A RiveT Piscatorial Promotion

I'm off down to Rolf's Lake today for A RiveT Piscatorial Promotion along with the lads from  TalkAngling  . I missed getting my name down for this when it was posted on the forum, but managed to get a place on the match when a few people dropped out. I don't normally get the chance to fish during the week but as I've got few holiday days left it wasn't a problem for me to get a day off .
Now the thing is, the  TalkAngling  lads tend to like an early start to their matches and the plan was for a 9·30am draw with the fishing from 11-4pm. This meant an early start for me, but no problem as I said that I'd drop Maria off at work around 6am. This meant that I could still get a 'Full English' from my favourite little café in Battersea before doing battle with the London traffic .
Thankfully the plan went like clockwork and I rolled into the car park at around 8·45am.

A few of the lads were already there, including fellow Jinx Squad member Simon who'd managed to get a place on todays match the day before, and Mark C and Royst who I hadn't seen for a while as they no longer fish the series.......

Soon the car park started to fill up, and the chat turned to the prospects for the day ahead, and if I'm honest I wasn't sure just how it would fish . This was the third day in a row there had been a match on the lake and previous experience has shown that it can make for hard fishing, and the fishing times weren't going to help either as the fish tend not to get their heads down till around 3-4pm .

 Anyway come 9·30 and no draw !!!!!! We were all still waiting for Rive T and Larry who'd got themselves lost having ventured so far south. They finally rolled up around around 10am, and after the usual ribbing and pee taking the draw finally got under way with a revised time meaning we would be fishing from 12-5pm. Hand in the bag time, Simon had drawn peg 32 and I found myself holding ..................................... peg 8, well happy with that .

 Round to my peg and time to set up. I was planning to just fish a couple of lines today. 5mtrs down the track and to the bushes on my left, and although I also set up the feeder to fish across, that was a bit of an afterthought.......

Rigs were my usual ones, Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·20 Power Match with size 14 QM1 hooks for the 5mtr line on the deck with 0·2 MW HC margin's again on 0·20 with size 14 Guru QM1's to fish to the bushes, while bait was the usual variety of hard fishery pellets, corn and GOT Baits soft hookers, though I did have paste with me as well.

For company today on peg 7 I had Justin Watkins who fishes for Browning Crowsports and it looked like he was going to be fishing the pole across.......

 Having set up we were then treated to a sharp shower as the sky turned grey, such are the joys of an English summer . A quick stroll while I waited for the all In revealed Mark C still getting set up, obviously out of practise at Rolfs .......

 Royst was still beavering away too, evidently he'd forgotten how deep the big lake is and had found that none of his rigs were long enough , so had to make up new ones .......

Larry meanwhile has settled himself into peg 18 and was hoping that the next 5 hours would finally provide him with his first ever 'Ton'....... 

So at 12 noon John rang the fishery bell for the All-In. I potted a mix of pellets and corn onto the 5mtr line and a big handful to the bush, but before I could get a bait in the water Justin was playing his 1st fish of the day having shipped across and had the float bury before he could feed.

Not good for me, could I be on for a battering ? I shipped out with a banded pellet to 5mtrs, but the float tip obviously didn't want to get wet as it stubbornly refused to go under.

Simon meanwhile was obviously into a good fish over on 32, in fact it proved to be hooked in the tail, but he still managed to bundle it into the net and at 15lbs+ a great start for him . Well an hour in and I was still fish-less. Simon was starting to put a few together, but after that initial fish Justin was suffering from foul hookers and missed bites . I'd heard a bit of splashing coming from the other side of the bushes on peg 10 so 'The Brick' was obviously putting a few together so decided to take a look by the bush myself.

Now the fish know every root and twig that lurk under the bushes, so it's a question of how brave you want to be with how close you edge the rig in, the closer you get the more likely you are to get a bite. Well after 5 minutes I obviously got it right as the float buried and I was attached to a feisty Mirror that was determined to seek the safety of the roots, but plenty of side strain saw me gain the upper hand and after a couple of minutes an 8lb'er was safely in the net .

What followed though was one of the most frustrating couple of hours that I've experienced in a long while as time and again fish stormed off through the bush trashing rigs . I must have gone through 7 or 8 rigs and only had 4 smallish fish to show for it , and a couple of those had been foul hookers. The trouble was that if I fished short I just wouldn't get a bite and they just didn't want to be tempted further out by feed.

Simon by now had slowed down and was having to feed and fish over the top of the bush toward peg 33, and it seemed he was suffering from foul hookers as well, indeed one ran him ragged surfacing past the platform on peg 33 almost in front of me before he managed to get it in the net.

Then with about an hour to go it all seemed to come right for me in that I was hooking fish and getting them out into open water and safely in the keepnet , I even got a weigher, only 10½lbs but most welcome as I've really struggled to find the larger fish at Rolfs this year. As the clock ticked down I felt that if nothing else I was catching up with Simon. Glancing up I could see John going to ring the bell for the All-Out and just before he did my float buried again just as the bell rang. Fish On, at least Simon was pleased for me, though it may have been something else as I didn't quite catch exactly what he said , fortunately it stayed attached, an 8lb Mirror that joined the others in the net as others started to pack up .

As we packed away Justin and I discussed the day, he'd suffered real frustration and only had 5 fish to show for his efforts.
I'd had a good last hour, once again to little to late, but was left ruing the fact that we hadn't fished the match to more usual Rolfs times as the peg was getting better and better.

Having got the gear back to the car park it was obvious that some had had decent weights and once the weigh-in got under way those soon became obvious. froogy on peg 38 recording the first 'Ton' with 126½lbs quickly followed by Mo M with 102¾lbs .
My fish pulled the scales round to 88½lbs. Then round to peg 9 where 'The Brick' put a fine 161¾lbs on the scales which would prove to be good enough for 2nd on the day  as '20 Metre Bob' on peg 10 topped it immediately with a fine 187½lbs to take the win .
Dan(awesome fish) finished just out of the frame however with 142¼lbs as Jay on peg 24 took 3rd place on the day with 149lbs 10ozs . Finally I just pipped Simon in our personal battle when his fish came to a level 84lbs .

Back at the car park and after a few minutes of spirited debate Larry and RiveT managed to sort out the monies.......

......... and a pleasant surprise for me as I managed to take my section money . So an enjoyable day with the  TalkAngling  lads drew to a close as farewells were said and a hot air balloon drifted serenely past overhead .........

I'm of to Rockells Farm on Sunday for a club match, so keep a look out for the report .

The Southern Intersite Match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Southern Intersite Match.

A nice smooth run saw me pulling into the car park at Monk Lakes at around 8am. I'm fishing for the Maggotdrowning.com team today in The Southern Intersite Match. The Intersite matches were originally conceived as friendly get-togethers where members of the various angling forums could meet and put faces to names from the various forums and enjoy a light hearted day out at the same time. However there's quite a competitive element to these matches nowadays though the Maggotdrowning ethos is still to enjoy ourselves and enjoy the day without winning .

By 9am all the teams were assembled for the draw, with only the Total Fishing team being an angler short . Our team for the day was Nick Gilbert(captain). Matt Nutt, Gary Thorpe, Matt Love, Vince Gould, Paul East, Bill Gibbins, Clive Pritchard, Trevor Little and Peter Morton(myself). We were fishing Match Lakes 1 & 3 today and my draw gave me peg 112 at the end of the causeway by the aerators on Lake 3. Settling in to my peg i fancied it for a decent days fishing as I had a vacant peg to my left and the wind off my back. I had Ant Sparrow(antmusic) of Total Fishing for company behind me on 113, the other aerator peg and looking across I could see Fred Parker(milo) from TalkAngling and Vince to his right.

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

I was lucky enough to get my name down for this match when it was posted on the TalkAngling forum back in January by Ian Hornby as i really enjoy visiting Rolf's whenever I get the chance.

Pulling back the curtains a grey day with rain greeted me, and to think that today was the longest day !!!!!! Anyway car loaded in good time along with the waterproofs and off. With my usual stop in Battersea for a spot of brekkie I made good time with a trouble free trip down, pulling into the car park at around 8·30am. There were a few of the usual faces from the lads that fish The Jinx Series there, though Malc who should have been fishing was a noteable absentee due to the fact that yet again his car had expired on the roadside the previous day , but it was good to catch up with the TalkAngling lads, some of whom I'd met previously and some who were new faces. It was also good to see that not only was the lake back down to something like it's usual level with all the platforms above water, but the colour had returned to somethind approaching its normal hue after the flooding of a couple of weeks ago.

9am and draw time. Into the bag and peg 24 appeared in my hand !!! A bonus for me as it's on the car park bank, somewhere I rarely get a sniff of and it has a bit of form. No barrow today, just a nice short walk. With a grey cloudy sky and rain still falling it looked like it would be a bit of a grueller, especially as we were fishing from 11am - 4pm which is earlier than most of the summer matches at Rolf's that are normally fished from 2pm - 7pm as the Carp don't seem to get their heads down till around 3pm.

The Southern Intersite Match.

Well today saw me making the relatively short trip down to Willow Park Fishery at Ash Vale for the Southern Intersite match and within an hour of leaving home I was pulling into the car park to see many of the participants already there, ready and eager for hopefully a good days fishing, despite the fact that it was obviously going to be a scorchingly hot day.

Breakfast taken care of, most of the anglers were eager for the draw and while we waited many took the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones that they had only spoken to on the various forums before. In that respect it was nice to meet up with bad.boy bagger and baging up art, two lads from Bath who use the TalkAngling forum and had told me how much they had enjoyed reading this blog, Cheers Lads.

A quick phone call meanwhile revealed that unfortunately Dai Thomas wouldn't be joining us as an electrical problem with his car had forced him to return home to Wales. However a local stepped in to make up the numbers for us ensuring that we would not be short on the day.

Vince's team meeting was short and to the point, with just 1 instruction.......DON'T WIN!!!!!!!!.
I should probably explain at this point that Maggotdrowning.com team members don't take the Intersite Team matches too seriously, indeed when the series started, it was designed to be light hearted, and an opportunity for anglers from other sites to meet each other, put faces to names and have a bit of fun. We have just carried on with that ethos despite a competitive edge creeping in for some other teams.

So with the draw over it was time to make our way to our pegs. I already knew that I would be fishing the Big Lake and peg 73 on the culvert bank was going to be "home" for the next 5 hours.

 A nice comfy peg and with the pegging leaving every other peg out, plenty of room to operate. Given the good head of Bream present I set up 2 feeder rods and paced them both out to around 45yds and clipped them both up.
Groundbait was the new Bait-Tech Special'G' Green with Casters and chopped worm added and worm, caster or a combination of both as hookbaits. I did set up a pole for a line at 8mtrs but this was very much a get out of jail option as I wanted to concentrate on the feeder.

All set up with 25 minutes to go I took a stroll round to see Vince who was on peg 59 over on the Bungalow Bank in what can be a good Bream swim with the wind blowing into it, though todays bright sunshine rather negated that. He had Perry Stone, one of the local experts for company on end peg 57 but seemed relaxed enough when I left him to get back for the start.

Polepot's Rolf's Rumble.

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

Well today was the day of Neil McMurran aka polepot's TalkAngling match at Rolf's Lake and by 9·30am the car-park had filled up as the 30 anglers booked in for the day arrived for the draw. With the sun beating out of a clear blue sky it promised to be a warm one and it was good to see Rolf himself in attendance as he had recently been into hospital .

As always these internet matches provide the opportunity to put faces to names normally only seen on computer screens, and invariably the banter flows and little side bets are made.

Malc's daughter Gemma has recently got back into fishing and already beaten a few good anglers leading to her being christened "The Minx" and a Minxed list has been published on a couple of websites detailing those anglers she's beaten. We had a £1 sidebet on the day, but I must admit to having an ominous feeling that this could be the day I was added to the list after all the banter that had been flowing in the past couple of weeks .

Into the drawbag and peg37 stuck to my hand, not a bad draw normally on the little lake and as i made my way down there I saw that Mark C had 34, a noted flyer in the corner. 35 was vacant, on 36 I had polebreaker for company and on 38 matt6900 while further round on 40 was andy222 who had the misfortune to have Malc(The Jinx)Doyle for company on peg 1.

Setting up I was a little disapointed to have anglers on pegs either side as the pegs are reasonably tight leaving me without an option of a margin peg as such as there is little or no cover on the bankside there. I set up for just 2 lines, 1 at 12mtrs and 1 at 7mtrs, both hard on the deck with a spare rig for up in the water should it be needed.

11·30am and the all in saw me feed a large pot of Rolf's feed pellets on both lines and ithen went out at 12mtrs with a GOT 11mm soft hooker. The float just sailed away and I was obviously attached to one of the resident carp. However Malc and Rolf walked past and after a bit of encouragement for Malc the rig came sailing back with just a scale attached .

There then followed 3hrs of absolute frustration as I was plagued by hordes of silvers. It didn't matter what I put on the hook, Corn, Meat, Paste or Pellet in either 6 or 11mm, I couldn't buy a bite from a Carp .

Looking to my right I could see Mark C steadily putting a decent bag together from 34 alternating between the pole and feeder and even polebreaker was nicking a few.........

Andy over on 40 was plugging on and sneaking the odd one or two out and looking forward to a better day than he'd had on a previous visit when is was unprepared for the strength and fighting power of the Rolf's Carp..........

 Malc was having yet more trouble getting to grips with Red Hydro and was having to do his best "Matt Nutt" impression in order to land some of the Carp, but at least he was catching which was more than I was managing  ..........

While over towards pegs 8 and 9 Fred and Griffo could be seen having a right old ding dong, both obviously heading towards what would prove to be decent bags ..........

Next door on 38 matt6900 had managed to get a reasonable Tench from his margin peg to his left and finally managed to get amongst a few lumps during the final couple of hours despite loosing one landing net head and breaking another ..............

While tucked away over in the opposite corner on peg3 Halfounce was making hay and quietly slipping more than a few fish into the net...............

For my part, I finally managed an 11lb weigher and 3 smaller Carp, but it just didn't happen, despite lashing the bait in I just couldn't feed off the silvers and I finished the match with just 34lbs to show for my efforts .

Tony(Rive T)Walsh took the honours on the day with a fine Double Ton weighing 203lbs 11ozs, a bit of a change from his usual catches from canals .

 Halfounce ended up in 2nd place with 192lbs 09ozs while Fred came out just ahead in his peg to peg battle with Griffo with 187lbs 12ozs to 185lbs 09ozs.

Gemma managed 68lbs 06ozs to double my weight and take my £1 as well as add my scalp along with 9 others to "The Minxed List" .

So finally a big THANK YOU to Neil for organising a most enjoyable day in good company. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again in the not to distant future.

I'm back at Rolf's next Saturday on the 1st round of Malc's Jinx Series, hopefully I'll be able to avoid those silvers and find a few more carp then.

Here's the results from the day

TalkAngling.co.uk Forum Match.

At the back end of December last year Keith aka Gandhi had offered to organise a match for the members of the TalkAngling website who had expressed an interest in fishing at Alders Farm, and is often the way with these things the 20 places were soon filled. As with most of these type of events those with allegiances to more than one site ended up being involved, but that just adds to the banter and fun on the day.

A nice smooth journey from South London found me arriving in the car park by 7·30am, closely followed by MarkC, Royst and Eric.The biggest shock however was the arrival of Malc (The Jinx) and daughter Gemma (The Minx) a whole hour before the draw !!!!!!! Soon it was time to dip the nets and face "The Hill" down to the Match Lake and a waiting breakfast, and I have to say that it's a top brekkie that really sets you up for the day.

9am and it's draw time and a £1 side bet was agreed with The Minx before peg 3 stuck to my hand, a nice short walk. A quick chat with a couple of the GOT anglers saw my plan of attack formulated for the 5 hours ahead and I was soon settled in with Chris BT for company on peg 2 and Phil Young aka Madd on peg 4.

The plan was to be fishing on the deck at 12mtrs where it was about 3ft deep and to keep pinging a few pellets in to see if they would come up later while feeding a line under the bush to my left where hopefully a few lumps would show later. Bait wise I went with a mix of GOT expanders and soft hookers with 4mm hard feed pellets.

At the all in I put a handfull under the bush and 2 pots of pellet out on the 12mtr line before going straight out over it. Within a minute I'd bumped one but next put in came back with a nice chunky Mirror around the 2lb mark.

Looking over to the other side I could see Wilky taking in the sun in his shorts and Matt stripped to the waist while I was shielded from the sun by the bush to my left and with the wind blowing towards me sat shivering in bib & brace and fleece , even Malc remarked on it when he came down on one of his customary wanders.

Matchwise it proved to be a bit frustrating as I suffered runs of unhittable bites and a number of foulhookers . Laying a couple of inches of line on the deck, or moving up off the deck appeared to have no effect, with the fish only wanting it at dead depth and nothing showing under the bush. Numbers wise Chris and I probably had the same number of fish, but his appeared to be a better stamp.

Weigh in time rolled round at 3pm and it was noticable that the usual pegs hadn't produced while normally unfancied ones had and this was put down to the fact that ours was the 3rd match on the venue in 3 days. Never the less with a total weight of 1184lbs 12ozs weighed in between 20 anglers averaging out at just under 60lbs per peg it goes to show what a good venue Alders is.

Winner on the day was Vic Nugent who had 47 carp making up his winning bag of 111lbs 12ozs.

Many Thanks to Keith for organising the day, I certainly enjoyed it and will be back next Saturday to fish Matt Nutt's Charity Match in aid of Disabled Angler.Co.Uk .

The Southern Intersite Match.

Well, Saturday morning 8am and we all started to assemble in the Cafe at Willow for the Intersite match. It promised to be a grueller as the temperature was already up to 18°C and would make it to 30°C before the day was out.
Last to arrive were Neo and Brian who had travelled up from Wales at less than 24hrs notice to fill in for people that had to drop out, and Milo who had got caught in a bit of traffic.

The team on the day was as follows with the respective lakes we were fishing on...

1. Vince - Big (Team Captain)
2. Peter - Big
3. Milo(Fred P.) - Big

4. Matt Nutt - Middle
5. Gary Thorpe - Middle
6. Blackhydro (Clive)- Middle
7. NoMoreLongWalks(Paul) - Middle
8. Slimcatcher(Nick B.) - Middle
9. Neo1(Nick W.) - Middle

10. Me (Simon) - Small
11. RonB - Small
12. Badatfishing (Darren) - Small
13. Brian Bevan - Small
14. Andy222 - Small
15. Polepot(Nick J.) - Small

How did my match go??????

This was my draw, Peg 77, looks lovely doesn't it?

Unfortunately it proved to be almost entirely devoid of fish, or at least those that were in any way inclined to feed in the heat of the day. 3 hours on the feeder produced not so much as a bite, and the pole line appeared devoid of life as well apart from a few small perch that fell to some worms that polepot had let me have.

A quick visit to vince mid match revealed that he was having an even worse time than me, with just a couple of knocks on the feeder that had come to nothing, although he did lose a beast of a carp right at the death as it dragged his rig through the roots of a nearby bush in the margins.

4pm and the all out revealed the full horror of the battering with Milo weighing 2ozs, Vince recording a DNW and I ended up with 4lbs 4ozs of small Perch, to all finish last in our respective sections.

Our stars on the day were NoMoreLongWalks(Paul), Gary Thorpe and Matt Nutt who each scored section 2nds

Overall the top 5 on the day was as follows.........

Teams.........

Making the running totals for this years series.......

....... with the Northern match still to come.

Well, It was off to fish at Willow park for me to fish in the TalkAngling/ForceBaits southern qualifier, which was a match within a match, organised by Dave (Pikey) Pearson from the TotalFishing site, and another chance to catch up with, and put some names to faces from the Intersite series. After a leisurely trip down and a full English in the on site cafe, a dip into the draw bag saw me wandering round to peg 25 on the Little Lake.

Peg 25

A brief chat with Kenny Collings told me that there would be a few to be caught, but not to expect too much from the area .

An 11am start meant that there was plenty of time to set up and get comfy and with peg 24 on my left empty, i fancied that i may be able to tempt a couple of lumps into the margins later on. An almost constant depth of 4½ft from 5 to 14mtrs meant that i opted for a main swim at a comfortable 9mtrs with another at 13, and rigs covering both depth and shallow were duely set up. The margins would be covered with a heavy meat rig set up on my margin pole.
There is a limit of just one kilo of groundbait and this was Sillybait® and crumb in the hope that the fishmeal would hold both the Skimmers and Carp. I also brought 1kg of micro pellets for loose feeding from the shop as there is a rule that only allows 1kg the fisheries own pellets to be fed though any pellet can be used as hookbait. Hoobaits were various flavours of both 6 & 4mm expanders, meat both plain and flavoured, paste and some worms.

At the off I wanted to be positive so cupped 6 large pots of micros and loose Sillybait® in on both the 9 & 13 mtr lines and 2 pots into both margins along with some meat.
After about 30 minutes of alternating between 9 & 13mtrs, the first bite came at 9 and i was greeted by the site of a "Flying" Skimmer doing a fair impression of a Trout. Around 1pm Beebs put in a appearance for a bit of a chat which was appreciated, even though i did my best to smack him round the ear with both the pole and landing net as i landed a couple of fish.

Despite spraying plenty of micros to attract the larger Carp that were cruising around all day, the up in the water rigs produced virtually nothing for me on the day, in common with the majority of anglers who reported a similarly frustrating experience of watching large Carp cruising through their swims and showing no interest.

The margin swims? another disappointment. Going into the final hour 1st put in with meat and the float buried resulting in a suicidal Perch deternined to choke itself to death on a piece of meat only marginaly smaller than itself. Each following attempt resulting in another of its brothers/sisters taking up the challenge .

At the all out 16lbs 10ozs of Skimmers & F1's meant that i had beaten the 5 anglers to my left, but had lost out to the anglers to my right. Still a good day out and nice to catch up with some of the lads from other sites.

Next Saturday it's back down that way to Gold Valley for the J Sainsbury National Championship, can I beat my 4th place from last season? I'll let you know.