Monday 27 October 2014

Claygate Eva Marsh AC 25 10 14

New Claygate  Lakes was the venue for the last match of the Marsh AC season (apart from the Xmas match) and I was lying in second position behind travelling partner and work colleague Mick. Clive who was sitting in third position was unable to make today so it was a shoot out between the two of us.
A good trip down with Troy taking his van and both Mick and I contributing to his breakfast and dinner, we made good time and pulled into Monks Lake fishery for the first of the commitments(brekkie), in good time. Its only 10 minutes away from Claygate and a good stopping off point.
We had most of the lake today and I was hoping for a peg with plenty of open water, however I had drawn end peg and knew it was over before I had even wet a line. Peg 37 is in a corner and I knew it would be feast or famine, no wind blowing in or signs of life let alone fish, but it was what was in the hat and someone had to get it. Mick had drawn well on 33 with open water and a gap between two islands and a decent clean margin. Troy had also drawn in a good area on 6 on the railway straight.
Before the start Tony W was getting ready, plumbing up as you do, shipping back his pole along the railway bank. Next thing he knew was a loud bang and a broken section. A train had passed by and nicked his last section, causing no damage but the following movement of the pole snapped another section with a whiplash effect. With it telescoped he could continue but he was a very lucky man as 750 live volts could have had a far lasting effect on him. When will people learn electricity and carbon do not mix.
I opted to fish 4 lines today, with the resident f1's and carp the target species. I had a line at 11m to my left edge, a line at 14m tight to the far bank, 12m to my right at 2 o'clock at the bottom of the shelf and a top four line directly in front. I had good depth on all lines and felt that feeding 4mm GOT Sinkers and fishing either a 6mm banded pellet or expander would account for anything that swam. I also had a tin of corn as a back up.
I started off fishing top four and after an hour only had one f1 from this line around 12oz and no other bites. I had rotated my lines during this spell and it was evident that there were no fish in the peg. No bites, no liners, nothing. Changes to shotting patterns made no difference. I set up a shallow rig and even tried that to no avail. Nothing was working.It was fishing hard and I could see the colour dropping out of the margins. In fact I dropped some pellets next to my keepnet and although I could not see them at the start they were still there clear as day in 2ft of water at the end.
Simon W on 35 had started well fishing tight across and had a couple of f1's before he managed to break his no.6 section adjusting his pole roller. Not a good day for the Watkin Brothers. Mick was plugging away and doing far better than I.
To cut a six hour story short, I managed four bites during the match and four fish for a grand total of 6lb something and with 20 minutes left started packing up. It really was a famine peg but we all stick our hand into the pot and should try to make the most of what is in front of us. At no point did I give up as a run of fish can easily change things around. Many matches I have come back in the last hour of a match but alas today was not one of them. Not the way I would have liked the season to end, but that's fishing.
Overall
 1 Tony Roberts       69  04
2 Al Loader             61  00
3 Terry Goff            60   08
4 Jim Boase             48  12
5 Tony Watkins      46  12
6 Gino Excell          44  08

Mick finished with 33lb to pip Troy with 32lb.


Congratulations to Mick on winning the Marsh AC League for 2014. Another MK Nugget in his pocket and he has managed to claw his way back into a very close finish to the year. 12-10 to me having been 12-6 in front(ooppss) with 2 matches left.
Well done to all the section winners and I look forward to seeing you all on the Xmas Match.

Sunday 5 October 2014

Hartleylands Reservoir Marsh AC 04 10 14

For the penultimate match of the Marsh AC season we would see ourselves gracing Hartleylands Farm Reservoir in Kent. A bit of a strange match this as there are no results to go by. This is due to the water closing down during the summer months to the carp and bivvy boys. So with this in mind you do not know how it will respond.
All the usual suspects were there, Pete, Troy and Mick, having sorted out his stomach issues during the week. A busier than usual motorway system saw us arrive at the fishery in plenty of time having had the customary stop off for breakfast. With the MK Nugget sitting at 12-8 to me, Mick was keen to close the gap as the year is running out of available matches. He had won the last two and I must admit my form has not been great.
I decided to let the others draw first and I was happy to take what was left but with Mick having drawn peg 7 on the far bank I was keen not to draw in view of him (if he was catching I did not want to know and if I was catching I did not want him to know either). Pete had drawn peg 3 and Troy was on a good peg in 9. I put my hand in and out comes peg 10. Peg 9 and 10 are separated by a willow tree and plenty of carp have lived under it for a few years gone by. Dave had sneaked into peg 1 and Al into 19 both good pegs.
As the water is a reservoir supplying the surrounding apple orchards it is quite deep in places so a variety of methods tend to work. Feeder, Pellet Waggler and both pole long and short. I had opted to fish short, but realised that historically the fish do  not tend to come in till late. I set a line up at top 2+2 for fishing corn in 4ft of water and set up two margin lines. One under the willow tree in 18 inches of water and the other on a top three to the left in 2ft of water. Both were NG Mini Diamonds to a size 16 MWG hook and .20 Stroft. Feed was 9 pints of 4mm GOT Sinkers and a kilo of corn. My plan was to drip feed the corn line at top four and dump feed pellet down both edges only going over it if I saw any indications.
At the all I potted two full pots of pellets onto both margins and starting feeding the top 4 line by hand. A good handful to start with then dripping in around 8 grains every minute. The carp in here grow to around 28lb and have seen most things so I did not want to overfeed a line in open water. I could back off if required but wanted to get some feed in early. After 20 minutes on the top 2 +2 line I had a couple of small dips on the float for nothing to show for my efforts, Mick was already catching much to Troy's delight in telling me each time he hooked another carp. A change was required and I swapped hook lengths to fish banded pellet. I placed an 8mm pellet into the band and dropped it in over the corn line and was rewarded with my first carp around 2lb. Another soon followed and I thought I was going to start making headway into Mick's fish. He was now on 8. Alas it was not to be and the line died.
Mick was catching as was Martin in the corner on 5 fish, Gino and Clive were catching regularly albeit in 15 minute intervals. Pete had a 15lber on the board, but both Troy and myself were struggling.
With no more bites forthcoming I had a look under the willow tree, expecting the float to go under straight away. I had left it for two hours and not seen a swirl, but had seen odd fish come in and have a look before drifting off. Needless to say after three hours I was still on 2 carp for around 4lb. At this point I saw a small swirl to my left close to the bank. I gentle lowered the willow tree rig in and within 30 seconds the float had gone and a 5lb carp was in the net. I re-fed a half pot of pellet and went out again on the slightly deeper rig and was rewarded with another 5lber. A couple of foul hooked fish followed so I went back out with the willow rig and a "gelled up" pellet and hooked a proper carp around 15lb, doubling my total weight. I still had a good two hours left and thought if I could catch a few more lumps I may be able to catch up with Mick. I could see Gino still catching and thought he would run Mick close, as was Al who had started off slowly but was now getting a few down the edge. Clive, Martin and Dave were now struggling to get bites. Chris had been content catching silver fish but the carp had moved in over his feed and was now plundering them.
I was now catching and a few more fish to 8lb had graced my landing net along with another 15lb fish. In the last hour though all I could muster was a couple of 4lb fish. It had slowed significantly and I thought the MK Nugget was gone. If they had turned up an hour earlier or stayed an hour longer I would have been close. That's fishing though.
Overall
1st Gino Exell                     148-00
2nd Al Loader                     134-00
3rd Mick Wright                 129-08
4th Chris Withall                111-12
5th Keith Ashby                   93-00
6th John Holdsworth            75-00

So another nugget finds its way into Mick's back pocket. I must try harder. I have worked it out though, if I only fish against Mick at the last match and the Xmas match then I will win. So no more midweeker's or impromptu matches. That wouldn't be fair would it?
I must admit I was really pleased for Gino, scoring his first match win with a decent weight from a hard venue to crack. Well done mate. Now you can stop and start rehearsing for panto season.

Thursday 2 October 2014

Oakfield Open 01 10 14

It just goes to show how determined Mick is at clawing back the MK Nuggets I have gained from him this year, he suggested that we to go to Oakfield for one of their midweek opens. He is on holiday from work and it suited my shift pattern so I agreed. However, the day before Mick cried off claiming he was not match fit and had been sitting on the toilet for the best part of the day. So it was just me travelling the relatively short distance to Oakfield.
Oakfield has changed a lot over the years, matches used to be on Brook and Swallow but with Brook having been re-developed and turned into a silver fish water, matches are predominantly on Swallow and Red Kite lake which was being dug when I used to fish it regularly. I have fished it once since then and enjoyed the day, so would be quite happy to get the chance to fish it again.
I arrived early to try to gain some info prior to the match and was told that hard pellet was doing the business, feeding 4mm fishery pellet and fishing 6mm on the hook. I had plenty of 6mm's with me and a few 8mm along with a few cans of corn and some 6mm expanders.
After breakfast in the cafĂ© and monies paid I went for a walk around Red Kite and noticed that both ends of the lake had plenty of fish activity in them, however the middle sections on both bank only had odd fish topping. Swallow had odd fish showing themselves towards Brook lake yet the rest of the lake seemed devoid of fish.
Back at the draw I pulled out peg 30 on Red Kite and although I had the right lake I was out of the "showing" fish area. I planned to fish at 12m in around 4ft of water as my main line with banded pellet and to both the front of the platform on 29 and down the side of it, with corn.
Rigs were .6 MW Diamond to .18 Stroft and a size 16 PR36 with a bulk of no. 8 shot and a single 10 dropper for fishing a 6mm banded pellet at 12m. A .2 NG Mini Diamond to fish in front of the platform in 18 inches of water and a NG Ghandi for fishing down the side of the platform.
At the all in I potted a full pot of 4mm pellet onto 12m and a half pot of pellet and corn to in front of the platform around a metre from the platform legs. I also put a quarter pot of just pellet around a foot from the platform tight to the edge. Starting off at 12m saw my first bite after around 5minutes, which I promptly lost shipping back. Same thing happens with the next two fish before I swapped my elastics over to a softer and lighter elastic. This seemed to cure things and after 1/2 hour I had a nice 6lb carp in the net, before the swim went quiet. I re-fed this line and had a look down the edge tight in. I shipped out and gently lowered a grain of corn a foot from the leg and as soon as it had settled the float dipped and a f1 around 2lb was in the net. I persevered between both edge swims taking odd fish from each before I had to re-feed these lines.
It seemed that I could catch a couple of fish off each line before going quiet, whether that is the norm or that I had fed it wrong, I will learn in time.
At the all out I reckoned I had around 40lb consisting of 4 carp and around 20 small f1's which were never going to trouble those around me so I threw back. I had seen Nick Bryan and John Beasley catching regularly and had been told the two guys who had the wind blowing into them had also caught well.
Overall
1st Steve Nichols K14 103-14
2nd John Emmerson K22 85-14
3rd Pele Alland S15 85-01
4th Gordon Worrell S5 81-13
5th Nick Bryan S26 80-08
6th John Beesley S4 80-0



A good match where only 5lb separated second and sixth. I really enjoyed the day out although it was frustrating. In hindsight I should have had a line at top three, which is something I normally do but for some strange reason never set up today, I also feel that lighter elastics is the way forward here as I pulled out of a few fish shipping back. I will be back soon as I feel I have some unfinished business here.