Colemans Cottage Pathfield Lake 060517 Marsh AC

It seems that the last week has been spent on preparation for the up coming Stafford Moor festival next week. Rods and reels have been set up with new line added. A dozen rigs made up to go with the loads I already have. Bait sorted and just needs packing and tidying up. So it was good to get out on the bank with a small club match at Pathfield Lake on the Colemans Cottage complex. We have not fished here for a while but it does have some good memories, we wont talk about the poor one's as a good friend Gino insists this post should be a positive one.
Anyway I picked Mick up from his house and waiting on the driveway was his brand new seatbox. All shiny and new. Car packed and a rather uneventful drive down to the fishery, although why someone would want to take my picture on the motorway beats me.
After a full English breakfast it was onto the draw. I had said before the draw that I fancied a peg 19 or 21. The wind was blowing up towards this end of the lake and like most commercials fish tend to follow the wind. So Mick does his thing and goes in first, Peg 21. You cannot make it up. End peg and loads of room. I was not too far away on peg 16 but I could not see him due to the contour of the lake. I had Simon on Peg 15 and Terry on 18. So for those that do not know Pathfield Lake it has two main islands, one ending on peg 15, the other starting at peg 18. So all I had was open water in front of me, no features to fish to. I did have a nice looking edge on the right hand side though.
I set up 4 rigs today to fish 12.5m if the wind allowed, I would move to 11m if it got too bad. A couple of inches different. A shallow rig for going over the top of the long lines. A margin rig to do both left and right sides and a 2+2 line. Bait was 6mm hard pellet and corn.
I started off long for the first 10 minutes but bite registration was either hard or non existent. I came in to 11m and again no bites. A look down the edge saw a couple of small carp grace the net. Simon was catching well tight to the island and was in front of me at this point. Terry was struggling and word was that Mick had 4 at this point. A look at the 2+2 line saw no bites. A time to try shallow, after a couple of put ins the float dipped and the first shallow fish was in the net, A couple more followed but it was slow going. I decided to start toss-potting on this line and fish slightly over-depth to combat the tow. I had a good spell for about an hour on the line but started foul hooking a few fish and despite changes to shotting patterns and depth I could only connect properly to 1 in 5 bites. With this line slowly drying up I re-fed a small pot of pellets and had another look at 2+2, still no bites. Simon had stopped catching but Terry was getting a few but having to wait for his bites. Another look down the edge and a couple of fish on corn over pellet. By rotating my lines I was nicking odd fish from each line before re-feeding and moving on to the next. Going into the last half hour I reckoned on 40lb I felt I was in front of both Terry and Simon who was now catching again just in front of his keep nets.
I decided to just fish down the edge for the remainder of the match, feeding sloppy groundbait and fishing a 6mm pellet or corn saw a couple of better fish around 7lb each. My last bite came just before the whistle and an F1 around 3lb.
At the all out I felt I got the best out of the peg today, perhaps I should have fed the slop earlier and gone over it earlier but everything is good with hindsight.
With the scales starting at peg 5, Dave was first to record on the board with 40-04, Gino on the point of the island chipped in with 15-12, from a positively good peg. Jim continues his good form with 40lb beating John off the next peg who weighed in 30lb. Another peg to peg battle existed with Clive edging out Tony 47-00 to 42-08. Simon put 43lb on the board whilst I upped the lead to 58lb. Terry had sneaked out some proper carp with 11 fish for 35lb. Rod chipped in with 12lb before Mick placed his two nets on the scales for 91 dead.

Overall

1st Mick Wright 91-00

2nd Keith Ashby 58-00

3rd Clive Pritchard 47-00

4th Simon Watkins 43-00

5th Tony Roberts 42-08

6th Dave Collier 40-04

So another MK Nugget for Mick, who now takes a 7-2 lead, before we start our annual fishing holidays, Mick to Bullocks Farm near Bristol and myself as pools fodder for the festival at Stafford Moor. I will still enjoy the holiday as I really just go for the craic and see a few old mates,