Hawthorne AC club match.

Up with the lark this morning for the drive down to Framfield Park Fishery, just outside the village of Uckfield. The sun was up as I pulled into the carpark, promising a second hot day on the trot Summer must be here at last .

Lots of banter and catching up over a Bacon sandwich and a cuppa as I had missed the last 2 club matches. We were fishing Spring Lake, a noted "bag-up" water down here in the SE, and this had encouraged a good turn out of 23 anglers.

Into the drawbag and it's the early pegs in the 50's that everyone wanted, but it was peg 45 for me, not the best of pegs as there's only a maximum of 3ft of water and the island is out of pole reach at 20mtrs+ .

Having already missed 2 club matches and with the prospect of missing at least another 4 during the course of the season, I've made up my mind this year to just enjoy the days fishing and I wanted to use today to try and get to grips with fishing paste, a bait that i don't use very often, and a method that i really need to improve on .

Peg 45.

Plumbing up revealed a change of depth of just 4" from the margin to 14mtrs and a couple of slurping sounds from the vegetation growing in the left hand margin made my mind up that that would be my main area to fish.

By the time of the all-in there were a good number of fish cruising around but despite a number of anglers targeting them they seemed reluctant to feed . Meanwhile i was sitting on my hands and trying to resist hitting every little dip and dink of the float as hordes of little Roach descended on my paste.
An hour in and the float just buried and the elastic ripped out of the pole as Carp no1, a nice Ghostie of about 3lbs got me of the mark .

The next few hours were what you might call character forming!!!
Lots of tail patterns in the swim with apparent sail away bites being nothing more than liners. Fiddling with the rig and laying about 6" of line on the deck and cutting back the feed meant that i managed another 9 fish, so that with just over an hour to go i probably had about 25lbs in the net.

Meanwhile news was traveling down that a couple of the lads on the 50's were sacking up and were in with a chance of doing the ton.
Me? i decided to increase the size of paste that i was fishing from a thumbnail piece to a bit the size of a 10p in the hope that the silvers wouldn't whittle it completely away before the Carp found it.

Well, whether it was sheer luck or inspiration I'm not sure but it certainly did the trick. The last hour was hectic to say the least as nearly every put in resulted in a sail-away and a Carp on the end. I couldn't get a bait in the water quickly enough and I had then queuing up .

When the scales arrived, sure enough 2 of the lads on the 50's had recorded tons, Paul (The club champ) with 119lbs 11ozs and Andy with a superb 159lbs 3ozs for a new club record weight.
Me? Thanks to that final hectic hour I managed 80lbs 12ozs which proved to be good enough for 3rd on the day .

The 23 members present managed to put a total of 1151lbs 9ozs on the scales today, representing an average of over 50lbs per man, A cracking days fishing by any standards.

Paste, Have I cracked it? Probably not, but a fun day that got me thinking about my fishing and definitely something that i shall be using on a more regular basis .

Hawthorne AC club match.

Brookhall Lake just outside the village of Tiptree in Essex was the scene of the Hawthorne AC club match this weekend.
This is normally a prolific venue and I'd invited my fellow Maggotdrowner Dave the Fish to join us as a guest at the venue for the day .

One thing that I've noticed over the years is that regardless how good the weather is, the 1st Sunday of October is invariably darn cold. I'm sure that it's something to do with this day always marking the start of the Winter Leagues. Today there was a cloudless sky and a really biting North Westerly wind .

Just to make us feel better, Betty the bailiff informed us that the previous day had been very poor in terms of fish caught and that it had chucked it down overnight, so with 22 of us searching around in our car boots for fleeces and warm cloths it was draw time.
I drew peg 9 while Dave drew 23. On arrival at my peg it was obvious that the water level was down, as where the banker margin swim should be was bone dry. Plumbing up at 11mtrs where I was expecting to find at least 6ft revealed only 4ft and not a feature to be found. I had a look in what was left of the margins and could only manage 8 inches before it dropped down the ledge into about 3ft.
I set up a dead depth rig for 11mtrs and a heavy margin rig to fish paste, and a straight lead rig as a get out of jail option .

At the off nearly a pint of pellet and hemp went into the margin swim,and in such a shallow swim it wouldn't be touched until I saw a tail pattern or mud cloud disturb it.
Out to 11mtrs over a small pot of hemp and pellet, to no avail with just the odd small silver coming to single maggot, with the ripple and rising sun just adding to the difficulty.

Dave strolled past to retrieve some meat that he'd left in the car, by which time I'd gone over to a straight lead with a lump of paste, and as Dave came back past the tip pulled steadily round, and the strike met with.................... NOTHING!!!!!!! Guess which idiot had managed to knock the fighting drag off on the reel without noticing? Well it cheered Dave up.

Not another touch after that,and with very little coming out anywhere on the lake Dave arrived back later on, with his flask and sarnies and probably hoping for another faux pas on my part to entertain him.
So back out onto the pole line and no sooner had the float settled and away it went A nice little Tench of about 8ozs, a double bonus as it was the fish of the day, and if no others were caught it would pay my expenses. Dave wandered off back to his peg muttering to himself, I'm sure it was something about how skillfull I was.

Well the afternoon dragged on with just the occasional small Roach or Rudd breaking the monotony,when with 25 minutes to go I saw a tail pattern in the margin. On with a lump of paste on the margin pole and within 30 seconds it's sailing away..............MISSED!!!!!
Same again,back out and 30 seconds later away it goes again, only this time I connected. Off tears an angry Carp, and a few minutes later a nice 9lb'er is nestling in the landing net.
Nothing more till the end of the match, but that one fish had got me out of jail.
Weigh-in time and that one Carp and a few silvers gave me a level 13lbs, which was enough for 4th on the day.
Dave had managed 7lbs 5ozs for a creditable 9th.
The inquest in the car park after the match, laid the blame firmly on the cold weather and the biting wind. Everyone had to work for their fish today.

Well this weekend saw me spending a good part of my time at Hartleylands Fishery................

Marsh AC club match.

Saturday was at the invitation of Dave (Dave the Fish), His club Marsh AC had booked the Reservoir for one of their club matches and as all the pegs weren't taken, Steve (beebs) Jason (NofinPhish) and Myself recieved an invitation to join them.
Assembling in the Carpark for an 8.30am draw, it was nice to meet John (tutu) and Colin who had accompanied Dave to the Welsh Fish-in. Also present, though in a working capacity was Vince (vg1037) the Bailiff at Hartleylands.

I drew in the high 30's and arrived at my swim to find the wind blowing in my face and the only shady peg on the whole fishery, so while others sat around in tee shirts & shorts, I was in a bib & brace and a fleece (M/D's of course )
I started on the poleline at about 10mtrs fishing pellet and managed to winkle out 6 skimmers and a small carp before the wind made presentation too awkward. Had I not been a guest I would have gone straight onto the method feeder as this is a banker for a few Carp, but sitting in my carryall was a ball of paste.
Now paste fishing is not one of my strengths, but having read a few of Malc's exploits, it's a bait I'm determined to get to grips with, so it was out with the margin pole, tie up a couple of rigs and lets have a go.

Paste in the margin.......

Well lets just say that it was fun , trying to condition myself not to strike every dip and tremor of the float, and towards the end of the afternoon having tried endless variations of rigs I felt as if i was coming to terms with it and a few decent fish had ended up in the net .

4pm and time for the weigh in and with Vince in charge we worked our way around.
Dave had set the pace with a 40lb bag, with everyone having caught a few.

Nice one for Dave........

Colin put just over 51lbs on the scales, all caught on the Method, which was to prove the winning weight. Steve had contented himself with using the day to practice his silver fish approach in readiness for the intersite match in a couple of weeks, and definatley caught more fish than anyone for a bag in the teens.

The Weigh-in......

Jason proved to be the dark horse, in what he professed to be his first ever fishing match, and duly put 49lbs on the scales for 2nd place. Well done Jason (I may have to rethink the team ).
Last but one to weigh was me and I was pleasantly surprised to see the needle creep round to 47lbs, nearly all paste caught .

So thanks to Dave and the lads of Marsh AC for a very pleasant day as their guest, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, I certainly did.

Hawthorne AC club match.

So Sunday morning and i'm in the Carpark again, this time for a Hawthorne AC match on Nicks Lake. Nicks is one of 3 new lakes that have just been opened at Hartleylands and was only stocked with fingerling Carp last November, but already these fish weigh around 6ozs.

A low turnout of only 15 anglers meant that we only put the even pegs in the draw to give everyone a bit of room, and peg 10 was mine, It was flat calm as we set up but as soon as the whistle blew so did the wind.

Peg 10..........

Now Vince had warned me that the fish tend to follow the wind, so you can imagine my joy to find the wind blowing from behind me and blowing my fish away.
I wish I could say that I fished a blinder, but I wasted far too much time on a pellet line scratching for bites. I finally started to get a few at 12mtrs to maggot, but it was to little to late. I managed to put 15lbs 6ozs on the scales for 6th, but only 17lbs was needed for 2nd. At least I got another 3 points for the fishing race, having caught a few small Ghosties.

Mint little Ghostie....

Mike Vincent ran away with it, with 28lbs 4ozs for 1st. Everyone caught though and in a couple of seasons time this is going to be an awesome match venue.

So that was my weekend, 1 fishery but two very different lakes,and mixed fortunes .

Hawthorne AC club match.

Well today was the 2nd Hawthorne AC match of the season on Willow Lake at Tylers Common in Essex. Well after the last 3 days glorious weather, true to form the day dawned dull grey & overcast,with the threat of showers and thunderstorms.
This was the venue of our 1st round Supercup match in January, and everyone was hoping for a better catch than last time when 24 anglers only caught 2 Carp between them.

Looking down on Willow Lake from the carpark..........

Now I have to say that this is my least favorite type of venue, as it's basically just a hole dug in a field and filled with fish. There are no features to fish to except for a few straggly tufts of grass in the edge and no established trees or bushes to offer anything in the way of shelter .
Anyway enough of my moaning, into the drawbag and it's peg 5 for me. On arriving at my peg it was immediately obvious that things would be hard for the majority of us,as the Carp were bow waving about all over, obviously intent on playing Mummies & Daddies and with very little interest in having a munch .
A good plumb up revealed not a single feature, it just kept gently shelving away. So I just set up a paste rig to fish at 9mtrs in 5ft of water and an up in the water rig for pellet. I also set up a waggler on the off chance that they would really have it up in the water, but out of pole range.

Peg 5.........

Well what can I say?................ It was Hard Work, the only thing I could get a bite on was the paste, despite going through punched meat, maggot, corn and a couple of types of pellet.
My Total catch?.............. 4 Carp and 2 Tench for 11lbs 8ozs which was only good enough for 8th place .
Still at least I'm through to the ¼ finals of the club KO Cup and I was part of the winning team in the clubs Teams of 4/5 that was fished today.

Oh and just to finish things off..........The heavens opened, complete with thunder & lightning just as we were packing up so we all got soaked.

Hawthorne AC club match.

The venue today was the Mushroom Farm at Falkenville, just outside Hailsham in Sussex for the 4th Hawthorne club match of the season.