Monk Lakes - Match Lake 4

Brits versus Aussies - The 3rd Test

Last night I had a phone call from one of my Wifes Aussie relatives asking if I'd take him fishing while he was over here on holiday for a few weeks. So after some rapid tackle organising I arranged to take him to the Monk Lakes complex.

Arriving around 10am we decided to fish Match Lake 4 as the wind was, as always, blowing a hoolie and making the other match lakes difficult to fish.

Settling in to pegs 155 and 156 which were relatively sheltered I showed Ronny how to rig up a pole and explained how to fish with it before leaving him to have a go.

Now coming from Aus he'd never even seen a pole let alone fished with one so for once I felt confident I'd catch more than him. His only experience of fishing had been fishing for Baramundi and Brim so whatever he caught would be new to him.

Bait wise we had a selection of hooker pellets, some corn and a pint of maggots. Ronny decided to try a pineapple soft hooker first and before I'd even got my bait in the water he'd connected with a small tench. This was followed by a successsion of it's brothers before he connected with a nice Tench of around 2lbs.

His method of shipping back left a little to be desired but he did ok and landed the fish.

I'd decided to fish exclusively down the margins and fish tight to the reeds. First put in caught and small mirror carp of around a pound was soon on it's way in. This was soon joined by it's brother.

As the day wore on Ronny continued to catch plenty of fish mainly small Tench but with the odd better carp thrown in for good measure. I continued to bag up in the margins with a selection of Carp, Tench, Golden Tench and Ide, most were in excellent condition but this one had seen better days, it's mouth was so badly damaged I don't know how it managed to get an 8mm hooker in it.

The weather was almost spot on with overcast skies and a breeze blowing in to our bank so fishing the margins was the best place to be.

By the end of the session I'd had somewhere around 60lbs whilst Ronny had probably caught 30lbs+, I'd could have easily caught more but spent quite a bit of time coaching Ronny.

All in all an enjoyable session although the constant beep beep from guys fishing the match lakes with buzzers did drive me slightly potty. I have to admit dragging out small Carp and Barbel on 2.75lb carp rods with line around 20lb breaking strain was somewhat over the top, maybe they had heard that Charlie Chawner had caught a 17lb fish from Match lake 3 during the weekend.

Ronny thoroughly enjoyed his day and hopefully we'll manage another session before he goes back home.

My next trip out is to be a week long session fishing on the dark side. I'm off to Elphicks Fishery to fish North Lake in the hope of beating my personal best Carp. There is certainly plenty to go for.

I'll post a full report on my return.

Rolfs Lake 10th & 11th July 2009

Day 1

ROLFS SPECIAL NIGHT MATCH

After spotting a post from Malc Doyle suggesting a special night match at Rolfs Lake in Oxforshire I jumped at it. I just love the place, it's a beautiful lake with wildlife in abundance.

Tonight match was to be something that had never been tried before at Rolfs and with fishing times being 6.30pm till 11.30pm it was going to be dark before we finished.

I'd formulated a plan in the days running up to this match which was to fish paste exclusively, as I'd read that it was producing a lot of decent weights and had made up 8 huge balls before I left home.

I've never done very well when I've drawn in the little side of the lake so hoped to draw away from there, of course when I stuck my hand in the draw bag I found peg 2 stuck to my palm. Exactly where I didn't want to be but when I got to my peg it looked quite inviting.

I spoke to Eddie Taylor-Green, who fishes Rolfs Lake an awful lot, about the best way to fish the peg and he told me to fish two lines one straight in front at 5 metres and the other at 3-4 metres along the margin to my left. His other piece of advice was to feed, feed and feed, oh and not to forget to keeping feeding. One other thing he did say was that the fish in Peg 2 were big so I should be prepared. Luckilly I'd just bought some Red Hydro so was ready for whatever they threw at me.

Armed with his advice I was set up with plenty of time to spare and wandered round and had a chat with those close by which included Tony (spamwham), Al, Nick (Neo1) and Terry (Wily). All were really looking forward to what proved to be a great match.

The first couple of hours for me went by with little action apart from a couple of carp early on. They were both good fish though, the first going 13lbs+. the others around me were also finding things alittle difficult although most had caught a few. I kept feeding staedilly, as Eddie had said, and eventually things started to improve. Try as I might I couldn't buy a bite on the margin line but the fish were now queing up at 5 metres. As the darkness fell John, who runs Rolfs, turned on the floodlights which was great for those in their beam but it didn't make a jot of difference to my view so I quickly attached a starlight to my paste float which made all the difference.

With an hour to go I was really motoring and had already passed the ton (the 1st time I'd ever done this at Rolfs) and was looking good for a very big weight. Eddie had been right when he said the fish were big as all bar two of the carp were 'weighers' and I was up and down like a fiddlers elbow back and forth to the weigh station. Tony on peg 40 to my left was suffering and having a real nightmare with fish that kept trashing his rigs whilst Al on peg 4 could be heard moaning everytime I got up to weigh another fish.

By the end of the match I was absolutley knackered and knew I'd caught a big weight. Two of the fish I'd caught went 16lbs and 17lbs 2ozs and went mental when hooked but I have to say I was very pleased with the way my pole handled them armed with the new Red Hydro.

As the scales went round the lake it appeared that a lot of fish had been caught although a few had struggled once the lights went on. Dave the Fish in particular had really suffered and had to go for a walk to cool down as the lights were burning the back of his neck.

Finally the scales reached my peg and when the 'weighers' sheet was added up I'd got 190lbs without the couple of fish in the net. My final total was 202lbs 2ozs, a personal best match weight and of course my first ton and double ton from Rolfs Lake. I was ecstatic...................

It turned out my weight wasn't quite enough to win the match but I'd finished a fantastic 3rd and I knew I'd sleep well tonight even though I was sleeping in the car. Simon E on peg 16 had won the match with 242lbs 4ozs with Steve Wilson on peg 30 finishing 2nd with 225lbs 4ozs ( a new personal best match weight). The total weight of fish caught by the 19 anglers was 2288 lb, an average of 120lbs 4ozs per angler. There were 3 x 200lb+ weights and 9 x 100lbs+ weights so it showed what the lake can do when it gets dark.

I have to say the night match was a great success and most importantly everyone had managed to stay safe and not fall in. I for one can't wait to do it again.

Day 2

JINX MATCH 3

After finally getting to bed at 3.30am I had a decent nights and woke about 7.30am to the sound of Malc laughing and just knew he'd been awake all night. This turned out to be the case as Steve Wilson had originally planned to sleep in the fishery caravan but had mysteriously been locked out by Gemma and Simple. Now whats that saying....When the caravans rocking don't go knocking.....Steve obviously decided not to disturb them so he went and woke Malc and they stayed up all night talking.

The mornings discussions were all about the way the lake had fished last night and whether the pegs that weren't fished last night would be at a disadvantage today. A few of those fishing today had not fished last night and were soon arriving and were looking for information about which pegs fished well and what methods had proved successful.

Peter Morton, my arch nemesis, came and spoke to me and seemed genuinely pleased that I'd caught a double ton the night before but warned that now he was here things were bound to go downhill. By the time the draw arrived everyone was bursting to get started apart from Peter who semed to be hanging back from the draw bag. It seems he was worried about drawing peg 13, somewhere he'd drawn a bit too much lately, and one he'd really struggled on. My lucky drawing hand seriously let me down picking me peg 36 not only was I again in the little lake but worse than that it was one of those pegs not fished the day before.

To make matters even worse when I got to my peg I looked round and saw Peter dumping his gear down on the next peg !!!!!!!.

I have to say I've drawn peg 36 before and really struggled so I wasn't looking forward to what the day had to offer but as last night proved I can catch plenty of fish when they are in front of me so there was some hope.

This hope soon faded when after 2 and a half hours I'd caught next to nothing and had to watch those around me bagging. Peter was catching steadilly and I was well behind him whilst Tony on peg 7 was absolutely flying. I remembered what Eddie had told me the day beofre and decided to really go heavy with my feeding and in the last two hours fed 6 bags of pellet. This seemed to work as finally I was getting bites. The trouble was so was Peter and he continued to keep catching well. I thought I'd better take an action shot as he was bound to ask me for some pics for his blog.

The fish had taken his some time to land and proved to be a good fish so I took a pic of that too.

By the end of the match I'd only got 4 'weighers' for about 50lbs but at least I'd managed to catch a few. By the time the other few fish were weighed I'd finished with 61lbs. Peter kindly returned the favour and took a pic of my best fish a lovely common of 14lbs which fought like crazy, I'm sure John must feed these fish steroids.

Today hadn't fished quite so well but almost eveyone had caught a few fish. Spare a thought for Gemma though who having finished last on friday night managed that feat again having only been able to catch 1lb 4ozs of silvers. (Probably a good thing as I expect she was tired after the night in the caravan !!................behave Vince!!)

I'm not sure of the full results yet but do know that Ryan won the day with, I believe, 197lbs from the car park bank, Well done Ryan.

Finally I must thank a few people, firstly Malc for organising both matches and giving me an invitation.

Secondly to John for letting us fish the 'Special' on friday and for all his hard work in keeping the fishery the place of dreams that it is.

Finally my thanks must go to Eddie Taylor-Green for his help and advice, cheers mate.

My final thoughts must go to Dave, the owner of the Maggotdrowning.com website. Not only had he travelled all the way down form Yorkshire to fish but he'd managed to snap one of his top kits playing a carp but then went on to lose another when he stuck it between his legs to feed his peg whilst playing another fish and had it dragged in to the lake. OOooopppss!!!!!!!

Maggotdrowning.com - Individual Champs 2009

The 2009 Maggotdrowning.com Individual Champs held on the match lake at Larford Lakes, Stourport, Worcestershire took place today. This is a match that I have the pleasure of organising and have done so for a few years now and thoroughly enjoy doing so.

So many anglers originally booked in that I had to form a reserve list but in the end just 38 turned up hoping to be crowned Maggotdrowning.com Individual Champion 2009.

Talk at the draw was about the big weights that can be caught in the match lake and where the best place would be to draw. One thing I'd noticed was how close the pegs were, there can't have been more than about 10 paces between each one so fortunately today we were using every other peg.

I quite fancied a peg near the club house so of course drew just about as far away as was possible, peg 51 at the far end in a bay. For company I had Simon elsey on peg 53, Midge, Croydon Angler and Royst. Also close by and in full view were Clive and of course my nemesis, Mugger Morton.

My day turned out to be difficult one. I couldn't buy a bite and with 3 hours gone had caught hardly anything other than 1 carp on the feeder. Peter was putting afew in the net but not as many as Tony (Spamwham) who was bagging. By the end I'd given up hope, it didn't matter what I tried there just weren't any fish in front of me, even fishing maggot brought no response. To make it worse I could hear Malc catching fish after fish on the other side of the island, just a good job I couldn't see him or else I might had slit my wrists.

The weigh in told a story, all those pegged in the same bay as me had struggled, it appeared that the fish just weren't there and were all in the main part of the lake.

Congratulations to Fordy on another fine win with 116lbs 7ozs, the only ton+ weight of the day.

Full results by peg no. are shown below. Thanks must go to the fishery staff for looking after us, Lyn for her hard work with the raffle, and to everyone who made the effort to come along and make the day a success.

P2 Bucko 14-01 P3 Smasher (DNW)

P5 Simple Simon 63-15 P7 Baggingman 89-03

P9 Sprucey 46-01 P11 Milo 55-08

P13 Genus9 73-00 P15 Gemma 15 15-11

P19 Me 23-16 P21 Paul Scatt 37-10

P23 ED10 72-05 P25 Dirk 53-12

P27 Mike Globe 64-03 P29 Dai Fish 28-02

P31 BaggerJ 40-13 P33 Floatfisher Jnr 53-04

P35 Spamwham 96-15 P37 Peter M 50-05

P39 Marginman 34-06 P41 Clive 19-03

P43 Drynets 16-10 P45 Royst 34-10

P46 Midge99 18-02 P47 Croydon Angler DNW

P51 Vince G 17-11 P53 Simon Elsey DNW

P55 Malc 89-12 P57 Fish4alarf 18-13

P59 Bungee 98-13 P61 MarkCAdroit 54-04

P63 Aigy 66-03 P65 Fordy1 116-07

P67 Ulladubulla 34-15 P69 Looney 50-02

P71 Hicko1 82-02 (inc 1 fish 16-01) P73 J R Hartley 47-05

P75 Budgie65 31-13 P77 Steak 36-02

Sorry no pics as I'd managed to leave the camera on after taking the first one and flattenned the batteries. OOOooops!!

Faye's Charity Match - Monk Lakes

Well today was the day that so many members of Maggotdrowning.com were waiting for.

A while ago a young lady called Faye asked the members for help in coming up with an idea for a present for her Dad for Christmas. Faye suffers from an awful illness that keeps her more or less bedridden so as is the way with Maggotdrowning.com not only did some ideas come forward but a collection was made and some lovely items of tackle purchased and delivered. Faye was delighted by the members generosity.

it was decided that a charity match would be held to raise money for Fayes favourite charity, postpals, which helps people in a similar situation to Faye.

27 brave souls arrived at Monk Lakes not only looking forward to the match but also eagerly awaiting the arrival of Faye who was maiking a special visit to say thankyou.

As many of you know I always have a £1 side bet with Peter Morton and as luck would have we drew next to each other so it would be easy to see how he was getting on.

Well what a day!!

First and foremost, a huge thankyou to all the Maggotdrowners who came along, as well as those who supported from afar, to help such a wonderful young lady. Faye truly is an inspriration to us all, despite her illness she was desperate to come along today and show her thanks for what this great online family of ours is doing for her. She never stopped smiling the whole time she was with us and certainly brightened up my day even though the fishing where I was was hard. It was lovely to see her get involved at the recording the weights from her wheelchair, she clearly enjoyed doing it.

Liz (Faye's mum), how you managed to get through today without bursting in to tears is a mystery to me, you have a beautiful daughter who you must be very, very proud of. Dave your speech at the presentation brought a lump to my throat and I'm not ashamed to admit, a tear to my eyes. As the above shows, today had a profound effect on me and the memories will live with me for a very long time.T

he fishing for me was today was hard, not helped by the fact that as I said earlier I'd managed to draw next to Mugger Morton on a day that I really wanted to beat him. It certainly added some extra pressure.

Needless to say I lost another £1 + a fiver I promised to the kitty if I didn't beat him. Things looked good for a while with 3 carp in quick succession then it all went t*ts up, and while I sat looking a a motionless tip or pole float Peter was slowly nicking Barbel on the maggot feeder. (Guess who didn't bother to take any maggots today). At the weigh in it was clear I'd had a mare, only weighing 13lbs 8ozs. Peter had easily beaten me with 25lbs 4ozs.

The match winner was Al with just over 94lbs.

The amount money raised was superb and when the final total is in it will be well over £700, a marvellous effort.

Mansfield Lake, Nr Canterbury

Mansfield Lake - 2nd May 2009

Some time ago Mick the Chippy Pearson (Worzel to his friends) posted that he was arranging a little get together at Mansfield Lake nr Canterbury. Having visited the lake before in the winter I decided to go back and see what it would fish like in the warmer weather.

As the place is tucked away in deepest darkest Kent Bill Gibbbins suggested he pick me up, mainly because I have a Sat Nav which would ensure he could find the place.

Bill arrived at 7am and the car was soon packed. Making our way through the Kent countryside I said to Bill I'd like to draw one of the pegs on the Southern Side by the car park. The reason for this was it was where I guessed most pleasure anglers would fish (they are lazy buggers you know) and hopefully have put in a bit of bait. Also there are some lovely looking patches of reeds and large lily beds which should be natural fish holding areas.

Now I normally like to draw early on but this being one of Mick's matches things were a little different. He had decided that we would draw depending on the order we arrived at the fishery. Well as Bill and I were the last to get there I only avoided drawing last by getting out of the car before Bill. There were still a few of the southern pegs in the bag when I drew so I was happy to see peg 11 nestling in my palm.

After the obligatory huge breakfast roll had been consumed I made my way to my peg and was pleased to find a nice looking lily bed on one side and some reeds on the other. For company today I had Kev the Catch on my left and Mike Jameson on my right.

Just to make things interesting onthe opposite bank was my arch nemesis Peter. As usual I had a £1 side bet with him and hoped that maybe today would be my day to finally win one.

I decided on three lines of attack, one margin rig for the reeds to my right where I found about 1 foot of water, 1 rig for the lily bed to my left where I found 4 feet of water tight to the lily bed and a waggler line. I set up both pole rigs with Malman 4 x 14 Thicko's with size 16 b911's and a 4bb insert waggler to fish approximately half way across the lake.

Bait wise I had with me, corn, luncheon meat, worms, maggots, various flavoured soft hookers and a ball of paste.

At the all in I fed 2 cups of 4mm skretting pellet laced with a few bits of corn and a few maggots on each pole line and fired out a couple of pouchfuls to the middle of the lake. My plan was to start on the waggler to give the fish time to settle closer in. First cast with corn and the float buried but it wasn't the greatest resistence that met the strike but a greedy 4 oz roach. which was soon in the net. After a few more casts and a change to worm on the hook the waggler shot away and this time my 12ft Normark Microlite rod arched over. It took a little while to subdue the fish but soon a carp of around 3lbs was in the net. Looking across to Peter it seemed he was stuggling and a s yet hadn't had a bite. Hopefully things would contnue like this and I might actually bag a decent net of fish. However as is usual for me things got worse, much worse. Even though I was getting indications on the float it just wouldn't go under so I started striking at the small dips. Unfortunately I didn't connect with anything so after about an hour I came in to the pole line next to the lilies. Baiting with half a worm I dropped the rig right next to the lilies and waited, and waited and waited. Even though there were bubbles everywhere the fish didn't seem to want the bait no matter what I used, corn, meat maggots and paste all taking a turn.

With the water so shallow on the other margin line I wanted to leave it longer so went back on the waggler. Again first cast it buried and another roach came to hand. Well by now I was starting to worry about where I would find any decent fish especially as Al at the far end of the lake seemed to be catching carp fairly regularly and Bill next to him having a couple of decent bream.

Mike next to me had managed a few small tench on the paste in the first couple of hours whilst Peter still remained fish less. Others around the lake had caught the odd carp but it was fishing very hard. I'm fairly certain that the carp had other things on their mind as the reeds all around were resembling a knocking shop.

Things remained hard and nearing the end of the match I'd only caught one more fish, another carp of around 3lbs from the shallow line.

However the good news was Peter was still struggling having resorted to catching small roach. maybe, just maybe today was the day. Peter had however set up a feeder rod as by now Mike opposite him had gone home, disappointed with his catch rate, and Peter was able to cast acros to the lilies by Mike's platform.

With a few minutes to go Peter had managed to find one carp so things were now getting a bit close. He has a reputation of mugging a good fish late on in matches so I kenw anything could yet happen. With barely any time left I looked at my watch and it read 4 o'clock, however as the 'All out' hadn't yet been called I assumed Mick was running the match to French time. Peter by now had gone over to fishing along to the next platform with his feeder as he had seen fish moving there. I was willing Mick to shout that time was up as I knew I had more than Peter and finally would take a £1 off him after too many times trying.

I heard Peter comment to Ryan that there was a ghostie carp which just wouldn't get it's head down when suddenly his rod was almost ripped off the rest. 8 seconds later, yes you read it right 8 bloody seconds, Mick called the 'all out' .......................... My heart sunk, I could see that it was a decent fish and was fairly certain that Peter wopuld have more than me if he landed it. Needless to say he was the target of much encouragement from everyone around the lake who like me couldn't believe he had the cheek to Mug yet another late fish....

As the scales showed he'd gone and done it again and taken another of my shiny coins. To say I was gutted was an understatement, the last time we fished Mansfield Lake he did me by 1 oz and this time he'd done me with a very late, possibly too late, fish as if i'd been running the match the 'all out ' would have been called by my watch which would have meant he wouldn't have caught it. ( I'm not bitter !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! honestly I'm not !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no seriously I'm really not a bad loser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oi Chippy buy a new bloody watch, yours runs slow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Anyway back to the match. Congratulations to Al on a fine win on a hard day and to Dean for his 2nd place on his first MDer's outing. Thanks to Mick and his assorted brothers for organising the day and to Old Crapper for the after match refreshments.

After Mick had handed out the money to the winners I had a little surpise for him. I then made a little speech, I said to Mick that I knew what a family man he was and how it would be nice if his brothers could see what he got up to in his younger days whilst out chasing the ladies. I told him I managed, after searching the internet, to find a long lost, home movie and that I'd like to present it to him.

Here's what I gave him.

And here's a close up,

Somehow I reckon he might just find a way of getting his own back sometime, but don't worry I've got another surprise for a future match planned and this time it's not for Mick.

Be afraid, be very afraid..........................................

By the way, anyone got the number for the Samaritans?

Bridges Lake revisited

Bridges Lake, Monk Lakes Fishery

A few days ago Bill G sent me a PM saying that him and Peter were popping over to Monk lakes to day for a session on Bridges Lake and asked if I'd like to join them. Unfortunately the night before Bill had to drop out as his wife wasn't well so it turned in to a head to head between me and Mugger. I'd had a great day there last week so was looking forward to it, What a difference a week makes.

I arrived about 7.45am and had a look around to see if I could find a couple of pegs close together. It was fairly busy already and there weren't many free but I saw that the 2 pegs on the end of the same island that I fished the other day were free. I made my way around the lake and not long after parking the car Peter arrived. We went and had a look at the pegs and being the nice guy that I am I chose to fish the same one I had a few days ago. That left Peter the peg right on the end of the island.

One thing I forgot to mention was the wind was blowing a fairly strong northerly, right in to Peters face.

I'd only brought along the pole today so found the rig I'd used previously and set up one top kit with a Maver 12/20 elastic, attaching a Drennan Carbo .75gm shotted with an olivette and 2 small droppers to a size 16 B911. On my 2nd top kit with Black hydro I put a 1.5gm Maver float (sorry don't know the name) again shotted with an olivette and droppers but this time with a 14 B911.

This was my swim.

By now Peter had started moaning as he had found he only had about 2 feet of water at 8 metres whilst I had at least twice that at 6 metres. He kept saying something about being tucked up, I just kept quietly grinning to myself. Having set himself up Peter decided to have a look in the swim to my right just to see of it was any deeper so off he trot, pole in hand to plumb the depth. Having reached the swim and dropped his plummet in he was met with a volley of abuse from a 'Carper' fishing on the right hand bank who seemed to think he could fish anywhere he liked including in the swim Peter was plumbing. Peter not being shy sent a volley back before deciding to stay in his original swim. For the rest of the day I heard the 'Carper' telling everyone and anyone about the pillock (word changed to protect the innocent) fishing on the end of the island. It sounded something like being an employee of somewhere you deposit your money.

Anyway back to the fishing, things for me started slowly with nothing for the first 10 minutes until finally I hooked into a bream of around 1lb 8ozs. Peter by now had caught 3 or 4 having decided to fish the waggler because of the wind. To say it was awkward would be an understatement, the water was towing heavilly to my left and even with the heavy rig on I was having trouble holding the rig still. I even fed a line even shorter but that was the same. In the end I had to under shot the float to stop it disappearing in the waves.

I persevered and managed to catch a few every now and then but spotting bites was difficult. A mixture of Bream to 3lbs 8ozs, Tench, Golden Tench and Chub made up my eventual catch of 29 fish. I guess they probably weighed around 40lbs +. Of course it wouldn't be right if I didn't hook a lump so I did just that, however it was gone in a hurry after stetching the Maver 12/20 to alarming lengths. Peter was having more success with the waggler and was catching some lovely Bream the best I saw him have was around 6lbs and ready for spawning. I had to go around 3pm so left Peter to it, I gather he finished with 57 fish so all in all not a bad return on a difficult day because of the wind. I'll definately be back, hopefully when it's lovely and hot and with no wind.

On a different note I spoke to the bailiff about matches on the lake and he said they could only be held in the winter. In that case maybe I'll organise a match on Bridges later in the year, maybe somewhere around Christmas. With the margins in some swims being fairly shallow it will be probably be a waggler or feeder event for most, but that will make a change from the pole.

Hawkhurst Fish Farm - 10th April 2009

Hawkhurst Fish Farm Match Lake

A few weeks back Paulvis posted a thread suggesting a Maggotdrowning day at Hawkhurst on Good Friday. As the venue is about 3 minutes from home this was one I wanted to fish so my name was added to the list.

The forecast leading up to the day was not looking good, so much so that Matt Love dropped out as he didn't want to get his waterproofs wet. Heavy winds and a steady wind were apparently what we were to expect.

I arrived at the fishery at 8.30am to find everyone else already there. My wife dropped me off and left me to have some peace and quiet away from the kids. I paid my entry fee and was a little dissapointed to pick peg 2 from the draw bag. Although everyone says a match here can be won from any peg I've never liked this area, peg 1 supposedly a flyer sits in a corner and it's here where everyone tends to congregate before the match. I'm sure this has a negative effect on both pegs 1 & 2.

Anyway I set up my gear and had a two pronged attack planned, a line at 5 metres hard on the deck and two margin lines tight to the boards both left and right. Bait for the day was to be 6mm GOTBaits cat meat hookers, corn and some 8mm Skrettings pellets to fish on a band. Feed would consist of 4m Skrettings pellet and I'd also got about 3 pints of almost dead maggots which I might feed on one of the margins. I'd also knocked up a small amount of paste but thought it might still be a bit cold for that to work well.

To my left was Peter, my arch nemesis, we always have a £1 side bet and unfortunately it's beginning to get expensive. I was really hoping today would be a better one and maybe a £1 would be coming my way. As you can see Peter wasn't at all confident as he looks like he's praying to the fishing gods.

After breakfast was taken the all in was sounded at 10.30am and I potted in a couple of pots of 4mm Skrettings pellet and a few bits of corn on each line and shipped out to 5 metres to see whether the fish wanted to play ball. 30 seconds later and carp no.1 was in the net, not big at around 1lb but a welcome start. The next few put ins resulted in the same thing and I was beginning to feel confident of catching a few today.

For some reason things suddenly slowed and for the next ten minutes only one more fish came to the net. Then almost a soon as it slowed things picked up again and a few more fish soon joined the others in the net. This pattern was continue throught the match, catch a few then nothing, catch a few more, then nothing. It was incredibly frustrating especially as Peter didn't seem to be catching much either.

Throught the match I picked up one or two better fish including one of around 7lbs but most were what appeared to be newly stocked F1's. One thing I did notice was how slimy the Carp were, not something I'd come across before.

Anyway after around 3 hours my bladder got the better of me and I made a trip to the loo but not before potting 2 more pots of pellet on the 5 metre line. Returning from the loo I decided tio have a look at the margin lnes to see whether there were any fish there. First drop in and the float buried and a nice mirror of around 3lbs fought well before I eventually netted it. As I suspected the fish was hooked squarely in the pectoral fin, no wonder it hung on a bit.

No more fish followed during the next hour, despite signs of fish in the swim, from either margin so it was back out to 5 metres.

I decided at this time to try the paste, what a difference, the float buried straight away and a 2lb carp was soon netted and for the remaider of the match I continued to pick up more even though the bites were very finicky. during the last hour the forecast rain arrived although not as heavy as expected.

By the all out I knew I hadn't done nearly enough and certainly had been beaten by Peter yet again as while his catch rate improved mine never really got out of 1st gear.

Peter next to me was first to weigh and put a creditible 86lbs 5ozs, I ended up with 32lbs 50zs for no where. As the scales made their way round it was evident that most had caught a few but many had suffered long biteless periods just like me.

The eventual winner was Paul East from peg 7 with 125lbs with Keith Driscoll a fairly 2nd with 112lbs. The only other to break the 'ton' was Nick Allen with 101lbs.

One of these days I'm going to have a decent day at Hawkhurst but for now I'll just look forward to my next trip out which will probably be another visit to Monk lakes for another assault on the Bream and Tench in Bridges Lake. This time I'll make sure my camera batteries are fully charged.

Sorry for the lack of photo's in this report but with the likelyhood of rain I packed the camera away early to save it from getting wet.