Four years on, and a match planned for Alders Farm Fishery, across the whole complex. A team event, with some of the best anglers in the country, anglers who have competed in some of the biggest matches in our sport. Oh and me. This was a team event and the maggotdrowning.com forum with assistance from BobCo Tackle had been invited to partake in the day. Along with teams from:
Preston Innovations
Joseph James Law
Guru
Garbolino
Maver
The Army
England U15s
England Ladies
The Pellet Guys
Four Lane Enders
Mallory Park
Our team consisted of Alex Akal, Nick Pringle, Dave Webster, Kevin Arathoon and myself. Pete Morton would act as captain for the day with Barry Testro, bank runner in case we needed to get information to others in the team. Alex and Nick would be on Ash Lake, Myself and Kevin on Pines, with Dave taking on the might of Oaks Lake and its resident specimen fish.
After a rather messy egg and bacon roll and a mug of tea, supplied by the team at Alders Farm, It was onto drawing for the all important pegs for the day. Captain Pete steps up and takes a ball from each of the five bins on show. Returning to the team, the enormity of his actions kick in and informing those around him of his peg selections. Alex 18 Ash, Nick 30 Ash, both good pegs. Dave peg 10 on Oaks, another good peg with an island chuck as an added bonus. Kevin peg 3, possibly just out of some of the better pegs, myself peg 15, unknown to me, as it is not normally included in the fishery matches.
Peg 15 Pines
My plan was to fish three lines, top 3, top four and 12m both up and down. Bait 6mm hard pellet, corn, maggot and a few expander pellets.For feeding I had a bag of fishery 4mms and micro pellets both dampened down.
For company I had Lee Cox fishing for Maver and Will Reynolds from Guru, both very good anglers. I started off on the top 3 line fishing corn, this has quite often got me a few fish on this lake at the start of a match, and today was no different 2 quick fish before it went off, a switch to hard pellet over the same line again proved fruitless. Moving out to top 4 and a couple of pellet fish, but again it was very slow. Trying a soft expander also did nothing to improve things.
Lee next door on 14 had lost a couple of fish but was now catching silvers to put something in the net. Will had a few fishing the little island on the tip and was now going shallow. I could see odd fish being caught and from the look of it they were all shallow fishing. 
Will Reynolds Peg 16 Pines
Picking up me shallow rig and flicking it over around 20 times before I had my first fish on the shallow rig, out again and another, happy days two in two, but no, it was not meant to be. Another 20 times and another dip on the float indicated a liner, shallow up and out again and flick, flick, flick, bury. I was making some good decisions but the fish did not seem to be there in any numbers, Those either side of me and Lee were catching on the islands, the top end of the lake was catching with the wind blowing in. Even on the opposite bank I could see them struggling to put a run of fish together.
I persevered on the shallow rig until the last hour. I had started feeding maggot onto the top 3 line and with the wind and rain I decided to give it a go. More in hope the expectation. Lo and behold the float dipped and a carp, followed by another and another. Why did I not do this earlier? Five maggots on a size 16 KKMB seemed to doing the trick and although there was a few barren spells it was the most productive part of the session.
At the all out and packing up the heavens opened and the deluge completely drenched my already wet kit. My sett of waterproofs stood up to the test and proved a worthwhile investment.
Such is the organisational skills of the JJL event team, the support staff were already on the scales on coming around. Both Lee and I knew we had not done well in the section, but we also felt the fish were not there in any numbers. Lee weighing in 30lb to my 54lb. This put me 9th in the section of 12. Not what I had hoped for, but from a poor peg, I could not compete with the islands. Will winning the section with 118lb and the England U15 angler, Josh Newman placing 83lb on the other island.
Kevin had fared even worse in his section 41lb and unfortunately last in section.
Over on Oaks Lake Dave ( Red Leader) had fished a blinder and despite a discussion with the scales people ended up with 46lb for 4th on the lake, an excellent performance.
Alex had secured 8 points from his peg 18 with a creditable 94lb, such were the weights in his section. Nick was left feeling frustrated from peg 30, 108lb for 5th in section and a tale of foul hookers and smashed rigs, similar to my match on the Tuesday prior to the event. Our performances left us feeling a little deflated at the end. We had a feeling of letting everyone down, the members at maggotdrowning,com and BobCo tackle who kindly supported us throughout the match. A couple of points gained would have seen a massive climb up the table.
Overall the Team event saw Preston Innovations win for the second year running,
Garbolino running the them close with the team from Joseph James Law coming home in third place. Our team coming home in 10th place.
Individually, Grant Albutt rounding off a great performance to win with 180lb.
Grant Albutt Putting 180lb in the net
This is the fourth year of the event and the profile of this sort of corporate event is growing each year. Andrew Settle, the managing director and owner of JJL and his team have worked hard on this project. If you needed any legal assistance, the effort put into this event shows what they are capable of. From greeting us at the top of the hill, laying on breakfast rolls and hot cups of tea prior to the draw, arranging the team captains and taking team photos, arranging for a professional video company to record the days events, coming around with drinks and snacks mid match, organising the scalesmen and ladies, collating the results and laying on an after match buffet. Excellent service and there for you.
A very nice gesture was to award Andrew Settle with a trophy from the England Ladies team that they had won in South Africa in recognition of the past and continuing support shown by JJL.
England Ladies Presenting an Award to Andrew Settle
Well done and many thanks must also go to the Monk family who not only provided the fishery, cooked the breakfast's worked in the shop and took time off work to support all of this. Trevor Price for being Trevor Price, nothing too much trouble. To all of the unsung heroes, the captains and bank runners, Thank You.
I must also send many thanks to all the supporters of maggotdrowning.com and to BobCo tackle, helping out with clothing, bait and pools money is really appreciated.For a website based to be considered for such an event is a credit to us all, the site is held in high regard by the angling community Many thanks and MDs will be back next year.
Please note some photos used in the report were taken by Tom Scholey at Catch More Media
Please note some photos used in the report were taken by Tom Scholey at Catch More Media
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