I was meant to be fishing Sams Lake in Headcorn today but due to circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to and ended up joining the Marsh AC lads at Hawkhurst Fish Farms match lake. I know many of the members as they are friends from the Maggotdrowning.com website and enjoy fishing with them. 
This was to be a civilised day with everyone setting up their tackle first and then retiring to the Cafe for breakfast. At 10.15am with every one full of bacon, eggs and sausages the All In was called.
Not long after I received 2 phone calls I could have done without. The first was to tell me the wife was taking her Mum to Hospital as her dogs had had a fight and ripped her leg open and the second to say Dad had collapsed again (twice in about an hour) and wasn't too well.
With my head not really in it my peg not doing much I sat back and looked around to see Bill catching well and he looked likely to be the leader, Peter was also picking up a few so It could be a close run thing.
I cupped in some more pellet and had a wander with my camera to take a few shots and popped down to have a chat with Peter. He told me he too had been suffering with foul hookers but was picking up a few better fish using 8mm hard banded pellet. I went back to my peg and tried again, this time I was beginning to connect with a few more fish and a small flurry of Carp followed. As the match wore on Peter was still catching well and it seemed that he may now be in the lead, my match plan had now gone completely out the window and I was just waiting for the final whistle.
I left very soon after the "all out", not bothering to weigh in but estimated my 14 fish at around 35lbs, certainly not enough to trouble those who had been catching all day. I had loads of bites but just kept coming back with scales.
Peter did indeed end up winning with a hard caught 118lbs, Bill finished a close second with 106lbs 8ozs. Dave the organiser had also included a pairs match which was won by Bill Gibbins & Kevin Loveland .
Despite everything that had happened I still enjoyed the day in the company of some decent people who made me feel very welcome.
I will one day to get to grips with the match Lake at Hawkhurst maybe not till next year though as I shall give the place a miss till things warm up again.
My first look at the lake was a pleasant one, although not that large the lake looked very fishy indeed and I hoped we would be in for a good days fishing. the overnight frost however had me a little worried. Dai and Mick the Chippy were already in attendance and were soon followed by Peter, DTF and Colin. Not long after Dave and Geoff turned up along with Tony and of course Max the mad Boxer. Max was obviously hungry after his long journey and joined the queue for his bacon roll. 
After the bacon rolls were consumed amd teas and coffee drunk everyone made their way to their chosen pegs. I settled for the shortest walk and sat right next to the caravan. Dawn had told me it was a popular peg with the locals and often threw up some decent fish from under the overhanging tree.
I had planned a 3 pronged approach for toady which consisted of the pole at 5 metres in front and close in on both margins, a feeder rod for a chuck to the deep water in front and a carp rod rigged up for fishing a boilie.I filled in both margin pegs and sent the feeder out in to open water to hope for an early mug fish. An hour later I was still waiting. In the meantime Dai and Geoff had been slowly bulding a weight of small rudd.I decided a change of tack was needed so picked up the pole, baited with corn and dropped it in under the tree. I somehow expected an instant response but The lake had other ideas and try as I might i couldn't buy a bite. I also tried the left hand margin but that was just as useless.I chucked the pole up the bank baited the feeder with 2 red maggots and sent it back out in to the depths. this time there seemd to be a little interest and suddenly the tip whacked round, the reel churned and I struck...................................................... into thin air. B*GGER!!!!!!!!!!Next put in resulted in another bite but it was only a tiny Rudd. Nothing followed for the next two hours on any line so I baited the carp rod with a smelly squid and octopus boilie cast out under the tree and sat back waiting for all hell to let loose. Unfortuanately I had a long wait and eventually decided I was wasting my time. I chopped and changed for the rest of the match and managed another itiny Rudd before the all out was called.Highlight of the day was watching Dave's new pink knicker elastic stretched to the limit as he tried to subdue what was obviously a decent fish. A number of us had assembled behind Dave giving him encouragement as well as Malc on the phone being his usual polite helpful self.
Finally Dave managed to land the fish and was well pleased with his catch and Max seemed quite interested too..
Throughout the day Peter had been picking up the odd fish and I thought I'd better get a pic of him as he looked like he might just win. Alas when I looked up he'd dissapeared still never mind I took a picture of his empty peg. It's probably a better picture without him in it anyway.
I called the all in at 9.30 and all apart from Andy started on the waggler. After balling in 3 babies heads of original Swimstim, first put in and Roach no.1, about 6ozs was safely in the net. A minute later and Roach no.2 followed this time slightly bigger around 10ozs.The others were all catching too so things looked good for a decent days fishing. The bright sun wasn't helping things though as for a while the fish seemed a little finicky not wanting to take the bait properly but after a change of hook size to an 18 things improved. After about an hour I hooked something somewhat larger but unfortunately didn't get chance to see it as it charged off to my left under the jetty and just continued on it's way to the other side of the lake. It was probably one of the lakes Carp that had taken a liking to my maggot hookbait, however I shall never know. Not long after Andy suffered a similar fate. Trevor seemed to be catching a few and had his own fan club watching him, probably the only bird he's likely to pull.
Andy hooked into what he thought was another Carp so I quickly grabbed the camera for some action shots. However it seems he was just playing to the crowds as it turned out to a roach hooked squarely in the dorsal fin.
Try as I might I couldn't seem to get in a rhythm, I don't think fishing under the willow helped as it was difficult to cast any distance, the Roach just didn't want to feed close in.A few casts on the feeder produced nothing.Nick turned up around 2pm and proceeded to bag up, catching Roach every put in. It was interesting watching him, one thing I noticed was just how inaccurate his casting was, one left, one right one straight. I'm sure Matt's mentioned this before. Perhaps it's a ploy to lead everyone in to a false sense of security.
The all out was called at 3pm and Mick was first to weigh. His net went, 9lbs 7ozs, Andy followed and it was clear he'd got more than Mick and this showed when the scales settled on 17lbs 8ozs.
