Puddledock Farm Road Lake Marsh AC 08.09.2018

Three weeks have passed since I managed to wet a line, seems like an eternity but family commitments took priority and softened the blow. The weather has changed a bit since my last outing where I was sat in shorts and today I needed to where a hoodie, just to take the edge off.
Mick was driving, so it was a good chance to catch up properly. In fact, it was around junction 28 of the M25 before we spoke about fishing.
We were second to arrive at the fishery, Kevin and Jean were calmly waiting for the cafe to open whilst I popped into the tackle shop on site and grabbed myself another towel, mine was found this morning with a lovely set of mouse holes. Slowly the gathered anglers arrived and full English's were delivered promptly.
Dave had arranged with the fishery that we would have one bank and this suited us, it is only a small club and with other anglers unable to make it, it still allowed us all a bit of room. So with breakfast's out of the way and monies paid, we were all stood around Dave's car awaiting the draw. Simon had brought along his future son in law, Kyle, who was just getting back into fishing. It was agreed that they could fish in adjacent pegs as they would be sharing tackle, Kev and Rod had short walks, Mick had his customary end peg leaving the rest of us to draw for pegs. Mine would be half way up the lake on permanent peg 23. At least I had the Chairman next to me.
I have had a lot of decent results recently fishing pellet and corn, it seems to work well and suits my style of fishing. Today would be no different, I would be feeding 4mm Alders Farm Pellets with a generous mix of corn fed regularly to start the session. I opted for a long line at 12.5m where I had the same depth as fishing at 5m. So a couple of MW floats .19 N Guage to a size 16 KKMB hook, something new to try. I set up one rig on black hydro, the other on orange vespe. A shallow rig for fishing the margin, and a couple of rigs set at 2ft for the right hand edge where it dropped off quite sharply.
I started off quite slowly feeding all my lines with a pole cup before going long and glancing around seeing Mick landing a fish. I could also hear Simon asking Kyle if he had caught one. Personally I did not have anything for around 10 minutes. I was getting small indications on the float and slight adjustments to the float eventually saw a small koi carp about a pound come to the net. A couple of small carp before a 2lb plus fish put in an appearance. After an hour I reckoned on 4 small carp and a couple of koi, another carp around 3lb for a total of 12lb. Apparently I was doing well.
A 30 minute spell slapping brought another couple of small carp but nothing to really stretch the elastic. I had been feeding the 5m line with corn regularly and a bit of pellet, it was time to have a look. First put in on corn and the float buries and a good skimmer around 2lb, next put in another, a better 4lb carp and I was beginning to think hey ho. Still it was short lived and the bigger fish were replaced with small skimmers and koi with odd roach and odd carp thrown in all on the pellet.
I could see Mick was nicking a few fish but they did seem small,still it gave his new pole a run out. Tony had popped down to try to put a curse on me, Simon and Kyle were having a private battle between themselves. Chairman Dave was getting a few fish, and I even mentioned to him that there were plenty of silvers to be had if he wanted them.
I kept on rotating my lines and not staying longer than 30 minutes on each one, something I have been guilty of in the past. I would grab a few fish, then move and start again.
Going into the last hour I reckoned on around 50lb in the net and decided to go down the edges for the last hour. 10 fish later and I was happy, I had fished a good match and felt confident of a frame place.
Mick was first to weigh in and although I had seen him catching a few, they were the only ones he caught. Another end peg wasted and 22-08, Tony was next from his corner peg, a solid performance from the Reverend and 9lb 8oz of silvers to go with 25 -08 for a 35-00 total. Terry slipped 26-12 onto the scales and this was fast becoming the quickest weigh in Marsh AC had ever encountered. Chairman Dave put 17-08 on the scales thanks to 4 late carp. Onto me, my first silvers net went 22-00. I only needed 9 ounces for another MK Nugget off Mick. With him watching on intently my second net went 60-08 for a clear cut section win and more importantly another of Mick's Nuggets.
Kyle was next up and placed a solid 42-00 onto the scales for second place. Simon cut short Kyle's joy though with 43-12 to push him down to third.
Rod chipped in with 5-08 before Kevin finished with 16-12.

Overall

1st Keith Ashby         82-08

2nd Simon Watkins   43-12

3rd Kyle                   42-00

4th Tony Roberts      35-00

5th Terry Goff           26-12

6th Mick Wright        22-08

Overall, the lake did not fish well and to be fair there was a lot of pressure on them, The opposite bank was full and although we had a bit of room the fish did not turn up til late. It was a case of nick  a few and move, nick a few more and move. Still I enjoyed the day, It is always good to fish venues where you need to think about what you are doing. Next stop for me is on Friday on the Joseph James Law match at Alders Farm, a truly great event and plenty of very good anglers to compete against. Again I do not expect any form of result on the day, but I will know I would have enjoyed it.

Keith 9

Mick 5