Marsh AC club match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2011.

 Today is the day of the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Championship which means that I'm off down to Nick's Lake at Hartleylands Farm just outside the village of Cranbrooke in Kent . Nick Gilbert had kindly taken care of organising the match this year. The early morning glance out of the window revealed a cloudy overcast morning, and the weather forecast wasn't for much in the way of improvement. I soon had the car loaded up and by 7am I was on my way.
The first port of call today was The Knoxbridge Café, where a few of the lads were meeting for breakfast . I got there just after 8am to find most of the usual suspects were already in attendance a 'Knoxbridge Special Breakfast' soon had me set up for the day ahead, and it was then just a matter of jumping back into the car for the five minute trip down the road to the fishery.

As we waited for the draw word came through that Tony was marooned on a stationary M25, and a quick phone call to him confirmed that he wouldn't be able to make it today , which left 16 of us fishing today. Prior to the draw Nick was doing a brisk trade in his floats which he had with him, but we were soon picking our pegs ......

I found peg 13 was to be mine for the day, not a peg that I would have chosen, as I've never fished there before and it's not considered one of the noted pegs. Nick Costar (Bag Up) had drawn peg 8 , and would take some beating with his Method approach, while Al had drawn 9, another good peg .
Matt and Mick had 23 and 24 and Nick Gilbert was on peg 17, on his own at the top of the lake with the wind blowing into it .

Reaching my peg I took stock, a comfy chuck to the island for a feeder, and a promising reed lined margin to the right and a overhanging bush to the left, with the wind blowing from right to left across me ......

I set up 3 top kits. The first with a 0·2g NG XT Power Pencil made up on 0·16 Ultima Power Match straight through to a size 16 Guru MWG for straight out in front at around 6mtrs where I had around 4ft of water. Then a NG 0·3 XT Sampson margin on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG for tight to the reeds in my right hand margin where I had 2 feet of water and a 0.2 NG Edger on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finished off with size 16 Guru MWG that would be used tight to the bush on my left. I also set up the feeder rod to fish the method to the island. Bait was a selection of 4, 6 and 8mm pellets along with some soft hookers and some paste.

Kevin appeared with a welcome cup of coffee courtesy of Jean and after a brief chat made his way back to his peg for the start of the match. With everyone set Nick called the All-In at 11am. I fed a pot of mixed pellet at 6mtrs and a handful in each margin before shipping an 8mm pellet out to the 6mtr line. a couple of dips then the float buried resulting in a hand sized skimmer to get me off the mark, which was followed by a couple more identical examples. Not quite what I was hoping for especially as the two Nick's both appeared to be off to flyer's along with Al, in fact rumour had it that Bag Up had taken a couple of near doubles in consecutive casts within the first 15 minutes!!!!!!

Up to my left on peg 15 was Toby(vassago)Wells, and from what I could see it appeared that he was suffering with a similar slow start to the match like I was ......

After upping my feeding on the 6mtr line my next fish was a Carp, only a small one at around 1½lbs, but it gave a good account of itself before sliding across the rim of the landing net . This signalled the start of a run of Carp, but after about an hour I could tell that I wasn't catching fast enough and was already falling behind . Time to take a look on the method. I'd previously soaked some 4mm pellets for use on the feeder, so using those in conjunction with a hair rigged banded 8mm pellet it was out to the island with the feeder. It was quite shallow out by the island and I could see fish turning toward the splash of the feeder as it landed, and while it soon started to produce fish for me, they were all small fish of around the 1lb mark . Nick on peg 17 was making serious inroads into the lake's Carp population and still taking fish regularly ......

I stuck it out in the hope that a few better examples would show up, but it just didn't seem as if it was meant to be today. Sipping a second cup of coffee from Jean I decided to have a quick look with the pellet waggler, as I had been catapulting 6-8 8mm pellets to the island every couple of minutes while fishing the method and it was already set up in it's ready sleeve. The set up was ideal to reach the island but after half a dozen casts it was all to obvious that the wind was making presentation to difficult for it to be effective .

I could see that Al was still catching at a steady rate, and his commentary on Bag Up's progress kept everyone aware of how well he was catching . I could also hear plenty of splashing coming from Nick's peg although the bush to my left stopped me from seeing quite how well he was doing. However I could see Micky over on peg 24 and he seemed to be catching well down his left hand margin ......

A quick look down both margins produced nothing apart from a solitary small Roach, so it was back to the 6mtr line for me. I was soon back among the Carp, still not large fish, but a slightly better stamp at around 1½-2lbs to those I'd been catching on the method . The problem was that I couldn't increase the catch rate, it was just steady away. Finally with about 30 minutes to go the fish turned up in my right hand margin and I managed to take a few better fish around the 3-4lb mark before Nick called the All-Out at 4pm, but it was to little to late for me.

Packing up and chatting to Toby it was obvious that we'd had pretty similar matches, and I felt that I probably had around 70lbs to show for my efforts.
So with my gear back in the car it was time for the Weigh-In.

Mick r kicked things off with 39½lbs, but Simon recorded the days first 'Ton' with a fine 137lbs . Kev could only manage 37lbs 10ozs. Bag Up put 185lbs on the scales , but Al topped that with 197lbs 10ozs . My fish came to 88¼lbs, while Toby had 79¼lbs. Nick showed just what a busy day he'd had 140 Carp for a weight of 222¼lbs . Lee had 82lbs and Matt had 128¼lbs but Mick won their peg to peg tussle with 177¾lbs . Dave had 50½lbs while new boy Gino had 30lbs. On peg 32 Terry's 112½lbs was just 4ozs better than Rusty's 112¼lbs from peg 33 , and Keith was last to weigh with 49¾lbs.

So back to the car park for the results. The Winner on the day and Maggotdrowning Southern Champion 2011 was Nick Gilbert . Al Loader took second place on the day while Nick Costar was third overall .

Thanks to Nick for organising the match and to all those that supported it on the day .

Lastly to Hartleylands Farm, what a fishery Over 1700lbs of fish weighed in, meaning an average of over 100lbs per angler, it shows the quality of the fishing on offer .

Marsh AC v  Morefax AC

Well I'm down at Hartleylands today for a small Knock Up on Nick's Lake. A couple of weeks ago Dave Collier posted the following on my club forum...... " Some of my son-in-laws mates have invited me and a few Marsh members for a little knock up on 23rd April. They normally fish as a small club with usually 8 or 10 of them. Between their organiser and myself we have booked the whole of Nicks lake for Saturday 23rd of April. So how many of you want to risk the wrath of SWMBO and come fishing on Easter Saturday"   Well after an invitation like that, it would be rude not to wouldn't it .

We had been hoping to have a Marsh club match around this time, but a combination of Easter, Royal Wedding and a lack of available bookings on suitable venues meant that the invitation from the Morefax lads offered a welcome opportunity for about a dozen of us to get out on the bank .

With plenty of time to set up before the All-In at 10am the pellet wag and feeder rod were taken out of their ready sleeves, though in all honesty I was only expecting to fish the pole. 3 rigs took care of my options, once again all Sackup CX 4x12 pencils on 0·16 Ultima Power Match finishing with size 16 Guru MWG's. pretty much the same rigs I'd used at Monks on the previous Marsh match ......

The first to fish at around 10mtrs where there was around 4ft of water and the other two to cover two margin lines. Bait for the day being a combination hard pellets and soft hookers.

 while second and third had come from adjacent pegs with Dave Collier's 90lbs from peg 21 giving him 2nd place ahead of Lee Rose (peg 20) whose 79lbs gave him 3rd overall .
Kevin on peg 24 had 64lbs to give him the section on the day while Nick Bondeau on peg 27 managed 59½lbs to take the final section and his first ever pick up in a match . All in all a good day, with everyone having some fish and I'm sure it won't be the last time that the Marsh and Morefax clubs get together for a friendly Knock Up .

Marsh AC club match.

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 , Autumn had well and truly arrived .
By 7·15am I was sitting down in the Knox-Bridge Café for a 'Full English' 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 . 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.

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 4x12 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 ......

....... 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 ......

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 .......

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 .......

....... 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 .......

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 .......

...... 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 ......

 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 .......

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 .......

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 ......

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 ......

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 ......

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 . 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 , but todays winner was Al with a fine 84½lbs . 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 .

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  while Tony was Runner-Up with 204 points and Colin finished 3rd on 194 points .

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

Maggotdrowning.com

Southern Championship 2009.

 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......

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......

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......

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 .......

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 ......

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 ......

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 ......

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 ......

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 !!!!!!!!!......

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

...... 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.

Marsh AC club match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ryan's Winter Knock Up.

It was definitely a day for the thermals today as I loaded the car ready for the trip down To Harleylands Farm for a friendly little Knock Up on Nick's Lake that Ryan (Zephyr) has organised through the MD's forum . By the time I arrived at the car park it was around 8am and it appeared that I was the last of 17 lunatics to arrive. Fortunately Mick had managed to arrange for the catering wagon that had been at Broad Oak to turn up, so breakfast was taken care of courtesy of a cuppa from Andy and half of one of the monster breakfast rolls from Trevor Thanks lads .
Nick unfortunately had a black out and cracked his head , but after we had got him into the back of a van and Kevin had administered a spot of first aid he thankfully recovered enough to fish, especially once he realised that peg 9 was left in the hat for him .

My draw had yielded peg 36, not a great area in winter, but with a nice short walk from the car and a bit of shelter looked like being a bonus today , and as only sections were being payed out today instead of the top 3 I still had something to fish for. For company today I had Andy(The Hat) to my right on peg 36, and to my left 3 of my fellow Marsh club members, in Kevin, Terry and Dave on pegs 2,4 and 6.

The peg was comfy enough with just a short chuck to the corner of the island, and with it being so cold I only set the feeder up. Bait was simply a couple of pints of reds and some groundbait. The one doubt in the back of my mind was the colour or rather lack of it in the water. The recent frosts appeared to have knocked the colour right out of it which is unusual on Nick's regardless of how cold it gets.

So 10am and the All-In is called, feeder to the point, tighten up and wait for the action to start ................and wait .............and wait ..................and wait . Thankfully Kevin's partner Jean broke the monotony by providing me with a hot cup of coffee , but apart from Dave getting a small Carp and receiving all our hearty congratulations......NOT  there didn't seem to be much happening, In fact the only person that appeared to be doing anything was Steve Allen on peg 8. Now Steve normally fishes with his two sons Pete and Nick, but it was obviously a little to cold for the poor things so he'd brought his mate, Terry with him for company. A quick chat with Andy revealed that at least he'd had 3 small fish, better than me at that point with his more "speccie" orientated approach........

Well with 1½ hours gone without as much as a nibbled maggot to show for it, I decided I should get the pole out, at least shipping in and out would keep me warm. The rig was a Malman 4x10 Snake1 to ·12 finished with an 18 Drennan maggot hook. I set this up to fish at around 6mtrs where I had around 3½ ft of water with soft set white hydro in the top kit. A pinch of maggot followed by the rig soon rewarded me with a small roach, at least I hadn't blanked .

Terry was alternating between the feeder and a pole approach but was struggling like the majority of us, nothing really seemed to bring him a run of fish...............

Dave meanwhile had managed to nick another small carp on the feeder, but was also sorting out a pole rig in an attempt to find a bit of action...........

Indeed regardless of where I looked it was hard to find anyone who was getting amongst the fish apart from Steve whose could be seen with a bend in his rod on a regular basis.

I managed to keep the small roach coming, not quickly enough to build any real weight, but fast enough to pass the time and keep me focused .

With about 10 minutes to go Kevin finally had a bite on the feeder and was rewarded with a small carp , however in his enthusiasm to get back out there his next cast ended on the island and the resulting break ended his day with 5 minutes to go . I chucked the feeder out just in case there was another in the area, but the tip remained stationary till the All-Out was called at 3pm.

At least it didn't take to long to pack up and get the gear back to the car, and a stroll round with the scales showed just how hard it had fished today . Steve had walked the match today putting 42lbs 12ozs on the scales for a comfortable win, in fact everyone else only managed single figures apart from Trevor whose 10lbs 4ozs of silvers won him his section. Steve's mate Terry Goulding realised he had tipped back a weight that would have won his section but Hey Ho........ Thats fishing, and of course we were all very sympathetic..........NOT .

Thanks to Ryan for organising the day (his 1st attempt at organising a match) . Next up is the Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match at Wylands next Saturday. How will that turn out? You can read about it here next weekend .

Well the day promised to be a bit of fun as I was off down to Hartleylands to join a few of the lads that are fishing Nick Gilbert's 1st Invicta Angling Match League and were looking to have a bit of a practice prior to the 1st match there next week. Loading up the car at 7am in Sydenham it looked as if we could be in for a decent day with the sun rising into a bright blue sky, just a breathe of wind and a pleasant 7°C showing on the car thermometer.

By the time I pulled up at the Knoxbridge Café for a spot of breakfast things had taken a turn for the worst however , with wind, thick grey clouds and the 1st hint of rain replacing the sun. A quick bit of breakfast with Matt, Nick, Alan and Ekythump and it was off to the fishery for the draw. Already there were Vince, Trevor, Jay and Kevin and while Nick sorted out the draw we sorted our kit out. Mistake no1 !!!! I'd left my jacket at home !!!!! Thankfully Matt saved the situation lending me his spare jacket for the day. Nice one Matt .

With the wind increasing I fancied one of the pegs in the 30's which were reasonably sheltered and almost flat calm. It was not to be as peg 25 was to be my home for the next few hours............

The wind was already starting to gust strongly as I settled in and set up and I just set up a maggot feeder and a couple of top kits to fish short, as i didn't fancy battling with a long pole in the conditions, not that I was jealous looking across to Alan on peg peg 32 setting up with what appeared to be a millpond in front of him !...........

10·30am and Vince blew the whistle for the All-in. I'd made up a slop of crushed hemp and Pineapple Atomic Cloud to feed the inside line and fished white maggot on the hook and this soon started to produce few small Roach . Sport in general appeared to be slow for most though Jay was getting a few Carp on the feeder over on peg 8, Nick had the wind full in his face on peg 6 (a most unusual occurrence for him ) while Matt was blasting maggot and fishing the waggler on peg 9 but this was producing mostly Roach for him rather than the hoped for Carp. In fairness though most of the lads were trying to sort methods for the upcoming League so it was more of a question of sorting out wouldn't work as opposed to sitting it out on a banker method.

Just after midday I had a look over on the feeder. 3rd cast and I stuck it into a tree on the island and cracked off. Temper? Laziness? I really should have stuck with it but didn't. Instead I had a cup of coffee and went for a walk with the camera to warm up.

Up on peg 21 Trevor was sheltered behind his brolly and had settled on the waggler with a fair bit of open water in front of him, and while it was mostly Roach the occasional Carp was putting in an appearance to keep it interesting........

while Ekythump 2 down on peg 23 was fishing his top 2 and finding a few more Carp amongst the Roach...........

Back down on peg 32 Alan was getting a few on the Waggler but had been feeding a margin line that as it turned out, was to come good for him in the last hour ..........

Kevin on peg 34 was having a bit of a grueller and was sitting it out on the feeder.........

Vince was on peg 32 and complaining that he was freezing despite being sheltered from the worst of the conditions. The feeder was producing the odd Carp for him as it appeared the fish wanted a dead still bait.......

Nick on peg 6 (a peg he didn't want to put in, so you just knew he would draw it) spent most of his time chopping and changing trying various methods out when he wasn't having a walk about chatting and trying to get out of the wind  .........

That just left Jay and Matt on pegs 8 & 9..........

........ and while Jay stuck it out on the feeder all day, Matt started the match on the waggler spraying maggot before switching to the method halfway through .............

I spent the rest of the match fishing the top 2 but unlike Ekythump, couldn't find a Carp for love or money, I did however manage a Barbel which was a bit of a surprise because as far as I'm aware Paul only stocked about 14 of them into the lake originally !!!! (needless to say it was in perfect condition )

3·30 and Vince blew the All-out, a most welcome sound , which was quickly followed by the weigh-in. 12lbs 12 ozs was my reward for the day, leaving Vince happy that he'd beaten me for the 2nd time this year. The lake had fished hard though in some of the worst conditions I've experienced there, though hopefully it will be better for the lads fishing the League there, starting next week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well having got back into the swing of things with last weeks Match at Holly Farm, I was keen to get back out onto the bank again to make up for some of the fishing I had missed out on in the preceding weeks.
A couple of jobs to do 1st thing in the morning meant that I didn't arrive at the fishery till 10am, and with a match on Peartree and the Reservoir a comfy peg on Nick's Lake would do nicely.

Unloading the car I could see there was an angler on peg 29 in the corner, so i took a short 20 yard stroll up to peg 32 that had plenty of cover in the margins which would be suitable as I was planning to try out a couple of paste baits and some solid 22 rated Vespe elastic that I had rigged up in my margin pole.

A couple of hand fulls of mixed pellet into both margins while i set my gear up was all the prep needed, and although it was cloudy, hopefully the wind would keep any rain at bay, after the torrential downpours we had experienced in London the day before.

Plumbing up revealed a comfy 3 ft in the margins allowing me to fis a simple dibber rig cocked with a single BB shot at just under half depth on 0·21 MAP Carptek straight through to an eyed size 10 barbless Raptor. The real object of the day was to see how soft a paste I could get away with using, so all the paste would be shipped out with the aid of a small paste pot made up to Teepee's design.
I had made up plenty of paste (six pints) in 2 different varieties, as I would be relying on just the paste coming of the hook to feed the swims.

1st put in at 6mtrs down the left hand margin and the float just slid away after 30 seconds and a nice little Common Carp of about 2½ lbs was soon in the net to get me off the mark.
Bites continued to be almost instant, but a lot of them were from the hordes of small palm sized Skimmers that seemed to have invaded the swim, though doubling the size of the paste bait meant that the bait lasted long enough for yet more Carp to find it before the Skimmers polished it off.

By about 12·30 the sky had darkened ominously and the angler on peg 29 had packed up and left, and I made the decision to move down there despite the fact that I had landed 25 Carp by then.

Yet again a couple of hand fulls of mixed pellet into both margins as I sorted the gear out and went back to the car to get my umbrella. Plumbing up revealed another 6 inches on the depth of the previous swim so I tied up another rig to suit the extra depth.
Soon the threatened rain arrived and much as I hate fishing under an umbrella I was glad I had it with me, even though the shower only lasted for about ½ hour. Just as the rain eased off I glanced round to see the familiar face of Vince (vg1037) who had popped down to check on my progress. Whether it was his presence standing there behind me in a cream sweatshirt (Sky-lining me? ) or a change brought on by the rain, sport slowed as yet again the Skimmers put in an appearance, however with the return of the sun the Carp started to return as Vince left to take his other half shopping.

Soon I was into a nice rhythm taking 2 or 3 Carp from each margin before resting it and swapping to the other.
One of the nice features of Nick's is the variety of Carp in there. Mostly Commons and Mirrors, there are also some Ghosties present along with some really dark Mirrors that are almost black. Another nice feature are the Tench. Normally I've found that Tench don't fare well in waters where they have to compete with a large head of Carp, but through the session I caught a dozen Tench, and while not large they were all fit as fiddles and pleasantly plump.

Here's a few photo's showing the condition of the Carp present in the lake.....................

As the afternoon wore on a better stamp of Carp moved into both margin swims, taking both varieties of paste confidently, the best of them weighing maybe 9lbs. By 5pm they had noshed their way through 6 pints of paste and I called it a day having landed 93 Carp, 12 Tench and a few Skimmers. At a conservative estimate I would think I had 200lbs+ of fish making for a cracking days fishing.

Next weekend it's the Maggotdrowning Pairs Event at Rolf's Lake and if I can manage a similar sort of performance I'll be well pleased.

After yesterdays trip to Monk Lakes with the lads I had a pint of maggots to use up.

Well to be honest I'd forgotten them the day before and left them in the fridge .

The weather today had definitely taken a turn for the worst, with a drop in temperature, rain and a fair bit more wind . I was in two minds whether to go but had the car loaded and set off around 10·30am. The venue today was to be Hartleylands Farm, with The Reservoir and 6 other lakes and ponds there is always somewhere on the fishery where you can tuck yourself away from the worst of the weather and catch a few fish .

Arriving at around noon I had a look round and decided to fish Nick's lake, settling on peg 35 for no other reason than it was only 10 yards from the car, meaning I could leave the rod bag and carryall in the car and save them getting soaked .

Just the 1 top kit with white Hydro was set up allowing me to fish at the bottom of the shelf about 5 feet from the bank into around 3ft of water. In summer the fish will come in closer on top of the shelf, but with the fall in water temp and a bit of colour dropping out I didn't feel it would be a goer.

The main line would be to my left at around 10mtrs with a throwaway straight in front just fishing the top 2. A pinch of maggot, fed every few minutes with double maggot on an 18 completed the picture for the session.

A quick chat with Dave on the phone revealed that those on the MD's Fur & Feather up at Lindholme were experiencing even colder and windier conditions.

Sport was pretty continuous throughout the session, I rarely had to wait more than 60 seconds for a bite, with a succession of Roach, Rudd and Skimmers coming to hand interspersed with the odd pastie Carp. Every time i tried the top 2 line it was a bite every 5 seconds from the hordes of Pongo's that had settled in............

With the light starting to fade and the weather closing in once more it was time for just one last put in down the left hand side.
Sure enough the float slid away once more, only this time there was rather a lot of white Hydro streaming out!!!!!
A couple of minutes later the culprit surfaced and showed itself as it slid into the waiting landing net........

an absolutely glorious Mirror of around 6lbs+, the perfect way to end my fishing for 2006, making me glad I had forgotten those maggots the day before .

Having a bit of time off I was pleasantly surprised when Maria suggested i might fancy a days fishing last night, as she was going over to visit a friend today. I should have known

After my disaster at Lemington last Saturday I really needed to catch a few just to get the confidence back, so it was off to a favorite of mine ............ Hartleylands Farm.

So 8·30am brings a nudge in my back as my beloved enquirers whether I'm going fishing today?
A peak out of the window reveals it's been pouring down all night, but a hint of sun breaking through promises better for the day ahead.
By 9·15 the car's loaded and I'm on my way with a clearing sky, but as I reach Tonbridge the sun has vanished and the sky is getting greyer.

Reaching the fishery about 10·30 I'm a little disappointed to find a match on the reservoir, so that's the 1st plan scuppered. A steady drizzle is starting to fall as I have a look around and a chat with a couple of anglers that have already been fishing for a couple of hours with only a couple of carp to show for their efforts between them. I settle for peg 8 on Finches, sheltered amongst the trees and with a comfy 8yds to the far bank it will do for me .

Before I've even finished setting up, the rain starts hammering down, so just a couple of simple rigs are set up, 1 for paste and the other for 6mm expander pellet both to be fished over 4mm pellet (all G.O.T baits) both across and in the margin to my left.
Both rigs are KC Carpa 2's on 0·16 carptek with Fox match series2 in a 14 for paste and a 16 for the expanders.

1st put in across with paste, and 30secs later the float has buried and the black hydro stretches out and safely into the net is the 1st of the day, an nice ghost common .

A couple of looks over with expander produces a couple of gudgeon, so back to the paste. This is definitely what the carp want with most bites coming within a minute of cupping the paste in, and the bites are nice and definite, no messing about with the float, just vanishing straight down the plughole.

With the rain still pouring down I get a phone call from Dave about 12, and he remarks that he can hear the rain, but it's lovely in Leeds. The action that I've been having encourages the chap in the next but one peg down from me to come over for a chat to see what I'm doing differently from him. 10 mins under the brolly showing him how to prepare expanders with a pump and explaining the basics of paste and he's off back to his peg with a box of prepared expanders to give them a go.

Back out with the paste and the rain is starting to ease, but the carp are still there .............

By 1·30 the rain has finally stopped but because I'm under the trees it's still coming down on me, so a move is called for if I'm ever going to get anything dried out. A quick look over the back reveals that there are only 4 anglers on Nick's, so I move all of 10yards onto Nick's peg 3. With nobody on the adjacent pegs it was going to be margins all the way and 1st put in on the right hand margin produced an instant bite resulting in a super common gracing the net .

The afternoon proved to be fairly hectic, I doubt if I had to wait much more than 30 secs for a bite on paste, with most being so positive that the elastic just streamed out without any need to strike, smaller fish in general than those in Finches, mostly commons but occasionally a nice example of the resident ghosties putting in an appearance ............

4·30 and as I'm packing away after what has been a good confidence building session Paul Ward, the owner pops round for a chat, always interesting, he tells me that he's finished digging another new lake and is just letting it fill naturally as he's in no hurry to stock it yet.
Packing up, thankfully almost everything has dried out and on the way out I decide to stop and have a look at the new lake........

As you can see there's a quite wide marginal shelf around 2-3 ft below water level and it then drops to around 6-7ft, while it just rises up to the island without a noticeable shelf.
It promises to be another decent addition to the fishery once it's up and running, probably not until next summer though at the earliest, as Paul likes to let things settle and establish themselves before he allows fishing.

Dave the Fish's 

Fur and Feather Fun Match.

22 hardy souls headed down to Harleylands in Kent yesterday to take part in a Xmas match organised by Dave the Fish from Maggotdrowning.com

I met up with a few of the lads at the Knoxbridge Cafe at around 7·30am to find it a tad busy, a party of shooters had obviously beaten us to it, meaning that the service was about as far removed from "Fast Food" as you could imagine.
By the time that Jess & Szabi and The Welsh Contingent (Dai, Neo, Geoff & Malc) arrived it had slowed even more, and as we left for the draw they were still waiting!

With the delays making the draw run late we decided that we would fish from 10·30 to 3·30pm so we all dipped in and made our way to our respective pegs.
I found myself on 22 with The Jinx for company on 23. Not only were our pegs in the shade but we had the wind howling into them and although there was no ice on the lake it was soon obvious that the only people that would be at home on them would be Eskimos. Looking across to the other bank it was bathed in sunlight with barely a ripple on the water!

I set up a pole and a feeder rod with a small maggot feeder, while Malc elected to fish the feeder all day to the island in front of him.

All in and I went out on the pole, and needless to say with both Malc and Dave standing behind me my first bite, a small very delicate affair, (don't believe Malc when he tells you "it speared the bottom" ) resulted in me missing it horribly and wrapping the rig round the tip.

I stuck it out on the pole for an hour for 4 small fish (1 Skimmer, 1 Roach, 1 Perch and a Gudgeon). In the meantime Malc had managed 3 Carp and Neo a few pegs down had managed a few small stockies. I could see Omega Mike (who I regard as something of a venue expert) pegged further round and bathed in sunlight starting to put a few together on the long pole.

Sven on peg8 (The Flyer) and Colin opposite me appeared to be catching regularly,
and with my hands starting to become numb with the cold the pole was replaced with the feeder rod.
Looking round it appeared that a Garden Gnome had turned blue with the cold , but it was only Malc staring at his tip willing it to go round..

Slowly i started to put a few small Carp together by dropping the feeder as close to the island as I dared.

Just after Noon the best part of the day arrived in the shape of Dave & Jean bearing Hot Pies & Pasties along with a bottle of Canadian Club. Truely Inspired and most welcome, even if Malc did complain that they weren't served on Daves usual Silver Tray.

Into the fading light, and a few missgivings were being aired about the wisdom of fishing to 3·30pm, it was getting that cold that I had a couple of feeders crack up where they had become so brittle in the cold.
With 5 mins to go I'm sure that I heard the ominous sound of breaking carbon from further down the bank followed by a softly muttered Welsh curse, though I could be wrong.

Finally the whistle sounded, and it transpired that Malc and I would have to perform Scales Duty. My 27lbs 2ozs started the ball rolling (and secured £1 from Malc ), Omega Mike came up just short with what was still a creditable bag as he'd fished the pole all day. Colin was soon in the box seat however with a 50lb+ bag, a worthy winner on the day. Sven & John on adjacent pegs had obviously had a close match, with Sven just having enough for 2nd on the day pushing John down to 3rd and me to 4th. A very good result for Sven as I'm sure he would admit that matchfishing isn't his thing. Nick Gilbert also managed 27lbs on the day.

Gathering up our kit Malc and I returned to find our nets frozen solid (told you it was cold ) so back to the car park for the prizes and farewells.
I have to say that given the conditions the lake fished well on the day, even though the fish were shoaled up in pockets.

A big thank you to Dave for organising the match and to all those that attended from near and far, making the day the success it was. We'll have to do it again, preferably in warmer conditions though.

The final results were :-

I had arranged to meet Dave the Fish at Hartleylands today, with a view to having a practice for the forthcoming Intersite match. To say that it was a dull, grey, wet, windy, and thoroughly miserable day would be an understatement!

Some of the Total-Fishing lads had come down for a practice and after a brief chat they set off to fish Peartree while Dave and I set up on Nicks.

Vince appeared to give us a pep talk, but things at the start were a shade slow, so Vince was dispatched to the Bakery at the farm shop for the pies. With these consumed Vince bid us farewell as he had to collect some people from Gatwick .

Dave and I redoubled our efforts ringing the changes to get an idea of what would and wouldn't work. At times the drizzle seemed to be falling horizontally instead of vertically, but we ploughed on for the good of the team, putting together bags including Tench, Skimmers, Carp and Barbel until about 3·30pm when Daves joints decided they had had enough of the cold and wet.

As a taster these are a few pics of some of the stock in Nicks.........

GHOSTIES.....

KOI.....

BARBEL.....

All in all a worthwhile day,with some methods sorted and filed away for use on the day, and the promise of more to come before the big day.