Faye's Match.

Organised by Maggotdrowning.com
With all proceeds going to support

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.

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.......

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 )

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..........

.........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.

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

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 ..........

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 .........

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

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.......

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

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

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

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...........

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 ........

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

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

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

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.........

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

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...........

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

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 ...........

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 !!!!!!!!!!!

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 .........

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 .

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  .......

......... 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 .

Well today promised to be a little different as Dawn, the owner of Dawns Vale had invited some of the lads from the Maggotdrowning.com forum down to her fishery for a small match. This had turned into a weekend event for some though, as anglers from as far afield as Scotland, Yorkshire and Wales had accepted Dawn's invitation . Having met up with Dave and Colin at Dave's house we made our way out to deepest Essex arriving at the fishery just after 9·30am.
Parking the cars up it was obvious that a couple of the lads had already arrived. Dai, who was staying for the whole weekend had already pitched his bivvy and Mick and Vince were already tucking into egg and bacon rolls and a cuppa that Dawn had cooked up in the little 2 berth caravan at the side of the pool . As Dave, Colin, Tony and I unloaded our tackle, Webbo (and his lunatic boxer dog Max) and Geoff pulled in, Geoff having traveled down from Scotland the previous day to meet up with Webbo in Leeds .

Dawn soon had us all fed and I took the opportunity to take a first look around. Dawns Vale as the fishery's called is a small natural pool (about an acre I'd estimate) that's fed by 7 springs set in woodland that's situated on the side of a hill. Thankfully the trees shelter it to a degree from the wind, which was starting to get a bit of a blow on.
They'd had their 1st frost of Autumn overnight and a heavy grey sky held the promise of rain at some point. Today we were going to have a friendly little 6 hour Knock-up between the nine of us, and Dawn had even gone out and got a Trophy to present to the Winner .........

Now the pool isn't a venue that is match fished, it's normally fished by carpers and pleasure anglers, and with only about 12 pegs we decided to draw and have a walk off picking our own swims . Most opted for the shortest walk possible, leaving Mick and I to stroll to the far side and I ended up opposite the caravan, allowing me to keep an eye on everyone except Mick .

Settling into the swim I was happy to realise that I was pretty sheltered and would have the wind off my back. Dave has fished the pool once before in the summer and had told me that the margins were deep at around 4-5 feet with depths up to 25 feet in parts of the pool. There were some decent Carp present, along with Crucians, Tench and thousands of small Rudd that would rob any bait they could. I'd already made my mind up based on what I'd heard to target the Carp, but the frost and conditions were making me wonder if I'd made the right choice. Plumbing up down the right hand margin there was 5 feet of water with a similar depth at 5mtrs straight out so I settled for those 2 lines with a simple rig incorporating a MW Diamond to 0·18 to size 16 Drennan Carp Match hook, and also set up the feeder as a back up. Bait wise it was going to be 6mm pellet for feed and 8 and 11mm hard banded pellet to deter the Rudd.

At 11·30am I called the All-in and dumped 2 big pots of pellet into both pole lines, then chucked the feeder with soaked 6mm pellets and a hair rigged banded 11mm on the hook. After 30 minutes without a flicker on the tip it was onto the pole but neither of the 2 lines produced a bite just tiny little knocks from Rudd attacking the pellet and from my vantage point I could see that nobody was doing any good apart from Geoff and Dai who were both happily taking a succession of small Rudd.

With 2 hours gone I re-fed the margin swim heavily and went for a stroll to see how everyone was doing. Webbo was on the pole trying to tempt a Carp with Max keeping a carefull eye on proceedings and probably glad that he wasn't relying on him to catch his dinner ..........

Tony was ruing parting company with a decent fish earlier on the method feeder and was sticking at it hoping for another bite at the cherry ..........

Geoff and Dai were still getting amongst the Rudd making the most of their foresight in bringing some maggots with them , It was good to see Geoff on the bankside and catching a few as he hadn't been out since May and was quite content just catching and not bothered about the size of fish .

Vince was fishless, but concentrating on the job in hand (not losing a £1 to me in our usual side bet )..........

Birthday boy Colin(66) was biteless but determined to stick at it and if possible sneak a Carp out on the paste, though with the wind howling into his chosen swim which was one of the shallower ones, it wasn't looking to hopefull .

Dave was happily settled into the swim he'd fished before, and was taking it easy as his arthritis was playing him up in the cold and was only owning up to a couple of liners but nothing in the way of fish ..........

Finally I came to Mick, yet another Birthday Boy (50) who was getting a few Rudd on the waggler to christen his new rod .........

................Yes there is a fish there, as a close up proves .........

Back to my peg and I opened a tin of corn that Geoff and kindly let me have, and slipping a grain onto the hook I shipped it out to the margin line. After about 10 minutes of lifting and dropping the rig the float finally slid under and a firm lift met with a pleasing resistance as the elastic stretched from the top-kit. The fish stayed down but didn't tear off (probably due to the depth of the venue?) but steady pressure soon saw me get the upper hand and a couple of minutes later a nice plump Mirror of around 6lbs was safely in the net .

15 minutes later my 2nd bite of the day produced a similar result, though this time the fish was a little smaller at around 4lbs .

With another half hour gone and no further action I re-fed the margin and looked up to see Webbo with yards of pink Drennan bungee pouring out of his pole , so I grabbed the camera and strolled down to watch the action ..................

........Webbo was getting nowhere fast with the fish and soon had quite a crowd watching and giving him helpfull advise and encouragement . I even phoned Malc and put him on the loudspeaker to see if The Jinx effect would work long distance . Finally after what seemed like 10 minutes the fish was on the top and safely heading for the net.............

and you could tell from the grin on Webbo's face that all the micky taking had been worth it in the shape of a cracking Mirror what tipped the scales at 12lbs 4ozs .

Back to my swim, and the sky was getting darker and the wind was increasing. Back out to the margin and a change to double corn produced a 3rd bite after half an hour and resulted in a 3rd Carp, smaller again this time, a mint little Common of no more than 2lbs . Shortly after that Webbo popped round as he took Max for a stroll and he was soon followed by Dave and Colin, with Dave taking a few grains of corn away with him in an effort to get himself off the mark. No more fish followed for me, but Dawn appeared with a freshly cooked double cheeseburger and a hot cup of coffee to lift my spirits . Obviously the corn had the desired effect for Dave, for not long after I looked over and just caught him netting a decent fish .......

With around 1½ hours to go I decided to go back onto the feeder as I had seen a couple of fish crash out to my right. After about 20 minutes I had a couple of tentative knocks followed by a 6 inch pull and the strike met with a firm resistance and I could feel the fish kite out into the centre and judging by the angle of the line to the water it had obviously sought the deeper part of the pool. A couple of minutes of steady pressure saw me gain the upper hand though and I soon had my best fish of the day, another Mirror around the 9lbs mark . I only had one further bit of action before the end of the match, and that was when Bill G phoned, we were chatting away as the rod tip wrapped violently round!!!!!!!!!  I wasn't connected for long however and the hook returned embedded in a scale .

So 5·30pm and I called the All-out just as the 1st drops of rain threatened to fall. A quick weigh-in confirmed just how hard it had been on the day. Dai was 1st to weigh and put plenty of the pools small Rudd on the scales which weighed in at 20lbs.........

....... and with Geoff weighing another 15lbs of them for 2nd and 3rd places respectively, they had kept themselves busy and warm, however bags of Rudd like that may be the last for sometime as Dawn told me that they're being netted out at the end of this month. They'll never get them all though, so it's just a matter of time till they return .

My 4 Carp weighed 21lbs 8ozs to take the honours on the day and another £1 from Vince , and receiving the Trophy from Dawn was a nice end to the day .

Soon the kit was loaded up and farewells said. I have to say that I didn't envy the lads that were staying on overnight (Webbo, Geoff, Dai and Mick) but it will be interesting to see how they did overnight and Sunday before heading home .

I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU to Dawn for putting up with the Maggotdrowning Mob and making us feel welcome, I'm sure we'll be finding our way back sooner or later .

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2008.

Having been fortunate enough to receive an invite to Dave Moore's Birthday Bash the previous day, I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning as I looked out of my bivvy on Saturday morning in preparation for the weekend ahead . However as I stuck the kettle on for an early morning cuppa I noticed Teepee sitting on the bench that looks out over the Little Lake. Strolling over for a chat with him it was soon obvious that all was not well, as his face was as white as a sheet. A quick chat revealed that Tony was in a fair bit of pain, and while he thought he ought to go to hospital, he was reluctant to go in case he got stuck down in Oxford. Luckily a few of the lads that had fished Dave's match had stopped overnight and they volunteered to take Tony home to Rotherham, so we bade him farewell before the weekend had had a chance to begin. ( Subsequently Tony had to undergo an operation to fix a hernia and he's thankfully fully recovered. See you soon Tony, you'll be due a result next year )

So with the Draw for The Pairs not due to take place till 11am to allow those traveling down from far away places ample time, a few that had fished the previous day made some running repairs to depleted rigs etc while others geared up in anticipation for battle with Rolf's "Babies" .
Webbo was manfully struggling trying to tie some hair rigged pellet bands and suddenly realised he could see once I'd popped a pair of reading glasses on his nose, should have gone to Spec-Savers fella !!!!!

By 10am the car park had filled up once more as the usual suspects and a couple of new ones assembled. The Malman brothers had arrived, announced by a blast on a airhorn and a few of us had made a beeline to Gaz's motor to stock up on floats while stocks lasted, Others were setting about getting their bivvies and tents pitched, while John and Pauline were doing a roaring trade in pellets and advise about what to expect in the couple of days ahead .

11am and Dave and I did the all important draw for The Pairs. With Teepee's unfortunate departure young Mitch who had traveled up to watch on Friday was the fortunate recipient of the spare place while Steve B was promoted to the Venue Expert/Experienced Matchman class , with the draw over there was quite a bit of discussion as to who would be the pairs to beat and favoured swims prior to the draw for the actual match. Noon and draw time, with us fishing the match from 1·30pm till 6·30pm in an effort to get the best from the venue, however with the temperature steadily rising I did have a few miss-givings .

Into the draw bag and 26 was mine (it had fished well for teepee the day before ), a nice short walk to the car park bank and it would be shaded as the match progressed, which was most welcome after my treks round the lake on Friday, and my partner Paul(tommyturtle)Thompson had drawn peg 40 which I felt would be good for a few fish . Simon had drawn peg 2 for the second day in a row and practically ran to his peg having 200lbs+ from it the day before . Tony(spamwham)Roberts had peg 9 which had fished really well on Friday and appeared to be one of the form pegs .

I had Alex and Ady(biglad) for company on pegs 25 & 24 so £1 side bets were struck for fun, along with one with Chin and another with Vince .

Settling into the swim I elected to keep it simple with a line at 5mtrs straight out in front and another to the edge of the bushes on both sides. I also set up my pellet waggler and feeder rod as I had both of them with me in their ready sleeves. Tommy came along for a chat along with a cold can for refreshment , and soon we were ready for the off.

1·30pm rolled round and with the All-in called we were off, 2 good handfuls of pellet onto the 5mtr line and 1 each to the edge of the bushes, Alex had opted to go shallow at 13mtrs and it would be interesting to see who's approach worked.
Well I wish I could say that the sport was fast and furious, but for the vast majority of us it was anything but, With temperatures pushing into the 30's and fish crashing around I got the distinct impression that the temperature increase had made the Carp think about spawning for a 2nd time . The big problem for most appeared to be foul hooked fish and it didn't seem to matter how you presented a bait, up in the water or hard on the deck, everyone seemed to be having problems. Also the ever present silvers didn't seem to want to play either. Alex was faced with a swim that resembled a jacuzzi and it seemed that every fish he hooked came adrift at some point . By halfway I'd managed 4 Carp when Webbo appeared for a chat as he was fishing my peg (19) from the previous day, Apparently Tony(spamwham) and Vince were doing OK on pegs 9 & 10 and Clive had got among a few on peg 31 but most were finding it hard. Fortunately I connected with another Carp on cue which gave Dave the opportunity to do the honours with my camera ..........

By 4pm we had some relief from the sun on the car park bank as it became shaded by the trees, and John was doing a roaring trade in cold bottles of water and cans of Coke that he'd thoughtfully laid on . I managed another 4 fish in the last couple of hours but others weren't so fortunate and it was probably a relief to most when the All-out was called at 6·30pm. The weigh-in told the tale of the day. Simon on peg2, was unable to repeat his feat of the day before, struggling to put just 52½lbs on the scales , Chris(cybermanc) had got off to a flyer fishing the feeder on peg 7 only to see it die and weighed 81¼lbs. Tony however had made the most of peg 9 with a fine 161¼lbs for the win on the day , Next up Vince on peg 10 put 96lbs 14ozs on the scales for 3rd on the day, just missing out on a 1st Rolf's Ton . My 9 fish came to 72lbs and at least gave me the consolation of a section win while Clive on peg 31 weighed 117¾lbs for 2nd overall and just the 2nd Ton recorded on the day .
So, at the end of day one Ant(antwood)Haywood and Tom(tommodiesel)Little were leading with 25 points from Dave(DTF)Collier and Vince on 23 points and Clive and Tim Westmoreland in third on 21½ points .

So with the gear stowed away it was time to fire up the barbecue and start the inquests. Dave and I shot off to Asda for some grub, but were dragged kicking and screaming into the pub by Dirk, Paul, Chris, Vince & Tom and forced to drink cold beer before returning . Sitting round with a beer later in the evening spirits soon started to rise in anticipation of the day ahead. Tales and jokes were told, beer cans exploded on barbecues and Dave came up with one of those ideas that only he can. Needless to say it scared the life out of John Bennett , but that's all that can be said for the time being . Gradually folk drifted off to bed, and it was gone 1am when I finally climbed into my sleeping bag for some much needed sleep .

Sunday, July 27, 2008.

7am Sunday morning and another bright sunny day greeted us as we rose from our slumbers, I boiled up the kettle for a cuppa while Gaz and Alex got the barbecue fired up to cook everyone breakfast . Time to get the bivvy packed away as it was planned to be a 10am draw with fishing from 11·30am - 4·30pm so that people could get away. After a couple of sausage rolls and a coffee I somehow managed to get the bivvy and all the kit packed away and into the car just as Keith(Fisherman's Blues)Arthur pulled into the car park closely followed by Pete Archer. For the 2nd year running they had both agreed to come down and fish with us on the Sunday(Pairing up with the lowest placed pair from Saturday) and Pete once again brought some goodies from his sponsors Vespe to give out .

All to soon 10am rolled round and it was draw time. Peg 32 for me.........

.......and another short walk to the car park bank peg that Malc fished yesterday. Clive drew well with Peg 8 but had Pete Archer for company on peg 7.

Paul my partner was on peg 23, a peg Colin struggled on yesterday. I'd got Chris(looney)Kendall for company on peg 31 with Terry(WilyCoyote)Goff opposite on 9 and Alex and Webbo on 10 & 11. A quick chat with John Bennett led to me choosing the end of the bush and out at 8mtrs as the 2 lines of attack for the day. It was double or quits for the £1's I won from Alex and Chin yesterday and the chance to get my £1 back from Vince that he took from me yesterday .

11·30am and at the All-in I fed a handful of pellet to the end of the bush and a big pot of pellet at 8mtrs. Straight over the potfull with an 8mm banded pellet and the float buried!!!! Happy Days NOT as a foul hooked Carp took off at a rate of knots towards the Little Lake before the hook pulled. So started one of the most frustrating 5 hours fishing I've experienced in all the time I've fished at Rolf's .
Pete Archer was off to a flyer , fishing shallow at 16mtrs he'd taken 3 weigher's in his first 3 put ins. Chris next to me was fishing long on the deck and soon had a swim that was bubbling away, but he started to suffer with foul hooked fish. Me? 3 more bites resulted in 3 more foul hookers and no fish in the net .
Terry was starting to find a few fish and seemed to be alternating between Carp and 2" Perch ...........

While Webbo appeared to be doing a serene impression of Bhudda  ..................

I finally managed a weigher to get me off and running, but I was already trying to play catch up. Dave"Yorkie"Moore was tucked away on peg 5 and starting to find a few close in at the bottom of the shelf ...................

opposite him though things appeared to be slow with Vince and Paul(nomorelongwalks)East struggling to get any action from their pegs .............

Halfway through and I was struggling with just 1 more weigher and another in the net while Chris was starting to put a run of fish together, Clive was getting into his stride on peg 8 as well and had probably edged ahead of Pete Archer .........

Looking around I could see that a lot were struggling like yesterday, Dave the Fish was sticking at it over on 14 with little to show for all of his efforts ........

but Webbo finally had a fish on only to have his landing net head fall off. Alex lent him his landing net, but then hooked a fish of his own while Webbo was still playing his, and Terry could't lend his to Alex as he was also into a fish of his own. Great entertainment for all of us watching and finally resolved with all fish landed safely .
Steve B over on peg34 in the corner was plugging away and finally getting a few .........

Keith Arthur had taken a Carp that would prove to be a contender for Largest of the Day at 17lbs 07ozs, while Dave(rockyroads)West had a happy smile on his face having bagged a PB carp of 17lbs 04ozs ....................

In the last couple of hours Chris(looney)Kendall was absolutely flying and well on the way to a Ton+ bag ...........

Chris(Cybermanc) and Tom(tommodiesel) had been having a rare old tussle during the match on pegs 29 & 30, and Chris was more than a little chuffed to get a new PB in the shape of this glorious 14lbs 4oz Common Carp  .........

My day was summed up with a half hour to go as what would have been my 7th Carp disappeared under my platform and smashed me . 4·30pm and the All-out signaled the end of my torture and at least I didn't have far to carry my gear to the car.

Once again the weigh-in told the tale of the day. Steve B missing out on a Ton by just 8ozs from peg 34. Dave Moore's 101½lbs giving him 4th on the day while Pete Archer's 116½lbs took 3rd place. Clive had come good, using his experience of Rolf's to muster 166¼ lbs for the match win  while Terry had managed a very creditable 90¾lbs. Chris had managed 148lbs for 2nd overall on the day, but for many the shock of the day had to be Malc's DNW .

So prize giving time and the Winners and MD's Pairs Champs for 2008 proved to be Ant(antwood)Haywood and Tom(tommodiesel)Little, finishing 10 points clear of the field with 49 points after a very consistent weekends fishing  .............

Thanks must go to John & Pauline Bennett for allowing us the use of their fishery for the weekend, a pleasure to visit as always .

To Webbo for making sure it all happened , Keith Arthur, Pete Archer and Vespe .

 Finally to all of the anglers that attended and helped to make it the event it is .
Let's do it all again next year .

  Dave"Yorkie"Moore's Birthday Bash.

Well 24 of us assembled at Rolf's Lake at Dave Moore's invitation to help him celebrate his 40th Birthday .
An early start so that I could drop Maria off at work meant that my favorite Café in Battersea hadn't opened by the time I got there , but rather than wait for it to open I pressed on reasoning that if I arrived early it would give me a chance to get my bivvy set up in preparation for the weekend, ahead of the draw for the morning match . A couple of burgers and a coffee on route sufficed and saw me arrive at Rolf's by 7·30 am. A good few of the lads from the North had traveled down the previous afternoon and were already buzzing with anticipation, as quite a few of them had never visited before.
So 1st things 1st, nets dipped and laid out to dry, then bivvy pitched and with Dai providing a welcoming cup of coffee I had time for a brief chat with John Bennett before the draw. John had been a busy chap since my last visit and it was good to see that he'd managed to finish the refurbishment of the hut..........

Pride of place however went to the Rolf's Memorial Bench paid for and provided by the members of the total-fishing.com forums, that John's sited looking out over the Little Lake, one of Rolf's favorite views. A great gesture from a really decent bunch of lads .

So with an 8am draw planned for the days 2 matches, the car park soon filled up, though as Dave had asked Malc to organise the draw it was bound to be late of course, even though he'd arrived the day before . Anyway by the time Malc had finished embarrassing  Simon and Gemma , the draw got underway, with everyone going round twice to draw for both matches. I ended up with peg 40 for the morning and 19 for the afternoon. Opposite ends of the lake !!!!!!!!! and definitely a barrow job.
For company on peg 2 I had Mr Maggotdrowning himself, Dave(Webbo)Webster.
It's quite rare for matches to start so early at Rolf's and the general feeling was that the morning could prove difficult, with hopefully better weights coming on the afternoon match. Arriving at the peg I found a Party Bag, thoughtfully provided at Dave's wife's insistence which straight away set the tone for the day ahead .

With the sun shining and a gentle breeze blowing into the peg I was quite hopeful of a few fish to kick the long weekend off and opted to keep things simple, just 2 pole rigs, the 1st to fish at depth at 6mtrs and a margin rig to fish the bush to my left, that would double up as an up in the water rig. I also set up the pellet waggler and my feeder rod as I had them both with me in their ready sleeves. A quick stroll before the off revealed Gemma on peg 7 with just a feeder rod set up, could another Minxing be in the offing ?..........

Clive was tucked round the corner on peg 9, a peg that in the past has been his Nemesis as he'd blanked on it the 3 times he'd previously draw there .

Looking across to the hut I could see the Birthday Boy  himself chilling out with his thoughts prior to the off................

So All-in and a big handful of pellets by the bush to my left (it wasn't hiding from me, unlike the last time Clive fished the peg ) and 2 similar ones at 6mtrs and straight over it, but no instant action. However Gemma was soon shouting signifying her 1st fish of the day (could this mean that another Minxing was on the cards ) and Paul Roberts was off to a quick start as well on peg 4.................

Dave was fishing long and shallow on peg 2 but having no joy, and I had just had a single steamer that resulted in a scale coming back on the hook .
Dave the Fish having had a quiet start, had come down to compare notes with Colin after about an hour and a half...........

and the word was that Clive was actually going well on peg 9 while most were struggling . Tony(Teepee) had drawn peg34 which is normally good for a few fish, but like most he was finding it hard going this morning.....

With nothing much happening for me on the Little Lake I decided to fill it in on the 6mtr line and have a stroll round while it settled.
Clive was indeed having a decent time on peg 9 and although he was having a lot of foul-hookers he was managing to get most of them out...............

Dave Lloyd had managed a couple from peg 19, my peg for the afternoon, so I made a mental note of where he was feeding and filed it away for later use . Next door on peg 20 I found Eric(ejayar) having his 1st visit to Rolf's for a while as he hasn't fished The Jinx Series this year, and it wasn't going well for him (maybe it had something to do with his taste in football shirts ).................

Meanwhile Dai on peg 22 was having a grueller too and was beginning to wonder whether he was going to get as much as a bite, let alone a fish as it was proving to be a real struggle ............

While Steve Wilson had managed a decent Carp that weighed in at 16lbs 4ozs putting him in pole for the mornings largest Carp ..........

Malc was winkling a couple out on peg 28, but Simon was obviously worried that he was on for a Minxing and had decided to distract Gemma .........

Returning to my swim I could see that Dave was still sticking at it on peg 2, still without any reward though ...............

 

Settling down I shipped back out to 6mtrs where there was now a healthy patch of bubbles, and I was soon rewarded with a weigher to get me off the mark at last , which was swiftly followed by a net fish. Cyber and Tommo arrived at this point and must have thought that it was o so easy, and although it wasn't, I managed a fish about every 20 minutes till the end .
So with the All-out called I got busy and quickly shifted my kit the length of the fishery up to peg 19 prior to the weigh in. Come the weigh-in and my 7 fish scaled 60lbs and proved to be enough for a section win . Gemma despite having got off to a flyer had only managed 46lbs for 2nd in section, losing her £1 to me as I avoided a Minxing .
Clive had managed the only Ton of the match with his 139¼lbs giving him the match win and firmly burying his peg 9 hoodoo . On the next peg Mick King had taken 62lbs for 3rd overall, while up on peg 16, 3 late Carp had allowed Simon to take 2nd place with 75½lbs. Dave Lloyd on peg 19 had managed a section winning 35lbs, while Dai had managed to snare a solitary Skimmer and took the prize for largest Silver and on peg 28 Malc had managed to win the final section with 55½lbs .

So time for a quick drink and a sandwich and it was onto the 2nd match of the day. Starting at 4pm, it had started to cloud over and I had Clive for company on peg 20, a peg he'd been eager to fish as it's one of the few he'd never fished before . I was pretty relaxed having decided to concentrate on the bar at around 7mtrs that Dave Lloyd had fed in the morning match.

So All-in and out to the bar with some pellets followed by the rig and within 5 minutes I had my first Carp of the session in the net . Clive was fishing at a similar distance and had plenty of fish fizzing in his swim but was having trouble getting bites while I was nicking a fish around every 15 minutes, Then when he did get one it wasn't staying on the hook .
All through the afternoon more of the lads that were fishing the MD's weekend turned up and as they strolled round watching word came back that Simon was really bagging up on peg 2 and Paul was going well from Clive's morning peg . Malc of course had one of his moments leaping in at one point to retrieve his landing net head complete with Carp that came off as he tried to land it !!!!!!!!!
Clive and I both had loads of trouble with foul hookers during the match , with both of us playing the same fish on more than one occasion as they ploughed through our swims, needless to say Clive pulled out of all of them . I had one snag me by the boat that's moored in the swim, and with a few of the lads watching I climbed into it to try and retrieve the rig. Of course the mooring rope came free much to the watching lads amusement and while I managed to get the rig back the assembled company had a right good laugh at my expense .
That was the highlight I suppose, and I just fished steadily after that taking a dozen fish by the time the All-out was called at 8pm. The Lake had certainly fished better than the morning, with Simon taking the win with an excellent 204½lbs (his best ever match weight), which is some going in 4 hours . Paul Roberts with 159¼lbs and Steve Wilson with 151½lbs taking 2nd and 3rd . Dave(Webbo) managed his 1st ever Ton in a match with 132½lbs , as did young Mitch...........

............ who had fished the afternoon match in place of Dai putting 122½lbs on the scales from peg34 to win his section , while Malc and Tony(teepee) took the other sections with bags of 146¼lbs & 137½lbs respectively . My weight of 117lbs was the final Ton of the match. Mick King just missing out on a Ton by 4ozs but was probably most relieved that his £3000 worth of Airity pole had survived the day in one piece (mind you he fished the feeder down the edge for most of the 2nd match, playing safe) .

So with the fishing out of the way for the day the pools were distributed amongst the winners as some of Big Dave's lads were returning North that night. Then the barbecue got fired up and the beers cracked open as everyone relaxed and discussed the days events and looked forward to the weekend ahead .
Of course someone had to provide the amusement as the day drew to a close, and on this occasion it was Malc who decided to remove all the tent pegs from the tent that Simon and Gemma had retired to for the evening. It's amazing how quickly an erection can collapse, at least I think that's what Malc said before we headed to our bivvies in anticipation of the matches that lay ahead, but that's for another report .

		Morning Match
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	9	Clive Pritchard	139lbs 04ozs
2nd	16	Simon Mound	75lbs 08ozs
3rd	10	Mick King	62lbs 00ozs
4th	40	Peter Morton	60lbs 00ozs
5th	28	Malc Doyle	55lbs 08ozs
6th	7	Gemma Doyle	46lbs 00ozs
7th	26	Steve Wilson	35lbs 04ozs
8th	19	Dave Lloyd	35lbs 00ozs
9th	30	Terry Oaks	29lbs 08ozs
10th	4	Paul Roberts	24lbs 12ozs
11th	5	Keith Fisher	18lbs 12ozs
12th	34	Tony Prentice	18lbs 00ozs
13th	20	Eric Robothan	16lbs 00ozs
14th	38	Ken Leedham	13lbs 12ozs
15th	2	Dave Webster	13lbs 08ozs
16th=	14	Phil Shackleton	13lbs 00ozs
16th=	24	Dave Collier	13lbs 00ozs
18th	36	Colin Sharrard	12lbs 04ozs
19th	11	Geoff Eggison	9lbs 08ozs
20th	8	Jim Leedham	8lbs 00ozs
21st	23	Robin Clarkson	5lbs 00ozs
22nd	32	Dave Moore	4lbs 04ozs
23rd	22	Dai Thomas	1lb  04ozs
24th	18	Nick Williams	1lb 3½ozs
25th	13	Tim Westmoreland	DNW

		Evening Match
Position	Peg	Angler	Weight
1st	2	Simon Mound	204lbs 08ozs
2nd	9	Paul Roberts	159lbs 04ozs
3rd	4	Steve Wilson	151lbs 08ozs
4th	16	Malc Doyle	146lbs 04ozs
5th	26	Tony Prentice	137lbs 08ozs
6th	11	Dave Webster	132lbs 08ozs
7th	34	Mitch Auger	122lbs 08ozs
8th	18	Colin Sharrard	121lbs 12ozs
9th	19	Peter Morton	117lbs 00ozs
10th	28	Mick King	99lbs 12ozs
11th	7	Terry Oaks	84lbs 08ozs
12th	36	Phil Shackleton	79lbs 12ozs
13th	24	Eric Robothan	72lbs 12ozs
14th	22	Dave Lloyd	70lbs 08ozs
15th	40	Dave Moore	70lbs 00ozs
16th	5	Geoff Eggison	68lbs 12ozs
17th	13	Nick Williams	67lbs 00ozs
18th	32	Dave Collier	64lbs 08ozs
19th	14	Keith Fisher	54lbs 08ozs
20th	20	Clive Pritchard	53lbs 00ozs
21st	30	Ken Leedham	38lbs 08ozs
22nd	10	Gemma Doyle	34lbs 00ozs
23rd	38	Jim Leedham	24lbs 00ozs
24th	23	Robin Clarkson	21lbs 04ozs
25th	8	Tim Westmoreland	15lbs 04ozs

 

Maggotdrowning.com

Individual Championship 2008.

supported by

Well an early start saw me have a trouble free 120 mile run up the M40 and beyond to Packington Somers Fishery arriving around 8am in plenty of time to dip my nets and grab a cuppa and a sausage sarnie, Soon the car park started to fill but a phonecall from Keith to let me know that his car had expired on the M6 put a bit of a downer on things.(Hope it's fixed soon mate )
Linda, Bucko's wife was soon into full raffle ticket selling mode parting us from our pennies, and i have to admit to a bit of a shock when I looked round to see Mark Downes (The England Manager) and Ken Giles unloading their kit !!!!!!!!!! but they were there for another match.

9am and Vince got the draw underway for the 41 of us in attendance with his usual efficiency. Into the draw bag and 48 stuck to my fingers. Into the car and round I drove to find my peg. On arrival I found that I had Nick (Monkey) and Bucko for company on the day.

I have to say that the peg looked 1st rate A solid concrete slab to fish from with a raft of lilies in the margin to my left, a large bush overhanging the right and a comfortable chuck of around 25yds to the island. The only thing was that I didn't see a single sign of fish moving.
I just set up a couple of rigs for the pole, one for the 6ft of water that I had at 11mtrs and another for the margins that would double up as a shallow rig. I also got the feeder out of its ready bag, but did change the hooklength from the one that had been previously employed at Rolf's.
Bait would be a selection of dendra's, casters, corn and pellet with the groundbait being Special'G' with a selection of hook baits added.

With a bit of time to spare I had a stroll over to the pegs behind me to have a chat with Colin and Lee Richards (missabite) from where I could also see Vince setting up on his peg which he had got me to draw for him, and I have to say that it looked like i'd done him proud.

Just before the all in Vince popped over for a quick chat and blew the whistle for the off before returning to his peg.

I flicked a pinch of caster and pellet into my 2 margin lines and cupped 3 balls of groundbait onto the 11mtr line before picking up my margin rig and dropping it in next to the lilies with 2 casters on the hook. Almost instantly the float slid away and a small Tench of around 8ozs was soon into the net. Next put in resulted in a hand sized Skimmer. 2 fish in 2 put ins, unfortunately it all went pear shaped after that. The margin line appeared to contain nothing more than 1" long Perch that seemed to be having their own competition to see who could swallow a bait the deepest.

Moving out to the 11mtr line to get away from the suicidal little buggers succeeded, but unfortunately the line seemed utterly devoid of any fish whatsoever. I tried under the bush to my right but apart from a couple of 2oz Roach that was it, while another look to the lilies showed the Perch were still in residence.

Looking across it didn't appear that anyone else was setting the place alight, so the feeder was put into action baited with half a Dendra. After about 30 minutes of inactivity Paul (nomorelongwalks) phoned for an update just as I had a 2" pull and connected with a Skimmer of around 1lb, but my report to him was hardly upbeat . I was having to wait far to long between bites to do any damage. Vince phoned but hung up abruptly, phoning me back to let me know that he'd just lost a decent Carp at the net, but had followed up by netting a decent Tench and Bream .
I sat it out adding the occasional small Skimmer and losing the one decent Tench, a fish of around 4lbs that I hooked when it spat the hook about a foot from the net .

Thankfully 4pm signaled the All-out to put an end to my torture, and at this point I have to say thanks to John Burchell's team on the scales, because I can't remember seeing a weigh-in conducted with such speed and efficiency for a long time, not that my 5lb 9ozs of bits taxed the scalesmen too severely .

So Back to the clubhouse where £1 coins were handed over to Besty, Dave and Dirk though somehow I'd not had a £1 with Vince today , and a buffet was laid on prior to the prize giving and the raffle.

So to the winners the spoils (apologies for the picture quality, must have set the camera wrong )

1st place..... Lee Richards taking the Trophy and a new Matchbox S series seatbox system supplied by Jim Burton of Matchbox.


2nd place..... Matt Nutt and a Matchbox seatbox.


3rd place..... Mike Globe and a Matchbox seatbox.

The Section winners all received Shimano reels supplied by John at The Matchmen, Nottingham.

The raffle was very well supported raising £224 which will be split between the Kent Air Ambulance and Great Ormond Street Hospital, and almost everyone appeared to take home a prize of some sort. .

In closing I'd just like to say Very Well Done to Vince and his team of helpers for his usual Superb Organisation.
A Big Thank You to Besty for all his efforts in sourcing the prizes that were generously donated by Jim Burton and all at Matchbox Tackle and by John at The MatchMen in Nottingham.
Thanks to Jon Burrell and his Team for the use of their fishery .

Maggotdrowning.com

 European Tour 2008.

Monday 5th.

Well, we all assembled at Luton Airport around 11am for our Ryanair flight to Reus Airport.
As fine a body of men as has ever been assembled for a Maggotdrowning quest to catch some fish. Along with myself were Dave, Stu, Trogg, Beebs, Norm & Jason (NoFinPhish).
At the check-in all went smoothly till Stu stuck his case on the scales!!!! some hasty repacking soon took care of that little hiccup though and we had time for a couple of pints prior to departure, though Dave did require counseling for shock after being told the price.

Onto the plane and the usual scramble for seats that's common with these flights, for the short 1 hour 45 minute flight and in seemingly no time at all we were landing at Reus Airport. The baggage handlers certainly weren't British, because as soon as we reached Arrivals the bags were already on the carousel!!!!! While Dave & Stu went to sort out the hire car the rest of us strolled outside to find Pat who would be taking us down to Caspe in his Espace which is around a 2 hour drive away in the Arragon region.

A pretty uneventful trip ensued, with Pat filling us in about the area while Norm monitored the temperature on the Espace's digital thermometer . We finally arrived in Caspe just after 5pm and met up at the apartment with Gary(catman)Sheridan the owner of www.carpdreamfishing.com who was to be our guide for the trip. No way Caspe could be described as a tourist town, it's very much a typical provincial one. He showed us up to the 3rd floor apartment that was to be our base for the next few days and arranged to pick us all up at 8am the next morning.

View from our apartment balcony.

Beds sorted and gear unpacked a quick trip to the local supermarket soon took care of essential supplies (Beer and Wine ). After a few beers we set off in search of the local Chinese and finally found it, and very good it was too. A few more beers before finally returning to the apartment for a few more drinks , saw most of us drifting off to bed at various stages in preparation for the day ahead.

Tuesday 6th.

Most of us surfaced in good time for the day ahead, though Beebs & Jason did seem a little subdued, and Norm seemed to think that I may have snored occasionally during the night. Gary arrived right on time and we set off for his house to collect one of the boats, bait and tackle before traveling down to the Club Nautica to launch the boats from the slipway.

With the kit divided between 2 boats, Dave volunteered his services to skipper one of them, and the more sensible of us (Me. Stu & Trogg) elected to go with Gary.

Soon we were off turning right out of the Club Nautica and on to the main body of The River Ebro. The sheer scale of the river is quite breathtaking and it's soon obvious that without a guide, it would be almost impossible to know where to start. On the way Gary explained to us how he made use of his Hummingbird fish finder and gave us a bit of a run down on his approach to things.

Gary at the helm.

The Catfish tackle was essentially 10ft up-tide boat rods with either Multiplier or Big Pit Fixed Spool reels loaded with heavy braid and shock leaders carrying a single LARGE hook that appeared to be a circle patten with the bait (20mm drilled halibut pellets) fished on a hair. The weights were rocks from the surrounding area fixed onto a sliding swivel by elastic bands that would pull free on the strike, meaning that all the baits had to be boated out and not cast. The feed for the session was a 20kilo bag of pellets per angler that would be fed by hand from the boat once the baits had been placed into position.

So with each of us fishing two rods 14 baits were boated out and fed with pellet, and we settled down besides our rods full of anticipation. Well most of us did, Beebs however was still feeling a shade secondhand especially as he'd slipped on the rocks and cracked his left knee that was still recovering from cruciate surgery and Jason joined him but only succeeded in washing his phone .........

Well the sun beat down, but even with 14 rods and over 100 kilo's of pellet having been fed, not a single bite was forthcoming . Catfish could be seen topping along with Carp, but none appeared to be interested in the baits.

.......... Dave took a more proactive approach and cobbled together a pole of sorts with some line and hooks he'd brought with him ......

However it was no more successful than the other 14 rods.

The view however was spectacular.......

Indeed Gary contacted several of his fellow guides on the way back, but it was soon obvious that nothing was coming out anywhere as both the Cats and Carp appeared to have been on the spawn.

Back at the apartment via the supermarket to top up supplies then a quick SS&S followed by a steak at the local restaurant and a few beers at the local bar, most of us got our heads down earlyish for a fresh start the next day. Norm made me take some of his snore stopping spray before turning in. (It didn't work )

Wednesday 7th.

Another 8am start and as we climbed into the boats Gary told us that we would be heading to a different part of the Ebro up river near to Chacon to a swim where the old river bed comes close to the shore offering the opportunity to present baits in 60 ft of water!!!!! and just to offer a little hope we passed a boat that appeared to be playing a fish, would this prove to be a lucky omen?

On arrival we set up on what appeared to be a shingle beach and with us having more of an idea of what to do Gary was soon boating out the baits and positioning them with the aid of his fish finder.

Soon we were all settled in and keenly anticipating the 1st bite of our trip ..........

Dave even went out with Gary in the boat to check with the fish finder whether or not there were any fish present, There were and Dave even videoed it just to prove it to the rest of us ........

All 81lbs of her, she was then tethered to recover prior to taking some more photos. With a hearty round of congratulations out of the way Jason was soon down to his shorts and into the water despite it not being the warmest and him not being able to swim so we could take some more trophy shots .........

Well after the excitement of the 1st Cat being banked, another rod soon hooped over, and it was Jason's again .......

With the session drawing to a close Trogg's rod was the next to go, alas this wasn't a cat, but a superbly fit River Common that went 16lbs and was very welcome none the less.

Now with time running out and with fish obviously present we were presented with a dilemma, Would we be able to get the swim tomorrow?
This was solved with Trogg volunteering to stay the night at the swim with Gary for company bringing back a bivvy, bed-chair and sleeping bags after ferrying the rest of us back to the Club Nautica and arranging for Pat to bring us back by road the next morning. Well Done Fella.

The trip back was damp to say the least with The Mistral blowing and whipping up the waves meaning that we all got a good soaking on the way back. By the time we got back to the apartment we got a text from Trogg telling us that he'd had a 37lb Common Carp, a new PB.
A meal and a few beers were the order of the day by way of celebration before we turned in full of anticipation for our final days fishing that lay ahead.

Thursday 8th

8am and Pat was waiting for us and after a stop off at Gary's house to collect even more pellets we were off to Chacon by road and after a little bit of confusion soon found the swim. Nothing more had come out over night just a couple of missed runs.The weather was quite overcast however and there was even the possibility of some rain later in the day forcast. Soon we were all set, although Beebs did swop rods with Stu so that he could be nearer to them as his knee was still giving him trouble.

The first bite of the day came to Webbo but with him nearly missing the rod and Stu's phone sounding the Benny Hill ringtone at the same time he still managed to connect only for the fish which appeared to be a Cat from the way it fought, to shed the hook having crossed several of the other lines which led to the tangle brothers performing a rather intricate dance as they sorted it all out........

They're as fit as hell these Ebro Carp, but soon Stu had a 23lb Common to show for his efforts ......

A degree of tension ensued when Stu realised that it was hooked on a Carp rig he'd set up that had a barbless hook however with the fish safely landed the hook was found firmly in the scissors. Weighing in at 82lbs it didn't take Stu to long to get in for the obligatory photo's even if the water was a little cooler than he would have liked.

As we were finishing up the photos Trogg's rod was nearly dragged from it's rest by a bite of savage proportions, the power of which dragged him down the bank towards the water however he soon appeared to have things under control, so much so that someone decided to drag his shorts round his knees while Gary whispered words of encouragement in his ear

Unfortunately however it was not meant to be as with the fish close to shore it shed the hook.

Sitting down and reflecting with Trogg that I may as well frame my rods and display them in the Tate Gallery as a still life, of course i then had a bite!!!!!!!!!! and made a complete hash of it, ending up going almost base over apex and ending on my backside as the fish slipped the hook..........

Talk about a nightmare, 2½ days and I miss my only bite.

Soon however Jason was in again, and this time the result was a Common Carp of 32lbs...........

........ which just left me, Beebs and Norm blanking, and time running out . Of course just to rub it in Dave's rod was soon away again, and this time it was obvious that it wasn't a Carp........

And fortunately because Stu's cat had been retained on a tether we persuaded Stu to get in once more for some brace photo's although Stu's cat didn't seem to keen on the idea as it had rested up and was now fresh as a daisy.

Well with time running out on the session, Gary decided it would be good to get us all together for a group photo, though with 3 of us still blanking, quite how Norm, Beebs and I managed to look so happy will probably always remain a mystery.

Sitting by my rods, it went through my mind just how much inevitable stick I would get from the forum members on my return, but then out of the corner of my eye my left hand rod dipped and I struck and felt a fish!!!!!! Salvation, now I'm not used to multiplier reels and to say that I played that fish nervously is an understatement of huge proportions.

However Gary soon had it safely banked and there it lay, a glorious River Ebro Common Carp that weighed 28lbs, a new PB. Mugger had got a fish at the death, and I think the photo's show just how happy and relieved i was ............

That was the end of the action for the day, unfortunately, leaving Beebs and Norm fishless, not for the want of trying though.
We said our Farewells and Thanks to Gary on the bankside as he had another group of anglers arriving the next morning and Pat was picking us up for the return to the apartment.

Out for another Chinese by way of winding up, we then hit the bar till we got kicked out as the owner wanted to go home, most of us slept like tops when we finally hit the sack.

Friday 9th.

Surfacing at various times during the morning we packed up and straightened up the apartment before popping out to get a few gifts for those back home, it was dull and overcast once more and had obviously rained at sometime during the night. Pat arrived to pick us up and half way back to Reus Airport the heavens opened!!!!!!! The rain in Spain apparently falling mainly on us by the time we arrived at the airport.

A brief delay saw us flying out about half an hour late, but an uneventful flight saw us almost back on time by the time we landed and collected our bags, bid our farewells and set off to our respective homes. Not quite the results we had hoped for, but a brilliant trip all round, and one that I definitely fancy having a go at again in the future.

Conclusions.

A great experience, we only had 3 days fishing and really you need a full week to get to grips with it as it's so different from the way most of us fish in England.
A guide is essential, the water is vast and would be almost impossible to get to grips with without local knowledge.
Be prepared for the cost of bait that you use, Pellets cost us 59 euros per 20 kg sack and you need at least 1 sack for every day that you fish so it can soon mount up.
It would appear that early May could be a time to avoid in case you catch the fish spawning.
Don't expect the locals to speak any English, this is rural Spain and not the Costa's.

If you fancy a crack at this yourself, click on the logo below and contact Gary Sheridan for details of his guided trips. Mention that you were reccomended by the lads from Maggotdrowning.com and you may even find that you get a bit of a discount. 

Just a quick visit.

Well today promised to be a bit of fun as I was taking Dave, the owner of Maggotdrowning.com down to Monk Lakes for a few hours. Nothing strange in that you might say except for the fact that Dave lives in Leeds!!!!!

He'd actually brought his Wife and eldest daughter down to London as they had tickets to the Prince concert at the O2 arena, so we thought we would make the most of  the opportunity to sneak a few hours fishing while he was down. Word had got out however and it seemed like there may be a few more members of Maggotdrowning making the trip down to Monk Lakes to meet up with him.

So Dave finally rocked up at my place at around 12·30 and by the time we arrived at Monks it was close to 2pm. We went up to match lake 4 to find Vince, Dave Collier and Bill Gibbins already ensconced. Welcomes over Dave and I settled in, with Dave opting for the pole while I had travelled relatively light with just my new Shakespeare Pellet Waggler rod, a chair and a box of bits chucked into my carryall.

The others had been there since around noon and had built their swims up so that they were all catching well, mostly small stockie Carp and Tench, though a few of the better Tench had shown up including a near 5lb'er for Vince who had managed a decent bag from the lake a few days previously.

While Bill contented himself with taking the stockies at the rate of 1 a chuck.........

I however was soon caught out as having made a schoolboy error .  Playing my 1st fish of the session, a small Carp, things didn't feel quite right and a quick look soon revealed that I had missed out one of the eyes on the rod when I threaded the line through them while setting up , not that the lads got any pleasure from taking the mickey out of my mistake.

Dave Collier was getting a few, but soon went into "Butler" mode popping down to the snack wagon and returning with the burgers and the teas  so a halt was called as those were consumed. Behind us on match lake 1 a match had recently finished and I could see a few fish moving in the margins where the departing anglers had disposed of their unused bait. As I was finding sport slow in my own swim I took the decision to move over onto the closest swim to see what I could manage from the margins.

Dave meanwhile was sticking at it, even though he took a bit of convincing that his normal "Yorkie" frugal feeding regime needed stepping up now that he was down south where the fish are hungry and need a decent feed, not pidgeons portions .

I'm sure he could be heard sobbing quietly to himself as he stepped up the feed from 1 pellet every 10 minutes to a hand full every couple of minutes, but it soon started to reap rewards as he found some better fish including a nice Tench...............

Meanwhile I had settled in and with the margins appearing to resemble fish soup I just needed to keep the pellet going in and  using either a GOT Baits  6mm expander or corn on the hook resulted on a fish  virtually every put in, a mixture of Carp, Tench and Barbel with even the occaisional Skimmer thrown in for good measure.

Chatting to Bill earlier he had mentioned that he had only ever caught 1 Barbel and that had only weighed a couple of ounces, and with the Barbel in Monks now going around the 2lb mark I invited him over to see if he could get one as I had had a dozen already. Well Bill sat there for a good ½hr with me feeding the swim for him, but try as he may all he could manage was a succession of Carp and Tench with me performing the Ghillies duties. It did at least give him a chance to try my rod out with which he was suitably impressed, but of course you don't need me to tell you that as soon as he passed the rod back to me the 2nd fish I caught was.............. A Barbel.

Just to rub Bill's nose in it Vince wandered over and dropped into a peg next to me and promptly had a Barbel as well.

With home time fast approaching Dave came over to try his hand with my gear.........

............ and was soon into a fish, not the hoped for Barbel but the first of a few Carp that came in a hectic few minutes, topped off with a nice chunky little Mirror Carp...................

So that was it, session over, short and sweet but a real fun session in good company and more than a few fish thrown into the mix as well, It would be greedy to ask for anything more really.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2007.

So there i was 6·30am on Saturday with the car all loaded up and ready to get off to Rolf's Lake for the 2nd Annual Maggotdrowning Pairs Tournament.
A quick stop off on route in Battersea for a spot of breakfast followed by a trouble free run down the M40 saw me pulling into the services just after 8am, closely followed by Paul East (NoMoreLongWalks) along with Dai and his good lady Anne and Vince (vg1037).
A short phone call soon revealed that Ady (BigLadWigan) was doing a passable impression of lost & confused driving around Holton trying to remember where the lake was, so he elected to return to the services and follow us down there.

Soon it was a case of back into the cars and down to Rolf's, arriving just after 9am you can imagine my shock to find Malc and his daughter Gemma already there, indeed the car park was almost full as various Maggotdrowners arrived from all corners of the country.
Geoff P had taken the long distance award, having been chauffeured down from Scotland by his son for the weekend. While looking around you could see a mini Maggotville emerging as a number of bivvies went up.

Talk as usual was about just how many "tons" would come out over the weekend but as I took a walk round the lake, nagging away in the back of my head was a little voice telling me that things might prove to be a lot harder than many people thought owing to all the water that had been in and out of the venue during the preceding weeks.

It was good to see that pegs 16-18 had been reinstated opening up the choice of pegs available, indeed standing in the car park it was hard to believe that the lake had been bursting it's banks the previous weekend and it was a tribute to the efforts of John and his helpers even going to the trouble of running a pump round the clock in order to make sure that the venue was eminently fishable, leading many to wonder why another website's match due for the Friday had been canceled by them the previous Monday.

Finally Dave Webster (RedLeader) arrived, having collected Tony Prentice (teepee) on the way he'd obviously had a "Blonde" moment setting the Sat Nav so that the route from Yorkshire to Wheatly was via the M25??????

So finally we're all assembled and the draw takes place for pairs, which finds me paired for the weekend with Tony Roberts (spamwham) a fellow Marsh AC member, and then the draw for pegs. Dave and I were the last to draw and I found myself holding Peg 34, considered by many to be a flyer, so no pressure. However on arriving I found that the rope that marks the far edge of the swim had been moved away from it's usual position???? Tony. my partner had drawn peg 38 so at least we could keep an eye on each other.

Settling into the peg I set the box up on the submerged platform and elected to concentrate on the margins which were about 18" deeper than usual, but also taking advantage of the new ruling that allows the use of rod and reel, set up a feeder rig to cover my options.

Next door on peg 35 I had Dave "Yorkie" Moore for company, a fellow competitor in The Jinx Series of matches, so if nothing else a good bit of banter was assured.

12noon and the all in sounds, and it would be nice to say that we all got off to flyers, but it was Gazmalman who had flown off his platform before the match had even started, Malman Floats? well it would appear he does, even if he is well dotted down due to consuming a few to many pies ..................

.............the crazy bit is that he did it again during the match, this time losing a weigher in the process that probably cost him the section.

For a lot of the anglers it proved to be a hard old day, most had fish in their swims at some point in the day but getting them to show an interest in a bait was another matter. Try as they might it proved to be a struggle, some like Dave grafted away for 5 hours and were only rewarded with a single fish proving once again that there is more to it than just turning up at Rolf's to guarantee a ton-up bag.

I was lashing in the pellet on the margin line while fishing the feeder out by the rope but for no reward, while teepee opposite on peg 6 had landed 1 and lost a couple. However we all had to watch as Ian Ward (Chin) on peg 7 and Gemma on peg 8 caught steadily from the off and with the lake not fishing to it's potential strolled away from the rest of us. Ian winning the day with 108lbs 8ozs, while Gemma was unfortunate enough to lose a good fish in the final minutes that could have pushed Ian all the way, but still finishing in overall 2nd place with 98lbs, a really top performance on the day allowing her to take more than a few £1 coins off of the assembled company.

I had been fortunate enough to nick a  few decent fish at the end with a final 12½lb'er with 5 mins to go, my 73¼lbs pushing up to 9th on the day while Tony had found out about the power of Rolf's fish, putting 45lbs on the scales for 13th overall but losing many more. A lesson learned hopefully.

As most know Rolf's health has not been the best so it was especially good to see him put in an appearance during the afternoon and have a gentle stroll round having a chat with those present.

The weigh-in proved just how hard it had been for most with only the 1 "ton" and more weights under 50lbs than above it, Rolf's had indeed shown us it's hard side, though hopefully with plenty of feed having gone in, things would improve on Sunday.

Soon the Barbecue was lit and the beers cracked open with Rolf stopping on for a bite to eat before returning home.
Around 9pm the rain stared to fall, but with Dave's gazebo and countless brollies available the banter continued for some long into the night.

Sunday dawned dry and sunny and with breakfast cooked once more on the barbecue for most it was just a question of waiting for Pete Archer (Vespe) and Keith Arthur (Fishermans Blues) fresh from his morning radio show to join us for the draw. Both duly arrived and the draw was underway.

I found myself on peg 9 this time while Tony had draw sock on with peg 8, while I had Chin to my left on 10.
with the all in at 12noon, Ady on peg 31 was looking like Raison, Nudd & Wilson rolled into one as his paste attack brought immediate rewards, alas it was not to last, but he looked good while it lasted, unfortunately all to briefly.

I started off with an absolute nightmare , there were fish in front of me but regardless of what I put on the hook or the depth I fished at, all I got were foulhookers that proved to be unlandable. By the time that Ian walked past with his 5th weigher and yet another fish trashed another rig, my pole was thrown up the bank, to stop myself from smashing it in a fit of temper.
Once again I reverted to meat fished in conjunction with a feeder full of fishery pellet, which finally allowed me to put a few fish together.
Ian meanwhile was putting another decent net together but was losing a few under the submerged platform costing him several damaged top kits

Tony however was going along steadily and managed to beat his PB Chub 3 times during the course of the match, culminating in a glorious 5¾lb'er.

Tony (Teepee) had drawn peg 6 for the second day running and although he managed to improve on his day 1 weight, it wasn't by enough to have any effect overall.

Throughout the match even though I couldn't see him I could hear Malc (The Jinx) mostly as he traded banter and insults with young Ian .........

......... however he played a bit of a blinder edging to a win on the day with a level 143lbs, pushing Tony down to 2nd place with a creditable 136lbs. I managed 91lbs for 7th on the day and both days results gave us a total of 52points which proved to be enough for us to take the title of MD's Rolf's Pairs Champions for 2007 and receive our trophies from Fisherman's Blues himself.

Finally I would like to add my thanks to Dave for organising the whole weekend. To John & Pauline Bennett & John Walker whose efforts to get the fishery ready for us were very much appreciated. To Keith Arthur for joining us on Sunday along with Pete Archer & his sponsor Vespe for providing some goodies for the winners. To Rolf, It was good to see you at your fishery once more and Finally to all The Maggotdrowners in attendance, it's you that make the weekend the success it is. Let's do it all again next year.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Rolf's Pairs Tournament 2006.

Well where can I start?

I suppose that the beginning is a good a point as any.
Anticipation had been building up for this weekend for a couple of months, Ian(Chin)Ward counting everyone down to the big day.

9·15 in the services at junction 8a and Adrian(BigladWigan)Wood was the 1st to greet me, closely followed by Vince Gould.
Soon the wafting aroma of chip fat and Chinese takeaway preceded the arrival of Northern Boy himself, Gaz Malman who was already halfway through the umpteenth pie of the day clutched in his right hand as he pulled up. Dave(Red Leader)Webster phoned to announce that both he, Tony Prentice and Geoff Palmer were in the services already so we headed off to join them, along with Ant Haywood, Ian Ward, Tom Little and Chris Ellis.
Dave fancied a Breakfast, but being faced with paying £8 for it brought back his Yorkshire frugality and he settled for a burger.

10am and it was "wagons roll" as a small convoy made it's way the short distance from the services to Rolf's Lake.
Into the car park and it's nearly full already, and there's a buzz about the place as a number of Rolf's "Virgins" got their 1st look at the venue, while others were renewing acquaintances and meeting others for the 1st time in person away from a computer screen.

Bivvies and Tents were soon in place for the evenings accommodation while elsewhere nets were dipped with military efficiency and feed pellets purchased for what lay ahead.

At 11am the pairing for the weekend ahead were announced and with those duly recorded and the pools paid, the individual draw for the day took place.

I had been paired with Dave Collier, almost inevitable really given the number of times we've fished together in the past. Dave getting peg24 on the car park bank, while I ended up with peg 36 on the little lake.

For company on the match I had Geoff Palmer to my right, in the corner on peg 34. While to my left on 37 I found Dave(Red Leader)Webster and Matt Nutt on 38. The sun was already blasting from the sky and we just knew that it was going to be a scorcher, but hopefully with us fishing from 1pm- 6pm hopefully everyone would get at least a couple of good hours towards the end.

1pm and the all in and within 5 minutes Geoff was walking over for me to witness his 1st weigher, all 16½lbs of Common Carp and a new PB for him.

I have to say that I wasn't inspired by my peg, although I knew it was capable of producing there are no real obvious features in comparison to a lot of the other pegs, so it was just a question of getting my head down and concentrating on putting a few together.

Looking across I could see David Ashby (under a bit of pressure as Gemma was fishing for the 1st time in 5 years) and Ian Ward and Nick Williams in front of me on 4 (though I had to look twice as his grey hair had vanished to be replaced by a deep brown dye job )

Plenty of splashing kept coming from Geoff's direction though some were doing a Houdini act .

I was slowly getting in on the act fishing paste on the deck at around 9 mtrs, while Dave struggled to get to grips with his peg, and Matt slowly started to edge ahead in the section.

Being pegged on the small lake we were somewhat removed from what was happening on the rest of the lake, though word filtered down that Keith on peg 25 was having a good un, and we were treated to the site of Brian Bevan in hot pursuit of his pole as a carp headed towards us with it, though Brian was fortunate enough to retrieve it, but not the fish.

Vince Gould, a Rolf's virgin was hidden away on peg13 out of my site but struggled to come to terms with things but still managed 41½lbs, better than some have managed on their 1st visit.

The last hour proved to be the best though a couple of the larger carp saw Matt having to resort to climbing onto his box to net them, while I managed a run of 6 fish right at the end.

So match 1 was completed, and that left the weigh in, a real eye opener for some in terms of the weights recorded and the efficiency with which it takes place.

Keith Ashby on peg 25 soon took the lead, and wasn't going to be caught on the day having put 242¾lb on the scales for a new PB match weight, nearly all caught on a top 3 with meat GOT soft hookers and GOT Paste. A superb result. Kevin Arathoon had pushed him all the way with a fine 230lbs and Brian Bevan had put together a fine 184¼lbs for 3rd individual on the day.

As the weigh in progressed peg after peg produced tales of new PB's both for total weights and individual fish.

Attention was however focused on a little match within a match between Gemma, Malc Doyle's daughter who had decided to fish for the 1st time in nearly 5 years and Keith Ashby's son David. (No pressure then)
With Gemma putting 92lbs on the scales.

David was always struggling to hang onto his £1 side bet,

even breaking his landing net at one stage , and unfortunately came up short on the day with 79½lbs, leading to a ribbing from all assembled that was to last all the way through the rest of the day and well into the next morning .

Ian (Chin) Ward had managed his 1st ever ton with a fine 115½lbs, and was looking a bit shattered as his arms hurt, and would continue to do so for the rest of the weekend,

Matt Nutt, using all his experience of the venue managed a 149½lb section winning bag, while Dave Webster who had struggled for 29lbs was the meat in a "Ton" sandwich as I weighed in 121½ lbs, Geoff Palmer also beating him with an 89lb bag (His PB match weight) that would surely have been his 1st Ton if he had had more than the 1 weigher.

So match day one ended with everyone retreating for a well earned beer in the bivvy village. Dave being Mr Efficient had brought his large gas barbecue down with him for the weekend and soon had it fired up and Tony(teepee)Prentice soon had a great selection of burgers and sausages flowing off the production line for willing mouths to devour.

With copious quantities of beer, Lager augmented by a bottle of rum and another of whiskey , the entertainment revolved around how much stick could be dished out to yound David, and I have to say that he took it all on the chin.
I'm sure you'll have the last laugh sooner or later David.

Things wound down around 1am as bodies retired ready for round 2 on Sunday.

Sunday at 7am and those same bodies in various states of disrepair emerged into the daylight craving nothing stronger than tea or coffee, while once more the Barbecue was fired up to provide breakfast from the mountain of food that was left.

Sundays draw was at 9am with a 10·30 start and joining us for the day were Steve Wilson fresh from his holiday and Gary (Gaza) Thorpe, fresh from a match win at Oakfield the previous day. They paired up with the pair with the worst result from Saturday which meant that Wily Coyote(Terry) was paired with Gaza the venue World Record Holder, so no pressure there then, while Nick Williams paired up with Steve.

I found myself fishing my partners swim from the previous day (peg24) with Matt for company on peg 25 (Keith's winning peg) and Ant Haywood to my right on 23.

Gary Thorpe drew my peg from Saturday, so i would see the pegs potential with a decent angler on it, with Kevin Arathoon on 34 (Geoff's peg) Ian Ward was on peg 7, a bit of a flyer, but would his arms hold out . While David and Gemma drew next to each other on pegs 9 & 10 in full view of their dads, Keith being on 12 with Malc opposite on 30.

At the all in I settled on a paste attack at around 7mtrs, a distance i could feed comfortably feed pellet by hand and fed a margin line by the small bush to my right. while Matt started on a longer line up in the water . Ant appeared to be into action straight away, and all around I could see people already into fish.

Terry Goff had somehow managed to draw the same peg twice in a row, but at least managed to put a few together  this time for a creditable 90¾lbs.

Next up on 17 was Dirk Williams who finished just short of a 2nd ton with 93lbs after suffering with a load of foul hookers.

Tony (teepee) Prentice managed a very creditable 164¼lbs from peg 18 to better his Saturday weight of 119lbs 2ozs (Thanks for showing me your paste pots Tony, I'm sure he'll be sharing the idea soon )

Colin, Keith's partner was on 19 and just missed out on a 2nd ton with 98lbs on the day.

I had a mare with foul hookers and lost a number of big fish that I had trouble controlling with Red Hydro!!! Thankfully a decent spell towards the end enabled me to get a 2nd ton with a level 110lbs.

Matt Nutt came short to the bush in his margin and had a magic last hour with a ton of weighers for a creditable 173lbs.

While Ant Haywood just made his 2nd ton of the weekend despite only having the 1 weigher all day, putting 104lbs on the scales.

Elsewhere David Ashby restored his pride in his peg to peg with Gemma weighing 85½lb to Gemma's 41½lbs and so reclaiming his £1 side bet.

Top weight on the day smashing his previous best match weight out of site with a fine display was young Ian Ward with an excellent 272lbs. Well Done Mate.

2nd on the day was Keith Ashby with a fine 230¾lbs again caught on a top 3 down the edge with meat and GOT Paste for 2 double tons in a row, an awesome display over the weekend.
Third on the day was Kevin Arathoon with 228lbs for another pair of double tons.

In 4th was Malc with 224¼lbs for a new personal best match weight.
5th was Gaz Malman with 219¼lbs, while a 6th and Final Double ton was added by Gary Thorpe with 206½lbs off my peg from the previous day. (it must have been down to my feeding on the Saturday )

One of the happiest on the day however must have been Steve Wilson who finally managed a match ton with a dead level 100lbs. It even made him smile, Well Done Steve.

So Presentation Time, and with two pairs,Keith Ashby & Colin Sharrard and Kevin Arathoon & Clive Pritchard tied on 26 points apiece it was probably appropriate that it was finally decided on weight with the verdict going in Keith and Colin's favour by 706½lbs to 638lbs.

Congratulations to them both.
A Big vote of Thanks to Dave for getting the whole thing up and running, I'm pretty sure that it will be an annual fixture from now on, and another Big Thank You to Rolf, for allowing us to use what is a very special fishery for the weekend.
Finally Thanks to all that attended and made it one of the Best Maggotdrowning Weekends i can remember, We must do it again sometime, now form an.a orderly queue for the next one.

Here's the full results list starting with the Pairs:
Saturday

Total weight caught over the weekend was 6,134lb

You can find Rolf's version of events HERE

The NKH Club Weekend.

Due to a few matters arising from the cancellation of this years Northern Fish-In, a few of us decided to have a weekend away, and that's how we ended up in the car park at Yateley on Friday morning.

Those present were Dave, Stu, Jason, Beebs and Myself.

Unfortunately Trogg with his 24/7 work pattern and Dirk with a previous commitment to the South Cerney Festival couldn't attend, but Jason (NoFinPhish) living about 5 minutes away decided to join us.

The plan was for a 48hr session from Friday to Sunday, and Friday 11·30am saw us all pulling into the carpark for a recce round the lake.

With the temperature edging into the 30's, we settled for 5 pegs on the left hand bank (11-15) that offered plenty of shade amongst the trees and allowed us to unload the cars at our pegs rather than cart it right round the lake. Slowly we settled into our pegs, the heat even in the shade ensuring we all worked up a sweat.

I was in peg 11 and in common with the others soon realised that this wasn't your average gravel pit. Instead of the expected variations in depth and features, there appeared to be a constant depth of 4-5 ft as far as you could cast. There was even a distinct lack of weed as it had been treated as there had evidently been complaints that there was to much earlier in the year.

I set up both my rods with method feeders, 1 with a Pulse boilie and the other with maggots, hoping to gradually lay down a bed of bait, and I also set up a float rod for a bit of fun if needed.
As the afternoon moved on we all settled down and with 14 baits in the water awaited developments.

By 7pm we hadn't managed a run between us so it was decided to adjourn to the local pub for a pint (purely to replace lost fluids) and to get some grub in the form of a takeaway as the pub didn't serve food on a Friday night.

Fed and watered we all settled back in, sure that the evening would bring a drop in temperature would encourage the fish to have a graze and provide some action.

7am on Saturday with the temperature already climbing and the 5 of us were still fishless, not quite the plan but thing were sure to pick up sooner than later as a chap 2 pegs up from Dave had managed a 23lb'er during the night.
I decided that I needed to avoid a complete blank and cheated by sneaking over to the River Blackwater that ran behind with my float rod and some maggots and managed my 1st fish of the river season, a little chublet.

After another couple of similar size it was back to reality, and it was decided that a trip into Yateley for breakfast at the Café, though Beebs declined in favour of a bit more sleep.
Full and with the Saturday papers collected, we returned with renewed vigour, as fish could be seen moving so it was just a matter of time surely???

Well the day moved on, but still no fish, but at least the family of Great Crested Grebes were catching, allowing Dad to feed the kids.

Still no action to our rods, and with us all trying various combinations of baits and rigs, the papers were read from cover to cover and the only thing that moved apart from the Grebes & Coots were the swarms of Damselflies in the margins.

By 3·30pm with something like 350 rod hours and nothing to show for it Dave, Jason and I decided to watch the England match down the pub, while Stu and Beebs decided to stick it out as they didn't want to miss the moment when the fish switched on.

The match is probably best glossed over except to say that with England playing on a Saturday at 4pm with the temperature in the 30's, along with extra time and penalties it must qualify as a publicans idea of heaven.

On our return we were greeted with the news that there had been loads of fish in front of Stu and Beebs pegs but they had still refused to feed.
However Beebs had the barbecue going and if nothing else we were fed. A couple of beers, cider in Beebs case and it was back to the swims for another concerted effort.

Around 10pm I heard an alarm off to my left, and looking up could see Stu running towards Dave's swim, grabbing the camera I was off in hot pursuit.
I arrived to find Dave obviously into a decent fish with Jason standing by ready to do the business with the net. Slowly Dave was gaining line as we all held our breath and there it was in the net.
Onto the mat and as the net was pulled back we could see it was an absolutely cracking Mirror which pulled the scales round to 27lbs on the button and a new PB for Dave.

Handshakes and back slaps all round and we were all off back to our swims with renewed vigour, leaving Dave alone with his thoughts.
The early morning brought nothing more than a couple of runs, 1 for Stu and 1 for Beebs but alas no more fish.

Around 9·30am we had started to break our bivvies down in preparation as we had to vacate the swims at noon.At 10am I had just driven my car down to start loading up when I heard a buzzer go and Beebs call that he was in!!!
The fish was giving a good account of itself, but with no snags to speak of, there was only going to be one outcome and it was soon safely netted.
The fish itself turned out to be a fully scaled Mirror with a marked kink in it's tail that weighed just over 14lbs, and the look on Beebs face shows just how pleased he was with it.

So that was it, session over. With the temperatures in the mid 30's all weekend it wasn't the most productive by a long way, but the good company made up in some measure for the lack of fish. Hopefully we'll do it all again, but with a few more fish.

Matt Nutt's Charity Match
supporting
The Disabled-Angler.Co.Uk

Charities Championship 2006

Well 20 anglers assembled in the car park at Rolf's Lake to take part in this Charity Match organised by Matt Nutt of G.O.T. Baits to support the fund raising efforts of The Disabled-Angler.Co.Uk .
They are running a series of matches over the course of the year leading up to an All Winners Final to be fished at Holly Farm on Sept 30th, and while this match wasn't a qualifier, the aim was to boost the funds for the chosen charities: Macmillan (Cancer relief) & Francis House (Children’s Hospice).

The warmest day of the year so far, with the sun streaming from a clear blue sky greeted those who had traveled from as far away as Yorkshire and Wales, such is the draw that Rolf's Lake exerts, being the venue where Gary Thorpe broke The World Match Record with a phenomenal weight of 490lb 8oz.

As always Rolf's proved that it's not the easy venue that some would have you believe, and while some anglers caught well, others struggled as the fish in some pegs seemed more intent in lapping up the sunshine than feeding.

The winner on the day was Matt Nutt with an excellent bag of 231lbs from peg 19 caught on G.O.T 6mm hookers fished up in the water over sprayed caster .

Second on the day was a 1st time visitor to Rolf's, Stuart Joy with a very creditable 142lbs from peg 8 .

While third place was filled by the irrepressible Malc Doyle, better know as The Jinx with a hard earned 114lbs 2ozs .

Spreading the spoils around on the day were the 4 section winners

1st time visitor Wayne Panting from the Disabled Angler website putting together a 70lb net off of Peg 1 late on as the fish made him wait.

Jason Grant with 48lbs 14ozs from a jacuzzi of a swim that proved to be hard work on a day.

Dirk Williams (The Dangler) himself, just missed out on the main frame and his 1st Rolf's Ton with a fine bag of 95lbs 8ozs.

While the final section place went to Keith Ashby aka Gandhi with a weight of 77lbs.

All in all a smashing day, A Big Thank You to Matt for a very well organised match, and to all the anglers who attended on the day who raised a very creditable £575 boosting the overall total so far raised to £1129.
Hopefully we can do it all over again next year.

Results on the day:

_____________________________

From my own point of view the day went something like this...............

Having had an early phone call to Dave, only to find that his Tom Tom was on the blink, I finally caught up with him in the services at junction 8, after he'd finished feeding his face we set off for Rolf's.

Arriving in the car park, it was soon obvious that the usual suspects along with a few new faces were present and with the sun blazing out of the sky a fun filled day was in the offering .

It was good to see Wayne in attendance along with his mum, and a quick look at the lake revealed that the carp were enjoying the sun on their backs as plenty were basking and soaking up the rays.

Into the draw and with Matt drawing 19 a few were already thinking that they were fishing for 2nd at best .

I found myself on 38 by the boat in the corner and was soon set up and went for a stroll round. Up on the car park bank a few of the lads could be found discussing the prospects for the day ahead....

Maggotdrowning.com

 Individual Championships 2005.

Well standing in the car park at Lemington Lakes at 8am the sky looked to be promising a decent day despite the forecasts, but The Jinx had yet to arrive.
Brekkie served up by Andy and Debbie Machin who own the fishery, was a good plateful that set everyone up for the day ahead. People were arriving from all round the country promising a good turn out, new faces meeting old and friendships renewed once more.

Nick(Neo1) had been victim of an alarm malfunction, which resulted in Malc and Gemma arriving in the Jinxmobile just as the sun was replaced by grey clouds and the wind started to blow.

Back to the function room and 34 anglers assembled for the draw, conducted with Vince's usual precision, curses were uttered and info sought as it became clear who would be fishing where.

Down at the lake it soon became clear that The Jinx was indeed in attendance as the wind started to rise and the sky took on a more ominous shade of grey.

I had drawn peg 25 with Steve12 to my right,

and Simon(me) and MarkC to my left.

Plumbing up all I could find was 2½ft until I got to 13mtrs, where a small drop off gave me an extra foot, and this was where I decided to fish despite the wind making presentation a struggle. Having had a couple of hours practice the previous day I had decided to fish GOT BAITS 6mm expanders over GOT BAITS 4mm hard pellets to keep things simple, and just concentrate on the 1 line.

At the ALL-IN MarkC was soon off the mark with a decent Carp to meat on the straight lead that weighed 12lbs 7ozs. Ady (bigladwigan) had had a Carp of around 5lb 1st put in on corn and Steve12 had a quick couple of Skimmers on the feeder but was struggling for consistency as conditions worsened.

After about 30 minutes I had my 1st Carp of about 1½lbs but it was a real struggle presenting a bait with the wind, but slowly a few more fish found their way to the net.
I was struggling with the occasional foul hooker, but was gradually putting a weight together as I had the 13mtr line to myself as others chopped and changed tactics trying to find elusive fish on what was proving to be a very hard day owing to the conditions.

With a couple of hours to go The Jinx could be heard wandering the banks dishing out his own unique brand of Encouragement. Steve12 decided the England football match on TV was more inviting than sitting it out as the rain started, leaving me effectively with an end peg.

Then The Jinx arrived at my peg along with the heavier rain that appeared to be following him and proceeded to give the entire lake a running commentary on my struggles. His hilarity when I pulled out of a lump finally leading me to ask him to FOXTROT OSCAR.

I have to say it was nice to see Vince looking so happy at handing me the Trophy.

On to the raffle and it was good to see the prizes shared around amongst those present, I even managed a bottle of Islay single malt to round the day off.
It had been agreed that the proceeds of the raffle would be donated to the winners charity of choice, so it was my pleasure to donate the £104.00 that was raised to The Kirsty Appeal (Francis House Hospice).

I would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Vince who put a lot of effort into organising the match, Malc, Gemma & Dirk for their help on the day, Andy and Debbie Machin and their staff for looking after us at their cracking venue, that we didn't see at its best due to the conditions on the day.

Finally to all The Maggotdrowners that attended, Thanks for coming, hopefully we can do it again next year in better weather.

RESULTS.

Maggotdrowning.com

Rolf's Lake Match.

Another cracking day in good company saw 19 of us assembled in the car park at Rolf's to take part in Matt Nutt's 1st attempt at organising a match.
A lot of us were survivors from The Jinx Series with a couple of new faces from the site attending their 1st MD's event. Even Webbo had come down from Yorkshire to try some proper fishing .

I drew peg 26 and was joined on the car park bank by Paul, Nick (Slimcatcher) and Webbo to my right and Young Dave & Gemma, Royst and Malc to my left.

Paul, Nick(Slimcatcher) with Webbo behind a bush.

Royst(playing a fish) Malc & Jason(JKG)

Sport was never fast and furious (An understatement in Paul's case ) but we all watched a lesson in how it should be done as most of us watched Gary opposite on Peg14 show us how it should be done with a superb display of up in the water fishing,  and I think we realised that we needed snookers when he got a 3rd keepnet out   !!!

Perhaps it was just having Rolf sitting behind "coaching" him that gave him the edge though .

Spare a thought for Mark C as he was pegged between Gary & Pete Thompson who finished 1st & 2nd. Mark stuck at it though and did manage a few .

During the match I managed to smash a top kit trying to get a lump's head up before it buried itself in the bush to my right much to various peoples amusement , I did manage a few though, one of which Gemma captured on camera .

However a thought should be spared for Paul on the next peg to me, who despite trying everything in his bait bag could only manage a 5½lb Orfe as the carp in his peg went on strike, Having escaped being pegged next to his nemesis Dirk, thought he was safe, He should have known better , naturally we were full of sympathy for his plight  .

At the end of the match it was those with the experience of fishing the venue that took the spoils, proving that it's not the easy venue that some seem to think, but I think it's safe to say that everyone has plans to return at a later date to try to get to grips with the challenge that the venue presents .

Here's the results of the day............

NB: On Sunday 25th September, Gary Thorpe smashed the World 5hr match record with a weight of 490lb 8oz from peg 19.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Fish-In.

Well I arrived around lunchtime and Les directed me to Maggotville and provided a welcoming cuppa. I decided to get my bivvie up post haste as the heavens were threatening to open, Dave the Fish providing a handy mallet to help with the pegs .

After a stroll round to meet and greet faces old and new I decided that I had enough time for an afternoon dabble, so getting my gear I eased into a swim on pond B, next to Dai, his good lady Anne and son Daniel .

A hand full of pellets to the pads on my left and an expander on the hook was soon producing a mix of bream, barbel and roach with a few carp thrown in for good measure and much to Dai's delight a GOLDEN TENCH. At least having had a good look at one, Dai shouldn't have any trouble identifying one if and when he eventually catches one of his own . Perhaps Dai and The Hat should have a session at Monk lakes down near me? one of them's bound to catch one there.

Just as I was packing up Anne managed to catch her 1st ever Tench  .......

A quick wash and brush up and off to the pub for a meal and a couple of pints was merely a prelude to the cabaret round at Dai's bivvy as Ady kept us all entertained as only he can .

Saturday morning arrived sometime around 9am and again I found myself on pond B, but this time between Ady and Teepee. Pole across to the island found all of 9" of water and a succession of chub and barbel, all in super condition and thriving in their natural environment............................WATER .

Ady to my left decided to try and choke a few carp with a selection of improbably large hookbaits and appeared to be having some success, despite the attentions of Ghillie Geoff and 'evil' Amy........

Here's one of them that survived the ordeal  ............

While Red Leader was adding to Coshida's profits opposite me to tempt an eventual 10 carp. Dave the Fish and Colin were fishing either side of the bridge dividing pond B from A with them both putting fish regularly in the net.

Big Brian arrived and introduced himself, and it was obvious where he got the name from, but he was showing some class by being attired in a BURGUNDY MD's sweatshirt

I meanwhile elected to fish paste in the margin, to see if I could get a carp. I soon hooked a good common, but after a fair old fight it slipped the hook.At this point I'd like to say that all those that witnessed this commiserated with me over my misfortune,
I'D LIKE TO, but true to form the p**s taking was mercy-less, B******S!!!! 

Stu was fishing my peg from the previous day with a pole that he makes look like a whip and was happily getting amongst a few.....

While Dave assumed the Ghillies duties as Teresa managed to catch her 1st carp ..............

Simon R was managing to catch a few carp from under a bush on pond A when he wasn't foulhooking errant free swimming topkits  .......

Reading this you could be forgiven for thinking that the place was fishing it's head off, but some were struggling and I'm sure I heard snoring coming from Teepee's direction on more than one occasion .
Michelle seemed to be taking great delight, strolling around and announcing that Nick was being battered by her in no uncertain terms .


Superb skill and ability  finally yielded a reward for me though in the shape of a nice 11½lb Mirror, despite certain allegations of 'Mugging' from some quarters that should know better  .....

Just prior to packing up for the day, I decided to feed a margin swim on the other bank that I fancied fishing Sunday AM. Unfortunately Red Leader decided this was a cue for a catapult war, and was only persuaded to desist as a result of a direct hit with a 14mm halibut pellet, though how I managed to hit so small a target at that range is a bit of a mystery .

Back to the pub for a meal and liquid sustenance led to another cabaret session round Dai's bivvy, though Ady did seem a little subdued as he was issued with a charity challenge . Should he choose to accept, both Dave and I have pledged £50 to a charity of Ady's choice, should he furnish proof of completing the challenge.
Will he succeed? Frankly I think that our money is as safe as houses .

Sunday morning and for some strange reason I was up at 6am to be greeted by blue sky and sunshine, the 1st since arrival, so decided to grab a couple of ours before packing up for the journey home.
Popping down to the ponds I found only Colin and Haydn had beaten me to it, with only Haydn putting a couple of carp in the net during the quiet of the early morning .

9am saw Stu and I invited to partake of a cup coffee on the veranda of Red Leader's IKEA bivvy prior to breakfast and after that it was time for me to pack away ready for the 200+ miles down the motorway to home.

All packed away it was time for a last stroll round to say my farewells. Despite the warmth of the day, the fishing remained slow.
Nick was still getting battered by Michelle, this time with his own pole  .........

Ady however was grinning as an 8½lb mirror grabbed a bit of flake to reward his efforts and happily posed for a photo despite doing his best to juggle it back into the water 1st .

Scouse was found hiding in the bushes with only 1 bream having fallen for his paste, and bemoaning a distinct lack of hubcaps, now that most cars have alloys and locknut's .

While the final site was of Red Leader standing back in admiration of the ease with which Teresa handled 11mtrs of his pole  ....................

So that was my Blyton Fish-In, Good laughs, Great company and a few fish as well, not a bad way of spending a weekend .