It is hard to believe that Mick has been married a year today, Happy Anniversary Mick & Angie.
So with a Marsh match planned for the same day, very inconsiderate of Chairman Dave. I had the company of Pete Thompson for the trip to Hartleylands Farm Reservoir. It is the last official match of the year for Marsh, as quite a few go into hibernation, only being tempted out again by a possible Xmas Match in November/December.
It was a decent trip down to the most important part of the day, Breakfast at the Knoxbridge Café where Kevin & Jean, Martin, John and Zack were already engrossed in full English's. A short fifteen minute trip to the fishery lay ahead and due to an accident on the M1 we were a little behind schedule. So we asked the others to draw pegs for us in case we were late.
When we eventually got to the fishery, the other anglers were musing over there pegs and how they were going to approach it. Me, I had a single minded approach, corn and hard pellet for bait. Plenty of pellet and corn for feed. I also was going to give catmeat a go as the fish in the reservoir can go big. Some kind sole drew peg 15 for me. The peg that won it last year, with a willow tree to my right and a nice clean edge to the left. The willow protruded to my top 4 so 2+2 would be my starting method and feed the edges until I saw some signs and then go over it.
Pete had been given peg 11, the peg I was on last year and after a quick chat, he decided he was going to fish for silvers( his speciality). Al had drawn peg 9 in the corner and would be hard to beat, but I could not resist when I was offered a £1 bet with both Pete and Al. Dave had drawn 7 near where he was last year and Terry was on peg 5. The other side of me I had Tony Roberts and Clive on 17 and 19 whilst I could see Tony on 21.
Al kindly gave me a few more pellets to go with what I had, so I was ready in plenty of time. At the all in I shipped a pot of catmeat to 2+2 at 10 o'clock and threw around 20 grains of corn to 2+2 at 2o'clock. A handful of corn to the left and three handfuls of pellets and corn to the right. I started at 2+2 on corn and after around 5minutes I was into my first fish. A lovely scaled mirror around 3lb firmly hooked in the fin. But they all count if you get them in. No more bites came so a quick look on the catmeat line. A few lightning quick bites but nothing connecting. By this time and after only 15 minutes into the match I saw a few fish down to the right hand swim under the willow.
Switching to the right hand swim on a top two in 18 inches of water my first bite from there came after around 5 minutes and was a nice common around 7lb. I was alternate feeding around 20 pellets every 30 seconds with around 8 grains of corn every 30 seconds. This seemed to draw fish in but I was struggling to get bites. I could see the fish come in, have a munch then go again. I gave stinky corn a go and was rewarded with another couple of fish and after an hour I thought I had around 20lb (4 fish). The second hour was slow (2 fish) as was the third( 2 fish), a few fish foul hooked and lost and a few which the hook just pulled for no apparent reason but I was ticking over with 38lb after half way. Tony had weighed 3 fish for 32lb but I had not seen him catch much else. Clive was catching as was Tony Watkins. Al was struggling on the pellet waggler and Pete was happy catching silvers and odd carp. John on the far bank was doing well and word was Terry was catching.
I needed to up my game and after a look down the left hand side for one carp, I decided to dump 3 pints of pellet straight in and 3 big handfuls of corn down the right hand side. The fourth hour went well (6 fish), I had to keep adjusting my depth a little at a time but kept some fish coming on Stinky Corn. However it was not to last but by switching over to GOT Jupiters in both 11mm and 8mm I kept the fifth hour ticking along (4 fish). Emptying my bait boxes of feed pellet in at the end of the fifth hour proved another good move as the last hour saw a few larger fish to 10lb grace the net.
I was happy with my day, a few more Stinky Corn caught carp in the bag and a few on hard Jupiters. I rue the lost fish as I thought they would cost me at the end but that's fishing.
Final Positions
1st John Holdsworth 153-4
2nd Terry Goff 110-8
3rd Clive Pritchard 109-4
4th Kevin Loveland 103-0
5th Keith Ashby 102-4
6th Tony Roberts 99-13
7th Al Loader 91-12
8th Dave Collier 82-8
9th Jim Boase 78-12
10th Tony Watkins 78-8
11th Pete Thompson 50-8
12th Rod Turner 28-0
13th Zack 26-8
14th Gino Exell 24-8
15th Martin Hucker 23-12
I have another match at Alders this week on Tuesday then I am off to fish Stafford Moor's October Festival. Will keep you posted when I get back.
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