Marsh AC Claygate Lake Eva 05.09.2020

 Another match with the Marsh AC lads and another long drive, getting quite used to it now. Mick made the decision not to attend as the drive is too much for him. And with Covid 19 still present and the both of us declared as vulnerable it is a wise decision. So with a couple of hours drive ahead I set off around 0545 planning to arrive at 0800. Arriving a little ahead of time I was able to have a cup of tea before the draw.

We had been given all of the front bank, pegs 19 -36 and with a dozen of us in attendance we could leave out some of poorer pegs. I had previously stated that the end peg was a either brilliant or absolute garbage dependant of the wind. It is at the end of an arm, from 33 to 36 can be poor and the further down the arm you go the worse it gets.So those selecting the pegs decided to leave it out and make peg 33 the end peg, at the entrance to the arm.

I let Dave, the Chairman, draw for me as he has done it so well throughout the season. Peg 33 and not where I hoped to be. But I had a bit of room with no-one to my left. I had Josh on 32, Chris T on 31 and Clive on 29, all in my section. All more than capable of winning the section, let alone the match.

I set up a couple of rigs for the margins, top of the shelf and bottom of shelf. A 4m line, just off the end of my keepnets for meat, a pellet line at 6m and a line at 11m both up and down. Bait was corn, meat, pellets and a few maggots left over from the previous days pleasure session.

Starting off on the meat line at 4m, feeding 3 or 4 cubes every couple of minutes, I had a small tench and a perch after 20 minutes but none of the carp or F1s I was hoping for. A look long on 6mm pellet both up and down never produced a bite all day. I was struggling and with an hour gone I had a couple of tench and one perch. 

Josh and Chris had been catching as I could hear the splashing in the shallow water. So I was up against it. The banter was flowing between the pair of them and at times it was funny just listening to them. Coupled that with a young family on the far bank pleasure pegs, running around and screaming at the top of their young voices made for a memorable day. I could not see any further down the bank to the early pegs but word was Foxy was catching well and Dave had nicked a good carp. 

I decided to concentrate on one area of the peg at 6m on pellets, dotting the float down to a dimple, I would lift at any movement of the bristle. The bottom of the lake was very silty and I was thinking the bait may be sinking into the silt. When I got a bite I could see a few bubbles approaching, then a small indication on the float, With a normal bristle set up I am sure I would have missed these bites, or waited longer for it to go under. Slowly I was putting together a few fish, some just after you fed and the light elastic just ripping out of the pole, other times waiting for the bubbles. F1s around the 2lb mark and with the halfway mark approaching I reckoned on having 25lb in the net, consisting of 5 tench, one perch and 10 F1s. Similar to Josh who was catching on the tip and pole across to the island. 

I would catch a couple of fish before it would cool off, I made another decision at this time to stop feeding meat close in and start feeding pellets, in hindsight a poor move, I think the fish were comfortable away from the bankside disturbances.But what it did do was give me the chance to come away from the 6m catching line and rest it. Because I could not monitor how the fishing was, I was fishing a bit blind, Foxy was still catching, Josh, Chris or Clive were catching but I could not which one of them.So it was a case of just plugging away, nicking odd fish and ringing the changes. Switching from fishing 6mm to 8mm, feeding a couple of 6mm in with the 4mm, adjusting shotting from spread to bulk and vice versa, fishing up and down. All changes whenever there was a quiet spell.

I was pleased when the whistle went, my head was hurting from the family opposite and thought I was well battered by Josh and Chris.Then Tony came down to help with the weigh in, moaning about the poor day he had and how everyone else had struggled. My spirits lifted and now my (in my head estimate) of 50lb was looking good, Josh was admitting to 60lb and to be fair he is normally pretty close with his calls. 

Overall

1.  Keith Ashby            57-12
2.  Josh Donovan         56-10
3.  Mark Fox               51-12
4.  Jim Boase               30-08
5.  Chris Thomas          29-08
6.  Dave Collier            27-00

Overall the lake fished as it always does, poor in most areas, just odd catches here and there.It maybe because the we only have half a lake and pleasure anglers on the opposite banks on a small venue, nearly every peg was in on our side with very little room. A lot of the pleasure anglers were catching odd fish, fishing a feeding floating baits, as I saw a few dog biscuits skirt by. It may be we got OUR tactics wrong and our expectations are too high. Still I am not too proud to claim a win, but did I enjoy it, not really.