Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and today was the last match of the Marsh AC season. I have not been able to fish with a great bunch of lads as much as I would have liked this year for a variety of reasons, but hopefully next year will be different.
Now the cold weather is setting in a lot of the members tend to put their tackle away after the Hartleylands Reservoir match which historically is at the start of October, but a few hardy souls still braved the elements at Monks Lake 4 including both Troy and I from Milton Keynes.
Troy picked us up at 0600 for the journey down, which in itself went quite well apart from missing the M25 turn off on the way down, so back up to Hemel and have another go. OOOOPPPPPssss. However the rest of the journey went well.
Arriving at the cafe at Monks we were greeted by 8 other hardy souls, or idiots if you prefer. It was a nice fresh autumnal day, grey clouds everywhere and no wind, always a benefit on Lake 4. So rather than peg it out, the general consensus was to stay in the cafe and draw from what we knew about the lake. I already had a plan in mind as to what I was going to do, Pellet at distance and maggot down the edge, plus corn at 2+2. This was going to happen no matter where I drew.
At the draw I managed to pull out 143, I think it was in a good area with an island at around 17m, Still with only 14.5 available I would hope the fish would come closer. I had around 4ft across and also 4ft at 2+2 so duplicate rigs were set up for both lines. I was surprised to plumb the margins to find 2 1/2ft on the top shelf before it dropped quite suddenly away to 3 1/2 ft. I had Dave for company on 144 and Troy a couple away on 146. Tony Roberts was sitting on 141 and I fancied this peg for a weight before the match. However, I stated that I would be happy with 50lb today, due to the cold water,
At the all in I potted 4mm pellets over to 14m and another onto the 2+2 line with a good handful of corn. My margins I would feed nearer to the time of fishing the line.
Starting off at 14m with a 6mm Amino choco spray pellet I would like to say the float went under straight away, but nothing. Dave had already had 2 fish for 8lb and I was biteless. A switch to a grain of corn, saw fish number one in the net after around 15 minutes, a foul hooked fish saw the peg die after 30 minutes, so I re-fed the line, this time with a few grains of corn and tried the 2+2 line for 15 minutes and nothing. Another look long and I was picking off odd fish on corn over pellet, but setting the world alight. Troy was getting a few on the bomb and 8mm pellet, so I tried an 8mm pellet and still nothing. Another look on the 2+2 line and again nothing, It would be a case of plugging away until the last hour. I had around 10 fish at that point along with a few small tench and skimmers from the long line. I was pinning everything on the margin with an hour and half to go I started feeding maggot in good amounts. I was still only about 30 lb behind the leaders and could make that up fairly quickly if the carp showed up. They didn't but I did hone my roach catching skills. Every cloud has a silver lining.
At the all out I knew I had been battered by Dave fishing his normal maggot approach, Troy had caught well late on as had Tony on 141.
Terry was first to weigh and set the tone with 60lb 8oz before Simon bettered that with 63lb dead. Tom placed 36-08 on the board before Tony R topped that with 41-12. My 35-04 was all I could muster which included 8lb of silvers. Dave came in with 66-08 whilst Troy ran him close with 53-04. From here the results got worse. Tony W with 21-00 to pip Gino off the next peg with 20-08 which left last to weigh Rod bring up the tail with 12-08.
Overall
1st Dave Collier 66-08
2nd SimonWatkins 63-00
3rd Terry Goff 60-08
4th Troy Hillyer 53-04
5th Tony Roberts 41-12
6th Tom Exell 36-08
Well done guys and hope to see you all next year. In the meantime I will be concentrating my efforts at Alders in the Winter League.
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