d.n.f

    25

    d.n.f

    411lbs 04ozs

     125 pts
     12th Simon Watkins

    18

    25

    18

    18

    d.n.f

    21

    23

    d.n.f

    291lbs 04ozs

     123 pts
     13th Graham Manning

    24

    d.n.f

    19

    22

    28

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    26

    178lbs 04ozs

     119 pts
     14th Rod Turner

    15

    d.n.f

    22

    17

    21

    d.n.f

    18

    22

    109lbs 12ozs

     115 pts
     15th  Paul East

    26

    d.n.f

    16

    16

    d.n.f

    27

    d.n.f

    29

    227lbs 12ozs

     114 pts
     16th Ken Walker

    19

    d.n.f

    27

    21

    13

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    21

    127lbs 00ozs

     101 pts
     17th Vic Nugent

    d.n.f

    20

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    22

    26

    24

    d.n.f

    264lbs 12ozs

      92 pts
     18th Judy Hermite

    16

    16

    17

    13

    24

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    87lbs 08ozs

      86 pts
     19th Chris Withall

    17

    17

    23

    19

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    101lbs 12ozs

      76 pts
     20th=

     Ron Mannister

    d.n.f

    15

    d.n.f

    11

    16

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    31lbs 04ozs

      42 pts
     20th= Roger Noakes

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    23

    19

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    63lbs 08ozs

      42 pts
     22nd Eddie Dobson

    d.n.f

    22

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    15

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    d.n.f

    59lbs 04ozs

      37 pts

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

     

  • Wyland International Angling Centre, near Battle, East Sussex.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Southern Fur & Feather.

    w1.jpg Wylands, House Lake. picture by pnm123

    Once more it’s time for the annual Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match Santa and once again we’re down at Wylands on House Lake. Various things conspired against me this morning meaning that I was running a little late as I loaded up the car, so I rang Mick the Chippy and asked him to draw for me if I was a little late arriving. Now after last year when there was no hot food to be had from the tea hut I made a quick stop on route for a couple of sausage & egg McMuffins to fuel me up for the day ahead. Thankfully a smooth trip down saw me pulling into the fishery car park at around 8·20am ahead of the draw to find 10 other hardy fools idiots anglers assembled for the day ahead. Indeed it was only Mick and grandaughter Rosie who were missing, but a quick phonecall confirmed that they were on their way Smile. Just time for a bacon sarnie and a cuppa then.

    Now Mark being the organised fellow that he is had put 14 pegs in, all in the main bowl, so with only 13 fishing took one out (peg 14) come draw time, however when he came to take the last peg from the bag it was missing, Somehow peg 9 had escaped, but rather than redraw it went to Mr Organiser. The Bailiff had called pegs 2,3 and 4 as potential winners, so I was a little bit out with peg 13.

    We’d been hoping that despite the cold snap the lake wouldn’t be iced up. No such luck however Cold, so we agreed to delay the start till everyone had cut out a swim. It wasn’t to thick in front of me and I made a start breaking out a swim with my Drennan landing net handle, before strolling round and borrowing Squeaky’s ice breaker to finish off with Smile.

    The Fur and Feather is always a light hearted affair and everyone goes home with a prize so I wasn’t planning on taking a serious approach, simply one top kit with White Hydro and a single rig that I made up consisting of a 4×12 KC Carpa Tricky on 0·12 Ultima Power Silk finished off with an 18 Guru WMG hook. Bait for today was simply red maggots with a few micros for feed.

    With some still setting up I took the opportunity to stroll round and get another cuppa from the tea hut Smile. Inevitably I ended up having a chat with Mick and Rosie, and by the time I made my way back Mark was ready to call the All-In. For company today I had Stuart aka squeaky roller to my right on peg 1 on the island while to my left was Simon Elsey.

    So at 10·40am we were off, double red maggot impaled onto the hook and a pinch of maggot and micros potted in. A shout from across the lake signified that young Rosie had bagged the first fish of the day, no pressure there then as a 10 year old girl took an early lead. A few lift and drops and my float slid gently away resulted in a small roach residing in the keepnet to save the dreaded blank Smile.

    It was far from fast and furious, but there was plenty of banter flowing back and forth across the lake. It was soon obvious that the Bailiff had been right about the pegs to be on as they seemed to be producing decent skimmers while all I could find were  small Roach…..

     At least I was getting bites though and the fish while small were keeping me busy. By about 1pm I reckoned I might have had 5-6lbs in the net and the lure of a cheeseburger Burger and another hot cuppa from the tea hut proved far too tempting so I set off for a stroll.

    Jay was tucked down in the corner on peg 10 and was sliding what looked to be a decent skimmer towards the waiting net………..

    …….. he protested that it was his biggest fish of the day, but Jay knows Wylands well and may have just been fibbing Tony.

    Mark was alternating between a couple of lines, taking a couple of fish from each before swapping back again Smile………….

    He was having a good battle with Greg on the next peg and it looked as if it would come down to whoever nicked a few bonus fish between them……..

    Andy was facing the handicap of not having a pole to fish with, but he was having a good battle with Rosie on the next peg Smile. Cheeseburger consumed Burger I found Mick chatting to Terry(Wily Coyote) who had popped down as he lives locally to see how we were all doing. Mick was regreting not having broken out a larger swim for himself and Rosie but was doing his best to make the most of it.

    Jeff, Wayne and Nick were definately sitting in the pound seats however Thumbs Up, and it was obvious that it was just a question of what order they would finish in the top 3……….

    Returning to my swim Simon reported having been seen off by a good fish that he thought  was a Carp, while Toby had shown him how it should be done as he’d landed a Carp of around 8lbs, a real bonus on a day like today Smile. Simon renewed his efforts after this but it obviously wasn’t going to be his day as he then latched onto what he described as a decent Bream only to see that come off short of the net Cry.

    I carried on till the end and managed to pick up a few better examples before Mark called the All-Out at 3pm. We soon had everything packed away and in all honesty it didn’t take that long to do the Weigh-In, the results of which are in the table below…….. 

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 3 Wayne (map) Taylor  42lbs 10ozs
     2nd Peg 4 Jeff Driscoll  33lbs 06ozs
     3rd Peg 2 Nick Gilbert  32lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 10 Jay Lay  22lbs 02ozs
     5th Peg 8 Greg (splitshot1) Andrews   19lbs 06ozs
     6th Peg 9 Mark (MoleMan) Hathaway   16lbs 14ozs
     7th Peg 1 Stuart (squeaky roller) Wilson   13lbs 02ozs
     8th Peg 11 Toby (vassago) Wells   12lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 13 Peter (Mugger) Morton   11lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 12 Simon Elsey    8lbs 02ozs
     11th Peg 5 Mick (The Chippy) Pearson    6lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 7 Andy (greentura) Green     1lb 10ozs
     13th Peg 6 Rosie     1lb 04ozs

    All that remained was for Mark to work out the results and collect up the prizes for those assembled……………

    We added a little twist this year and reversed the prizegiving so Rosie got first pick Smile, while Wayne recieved the Winners Trophy 1st and the honour of organising next years Southern Fur & Feather Santa.

    Same again next year please Wayne, I can’t think of to many venues that would have produced such good sport in those conditions. Thanks to Mark for organising todays match Thumbs Up.

    That’s probably it for me this year Santa, Roll on 2011.

     

  • Hawkhurst Fishery. The Match Lake.

    Mick the Chippy’s Knock Up.

    magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    2.jpg Hawkhurst Match Lake. picture by pnm123

    Back at the end of July Mick the Chippy placed a post on Maggotdrowning.com informing us that he’d booked the whole Match Lake at Hawkhurst for today. Needless to say the whole 20 pegs were soon filled for a day on a venue that has the potential to throw up some huge match weights, With a good café on sight serving an excellent breakfast and a load of like minded anglers fishing it’s a match that I’ve been looking forward to for a while . However after a couple of days of real cold temperatures I was rather saddened to hear heavy rain beating against the bedroom window as the alarm went off and a quick glance out of the window confirmed it was pouring down . A mug of strong coffee soon had me functioning and having fed the cats and loaded the car it was off to Hawkhurst. It wasn’t the best drive down, rain and heavy spray persisting till I got the other side of Tonbridge, where it started to ease off, however by the time I pulled into the fishery car park it had stopped .

    Quite a few of the usual suspects were in attendance and a number of ‘Golden Nuggets’ had been wagered on todays outcome. Mick had set up a rolling draw so that we could get set up before partaking of breakfast in the fishery café. Peg 5 was mine for the day about half way up the roadside bank, and I was off to a good start when it was draw out as todays lucky peg, meaning that I just had to catch a fish to receive £10 .

     My peg.

    I soon had myself settled in, the pegs are a decent size and allow you plenty of room to get set up. Just 3 top kits to cover the options today. 2 Malman 4×12 Champer’s on 0·16 Power Match with size 18 QM1 hooks, the 1st to cover lines at 4mtrs at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, and the 2nd to cover 6mtrs straight out in front, while a 0.2 HB Grizzly on 0·16 Power Match with a size 18 QM1 took care of the margin line against the boards. Bait today was my usual selection of GOT Baits soft hookers, expanders and hard pellets while feed would be the fishery 6mm hard pellets.

    So with everything ready to go it was time to adjourn to the café. Lots of banter and mickey taking ensued as always while a Full English ( double sausage, double bacon, double eggs, mushrooms, beans/tomatoes, fried slice + toast and tea or coffee for £5) set things up nicely for the five hours ahead of us.

    With everyone fed, watered and back at their pegs Mick called the All-In at 10·30am and the match was underway, and if I’m honest that is where I went wrong . Quite simply I overfed it . It may be a renowned big weight water but I didn’t take into account the two hard frosts on Wednesday and Thursday followed by the heavy overnight rain. Rather than feel my way in I stuck 2 big potful’s on the 6mtr line and a big potful on both my 4mtr lines . I wasn’t the only one however. I finally managed my first fish after 30 minutes, a welcome Common that at least guaranteed me £10 for the lucky peg . Indeed the only person that seemed to be catching with any regularity was Ian Harper next door on peg 4, but even so it was far from fast and furious for him.

    Looking around I could see Mick who had placed his faith in ‘MaryQ’ as he refers to the new Marukyu baits, but he didn’t appear to be having his faith rewarded today ………

    image004-11.jpg Mick the Chippy. picture by pnm123

    Keith was struggling as well and was already having an early look down his margin line in an attempt to winkle out something …….

    image005-11.jpg Keith Powell. picture by pnm123

    While Bill was suffering from one of those nightmares that we all suffer with on occaision…….. unmissable bites that he simply couldn’t connect with ……..

    image006-9.jpg Bill Gibbins. picture by pnm123

    A couple of hours in and I was going nowhere fast with just 3 carp in my net to show for my efforts . I decided that the time was right to have a stroll and try to see what others were doing and maybe give me some inspiration. S Dyball on peg 7 had a few but didn’t really appear to be doing much different from what I could see……..

    image008-8.jpg S Dyball picture by pnm123

    Jeff on peg 8 had around 8 carp to show for his efforts, while Clive on peg 9 was owning up to something like 7 fish in the net, but was into another as I arrived which he soon had safely in the net …….

    image012-8.jpg Clive. picture by pnm123

    Al was fishing just a little longer than those around him and was slowly starting to put a few fish together, despite having thrown his pole in earlier having got confused about which hand he was feeding with ……..

    image013-8.jpg Al. picture by pnm123

    Bill was still having a struggle and appeared to be in danger of parting with a few ‘Golden Nuggets’ in the side bet stakes …….

    image010-7.jpg Bill Gibbins. picture by pnm123

    Then there was Nick, and quite surprisingly he was fishing at 13mtrs with a pot on the end of his pole , however he’d not had as much as a bite on pellet and had switched to maggot fished shallow …….

    image016-6.jpg Nick. picture by pnm123

    Mick was still struggling to find fish to put in the net, but still had a smile on his face ……..

    image017-7.jpg Mick the Chippy. picture by pnm123

    ….. thanks to the fact that his brother Richard on the next peg was having an even harder time of it than he was …….

    image019-7.jpg Richard (DHL man) picture by pnm123

    Tony was tucked away on peg 1 and was having a slightly better time of it, but his bites were very finicky and he felt that he was having to wait far to long between them to do any real damage ……..

    image018-7.jpg Tony Roberts. picture by pnm123

    Mick McMillan was on peg 4 on his first time at the fishery, a very good angler, the venue should have suited him down to the ground, but he couldn’t match Ian on the next peg …….

    image020-6.jpg Mick McMillan. picture by pnm123

    Unfortunately my peg was no better on my return the rest of the match turning into a real grind for me and quite a few of the others . Greg over on peg 17 started to pick up a few toward the end of the match, and Nick’s maggot fished shallow had started to produce for him as well. I managed 3 carp in the last half hour meaning that I had 9 carp in the net when Mick called the all out at 3·30pm.

    Thankfully the scales didn’t take long to arrive. Tony’s 36½lbs and Mick McMillan’s 41½lbs both being comfortably beaten by Ian Harper’s 64¼lbs which would prove to be good enough for the win on the day 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123. Jeff Driscoll saw his 44lbs edged out by Al Loader’s 45lbs to give Al 3rd on the day 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123. While Nick Gilbert took 2nd place with 47½lb after his switch to maggot fished shallow produced for him late on 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123.

    Thanks to Mick for organising a nice smoothly run day , not his fault that the fishery hadn’t produced like it can on the day .
    At least I got a tenner for the Lucky Peg , and while I had to hand over a ‘Golden Nugget’ to Al and Clive, I got 3 back from Mick, Keith and Bill .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st  Peg 4  Ian Harper   64lbs 04ozs
     2nd  Peg 14  Nick Gilbert   47lbs 08ozs
     3rd  Peg 11  Al Loader   45lbs 00ozs
     4th=  Peg 8  Jeff Driscoll   44lbs 00ozs
     4th=  Peg 17  Greg Andrews   44lbs 00ozs
     6th  Peg 3  Mick McMillan   41lbs 08ozs
     7th  Peg 7  S Dyball   38lbs 04ozs
     8th  Peg 1  Tony Roberts   36lbs 08ozs
     9th  Peg 9  Clive Pritchard   31lbs 00ozs
     10th  Peg 5  Peter Morton   23lbs 08ozs
     11th  Peg 16  Andy Bench   21lbs 08ozs
     12th  Peg 2  Graham Franklin   18lbs 08ozs
     13th  Peg 10  John Chambers   17lbs 08ozs
     14th  Peg 18  Mick Pearson   15lbs 08ozs
     15th  Peg 19  Richard Pearson   11lbs 04ozs
     16th  Peg 13  Bill Gibbins    9lbs 04ozs
     17th  Peg 12  Rich    8lbs 08ozs
     18th  Peg 15  Keith Powell    6lbs 00ozs
     19th  Peg 20  Toby Wells    2lbs 04ozs
     20th  Peg 6  Pete Bolt

    DNW

     

  • Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake.

    Marsh AC club match.

    1.jpg Harleylands, Nick's Lake. picture by pnm123

    It’s off down to Hartleylands fishery at Cranbrook in Kent for another club match today. We’ve booked the whole of Nick’s Lake and invited a few guests so hopefully all will have a decent day . A dark damp picture greeted me as I looked out of the window this morning and as I loaded the car there was a definite chill in the air cold.gif Cold picture by pnm123, Autumn had well and truly arrived .
    By 7·15am I was sitting down in the Knox-Bridge Café for a ‘Full English’Eating.gif Eat picture by pnm123 and I was soon joined by Mick the Chippy who was my guest for the day while John, Martin & Zack were soon followed by Graham, Al, Keith and Pete Thompson, all in search of some pre-match sustenance . So with breakfast taken care of it was back to the cars and off to the fishery for the draw.

    Most of the usual suspects were present and with the sun beaming down hopes were high for a decent days fishing, though a cool north easterly wind made sure that everyone was glad that they were well wrapped up cold.gif Cold picture by pnm123. Into the draw bag and peg 4 revealed itself as my home for the day at head, a nice short walk once I’d moved my car and I would have the sun on me all day to take the edge off the chill . I had Martin for company on my right on peg 2, while to my left I had Dave Collier along with daughter Chrissy and her partner Nick on pegs 7, 8 & 9.

    image001-7.jpg Peg 4 picture by pnm123

    Set up for the day would be nice and simple. Feeder rod with a small method feeder to fish to the island and 3 pole rigs. the 3 pole rigs were all Malman 4×12 Adam’s on 0·16 Power Match with size 18 QM1 hooks set at various depths to cover from the margins where I had around 2ft out to 5mtrs were there was around 4ft. I wasn’t planning to fish any further out on the pole as the wind would make it awkward. Bait today was my usual selection of GOT Baits soft hookers, expanders and 6mm hard pellets while feed would just be a mix of 4 & 6mm hard pellets and some groundbait for the method.

    While I waited for the All-In I had a few misgivings in that I hadn’t seen many fish showing on what is normally a very prolific venue and the water had what I can only describe as a cloudy look to it as the algae was starting to break down with the onset of the cooler weather. Anyway at 10am Dave blew the whistle for the All-In and I cupped 2 pots of pellets in on the 5mtr line and fed both margins before going out to the island with the method feeder. Ken seemed to be straight into a few fish on the waggler ……

    image002-8.jpg Ken picture by pnm123

    ……. while Dave, Chrissy and Nick all seemed to be into fish as well . Twenty minutes in and I hadn’t had as much as a knock on the method which was very unusual , however I noticed a couple of bubbles on the 5mtr line and soon swapped over to the pole line.

    A couple of lift and drops and the float slid away, the culprit being a mint little Common of around a pound to get me underway .
    Now I wish I could say that this was the start of a major bagging session but if I did I would be telling porkies . I did start to put a few fish together but it was far from fast and furious despite Jean arriving with a welcome mug of coffee . Two hours in and I’d only managed 10 small Carp from the 5mtr line and despite another couple of looks across on the method, had still not had as much as a tap on it .

    Going nowhere fast I re-fed both pole lines and went for a stroll with the camera to try and suss out how others were catching, if indeed they were. Dave was dropping a bait by the young willow in his left margin and was soon into a fish as I watched ……

    image003-9.jpg A Carp for Dave picture by pnm123

    Chris was a picture of concentration and while he was getting quite a few small silvers had only had 2 small carp to go with them and boost his catch …….

    image004-10.jpg Chris Withall picture by pnm123

    Keith was having a bit of a struggle, but being comfortably ahead in the points table was using the day to experiment fishing paste which was producing some very positive bites but little in the way of fish …….

    image007-9.jpg Keith Ashby picture by pnm123

    ……. while Clive wasn’t fairing much better, and I’m sure I heard him telling his drawing hand that he’d be teaching it another sharp lesson after today …….

    image008-7.jpg Clive Pritchard picture by pnm123

    Carrying on round I came to Colin who I knew had been down a couple of times practising during the week along with Tony, Terry and Dave. He’d caught well on paste (no surprise there ) but the drop in temperature looked to have scuppered his plans as he was having a struggle today …….

    image009-8.jpg Colin Sharrard picture by pnm123

    …… on the next peg Kevin had been struggling too, but he was just in the process of landing a small Carp, so hopefully things would start to pick up for him ……

    image010-6.jpg Kev Loveland picture by pnm123

     Al was ticking along and owning up to around 15 Carp in the net and Pete was a little frustrated that his plans for a days skimmer bashing was being thwarted by the fact that the skimmers were to small and Carp kept muscling in on the act …….

    image011-8.jpg Pete Thompson picture by pnm123

    Mick seemed happy enough with his lot and was getting a few fishing the method but felt that he was waiting just a little to long between bites to do any real damage …….

    image012-7.jpg Mick the Chippy picture by pnm123

    Terry was another of those anglers who was finding that the fishing today bore no resemblance to that which he’d experienced earlier on in the week ……

    image014-7.jpg Terry Goff picture by pnm123

    Ken’s bright start had slowed somewhat though he was still picking up the odd fish on the waggler and Graham was another of those who was finding to many small silvers and not enough Carp in the mix ……

    image016-5.jpg Graham Manning picture by pnm123

    Back at my peg it was just a case of getting my head down and getting the most from my peg for the rest of the match ……

    image017-6.jpg Peter picture by pnm123

    It was far from fast and furious but by working away at it, constantly lifting, dropping and dragging the rig I kept picking up the odd Carp nothing bigger than 2 pounds and mostly smaller. My feeder line just refused to produce a fish despite another couple of looks and neither margin line produced a bite either . Dave’s fish had slowed right up on him as well, but he’d got off to such a good start that I knew he was out of my reach. John and Zack came round to collect Martin as they were leaving early and John took the honours in the 3 way car sweep with his 18½lbs . I managed a bit of a spurt with 10 Carp in the last hour and when Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm I’d managed 36 Carp.

    So to the Weigh-In and my fish gave me a weight of 45¾lbs which would be good enough for a section win on the day . Chrissy’s 35½lbs had beaten Nick’s 27lbs, but Dave had won the family battle with a very decent 72¼lbs for 2nd overall 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123. Keith had suffered his worst result of the series with just 12¾lbs to show for his efforts , while Clive’s 45¾lbs tied my weight . Tony’s 55½lbs secured 3rd on the day 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123, but todays winner was Al with a fine 84½lbs 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123. Pete ended with a creditable 53½lbs for 4th on his first ever visit to the fishery , while Mick managed 41¾lbs and Ken took the honours from the car park bank with 32½lbs .

    So that’s it for this years Marsh AC matches. Thanks to Dave for organising yet another enjoyable series of matches .
    Well Done to Keith, Mr Consistent topping the points table . Thanks to all the members and guests who have fished, you’re the ones who make it such an enjoyable day out each and every time .

    Finally a special Thank You to Jean for those mugs of coffee during the matches, they were much appreciated .

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st Peg 23 Al Loader  84lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 9 Dave Collier  72lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 22 Tony Roberts  55lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 25 Pete Thompson   (guest)  53lbs 08ozs
     5th= Peg 4 Peter Morton  45lbs 12ozs
     5th= Peg 15 Clive Pritchard  45lbs 12ozs
     7th Peg 26 Mick Pearson     (guest)  41lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 8 Christine Collier (guest)  35lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 36 Ken Walker  32lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 30 Simon Watkins  32lbs 04ozs
     11th Peg 19 Colin Sharrard  28lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 31 Terry Goff  28lbs 00ozs
     13th= Peg 12 Chris Withall  27lbs 00ozs
     13th= Peg 7 Nick Bondeau     (guest)  27lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 37 Graham Manning  21lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 28 John Holdsworth  18lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 20 Kevin Loveland  14lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 13 Keith Ashby  12lbs 12ozs
     19th= Peg 34 Judy Hermite  11lbs 00ozs
     19th= Peg 32 Rod Turner  11lbs 00ozs
     21st Peg 17 Zack Johnson  10lbs 00ozs
     22nd Peg 2 Martin Hucker   9lbs 08ozs

    The club doesn’t operate a Championship as such but this year Dave’s collated a table of the seasons results using a 30 point system. Guests results were not included in the table. As you can see Keith has been Mr Consistent over the course of the season coming out on top with 212 points 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 while Tony was Runner-Up with 204 points 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123and Colin finished 3rd on 194 points 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123.

    Position

    Angler

    Monk

    Churchgate

    Colemans

    Mill Barn

    Blasford

    Colemans

    Rockells

    Hartleylands

    Points

     1st Keith Ashby

    29

    26

    26

    28

    30

    28

    28

    17

     212 pts
     2nd Tony Roberts

    28

    27

    30

    27

    21

    22

    21

    28

     204 pts
     3rd Colin Sharrard

    27

    23

    15

    29

    26

    21

    30

    23

     194 pts
     4th Clive Pritchard

    30

    30

    28

    24

    d.n.f.

    27

    22

    27

     188 pts
     5th Dave Collier

    21

    28

    29

    d.n.f.

    23

    25

    29

    29

     184 pts
     6th John Holdsworth

    23

    20

    24

    23

    19

    18

    24

    19

     170 pts
     7th Kevin Loveland

    25

    14

    22

    22

    22

    19

    16

    18

     158 pts
     8th Peter Morton

    20

    24

    d.n.f.

    27

    d.n.f.

    30

    27

    27

     155 pts
     9th Terry Goff

    18

    19

    23

    21

    d.n.f.

    24

    25

    22

     152 pts
     10th Martin Hucker

    17

    18

    18

    17

    26

    16

    26

    13

     151 pts
     11th Ken Walker 

    d.n.f.

    21

    17

    d.n.f.

    29

    29

    20

    25

     141 pts
     12th Jim Boase

    26

    25

    19

    20

    27

    d.n.f.

    19

    d.n.f.

     136 pts
     13th Judy Hermite

    16

    16

    21

    d.n.f.

    28

    20

    17

    16

     134 pts
     14th Chris Withall

    19

    d.n.f.

    27

    d.n.f.

    24

    27

    d.n.f.

    21

     118 pts
     15th Zack Johnson

    22

    15

    14

    18

    18

    15

    d.n.f.

    14

     116 pts
     16th Al Loader

    24

    29

    d.n.f.

    30

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    30

     113 pts
     17th Graham Manning

    13

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    25

    d.n.f.

    23

    23

    20

     104 pts
     18th Roger Noakes

    14

    22

    25

    19

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    18

    d.n.f.

      98 pts
     19th Eddy Dobson

    d.n.f.

    17

    20

    d.n.f.

    20

    13

    15

    d.n.f.

      85 pts
     20th Rod Turner

    5

    5

    d.n.f.

    5

    17

    14

    14

    16

      76 pts
     21st Simon Watkins

    16

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    17

    d.n.f.

    24

      57 pts
     22nd Ron Mannister

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    16

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

    12

    d.n.f.

    d.n.f.

      28 pts

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

     

  • Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2010.

    DAY 1

    Well having stayed over at Rolfs after Dave Collier’s match, I awoke around 7·30am to a rather grey and cloudy day, it had obviously rained during the night, but I soon had the kettle on and breakfast sorted Smile [:)]. There was going to be a full house today with some more anglers arriving, making 30 members of the Maggotdrowning forum (18 of them members of this years Jinx Squad Wink [;)] ) assembled from all over the country to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament 2010, a 2 legged affair fished over both the Saturday & Sunday and this is the 5th year running that the competition has taken place.

    Soon people were sorting out their kit while others were arriving and adding to the tented village for the weekend. Conversations were turning to what pegs were going to be fancied draws and how the pairings would turn out. At 11am I had a phone call from Al Loader to let us know that unfortunately work had conspired to stop him fishing this weekend Frown [:(], this left us one short but luckily John kindly agreed to lend Paul East his gear to fish so we were soon back up to the required number ThumbsUp [:T].

    Around 11·30am John sounded he fishery bell signalling that Dave and I were going to conduct the Pairs Draw, and it has to be said that there were a few strong pairs drawn including 5 pairs made up of anglers that had all been fishing The Jinx Series this year so they were up to speed with how the lake was fishing. My partner for the weekend was Richard(tricky)East, one of the newer forum members and a newcomer to Rolfs.

    With that out of the way it was time to draw for todays pegs, and it was around this time that things started to go wrong for me, Yes you guessed it, I opened my hand to find my Nemesis staring back at me………Peg 13 Evil [):]. Unfortunately for Clive he committed the schoolboy error of standing right behind me in the draw and got caught up in the vortex of my misfortune and was duly rewarded with peg 32 Evil [):] once more. Well it provided plenty of amusement for the assembled crowd while Clive and I debated what punishment was suitable for our drawing hands………

    Well with the match being fished from 2 – 7pm there was plenty of time to set up, even if I didn’t exactly rush to my peg Angry [:(!]…….

     The rigs were simple, a Malman Adam 4×12 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 10mtr line on the deck. A Malman Adam 4×10 on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the 5mtr line. I also set up a MW Trev on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 Drennan Carp Match for down the margin. Bait for the session would be my usual mix of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

    Well at 2pm John sounded the fishery bell to signal the All-In. My initial feed was at 5 and 10mtrs and down the right hand margin, and my 1st put in at 10mtrs with a banded 8mm pellet produced almost instant action as a Carp tore off across the lake leaving just a scale on the hook Frown [:(]……..

     Dave next door on peg 11 had snared a quick skimmer on the “feederless feeder” and after about 20 minutes I’d managed a small Carp of around 6lbs. It all went a bit quiet after that however with just a couple of small Roach to break the monotony.

    The car park bank looked like the place to be from where I was sitting with all the anglers playing fish at one time or another, indeed Steve snared a Common of 21½lbs but weighed and returned it without as much as a smile much to the consternation of 2 anglers that had dropped in to take a look at the lake before their forthcoming match there. However there was soon a sound that all anglers hate, Shocked [:0] a loud CRACK and I looked up to see Clive’s pole being towed toward the little lake. The number 5 section had failed but fortunately John managed to hook it out and with the fish still attached Clive played it out from peg 33…….

     This was followed by another sharp CRACK Shocked [:0], this time a top 2 belonging to Mitch on peg 3, amazingly Paul(tommyturtle001)Thompson on peg 10 hooked about 15 minutes later with his pellet wag. Well with nothing happening in my peg I reverted to my usual fall back, I filled it in at 5mtrs and set off with my camera Wink [;)]. Mick(The Chippy)Pearson was on peg 9 and had been a bit worried about fishing so close to the bush, but he’d gone for it and been rewarded with a 16lb Common early on which gave him the confidence to stick at it Smile [:)] …….

     Alex was on peg 8 and was steadily picking up a few fish from down the track at 6mtrs and across to the far bank ……

    Scott on peg 7 was trying to get to grips with his peg but was slowly falling behind Alex despite his best efforts ……

     I found Geoff on peg 5 and it was a case of steady away for him as he looked to be on the way to building a decent net of fish Smile [:)] …..

     Paul was on peg 4 and just pleased to be fishing the match after all, Tony was tucked away in the corner on peg 3 and was admitting to having a few, which knowing Tony meant he was on a shed full Wink [;)], but he too had smashed a number 5 section earlier on . Gem (The Minx) was on peg 1, fishing to the bush and with 3 weigher’s already on the board was looking good to add a few more to The Minxed List Wink [;)] ……

     Working my way round I stopped to commiserate with Clive and try to work out just how many concrete trucks would be needed to fill in pegs 13 Evil [):] and 32 Evil [):] ……..

     Malc was on peg 25 and it looked as if the power of The Jinx was having a positive effect as he was catching from both his swims and well on his way to a really good weight Smile [:)] ……

     Terry on peg 23 was looking a lot happier than I’ve seen him recently at Rolfs, with 3 good Carp in the opening period and the odd fish still putting in an appearance it seemed that there was every chance that he might avoid yet another Minxing today Wink [;)] ……..

     Steve(steak) had moved round a couple of pegs today to peg 20 and still catching, but today he was suffering his fair share of foul hookers and also lost a huge Perch at the net that he felt may have gone 5lbs ……

     Tom admitted to having a real struggle on peg 19 Frown [:(] and Colin was suffering with foul hookers on peg 18. Simon was having another decent day on 17, while Gaz on peg 16 was having a frustrating time and struggling to work out just how they wanted it ……

     My Pairs partner Richard was on peg 15 and had just switched to fishing worm, while Dave Collier was on peg 14 for a second day running and not really enjoying it anymore than yesterday Help [:H]. Back at my peg a quick chat with Webbo revealed that I hadn’t missed much, though he’d had a couple of fish that had snagged him in the bush to his left Disapprove [V] …….

     Well time marched on with little happening for me, though the car park bank still seemed to be producing and I’d just glanced at my watch and noticed there was an hour to go when my float slid under, lifting into it I was suddenly aware that the amount of resistance indicated something other than a Roach on the other end……..

     It proved to be a decent Common and a weigher to boot at 12½lbs. Happily it wasn’t on its own either as in the last hour I added a further 7 carp to the keepnet before John rang the bell for the All-Out. As we packed away a few of the lads were ribbing me that I may as well leave my gear there as I was bound to draw it again tomorrow Big Smile [:D], but surely fate wouldn’t be that unkind to me would it Evil [):] ? Anyway declining to tempt fate I soon had my gear back to the car park.

    So to the Weigh-In and the first weight of any note was Jon Hatch who managed the first ‘Ton’ with 100¾lbs from peg 39 . Gem had suffered a quiet second half to her match meaning that the cut off for a Minxing was 45¼lbs today. Tony had a cracking day in more ways than one and recorded an excellent 197½lbs, just short of a ‘Double Ton’ from peg3, yet it would prove to be only good enough for 2nd on the day 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123. Tony’s Pairs Partner Geoff backed him up well with 93½lbs from peg5, which would see them going into day 2 in 1st place . My fish registered 64½lbs which at least meant that I’d escaped a Minxing  while my partner Richard managed 1lb more leaving us in mid table. Simon managed the ‘Ton’ with a fine 155¾lbs from peg 17 for 3rd on the day 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123. Malc had the catch of the day though with a superb ‘Double Ton’ recording 211lbs for the win on the day 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 While Steve Wilson recorded the days final ‘Ton’ with 113¾lbs from peg 19 .

    So with all the results collated it was Tony & Geoff in 1st place with Ant & Steve in 2nd and Malc & Gaz in 3rd .

    So it was now time for a BBQ and a beer or two  and as the darkness moved in groups settled down to discuss the day events …..

     ….. or to mull over tactics for the match tomorrow, or simply catch up with the latest gossip and have a good laugh Big Smile [:D] ……

     It was past midnight when I made my way back to my bivvie. Would I have nightmares of peg 13 Evil [):] ? Surely I couldn’t draw it again could I Shocked [:0] ?
    All would be revealed in the morning Wink [;)] ………………….

    DAY 2

    I awoke around 7am and shock horror, I’d had a good nights sleep. Even better, the sun was shining from a blue sky icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123.
    On with the kettle for the first cup of coffee, while Webbo’s kind offer of Sausage & Bacon rolls took care of breakfast Eating.gif Eat picture by pnm123.

    Today was going to be an early draw just after 9am as we were fishing from 11am-4pm so that those that had travelled a considerable distance would be able to get home at a sensible sort of time. So having washed breakfast down with a second cup of coffee it was time to think about packing away the bivvie . It’s one of those jobs I hate, but for a change it seemed to go reasonably well and I managed to cram it all into the unfeasibly small carrying bag on the first attempt cheerleader.gif Cheerleader picture by pnm123, so with everything packed away into the car I was ready for whatever fate would throw my way today icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123.

    Lining up for the draw I must admit to a feeling of dread as I knew ‘IT‘ was still in the draw bag as I inched closer .
    However I was soon feeling better as I heard a groan from Scott ahead of me, Yes he’d claimed peg 13 Evil [):] for his very own today. I felt I should commiserate with him, but all I could manage was a silly grin and laughter Big Smile [:D]. Plunging my hand into the bag I found myself looking down on peg 1, yet another peg I’d not fished previously, that The Minx had fished yesterday……

     So round to peg 1 with the gear to set up. Now normally it’s just pegs 40 & 2 on this bank that are used, but for a change this weekend pegs 39, 1 & 3 had been used. Geoff had drawn peg 3 and was hoping for a similar result to that achieved by his partner Tony who’d fished it the previous day, while to my right on peg 39 was Gaz hoping for a better result than yesterday.
    Poor Jonny Broadbent had just wheeled his Rive to peg 38 and turned round to do something else when there was an almighty SPLASH!!!! The box complete with wheelkit had rolled down the bank depositing itself in his peg, not the ideal start to his day Frown [:(].

    Rig wise I just set up a couple of Malman Adam 4×12′s on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1′s to cover the 5 and 10mtr lines which were of similar depth and a Malman 4×12 Snake IV on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 to fish the bottom of the marginal shelf under the bush to my left. I also got the feeder rod out of it’s ready sleeve just in case things got desperate Bait for the session would be my usual mix of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

    I have to say that it felt quite strange setting up so early for a match at Rolfs, and I felt that we may all be in for a bit of a grueller , especially with the change in the weather as well. At 11am John signalled the All-In by ringing the bell and I fed all 3 of my lines before starting on a banded 8mm at 5mtrs. While I couldn’t see Geoff on peg 3 I could hear him and it was obvious that he’d caught a fish pretty quickly Wink [;)]. Dave had joined the action pretty quickly as well, winkling out a couple of Carp from down his right hand margin. Other than that though there didn’t seem to be much happening.

     Gaz had gone out long fishing shallow and got of the mark with a Common of around 12lbs……

    I couldn’t buy as much as a bite however, nothing not even a solitary silver to show for my efforts after 3 hours. The bush that had produced for Gem yesterday offered little in the way of cover from the sun today and the only signs of anything were at 10mtrs where the usual fizzing kept happening over the feed . The feeder with dampened pellet and double sweetcorn on the hook finally produced a bite just after 2pm and a feisty little Mirror of around 6lbs was soon safely in the net to save the dreaded DNW, but with Gem on peg8 and getting a few fish I just knew that I was on for a Minxing today.

    Malc had been on a stroll round and reported that most were struggling today and it appeared that Chris on peg 7 and Tony on peg 26 were having the best of it today and with Geoff having a few on a difficult day it would probably be enough for them to secure the title. However Ant had started to have a couple over on peg 38……

     Strangely despite struggling today I hadn’t filled it in and gone for a walk, just stuck at it and plugged away though it appeared to be all in vain. With about an hour left I managed a Common of around 7lbs on the pole at 10mtrs.

    Could this be the start of a decent last hour for me for the third match in a row? In a word NO Disapprove [V]. All that followed were a couple of foul hookers which just left me with scales for souvenirs, while a third led me a merry dance forcing me to thread my top kit under the platform…….

    ……. on two separate occasions before the hook pulled free. In fact it ended up feeling like a blessed relief when John rang the bell for the All-Out at 4pm .

    So time to pack everything away which was all going smoothly until I noticed that 3 sections of my margin pole were missing Shocked [:0]. I knew where I’d left them, and knew in my heart where they would be ……………. In the lake Crybaby [:C].
    Oh well it had to be done, down to my underpants and flip flops and in, it wasn’t to unpleasant and I located the sections straight away. Geoff gave me a hand out and as I turned round who should I spy with a camera but Malc Tongue [:P],
    A fair cop I suppose after all the times I’ve caught him Big Smile [:D]……..

     Rather than waste time I weighed my 2 carp at the weigh station behind me, recording a whole 13¼lbs on the board and returned to the business of packing away as the Weigh-In passed me by, the rate of it’s progress revealing just how hard the fishing had been today. Notable weights were Chris(cybermanc)Ellis who’d fished the feeder all day on peg 7 for 111lbs and his 1st ever match win  1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123. Tony coming 2nd overall for the second day running with 90¼lbs 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123. While Clive managed to draw somewhere other than peg 32 Evil [):] and with a level 60lbs was 3rd on the day  3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123. Meanwhile Gem had 50½lbs which meant that apart from the top 3 and the Malman brothers the rest of us got Minxed .

     So with everything out of the way we assembled outside the hut for the results to be read out, pools to be paid out and the trophies awarded by Mr Maggotdrowning himself , Dave(Webbo)Webster to the winning team of………..


    1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 Geoff Palmer & Tony Roberts 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 

    Congratulations to both of them Big Smile [:D].
    Well earnt over the weekend finishing 22 points clear,
    and Tony becoming the 1st angler to win it twice ThumbsUp [:T].

    Finally a few words of Thanks are due to the following people………
    John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their superb fishery during the weekend ThumbsUp [:T].
    Dave Webster, for bringing us all Maggotdrowning.com and organising the whole weekend ThumbsUp [:T].
    Tubertini who provided enough goodies to make sure that everyone took home a little something ThumbsUp [:T].
    Finally, all those Maggotdrowners that took part, the weekend wouldn’t be the success it is without you ThumbsUp [:T].

    Pairs Result

    Position

    Pairs

    Saturday  

    Sunday

    Total

     1st Geoff(GeoffP)Palmer & Tony(Spamwham)Roberts

    25/29=54

     24/29=53

    107

     2nd Ant(Antwood)Haywood & Steve Wilson

    22/27=49

     16/20=36

    85

     3rd Malc(The Jinx)Doyle &  Gaz Malman

    30/12=42

     14/27= 41

    83

     4th Gemma(The Minx)Doyle & Clive Pritchard

    7/19=26

     25/28=53

    79

     5th Jonathan(jonny_b1989)Broadbent & Jon(Hatchye)Hatch

    5/26=31

     22/20= 42

    73

     6th Marcus(Budgie65)Burgess & Colin(The Pike)Sharrard

    23/14=37

    1/23=24

    61

     7th= Simon(SimpleSimon)Mound & Dave Moore

    28/ 9=37

     13/ 9 =22

    59

     7th= AlexMalman & Tom(tommodiesel)Little

    24/ 5=29

     26/ 4= 30

    59

     9th Keith(Keith74)Powell & Chris(cybermanc)Ellis

    10/3=13

     15/30=45

    58

     10th= Paul(Nomorelongwalks)East & Dave(Webbo)Webster

    18/2=20

     10/21= 31

    51

     10th= Dave(The Fish)Collier & Paul(tommyturtle001)Thompson

    13/1=14

     17/20=37

    51

     12th Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff & Mick(The Chippy)Pearson

    20/15=35

     12/ 3= 15

    50

     13th Richard(tricky)East & Peter(Mugger)Morton

    18/16=34

      8/7=15

    49

     14th Steve(Steak)Akal & Dai(Dai Fish)Thomas

    21/ 6=27

     11/1=12

    39

     15th Mitch(mitch-fish)Auger & Scott(methodgob)Weston

    11/8=19

    5/ 6=11

    30

    Saturday Individual Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

    25

     Malc(The Jinx)Doyle

     211lbs 00ozs

     2nd

    3

     Tony(Spamwham)Roberts

     197lbs 08ozs

     3rd

    17

     Simon(SimpleSimon)Mound

     155lbs 12ozs

     4th

    29

     Steve Wilson

     113lbs 12ozs

     5th

    39

     Jon(Hatchye)Hatch

     100lbs 12ozs

     6th

    5

     Geoff(GeoffP)Palmer

      93lbs 08ozs

     7th

    8

     AlexMalman

      85lbs 00ozs

     8th

    31

     Marcus(Budgie65)Burgess

      84lbs 04ozs

     9th

    30

     Ant(Antwood)Haywood

      82lbs 08ozs

     10th

    20

     Steve(Steak)Akal

      77lbs 12ozs

     11th

    23

     Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff

      75lbs 08ozs

     12th

    32

     Clive Pritchard

      74lbs 12ozs

     13th=

    4

     Paul(Nomorelongwalks)East

      65lbs 08ozs

     13th=

    15

     Richard(tricky)East

      65lbs 08ozs

     15th

    13

     Peter(Mugger)Morton

      64lbs 08ozs

     16th

    9

     Mick(The Chippy)Pearson

      63lbs 12ozs

     17th

    18

     Colin(The Pike)Sharrard

      62lbs 12ozs

     18th

    14

     Dave(The Fish)Collier

      56lbs 00ozs

     19th

    16

     Gaz Malman

      54lbs 08ozs

     20th

    34

     Mitch(mitch-fish)Auger

      51lbs 08ozs

     21st

    28

     Keith(Keith74)Powell

      49lbs 04ozs

     22nd

    36

     Dave Moore

      48lbs 12ozs

     23rd

    7

     Scott(methodgob)Weston

      47lbs 12ozs

     24th

    1

     Gemma(The Minx)Doyle

      45lbs 04ozs

     25th

    22

     Dai(Dai Fish)Thomas

      36lbs 08ozs

     26th=

    38

     Jonathan(jonny_b1989)Broadbent

      33lbs 08ozs

     26th=

    19

     Tom(tommodiesel)Little

      33lbs 08ozs

     28th

    26

     Chris(cybermanc)Ellis

      23lbs 08ozs

     29th

    11

     Dave(Webbo)Webster

      22lbs 08ozs

     30th

    10

     Paul(tommyturtle001)Thompson

       13lbs 12ozs

    Sunday Individual Result

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

    7

     Chris(cybermanc)Ellis 111lbs 00ozs
     2nd

    26

     Tony(Spamwham)Roberts  90lbs 04ozs
     3rd

    14

     Clive Pritchard  60lbs 00ozs
     4th

    39

     Gaz Malman  56lbs 04ozs
     5th

    5

     AlexMalman  55lbs 08ozs
     6th

    8

     Gemma(The Minx)Doyle  50lbs 08ozs
     7th

    3

     Geoff(GeoffP)Palmer  49lbs 08ozs
     8th

    18

     Colin(The Pike)Sharrard  49lbs 04ozs
     9th

    36

     Jonathan(jonny_b1989)Broadbent  49lbs 00ozs
     10th

    4

     Dave(Webbo)Webster  42lbs 08ozs
     11th=

    20

     Steve Wilson  42lbs 04ozs
     11th=

    32

     Jon(Hatchye)Hatch  42lbs 04ozs
     11th=

    17

     Paul(tommyturtle001)Thompson  42lbs 04ozs
     14th

    9

     Dave(The Fish)Collier  39lbs 12ozs
     15th

    38

     Ant(Antwood)Haywood  38lbs 08ozs
     16th

    25

     Keith(Keith74)Powell  38lbs 00ozs
     17th

    34

     Malc(The Jinx)Doyle  37lbs 04ozs
     18th

    18

     Simon(SimpleSimon)Mound  34lbs 08ozs
     19th

    29

     Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff  30lbs 08ozs
     20th

    23

     Steve(Steak)Akal  29lbs 00ozs
     21st

    31

     Paul(Nomorelongwalks)East  20lbs 00ozs
     22nd

    10

     Dave Moore   18lbs 12ozs
     23rd

    19

     Richard(tricky)East   18lbs 08ozs
     24th

    1

     Peter(Mugger)Morton   13lbs 04ozs
     25th

    13

     Scott(methodgob)Weston   10lbs 00ozs
     26th

    11

     Mitch(mitch-fish)Auger     8lbs 12ozs
     27th

    30

     Tom(tommodiesel)Little     8lbs 08ozs
     28th

    28

     Mick(The Chippy)Pearson     6lbs 08ozs
     29th=

    22

     Marcus(Budgie65)Burgess

    DNW

     29th=

    15

     Dai(Dai Fish)Thomas

    DNW

     

  • Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Dave the Fish’s

    Invitation Match.

    Well today I’m once again making the trip down to Rolfs Lake for an invitation match organised by Dave the Fish as a prequel to the Maggotdrowning.com Rolfs Pairs Tournament 2010. This has become something of an annual event fished by a number of those that will be fishing at the weekend and a few that won’t. It’s a nice light hearted match, fully in keeping with the Maggotdrowning ethos that allows everyone to settle in for the weekend ahead with plenty of time to spare .

    I’d been looking forward to this with a keen sense of anticipation for a few weeks prior to the event, but had a bit of a shock on Thursday when I got a phone call from Dave(Webbo) informing me that he’d been unable to get any trophies for the Pairs Match, and asking me if there was anything I could do to remedy the situation Fortunately there is a company local to me who deal in nothing other than trophies and a quick trip down to their shop sorted the problem, so a big THANK YOU to Alan Clarke and his staff at CLASSIC TROPHIES for getting us out of the brown sticky stuff at very short notice ThumbsUp [:T].

     It was a bit of a dull grey day with a hint of drizzle in the air when I woke up on Friday morning, so with the car loaded with all my gear, including the extras necessary needed for a 3 day stay it was off to Battersea for breakfast before driving through London to reach the M40, Thankfully this went amazingly well and I pulled into the fishery car park just after 10am . Geoff P and Mick the Chippy were already in situ as were our hosts for the weekend ahead John & Pauline. First things first, so I soon got my bivvie erected as it was obvious that we were going to get some rain at some point in the day. With that out of the way and the car park staring to fill as others arrived I gave Mick a hand with his bivvie. Like many of us, not being a hardened carper the bivvie only comes out for the annual trip to Rolfs and remembering where all the rods go takes a while. we got there in the end though .

    By now the car park was filling up, Dai had brought his caravan, along with his wife Anne, daughter Hayley and the dog, while Malc had Liam and Crystal in tow. Now Malc had invested the large sum of £14 in a new 4 man tent and was trying to erect it for the 1st time with the aid of the kids and Hayley, unfortunately the only instructions were a single photo of what it should look like, Despite showing him how to fit the supporting poles, you could tell it wasn’t going well when Hayley told Malc to “Step away from the tent” and as she had a mallet in her hand  it seemed like a good idea at the time Big Smile [:D]. I then got a phone call from Paul(nomorelongwalks)East who had pulled out due to a family commitment, and he told me that the arrangement had been cancelled so he was coming down later anyway for a weekend with the gang despite not being able to fish .

    Chris(cybermanc)Ellis and Tom(tommodiesel)Little had arrived early to set up as they were fishing The Pairs at the weekend, but Dave invited them to fish today as they’d arrived ahead of schedule so there were 19 of us ready to go when Dave called for the draw around 12·30pm despite a few of the attendees being caught up in M40 traffic Angry [:(!]. We were going to fish from 2·15 – 7·15pm anyway so Pauline drew for those missing.
    Into the draw bag and I found peg 28 on the car park bank would be my home for 5 hours, a nice short walk and a peg I hadn’t fished before……

     John had mentioned that today looked ideal for the feeder and that seemed as good a starting point as any especially as I had it already set up in its rod sleeve. Pole wise I just set up a couple of Malman Adam 4×12′s on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1′s for fishing to the bushes on either side and a Malman 4×12 Snake IV on 0·20 with a size 14 Guru QM1 for a line at 5mtrs. Bait for the session would be a variety of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers.

    Simps, Gem and Budgie had made it in time for the start so it was a full compliment of 19 by the time that Dave signalled the All-In with what sounded like a strangled duck Tongue [:P]. Geoff over on peg 10 soon had a few feet of orange Vespe coming from his pole and was soon off the mark with the 1st Carp of the weekend .

    I managed a quick Carp on the feeder, a Mirror of around 7lbs to get me off the mark, while Simps was soon out onto the pole line and got a decent 16lb’er to get him off the mark, but it was Dave on peg 24 who seemed to get off to the best start fishing the pellet cone or “Feederless Feeder” as he calls it, it seemed to be doing the business today as a succession of fish came to the net Wink [;)]……

     Gem was on peg 9 and after her customary shout signalling her 1st fish had a lot of us worried about a Minxing as it’s a peg capable of producing a good weight, as Gem had proved taking a ‘Ton+’ and a load of scalps off of it a couple of weeks ago in a Jinx Match …….

    Well things didn’t get any better for me with nothing further to show on the feeder or all 3 pole lines apart from foul hooking a rather angry Carp in the tail. This gave me a good run around but I thought I was in with a chance of landing it, unfortunately as I piled on the pressure in an attempt to net it the line close to the hook parted shooting the rest of the rig back towards me and embedding the float into the middle finger of my right hand . Looking at it with a degree of shock I decided that it shouldn’t really be there and pulled it straight out only to be rewarded with the sight of large amounts of blood pouring out of my battered digit. Luckily Maria has always insisted that I carry a small first aid kit in my carryall for just this type of event so I was able to staunch the flow and bandage it up Wink [;)].

    So with nothing else having come my way after 2½ hours so I decided to fill it in on the 5mtr line and go for a stroll with the camera. I passed a rather disconsolate Tom(Tommodiesel)Little on peg 30 who was fishless Frown [:(] …….

    ……. and found Clive on peg 32, now this peg is starting to haunt Clive like peg 13 haunts me, and I have to say that Clive had the look of a man resigned to a Minxing  and just going through the motions as he could see that he was falling behind Gem who was directly opposite him …….

    Mick was on peg 34 and was having a bit of a struggle getting to grips with it today, but was plugging away and putting his faith in Mary Q to turn things round …….

     Malc was tucked away down on peg 38 and had Liam and Crystal to keep him company and maybe bring him some luck……

     ………. strangely Malc was fishing the feeder , a surprising site as he normally fishes the pole all the time at Rolfs but it appeared to be working for him as he was into a run of Carp on it …….

     Budgie on peg 40 was nowhere to be seen, which summed up the way his match was going , while Dai was on peg 2 and putting a few together, but just glad to be there after suffering concussion having cracked his head on the tailgate of Geoff’s car the previous weekend  ……

     Chris Withall was having a real struggle on peg 4 and had resorted to fishing the waggler and maggot for anything with fins to put some fish in the net …….

    peg 6 found Dave Moore wrapped up in his hoodie, not in the best of health, he probably shouldn’t have been fishing and the sport wasn’t exactly providing the tonic he needed …….

     Terry had finally managed a half decent draw in peg 7 but the residents had obviously heard of his previous exploits this season and decided to heap a bit more suffering on him leaving him facing a sixth Minxing on the trot …….

    ……. while Scott(methodgob) had run to peg 8 only to find that he needn’t have rushed as the fish were making him work hard for each one of them …….

     By the time I arrived back at my peg Paul had arrived and came over to say Hello, I was also rewarded with a bite! not the hoped for Carp, but a decent skimmer that was soon safely in the net and it was soon followed by another, and such fish can save a Minxing on a hard day . Over on my Nemesis peg 13 Evil [):] Chris(Cybermanc) was getting a few, but losing to many for his liking ……

    Dave over on peg 14 was suffering a bit of a grueller, I reckon it was the sound of that strangled duck at the start had scared his fish off Big Smile [:D]……

     All the action seem to be coming from the pegs to the right of me though, Simon was playing catch up with Dave who was still getting regular fish, and while Simon was getting quite a few foul hookers from his 5mtr line he was landing quite a few of them……

     However Ant over on peg 18 was coming on strong with a good run of fish late on and Steve(steak) on peg 22 was quietly getting on with things fishing worm and avoiding the foul hookers that were causing havoc for most ……

    I’d managed one more Carp by the time that Paul came back to see how I was doing. No sooner had he sat down behind me than I latched into a foul hooker that went tearing off across the lake taking my rig with it. I remarked to Paul that I couldn’t be bothered to set up another rig with 45 minutes to go so just dropped my feeder rig onto the 5mtr line with a single grain of corn on the hook. Well the tip wrapped round almost instantly and I soon had another carp in the net and I managed another six before Dave found that strangled duck again to sound the All-Out. I have to say that I was quite surprised to have finished so well and though I had 50lbs+ which just might save me from a Minxing Wink [;)].

    So with the gear packed away it was time for the Weigh-In and Malc soon set the pace with 73¾lbs to easily win his section, after which it was a tale of woe for many with the next weight of any relevance to most being Gem’s who set the mark of 52¼lbs + to avoid a Minxing. The Minxed List grew until the scales reached Ant who recorded the first Ton of the day with 109¼lbs, good enough for 3rd on the day 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123 and just pipping Steve who weighed 108½lbs. Round to Dave who was well chuffed with his 136½lbs, but it was only good enough for 2nd  2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123 as Simon took a fine win recording 144½lbs 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123. My late run of fish resulted in a weight of 62lbs for me so no Minxing for me today and a surprise section win as a bonus . THANK YOU to Dave the Fish for todays Invite ThumbsUp [:T], an enjoyable match regardless of the weights and a great way to kick off the weekend Big Smile [:D].

    So with everything out of the way it was back to the bivvies as the barbecue and various cookers were fired up, beers were opened and the inquest on the days events were discussed along with the prospects for the weekend ahead. It went on long into the night for some, and was still going when I rolled into my sleeping bag just after midnight and it didn’t take long before I was sound asleep.
    What would lie ahead? It wouldn’t be long till we found out Wink [;)].

    Position

    Peg

    Angler

    Weight

     1st

    26

     Simon Mound 144lbs 08ozs
     2nd

    24

     Dave Webster 136lbs 04ozs
     3rd

    18

     Ant Haywood 109lbs 04ozs
     4th

    22

     Steve Akal 108lbs 08ozs
     5th

    38

     Malc Doyle  73lbs 12ozs
     6th

    28

     Peter Morton  62lbs 00ozs
     7th

    2

     Dai Thomas  56lbs 04ozs
     8th

    9

     Gem Doyle  52lbs 12ozs
     9th

    32

     Clive Pritchard  46lbs 00ozs
     10th

    8

     Scott Weston  44lbs 04ozs
     11th

    13

     Chris Ellis  42lbs 04ozs
     12th

    10

     Geoff Palmer  37lbs 04ozs
     13th

    34

     Mick Pearson  33lbs 08ozs
     14th

    14

     Dave Collier  31lbs 00ozs
     15th

    7

     Terry Goff  29lbs 12ozs
     16th

    6

     Dave Moore  26lbs 04ozs
     17th

    4

     Chris Withall  19lbs 04ozs
     18th=

    40

     Marcus Burgess

    DNW

     18th=

    30

     Tom Little

    DNW

     

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2 & 4.

    Faye’s Match

    magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Organised by Maggotdrowning.com
    With all proceeds going to support


    ML.jpg picture by pnm123

    Around this time last year Bill G organised a fund raising match in aid of PostPals.co.uk in support of a young lady called Faye, who has become very close to the hearts of a lot of the members who use the forum on the website Maggotdrowning.com and you can read the story of just how that day went HERE icon_smile_thumb.gif Thumbs Up picture by pnm123. It was such a success, that Bill has taken up the reins once more and we’re back down at Monk Lakes today to do it all over again icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123.

    So having risen at some ungodly hour to take Mrs M to work for 6am, I couldn’t help noticing just how cold it was outside cold.gif Cold picture by pnm123, so the first job after another coffee and toast was to dig the thermals out and climb into them before loading the car. With one thing and another it was just gone 7 am once I set off, but a smooth run down saw me pulling into the car park around 8am icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123. Evidently I passed Clive and Tony on the way down, but they were unable to pick up my slipstream and arrived a little later icon_smile_tongue.gif Tongue picture by pnm123 .
    A good turnout seemed assured as people assembled and various breakfast goodies were devoured Eating.gif Eat picture by pnm123 as introductions were made to new faces and friendships renewed. People had come from far and wide for this match, notably Geoff and his better half Mags, from Motherwell in Scotland, while Arkwright and his good lady Pat had trekked down from Lancashire along with a few other ‘Monkeys’ from above the Watford Gap  and the ‘Pink One’ that is Jessebobs escaped from Bristol for the day icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123.

    Faye’s Dad, Dave T had come down for the day to offer his support, as unfortunately Faye was still in Adenbrookes with Mum Liz keeping her company. With the draw rolling round it was also good to see Vince putting in an appearance icon_smile_wink.gif Wink picture by pnm123. Unfortunately he’s been suffering from a bout of pneumonia, preventing him from fishing, but he still found the time to come down to meet everyone and lend Bill a hand with the draw. So in for the draw and peg 145 stuck to my hand. Up on Lake 4 and I was quite happy as with the islands and a fair bit of vegetation it may offer a bit of shelter on what promised to be an absolute grueller of a day weather wise……..  nono.gif No picture by pnm123 yeah right.

    ah.jpg My peg for the day picture by pnm123

    Well the peg looked great, but the wind was howling in, but at least it was at my back. It meant that I could comfortably fish at around 7mtrs on the pole and with a decent 2½ft in the margin and a nice level 3ft+ at 7mtrs those would be my 2 lines utilising 2 rigs that were still in my box from an earlier club match on the lake back in March. I also set up my feeder rod as I had it with me in its ready sleeve. Bait for the day was maggot, pellet and corn with some groundbait for the method. For company I had Bill’s club mate John to my left while to my right was ‘Mermaid’ Linda’s husband Chris and Al. Did I mention the wind icon_smile_angry.gif Angry picture by pnm123 ??? 1st job was to retrieve my seat box cover that went flying past me and then navigated half the lake before docking in Jessebobs swim, mind you he was going to need all he could get if he thought he was going to fill 3 nets today icon_smile_tongue.gif Tongue picture by pnm123 ……

    bi.jpg Steve (Jessebobs) Burgess picture by pnm123

    So 10·30am and Bill called the All-In, feed onto both lines and out to 7mts with double maggot on the hook, a bit of lifting and dropping and 5 minutes in a nice fat Gudgeon broke the duck. The next hour saw just a couple of small Carp and a few skimmers for me, but John seemed to be finding a few as was Steve (spots) Potter up on peg 149……

    bo.jpg Steve (spots) Potter picture by pnm123

    Dave T came along for a chat and I gave him my camera with instructions to take a few pictures on his travels. Bill put in an appearance a little later, but word was that while most had caught, very few were catching regularly as the wind was doing its best to make life difficult for most on both lakes.

    Next up Kevin’s partner Jean and Pat (The Raffle Ticket Mafia) arrived and with their subtle charms had soon extracted cash from us all in exchange for 1000+ raffle tickets icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123.

    Meanwhile over on Lake 2 it was starting to look more like an audition for ‘Deadliest Catch’ than a fishing match as the wind , rain and occasional bouts of hail interspersed with sunshine was making conditions more than a tad difficult for a lot of the anglers. However tucked away behind his brolly on peg 67 Jon (Mutley) Reed was having one of those sessions we all dream about……

    bm.jpg Jon (Mutley) Reed picture by pnm123

     Now Jon is no match angler but a combination of simple feeder tactics and regularly pinging feed over the top kept fish coming to his rod virtually all match icon_smile_wink.gif Wink picture by pnm123.

    Further up on peg 73 Keith (shallowman) Haynes was making the most of it fishing chopped worm & caster for anything with fins and was slowly building a good weight.

    ab.jpg Keith (shallowman) Haynes picture by pnm123

    I’d invited a work colleague, Dave Janes along today to fish his 1st ever match, he’s not long started pole fishing, and struggled a bit as the concept of a match was so new to him……

    bd.jpg Peg 77  Dave Janes 1 picture by pnm123

    but he was delighted to get his best ever carp on the pole which weighed in at 12½lbs……

    af.jpg 12½lb Carp for Dave picture by pnm123

    For a lot though it was just a case of battling through and nicking the odd fish where possible Geoff had told me that Mags always brings the rain with her when she leaves Scotland …………… He wasn’t wrong icon_smile_tongue.gif Tongue picture by pnm123. Arkwright must have wondered why he’d travelled all the way down from Lancashire, as us southern lads had obviously lied to him about these Southern ‘Baggin’ waters, but he stuck at it and had a few icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123 ……

    ad.jpg Arkie in the rain picture by pnm123

    Mick was under severe pressure as he had granddaughter Rosie for company on the next peg icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123 ……

    bn.jpg Rosie picture by pnm123

    …… nono.gif No picture by pnm123 No that’s wrong as Mick really doesn’t ‘do’ pressure, being one of the most relaxed anglers you could ever hope to meet……

    bk.jpg One in the net for Mick picture by pnm123

    …… and between nicking a couple and helping young Rosie, honour remained intact at the end with Mick getting the decision by a clear 10ozs icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123.

    Gary (garycatch) Catchpole had drawn the fabled peg 45 and was slowly putting a few together icon_smile_wink.gif Wink picture by pnm123 ……..

    bh.jpg Gary (garycatch) Catchpole picture by pnm123

    Linda aka Mermaid was also getting a few, and it was just a question of whether it would prove to be enough to give her the bragging rights over husband Chris who was over on Lake 4……

    az.jpg Linda (mermaid) Billington 1 picture by pnm123

    Meanwhile back on Lake 4 Trevor was getting a few towards the island when the wind dropped, but it was never for long enough……

    bl.jpg Trevor (MT Net) Little picture by pnm123

    Al was battling on and getting the odd fish, but couldn’t put a run of them together……

    ac.jpg One in the net for Al picture by pnm123

    So with a couple of hours to go I decided that enough was enough with the pole and reached for the feeder rod. 3 grains of corn hair rigged and lobbed towards the island. Within a minute the tip wrapped round and a small Mirror was safely into the net icon_smile.gif Smile picture by pnm123. That set the pattern for my last 2 hours, regular fish, but a few hook lengths were claimed by various snags that seemed to litter the area, but at least it kept me reasonably busy till Bill called the All-Out at 3·30pm.

    Al and I had the scales for Lake 4 and thankfully given the conditions the Weigh-In didn’t take to long as the weather started to close in once more. Steve (spots) Potter taking the section with 56½lbs icon_smile_wink.gif Wink picture by pnm123 ahead of Steve (Jessebobs) Burgess’s 42¼lbs.

    So with the gear packed away it was back to the car park for the results. Overall the day belonged to Jon (Mutley) Reed  with a fine 101lbs to take the win 1st.gif 1st picture by pnm123 ahead of Keith (shallowman) Haynes’s level 85lbs 2nd.gif 2nd picture by pnm123, while Steve (spots) Potter’s 56½lbs filled 3rd place 3rd.gif 3rd picture by pnm123.

    Bill G then said a few words of thanks before announcing that the total raised for Post Pals on the day had come to £853 and with another £270 still to come from an auction for a day at Rolfs Lake should take the total to over £1100 icon_smile_thumb.gif Thumbs Up picture by pnm123.

    Dave T  then thanked everyone for their efforts and read out the following letter that Faye had sent as she was unable to attend icon_smile_sad.gif Sad picture by pnm123 …..

    Thanks to everyone for coming to the match.
      We know many of you have travelled a long way. I’m sorry I can’t be there in
    person. I was hoping to be there but Addenbrookes won’t let me come home yet.
    Me & my mum will be thinking of you all today. Hope you all caught lots of fish
    & have enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for supporting my charity Post Pals. The money
    raised helps many other seriously ill children.
    Thank you for all your messages on the Maggot Drowners site.
    A special thank you to Bill for organising everything again.
    Hopefully I will see you all at the next one.

    Love to you all
    Faye.

    Well after that all that remained was to draw the raffle, and with that out of the way farewells were bid. I’d just like to say a word of thanks, firstly to Bill G for all his efforts organising the day icon_smile_thumb.gif Thumbs Up picture by pnm123, and to all those anglers that took part icon_smile_thumb.gif Thumbs Up picture by pnm123, and Monk Lakes who donated a sizable part of the peg fees back to the cause icon_smile_thumb.gif Thumbs Up picture by pnm123. Same again next year folks?

    Overall Results

    Position Peg                Angler Weight
     1st Peg 67 Jon (Mutley) Reed 101lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 73 Keith (shallowman) Haynes   85lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 149 Steve (spots) Potter   56lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 45 Gary (garycatch) Catchpole   44lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 154 Steve (Jessebobs) Burgess   42lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 146 John Manktelow   39lbs 12ozs
     7th Peg 151 Trevor (MT Net) Little   35lbs 04ozs
     8th Peg 145 Peter (Mugger) Morton   31lbs 12ozs
     9th Peg 152 Steve (badpegpicker) Oswick   31lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 77 Dave Janes   26lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 64 Michael (mickeym) McMillan   25lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 62 Jay Lay   24lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 142 Al Loader   23lbs 04ozs
     14th Peg 52 John (arkwright) Anderson   21lbs 08ozs
     15th Peg 143 Chris (mr mermaid) Billington   21lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg 68 Linda (mermaid) Billington   21lbs 02ozs
     17th Peg 146 A Ellis   21lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 46 Alan (Genus 9) West   18lbs 08ozs
     19th Peg 59 Brian (indiginous3556)   16lbs 08ozs
     20th Peg 58 Clive (black hydro) Pritchard   15lbs 08ozs
     21st= Peg 76 Simon Elsey   15lbs 00ozs
     21st= Peg 155 (pegg)   15lbs 00ozs
     23rd  Peg 74 Tony (spamwham) Roberts   14lbs 00ozs
     24th Peg 56 Russell (Russ G) Graves   13lbs 04ozs
     25th Peg 63 Michael (redspike) Ashby   13lbs 00ozs
     26th Peg 49 Keith (keith 74) Powell   12lbs 00ozs
     27th Peg 65 Andrew (greentura) Green   10lbs 04ozs
     28th Peg 57 Geoff (geoff p) Palmer     8lbs 00ozs
     29th Peg 148 John (old tart) Ashby     7lbs 08ozs
     30th Peg 70 Chris Withall     7lbs 00ozs
     31st= Peg 66 Kevin (kev the catch) Loveland     6lbs 08ozs
     31st= Peg 51 Toby (vassago) Wells     6lbs 08ozs
     33rd Peg 69 G Flynn     6lbs 04ozs
     34th Peg 54 Mick (the chippy) Pearson     3lbs 12ozs
     35th Peg 48 Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff     3lbs 04ozs
     36th Peg 47 Dean (Marvin Waggler) Kershaw     2lbs 04ozs
     37th Peg 75 Sven (svenc) Castle            08ozs

    Section Results

    Section A   
     1st Peg 45 Gary (garycatch) Catchpole   44lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 52 John (arkwright) Anderson   21lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 53 A Ellis   21lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 46 Alan (Genus 9) West   18lbs 08ozs
     5th  Peg 49 Keith (keith 74) Powell   12lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 51 Toby (vassago) Wells     6lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg 54 Mick (the chippy) Pearson     3lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 48 Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff     3lbs 04ozs
     9th Peg 47 Dean (Marvin Waggler) Kershaw     2lbs 04ozs
       
    Section B   
     1st Peg 64 Michael (mickeym) McMillan   25lbs 04ozs
     2nd  Peg 62 Jay Lay   24lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 59 Brian (indiginous3556)   16lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 58 Clive (black hydro) Pritchard   15lbs 08ozs
     5th Peg 56 Russell (Russ G) Graves   13lbs 04ozs
     6th Peg 63 Michael (redspike) Ashby   13lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 65 Andrew (greentura) Green   10lbs 04ozs
     8th Peg 57 Geoff (geoff p) Palmer     8lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 66 Kevin (kev the catch) Loveland     6lbs 08ozs
        
    Section C   
     1st Peg 67 Jon (Mutley) Reed  101lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 73 Keith (shallowman) Haynes   85lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 77 Dave Janes   26lbs 12ozs
     4th Peg 68 Linda (mermaid) Billington   21lbs 02ozs
     5th Peg 76 Simon Elsey   15lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 74 Tony (spamwham) Roberts   14lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 70 Chris Withall     7lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 69 G Flynn     6lbs 04ozs
     9th Peg 75 Sven (svenc) Castle            08ozs
        
    Section D   
     1st Peg 149 Steve (spots) Potter   56lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 154 Steve (Jessebobs) Burgess   42lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 146 John Manktelow   39lbs 12ozs
     4th Peg 151 Trevor (MT Net) Little   35lbs 04ozs
     5th Peg 145 Peter (Mugger) Morton   31lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg 152 Steve (badpegpicker) Oswick   31lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 142 Al Loader   23lbs 04ozs
     8th Peg 143 Chris (mr mermaid) Billington   21lbs 04ozs
     9th Peg 155 (pegg)   15lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg 148 John (old tart) Ashby     7lbs 08ozs

     

  • Wyland International Angling Centre, near Battle, East Sussex.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Southern Fur & Feather.

    w1.jpg Wylands, House Lake. picture by pnm123

    Time for the annual Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match and we’re back down at Wylands on House Lake today. Pressure of work has meant that I haven’t been out fishing for nearly 2 months so it was good just to be going fishing today . I was hoping that the weather would be a little kinder than last year, but looking through the curtains it was looking pretty cold and that was confirmed as I loaded the car. I rolled into the car park around 7·50am in tandem with Mark (MoleMan) and found Bill, Simon, Trevor and Wayne already in residence at the tea hut. The bad news however was that there was no food on the go , and the bailiff had only opened it so we could get a cuppa before we started.
    Looking across the lake it was obvious that some drastic gardening had gone on since last year with the island that’s reached by the footbridge cut in half to form two, a lot of the trees cut back and a number of bivvy friendly swims installed on the woodside bank and the bank to the left of the bridge.
    Mark soon had the draw underway for the 14 of us in attendance and put in 3 more pegs for absentees who hadn’t cancelled . I ended up with peg 16, one of 4 new pegs to the left of the bridge. For company today I had Tony to my left on 17, while to my right was Wayne on 15 and Trevor on 14 next to the bridge. Positioning my box I couldn’t help noticing the icy easterly that was blowing from right to left into our pegs, and then for good measure it started raining .

    A1-13.jpg My peg on House Lake. picture by pnm123

    Now with a good head of silvers present and the cold snap probably slowing the carp down, I’d picked a couple of top kits with soft white Hydro and made up a couple of silvers rigs, 4X12 carpa tricky’s on 0·12 to 0·10 with size 20 Red Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot hooks. Now the main body of house lake offers depths of around 4-6 ft on the pole line, so I was a little taken aback to find no more than 2½ft regardless of where I plumbed up . Bait for today was red & white maggot, 4mm expanders and some micro pellet.

    10am and Mark blew for the All-in, I potted some maggot and pellet straight out at 8mtrs and a similar amount about 10ft to the left of it.
    Out with the rig baited with a single red maggot and 30 seconds later a small roach made sure that I wouldn’t be facing a DNW . Further small roach followed in the next 2 hours, but Tony and I were really struggling, Wayne appeared to be doing a bit better, while Trevor fishing the whip was definitely doing the best of the four of us……

    A4-13.jpg Looking down the backwater. picture by pnm123

    Feeling a little disheartened I grabbed the camera and took a stroll. Jeff had once again drawn on the island and was getting regular action with some skimmers helping him build a decent net. Looking across I could see Mark on the 1st peg and rumour had it that he already had a bonus Carp in the net…….

    A5-13.jpg "Hathers" picture by pnm123

    Indeed it appeared that all those on the wood bank had got off to a decent start, especially Simon and Andy……

    A7-13.jpg The Woods bank. picture by pnm123

    and I could see that Vince over on the dam was getting a few meaning that he was looking odds on for another Golden Nugget off me today ……

    A6-12.jpg Vince on his way to a "Golden Nugget" picture by pnm123

    I could see Bill sitting in splendid isolation with the tea hut bank all to himself, and as I made my way over he was into a fish that was taking just a bit to much elastic for it to be anything other than a Carp. A couple of anxious minutes followed, but soon it was safely in the net, a nice bonus fish ……

    A9-12.jpg A nice chunky Carp for Bill. picture by pnm123

    Mick looked to be lost in concentration and getting amongst a few silvers himself ……

    A10-11.jpg Mick the Chippy. picture by pnm123

    Indeed the whole of the main part of the lake seemed to be fishing quite well as I made my way back to my peg. I stopped off for a chat with Trev to try and pick his brains as it’s his local fishery and he suggested that I needed to up my feeding despite the bitter cold as that’s what the fish normally responded to. So back to my peg and off with the kinder pot and out with the catapult.

    Well it worked to a degree, in that the roach started to come a bit more frequently, but they were still just 1-2oz fish with the occasional 4oz bonus fish. With around half an hour to go Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff appeared having come down to see how we were getting on, and it was as I chatted to Tony that I struck into another roach bite only to see quite a lot of White Hydro , and a nervous couple of minutes followed before I slid the net under a Carp of around 5lbs. However that was the end of the excitement for me and Mark blew the All-out at 3pm just as the rain returned for us to pack up in. Thankfully we were using fishery keepnets so were able to pack up in double quick time and get the gear back to the car before the weigh in .

    Mark kicked off with 20¾lbs and was rapidly overtaken by Simon with 24¼lbs, Stuart managed 15½lbs before Andy brought 37lbs to the scales including 3 Carp. Vince’s 16lbs+ secured the Golden Nugget from yours truly Crybaby [:C]while Jay put a match winning 38¼lbs on the scales . Mick recorded 12¾lbs while Bills level 34lbs left him ruing 3 lost carp, anyone of which would have given him the win. Next up Jeff and Trevor both put 25½lbs on the scales for joint 5th place. Wayne had 14½lbs, my meagre total was 11lbs 6ozs leaving poor Tony last to weigh and last on the day with just 4¼lbs to show for his efforts .

    At least everyone took home a prize on the day , one day hopefully we’ll catch it on a day when the weather gods are smiling on us.
    A Big Thank You to Mark for organising the match , and to all that turned up on the day. Same again next year folks?

    Position              Angler                          Weight     
     1st Jay Lay 38lbs 04ozs
     2nd Andy (CU) Cummings 37lbs 00ozs
     3rd Bill Gibbins 34lbs 00ozs
     4th Nick Gilbert 26lbs 06ozs
     5th= Jeff Driscoll 25lbs 08ozs
     5th= Trevor (M.T.Net) Little 25lbs 08ozs
     7th Simon Elsey 24lbs 04ozs
     8th Mark (MoleMan) Hathaway 20lbs 12ozs
     9th Vince Gould 16lbs 06ozs
     10th Stuart (squeaky roller) Wilson 15lbs 08ozs
     11th Wayne (map) Taylor 14lbs 08ozs
     12th Mick (The Chippy) Pearson 12lbs 10ozs
     13th Peter (Mugger) Morton 11lbs 06ozs
     14th Tony (spamwham) Roberts   4lbs 04ozs

     

  • Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Southern Championship 2009.

    h1.jpg Nick's Lake at Hartleylands Farm. picture by pnm123

     Down to Hartleylands Farm today just outside the village of Cranbrook to fish the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Individual Championship on Nick’s Lake. Nick Gilbert had kindly taken care of organising this match and there promised to be a good turn out for it .

    The view out of the window first thing was a little dull and grey, but the forcast predicted a bright warm sunny day so hopefully things would pick up. With the car loaded it was off to The Knoxbridge Cafe for breakfast, quite a few of the lads had the same idea so there was a good bit of banter and a couple of new faces introduced themselves before we made our way down to the fishery for the draw . Arriving at the fishery it was obvious that we had a pretty decent turn out for todays match, 24 of us to be exact. Nick finally got the draw under way with Matt’s help. Peg 34 for me, a nice short walk from the car, but not where I really fancied and with Vince drawing peg 23 I feared the loss of a Golden Nugget was very much on the cards .

    With my kit at my peg it was time to set up, but for some reason today I really couldn’t get into it and remarked on it to Terry who was on peg 33 to my right……

    a2-9.jpg Looking to my right picture by pnm123

    Anyway with 1½hrs to get ready I finally managed to get things done. 1st thing set up was the feeder rod with a small method feeder to drop to the edge of the island. For the pole I set up 3 rigs……

    a17-8.jpg Peter sorting out some rigs. picture by pnm123

    These were essentially similar to those I’d used the previous weekend ie: a couple of Malman 4X12 Adam’s on 0·18 Power Match with size 16 Drennan Carp hooks to fish pellet as well as a small Malman SC Paste float on 0·20 Power Match with a size 12 Ashima Barbless hook for paste down the edge. Bait was a selection of various pellets and paste with 6mm pellet for feed, while the groundbait was Sonubaits Method Mix……

    a1-9.jpg Peg 34. picture by pnm123

    11am saw Nick call the All-In and I potted in 2 large pots of pellet and groundbait at 6mtrs and a handfull of pellet down the margins, then went out on the method feeder to allow the pole line to settle. Well that was the plan but as I picked up the rod I noticed that somehow I’d managed to miss out threading the line through the bottom rod rig !! (told you I wasn’t really focused when setting up ) So I had to strip things down and start again. Anyway having re-rigged I dropped it to the edge of the island. A couple of taps and the tip wrapped round, the 1st fish was on, only for it to slip the hook halfway to the net . Better luck next cast however and a small Common of around 1lb had me off and running. I managed another couple of similar examples in the next 20 minutes but got the impression that there weren’t any number of fish there so decided to try the pole line while catapulting some pellets over to the island in an attempt to draw some fish .

    Unfortunately the pole line was no more productive, 45 minutes producing just another couple of small Carp and a skimmer. Time for another look on the method. Dropping the feeder close to the island, I’d just set the tip when it wrapped round, lifting into the fish I noticed a boil in the water by the island and a Duck paddling off at a rate of knots. Unfortunately I was attached to the Duck . Well the subsequent fight caused a deal of hilarity , but Terry managed to do the honours with the net. ‘Jemima’ was freed and appeared none the worse for her ordeal and Clive kindly did the ‘David Bailey’ bit for posterity …….

    a16-8.jpg Jemima PuddleDuck. picture by pnm123

    With that episode out of the way I went back to the pole. It produced another couple of small Carp and a couple of small Roach, but it was still a struggle so I re fed all the lines and took the camera for a quick stroll. In fact I could hear splashing from Terry’s swim as I stood up, and was just in time to catch him sliding a Carp into the landing net ……

    a3-9.jpg Terry nets a Carp. picture by pnm123

    Looking across from Terry’s swim I could see Vince and Jessebobs staring straight out in front of them, either they were concentrating hard or was it trying to ignore the bloody awful row singing coming from Al on the next peg ……

    a5-9.jpg Vince, Steve and Al. picture by pnm123

    Meanwhile Clive was attached to something that was giving his purple Hydro a decent work out and giving him a bit of a run around ……

    a6-8.jpg Fish on for Clive. picture by pnm123

    Simon and Mick were engaged in exchanging witty repartee, though some may have mistaken it for ripping the pee out of each other and wonder of wonders Mick was actually fishing the pole ……

    a10-9.jpg A study in concentration. picture by pnm123

    Over on the other side thing were obviously not going to plan however as Matt (MD’s very own slapper ) was fishing short down the margin !!!!!!!!!……

    a13-9.jpg Matt fishes the margin. picture by pnm123

    On the way back to my peg I noticed that Clive was now concentrating his line of attack down the margin ……

    a14-9.jpg Down the margin for Clive. picture by pnm123

    …… and felt that it was probably my best chance of getting anything decent, so out came the paste rig for the final part of the match.
    Jeff D had started fishing his margin as well and was having a good run of fish, but it really never happened for me. Just 4 Carp in the last hour, though they were of a better stamp than I’d been getting previously. When Nick called All-Out at 4pm I have to say that I was glad it was all over and I soon had the gear packed up and back in the car .

    The Weigh-in was soon under way and Jeff’s 59lbs+ was the first weight of any note. My meagre total of 30¼lbs being last in section .
    Roy’s (Anglingman) 61lbs+ was beaten by Nick’s level 69lbs, while Al took the section and 3rd overall with 78¾lbs . Vince, despite suffering almost as bad a match as me (Including snapping his waggler rod) had managed 31½lbs and had a rather large grin as I handed him a Golden Nugget . Nick (BAG UP) had walked the section with 114½lbs that also won him the match . Ian Carley (CasterBlaster) put 70lbs on the scales to take the next section while Neil Beard’s 107lbs took the final section and 2nd overall .

    Back to the car park for a quick presentation, then the inquests and pee taking started in earnest. Congratulations to Nick(BAG UP)Costar who now holds the title of MD’s Southern Champion, but more importantly ‘The Bragging Rights’ for a year . Thanks to Nick Gilbert for organising the whole thing and Thank You to all the anglers that turned up, without whom there wouldn’t have been a match . Let’s do it all again next year.

    Position Peg                    Angler                  Weight      
     1st Peg 17 Nick Costar (BAG UP) 114lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 8 Neil Beard (neilbeard) 107lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 25 Alan Loader (al)  78lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 3 Kevin Pack (Backintheday)  72lbs 08ozs
     5th Peg 14 Ian Carley (CasterBlaster)  70lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 28 Nick Gilbert  69lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 32 Roy Gudgeon (Anglingman)  61lbs 14ozs
     8th Peg 35 Jeff Driscoll (Jeff D)  59lbs 06ozs
     9th Peg 16 Greg Andrews (Splitshot1)  53lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 24 Steve Burgess (Jessebobs)  46lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 21 Matt Love  45lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg 13 Sven Castle (Svenc)  40lbs 12ozs
     13th Peg 33 Terry Goff (Wily Coyote)  33lbs 12ozs
     14th Peg 36 Clive Pritchard (clive)  33lbs 06ozs
     15th Peg 12 Dai Thomas (Dai Fish)  32lbs 00ozs
     16th  Peg 23 Vince Gould (Vince G)  31lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 34 Peter Morton (Mugger)  30lbs 04ozs
     18th Peg 27 Richard Pearson (dhl man)  27lbs 12ozs
     19th Peg 2 Andy Hodd (Maver1)  26lbs 08ozs
     20th Peg 6 Mick Pearson (mickthechippy)  20lbs 00ozs
     21st Peg 20 Keith Powell (Keith74)  16lbs 08ozs
     22nd Peg 5 Simon Elsey   7lbs 08ozs
     23rd= Peg 9 Phillip Starkey (Crabpellet)       DNW
     23rd= Peg 30 Keith Driscoll (Disco)       DNW

     

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lakes 1 and 2.

    The Southern Intersite Match.

    M1.jpg Monks Match Lakes 1 and 2. picture by pnm123

    Well today was the day of the annual Southern Intersite Match, where 4 teams of 10 anglers representing 4 angling forums pit their wits and fishing skills against each other in a light hearted match . Well I say light hearted, but over the years it’s become quite competitive for some, but as usual I’m fishing for the team from Maggotdrowning.com and our ethos is still to enjoy ourselves and the day without actually trying to win . The other teams are from Angling Forums, Total Fishing.com and TalkAngling so we’ll see how the day goes . The first look out of the bedroom window was promising, offering the promise of a decent day weather-wise ahead, though the forcast reckoned we might get a few showers at some point .
    A cup of coffee to kick start the old grey matter, then get the car loaded before setting off for the fishery. A nice easy drive down saw me pulling into the fishery just after 8am and pulling up in the car park next to Mick the Chippy. Climbing out of the car it was strangely still, and people were saying that the lakes were like glass with no hint of a ripple to be seen, a very rare occurrence at Monks!!!!!

    Down to the chuck wagon for a bacon sarnie and coffee and the greetings and banter were soon in full flow as the 4 teams started to assemble prior to the draw.. New faces being introduced, while old ones were greeted and abused in equal measures . 9am and the team captains drew their teams pegs which were then alloted to their team members. The MD’s draw was done and with 5 sections on each lake peg 60 on Lake 2 was mine. I was quite happy with that as I much prefer Lake 2 having fished it more than Lake 1.

    With new match rules in place at Monk Lakes including bait and net limits, decisions had to be made about bait and as I loaded my kit up onto the barrow I selected 7 pints of pellets, a couple of tins of corn and 2kg of groundbait for the day as well as 4 keepnets (well you never know your luck ).

    a7-5.jpg Peg 60 on Lake 2. picture by pnm123

    With my gear safely round to my peg it was time to set up. Peg 60 has a decent bit of depth and a decent left hand margin to a bush. The plan was to fish paste and pellet and concentrate on 2 lines today, 5mtrs straight out where there was around 5½ft and the margin with around 2½ft. For the 2 paste rigs I selected a couple of Malman SC paste floats made up on 0·18 Power Match with size 12 Ashima Barbless hooks. I also set up a Malman 4X 14 Champers on 0·14 power match with a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook for fishing the pellet on the deck out at 5mtrs and a Malman Slapper, again on 0·14 Power Match with a size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook for up in the water, that would also double up for the margin if needed. Bait wise the paste was a bag of Dynamite Swim Stim Amino Original that I had put through a liquidiser to make it really fine and added a packet of GOT Baits pineapple Atomic Cloud which mixes up to a nice soft consistency, a selection of hard and soft hook pellets and some corn, with 6mm pellets for feed.

    With the new weight limits in place I put 3 keepnets in straight away just in case, as I didn’t want to run the risk of disturbing the margin later if I was catching well. Everything was ready by 10·30am and with half an hour to go I strolled back to the car to get my jacket just in case we got the odd shower (You aren’t allowed to cross the bridge now once the match has started ) Nick(Bag Up) was settling in to peg 46 as I got round to the car, and you couldn’t accuse him of being the worlds tidiest angler ……

    a1-5.jpg Bag Up's peg. picture by pnm123

    As I made my way back I took the opportunity of snapping a picture of Clive on end peg 77 as he sat waiting for the off ……

    a2-5.jpg Clive waits for the off. picture by pnm123

    Fred(Milo)Parker fishing for TalkAngling had draw the other end peg (56) and was obviously hoping for a decent day ahead ……

    a4-5.jpg Fred(Milo)Parker. picture by pnm123

    While the lads at the other end were obviously discussing their prospects, and I had to Fancy Nick Gilbert’s chances (but not his dress sense ) after he’d drawn peg 67 as he’s got a good record at Monks……

    a5-5.jpg A chat before the All-In. picture by pnm123

    So 11am and the All-In was called and I cupped in 2 big pots of pellet at 5 mtrs and fed some pellet down the left margin. I started off with a banded 8mm pellet at 5mtrs which resulted in a couple of lightening fast bites that I couldn’t connect with. Third time lucky though as a slower more positive bite resulted in a first fish, a nice plump Mirror of around 2lbs nestling safely in the net . It was a case of steady away from then on really, working the bait , lifting and dropping the rig or a little drag to one side to try and induce a bite. There was just a little to long between bites but the fish that I was getting were plump Mirrors so at least a bit of weight was going in the net and at the end of the first hour I had 7 fish for around 18lbs .

    Looking across I could see Hathers(moleman) who appeared to be going along quite nicely on peg 54 and luckily he had a cap on, so I wasn’t getting dazzled by the reflection from his bonce ……

    a11-5.jpg Hathers gets ready to net a fish. picture by pnm123

    while over on peg 46 Nick appeared to be going along quite nicely thank you, regularly putting fish in the net……

    a14-6.jpg Nick(Bag Up)Costar. picture by pnm123

    Try as I might I just couldn’t seem to up the rate , while Mark on peg 59 to my right seemed to be catching faster than me, though he was getting a lot of Barbel (I couldn’t actually see though as he was hidden by the bush). So about 12·30 I had my 1st look with the paste rig and while it didn’t provide any increase in bites, they were a lot more definite when they came and easier to connect with.

    By 1·30pm I was feeling a little parched and realised that I’d left my drinks in the car , and as you’re now not allowed across the bridge once the match is on I took a stroll up to Mick to scrounge a drink. The man himself kindly obliged with a whistle wetter and appeared to be enjoying himself as he slid another fish into his waiting landing net while I watched ……

    a8-5.jpg Fish on for Mick. picture by pnm123

    I took the opportunity to pop down and see how Nick was getting on, and he reported that he’d had a blinding start with 20 fish in the net in the 1st hour, things had slowed for him however and he was actually fishing on the deck to keep some fish going in the net !!!!!! Anyone that knows Nick will know that he’s a confirmed “up in the water” man, so thought I’d better catch proof of this rare event on camera ……

    a9-5.jpg Nick Gilbert fishing on the deck!!!!!! picture by pnm123

    Just after 2pm I noticed a tail pattern in my left hand margin, so felt it was time for a look there. Just 3 sections were needed to drop the paste down the margin and after a couple of minutes the float slid away and I found myself attached to a better fish that appeared to be determined to go and visit the opposite side of the lake. Almost straight away I could feel it was a foul hooker, but fortunately after a few minutes I was able to slide it tail first into the landing net, another plump Mirror, but this one went about 6lbs .

    I stayed with the margin swim for the remainder of the match, yet again I couldn’t up my catch rate though. However I was putting fish into the nets on a regular basis even if it wasn’t quite as quick as I would have liked and felt I should have brought some maggots with me as they would probably have drawn a few more Barbel into the peg .

    Looking around it was hard to see how others were doing due to the lush bankside vegetation, indeed I could just see Clive’s head peeking above making him appear somewhat like a Jap Sniper in the jungle ……

    a12-6.jpg Clive the sniper. picture by pnm123

    While Mick being somewhat loftier in the height department (though he may have been standing up ) could be seen playing another fish when I glanced round ……

    a17-5.jpg Mick playing a fish. picture by pnm123

    My final 40 minutes were quite frustrating as sport seemed to slow right down, and I only managed to put a couple of fish in the net in this period meaning that when the All-Out was called I’d ended the match with 40 fish in my nets. Clive and I had drawn scales duty for the causeway so I managed to get packed away and my kit back to the car while we waited for the scales as they weighed the car park bank first.
    Unfortunately Nick(Bag Up) fell foul of the new rules as his 2 nets at the Weigh-In were both over 60lbs so he only recorded a level 100lbs (50lbs for each net ) I’m not really sure what happened there though as he had 4 nets in the water during the match .

    So we finally got round to the Weigh-In on the causeway and Morgan kindly took on the recording duties allowing Clive and myself to get on with the weighing. Fred kicked off with 114lbs. Mark Smith took the honours in my section (8) with a fine 145lbs, which proved to be the 3rd best weight on the day, and giving me a right battering off the next peg as my 98 lbs was only good enough for 3rd in section . Section 9 saw 3 consecutive ‘Tons’ brought to the scales with Nick Gilberts being the best of them at 168¼lbs and the top individual weight on the day . The final section (10) saw all four anglers record ‘Tons’, with Roland Lucas’s 153½lbs, which was the 2nd highest weight on the day winning the section . Billy Lowe put 128½lbs on the scales to record his first ever ‘Ton’ in a match and take 2nd in section, while poor Clive’s 112½lbs was only good enough for last in section .

    So with the Weigh-In completed we made our way back to the car park for the results and it was obvious that Lake 2 had been the one to draw, with Lake 1 fishing much harder, in fact just a single ‘Ton’ weight was recorded on Lake 1 by Paul Law (justin case) the Talk Angling Team Captain . With all the results in it was the lads from Total Fishing that took the honours on the day by just a single point from the Angling Forums team. Maggotdrowning trailed into 3rd place with the lads from Talk Angling bringing up the rear.

    All in all it had proved to be a good day though, Thanks to Vince for organising todays match with his usual customary efficiency . Thanks to Morgan and his staff for providing his fishery for the day  and finally Thanks to everyone from all the forums who made it a most enjoyable day with the match fished in the right spirit, nice to catch up with some we already knew and others for the first time . Happily for me, and unfortunately for Vince  normal service had been resumed and Vince had to hand back one of my Golden Nuggets that he’d taken from me at Rolf’s, so a nice end to the day for me at least .

     1st Total Fishing 20 points 
     2nd   Angling Forums 21 points
     3rd Maggotdrowning       28 points
     4th Talk Angling 31 points

     Section 1                                                                                            
     Paul Law Talk Angling Peg 2 103lbs 04ozs 1 point
     Vince Gould Maggotdrowning Peg 4  54lbs 10ozs 3 points
     Dave Churchwood Angling Forums Peg 6  87lbs 04ozs 2 points
     Brian Jackson Total Fishing Peg 8  25lbs 04ozs 4 points
         
     Section 2    
     Les Griggs Talk Angling Peg 10  17lbs 04ozs 3 points
     Alan Loader Maggotdrowning Peg 14  39lbs 00ozs 2 points
     Marcus Page Angling Forums Peg 16  45lbs 12ozs 1 point
     Andy Honess Total Fishing Peg 18   7lbs 00ozs 4 points
         
     Section 3    
     Tony Biddle Talk Angling Peg 20  56lbs 00ozs 3 points
     Matt Love Maggotdrowning Peg 22  47lbs 08ozs 4 points
     Stuart Wilson Angling Forums Peg 23  78lbs 12ozs 1 point
     Martin Wright Total Fishing Peg 25  66lbs 00ozs 2 points
         
     Section 4    
     Chris Siddle Talk Angling Peg 27  64lbs 10ozs 3 points
     Steve Allen Maggotdrowning Peg 29  71lbs 06ozs 2 points
     Tony Curd Angling Forums Peg 31   57lbs 08ozs 4 points
     Andy Gregory Total Fishing Peg 35  77lbs 06ozs 1 point
         
     Section 5    
     Liam Willis Talk Angling Peg 37  44lbs 01ozs 4 points
     Paul East Maggotdrowning Peg 39  52lbs 12ozs 2 points
     Trevor Little Angling Forums Peg 41  46lbs 03ozs 3 points
     T Baker Total Fishing Peg 43  74lbs 08ozs 1 point
         
     Section 6    
     Jim McDowell Total Fishing Peg 45 146lbs 00ozs 1 point
     Nick Costar Maggotdrowning Peg 46 100lbs 00ozs 4 points
     John Holt Angling Forums Peg 48 139lbs 00ozs 2 points
     Fred Parker  Talk Angling Peg 56 114lbs 00ozs 3 points
         
     Section 7    
     Simon Duke Talk Angling Peg 49  45lbs 00ozs 4 points
     Roy Gudgeon Maggotdrowning Peg 51 112lbs 08ozs 3 points
     Chris Martin Total Fishing Peg 52 138lbs 08ozs 1 point
     Mark Hathaway Angling Forums Peg 54 117lbs 00ozs 2 points
         
     Section 8    
     Dave DAT Total Fishing Peg 57 117lbs 00ozs 2 points
     Mark Smith Angling Forums Peg 59 145lbs 00ozs 1 point
     Peter Morton Maggotdrowning Peg 60  98lbs 00ozs 3 points
     Richard Page Talk Angling Peg 62  46lbs 00ozs 4 points
         
     Section 9    
     Johnnie Watts Total Fishing Peg 64 109lbs 00ozs 3 points
     Rusty Graves Angling Forums Peg 66 131lbs 08ozs 2 points
     Nick Gilbert Maggotdrowning Peg 67 168lbs 04ozs 1 point
     Mick Pearson Talk Angling Peg 69  44lbs 00ozs 4 points
         
     Section 10    
     Roland Lucas Total Fishing Peg 71 153lbs 08ozs 1 point
     Paul Taylor Angling Forums Peg 73 117lbs 00ozs 3 points
     Billy Lowe Talk Angling Peg 75 128lbs 08ozs 2 points
     Clive Pritchard Maggotdrowning Peg 77 112lbs 08ozs 4 points

    Saturday sees me back at Rolf’s for the final Match of The Jinx Series. Clive and I are lying 2nd in the Pairs and have an outside chance of 1st place. Can we do it? who knows, but you’ll be able to find out here next week .


     

  • Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Rolf’s Pairs Tournament 2009.

    Rolfs.jpg Rolf's Lake pegging plan. picture by pnm123

    So 7am and the sun is shining through the bivvy door as I raised myself from my slumber . First things first and on with the kettle for that first cup of coffee to jump start my brain . Terry greets me with several expletives as it seems my snoring woke him around 6am , I reckon it was just John mowing the grass . I was going to catch a lift with the lads down to Tesco’s for a bit of brekkie, but missed the lads, so Paul, Terry and I decided to pop up to the services for breakfast. Let’s just say that it filled a hole and leave it at that .

    Back to the Lake and today there’s going to be 30 members of the Maggotdrowning forum assembled from all over the country fishing the 2009 Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Tournament, a 2 legged affair that gets fished over both the Saturday & Sunday. It’s very much a social occasion apart from the matches, and as such is always oversubscribed and has become an annual fixture in the forum calendar . This is the 4th year running that the competition has taken place. I was fortunate enough to win it with Tony(spamwham)Roberts in 2007, and would love to be the 1st person to win it twice, as I’m sure any of the other previous winners would .

    Soon the car park was full, and as people sorted themselves out for the weekend ahead the banter was flowing. I had a chat with Simon and Budgie who had decided to stay on even though he wasn’t fishing, The excitement was too much for Gemma however who snatched 40 winks (probably dreaming of Minxings to come ) ……….

    a26-1.jpg Gemma catches 40 winks. picture by pnm123

    At 11 o’clock the draw for the Pairs was made by Gemma who had risen from her slumbers. Not Experts and Novices this year as the majority fishing now have various degrees of experience at Rolf’s . Some interesting pairings came out and I found myself paired with my fellow MD’s moderator Dirk . With the draw for todays match not being till 12·30pm I took a stroll round the lake with Terry, and as is usual at Rolf’s there were plenty of Carp sunning themselves in all the swims ………

    a27-1.jpg Carp at Rolf's. picture by pnm123

    Where did I want to draw? well anywhere between peg 1 and 8 would do me, in fact anywhere but 13 . Getting back to the car park for the draw I noticed that some wag (Vince ) had written ‘Peg 13′ by my name on the draw board, It couldn’t happen could it?

    a29-1.jpg Waiting for Saturdays draw. picture by pnm123

     So at 12·30pm the draw started with Webbo drawing 1st and ending up with peg 11, the same one he’d struggled on yesterday. I then stepped confidently forward stating “Let’s get peg 13 out of the way then” and promptly drew it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gutted , though the assembled crowd found it hilarious. The rest is a bit of a blur as various lads offered their sympathy …………. NOT .

    a33.jpg It says it all really. picture by pnm123

    Well I walked my gear round to you know where, with the match being fished from 2-7 there was plenty of time to set up and it really wasn’t going to take me long as I still had my top kits set up with the rigs from the previous days match, so no need to go over the details of them here. I’m sure you’re all fed up with looking at the photo from behind the peg, so I had a stroll along the bank to get a different angle on things ………….

    a34.jpg Peg 13 yet again. picture by pnm123

    I stopped and had a chat with Webbo, and he didn’t seem to be to enthused about his chances and then stopped for a chat with Clive who was looking a bit happier with his prospects for the match ahead …….

    a35.jpg Clive waits for the off on Saturday. picture by pnm123

    Looking at the draw I had to fancy Paul East (peg 9) and (peg8) Dave Moore’s chances in the Pairs today, while a Golden Nugget looked to be in danger as Vince had drawn peg 6 . Looking across from my peg as I waited for the off I could see Dirk on peg 29, Malc on peg 30, Tony on 31 and Tim on 32……….

    a31.jpg Dirk, Malc, Tony and Tim. picture by pnm123

    So 2pm and John rang the fishery bell for the All-In, feed as per yesterday and out with a banded pellet at 6mtrs. Not a lot happened though, a few bubbles were rising from the swim, but there were no bites to be had. I plugged away but from what I could see sport in general appeared to be slow, though Paul on peg 9 was getting a couple ……..

    a39.jpg In the net for Paul(nomorelongwalks)East. picture by pnm123

    Half an hour in and I had a bite !!!!!!!! I was so shocked that I missed it but latched onto a foul hooker. Lots of elastic poured out of the top kit as I was obviously attached to a Carp via its tail. Despite loads of encouragement I managed to get it to the net, a weigher to get me off the mark ……..

    a67.jpg 1st of the day on Saturday. picture by pnm123

    Paul Thompson had a bit of a mare as he was connected to a Carp when the sound of smashing carbon was heard leaving him to play the fish on the remains of a shattered top 2 ………

    a36.jpg Tommy plays a fish on a busted top kit. picture by pnm123

    A few more foul hookers followed for me, none of which I landed, so feeling that I was getting nowhere fast, I decided to feed and have a short stroll with the camera . Dave Moore on peg 8 had got off to a good start and was picking up a few fishing paste down the track and was into another fish as I watched ……..

    a42.jpg Dave playing a Carp on peg 8. picture by pnm123

    …… Unfortunately a bit of a disaster was to befall Dave a few moments after this though, as his keepnet fell in and by the time he retrieved it 3 carp had escaped .
    Simon, over on peg 34 had hooked a big Carp which ploughed into the lillies on his right hand side, he tried to free it but only succeeded in breaking his No 4 section. Lucky Mitch was on hand and soon stripped down to his boxers and recovered his top kit …….

    a40.jpg Mitch after rescueing Simons top kit. picture by pnm123

    Gemma’s customary scream was heard from peg 22 meaning a few more hearts dropped , and with good reason as she was receiving a bit of coaching from visiting Rolf’s regular Eddie Turner-Green on the finer points of paste fishing, something that Eddie excels at ……..

    a45.jpg Gemma(The Minx) on peg 22. picture by pnm123

    Bill was up on peg 20 and had endured a fishless 2 hours before he’d had his 1st fish, a decent weigher at 14¾lbs to get him off the mark at last ……..

    a44.jpg Bill G on peg 20. picture by pnm123

    Now a bit of light relief is always nice to raise the spirits when things are tough, and today it was provided by Terry on peg 15 . It turned out that his landing net had parted company with his handle as he tried to land a Carp, and having lost the fish he was faced with having to take a dip to retrieve it. Well it would have been rude to have ignored the photo opportunity wouldn’t it …….

    a46.jpg Terry plays "Hunt the Landing Net". picture by pnm123

    Things really didn’t improve a lot for me, I was simply plagued with foul hookers though I did manage another couple of smaller fish that had actually taken the bait…….

    a69.jpg Peter playing a Carp on peg 13. picture by pnm123

    Opposite me my pairs partner Dirk was suffering too, while Malc had sat doing his best garden gnome impression for over 3hrs before taking his 1st fish ……..

    a37.jpg Malc(The Jinx)Doyle. picture by pnm123

    In fact Malc was about to provide one of the funniest moments of the day …… Now Malc likes to sit with his pole between his legs, and after lifting into a bite and missing it a Carp must have grabbed the bait and powered off, the force of which pulled the pole down and the butt right up into his family jewels !!!!!!! You could hear the scream across the lake, the fish got off leaving Malc to wipe the tears from his eyes while receiving sympathy from all those around him ……… NOT .

    Clive was sliding a few into the net on the quiet, but was having a bit of a problem with his keepnets that were floating around in front of him, and in the end would cost him 3 lost Carp ……..

    a48.jpg Fish on for Clive. picture by pnm123

    Tony was another enduring a frustrating day as he tried to get to grips with fishing paste on peg 31, even picking John Bennett’s brains, but they weren’t really having it despite Tony striking like Zorro on numerous occasions , though he did finally manage to connect with a couple……..

    a43.jpg Fish on for Tony(spamwham)Roberts. picture by pnm123

    I managed just one more before John rang the fishery bell for the All-Out at 7pm, and I have to say that I was glad to hear it after enduring what had been a very frustrating 5 hours for me . All that remained was to pack the kit away before the weigh-in, and I was seriously debating whether to just leave it there . It was just a question of if I’d suffered a Minxing and whether Vince had taken a Golden Nugget off me as well. All would be revealed by the weigh in .

    So the Weigh-In started with Simon on peg 34 who put 41¾lbs on the scales to kick things off . This was swiftly overtaken however, firstly by Alex Malman (peg 37) who weighed 83lbs+ and then his brother Gaz who recorded 113¾lbs from peg 38 . Vince had managed 56¾lbs from peg 6 and I knew that my 18 month run had come to an end and a Golden Nugget would be going his way at last . Dave Moore’s 116¾lbs from peg 8 proved to be the winning weight on the day despite his earlier disaster with his keepnet . Clive’s 110¼lbs from peg 10 gave him 3rd place on the day and Webbo’s 52¾lbs from peg 11 meant another Nugget disappearing to Yorkshire as my 39½lbs came up short . Indeed with nobody else threatening the frame, It was just a question of whether I could avoid a Minxing I avoided that by the skin of my teeth as Gemma’s fish came to exactly the same weight as mine at 39½lbs . Malc’s weight of 80½lbs was the best from the final pegs .
    So with the Weigh-In over the inquests started, and Eddie was good enough to capture the moment when I had to part with a Golden Nugget and hand it to Vince Crybaby [:C] ………..

    a73.jpg A Golden Nugget for Vince. picture by pnm123

     Dave Moore & Paul East were leading with 13 points while Dirk and I were stone cold last with 44 points . Paul, Vince and I popped down to the pub for a couple of drinks with Dirk and his son, before raiding Asda’s for something to pop on the barbie for dinner and the evening wound down with a chin wag and a few beers round the barbie before I hit the sack around 1·30am. What would tomorrow bring? We’d soon find out

    Sunday, August 09, 2009

    I stuck my head out of my sleeping bag around 7am and it was obvious that plenty of people were already up and about. This was probably down to the fact that people had to get their bivvies and all the other paraphernalia packed away prior to the match so after a couple of cups of coffee and a bite to eat it was time to dismantle my bivvy and get it packed away into it’s improbably small bag . Considering that I only use it once a year it always amazes me that I manage to do it, but once more it went away OK .

    Now we were going to draw at 11·30am and fish from 1pm-6pm in order to allow everyone to get off homeward at a reasonable hour. Having got all my gear packed away I came across our hosts for the weekend John & Pauline tucking into a spot of breakfast themselves .

    a56.jpg John and Pauline. picture by pnm123

    There was a bit of speculation as to whether I could possibly draw Peg 13 for a third day in a row (How much suffering did people want to see me go through? ) and it had been agreed that I would draw first to put myself out of my misery. So at the appointed time I dipped my hand into the fateful draw bag, and pulled out …………………………………….. Peg 20 . (Not the best of pegs, and 13 would probably fish it’s head of today ) It was a shortish walk anyway and Bill had briefed me on how he’d fished it yesterday. For company I had Dave(Rockyroads)West on peg 19 and Tony on peg 22, while Webbo was next up on peg 23 .

    a59.jpg Peg 20 for me on Sunday. picture by pnm123

    Setting up was a simple job as I still had the top kits set up from yesterday and with just 8 inches less depth I merely adjusted the depth of the rigs that were already in place. So plenty of time till the off, meaning a stroll with the camera was in order. Down on peg 34 Paul was settling in and with his partner Dave having drawn peg 9 it looked as if they would take all the catching , though it wasn’t impossible ……

    a52.jpg Paul prepares for Sunday. picture by pnm123

    Tony(teepee) was settling in next to Paul on peg 35, and it was good to see him fishing again after he had to miss out last year when he was taken ill …….

    a51.jpg Tony(teepee) gets ready on Sunday. picture by pnm123

    My partner Dirk had drawn peg 38 and appeared to be warming up with a bit of Tai Chi, and a repeat of Gaz’s performance off that peg the previous day would be the minimum we needed (No pressure there then )……..

    a55.jpg Dirk limbers up. picture by pnm123

    I couldn’t help noticing Gemma on peg 8, she’s good enough to Minx a lot of us, without her drawing a flyer like peg 8, but I’m sure it was a cunning plan to distract us further by fishing in those shorts ……..

    a54.jpg Gemma showing some leg. picture by pnm123

    As I made my way back I had a brief chat with Vince who’d drawn peg 32, and I feared he’d be taking another Golden Nugget home with that peg today . I also saw that Bill was settling into peg 11 which hadn’t really produced all weekend.

    a57.jpg bill gets ready on peg 11. picture by pnm123

    Back at my peg it was just a question of waiting for the All-In and Rocky did the honours with my camera (more like a condemned man waiting for the gallows )

    a60.jpg Peter waiting for the All-In on Sunday. picture by pnm123

    Anyway at 1pm the All-In sounded and we were off, I fed a line at 7mtrs out in front and another to the bush to my left. Starting with hard pellet and alternating between those, expanders, paste and corn produced not a touch , though Tony was off the mark pretty quickly with a decent fish. The Big Lake was pretty slow however, and word had it that the Little Lake was the place to be today. Rocky had managed a nice common and had then lost another. In fact most people had taken the odd fish, mostly on the pellet waggler and Webbo had taken a couple on a floating rocket feeder . For me it was just a question of keeping faith and hoping that something would turn up. I did get the pellet waggler out briefly after Simon had threaded the line through the rings for me (I was struggling without my glasses ), but was pretty restricted in where I could cast so soon gave it up as a bad job and went back to trying the bush to my left…….

    a71.jpg Peter on peg 20. picture by pnm123

    One person who did seem to be doing OK though was Mitch who was on peg 13, fishing up in the water at 13mtrs, I’d seen him going to the scales with weighers on several occasions . Simon had managed to extract a couple of fish from peg 15, and had resorted to fishing at 14½mtrs to try and nick a couple more……..

    a64.jpg Simon fishing at 14½ meters. picture by pnm123

    Gemma had been noticeably quiet on peg 8, despite Simon reckoning that she’d caught, but when she let out a scream halfway through I thought I was in trouble . Webbo had nicked a couple more and I’d seen Vince picking John’s brains about peg 32 and could see him into a fish, so that wasn’t looking good either in the Golden Nugget department ………

    a62.jpg Vince heading for another Golden Nugget from Peter. picture by pnm123

    I finally managed to tempt a Carp from the bush, nothing big at around 7lbs, but a fish none the less . Al seemed like he was in pretty much the same boat as me, and just sticking it out in the hope that they would turn up…….

    a58.jpg Alan Loader. picture by pnm123

    With about an hour to go I managed to get another Carp from the bush, again around the 7lb mark , and next put in hooked another that I played with kid gloves. However Webbo just couldn’t resist saying “make sure you get that in the net” , which of course was the cue for the hook to come free leaving me muttering under my breath .

    With half an hour to go I had a final bite, but rather than a surging run from a Carp there was just momentary resistance before a skimmer of about 2½lbs slid over the net. Not quite what I was after, but welcome none the less . Finally at 6pm the All-Out was sounded, and I have to say that I felt glad it was over, and was quite happy to pack my kit away and get it back to the car.

    Paul East was first to weigh and his 69¼lbs from peg 34 would net him 6th place on the day bringing him good points . However Gaz on peg 37 blew everyone away with 165lbs and the win on the day . Meanwhile his brother Alex on peg 40 weighed 79lbs for 5th overall. Malc weighed 93½lbs from peg 4 for 3rd, while daughter Gemma only managed 16¼lbs off of peg 8. Dave Moore had a mare on peg 9 managing just 18lbs throwing the whole match wide open. Mitch weighed a very creditable 89¼lbs from peg 13 for 4th overall . Round to my peg where incredibly my 2 carp and a skimmer weighed 16¼lbs meaning I’d tied with the Minx and escaped again for the second day in a row .
    However I lost another Golden Nugget to both Webbo and Vince , while Scott recorded the best weight off the car park bank with a fine 94¼lbs on the day for 2nd overall .

    a72.jpg Waiting for the results. picture by pnm123

    So back to the fishery hut and while Dave sorted through the points the banter flowed. It transpired that 1st day leaders Dave Moore & Paul East had been pipped by a single point in the final reckoning, which meant that the winners of the Rolf’s Pairs 2009 were………….

    Alex Malman & Dave Collier
    Congratulations to both of them .
     
    a65.jpg Alex Malman, Dave Webster and Dave Collier. picture by pnm123

    Finally a few words of thanks are due to
    John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their superb fishery during the weekend.
    Dave Webster, for bringing us all Maggotdrowning.com and organising the whole weekend.
    Finally, all the anglers that took part, It’s you that make the weekend the success it is.

     Overall Pairs Result.

     Position               Pairs                    Points 
     1st Alex Malman & Dave Collier 42 pts
     2nd Dave Moore & Paul East 43 pts
     3rd Gaz Malman & Alan Loader 45 pts
     4th Mitch Auger & Scott Weston 48 pts
     5th Chris Kendall & Adrian Wood 52 pts
     6th Bill Bibbins & Tony Roberts 53 pts
     7th Malc Doyle & Mick Pearson 56 pts
     8th Clive Pritchard & Ant Haywood 57 pts
     9th Tom Little & Chris Ellis 61 pts
     10th Dave Webster & Gemma Doyle 67 pts
     11th Dirk Williams & Peter Morton 79 pts
     12th Simon Mound & Colin Sharrard 80 pts
     13th Terry Goff & Tony Prentice 80 pts
     14th Vince Gould & Tim Westmoreland 82 pts
     15th Paul Thompson & Dave West 82 pts

    Saturday Individual Result.

    Position Peg               Angler            Weight   
     1st Peg 8 Dave Moore 116lbs 12ozs
     2nd Peg 38 Gaz Malman 113lbs 12ozs
     3rd Peg 10 Clive Pritchard 110lbs 04ozs
     4th Peg 37 Alex Malman  83lbs 05ozs
     5th Peg 30 Malc Doyle  80lbs 08ozs
     6th Peg 18 Chris Kendall  72lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 17 Chris Ellis  69lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 25 Paul Thompson  60lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg 6 Vince Gould  56lbs 12ozs
     10th Peg 20 Bill Gibbins  55lbs 00ozs
     11th Peg 11 Dave Webster  52lbs 12ozs
     12th Peg 9 Paul East  49lbs 12ozs
     13th Peg 34 Simon Mound  41lbs 12ozs
     14th Peg 31 Tony Roberts  41lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 2 Tony Prentice  40lbs 06ozs
     16th= Peg 13 Peter Morton  39lbs 08ozs
     16th= Peg 22 Gemma Doyle  39lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 19 Scott Weston  38lbs 08ozs
     19th Peg 7 Mick Pearson  36lbs 08ozs
     20th Peg 14 Terry Goff  30lbs 04ozs
     21st Peg 16 Dave Collier  28lbs 04ozs
     22nd Peg 15 Alan Loader  26lbs 08ozs
     23rd Peg 40 Colin Sharrard  20lbs 12ozs
     24th Peg 35 Mitch Auger  15lbs 00ozs
     25th Peg 32 Tim Westmoreland  12lbs 08ozs
     26th Peg 23 Adrian Wood  10lbs 00ozs
     27th Peg 4 Tom Little   9lbs 06ozs
     28th Peg 29 Dirk Williams   7lbs 00ozs
     29th Peg 26 Ant Haywood   3lbs 08ozs
     30th Peg 28 Dave West      DNW

    Sunday Individual Result.

    Position Peg            Angler            

     Weight       

     1st Peg 37 Gaz Malman 165lbs 00ozs
     2nd Peg 26 Scott Weston  94lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 4 Malc Doyle  93lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg 13 Mitch Auger  89lbs 04ozs
     5th Peg 40 Alex Malman  79lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 34 Paul East  69lbs 04ozs
     7th Peg 6 Chris Kendall  66lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 31 Clive Pritchard  53lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 2 Chris Ellis  49lbs 12ozs
     10th= Peg 11 Bill Gibbins  39lbs 04ozs
     10th= Peg 38 Dirk Williams  39lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 30 Dave Collier  37lbs 04ozs
     13th Peg 29 Adrian Wood  36lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 15 Simon Mound  31lbs 08ozs
     15th Peg 23 Dave Webster  30lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg 16 Paul Thompson  28lbs 12ozs
     17th Peg 7 Ant Haywood  23lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg 25 Tom Little  22lbs 04ozs
     19th Peg 22 Tony Roberts  22lbs 00ozs
     20th Peg 17 Alan Loader  19lbs 12ozs
     21st Peg 32 Vince Gould  19lbs 04ozs
     22nd Peg 28 Terry Goff  18lbs 12ozs
     23rd Peg 35 Tony Prentice  18lbs 08ozs
     24th Peg 9 Dave Moore  18lbs 00ozs
     25th= Peg 8 Gemma Doyle  16lbs 04ozs
     25th= Peg 20 Peter Morton  16lbs 04ozs
     27th Peg 10 Tim Westmoreland  15lbs 12ozs
     28th Peg 19 Dave West   9lbs 08ozs
     29th Peg 18 Mick Pearson   7lbs 08ozs
     30th Peg 14 Colin Sharrard      DNW

     

  • Rolf’s Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Dave the Fish’s

    Invitation Match.

    Rolfs.jpg Rolf's Lake pegging plan. picture by pnm123

    Today saw 16 of us assembled at Rolf’s for an invitation match organised by Dave the Fish as a prequel to the 2009 Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Tournament . I was really looking forward to it, as I’d be fishing the Pairs on the Saturday and Sunday as well, and hopefully it would give me the chance to get into the swing of things ahead of the weekend . However it had absolutely chucked it down overnight and that can have a big influence on how Rolf’s fishes so we’d see how it goes. Looking out of the window this morning showed a dull grey morning and there was still a bit of light rain as I got all the gear loaded into the car . There was a fair bit to take as well as I was stopping at Rolf’s for 3 days including my bivvy, bed-chair and sleeping bag and all the other paraphernalia that you seem to think you’ll need. Anyway I bid Maria farewell and set off around 8·30am as I wanted to get down in plenty of time to set up the bivvy and get sorted out before this afternoons match. Having made my usual stop for breakfast in Battersea, I had an uneventful trip down and pulled into the car park at Rolf’s around 10·30am to be greeted by Pauline & John and to find that I was the 1st to arrive.

    I noticed I had a missed call on my phone from Bill, and phoning him back I found out that he and Mick were devouring a KFC bucket in the services while they waited for Al to arrive and guide them down to Rolf’s. Dave was the next to arrive and was soon showing me his latest bit of kit, A Power Walker Trolley, and I have to say it’s quite an impressive bit of kit, especially at the price Dave paid for it .

    a66.jpg Daves new power walker trolley. picture by pnm123

    Soon the rest started to arrive, and once John had finished cutting the grass we set about getting the bivvies and tents set up for the weekend, though Bill found that the bivvy that his son had lent him came without poles rendering it useless so ended up sharing with Mick. The only fly in the ointment was a phonecall from Webbo informing us that he was stuck on a gridlocked M40 due to a car on fire , so we agreed to draw for them both in the event of them not arriving on time. Chris(Cybermanc)Ellis & Tom(tommodiesel)Little arrived and while not fishing today had decided to travel down early and get settled in for the weekend ahead.

    So at 1·30pm with the sun starting to heat the afternoon up, we made our draw. We had The Big Lake today (pegs 9-32) as another club was there for a match on The Little Lake (pegs 34-8). So into the draw bag and with only 2 pegs left in Peg 13 stuck to my hand . Now it’s not a bad peg, but I just can’t get to grips with it and it’s the 3rd time I’ve drawn it in 5 matches at Rolf’s this year so I can’t pretend I was delighted, though the assembled company thought it was hilarious .

    a33.jpg It says it all really. picture by pnm123

    So I made my way round with my gear, on what is becoming a well trodden path for me, and settled into what are becoming far to familiar surroundings for my taste. One thing is that I know just what rigs I need to tackle it with, but with just under 1½hrs till the start of the match I decided to tie up some fresh ones up anyway. These rigs ended up as a MW 0·4g XT for the 6mtr line on the deck on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook. a MW 0·6g Cane Diamond for the 8mtr line on the deck on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 and a MW 0·3g Margin on 0·20 Power Match with a size 14 QM1 hook for the inside line. I also set up a Malman SC paste on 0·22 Power Match with a size 10 Ashima barbless for Paste. Bait was my usual combination of pellet paste and corn.

    a1-3.jpg Peg 13, Friday. picture by pnm123

    Waiting for the All-In I could see Simon, Bill, Budgie and Scott across on pegs 29-32 and Dave and Mick on pegs 9 & 10, while peg 11 waited for Webbo and peg 14 Tony(teepee) on their arrival. So at 3pm the All-In was called, a couple of pots of pellet onto the 6 and 8mtr lines and a handfull down the right hand margin and a banded 8mtr pellet was swung out to 6mtrs. Nothing really happened for me though, and I think Scott may have been the first off the mark on peg 32 with a weigher. After 30 minutes Webbo appeared with Tony in tow, and I remarked that I’d been decent enough to wait for him, Bill having been seen off by a couple of foul hookers soon had a real introduction to Rolf’s in the shape of a Common that went 18lbs (a new PB for him ) closely followed by a 17½lb’er . I got off the mark with a 12½lb Mirror and Dave on peg 9 seemed to be into steady action ………..

    a19-1.jpg Dave gets ready to land a Carp. picture by pnm123

    While Mick having decided to do his own thing settled in with his avon rod awaiting his first action………..

    a10-3.jpg Mick waits for a bite. picture by pnm123

    Things in general were quiet for the most part though I’d added a Common of around 8lbs, so I re-fed and took a stroll with the camera. Scott was concentrating intently on peg 32…………

    a12-3.jpg Scott(Methodgob). picture by pnm123

    While a look down the car park bank revealed a distinct lack of action for the most part ……….

    a13-3.jpg Looking down the car park bank. picture by pnm123

    Indeed Simon on peg 29 was looking decidedly unimpressed with the way his match appeared to be going ……..

    a14-4.jpg Simon wasn't looking best pleased. picture by pnm123

    The only person on the car park bank that appeared to be having any real joy was Al on peg 23, while Tony despite his late start was quietly slipping into gear and sliding a few into the net . Webbo was having a bit of a mare with foul hookers, though everyone was suffering similar frustrations to a degree. Dave sidled up with a Common he was proud of and got Cyber to take a photo with my camera ……

    a21-1.jpg A lovely Common for Dave. picture by pnm123

    Mick had managed his 1st fish from Rolf’s, not a huge fish at around the 7lb mark, but it certainly left an impression on Mick with it’s spirited fight ……..

    a25-1.jpg Look at that rod bend!!!!! picture by pnm123

    Simon finally got in on the action, and gave his purple 19 elastic a good stretching ……….

    a20-1.jpg Simon gets his elastic stretched. picture by pnm123

    ……. though Marcus(Budgie) provided the best entertainment as he explored the lengths that his elastic could stretch to with a few sizeable fish on peg 31, resulting in John having to lift the ropes to the aerator at one stage . I was managing to keep the odd fish coming, nothing big, just regulation 7-8lb’ers and while I wasn’t exactly bagging felt that I was on for my best result so far from this peg . Bill was getting a better stamp of fish though and I always felt that he had the edge on me…….

    a22-1.jpg Bill gets to grips with one of Rolf's Babies. picture by pnm123

    Though Bill must have felt it was close between us as he remarked that my last fish could make a difference as I netted it just as Dave signalled the All-Out at 8pm……..

    a70.jpg Peter landing a Carp on peg 13. picture by pnm123

    We packed our kit away prior to the Weigh-In and Dave kicked things off from peg 9 with a fine 101¾lbs which would net him 3rd place . I was one weigher short of a Ton recording a level 91lbs for 5th on the day. Tony took the days honours with a creditable 110½lbs from peg 14 . Al took 2nd place with 107½lbs from peg 23 , while Bill managed a Ton on his 1st ever visit to Rolf’s with 100½lbs, a fine effort for 4th .

    So with the match over people sorted out some grub in various guises and generally wound down, discussing the events of the day and the prospects for the weekend ahead. The general consensus appeared to be that it had been a fine way to kick off the weekend and as we retired to our various sleeping quarters most would probably be dreaming of how the weekend ahead would go. We’d soon find out .

    Position  Peg    Angler                   Weight     
     1st Peg 14 Tony Prentice 110lbs 08ozs
     2nd Peg 23 Al Loader 107lbs 08ozs
     3rd Peg 9 Dave Moore 101lbs 12ozs
     4th Peg 30 Bill Gibbins 100lbs 08ozs
     5th Peg 13 Peter Morton  91lbs 00ozs
     6th Peg 27 Clive Pritchard  63lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg 16 Tony Roberts  62lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 24 Paul East  58lbs 00ozs
     9th= Peg 31 Marcus Burgess  46lbs 08ozs
     9th= Peg 32 Scott Weston  46lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 18 Terry Goff  36lbs 00ozs
     12th Peg 29 Simon Mound  34lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 26 Dave Collier  29lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg 11 Dave Webster  25lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 19 Tim Westmoreland  19lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg 10 Mick Pearson  16lbs 08ozs