So Bank Holiday Monday and Maria is working today, so after dropping her at work at 6am I popped back home to load my kit up and set off towards Dorking, having decided to take the opportunity to reacquaint myself with The Old Estate Lake at Bury Hill Fisheries . Surprisingly for a Bank Holiday the traffic was very light and in just under an hour I was pulling into an already busy car park at the fishery.

Stopping off at the Boathouse to get my day ticket I notice that things have moved on since I last visited with a much better stocked tackle and bait section now in place and a quick glance along the Front Bank reveals that most of those swims are already taken. I really want to get among a few of the Bream that the lake is known for, so set off along the Long Bank in the hope of getting one of the swims amongst the lily pads .
Carpers, carpers everywhere, but just as it looks like I’ll be unlucky I find a swim 2 shy of the culvert that will do nicely for the day, allowing me to reach the pads on both sides at 14½mtrs and with a decent amount of open water in front should I hook a Carp.

The rig was simplicity itself, a top2 rigged with black Hydro with a 4×12 KC Carpa Tricky float rigged up on 0·17 Carptec line straight through to a barbless 18 fox series2 hook to fish on the bottom in about 4ft of water. Bait was to be GOT Baits  6mm expanders, with a few of these being fed along with their 4mm hard pellets.

It wasn’t hard fishing really just a question of feeding the 2 opposite lines and alternating between them till a bite came along, which it finally did after about 30mins. A little dip and it just slid away and within a minute there in the net was one of OBH’s smaller Bream going around 3lbs ………….

The promise of another bright hot sunny day looked as if it may have an adverse effect on sport but by sticking at it I’d had 10 between 3 – 4½lbs by 11am.

Next put in and a similar bite sees a lot of Hydro heading through the pads, cranking the pressure onto my Super PowerLite a tug of war ensued, slowly and surely the pressure told and the fish (still attached ) came out into open water. The commotion had brought the angler from the next swim round to watch and within a couple of minutes there in the net is a nice Common Carp of around 10lbs……..

The chap in the next swim is called Paul, fishing more conventional Carp gear of matched rods and baitrunners on a pod, and soon he’s into a Carp that has taken a hair rigged Halibut pellet. It’s soon netted and weighs in at 12lbs. He’s only got a basic camera so I capture it on my digital to e-mail to him later………

Another couple of Bream for me and then I’m into another tug of war, this time in the other set of pads!!!!!!! Once again the constant pressure tells and the fish pops out into the open water and after 3-4 minutes of dogged plodding it slides over the net, a much chunkier fish this time coming in at just over 12lbs , with Paul snapping a picture for me………..

A quick phone call to Malc to find out how he’s doing on a pole only match at Drayton reveals he isn’t!!!!!!!!! Yep, the Peugeot has let him down once again and he’s waiting for the recovery truck……………… Somethings never change. Another quick call to Dave reveals that he and Stu are on a Barbel hunt on a river somewhere in deepest Yorkshire, but at that point in time they hadn’t had one.

Paul meanwhile has had another nice Common while I’ve had 3 more Bream in successive put in’s followed by another Carp, a Mirror this time, which thankfully charges out into open water allowing me to bring it to the net relatively easily. In the net it looks a little weird as it appears to have a massively underslung mouth, hasn’t affected it’s appetite though as it appears otherwise fit and well at around the 10lb mark…………

Yet more Bream put in an appearance and around 3pm I’m thinking of packing up to avoid catching the Bank Holiday traffic on the way home the float slides away and I’m attached to another Carp, yet another Common and with Paul doing the honours it proves to be my best of the day at 14lbs . As I start to pack my gear away Paul is in again once more, and after a spirited fight I find myself doing the honours again, this time it’s another lovely Common tipping the scales at 17lbs……….

So that’s it for me, a very pleasant days fishing with some good company and a final tally of 17 Bream and 4 Carp. Paul was stopping on for a few more hours so I bade him farewell having made sure I had his E-mail address to forward the pictures on to him.
Next up it’s the final round of The Jinx Series at Rolf’s Lake next Saturday, Hopefully Malc will get there but with his car you wouldn’t bet on it .

It all started with a phone call a couple of weeks ago.
“I need to take Fraser fishing, where and when can we go?”
It was Maria’s brother Chris asking the questions, so Saturday was chosen with the venue being Hartleylands Farm .
Now Chris being Chris, didn’t arrive at my place till just after 9am, so we didn’t arrive at the fishery till just after 10am.

I knew that i could guarantee that they would catch a few fish and with only The Reservoir booked we had our pick of the ponds and lakes. We settled on Woodside Pond which is the smallest of the original ponds on the site with only 5 pegs, it’s tucked away at the back of the fishery and doesn’t get much pressure, but if it didn’t produce the goods it’s only a short hop over to the newer Peartree match lake .

Woodside Pond

Chris and Fraser settled in to peg 5 while i set up on peg 4. Chris set up a small feeder for himself and a light waggler for Fraser, with bait being maggot and corn, while i set up my pole and went with expander pellet as bait.

Father & Son

With a couple of feet in the margins and maybe five feet down the middle it’s nice simple fishing and Chris was soon off the mark with a small Carp. Fraser and I were soon following, me with with a Carp and Fraser with his 1st ever Tench.

Chris

Fraser

All day long sport continued with a succession of small Carp and Tench keeping things interesting for both Father and Son. I sneaked over to Peartree for a final couple of hours and found that the bottom must have been carpeted with small Tench, nothing big, with a pounder being a bonus but a fish virtually every put-in .

All to soon, it was time to pack away the gear, and seeing them off from the car park the final site was Fraser’s grinning face looking back and waving. I don’t think it will be to long before they’re back.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Hawthorne AC club match.

Next up Sunday, and a Hawthorne AC club match on Milton Lake at Old Bury Hill. One of the most popular venues in this part of the country, and the usual suspects turned up along with Omega Mike from TotalFishing.Com and Peter9000uk, both eager to guest and have the chance of getting amongst the Crucians and Tench that the venue is so well known for .

Everything looked lovely at the draw and i found myself with peg 19. (The same as i had drawn in our last club match there)

Peg 19

Shortly after the all in at 9am however, it soon became clear that all was not well, as the fish seemed to have almost entirely switched off . I have never seen this lake fish so badly, whether it was the rainwater that had gone in the previous week, or the couple of cold nights leading up to the match I don’t know, but the half time weigh-in took all of 5 mins as only a couple of anglers had enough to trouble the scalesmen.
Omega Mike decided that the comforts of home were more attractive and left half way through and i can’t say i blamed him . Stiffy, another TotalFishing poster turned up for a short chat as he was fishing the Estate Lake and had a similar tale of woe as all but a couple of pegs on there were struggling.

I finally managed to extract 4 Crucians and a similar number of Rudd for a grand total of 4lbs 9ozs and 7th place. The winner managing 33lbs 1 oz off of peg 4 which is an out and out flyer, but with 3 dry nets and a similar number only weighing in ounces, it was overall a very disappointing day .

Just to add insult to injury walking back to the car park i passed Bonds Lake only to see 7 anglers all playing carp at the same time. How can 2 lakes just 10 yards apart fish so differently on the same day??????

 

NKHC in the punts at Old Bury Hill.

A most enjoyable day.

I was drafted into HMS Pension Book to bring down the average age of the crew , and by the time we set sail it looked more like a naval review moored up in The Jungle so we settled for mooring just off of a reed bed (somewhere around peg 75 where the Island bank meets the edge of The Jungle, for those of you that are familiar with OBH.)

The weather was warm and there was plenty of cloud cover, but recent rain had added a fair bit of cold water to the lake, which didn’t bode well.
Anchored on our port side was HMS Taffy, and Geoffs 1st Perch soon ellicited the familiar refrain of “It’s a fish, I haven’t blanked”.

Dave the Fish managed to winkle out a few Skimmers on his jelly pellets, Colin despite ringing the changes baitwise was getting nowhere fast and I resorted to fishing out into open water to snare a couple of better examples of the resident Bream.
The Highlight of the morning however was the sight of Jason aboard HMS Bag-up doing battle “Stand up & Fight” fashion with a cracking Carp, A super fish of 26lbs 8ozs at any time, but from a punt, it has to be something special .

With nothing really having it, we upped sticks (in fact the mud weights) and moved across to the island, Dave and Colin fishing towards it and me fishing out into open water again. Colin hit into what was obviously a Carp, and despite doing the hard bit and keeping it out of the undergrowth surrounding the island was unlucky to have the hook pull once the fish was into open water .
I’d managed another couple of Bream when the swim was wrecked by by HMS Bag-up ploughing through bearing a mooning Beebs (No photo’s, this is a family website)

This so traumatised our crew, that we were forced to return to the boathouse for burgers and tea.

Nerves calmed and refreshed we returned to the Island. Sport was slow for myself and Dave, but Colin found a few Perch and silvers while i very briefly connected with a Carp for all of a couple of seconds till the hook pulled .
Almost straight after this Colin connected with another Carp on his double maggot set up and this time despite it putting up a spirited fight, it was in the net. Not up to Jasons standard at 8lbs, but very welcome none the less .

All this commotion having trashed the swim, it was time for one last move round the island, and having settled in my 1st cast resulted in a positive bite. A brief scrap and a nice Tench which when weighed went 4lbs 4ozs proved to be the final fish for HMS Pension book .

On the row back we passed HMS Taffy who had returned Geoff to port suffering from a bit to much sun.
A final cup of tea and a session feeding the tame Carp under the boathouse (Mr Wilson’s swim?) ended the day. Not the most prolific session, but still a good day out in good company.

 

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well off to Old Bury Hill again today, this time it’s Miltons Lake though. Strangely for a Hawthorne club match it’s not raining or blowing a gale, in fact the sun was actually shining .

So 17 are at the draw and what sticks to my hand? Peg 19. Now Miltons Lake is home to some cracking Crucians, Tench, Bream, Roach and Rudd. The one thing missing is Carp, a deliberate policy by the fishery owner to stop the Crucians hybridising.

Now peg 19 had a large reed bed to the left of it and the normal approach is to fish as close to them as possible with Pellet, Meat or Corn targeting the Crucians and Tench. Put a maggot on the hook and you’ll get bitted out by the Rudd.

PEG 19……..

So at the all in, it was 2 big pots of pellet, meat & corn spread out along the reeds, and a pot of corn tight to the right as a back up. Three quarters of an hour in and nothing, not a bite on pellet or corn so on with some meat, a minute later and the float slides away, strike and all hell lets loose as a big orange tail waves at me before departing through the reeds and smashing me.
Now i’ve seen enough of those tails to know that it belonged to a Carp that was probably double figures. The commotion kills the swim so a drop onto the right hand side produces 1 small Tench of about 8ozs.
Back onto the left and the next 2½ hrs leave me totally frustrated as i get reeded by another 5 large Carp, and manage to get just 2 of the smaller ones out.

A chat with the bailiff as he strolled round revealed that a load of Carp have obviously been transferred from the adjacent Bonds Lake by Idiots that believe that there should be some Carp in Miltons.

The last couple of hours see me finally get a few small Tench and a couple of nice Crucians, but the disturbance caused by the Carp and having to scale up my rigs in case another Carp put in an appearance have killed off any chance of putting a good weight together on the day.

At the scales I managed 19lbs 6ozs, for 5th place on the day, not the worst but leaving me frustrated as I don’t feel that I’ve got the best from the peg today .

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well after the giddy heights of yesterday, it was back down to earth today with a 20 peg club match at Old Bury Hill.
We had pegs 1-20 on the front bank of the old Estate Lake.

Now some of you may remember me mentioning that Hawthorne AC seem to have a peculiar talent for attracting the worst of the weather. Well today was no exception!!!!!!!!! Stepping out of the car in the carpark, the first drops of rain began to fall, this was soon followed by Fork Lightning, Thunder & Driving rain.
A hurried draw was arranged, and having drawn no7, off I set to my peg.

Looking across the lake from peg7…..

Now I really hate fishing the pole in the pouring rain, and holding 14mtrs of carbon with fork lightning about has never struck me as too sensible, so I set up a waggler & feeder rod and left the pole in the rodbag.
At the off it was out with the wag at 3 rod lengths, fished 3″ overdepth. 6mm expander on the hook and a pouch of 3mm expanders fed over the top. Nobody was doing much, just a few small Roach falling to those fishing maggot when 1½ hrs in, news came down that peg 1 had caught a 13lb Common.

Finally after 2½ hrs of continual feeding the float slid away,and a minute later a 2½lb Bream was safely in the net. In the next hour I added another 5 and things were looking up, which prompted the knob head angler on the next peg to fill it in with groundbait, which promptly killed it stone dead.

So out on the feeder for the last part of the match with luncheon meat on the hook and 4 more Bream before the whistle.
At the weigh-in I had 21lbs 2ozs for 3rd on the day, a result that puts me through to the semi-final of the club KO Cup, which will be fished in 2 weeks time back at Old Bury Hill, but this time on Miltons Lake.

I dropped Maria off at work and made my way down to Old Bury Hill.
Now driving down there I was beginning to question my sanity, as the rain was lashing down though a few breaks in the clouds did promise some sunshine……… Still better than being at work though.
Now my favorite fish is the Crucian Carp, and Miltons Lake holds a good head of these glorious fish that were originally stocked from Witley Park when Miltons Lake was dug.
The weather seemed determined to do it’s worst and a clap of thunder greeted me as i arrived at the lake,along with a strong wind!!!!!

So a quick wander round Miltons, and I settled on peg 3. It’s got so many features to fish to that you’re spoilt for choice really, stick ups to the left, lilies straight out in front and reeds and a smaller lily bed to the right…………. Oh and the wind was blowing into it.
Standing there and pondering my plan I noticed some fish were already moving through the stick ups which could be reached on the pole at a comfy 10mtrs.
The approach was going to be simple, 10 elastic, a 4×12 float with strung shot ending in a size 16 PR24 and either sweetcorn or soft pellet on the hook at dead depth (about 3 feet) Feed was to be micropellets and a few grains of corn, fed every put in from a kinder cup.

1st off though, 2 big Drennan pots full of micro pellets and corn were fed over a 3 foot square area, 1 to feed off the Rudd (there’s loads of them) and 2 to hold any fish that were already in the swim. First put in with a grain of corn and the float just sinks?? Overshotted?? NO……… Rudd, a plump fin perfect example of about 6ozs.

A few more of those and then a bit of spirited resistance on the strike and a minute later there in the net is a Tench of about 2½lbs.
3 more follow, then a change to pellet brings the 1st Crucian of the session, and 1 more species ticked off on the Fishing Race.

Well that’s the way it went all day till I packed up at 4pm.
I’d like to say that I worked hard for all the fish, but in reality, it was an easy day…….. I had the bait and the fish wanted it.
17 Tench and 66 Crucians…….. Oh,and quite a few Rudd made it a bit of a Red Letter Day, Certainly better than a day at work.

Brother-in-law Chris has just got back into fishing via his boy Fraser (7 years old), after a 15 year lay off, and on the couple of times he has come with me most of the day has been devoted to making sure that Fraser catches.
The other day Chris confessed that he wouldn’t mind a days fishing without Fraser, and that he’d love to catch a Tench as he’d never caught one.
There is only one venue that I could think of to virtually guarantee this, so first port of call was the boat house at Old Bury Hill to pay for our day tickets and collect the punt that would transport us to “The Jungle” on the Estate Lake .

Settling into an area hard up against an uprooted tree, I fed a couple of handfulls of pellets and sweetcorn into mine and chris’s swims. The sun was already starting to climb and not a cloud in the sky signaled that the early mist would soon burn off .
After about half an hour my waggler vanished,and after a brief tussle a fighting fit male tench of just over 3lb was safely in the net .

Chris meanwhile was suffering from some lightning fast unhittable bites, which I felt could be due to skimmers.
I could see the frustration in his face,when suddenly the float lifted up and laid flat. “STRIKE”  The rod hooped over as one angry fish sought out the shelter of the bushes that were so close. Fortunately it was unsuccessful, and after 5 mins Chris’s first ever Tench was netted, and at 4lbs 2ozs a great fish to start with …….

Soon however the sun was beating down, and the tench retreated deep into the shade of the bushes, Chris had a close encounter with a Carp, which sadly for him the Carp won .
Still the Bream continued to feed, nothing huge but large enough to keep Chris happy for the rest of the day .

At the end of the day as we stepped out of the punt, his first words were “When are we coming back ?” I don’t think it will be too long somehow .

“Three Men in a Boat”

The following is the report originally posted on Maggotdrowning.com about the day above, by a very good friend of mine,Trevor Manning aka Ziptrev.
Unfortunatly Trev is no longer with us, but reading this will i hope give you a taste of the mans style which is so missed by those who were fortunate enough to know him ………….

An Enjoyable Excursion.

As I approached Junction 23 of the M1 on Thursday 4th July, I cursed my weakness as my eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
I was so looking forward to a new experience that was a long standing arrangement and here I was less than 50 miles into a 180-mile journey and falling asleep at the wheel!

I had arranged weeks ago to go and visit Peter in London and fish a, quite unique in my experience, venue.
As the day approached, I asked Peter for directions and found they took me through Central London! At Rush hour time!!
Panic!
Peter solved that problem, by a) inviting me to stay the night & b) By arranging to meet me around the M25, a road I was much happier with!
So, cheerfully, I set off (well early at 3am to arrive by 7pm ) with all the carefully prepared lightweight gear and bait.
The Venue in question was Bury Hill Lake, which we were going to fish by punt!
Yes PUNT!
Redolent of my old Cambridge days on the Cam, I could say (except I would be a liar, as I never went to University! Let alone Cambridge!)

Peter had promised me a good chance of a Tench, something I had been looking for since January1, but this years Tench have refused to respond to my tempting.
Secondly, there was an outside chance of my 1st Zander, albeit a Stillwater fish, as they sometimes fell to maggot.
And Thirdly, Geoff had watched the discussion and remembering the times ‘years ago’, when he had fished the lake, had also wheedled an invitation and he is always fun to be with.


So, I groaned to myself as I pulled into the Shepshed lay-by at 3.30 and decided that 20 minutes was all I could afford, so as not to miss the fun of the next day!

When I awoke at 10 to 6.00pm, I had a choice! Either give up the idea and let this damned weakness win, or try and achieve the next 130 miles as fast as possible!

Well, of course!

At 7.00 I phoned Peter,
‘Are you there mate?’ he said
‘Not Quite’ I replied
‘Whereabouts are you then?’
‘Err just coming into Cambridge’ I said weakly!
In fact, I should have said Cambridgeshire, as I was on the outskirts of Huntingdon!

I quickly explained my predicament, and as I had to visit my parents in Suffolk anyway, to collect Macmillan Charity Money, offered to call it off.

Peter rose to the news with his lovely laid back style and wouldn’t hear of my idea. ‘Just take it easy, mate, no problems and ring me when you hit the A20’
So gratefully, I carried on down, joined the M11, hit the last services on the M25 before the scenic Queen Elizabeth Toll Bridge to buy a peace offering bunch of flowers for making Maria’s meal so delayed and made my way to the A20.
On phoning, I was directed to a pub of all places and by the time Peter and Geoff arrived, had ordered 3 pints! £6.80 for the record Martin and only 1 a decent Black one!
Due to the time, we only had a swift half to follow and were soon enjoying an excellent home made Spaghetti Bolognese, which was the first meal I had been able to eat for 3 days! It just goes to show how you can relax in great Company.
Faced with a 5.30 start, we did as normal under those circumstances and stayed up too late yarning away, with the sheer pleasure of discussing fishing and the forums as like minded people do.

However, Peter woke me on time on Friday morning and quick preparation of flasks etc, A bundling of kit into Geoff’s car and we set off on what proved to be an hours drive enlivened by Geoff’s colourful monologue of other drivers abilities, self abuse habits and parental uncertainties!

Arriving at the Lake after negotiating overtaking the final ‘******’ we found we were only the second car to arrive and the guy in the 1st was just through unloading enough kit on a trolley to set up a base camp for a Himalayas expedition.
He went through to the gate, we followed with the minimum of kit and whilst we waited for the bailiff to arrive, Peter and Geoff watched the Carp near the Boathouse rise to pieces of bread.

The wait was short: We paid our £15 pounds each! And chose a punt.
I had undertaken 2 difficult tasks, Firstly not to fall in, so I obviously needed to hold on with both hands and secondly not to lose my glasses, so again, I had to keep checking on them!
Therefore I relied on Redgrave in the Bow 

And had to let Pinsent take the blunt end!

Come to think of it, both ends were blunt!
Under the guidance of these 2 master boatmen, we made our way (sometimes straightish, often at an angle and on more than one occasion, sideways on) to the far bottom end of the Lake, known as ‘The Jungle’
Choosing a swim to the right, we started to fish close to the bank in about 3’ of water.

We all had waggler floats, Geoff and Pete with 6lb mainline and I with 10! Hook lengths of 3lb for Peter and Geoff and 3.6lb for me! Well I had come to catch a big Tench.

The 1st fish quickly fell to our Matchman!

A nice clean Bream that Peter caught within the 1st ½ hour of fishing. At about 8.30.am. We were fishing mostly red maggot, feeding Red Sensas Ground bait, dead and alive white maggot sweetcorn and hemp. Geoff and I had also brought worm, but had no bites at all on these. Geoff switched back to maggot and succeeded quickly in landing his 1st fish………

This fine specimen of a Roach was all he needed to loudly proclaim ‘Well, I’ve not blanked and so I can rest now’
As he said it for the 5th time, I nearly replied, as I had sat there, in the middle for 1 and ½ hours without seeing a Single bite!
Then Peter, who had abandoned his forward facing swim in favour of fishing out the back, with the excuse that ‘My Bum hurts’ hit into a much better fish and landed this result!

The Bream was weighed carefully and proved to be 5lb 8oz, a cracking fish that would have been a PB for me!
Then at last my float dipped, the line tightened, went screaming off to the right………………………….AND SNAPPED!

I ruefully wound in and found the 3.6lb hook length had parted some 4” from the hook and that with a Kamasan 911 hook to Drennan Double Strength line!
A very nice Tench I guess!
Then Peter was in again! This time, much more fight than the Bream!
The fish took line and ran! Peter brought it in, it ran again! 3 or 4 times this happened and then it rolled on the surface, coming towards the net.
Unmistakably a large Green Tench and if it wasn’t over 7lbs, it was a damn heavy 6!

We shall never know, as with one final lunge, the Fish snapped Peters line the same as mine earlier and disappeared into the depths (or shallows to be more accurate!)

Peter then retied, using a heavier bottom line and Geoff went and caught this Bream, to make me even more envious!

Shortly after, I had my second bite of the day!
The fish was on for even less time this time, made straight for a pile of overhanging bushes to the right and splashed on the surface underneath the bush, before my float and line came catapulting back! Annoyed? Yes! but not devastated, the Fish were here! If I just got it right, I could have my Tench to start the season AND anything over 5lb would give me a verifiable PB. So, Going over the top as usual, I tied up a 14 hook to 7lb hook length. Lets see how this would hold them!

Peter then quickly caught another 6 to 8 Bream of the this stamp in quick succession

I had lost my 2nd fish at about 10.30 and when 12.00 came along, with no more bites to the heavier line, reluctantly went along with the suggestion to move to the other side of the lake, as I was sure the fish would come!

In the meantime, Peter had made yet another interesting catch.
On the forum recently a Bullhead had been caught and identification was unsure as to whether it was a Bullhead or a Ruffe.

Well for clarification, this is Peter’s Tommy Ruffe!

We went across the Lake and rebaited a swim; fishless for half an hour Peter came to the rescue again. Suggesting we try a pellet approach, he produced some and shared them with Geoff and I. I meanwhile had retied onto 5lb line a Kamasan711 intermediate size15 hook.
This small scale down worked, as at last the float dipped and after a (heart stopping for me, in view of my previous experience) 3-minute fight, guided this fish to Peters waiting net.

Yes! I succeeded in catching my Tench, which weighed 3lb 3ozs! For me a great result!
As always happens, I got a second, even better at 3lb 13oz and then another bizarre one!
Striking, I was into a fighter that made straight for the bushes (we were fishing so close, my rod could touch them!) Pulling hard, the fish turned and made straight for the punt. Went solid as it spun round the anchor rope! I could only hold and swear, as Peter leaned over the side with the landing net to try and scare it out. A minute passed and nothing moved and then for the third time, my line parted! I swore again, but it turned silent, as grinning hugely, Peter lifted the landing net, with my fish and hook, which he had managed to capture as it tethered itself to the anchor rope!
This was a male of 3lb 7ozs.

Then Geoff caught what proved to be our 4th and final Tench, his 1st male out of over 40 Tench this year, which weighed 3lb 2ozs.

I caught at last a Bream of about a lb, but the bites were proving slow and probably as we were getting tired, poor casting was causing breakages and tangles in the undergrowth of the aptly named ‘Jungle’.

We moved to the Island at about 5.15pm, but when Geoff decided at 6.00pm, that he needed to visit ‘The little Boys room’ then we declared it a day. I believe he did need to go too, as we crossed the lake in less than half the time the outward journey took and he hit the boathouse running!

I dozed contentedly in the back of the car as we made our way home, stopping only to collect a Chinese Meal, that Geoff and I decided was only just reward for Peter and Marias hospitality and even the discovery that some nice person had stolen a wing mirror cover off my courtesy car (mine is undergoing repair) could not dampen the day.

The following morning, as Peter led me back to the M25, I could not help but feel grateful that I had fallen onto an Internet forum that has provided so many enjoyable experiences and where most of the people I have met have turned out to be genuine and true friends.
Thanks Geoff for sharing the day, Thanks Peter for providing the opportunity and your great hospitality and thanks Tench for playing ball and making my wish come true!

Trev.

Hawthorne AC club match.

The venue was Milton’s Lake today for the first Hawthorne AC club match of the new season and also the first Round of the club’s Knockout Cup.
I’d drawn peg 17 today and it was about as far away from the “Flyers” as it’s possible to get, but in the last couple of weeks the fish had started to respond to corn or meat fished over pellet, so that was to be the plan of attack for the day.

The wind was already pretty strong and blowing from my right to left, with the promise of it getting stronger later.
Knowing that I had no more than 4 ft of water in front I set up a Drennan .8gm Lake on 0·12 matchtec with a 0·10 matchtec hooklength and a size 16 Preston PR22 hook. (This hook has quite an unusual shape,with a pronounced swept shank that i find ideal for meat and corn, and has great holding power) The other was just a dibber on 0·12 straight through and the same pattern hook.

I had started off at 6 mtrs as I didn’t want to feed to a spot that I wouldn’t be able to reach later. A couple of pots of “Swim Stim” 3mm pellets, corn & meat in front & one against the marginal reeds to my left was the initial feed.
For the first couple of hours sport was very slow and produced just a couple of skimmers as the wind got steadily worse and showers came and went. People all around were having to alter their lines as the wind increased while I was able to keep fishing on my chosen line.

Unfortunately meat produced not one bite while maggot only resulted in micro-rudd.
So I decided to stick with corn ( a bait I always have confidence in) and with an hour and a half to go, the float buried and a lovely Crucian of about 1lb was safely in the net. Two more plunp Crucians followed and then 3 Tench, the best of which probably went about 3lbs. Another couple of Crucians and a Bream of about 3lb were added before the final whistle. All the fish came from the 6mtr line with not a single bite from the margin swim.

At the Weigh-In it persisted down with rain, and the wind was so strong that it was difficult to read the scales . The pegs either side of me weighed in 8lbs 10ozs and 2lbs 8ozs, while I weighed in a level 16 lbs to finish 5th. That was enough to get me through to the next round of the Knockout and gave me 6 points towards the club championship.
Well 1 down 16 to go.