Mick was my travelling partner today and we had arranged to meet up with Troy & Kris en route. We incurred plenty of fog along the way but with everyone being sensible we still made good time and pulled into the Knoxbridge café with plenty of time and a full English breakfast. Tony W, Tom and Gino were already in attendance.
It was only a short journey to Hartleylands Farm from the café and on arrival we were greeted by the rest of the Marsh AC anglers.
Mick and I have been contesting the MK Nugget throughout the year and I have been fortunate to lead this 7-2 going into this match but Hartleylands is one of his better venues, so I would have my work cut out. At the draw I pulled out peg 10, not really where I would have liked to be, as it was flat calm and no wind blowing into it, but this was the area the lads had practiced and done well from although there was no one else on the lake at the time. Mick had drawn 41, not bad seeing there are only 30 pegs on the lake, so settled into undrawn peg 2. Kris was on peg 7 a good peg with a small willow tree, plenty of fish live here and both 7&8 are known good pegs. Troy was moaning as he had peg 16. It was in the shade of another willow tree and is the first peg as you reach the lake. It is the best peg on the lake and an out and out flyer.
I decided to fish 3 lines, one at 2+2 and both margins. I had 5ft at 2+2 and by fishing a .4g DT Diamond I was able to cope with the tow, both margins had 2 1/2ft and for these I set up duplicate NG Diamonds with different hooklengths. One with a bait band hair rigged, the other with just a bare hook. Bait was corn, meat and a mixture of 4, 6 and 8mm hard pellets but feed was 4mm GOT sinkers.
Because I was expecting large fish, I potted in 2 large pots of pellet on each of the lines at the start with a few grains of corn and meat cubes to try to hold any fish coming in. I also decided to top up the margins by drip feeding little and often by hand on my right hand swim and pot on the left hand margin. My 2+2 line would be toss potted every put in.
I started off at 2+2 with corn on the hook and although I had a couple of small skimmers and a roach, I was not getting any carp. I re-fed another couple of pots of pellet and moved to the left hand margin. After around 5 minutes the float dipped and I was into my first carp, around 6lb with a strategically placed hook impaled in the tail. No more bites from this swim so to the right hand side. I had been dripping in pellet and decided to try a banded 8mm. I was getting movement on the float but nothing hittable. The float was moving side to side but no dips or buries. I switched to a 6mm and this seemed to do the trick as I connected with a couple of carp, but lost them, I think they may have been foul hooked, so I switched to a softer elastic and shortened the length of the rig by 2 inches. Again this seemed to work as I was now hooking fish in the mouth and my next couple of fish were soon in the net, as long as you did not rush them. This line went quiet, so I had another look to the left and nothing. Back out to 2+2 and another couple of skimmers before the elastic stretched out and did not move. Shipping back to a top kit the elastic was still in the same place and I thought I had snagged the bottom, when slowly I could see the elastic retracting and moving towards me. I decided to keep the pole tip low and ease it back gently just using the puller kit to gain line. After around, what seemed an age I could see a large mirror carp around 12lb hooked in the side. It was just out of netting reach and as I went to get the net the hook pulled out, damn or words to the effect.
I could see Al on the next peg catching well on the method right into the corner and although they were small fish(2lb to 3lb) he was putting a weight together. Terry was bagging on peg 8 by the willow and word was that Tony R and Clive were catching well. Jim was getting a few on peg 6.
Back into the margins and I was now getting a few fish on a banded 6mm pellet. It was now 4 hours in and I needed a good couple of hours of catching fish to do any good. However it was not meant to be and I really struggled to put a run of fish together, just picking off odd fish.
Word around the lake was that Troy had emptied it, Terry had caught well but it would be close amongst the rest.
Starting off on peg 1 would be Rod who placed a level 16lb on the board to take an early lead. It was short-lived though as Mick put a fine 76-4 to take over at the top,( it could be close for the nugget). Tony was next who took the biggest fish honours on the day with a fine 16lb fish in his total of 50lb dead. Tom was next and a peg to peg battle with Gino which went in the favour of Gino by 40-4 to x31-8. Jim took over at the top fishing meat and polony with a level 99lb. Kris was next to weigh with 59-0 before Terry was first to break the ton with 151-0 from peg 8. Al was next and although he was admitting to 60lb I knew he had nearer the ton as I could see him all day. His 97-4 was closer to my estimation than his and should have been more as he was catching on the method early doors and decided to switch to the pole hoping for better fish.
My catch of 82-4 would get me half way up the leaderboard but I was never in the race really. Al's son Gary chipped in with 31-8 from peg 11 before Tony R placed another near ton and 97-4, having lost more than he caught. Chris placed 51-12 from peg 13 before Dave tipped 80-12 onto the scales. Next up was Clive, who is leading the petition to turn the complex into a Tesco's car park. So far he has one signature, with a weight of 149-0. Troy was last to weigh and looking at his 5 nets in the water you knew he had a good day. After 6 weigh's his total of 236-12 was more than enough to win. Well done Troy. Now stop moaning about your peg, there all flyers that you pull out.
Overall
1st Troy Hillyer 236-12
2nd Terry Goff 151-00
3rd Clive Pritchard 149-00
4th Jim Etherington 99-00
5th Tony Roberts 97-04
6th Al Loader 96-12
Still it was a good day out fishing in good company again. I took another MK Nugget off Mick but had to give a nugget to Troy, at least it was not mine. Next up for me is the second round of the Alders Farm Winter League. I missed the first match because of this match but am now available for the rest of the series. Happy days
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