Vince

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2 & 4.

    Faye's Match

    magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Organised by Maggotdrowning.com
    With all proceeds going to support


    ML.jpg picture by pnm123

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

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

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

    ah.jpg My peg for the day picture by pnm123

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

    bi.jpg Steve (Jessebobs) Burgess picture by pnm123

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

    bo.jpg Steve (spots) Potter picture by pnm123

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

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

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

    bm.jpg Jon (Mutley) Reed picture by pnm123

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

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

    ab.jpg Keith (shallowman) Haynes picture by pnm123

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

    bd.jpg Peg 77  Dave Janes 1 picture by pnm123

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

    af.jpg 12½lb Carp for Dave picture by pnm123

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

    ad.jpg Arkie in the rain picture by pnm123

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

    bn.jpg Rosie picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

    bh.jpg Gary (garycatch) Catchpole picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Love to you all
    Faye.

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

    Overall Results

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

    Section Results

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

     

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4.

      Marsh AC club match.

    MM4.jpg Monk Lakes. Match Lake 4. picture by pnm123

    Well after what seems like forever I'm finally getting back out on the bank . A combination of atrocious weather and pressure of work has seen me having my own private close season since Christmas ,  but today sees the 1st Marsh AC club match of the year down at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 4, so it's time to blow the cobwebs away and see if I can remember how to catch a few fish .

    So with the alarm going off at 5·30am I soon had the cats fed and my coffee made and drunk before loading up the car and setting off for Monks . I pulled up in the car park around 7·45am with the sun shining to find a few of the lads already in attendance and tucking into breakfast in various forms. A bacon & egg baguette washed down with a tea took care of things for me as the rest arrived. Dave took care of collecting in the subs and peg fees while Tony and I strolled up to lake 4 to check out the pegging . The lake was almost flat calm with barely a hint of breeze, though as this is Monk Lakes the odds were that the wind would get up as soon as we settled into our pegs . Only peg 157 needed to be left out as it's tight in a corner.
    Keith, Clive and Al who have been regular guests for quite a while had accepted invites to join the club this year , while Bill G was guesting as was Pete Thompson who had travelled down from Milton Keynes with Keith, and Kevin & Jean were also back with us having had to cancel their plans to move to The Bahamas.

    So into the draw bag and with none of us having any real experience of this lake, nobody seemed to worried about what peg they would draw. Peg 136 ended up in my hand, at least I would be able to park pretty close to it. Getting the kit out of the car I could feel the wind starting to get up and by the time I'd set up it was blowing quite briskly onto my back . For company I had Bill G on 137 who had the end of the island in front and had set up a waggler to fish it and he would alternate between this and the pole all match to keep some fish coming. At least we would have a bit of banter regardless of the outcome . My peg looked OK with a comfortable 14½ mtrs to the island. With the depth being a pretty constant 3½ft all over I just set up a couple of rigs, both 4X12 Malman Champers on 0·16 power match to 0·14 with a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hook. Bait for today would be a selection of GOT 6mm soft hookers and some sweetcorn with GOT micros for feed.

    a1.jpg Peg 136. Monks Match Lake 4. picture by pnm123

    10·00am saw Dave call the All-in, and Bill was in straight away with a Carp of around 3lbs on the pole at 13 mtrs . My start wasn't so good with lots of rubbish on the bottom of my chosen line against the island I had to come back about a meter from the island to find a clear patch. Bill probably had 7 or 8 fish before I managed my 1st, a small Carp of around a pound and while Bill appeared to be ticking along nicely I was just getting the odd Gudgeon and small Tench......

    a18.jpg Just waiting for a bite. picture by pnm123

    Around 11am Vince arrived to see how we were getting on and brought me a welcome cuppa . By this time the wind had got up to a decent blow making things more awkward and I sent Vince off with my camera to take a few photos and see what others were doing . Bill was still catching though he was suffering from a few bumped fish and a snag on his waggler line seemed to be costing him a few hook lengths, but he was still on course to take our £1 side bet.

    a17.jpg Bill Gibbins on peg 137. picture by pnm123

    On Vince's return his report was that although everyone seemed to be catching, nobody was taking it apart, though most seemed to be fishing maggot, so I asked Vince to pop down to the site shop and get me ½pint of reds and he duly obliged. 1st put in with double red on the hook I landed a small but scale perfect Golden Rudd which Vince photographed before saying farewell and heading for home.

    a19.jpg Golden Rudd. picture by pnm123

    Young Zack had a bit of a shock when his double maggot was taken by a 5lb+ Pike (I had no idea there were any present) which he weighed and returned. All the time it was getting colder and with the sky getting darker it was obvious that we were due some rain at some point.
    At least the red maggots were starting to pick up a few more fish for me, not enough to do any damage, but in all honesty I was just enjoying being out on the bank again after a 3 month layoff. Jean as always appeared with a welcome cup of tea and even went and got a burger for Bill and I . After the burger I fed a load of micro's with some corn and a few reds at 7mtrs and went for a stroll of my own with the camera to allow it to settle.

    Keith was fishing a top 3 and right on cue caught a decent skimmer for the camera .........

    a20.jpg A decent skimmer for Keith. picture by pnm123

    While Colin was doing his best 'Bankside Bush' impression in his camo gear, and as usual was keeping how he was doing pretty close to his chest, although admitting to having a few ........

    a16.jpg Colin Sharrard. picture by pnm123

    Tony was looking remarkably cheerful , despite having the no9 section of his 401 fall apart in his hands earlier in the day (Tony has had no luck with this pole since he brought it secondhand, with countless sections breaking ) .........

    a14.jpg Tony looks happy. picture by pnm123

    Further round Pete Thompson was struggling to hit his bites, and felt that he was falling behind Clive on the next peg.........

    a23.jpg Pete Thompson willing the float to go under. picture by pnm123

    Clive was looking like someone out of an advert, sitting on his shiny new Space Station and using a shiny new pole , which seemed to be doing the business for him .......

    a24.jpg Fish on for Clive. picture by pnm123

    Indeed he landed a decent Carp while I was chatting to him leading me to believe that he was doing better than he was letting on......

    a25.jpg Safely in the net for Clive. picture by pnm123

    By the time I got round to Dave the wind was blowing full on into his peg and causing his joints to suffer, though he'd managed a few, admitting to around 10 different species in his nets ......

    a26.jpg Looking down from Dave's peg. picture by pnm123

    Kevin was just glad to be out fishing, having had the misfortune to suffer a couple of strokes in recent months, but with Jean keeping a careful eye on him to make sure he didn't overdo things, he'd had a succession of small Carp to his feeder tactics and was obviously enjoying himself ......

    Back at my peg the feed appeared to have done the job as there were a few bites to be had, very few Carp though, but a mixture of small skimmers, Ide, Gudgeon, Tench and Roach kept me interested as squalls of rain made things uncomfortable for everyone.

    With about an hour to go Bill lost yet another hook to the snag on his waggler line and decided he'd have a stroll, while I kept plugging away picking up the odd fish including a solitary small Carp of around 2lbs that I managed to nick from my left hand margin before Dave called the All-out at 4pm.

    Thankfully it didn't take to long to pack up and get the gear back to the car as it was only parked about 10 yards away.

    Monks4.jpg Peter and Pete follow the Weigh-in. picture by pnm123

    The weigh-in started at my peg where my net weighed a level 21 lbs which was more than I thought I had. Bill's 26lbs safely secured the £1 side bet between the two of us. Colin's mixed bag weighed in at a level 33lbs.  Next up was Keith who put a fine 50¾lbs onthe scales that would eventually net him 2nd place . Hot on Keith's heels was Tony who despite the disaster with his pole weighed 45¼lbs which would prove to be good enough for 3rd place  . The winner however proved to be Clive round on peg 152 who used his new kit to good effect putting a level 54lbs on the scales to take the win on the day .
     
    Position   Peg            Angler    Weight Points
     1st Peg 152 Clive Pritchard 54lbs 00ozs

    30

     2nd Peg 140 Keith Ashby 50lbs 12ozs

    29

     3rd Peg 143 Tony Roberts 45lbs 04ozs

    28

     4th Peg 139 Colin Sharrard 33lbs 00ozs

    27

     5th Peg 161 Jim Boase 30lbs 04ozs

    26

     6th Peg 163 Kevin Loveland 27lbs 08ozs

    25

     7th Peg 151 Pete Thompson        (guest) 27lbs 04ozs

    n/a

     8th Peg 137 Bill Gibbins            (guest) 26lbs 00ozs

    n/a

     9th  Peg 160 Al Loader 25lbs 08ozs

    24

     10th Peg 150 John Holdsworth 24lbs 04ozs

    23

     11th Peg 141 Zack Johnson 23lbs 00ozs

    22

     12th Peg 156 Dave Collier 22lbs 12ozs

    21

     13th Peg 136 Peter Morton 21lbs 00ozs

    20

     14th Peg 155 Chris Withall 16lbs 00ozs

    19

     15th Peg 158 Terry Goff 14lbs 08ozs

    18

     16th Peg 149 Martin Hucker 11lbs 08ozs

    17

     17th= Peg 145 Judy Hermite 11lbs 00ozs

    16

     17th= Peg 164 Simon Watkins 11lbs 00ozs

    16

     19th Peg 147 Roger Noakes 10lbs 12ozs

    14

     20th Peg 153 Graham Manning   5lbs 12ozs

    13

     21st Peg 162 Rod Turner     DNW

    5

     
    So that's it, the 1st trip of the year done and dusted and hopefully a few cobwebs blown away. Where next? who knows, but the report will appear here from wherever it is .

     

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

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Southern Fur & Feather.

    w1.jpg Wylands, House Lake. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

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

    A5-13.jpg "Hathers" picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick's Lake.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Southern Championship 2009.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    a1-9.jpg Peg 34. picture by pnm123

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

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

    a16-8.jpg Jemima PuddleDuck. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lakes 1 and 2.

    The Southern Intersite Match.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Maggotdrowning.com

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2009.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    a34.jpg Peg 13 yet again. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    a48.jpg Fish on for Clive. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Sunday, August 09, 2009

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

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

    a56.jpg John and Pauline. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

    a52.jpg Paul prepares for Sunday. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

    a55.jpg Dirk limbers up. picture by pnm123

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

    a54.jpg Gemma showing some leg. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

    a71.jpg Peter on peg 20. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

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

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

    a58.jpg Alan Loader. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

    a72.jpg Waiting for the results. picture by pnm123

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

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

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

     Overall Pairs Result.

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

    Saturday Individual Result.

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

    Sunday Individual Result.

    Position Peg            Angler            

     Weight       

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

     

  • Rolf's Lake. Holton. Oxfordshire.

    Jinx 2009 Banner

    The JINX Series 2009

    Match 3.

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

    Well today is the day of the third match of the JINX Series at Rolf's Lake . It promises to be a little different today, as a good number of the lads were there last night to fish a JINX 2009 SPECIAL EVENING MATCH between the hours of 6·30pm till 11·30pm and were obviously stopping overnight. With a few of the series regulars not fishing that, but some guests taking their places it should be pretty full today.
    So after being woken just after 7am by our new kitten who wanted feeding, I logged onto the Maggotdrowning forum and sure enough Slim had already put a post up about the evening match .....

    "Just got off the phone from steve(sacker) wilson,seems rolf fished quite well last night. 3 x 200lb weights,and a fair few 100 lb + weights.Over 2000 lb of fish were caught and on average worked out about 120 lb per angler."

    So things looked promising for today despite the forecast predicting clouds and rain, and with the car loaded up I was soon on my way via 'The Jimmy Griddle' café in Battersea, for my customary stop for a 'Full English' to set me up for the day . Suitably refreshed and with just 1 further stop for a coffee at the services, I pulled into an already packed car park just after 10·30am.

    First things first, so I dipped my nets before catching up with the events of the past night. It seemed that Vince (my pound coin dispenser ) who has been trying to catch a Rolf's Ton for some time had achieved his aim in spades with a 200lb+ bag, Well Done mate .
    However people were already ribbing him that I hadn't been there for him to take a £1 back from me, and they were already speculating that normal service would be resumed with me present today .
    There was a pretty full house, as a couple of anglers that fished the evening match were guesting today, Vince and Budgie, while Dave had again travelled down from Leeds, this time with Bagger J in tow.

    So draw time once more, and Clive had refused to mention a single peg number in case his hand played up again, but was rewarded with peg 6 this time . I just wanted to avoid Peg 13 and hung back, but it refused to come out and was still in the bag when I drew . Slowly I opened my hand to reveal peg 34.
    Happy days , In fact Slim ended up with Peg 13 so it would be interesting to see how he fared on it.

    a1.jpg Peg 34 at Rolf's Lake. picture by pnm123

    With just a short walk from the car park to peg 34 there was no rush to set up, and I helped Dave Collier with his box to his peg (30) as he'd left it on 34 overnight, having fished it during the evening match.
    With nobody on peg 35, Vince of course just had to draw peg 36 (you couldn't make it up ) so we were bound to have some fun during the match one way or another .
    Neo was down on 38 with Webbo on 40 and Budgie on 2 while Jon had peg 4 as his home for the match. Opposite me was Clive on peg 6 with Tony(spamwham) on peg 7 with Steve on peg 8 for company, and I had a feeling that we would spend plenty of the match watching that trio bagging up off those flyers .

    a23.jpg Getting ready for the off. picture by pnm123

    With the match not starting till 1·30pm we had plenty of time to set up and I decided to tie some new rigs up. The 1st was a 4X12 Malman Adam to 0·20 with a size 12 Guru QM hook to fish 8mm banded pellet on the deck at 9-10mtrs straight out, no further as the wind was gusting from right to left across the peg, while the 2nd and 3rd were 0·3g Malman MTD1's again on 0·20 with size 12 Guru QM hooks to fish the margins on both sides and double up as up in the water rigs. Bait was 8 & 6mm pellets + some sweetcorn and some paste if needed, while feed was just 6mm fishery pellets .

    Well 1·30pm finally rolled around and Malc called the All-In. I shipped out 2 large pots of pellet onto the 9mtr line and fed more by hand down both margins as well as a spot about 3mtrs out to my left where John Bennett had told me he'd had a lot of fish from in the past . Vince appeared to be starting on paste at around 5mtrs (which is what he caught on during the evening match ) and it looked like Clive was shipping out a paste rig over on peg 6 as well........

    a6.jpg Clive starts off on paste. picture by pnm123

    I could see a few bubbles starting to appear on the 9mtr line but missed the first couple of lightning fast bites, before I briefly connected with a fish that was obviously foul hooked before the rig came flying back . Tony and Steve were both off the mark already though, in fact Tony seemed to have a bite every time he lowered his rig in !!!!!

    a7.jpg Tony on peg 7. picture by pnm123

    I finally connected with one of Rolf's super fit Commons and after a couple of minutes had it safely in the net.....

    a25.jpg Playing a Carp to the net. picture by pnm123

    Now at this point I must apologise to Malc , as I decided to weigh the fish to get a feel for just how they were weighing, the fish turned out to be just 8½lbs so rather than record it I decided to put it straight into my keepnet, however Vince remarked to me that there was no weight sheet at the weigh station, so I phoned him to let him know, however when Malc arrived the weigh sheet was under the crate (in case of rain) meaning a wasted trip round the lake for Malc , schoolboy error on my part Sorry Malc .

    Back to the fishing, and I noticed that Webbo had started to sneak the odd one out down on peg 40 and appeared to be in with a good chance of taking yet another Golden Nugget off me ............

    a3.jpg Dave gets down to business. picture by pnm123

    Budgie over on peg 2 had the look of a man who was a bit shocked , this being his 1st visit to Rolf's and who was beginning to realise that he was a little under-gunned in the tackle department, and that people hadn't exaggerated just what was needed to tackle the fish at Rolf's ...........

    a12.jpg A slightly shocked Budgie on peg 2. picture by pnm123

    Meanwhile Clive was having a bit of a struggle on peg 6 and was just having to be patient while he waited for the fish to hopefully turn up, He wasn't helped though by hearing the constant splashing that was coming from pegs 7 & 8 as Tony and Steve continued to catch regularly ..............

    a21.jpg A double header. picture by pnm123

    My next fish was a lovely Common of around 12½lbs that was to prove to be my biggest of the day..........

    a29.jpg Landing a Carp on peg 34. picture by pnm123

     and Vince kindly did the honours with the camera (Webbo even phoned to say I was being cruel to Vince, not only getting him to check the weight, but having him take a picture as well )............

    a30.jpg Twelve and a half pounds. picture by pnm123

    I had a look at JB's spot and while it did produce one Carp for me that was all, and with nothing from either margin it was back to 9mtrs for me  as it seemed to at least produce regular bites if not lots of them...............

    a24-1.jpg Peter on peg 34 at Rolf's. picture by pnm123

    Jon was tucked away over on peg 4, and while not taking it apart he was quietly slipping the odd fish into the net with a minimum of fuss .

    a11.jpg Jon Hatch on peg 4. picture by pnm123

    Webbo appeared to be having a bit of an eventful match however, earlier he'd smashed a top kit trying to net an angry foul hooker , but it went from bad to worse when he placed a top kit on his box and sat on it to hold it in place whilst playing a fish so that he could feed his swim and the fish pulled it in . True to form, Malc appeared to try and rescue it, but it had vanished from sight before he had a chance to leap in .........

    a15.jpg Has anyone seen my topkit? picture by pnm123

    Vince remarked that it was surprising that more gear wasn't lost at Rolf's, given the way that some of the fish fight, indeed he had a struggle on his hands of his own as a particularly fit Common led him a merry dance, before he got the upper hand, and I returned the favour with the camera ..........

    a16.jpg A nice double for Vince. picture by pnm123

    Meanwhile Clive had started to experience an upturn in sport after 3 hours of struggling and seemed to be having regular tug of war matches with a number of lumps, the vast majority of which appeared to be weighers..........

    a18.jpg Clive does battle with a good fish. picture by pnm123

    I was just ticking along at around 3 fish an hour , and it didn't seem to matter what I tried I couldn't up the rate, however it was enough to keep me ahead of Vince, despite him having a bit more on the board in terms of weighers than me.

    Tony and Steve continued to catch, though it was noticeable that Tony was making very few trips up to the scales..........

    a17.jpg Tony nets another. picture by pnm123

    a14.jpg Steve brings a fish to the net. picture by pnm123

    Clive however was flying by now, and it seemed that every time I looked over in his direction he was attached to another beast that was trying it's best to drag him off his platform , in fact he was doing battle as Malc called the All-Out at 6·30pm........

    a19.jpg Clive with another lump. picture by pnm123

    Then as if on cue it started to rain, just so we could get a soaking as we packed up and started the weigh-in. I was 1st to weigh and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd managed a 'Ton' with a weight of 101¼lbs . Vince couldn't match that with a weight of 61lbs so handed over yet another Golden Nugget to yours truly . Dave despite his problems however managed to put 106¾lbs on the scales meaning that he at least recouped a Golden Nugget from me to offset the loss of top kits. The next serious contender was Clive and he put a highly impressive 192¼lbs on the scales and place himself firmly in the lead . Tony put 133lbs on the scales, he probably caught the most fish on the day, but suffered from them being mostly around the 5lb mark . In fact Steve almost edged out Tony with 127lbs (less fish but more weighers. Young Mitch did the business with 116lbs 2ozs from peg 9 and Simon E put a fine 163¼lbs on the scales from peg 11, while Slim had suffered a bit of a 'Mugger Moment©' on my nemesis peg (13) with just 29½lbs . Malc had 152½lbs and Al just missed out on a ton from peg 18 with 94lbs . Paul weighed a creditable 110¼lbs from peg 19 while poor Gem only manage a meagre 1¼lb of silvers from peg 21 meaning everyone had avoided a Minxing today . Simon extracted a measure of revenge on Gem with 94½lbs from peg 23 . The winner on the day however was young Ryan with an excellent bag from peg 26 that weighed 196¾lbs, Well Done Ryan . Fred was the last to break the Ton today with with 142½lbs from peg 28.

    So there you have it, there were an awful lot of very tired anglers at the end of it, especially those that had fished the evening match as well, but they all agreed that it had been worth it.

    Next up for me should be a Marsh AC match on Nick's Lake at Hartleylands Farm in a couple of weeks time.

    Position Peg                    Angler                Weight      
     1st Peg 26 Ryan Hughes        196lbs 12ozs
     2nd Peg 6 Clive Pritchard 192lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 11 Simon Enticott 163lbs 04ozs
     4th Peg 14 Malc Doyle 152lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 28 Fred Parker 142lbs 08ozs
     6th Peg 7 Tony Roberts 133lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 8 Steve Wilson 127lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 9 Mitch Auger 116lbs 02ozs
     9th Peg 19 Paul Roberts 110lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 40 Dave Webster        (guest) 106lbs 12ozs
     11th Peg 34 Peter Morton 101lbs 04ozs
     12th Peg 23 Simon Mound   94lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 18 Alan Loader   94lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 36 Vince Gould            (guest)   61lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 4 Jon Hatch   59lbs 12ozs
     16th Peg 30 Dave Collier   58lbs 04ozs
     17th Peg 15 Terry Goff   58lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 2 Marcus Burgess      (guest)   54lbs 12ozs
     19th Peg 13 Ade Williams   45lbs 02ozs
     20th Peg 32 Keith Fellows   42lbs 04ozs
     21st Peg 17 Alex Clark              (guest)   41lbs  13ozs
     22nd Peg 24 Nick Watkins-Price   27lbs 08ozs
     23rd Peg 38 Nick Williams   26lbs 04ozs
     24th Peg 10 Andy Spruce   21lbs 08ozs
     25th Peg 21 Gemma Doyle     1lbs 04ozs

    You will have noticed that I mentioned the JINX 2009 SPECIAL EVENING MATCH that was fished between the hours of 6·30pm and 11·30pm on the Friday night, and although I didn't fish this match myself, I've included the result from that match below for the reference of anyone who's interested.

    Position   Peg               Angler                Weight       
     1st Peg 16 Simon Enticott 242lbs 04ozs
     2nd Peg 30 Steve Wilson 225lbs 04ozs
     3rd Peg 2 Vince Gould 202lbs 02ozs
     4th Peg 28 Paul Roberts 144lbs 00ozs
     5th Peg 23 Mitch Auger 141lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg 24 Clive Pritchard 139lbs 04ozs
     7th Peg 26 Ryan Hughes 123lbs 08ozs
     8th Peg 38 Simon Mound 113lbs 12ozs
     9th Peg 10 Jon Hatch 113lbs 08ozs
     10th Peg 13 Malc Doyle 112lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg 8 Terry Goff 107lbs 12ozs
     12th Peg 4 Alan Loader   96lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 32 Fred Parker   92lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 9 Keith Fellows   86lbs 12ozs
     15th Peg 40 Tony Roberts   86lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg 18 Marcus Burgess   81lbs 10ozs
     17th Peg 6 Nick Williams   71lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 34 Dave Collier   57lbs 08ozs
     19th Peg 14 Gemma Doyle   34lbs 08ozs

     

  • Maver Larford Lakes. Larford Near Stourport, Worcestershire.

    Maggotdrowning.com
     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123
    Individual Championship 2009.
     
    M-1.jpg Maver Larford Lakes. picture by pnm123

    Well today is the day of the Maggotdrowning.com Individual Championship, and this year's venue is the Match Lake at Larford Lakes. It meant an early start for me as it's about 150 miles for me to drive. So with the car loaded up by 5am I was off, and a nice smooth trip with just a stop for coffee on the way found me pulling into the fishery car park just after 8am . It's a small world, as I parked next to Andy(andy222)Feltham an MD's member who hadn't posted for a while, and was there to fish a club match on the Specimen Lake.

    Soon after people started to arrive in force, Vince who had organised today's match was soon joined by Clive and after dipping our nets we decided to get in quick for breakfast. A Full English for £5 was soon dispatched and fishery pellets purchased. I have to say that I find it strange that you can only feed a maximum of 4 bags of fishery pellets(2 pints of skrettings in a bag costing £2·50p), but you can feed unlimited amounts of meat or corn, which can't be good for water quality Waiting for the draw it was good to catch up with faces, both old and new , The customary side bet of a Golden Nugget was struck with Vince and Gemma(The Minx), while John's good lady Lynn parted us from our cash in exchange for raffle tickets, the proceeds of which will be going to The British Heart Foundation, and by the time that Vince called the draw at 9am, 38 of us were ready to go, meaning that we could leave out the even pegs giving everyone a bit of space . Into the hat and I'm rewarded with peg 37, while Vince asks me to draw for him and receives peg 51 as a present from me .

    At least peg 37 being on the clubhouse bank means I can drive up and almost park behind it. It doesn't look to bad to be honest with a chuck to the island on the feeder and a nice bed of lilies in front of the bush to my left and should be good for a few.

    a1-6.jpg Peg 37. picture by pnm123

    Looking around I've got my fellow Marsh AC member,Tony(spamwham)Roberts to my left, so there should be a good bit of banter during the day ..........

    a2-5.jpg Looking to the left. picture by pnm123

    To my right I've got Andrew(Marginman)Willet and next up fellow blogger and Jinx Series partner Clive, who appears to be knocking up some groundbait, though he might have had the prayer mat out and be offering up a plea to the fishing gods ...........

    a3-5.jpg Clive offers up a prayer. picture by pnm123

    Looking across I can see Vince over on peg 51, so at least I'll be able to keep tabs on the likely destination of the Golden Nugget .

    a6-4.jpg It's in here somewhere. picture by pnm123

    The set up today is 2 4X12 Malman Adam's to 0·16 with a size 18 Drennan Carp Match hooks to fish 6mm banded pellet and meat on the deck at 7mtrs straight out and on the edge of the lilies to my left where there's about 3feet of water and a Malman MTD2 dibber, again on 0·16 with a 18 Drennan Carp Match hook for up in the water. I also set up a Malman SC paste to 0·22 Power Match with a size 12 Drennan Carp Feeder hook for paste, just in case any lumps put in an appearance and the feeder rod.
    Bait for the day was a mix of pellets, meat and paste, with feed taken care of by dampened 4mm fishery pellets.

    So 11am and Vince calls the All-In. A handfull of pellet straight out to 7mtrs and another to the edge of the lilies and before I can ship out a banded pellet to 7mtrs a shout rings out signifying The Minx has her 1st fish in the net, sending a shudder down the spines of more than a few blokes .
    Out to 7mtrs and after lifting and dropping the rig a couple of times the black hydro rips out of the top kit and soon a plump F1 of around 1½lbs is safely in the net ...........

    a20-3.jpg Netting a small stockie picture by pnm123

    This was swiftly followed by a small stockie of around 8ozs and than a bit of frustration started to set in , I had a spate of very finicky bites, but I managed to hit them, only to have them shed the hook as they came to the net for no apparent reason, the hook certainly hadn't blunted. Indeed I wasn't the only one to suffer like this, as I found out talking to others after the match. I was still managing to put a few in the net, though there were a few to many small stockies rather than the better stamp of F1's..........

    a21-3.jpg A small stockie for me. picture by pnm123

    To clear my head I took a quick stroll along with the camera to see how others were fairing. Dai was getting a few, but it was proving to be a bit of a struggle ...............

    a12-3.jpg Dai. picture by pnm123

    Dirk seemed to be happy enough with his lot, and while not pulling up any trees appeared to be catching with a degree of regularity .............

    a11-4.jpg Dirk (The Dangler) Williams. picture by pnm123

    While tucked away on the other side of the lake I could see Malc(The Jinx) on peg 55, and judging by the way he was concentrating, he was obviously catching ............

    a10-4.jpg Malc (The Jinx) Doyle. picture by pnm123

    Tony was looking as if he was in for a good day with a nice lily pad at a comfy 8mtrs he was catching a decent stamp of fish fishing shallow , though he had been seen off a couple of times by lumps that had found the sanctuary of the pads ...........

    a7-5.jpg Tony Roberts on peg 35. picture by pnm123

    Clive meanwhile was having a bit of a mare, he was another suffering from lost fish , though he did manage to successfully land one as I looked on ............

    a13-3.jpg Clive nets a fish. picture by pnm123

    Back at my peg I continued to put a few in the net, but yet again they were mostly small skimmers and stockies though as Clive strolled past I was into something a little better .........

    a22-3.jpg This feels a little better. picture by pnm123

    Which proved to be one of the better F1's that gave a pretty good account of itself, I did ask Clive to stay for a while as he seemed to bring me a bit of luck, but for some reason he didn't think much of my offer .........

    a23-1.jpg A nice plump F1. picture by pnm123

    As the match wore on Vince had managed to bag a couple of what seemed to be reasonable fish on the feeder, but still needed to find something to up his catch rate and avoid the loss of yet another Golden Nugget ............

    V1.jpg Vince plays a decent fish. picture by pnm123

    Weather wise we seemed to have just about everything during the course of the match and with half an hour to go it started to rain , and while my bites had become few and far between, Tony was still catching steadily and continued to put fish regularly in the net right up to the All-out being called at 4pm.

    As we packed away at least the rain eased off and chatting to Tony I felt he must be in with a chance of at least a section as I thought he had something approaching the 'Ton'. The scales soon arrived and Tony's fish weighed in at an ounce shy of 97lbs to place him into the lead , while my net went 50lbs 5ozs. Clive had indeed suffered with a mere 19lbs 3ozs to show for his 5 hours . Poor Vince having slipped on the wet bank and pulled his thigh as he was packing his kit away suffered the loss of yet another Golden Nugget with just 17lbs 11ozs . I followed the scales round as far as Malc's peg where he put an excellent 89¾lbs on the scales before I returned to make my way back to the club house.

    Back at the club house I was pleased to find I'd avoided a Minxing as Gem had struggled today so I managed to retrieve the Golden Nugget she'd taken from me on the previous Saturday at Rolf's . A buffet was laid on for us, with plenty to go round for all, despite Steve(Steak) doing his best to decimate it single handedly . Vince soon had the results sorted and the presentation underway.......

    a14-2.jpg The winners trophy. picture by pnm123

    The section winners on the day being.........

    Alan(Genus9)West
    Lee(Hicko1)Hicking
    Malc(The Jinx)Doyle
    Wayne(Baggingman)Panting

    The main honours going to ..........

    3rd place..........Tony(spamwham)Roberts.

    a16-4.jpg 3rd. Tony (spamwham) Roberts. picture by pnm123

    2nd place..........Mark(Bungee)Collinson.

    a17-2.jpg 2nd. Mark (Bungee) Collinson picture by pnm123

    and the winner on the day and MD's Individual Champion 2009...............
    Steve (Fordy1) Ford.

    a18-3.jpg Steve (Fordy) Ford. picture by pnm123

    The day was rounded off with the Raffle

    a15-4.jpg The raffle prizes. picture by pnm123

    Which thanks to Lynn's efforts selling tickets
    raised £200 for The British Heart Foundation .

    A few Thank You's are in order at this point, Firstly to Vince for organising the match, and doing his usual Excellent Job . To Lynn for a great job flogging the raffle tickets . To Phil Briscoe and all his staff at Maver Larford for their efforts during the day . Finally to all those members of Maggotdrowning.com that supported and took part in the match, making it the success that it was, it couldn't be done without you. Looks like we'll have to do it all over again next year .

    Position Peg                    Angler                Weight       
     1st Peg 65 Steve (Fordy1) Ford  116lbs 07ozs
     2nd Peg 59 Mark(Bungee)Collinson   98lbs 13ozs
     3rd Peg 35 Tony(spamwham)Roberts   96lbs 15ozs
     4th Peg 55 Malc(The Jinx)Doyle   89lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 7 Wayne(Baggingman)Panting   89lbs 03ozs
     6th Peg 71 Lee(Hicko1)Hicking   82lbs 02ozs
     7th Peg 13 Alan(Genus9)West   73lbs 00ozs
     8th Peg 23 Eddie(Ed10)Gutheridge   72lbs 05ozs
     9th Peg 63 John(Aigy)Haigh   66lbs 03ozs
     10th Peg 27 Mike Globe   64lbs 03ozs
     11th Peg 5 Simon(Simple)Mound   63lbs 15ozs
     12th Peg 11 Fred(Milo)Parker   55lbs 08ozs
     13th Peg 61 Mark(MarkC)Causer   54lbs 04ozs
     14th Peg 25 Dirk(The Dangler)Williams   53lbs 12ozs
     15th Peg 33 Paul(Floatfisher Jnr)Killip   53lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg 37 Peter(Mugger)Morton   50lbs 05ozs
     17th Peg 69 Chris(Looney)Kendall   50lbs 02ozs
     18th Peg 73 Tony(JR Hartley)Clark   47lbs 05ozs
     19th Peg 9 Ian(Sprucey)Spruce   46lbs 01ozs
     20th Peg 31 Alex(BaggerJ)Clark   40lbs 13ozs
     21st Peg 21 Paul(Scatty)Scatt   37lbs 10ozs
     22nd Peg 77 Steve(Steak)Akal   36lbs 02ozs
     23rd Peg 67 Luke(Ulladubulla)Downing   34lbs 15ozs
     24th Peg 45 Roy(Royst)Ravenhill   34lbs 10ozs
     25th Peg 39 Andrew(Marginman)Willet   34lbs 06ozs
     26th Peg 75 Marcus(Budgie65)Burgess   31lbs 13ozs
     27th Peg 29 Dai(Dai Fish)Thomas   28lbs 02ozs
     28th Peg 19 Simon(Me)Rowley   23lbs 15ozs
     29th Peg 41 Clive(BlackHydro)Pritchard   19lbs 03ozs
     30th Peg 57 Ian(Fish4alarf)Venn   18lbs 13ozs
     31st Peg 46 Midge(Midge99)Milnes   18lbs 02ozs
     32nd Peg 51 Vince(Vince G)Gould   17lbs 11ozs
     33rd Peg 43 Steven(Drynets)Parker   16lbs 10ozs
     34th Peg 15 Gemma(The Minx)Doyle   15lbs 11ozs
     35th Peg 2 John(Bucko)Buxton   14lbs 01ozs
     36th= Peg 47 Brian(Croydon Angler)Grey      D.N.W.
     36th= Peg 53 Simon Elsey      D.N.W.
     36th= Peg 81 Justin(Smasher)Laundon      D.N.W.

     

  • Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2.

    Faye's Match.

    magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Organised by Maggotdrowning.com
    With all proceeds going to support


    M.jpg Monks Match Lake 2. picture by pnm123

    Back in December last year a young lady contacted the Maggotdrowning.com website with the following appeal...................

    Dear whoever is reading this letter.

    My name is Faye and I’m 19. I have been seriously ill for 7 years and am bedridden, in a wheelchair and fed by a tube. My doctors have told me that I don’t have long left now and that this will more than likely be my last Christmas. I am trying to make it special for my family so we have great memories. If you would like to find out more about my illnesses you can look at this site
    http://www.lovequiltsuk.com/FayeT.html . I don’t have any money to buy any nice presents for them so I was wondering if you could help out at all. If there was anything you could send me to give to my Dad who loves fishing and fish, it would mean so much to me and I would never forget your kindness. I do understand completely if you are unable to help me though.

    Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter, I know you must be very busy.

    Faye.
     
    Needless to say the members of the forum rallied round, and you can read about the results of their efforts HERE.

    Anyway Faye remarked that she would love to meet up with as many of us as possible, so Bill arranged this light hearted match down at Monks, where Faye could come down and meet us, and as a bonus we could raise a few bob for an organisation that is close to Faye's heart Post Pals . Which is why we are down at Monk's today.

    Well Dave(Webbo)Webster had stopped overnight at my place, having travelled down from Leeds the day before to fish this match, so there were 2 loads of kit to load up as we set off around 7am in bright sunshine, and good trip down saw us pulling into the car park at Monks at around 8am . Most of the usual suspects were in attendance along with a few new faces who had travelled from further afield to support the day and the reason behind it. Various combinations of rolls and sandwiches were soon consumed by the assembled company and around 8·30 Bill got the draw underway aided and abetted by Matt .

    Vince walked past having drawn peg 54, so of course being a polite sort of chap I was duty bound to draw peg 55 and did . It would give the day a little extra edge as Vince had previously suggested that the loser of todays Golden Nugget would add an extra £5 to the charity pot and he was feeling confident having done a bit of "homework" on the venue and sorted his tactics ahead of time .

    Thankfully "The Management" allowed us to park up by the lake today, so our kit was quickly in place and setting up commenced. Peg 55 is a corner peg, but not one that I was particularly chuffed to have drawn, as it never seems to produce like the others . Setting up was pretty easy. I'd earmarked 2 pole lines, the 1st at around 7mtrs and the other down the left hand margin. The rigs were actually the 2 that I'd used previously at Mansfield's, a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook, and a smaller 4X12 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook. I also set up a 3AAA waggler on my Shakespeare 11ft Micro. Bait was red maggot, pellets and meat with pellet for feed.

    b0.jpg Waiting for the off. picture by pnm123

    Tony(spamwham) had remarked on my arrival, that he couldn't believe that the lake was flat calm without a ripple on it. He should have known better, because as 10am approached I could feel the wind starting to get up and a few grey clouds coming into view. Both aerators were running that I felt would generate a tow as well.......

    096.jpg Aerator. picture by pnm123

    As we waited a look down the bank to my right revealed Vince taking a photo of me (Surely this would be used in his Blog when he related how he'd battered me and finally taken the Nugget today )

    a4-3.jpg Looking down from peg 55. picture by pnm123

    So 10AM and with the breeze making things feel noticably cooler I slipped on my fleece just in time before Bill called the All-In. I potted a large cup of maggot and pellet onto the 7mtr line and a handfull of pellet into the margins..........

    083.jpg Feeding the margins. picture by pnm123

    .........while Vince fed 5 balls of groundbait onto his pole line . I shipped out 2 maggots to 7mtrs, while Vince started off on the pellet waggler.

    262.jpg Vince. picture by pnm123 

    The float soon slid away and the 1st fish of my day, a small Ide was soon residing in the keepnet , a couple of small skimmers soon arrived to keep it company followed by a humble Gudgeon, but alas nothing substantial.

    Looking across the lake Al appeared to be into a fish every time I looked.............

    209.jpg Al landing a fish. picture by pnm123

    and Steve(badpegpicker)Oswick opposite on peg 66 seemed to be trying to find out just how far his elastic would stretch as he was into a regular run of fish ..........

    249.jpg Steve(badpegpicker)Oswick picture by pnm123

    NB: I must give a mention at this point to Jon(Mutley)Reed who while not fishing himself, spent the day strolling round taking photos and gave me permission to use as many as I liked for this report. Nice one Jon .

    In general though, the fishing wasn't as good as everyone was hoping for , though most were putting one or two in their nets. Although I couldn't see from my peg, rumour had it that the far side of the causeway was proving just as hard. MD's answer to Jan Porter, Matt Love having a bit of a grueller on a water that he knows well .........

    121.jpg Matt Love. picture by pnm123

    It can't have been that bad though as I could see that Mike(Omega Mike) Jameson was still at his peg, which meant that he must have been catching something .............

    126.jpg Mike(OmegaMike)Jameson. picture by pnm123

    Tony(spamwham)Roberts was reported as having his own "Mugger Moment©" (payback for him taking the micky when I'd had a mare in a recent club match ) and was having a real struggle to find anything to add to his net.......

    329.jpg Tony(spamwham)Roberts picture by pnm123

    while Kevin(the catch)Loveland under the watchful eye of partner Jean was having a most enjoyable session, netting a regular succession of fish .........

    136.jpg Kevin(the catch)Loveland. picture by pnm123

    For some of the watching audience though, the excitement of the day was proving to be just too much ................

    255.jpg To much excitement picture by pnm123

    Simon Elsey was having fun on his end peg next to Al, and while not able to keep up with his catch rate was still sticking a few decent fish in his net ............

    163.jpg Simon Elsey. picture by pnm123

    Over on peg 46 Mick the Chippy was having a fine old day , having drawn between Trevor(MT Net)Little and Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard, he was simply fishing the feeder and regularly popping fish in the net...........

    175.jpg Mick(The Chippy)Pearson. picture by pnm123

    In fact poor Clive was having one of those days when no matter where he looked, it seemed that everyone appeared to be catching more than him ........

    370.jpg Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard. picture by pnm123

    with Steve(jessebobs)Burgess in his pink sweatshirt to his left enjoying his first visit to Monks and finding the fish in his swim in a particularly obliging mood............

    078.jpg Steve(jessebobs)Burgess. picture by pnm123

    Which is more than could be said for Vince and I . I had managed to add a solitary small Barbel from my margin swim...........

    283.jpg netting (2) picture by pnm123

    while Vince converted his waggler rod over to the feeder in an attempt to put something in the net ..........

    a5-2.jpg Vince readies the feeder. picture by pnm123

    Indeed with the feeder seeming to produce for so many, I took mine out of it's ready sleeve and rigged it with a maggot feeder as the pole was proving hard work for little reward, but I'd noticed that Colin on the peg to Vince's right was starting to get a few on his feeder rod.........

    261.jpg Colin(The Pike)Sharrard. picture by pnm123

    Further up my bank could be found Linda(mermaid)Billington, who despite claiming little or no knowledge of match fishing had turned up with a fully equipped Rive seatbox along with a sherpa in the form of hubby Chris to transport it all ..................

    292.jpg Linda(mermaid)Billington picture by pnm123

    Jay over on the causeway appeared to be making hay with a good run of fish and appeared to be giving Al a run for his money...........

    202.jpg Jay Lay. picture by pnm123

    while Roger(upyah)Harris had started to get the odd one or two from peg 49............

    290.jpg Roger(upyah)Harris picture by pnm123

    The feeder seemed to have the desired effect for Vince as he put a run of 3 Carp together, threatening me with the loss of a Golden Nugget , but by dropping a maggot feeder up against the marginal rushes to my left, I managed to keep enough Barbel coming to stay ahead ...........

    p.jpg Peter fished the feeder. picture by pnm123

    a6-3.jpg Across to the marginal rushes. picture by pnm123

    Around about 2pm Dave T arrived with wife Liz and the young lady the day was in aid of ..... Faye , and they spent the last hour of the match touring the lake with Bill meeting the anglers.

    3pm and the All-Out was called, and with Faye taking the weights down and Bill and Kevin performing the weighing duties it was soon apparent that although the weights hadn't matched the expectations a few scalps had been taken on the day and Golden Nuggets exchanged, with Al taking the honours with a final weight of 94¾lbs for a fine win .

    The final 2 to weigh were Vince and I, and for Vince it was an all too familiar story with his 13½lbs not matching my 25¼lbs meaning he waved farewell to yet another Golden Nugget .

    Back to the car park for the results, and a number of the days winners generously returned their winnings to the pot , Then the fun really started with Bill removing his beard for the cause (and a few bob in the pot), only to reveal that he was actually "Razor"Ruddock in disguise !!!!!!!!!!!

    a8-2.jpg Bill1 picture by pnm123a11-2.jpg Bill2 picture by pnm123

    a10-2.jpg Bill3 picture by pnm123a9-2.jpg Bill4 picture by pnm123

    More good news followed when it was announced that Monk Lakes owner Guy Harrison was returning £5 from every £8 peg fee to add to the pot, and that the fishery staff had been round the rest of the fishery with a bucket raising over £100 on the condition that Fishery Bailiff Andy sacrificed his curls to the cause which duly happened .........

       a12-1.jpg Andy....Before. picture by pnm123a13-1.jpg Andy......After. picture by pnm123

    To round things off Faye got stuck in and drew the raffle, which went down a treat with plenty of banter flying around as some improbable prizes found new homes. Bill announced that the total raised on the day was £580 and with more to come as a result of a tackle auction, a very decent effort .

    a17-1.jpg Faye draws the raffle. picture by pnm123

    a15-2.jpg Waiting for their numbers. picture by pnm123

    Dave T made a little speech of Thanks on behalf of Faye and her whole family, and very moving it was, I'm sure I saw a tear in the corner of a few rough, tough fishermen's eyes .
    A team photo of the day to bring proceedings to a close  .......

    a1-3.jpg Faye and the usual suspects. picture by pnm123

    ......... before farewells were made, and we departed for homes far and wide.

    A few Thank You's are in order at this point .......

    Bill G who organised the whole thing and didn't even fish, spending the day walking the banks offering help and encouragement, as well as taking the pee on the day. Well Done fella, a great effort .

    Matt, Kevin, Vince and Paul for helping Bill at various points during the day, and to Jean (Kevin's partner) for doing the business flogging the raffle tickets .

    Guy Harrison, the owner of Monk Lakes and his staff at the fishery for all their help and support on the day .

    Finally, all the members of Maggotdrowning.com and the anglers who attended on the day, as well as those who supported the day from afar, a very big Thank You as we couldn't do it without your support. The day was a real success, we may just have to do it again next year .

     Position   Peg                     Angler                         Weight     
     1st Peg  57 Alan(Al)Loader   94lbs 12ozs
     2nd Peg  61 Jay Lay   81lbs 06ozs
     3rd Peg  64 R Lovewell   72lbs 08ozs
     4th Peg  66 Steve(badpegpicker)Oswick   67lbs 08ozs
     5th Peg  48 Steve(jessebobs)Burgess   62lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg  74 Kevin(the catch)Loveland   52lbs 08ozs
     7th Peg  76 Chris Withall   49lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg  46 Mick(The Chippy)Pearson   49lbs 00ozs
     9th Peg  52 Paul(nomorelongwalks)East   45lbs 00ozs
     10th Peg  56 Simon Elsey   42lbs 08ozs
     11th Peg  72 Mark(MoleMan)Hathaway   41lbs 08ozs
     12th Peg  45 Trevor(MT Net)Little   40lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg  75 Dave(Webbo)Webster   35lbs 08ozs
     14th Peg  47 Clive(BlackHydro)Pritchard    35lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg  49 Roger(upyah)Harris   32lbs 04ozs
     16th Peg  67 Brian(Croydon Angler)Gray   30lbs 14ozs
     17th Peg  70 Mike(OmegaMike)Jameson   29lbs 08ozs
     18th Peg  59 Paul(paulvis69)Slater   29lbs 02ozs
     19th Peg  68 Dave(the Fish)Collier   27lbs 10ozs
     20th Peg  55 Peter(Mugger)Morton   25lbs 04ozs
     21st Peg  50 Linda(mermaid)Billington   22lbs 00ozs
     22nd Peg  71 Matt Love   20lbs 09ozs
     23rd Peg  65 S Foot    16lbs 12ozs 
     24th Peg  53 Colin(The Pike)Sharrard   15lbs 08ozs
     25th Peg  54 Vince(VinceG)Gould   13lbs 08ozs 
     26th Peg  69 Tony(spamwham)Roberts   13lbs 00ozs
     27th Peg 62 Chris Billington    5lbs 04ozs

     

  • Mansfields Lake, Broad Oak, Canterbury.

     May Madness at Mansfield's.

    magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    Mansfields.jpg Mansfield's Lake picture by pnm123

    Well it was back to Mansfield's Lake again today, for another MD's Knock Up organised by Mick(The Chippy)Pearson with the help of "The Committee", and with the promise of loads of banter, a few fish and a ready supply of bread pudding and cakes in the offing, it looked like it would be fun .
    Now it's a bit of a trot for me (65 miles) but a nice sunny morning and a surprisingly clear A2/M2 saw me arrive just after 8am to find to find a number of reprobates fine upstanding members of the community already in situ and devouring humongous "Breakfast Rolls" courtesy of Paul and his Burger Van . As always these Knock ups are more of a social event than a serious match and the banter was soon flowing and the side bets made, with Vince and I having our usual £1 coin on the outcome . Anyway with full bellies, and the chat being about how well it might fish as some decent weights had come out recently we assembled for the draw. Hand into the bag and I found peg 17 on the North bank would be my home for the match.

    a1-2.jpg Peg 17 Home for the match. picture by pnm123

    I have to say that I was a little disappointed as I fancied one of the pegs on the South bank as they all had beds of lilies or rushes offering features to fish to. However I had nobody in the pegs to my left and Ryan to my right for company. Opposite I had Mike, with Richard(DHLman) to his right and Vince to his left, so at least I would be able to keep a check on the destination of the £1.
    With a overhanging tree I was a bit limited, but set up 3 top kits. The 1st was for around 7mtrs where the old stream bed was and I had around 6½ft of water and that consisted of a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook, the 2nd for the left hand margin that shelved off into around 3ft of water towards the empty peg 16 was a smaller 4X12 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook while the third consisted of a Malman MTD2 dibber on 0·14 direct to a size 18 Drennan Maggot hook for tight into the right hand margin where there were a load of small roach apparently spawning in the weeds.
    Bait for the day was a mix of pellets, punched meat, corn and hemp.

    a20-1.jpg Peter on peg 17. picture by pnm123

    So at 10am Colin gave a blast on his whistle to signal the All-in and we were off . I potted a mix of pellet, hemp and a few grains of corn onto the 7mtr line and the left hand margin and just flicked some hemp into the right hand margin. Out with a pellet to 7mtrs, the rig settled and stayed there. An hour later and the float tip was still dry as a bone . Vince however had nicked an early Carp that looked around 3lbs on the waggler while he let his pole lines settle.......

    a4-2.jpg Vince fishing the waggler. picture by pnm123

    and Mike had had a couple of small tench on paste tight to the lilies. Sport in general was very slow though with just the odd fish showing, and most of those appeared to be coming from the opposite end of the lake where the deeper water was. Ryan was getting the occasional tiny roach while Pete next to him was biteless like me.

    a5-1.jpg Ryan (Zephyr) Wells. picture by pnm123

    Two hours in and Mike had added a small Carp, Richard had had a couple of small Roach and I still hadn't had a bite, it was starting to look grim . After another half an hour I decided to take a stroll and see what was happening elsewhere (and get some maggots off Mick ). Standing on the empty end peg (peg14) and looking down the lake it looked lovely....

    a7-2.jpg Looking down the south bank. picture by pnm123

    and I could see a couple of tail patterns in the water, perhaps the fish had backed off into the quieter parts of the lake? Mike however wasn't happy with the lack of action , he's one of those anglers that likes to keep busy......

    a3-2.jpg Mike (Omega Mike) Jameson. picture by pnm123

    Vince was looking quietly confident as there were obviously fish in his swim (could this be the day he finally prized a Golden Nugget from my grasp?) Kev obviously had a shed load of fish in the reeds in his left hand margin, but could he solve the problem of interesting them in his bait? Mick had taken what he hoped was a first Crucian of many and kindly let me have some maggots and casters . Dean aka Marvin Waggler had accounted for a couple of Carp and Tony was determinedly trying to feed off the small roach. Meanwhile Mutley had extracted 3 Carp from the lilies next to his platform . Keith (Ryan's Dad) had snared a solitary Carp while Mick(Old Carper) was having a bit of a struggle (and dreaming of Manor House cake and Country Slices ).......

    a9-1.jpg Mick (Mr Kipling) picture by pnm123

    and at the same time having to watch Al opposite get amongst a few Carp, Indeed by the time that I got round to Al he was playing his 6th Carp of the day and already looking good to take the win ..........

    a10-1.jpg Al plays a Carp. picture by pnm123

    Bill had had just 2 bites all morning, but at least had 2 Bream in the net..................

    A21-1.jpg picture by pnm123

    ..........and Mick's brother Geoff was consentrating hard in an effort to get one over on his brother for once.............

    A22-1.jpg Geoff(geoffallday)Pearson. picture by pnm123

    .............. while Colin had a couple of Carp and missed an absolute sail away on the paste as I watched and Dave had just a solitary carp to show for his efforts.......

    a8-1.jpg Dave Collier. picture by pnm123

    As I walked back I noticed Vince playing what looked to be another Carp, and as he netted it and popped it into the keepnet I'm sure I saw a little smile of satisfaction on his face .........

    a11-1.jpg Vince playing his second Carp. picture by pnm123

    Settling back in at my peg, another look at 7mtrs produced nothing with a similar result in the left hand margin . Remembering the tail patterns I'd seen earlier I kept feeding the left hand margin heavily, in the hope that some fish might wander down late on and dropped a maggot on the dibber rig into the right hand margin in an effort to avoid the dreaded DNW. It did the job and in the next half hour I stuck around 25 tiny roach into the net that might have weighed a total of 8 ozs if I was lucky. Mike opposite had decided on a similar approach to keep himself busy but had been unfortunate enough to have hooked a couple of Carp that broke him in the lilies and when it happened to him for a third time around 2pm it was the final straw and he decided to pack up and head for home as he wasn't enjoying himself .

    This however opened up an option for me, so I quickly got my feeder rod out of it's ready sleeve and changed the cage feeder that it was rigged with for a ½oz bomb with a hair rigged piece of punched meat. The overhanging branches were a bit of a problem but with a sideways flick I could drop it onto the edge of the pads opposite, now I just needed an inquisitive Carp to co-operate to be in with a chance of salvaging my £1 coin from Vince , and more importantly avoid the inevitable stick that would come my way on the forum should Vince take it off me in the assembled company . An hour later and I hadn't had a touch , Richard had managed to extract a couple from his patch of lilies and a few more fish had been caught further down the lake, most notably by Dean (Marvin Waggler), Geoff who was looking to put one over on his brothers Mick and Richard, while Colin had tempted a couple more from down his margin .

    With 45 minutes to go it was looking as though Vince was going to mug "Mugger" when I noticed a tail pattern in the left hand margin that I'd kept feeding heavily. Having had no joy with punched meat on the feeder I tied up another hair rig to take 4 bits of corn hoping that a highly visible bait might do the trick and dropped it in and waited.
    10 minutes later and the tip wrapped round and after a couple of anxious minutes a Common Carp of just over 3lbs was safely in the net . Could I get another? Dave walked up and as we chatted another fish topped, but the tip stayed still. I could hear Mick saying that the All-out was imminent when I remarked to Ryan that I could see a Ghostie hovering over where my bait was, but refusing to go down on the bait when the rod was almost wrenched out of my grasp , almost instantly the whistle blew for the All-out and I shouted "Fish On". From various parts of the lake I could hear shouts of disbelief or was it encouragement and I have to say that I was one very relieved angler when I slid the net under a Common Carp that looked to be just over 4lbs .

    Looking across to the opposite bank Vince's face said it all, had he had his moment of triumph snatched away from him in the final seconds by "Mugger" ???????? As we packed away there was a lot of banter flowing back and forth. Ryan reckoned that I'd hooked the fish 8 seconds from the end of the match, now it would be all down to the scales.

    As the scales made their way round Dean in his 1st ever match had taken the early lead with 26lbs 10ozs edging out Mutley by 4lbs, but I was taking my gear back to the car when Vince's fish were weighed and nobody would tell me what he had weighed as it came to my turn. As I tipped my fish into the net there were various mutterings and when the weight of 8lbs 10ozs was called Vince's face gave the game away , The Mugger had struck again and yet another Golden Nugget was coming my way .
    Al was last to weigh and took the honours on the day putting a very creditable 44½lbs on the scales on what had proved to be a very hard day .

    AlsCatch.jpg Al's winning catch. picture by pnm123

    A quick mention should also be made of the fact that Mick (the chippy one ) is for the most part a confirmed rod & line man when it comes to his fishing, but Bill has taken Mick under his wing so to speak, in an effort to impart some of the dark arts of match fishing and the use of the pole. Well today the pupil beat his teacher and he fished the pole all match . Does this mean that Mick has graduated or will the teacher be putting him in his place next time out? We'll see .

    Back to the car park and Mick (Old carper aka Mr Kipling ) had set the table for tea and cakes.......................

    A23.jpg Aftermatch tea and cakes. picture by pnm123

     while the Pearson brothers Mum had supplied Bread Pudding for all, as had Vince's Mum in Law . All in all a very civilised way of ending the match.
    Vince somehow managed to raise a smile when he manfully posed for a photo as he handed over another Nugget ...............

    a12.jpg A Golden Nugget comes my way. picture by pnm123

    While Mick had to part with a Golden Nugget to Geoff in the battle of the brothers ............

    a15-1.jpg Mick pays his quid to Geoff. picture by pnm123

    Al took home a nice tankard complete with a few beer tokens for 1st on the day .................

    a16-1.jpg Geoff hands the winnings to Al. picture by pnm123

    While Dean(Marvin Waggler) fishing what was his first ever match took more coin for his second place than he reckoned he'd spent on his rod .

    Marvin.jpg Dean (Marvin Waggler) Kershaw. picture by pnm123

    A little bonus for me was that the assembled company reckoned that my last minute Carp, was best fish on the day, due to the amount of entertainment that it had provided for everyone at the end of the match, so £10 came my way .

    Finally Vince presented The Chippy One with a little something to show our thanks for his efforts .............

    a18-1.jpg Vince presents mick with a little something. picture by pnm123

    evidently it's part of Mick's autobiography ......

    a19-1.jpg Mick's life story. picture by pnm123
     
    Thanks to Mick and "The Committee" for organising the day, and to all that attended, making for a good day despite the fishing being a little harder than we would have liked .
     
    Next Saturday it's Faye's Match at Monk Lakes that Bill G has organised. It looks like being a good turn out and hopefully Faye will be attending herself and we'll be able to raise a few bob for her nominated organisation http://www.postpals.org/ .
    Obviously you'll be able to read a report on the day here
     
    Position   Peg            Angler    Weight
     1st   Peg 28   Alan(Al)Loader 44lbs 08ozs
    2nd  Peg 6 Dean(Marvin Waggler)Kershaw    26lbs 10ozs
     3rd  Peg 3 Jon(Mutley)Reed 22lbs 10ozs
     4th  Peg 21 Colin(The Pike)Sharrard  19lbs 12ozs
     5th  Peg 24 Geoff(geoffallday)Pearson 14lbs 05ozs
     6th  Peg 17 Peter(Mugger)Morton   8lbs 10ozs
     7th=  Peg 4 Tony(spamwham)Roberts    7lbs 08ozs
     7th=  Peg 8 Mick(The Chippy)Pearson   7lbs 08ozs
     9th  Peg 20 Dave(The Fish)Collier    7lbs 03ozs
     10th=  Peg 11 Vince(VinceG)Gould    6lbs 12ozs
     10th=  Peg 26 Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins   6lbs 12ozs
     12th  Peg 1 Mick(OldCarper)Perry   6lbs 01ozs
     13th  Peg 2 Keith(Chief)Wells   5lbs 00ozs
     14th  Peg 13 Richard(DHLman)Pearson   4lbs 06ozs
     15th  Peg 10 Kevin(KevtheCatch)Loveland    2lbs 08ozs 
     16th  Peg 18 Ryan(Zephyr)Wells    1lbs 08ozs
     17th=  Peg 19 Pete(petemid)Midgley        DNW
     17th=  Peg 12 Mike(OmegaMike)Jameson         DNW

     

  • Monk Lakes. Bridges Lake.

    MonkLakes.jpg Puma, Bridges and Mallard. picture by pnm123

    Well with Maria having to work today I'd taken the opportunity to pop down to Monk Lakes to fish Bridges Lake. Vince popped down a couple of weeks ago and had a real Red Letter Day, and Bill G went on Bank Holiday Monday and also had a memorable day. Bill was going to join Vince and I today but unfortunately his wife was taken ill forcing him to cancel .
    So after dropping Maria off at work I popped back home and loaded the tackle up and with the sun shining from a blue sky set off . As I passed Brands Hatch however, the sun vanished behind clouds and by the time I pulled into the fishery car park it was dull, grey and windy . As I payed for my day ticket in the shop I received a voice-mail from Vince telling me he was down by the lake and had already sorted two swims on the first island on the right hand side.
    After carting the gear over Vince settled into the swim to the right, leaving me with the one facing out into the main body of the lake with the wind blowing from my right. It transpired that Vince's swim was the one that he'd had his good session on a couple of Tuesdays previously !!!! was I about to get 'Goulded' ?????

    A2.jpg My peg on Bridges picture by pnm123

    As we set up Keith(Disco)Driscoll and Steve(rookery54)Allen appeared, they were here to fish the Pads Army Charity Match and after a brief chat they set off for their draw. Vince was soon set up as he had all his rigs from his previous session on winders ............

    A3.jpg Vince's Peg picture by pnm123

    I started plumbing up with a pole rig and was a little dismayed to find nothing more than a couple of feet of depth wherever I looked , so back into the holdall and out with the waggler rod that was already rigged up with a 4AAA peacock insert waggler finished of with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook at the business end, and a few casts around found a nice consistent 4ft. Bait wise I'd just brought 6mm pellets for feed and some 8mm's to band as hook bait with some corn for a change bait.

    A couple of pouches of pellet were fired out to about 20 mtrs followed by the float which soon buried, the strike met with a pleasing resistance and I was soon putting the net under the culprit, a nice fit Barbel of 2½lbs .

    A steady run of fish started to come to both Vince and I, with a few of the resident Chub mixed in with the Tench and Skimmers, well I call them Skimmers because they were silver coloured, but they were decent plump fish weighing between 2 and 3 pounds which are serious weight builders . I also managed my first Golden Tench of the year, always a nice colourful addition to the day .........

    A4.jpg 1st Goldie picture by pnm123

    ................ and it was soon followed by a second ..........

    A11.jpg 2nd Golden Tench picture by pnm123

    By 12 o'clock the wind had blown the clouds away and we had glorious sunshine , though the wind continued to make things difficult setting up an awkward tow on the lake, forcing me to lay about 6" of line on the deck and adjust the shotting to hold the float in place. I'd had a look on the feeder to see if that was a better option, but with it only producing a solitary Skimmer it was soon discarded.

    Vince appeared to be having similar problems with the tow and with the wind full in his face started to struggle a bit as his catch rate seemed to start dropping off . My next fish was a little more weighty however as one of the lakes proper Bream put in an appearance, a nice slab that rolled the scales over to 5½lbs .........

    A14.jpg Bream 5lbs 8ozs picture by pnm123

    One of the things about Monk Lakes is that with 7 lakes and a stretch of the River Beult it hosts a profusion of water fowl and throughout the day a family of Great Crested Grebe's were hovering around the edge of my swim .............

    A15.jpg Great Crested Grebes with chick picture by pnm123

    Vince had one of those "See You Later " moments as he hooked into something that set of like a torpedo and didn't stop, so strolled over for a chat to see how I was getting on, and just in time to do the honours with my camera as another proper bream hit the net, a shade larger than the previous one at around 6lbs ........

    A17.jpg Me with a 6lb'er picture by pnm123

    Which was soon followed by an immaculate Common Carp of around 6lbs ...............

    A19.jpg Common Carp picture by pnm123

    Meanwhile I had a visit from "Mother Mallard" and her brood which curtailed my fishing for a little while as I didn't want to risk striking and launching one of the ducklings skywards ..........

    A20.jpg Mallard with ducklings picture by pnm123

    A little while later Vince received a phonecall from his Brother meaning he had to leave as he'd brought round a floor sander for him to use, not without him getting one final fish though, but try as he might it was not to be ......

    A22.jpg Vince consentrates picture by pnm123

    ........... as his float steadfastly refused to go under ....................

    A24.jpg spot the float picture by pnm123

    My next Bream proved to be my best of the day weighing 6½lbs , to give you some idea of the size, the net in the photo is a 30" pan net, and the fish is just about as long as the net is wide ........................

    A26.jpg Bream 6lbs 8ozs picture by pnm123

    Vince bade me farewell at 3·15 pm, while I fished on for another hour, with another 6 proper un's mixed in with a few Tench and Chub, to finish the session with 57 fish that must have easily gone 100lbs+, a really nice days fishing by any standards .

    As I packed away Keith and Steve reappeared for a chat having finished their match. I subsequently heard that poor Keith had managed to break his no 6 section of his pole again when the wind blew it while packing up, so no wonder he didn't mention it at the time !!!!!!

    So that was it for another day, Thanks to Vince for his company on the day . Next Up it's the Marsh AC match at Pea Lane (Thanks to Steve Allen for some info on the venue ) next Saturday, and as usual a report will be forthcoming here .

     

  • Hawkhurst Fishery. The Match Lake.

    Hawkhurst.jpg Hawkhurst picture by pnm123

    "Easter Friday Hawkhurst Fish Farm. I've just been up there and the bailiff tells me it's free on this day, with everyone being off anyone fancy a knock up?" That's the post that Paul(paulvis69)Slater put up on the Maggotdrowning forum which has led to 19 of us travelling down to Kent today.

    Loading up the car it appeared to be pleasantly mild, which considering the previous weeks weather forecasts was a bonus as they had been promising rain. A smooth trip down saw me pulling into the fishery just after 8am to find almost everyone already there and eager for the draw.(Unfortunately Kevin had been called into work at 4am forcing him to miss it ) With the on-site café not due to open till 9·15am Paul soon had the draw underway so that we could get set up and then have breakfast before the start of the match at 10·30am.
    Dipping my hand into the bag peg 1 was my reward . Some regard it as a flyer as it's an end peg in a corner, but I'm not so sure as everyone seems to congregate round it during and prior to the draw which must disturb the fish there and in all the matches I've fished there it's never framed yet alone produced the winner.

    W1-6.jpg My Peg (peg 1) picture by pnm123

    Settling in I had Vince for company on peg 2, so the battle for our customary £1 coin was going to be up close and personal today , while opposite on peg 20 was Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff coming out of hibernation for his 1st outing of the year. Vince must have thought that I wasn't all that confident because he took the following picture thinking that I was praying to the fishing gods, however he had only caught me pumping some expander pellets .......

    Me.jpg Peter pumps some pellets picture by pnm123

    My set up was pretty simple today, just 3 top kits, 2 rigged with 4X12 Malman Champers on 0·16 to 0·14 bottoms with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hooks, one for 4mtrs straight out in front where I had around 4ft of water and the other for up against the boards to my left where there was around 2½ft, while the third was a Malman MTD2 dibber on 0·16 direct to a size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for the margins where I had around 18" and would also double up as an up in the water rig. Bait for the day was simply 6 & 8mm fishery pellet (Skrettings) that would be banded and some 6mm GOT expanders as a change bait, with feed taken care of by more 6mm fishery pellet.

    With the kit all set up most of us made for the café and and a Full English. 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 eggs, Mushrooms, beans/tomatoes, fried slice + toast & marmalade and tea or coffee for £5 setting everyone up for the five hours ahead . So with everyone full it was back to our pegs................

    W2-6.jpg Before the off picture by pnm123

    .................... and at 10·30am Paul called the All-in. A large pot of pellet was dumped at 4mtrs and another spread along the boards to my left while I fed some more by hand down the left hand margin into the corner where there was a build up of scum. Out with the 4mtr rig and a banded 6mm pellet produced a couple of lightning fast bites without connection which I'm sure were Roach just snatching at the pellet, while Vince was soon into his 1st fish of the day and putting a Carp safely into his net . A more positive bite soon saw some Black Hydro coming from my top kit and a nice little Common of around 1½lbs get me off and running. After around an hour I had around 10 fish, no great shakes but at least I was getting fish regularly unlike Terry opposite who appeared to have got off to a bit of a slow start and having a bit of a struggle ................

    W3-6.jpg Terry Goff on peg 20 picture by pnm123

    Just after the half way mark I was starting to struggle on the 4mtr line so after dumping another large pot of pellet in I had a look over to the boards on my left, taking 4 Carp in 4 put in's before the Roach turned up, a look to the corner proved fruitless, so I decided to stretch my legs and see how the others were doing. It was soon obvious that the middle pegs were the place to be with Paul (nomorelongwalks) who always seems to do well here at Hawkhurst catching steadily, Tony was into a fish.....................

    W13-1.jpg Tony plays a fish picture by pnm123

    .........as was Dave..................

    W10-6.jpg Dave plays a fish on peg 7 picture by pnm123

    ................. though as usual they were both cagey as to just how well they were both doing . Clive who had made the trip up for the day as he always enjoys it here had settled on a margin attack..............

    W11-5.jpg Clive on peg 8 picture by pnm123

    ......... as had the match organiser, Paul (paulvis69) over on the other bank on peg 13....................

    W12-3.jpg Paul(paulvis69)Slater picture by pnm123

    Back to my peg and onto the 4mtr line and the fish were ready for it once more, though I was still getting some of those lightning fast bites that I couldn't connect with . By keeping the pellet going in I was keeping fish going into the net, even taking a few shallow, but I was having to wait to long between fish on the shallow rig so reverted back to the deck to keep my catch rate ticking over. Vince however was starting to struggle a bit having to wait a bit to long between fish to keep pace with me ................

    W7-6.jpg Vince on peg 2 picture by pnm123

    With around an hour to go I had 50 fish in my nets but the sky had darkened and it was obvious that we would be finishing the match in the rain . Terry on peg 20 had started to put a run of fish together playing catch up after his poor start, and looking a bit further across I could see that Nick(pastie)Allen on peg 16 and Keith(Disco)Driscoll on peg 15 were having a good old battle with both anglers taking fish regularly.............

    W5-6.jpg Looking across picture by pnm123

    With the arrival of the rain however my bites dried up while Jay to Vince's right on peg 3 seemed to have a great last hour ........................

    W4-6.jpg Peg 3 picture by pnm123

    I really struggled and only managed to put another 2 fish in the net in the last hour, leaving me with 52 fish when Paul called the All-out at 3·30pm. I was first to weigh in and 86½lbs was my reward for the day, not good enough for the frame but more than enough against Vince's 32½lbs to see yet another shiny £1 coming my way . Paul on peg 7 took the win on the day with 125lbs (Told you he likes it at Hawkhurst ) while Keith had edged Nick out to third with 112lbs to 101lbs in their peg to peg battle.

    So that was it for another day, A Nicely organised match by Paul(paulvis69), Thanks fella .  and Paul(nomorelongwalks) kindly treated us to coffee's in the café from his winnings before we bade our farewells and set off for home. Next up for me is a Club match at Pea Lane in Essex in 2 weeks time, a new venue to me. How will it go?????????? not got a clue, but all will be revealed in the fullness of time .

    Position  Peg               Angler     Weight
     1st Peg 7 Paul(nomorelongwalks)East  125lbs 00ozs  
     2nd Peg 15 Keith(Disco)Driscoll 112lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peg 16 Nick(pastie)Allen 101lbs 00ozs
     4th Peg 4 Graham(franklin)Franklin  94lbs 12ozs
     5th Peg 3 Jay Lay  92lbs 12ozs
     6th Peg 5 Tony(spamwham)Roberts  88lbs 00ozs
     7th Peg 19 Derek(derekl)Lockwood   86lbs 12ozs
     8th Peg 1 Peter(Mugger)Morton  86lbs 08ozs
     9th Peg 8 Clive(Black Hydro)Pritchard        85lbs 04ozs
     10th Peg 18   Pete(btpt)Allen  83lbs 00ozs
     11th= Peg 9 Greg(splitshot1)Andrews  81lbs 00ozs
     11th= Peg 6 Dave(The Fish)Collier  81lbs 00ozs
     13th Peg 12 Trevor(M.T.Net)Little  70lbs 00ozs
     14th Peg 20 Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff  67lbs 00ozs
     15th Peg 13 Paul(paulvis69)Slater  40lbs 00ozs
     16th Peg 2 Vince(Vince G)Gould  32lbs 08ozs
     17th Peg 11 Chris(nagap)Pagan  31lbs 00ozs
     18th Peg 17 Chris Withall  23lbs 08ozs
     19th Peg 14 Ben Franklin        DNW     

     

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

    Maggotdrowning.com Knock Up.

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    w1.jpg Wylands, House Lake. picture by pnm123

    Well it was back to the scene of the MD's Southern Fur & Feather match today for yet another Knock up organised by Mark(Moleman)Hathaway and Trevor(MT Net)Little through the forum. As I loaded the car up for the drive down it appeared that the weather gods were smiling on us for once with the promise of some decent weather for a change, and hopefully a good few fish would find their way into everyones nets today . Pulling into the fishery car park around 8am a few of the lads were already there and the food hut was soon doing a brisk trade in breakfast rolls and cups of tea and coffee.

    By 9am it was time for the draw and it was literally a draw for pegs as Moleman had a bag of numbered cloths pegs . I came out with peg 15 on the day, which was the same peg as I had for the Fur & Feather match previously. Having struggled to get set up comfortably last time, I had my platform with me this time and set it up so that i could use it as a seat, I'd been told by Trevor, who knows the water like the back of his hand that the line to fish was towards a bush on the opposite bank, so that was my plan of attack, I had Bill for company to my right today and Roger(Up Yah)Harris to my left, on the other side of the bridge. The rigs I set up consisted of Malman 4x14 Snake 1's on 0·12 to an 0·10 bottom with a size 18 hook, one for the margin swim to my right by some weeds where I had a couple of feet of depth. The others were for out into open water at 7mtrs and 10mtrs where I had around 3ft. Bait was maggots and various pellets with some corn for a change bait and some groundbait as well.

    While we set up there was a bit of commotion on the opposite bank. Poor Keith(Disco)Driscoll had got his pole out of his holdall, only to watch the whole lot slide down the bank and into the lake !!!!!!!!! Of course he had to go in for it and thankfully he managed to get the whole lot back. Of course we were all full of sympathy for his plight (Thanks to Vince for capturing it on film )

    DiscoDuck.jpg picture by pnm123

    So 10·30am and the All-in and I fed some maggots and pellets into the margin swim and cupped 5 balls of groundbait in at 10mtrs. I followed out with the rig baited with double maggot. The float settled and just slid away and the culprit, a small skimmer of 2-3 ozs was soon in the net . Bill was in straight away too, but his skimmer was around 1lb !!!! I was soon into a run of skimmers, but they were all the same sort of stamp (2-3ozs) despite switching to 3 maggots on the hook as suggested by Bill, while he continued to bag up with decent 1lb+ examples, and the only reason appeared to be that Bill had a good 4½ft of depth at a comfortable 5mtrs.

    W5-3.jpg Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins picture by pnm123

    Anyway head down and keep going, at least I was catching regularly, even if Bill was battering me , Indeed after a couple of hours I reckoned that I had around 10-12lbs while Bill must have had 40lbs+ and was going to need a second net, Trev meanwhile on the peg to Bill's right was steadily putting a decent run of fish together alternating between the pole and waggler. Bill was having one of those days though, and soon had loads of Grey Hydro streaming out of his top kit, the culprit being a decent Carp, putting me even further behind.........

    w4-3.jpg Bill with his Carp picture by pnm123

    Having already mentally waved farewell to the £1 I'd had with Bill , I was relying on my customary £1 with Vince to offset it , but my view of Vince was obscured by the island so I just got on with it. The bites kept coming but despite trying various things I just couldn't up the size of fish I was getting . Very occasionally I would get a better skimmer, but they were always followed by more of their smaller brethren. I seemed to be keeping up with Roger to my left, but even his fish appeared to be of a slightly larger stamp .

    W7-3.jpg Roger(Up Yah)Harris picture by pnm123

    Around 2pm Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff put in an appearance, he couldn't fish today, but being local had popped down to see how things were going just as my bites started to tail off , but I don't think it was down to Terry as it didn't seem to matter where you looked as sport seemed to have slowed down for everyone, even Bill .

    W6-3.jpg Pegs 1 - 5 picture by pnm123

    Vince came round just after 2·30 pm to ask Terry to weigh his fish as he had to get away early as his son was in his first amateur drama production of "The Wind in the Willows", and of course like any proud parent he wanted to be there . His fish weighed 18lbs 13ozs and he left the £1 with Terry for safe keeping .

    With the All-out about to be called Keith's day unfortunately went from bad to worse . Getting off his box he slipped and the sound of splintering carbon was heard by all across the lake, resulting in a catalogue of carnage (no7 section broken in two, no4 section in 4 pieces and a top 2 pulla kit snapped )
    So with the match ending on that unhappy note it was time for the weigh-in. Moleman's 35lbs 10ozs set the early pace till he was edged out of the frame by Omega Mike's 37lbs 9ozs from the road bank. Trevor put a fine 50lbs 6ozs on the scales, but it was Bill who took a fine win on the day with 74lbs 2ozs .
    My weight of 32lbs 4ozs was only good enough for seventh place on the day, but at least meant that another £1 from Vince had come my way .
    All in all a good day in good company as always seems to be the case when the MD's get together. Here's to the next one .

    Position              Angler    Weight
     1st  Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins 74lbs 02ozs  
     2nd Trevor(MT Net)Little 50lbs 06ozs
     3rd Mike(Omega Mike)Jameson 37lbs 09ozs
     4th Mark(Moleman)Hathaway 35lbs 10ozs
     5th Roger(Up Yah)Harris 35lbs 04ozs
     6th Anthony(Pastehead)Ellis 34lbs 12ozs
     7th Peter(Mugger)Morton 32lbs 04ozs
     8th Tony(spamwham)Roberts 25lbs 14ozs
     9th Simon Elsey 25lbs 08ozs
     10th Keith(Disco)Driscoll 24lbs 05ozs
     11th Paul(Paulvis69)Slater 21lbs 05ozs
     12th Gary(oggie)Ogden 20lbs 06ozs
     13th Vince(Vince G)Gould  18lbs 13ozs
     14th Mick(Old Carper)  18lbs 12ozs
     15th Ade(Wingnut)Morgan   9lbs 07ozs
     16th Mick(The Chippy)Pearson   8lbs 14ozs

     

  • Buxted Oast Farm Fishery, Buxted, East Sussex.

    Maggotdrowning.com Knock Up.

     magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123

    BuxtedOast.jpg Buxted Oast Farm Fishery picture by pnm123

    It was a small Knock-up amongst a few members of the Maggotdrowning.com forum down at Buxted Oast today, but it didn't get off to the best of starts for me, as I went down to load the car and found that some scrote had tried to break into the car overnight . However I managed to fix the damage pretty quickly and was soon loaded up and on my way. Overcast but nice and mild, it promised to be a decent day and I even had time to stop off in East Grinstead for a spot of breakfast, arriving at the fishery car park around 8·45am .
    The MD's knock-ups are always fun and today promised to be no different, Bill had already pegged out, so it was monies paid and into the draw bag, with peg 4 being my home for the match.

    w1-2.jpg Peg 4. picture by pnm123

    Settling in I had Trevor for company on peg 3 with Pete to his right on peg 2, while peg 5 to my left wasn't drawn. Bill had recommended fishing a comfortable 8-10 mtrs straight out where there was about 2½-3 ft and not to ignore the margins so that was the basic approach. I just set up two top kits and both of these were rigged with Malman 4x12 Snake 1's on 0·14 to an 0·12 bottom with a size 18 Drennan Match Carp hook and I also set up the pellet waggler rod as I could see a few Carp already cruising around the top. Bait for the day was Corn, GOT 6mm expanders and 6mm hard pellet, No maggots though as these tend to pull the Roach.

    10am and Ryan called the All-in. I shipped out half a pot of mixed pellet and corn to 10mtrs and fed some pellet by hand into the margins and had a quick cast with the pellet waggler to see if I could "mug" and early fish , but with no interest shown that was quickly discarded in favour of the pole. Shipping out a 6mm expander to 10 mtrs the float had hardly settled when it disappeared down the hole and a nice Common of around 3lbs was soon safely in the net , next put in and another smaller fish around 1½lbs joined its friend, Happy days . Trevor had had a couple of quick Carp too, as had Pete .

    w4-2.jpg Pete and Trevor. picture by pnm123

    Dave tucked away in the corner on peg 6 had got off to the best start however, fishing tight into the corner under the willow, taking 5 Carp and a Frog !!!!!!!!!!!! You just know that Dave the Fish's nickname will become Dave Le Frog after that little episode .

    w2-2.jpg Dave on Peg 6 picture by pnm123

    After that initial burst however sport seemed to grind to a halt for most , leaving people scratching their heads as to why they couldn't get amongst the fish, and Trev being bored looking at a stationary float reverted to a top 2 and maggot to get some action with the roach, soon lining them up and regretting the fact that he hadn't packed a whip today . Around 12·30 I re-fed my main line and another to my left and went for a stroll round.
    Dave's sport has slowed but fish were moving round the tree, while Bill on peg 7 by the outfall just had a solitary Carp, but frustratingly, fish that he could see taking pellet in front of him .
    Colin tucked away in fancied peg 8 was another with just a solitary carp to show for his efforts, but was now being plagued by small Roach attacking whatever he put on his hook .

    w6-2.jpg Colin on Peg 8. picture by pnm123

    Vince meanwhile was fishing down his right hand margin on peg 9 and had taken a couple of Carp despite it being "Snag Central" and costing him a few hooks, and he managed to slide a third Carp into the net as I watched . Would he be taking a £1 coin from me today  ?

    w8-2.jpg Vince nets his 3rd Carp. picture by pnm123

    Back to my peg and out to 10mtrs and the float shot strait under as I laid it in !!!! A foul hooker that tore around a bit, but was soon safely in the net, with the hook in a pectoral fin and a good 5lbs added to my weight . Pete dropped by for a chat as I shipped out to my left hand line for the 1st time, and an instant bite resulted in Carp no 4 making it's way to join the others in the net.

    w10-2.jpg Peter on Peg 4. picture by pnm123

    Trev was getting into a decent rhythm and building a weight of silvers when the inevitable happened and he hooked a Carp, and he was connected to it just long enough for it to trash his swim before it shed the hook, leaving him to have to build it up again .

    Tony strolled round and informed me that both he and Paul had a couple of Carp each, while Mick on peg 1 breathed a sigh of relief as he finally managed to snare a Carp , having endured a frustrating time watching them cruise round in front of him, leaving just Ryan staring at a dry float tip as it steadfastly refused to go under .

    w7-2.jpg Ryan on Peg 10 picture by pnm123

    With a couple of hours to go Dave started to catch regularly, having fed a few floaters under the tree, and was looking uncatchable, leading Bill on the next peg to change rigs to just a couple of feet of line and a hook and fish long to try and tempt the fish that were still cruising in front of him, and it soon started to produce for him.
    With nothing showing on the top within pole range in my swim I stuck it out alternating between my 2 long lines, as nothing apart from Roach could be tempted from the margins, and I managed another 5 Carp before Ryan called the All-out at 4pm .

    The Weigh-in told the story, Dave Le Frog had won comfortably, taking 27 Carp in total for 52¼lbs and a very comfortable win . Bill had a good last hour weighing a level 27lbs to bump my 25lbs 6ozs down to third.
    Trevor put a very creditable 21lbs 3ozs on the scales for 5th and may well have taken second place if he'd remembered to pack his whip. Of course poor Vince had to hand over another £1 coin to yours truly, so it seems normal service has been resumed in 2009 .

    My next planned outing is in a couple of weeks time, to Wylands for a "Silvers" match on House Lake which should be fun providing we don't get a repeat of the weather we had on our last visit there, though if we do at least the Tea Hut will do a roaring trade .

    Position              Angler   Weight
     1st Dave(Le Frog )Collier   52lbs 04ozs  
     2nd Bill(Zak Dingle)Gibbins 27lbs 00ozs
     3rd Peter(Mugger)Morton 25lbs 06ozs
     4th Tony(spamwham)Roberts 23lbs 04ozs
     5th Trevor(MT Net)Little 21lbs 03ozs
     6th Pete(petemid)Midgley 13lbs 12ozs
     7th Vince(Vince G)Gould  4lbs 04ozs
     8th Mick(The Chippy)Pearson  2lbs 08ozs
     9th Colin(The Pike)Sharrard   1lbs 12ozs
     10th Paul(paulvis69)Slater     D.N.W
     11th Ryan(Zephyr)Wells                    D.N.W

     

  • Private Lake, East Sussex.

    untitled.jpg picture by pnm123

    "The Private Lake on Sunday, are ya coming? eight thirty if you are .  No keepnets just a days fishing."

    With an invite like that from Bill G it would be rude to refuse, especially with the weather forcast predicting a nice mild 9°C. As with all good things though Sunday Morning revealed that Saturdays glorious weather had come to an end , but a smooth drive down stopping off in Bromley for a spot of breakfast on the way, saw me arrive at the fishery at 8·30am to find Vince waiting beside a locked gate, Bill soon arrived though with the padlock combination so we were soon parked up and decided on a walk round while we waited for the rest of the cast to arrive .

    Usually when I've visited the Lake in the winter it's been brim full and today was no exception, with a fair bit of water running down the outflow pipe on the dam wall. As we strolled round Al was the next to arrive and was soon dropping his gear into the 1st peg by the gate, a peg he's been eager to have a go at for a while .
    By the time we got back to the car park Dave, Colin and Tony had arrived.

    Soon we had our gear together and set off for the session. Colin was traveling light only intending to have a crack on the river today and Tony also started with the bare minimum of gear hoping to sneak a Chub or two out of the river early on before settling down on the lake .

    The surprise of the day was that Bill wasn't going to fish !!!! deciding instead to spend the day wandering and chatting with the rest of us collecting titbit's for his Blog, so he'd just brought a comfy chair with him and settled down with Al. Meanwhile Dave set up just just along from Al before the outlet on the dam wall.

    w7-1.jpg Dave(The Fish) Collier at Shannons. picture by pnm123

    Vince and I strolled a little further round to the far bank with Vince dropping in where he would have an easy chuck with his feeder rod to the island as well as a nice comfortable line where he could try out his new pole. I dropped into the next swim along (Bill had won his last club match from the peg ), where I had about 13mtrs to the island which was ideal as today I planned to try out the Clever Claw and see how I got on using it.

    Al was soon into fish, and even before most of us had set up he'd had four quick fish.

    w8-1.jpg Al on peg 1. picture by pnm123

    Tony had winkled a Chub of around 2½lbs out of his swim on the river to satisfy his quest, but by the time Bill arrived on the 1st of his strolls neither Vince or I had got off the mark . This soon changed however as Vince's feeder tip whipped round and he was into a carp. Someone had remarked on the forum a couple of days previously that he'd never seen a photo of mine of Vince actually catching a fish, so I seized the opportunity to rectify that .....

    w1-1.jpg Vince lands a Carp. picture by pnm123

    ....and soon Vince had a nice plump Common to show as his reward .

    w2-1.jpg Nice Carp for Vince. picture by pnm123

    Bill was of the opinion that I wasn't fishing close enough to the island, so another section was added and after potting in some more feed and adjusting the rig, I of course didn't see the 1st bite as I chatted to Bill . I was briefly connected, but it shed the hook. However next put in I was more alert and connected with the bite properly this time, soon putting the net under a nice plump Mirror of around 5-6lbs . I have to say that the fish that the owner has stocked are some of the plumpest Carp I've come across, being deceptively heavy for their size and in lovely condition.

    Tony came strolling round just after with his pole gear to fish the back of the island as he wanted to try out fishing long with his new Maver 401. Vince meanwhile had rested the feeder rod looking to christen his new pole, a Maver 101. I had managed another Carp, a Mirror of around 10lbs before taking a stroll to retrieve a couple of KitKat's that I'd left in the car .

    Dave had had a couple of Carp and a few Roach, and Al was now getting Roach, though as we chatted he was into another Carp and I got the definite impression that his peg would only get stronger as the day went on .

    Vince meanwhile had been unable to resist the temptation of popping over the fence with his feeder rod and had succeeded in bagging a couple of Chub around the 2-2½lb mark from the river, before returning and resuming the task of trying to christen his pole.

    w9-1.jpg Vince with pole. picture by pnm123

    I settled back to fishing across and I have to say that the Clever Claw made it an easy task, allowing me to rest the pole across my leg while the Clever Claw took all the strain.................

    w5-1.jpg Peter at Shannons. picture by pnm123

    Indeed I soon managed to extract another couple of Carp with Vince doing the honours with the camera for me on the second one...........

    W14.jpg Peter plays a Carp picture by pnm123

    ......... another nice one that may have nudged 10lbs given how plump it was.

    w11-1.jpg A Carp for Peter. picture by pnm123

    Strolling round I found Tony, well settled in and trying to build his swim, but getting pestered by what he felt must be Roach trying to rob his bait .

    w10-1.jpg Tony gets to grips with his 401. picture by pnm123

    Returning back to my swim a bit of a breeze had got up making presentation difficult and it was to cost me a couple of rigs in the island bushes before I decided to back off a bit and re feed a couple of feet short of the island. All along I'd been feeding to a tree in my left hand margin, but despite regular looks there hadn't had a bite from it. Tony had finally managed a carp around the 7lb mark and had come round to show me as he was surprised just how heavy it was when he weighed it, proving once more just how solid the fish are .

    Vince finally managed to christen his pole with a couple of 5lb'ers while I added another to my tally from my new line.

    Vince started to pack away around 2·30pm but managed one final Carp on his feeder rod before he said his farewells and departed . I had one final Carp just before 3pm, but with the breeze ever present I felt the temperature was dropping and I decided to call it a day as well. As I packed away my kit Colin reappeared having spent the day roving the river and reported having a thoroughly enjoyable day despite only having three chub .

    As I wandered back Dave reported having had a few more Carp, while Al had firmly taken the honours on the day with a succession of Carp from his peg.
    All in all a pleasant session with a few fish to keep things interesting, next Saturday it's a knock up at The Oast at Buxted, so until then............ That's All Folks .