Marsh AC Slough House Lake 19.10.2019

With the seasons changing from Summer to Autumn, it reminds me that the Marsh AC season slowly comes to an end. Our matches run from March through to October, it will not stop me from going out and pleasure fishing or fishing any opens I fancy though.

Our last match of the season was a bit of an unknown for a lot of us. Slough House Lake near Thurrock. It is reported there are numerous specimen carp and catfish present, along with plenty of bream, skimmers and roach. We could not find a lot of information on the matches, but it seemed to mainly be an odd carp with lots of silvers as a back up.

I had arranged to pick Mick up at 0600 and a nice steady drive to Junction 27 of the M25. However, a lorry driving into a car put paid to that, with everyone having to feed into two lanes to get by. Twenty minutes later, and we were through. Pulling into the only cafe (Puddledock Farm Fishery)we knew that was open, we were greeted by Simon and Gino, always early and awaiting there food.

With a couple of full English's devoured we were back on the road for the 5 minute journey to Slough House. We were a little late arriving, but there was still room in the overflow car park. 

Gear unloaded, pools money paid and a slow walk to the pegs. on first impressions the lake looked nice and established, it reminded me of some of the venues I fished as a youngster.

I had drawn peg 4, it did not mean anything to me, but it looked alright, plenty of room, a bit of shadow cast across the lake and a decent depth. Mick had walked past me, towards his peg 8, a little further along the bank. Again Mick's peg looked good from above the water level, who knows what it looked like underneath.

I had come with a plan to target the silver stocks and forget about the carp. I have fished specimen carp lakes before and to be fair at this time of year it was very hit and miss. I would much sooner see the float go under regularly. With this in mind I had some micros, 4mm hard and soft pellets and a couple of pints of maggots. Enough groundbait to make up a couple of balls and a bit of loose feed.

I planned to fish two lines at 10 and 2 o'clock at 11m, nice and comfortable. The depth did not vary, so I made up a couple of .4g MW Diamonds and shotted one with a bulk of no8 stotz with a couple of no9 droppers, the other with a more strung out shotting with a slower fall through the water. These were .16 to .13 hooklength and a size 16 KKMB hook. Both coupled to white hydro.

My other lines were at 6m, again 10 and 2 o'clock. Again MW Diamonds .5g to cover the 6ft depth and a heavier line and hooklength's .19 to .15  to a size 16 B911F1 hook. This time elastic was a yellow hollow from KND.

A couple of balls of groundbait were shipped out to 11m 2 o'clock at the all in, containing around 100 maggots and a few 4mm pellets. The other long line received half a pot of micros with a pinch of maggots. I started off at 6m and promptly lost the first rig in an unseen snag to the left, leaving me to replace the rig and re-plumb the depth. Nothing for the first 10 minutes to the left. I switched to the right 6m swim and had a small skimmer, around 4 ounces. Out again and nothing on 4mm pellets, I swapped over to a couple of red maggots and another 4 ounce skimmer, a couple of blade roach followed, but i needed to keep swapping and changing bats to keep small fish coming.

Tony Roberts on the next peg 5, had sneaked in a good 2lb skimmer and was well in front of me. Dave on peg 2 had a couple of small skimmers and a few blades, similar to me. Chris W was nicking a few on the pole and GB feeder. League leaders, Chris T and Josh were both targeting the carp and although none had come to their nets. Mick was struggling so there was hope of a rare MK Nugget for me. Simon and John were leading the way with good weights of bream and skimmers from further up the lake on pegs 13 and 15.

Sticking at it, I moved out 11m, re-feeding another couple of balls of GB to the right hand line and another half pot of micros to the left. I adopted a catch anything approach, as I was getting odd bites but nothing regularly, Slowly I was putting small skimmers and odd blades in to the net over the micro line. Hoping to get a few larger skimmers I started pinging a few 4mm sinkers. This had the effect of keeping a few fish in the peg but had drawn a few roach higher up in the water and lightning bites were a problem to hit at times. A couple of better fish came to the net but with each better fish Tony had one as well, I think that first 2lb fish he had on meat was the decider.

Chris was now catching well on the tip and pole feeding small balls of GB and fishing maggot on the hook. Simon was slowing down. Chris T and Josh were still bite less from carp, although Josh had nicked a few silvers to save face and avoid the blank. Terry was in the same boat, doing his best to avoid the fish. Mick was still struggling with a couple of small skimmers and a solitary roach.

Chris W Exhausted but a fine net of Skimmers

At the all out I sat thinking about the day, groundbait did not work, best bait was maggot and the day was a real struggle for everyone. When someone of Chris T's ability blanks you know the carp have shut up shop, he had already won the league, so i suppose why not try for carp.

Overall

1st Simon Watkins             25-04

2nd Chris Withall              22-08

3rd John Holdsworth         16-08

4th Tony Roberts               11-00

5th Mark Fox                     10-08

6th Tony Watkins                9-12

My weight of 9lb came in seventh, and was enough to take a MK Nugget off Mick,who had really struggled with 3lb 12oz.

Well done to the framers and section winners, Simon, Chris W and believe it or not Mick. 

Well that's the end of another Marsh AC season. Some new faces have settled in well and have been welcomed by us older faces. On a personal note I feel I have not performed well at all this season and this is reflected in my results. Poor preparation and not enough time have contributed to it and both will be addressed over the winter.

New challenges face us in the Spring and I am sure there will be plenty of new venues, mixed in with our regular haunts to keep us going. 

Well done to Chris T on winning the league and setting some impressive weights along the way. Finally a big Thank You to Dave and Tony for booking matches, running them, taking the money and generally making our lives a lot easier.