Marsh AC Southend Farm 05.10.2019

There are not many venues where you can catch 70lb of Bream and 2 Carp for 25lb, well I managed it last year from Southend Farm. I fortunately secured the match win and was really looking forward to having another go at this prolific venue.That match was in early June last year, whilst we had to confront some cooler days and colder nights as the autumn really sets in.
It was good to see that Mick had put his name down for this match, he would need a short walk, but it was great to see him getting back on the bank. I arrange to pick him up at 0600 and with the car loaded we headed off. No trouble on the M1 or M25 and it seemed to fly by. Catching up is always good, we have over 25 years of friendship behind us. Parking the car by the cafe, we were greeted by Simon and Gino, already waiting patiently for there orders. Soon others were arriving, Chris T and Foxy, Terry, Tony and Jim. Having been fed we made our way out to Dave and the all important draw. I fancied a peg to the right hand side , ideally on the far bank. They looked as if they had decent depth but had better looking margins. We had available to us the near side bank, pegs 16 to 32 and a high number would fit the bill. Mick would be on one of the short walk pegs in front of the car park. Mick draws 22 and I was on 24 with the Reverend Tony Roberts in between us.I had Gino on 25.
I had decided to just fish the pole, the rods had been left behind (again), so opted to fish top four in 6ft of water, both left and right. A top three line straight out and a shallow rig, Bait was meat, corn and pellets.
At the all in I started off shallow at 12m fishing 2ft deep with a 6mm hard pellet, 20 minutes on this and no signs, Tony was catching a few skimmers around 10m out in 7ft of water fishing corn. I decided to try my top four lines. Left with corn and right with meat. Another 40 minutes go by and a solitary roach was all I could muster on corn. Josh had snared a couple of carp, whilst Foxy was busy catching skimmers. Gino was struggling as I was. Chris T had a couple of carp weighing 17lb followed by another at 21lb fishing the pellet waggler deep.
I was going nowhere fast, I tried longer, but again no bites, tried closer and again nothing. The only place I could get bites was the left hand line, top four dead depth on corn feeding a few grains and around 10 pellets via a toss pot. I did hook a couple of carp, one on light elastic which I could not turn as it cruised out to the middle of the lake. The other on Black Hydro which although I could turn, could not get its head up and the hook pulled out.
Tony was fishing exactly the same and catching well. Josh had sneaked in another couple of fish, as had Chris T and Foxy. Kyle chipped in with another carp and a few silvers.
On the all out I was disappointed, I felt numb, not knowing where I went wrong, I felt there were a few fish to be had on the pole lines and I could not work out how to catch them. My weight of 16-08 went onto the scales.

Overall

1st Chris T              70-04

2nd Josh D             58-04

3rd Tony R             52-08

4th Mark F             40-12

5th Mick W           31-08

6th Dave C            25-04

Chris T with part of his 70lb winning weight

Josh D second place with 58lb

An exceptional performance from the Reverend 52lb of skimmers

The Chairmen with 25lb of hard earned skimmers

Great to see Mick on the bank even if it did cost me a MK Nugget.

My next match is the last of the Marsh AC season, at a new venue, Slough House Lakes. Never seen it before, so who knows. One thing for sure is I will have some rods with me.