Saturday 28 April 2018

Marsh AC Arrans Lake 28.04.2018

Certain waters respond better when the water warms up a little, Arran's Lake is certainly one of those. It is a prolific water capable of throwing up huge summer weights. As a club, we have decided amongst us that this is not what we want, however, during the early or late parts of our season, April and October the fishing can still be good and you need to work at what you are doing.
Mick was driving this week so it was my turn to fork out for breakfasts at Rosie's Cafe just outside Chelmsford . Already enjoying the food were Gino, Simon, Tom and guests Kyle and Bernie.It is ideally suited for Arran's as it is only 10 minutes away.
We had 17 fishing today including a few guests. With both Dave and Tony missing from the assembled group of anglers, Simon stepped in and covered proceedings amicably. Quickly running through the rules, taking the money and getting the draw underway. As has been the norm of late, Mick drew before me and peg 14 was to be his home, My hand was drawn towards peg 4 on the opposite bank. I had never fished this bank before so was going into it blind. Mick was telling me for the last fortnight that he was going to fish a rod and line as an experiment in the cooler, wet weather. I did tell him not to but well Mick is Mick.
My plan was to fish pellet wherever I was pegged so peg 4 was as good as any peg. My aim was to fish up in the water feeding 6mm Alders Farm pellets with either a 6mm or 8mm on the hook banded.
In total I set up 6 top kits for this( mad) I had two rigs with different hooklengths, one I would place a banded pellet on the hook, the other was hairrigged band. The other difference was elastic, either red or black hydro.Beauty was that if one got trashed I could be back out fishing quicker.I also set up two deep rigs around 2 1/2ft, again with the different hooklengths.
At the all in I started off feeding a line on a top three and fishing a 6mm hard pellet, after five minutes I had snared a couple of rudd, so started upping the feed to around a dozen pellets every twenty seconds, this had the desired effect and I was now starting to connect to carp. After an hour I  estimated I had around 10 fish for about 25lb. I looked around me and apart from Simon on peg 5 no one else seemed to be catching on our bank. Troy was doing alright on the opposite bank as was Gino and Kris. Malc had arrived and dropped into peg 10, the flyer next to the bridge, it would suit his style of fishing. Fill it in and sit over it.
I soon realised that I was getting four or five fish in a run and then they would back off a little, so to keep in touch I would add a section and then push it out to fish between 3 or 4 sections. This got me a couple more fish each time. Eventually the fish would come back and by varying the feed and shotting the fish would respond. I was catching well again, although the fish were on the small side. Simon was matching my catch rate now and had a few fish pushing 10lb.
Hours three and four saw me pull away though, adding probably 80lb in those two hours. I could see Mick across the pond and he did not seem to be doing well but looks could be deceiving. He was setting up the pole to fish in the margins and if it kicked in could do well in the last few hours.
My last couple of hours were a replica of the first couple, a few fish before having to swap things around and change something, I tried shallow a couple of times throughout the match and apart from a couple of fish, it was really a non starter. Just goes to show that plans can change and you need to adapt.
At the all out I felt I had done enough for the MK Nugget, but did not know about the match as I could not see all the anglers by the bottom car park. I estimated I had around 150lb and with Simon admitting to 120lb I thought I may have got it all wrong. However,
Overall
1st Keith Ashby 185-12
2nd John Holdsworth 183-12 ( 2lb deducted for breaking net limit)
3rd Malc Doyle 137-08 Guest
4th Simon Watkins 135-0
5th Terry Goff 96-04
6th Troy Hillyer 91-06
All in all another great day for the Marsh AC. Special mention should go to John, he had a lot less fish than me but put 33 fish on the scales for 179lb. An average of nearly 6lb per fish. A lot of close weights followed the above to show that even in the cooler months Arran's can still produce good, fair matches.
Next week see's a few of us travel to Weston Pools for a week's fishing. Something we have been looking forward to for nearly a year. As usual I will let you know how we get on, warts and all.

Keith 2
Mick 2

1 comment:


  1. I started on COPD Herbal treatment from Ultimate Life Clinic, the treatment worked incredibly for my lungs condition. I used the herbal treatment for almost 4 months, it reversed my COPD. My severe shortness of breath, dry cough, chest tightness gradually disappeared. Reach Ultimate Life Clinic via their website at www.ultimatelifeclinic.com I can breath much better and It feels comfortable!

    ReplyDelete