Elphicks North Lake - 1st May 2012

Well after almost 2 years of trying I've managed to get booked on to the North Lake at Elphicks Fishery in Kent. I booked on for a 24hr session in the hope of once and for all finally breaking the 30lb mark. I've had 5 different fish from this lake in the past at 29lb 12ozs so with any luck this time the magical 30lb'er will grace my net. The bookings on the lake have exploded since the biggest carp in the lake has been really packing on weight culminating in her capture at 62lb 10oz.  

The lake is approxiamtely 6 acres and there are large numbers of quality carp in the lake, loads in the 20-30lb class as well as a good number of 30lb and 40lb+ fish. There are also a few very big catfish which when hooked really pull your string.

When I get back on Wednesday evening I'll update things with news of any captures.



Elphicks North Lake 9th - 15th August 2010

Well I'm now back from my week away at Elphicks Fishery in Kent. This was my fourth trip to fish North Lake and I had been joined by 9 others to target the stocks of quality Carp the lake holds.

I'd got a couple of different ideas for this trip which I hoped will see me bank my first 30lb Carp, something that has managed to pass me by on the last 3 trips to the venue. Most of the others fishing had already succeeded in breaking the 30lb barrier so this really was something I was keen to do. My current PB before this trip was 29lbs 12ozs so I'm getting close, let's hope this trip was the one.

The first two days and nights were difficult, I only managed a few line bites and one full blown run, which came to nothing. It was much the same for everyone else on my bank despite us using a variety of baits.

Eventually I was woken in the early hours with a screaming 'one toner' which resulted in this little beauty. I had changed to smaller baits, using 2 x 10mm Cell boilies, and this turned out to be a good decision.

26lb Mirror

Over the next couple of days my change to the 10mm boilies proved to be the right one and despite the lake fishing hard on our bank I caught a couple of super fish. The first a lovely Mirror with beautiful scales along it's back and then a new PB Common.

Mirror Carp 26lb 12ozs

Common Carp 27lbs 2ozs (PB common)

The next day and night passed without much in the way of action apart from a missed run in the early hours which despite the reel screaming and line pouring from the reel I struck into nothing.

Finally I managed a daytime run and after a long hard fight this old looking warrior graced the net. I was quite surprised as it's not normally the sort of fish that you catch from commercials.

Common Carp 24lb 20z

Saturday morning was warmer than it had been for a couple of days and I knew the fish would be moving through my swim heading for the shallows so I baited more heavily in the hope of halting them in their tracks as they went by. I noticed a lot of fizzing over the left hand baits so recast and within and hour the reel was screaming again. After another hard fight, this time in front of an audience (the wives and girlfriends had come to see us) this Common was in the net.

Common Carp 24lb 2ozs

Just as it was being placed on the unhooking mat the middle rod was off, so I asked Jamie to look after it while I attempted to land the second one. This one really did not want to come in and on more than one occasion tried to get in the bushes to my left. Finally it was in the net and turned out to be my biggest fish of the week.

Mirror Carp 27lbs 8ozs.

As you will have worked out by now that elusive 30lb Carp is still a thing of my dreams but I'm sure it will come sooner rather than later. I did catch a couple of other fish, an 8lb Mirror Carp and a new PB catfish...........a massive 6lbs 3ozs !!!!!!!! A young lad (10 yrs old) on the other bank had one of 63lbs, it was longer than him when he laid down beside it.

I've learnt a lot since I got back in to Specimen Carp fishing and have been trying to put this knowledge to good use. It's been working quite well up until now and I must thank Jamie and Luke for their advice and guidance. I am however, pleased to say the decision to use smaller baits was mine, and a decision the others followed with success.

Hopefully I'll be back having a crack at the fish at Elphicks later in the year, this time fishing either West End or Pullens lakes. They may not hold a 50lb fish but there are a lot more 30's and 40's to go at.

Overnight session 29th May 2010

Unfortunately my trip to Monk Lakes for the Charity Match hit a snag when I went down with Pneumonia so when I was offered a short overnight session as a guest on a local club water I jumped at the chance.

Having not fished the lake for years when it used to be a Trout fishery I was really looking forward to it and duly arrived at 4.30pm Friday afternoon. When I arrived a number of the better swims were taken so I opted for one of the little used swims in the reeds. However shortly after setting up my rods I heard that one of the guys was not coming and the best swim on the lake was going to be free. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I quickly moved my gear and was soon ready to target the lakes residents.

There are a lot of Carp in the lake with the best running to around 35lbs. There are also Grass Carp to 32lbs as well as Catfish to well over 65lbs. There are also loads of tench in the 4-6lb bracket which can be a real pain (normally I'd be happy catching these but I was after something somewhat better) as well as some quality Bream to 12lbs. Whilst there are plenty of fish they are not easy and don't often feed during daylight hours so I planned my attack on two margin lines tight to an island to my left.

Bait for the session was Kentish Ripper pop ups fished over bottom baits. dropping my baits tight the island boards I sat back and waited. The evening started slowly with a few fish showing themselves but appearing unwilling to feed. As darkness fell things started to liven up with a number of line bites which showed the fish were now moving on to my feed.

Not long after retiring to my bivvy the left hand rod roared off and the strike was met with some reasonable resistence. However after a short spirited fight it turned out to be a one of the Tench at about 4lbs. Not long after a 2nd Tench around the same size was in the landing net. I was beginning to wonder if these Tench were going to keep me awake all night and by 6.30am I'll had the answer.

11 fish which included 4 carp (19lb 4oz Mirror, 19lb 8oz Mirror Carp, 11lb Mirror Carp, 10lb Mirror Carp), 5 tench to 6lbs and 2 Bream (8lb 4ozs, 8lb ). To say I was pleased is an understatement. After all the talk of it being a tough water where if you get 2 fish in a night you've done well I'd slaughtered it.

On top of these fish I had 2 more before packing up, another Tench of 4lbs and a 19lb 8oz Leather Carp.

All fish apart from the Bream fell to Kentish Ripper pop ups fished over a bed of Kentish Ripper on a KD rig. The Ripper had shown what it can do in spectacular style, hopefully I'll be back on the lake soon.

Elphicks North Lake April 2010

Well I'm back from my week at Elphicks North Lake and I have to say what a good week it was.

I arrived at around midday on Monday 5th April and settled in to my chosen swim, the sixth down on the road bank, and surveyed the water in front of me. There was an easy chuck to the island so one rod would be placed there whilst there was a nice overhanging willow on the right side of the island so that would do for the second rod. The third rod was going to be fished down the margin to my right where there was an overhanging bush and a small clump of reeds.

After fairly quickly erecting my bivvy I set about baiting up my chosen spots before getting the rods out. After about 10 minutes of spodding a particle mix out I noticed a carp swirl in the margin to my right so I put a few boilies in and left it for a while before dropping a bait there. The boilies by the way were Kentish Ripper 15mm Boilies from GB Baits, a local company with a good reputation for their baits. On each line I'd fired approximately 20 boilies.

Finally I was fully tackled up and cast the two rods out to the island but still left the margin swim to settle. After a few hours and having seen the carp swirl a number of times more I finally gave in to temptation and carefully dropped a bait in and waited. Well the wait wasn't too long as after about 10 minutes the alarm was screaming and line pouring from the reel as one angry carp made it's bid for freedom.

After about 5 minutes I managed to get the carp into netting range and gently slid it up to the spreader block and she was mine. The carp was one I had seen before, in November, when it was caught by a mate of mine, a gorgeous looking Ghost leather of 24lbs.

The rest of the day and night was quiet for me although one or two of the others were banking a few quality fish including a 30lb 8oz mirror to Luke.

Talking of Luke he had been having some success on the Grange Plum boilie but was not prepared for what was to come. After casting his rod to a gravel bed about 10 rod lengths out a strange run occurred and the resistance on the end was considerable. Luke commented that it felt strange and could be a Catfish but doubted if it was would go much over 20lbs. Little did he know that 45 minutes later and cheered on by the rest (or was that abused) of us he'd still be trying to get the fish to the net. Finally after a few attempts the catfish was netted and this little beauty of 59lbs 8ozs lay on the unhooking mat.

The weather during the week was very pleasant however the wind just couldn't decide which way it wanted to blow so it constantly changed direction to confuse the lot of us. The days were pretty quiet with the fish mainly moving to the shallower end of the lake but during the night things picked up a little when they made their way back to the deeper water. I was however to have to wait until daylight again before my next take. I was however up most nights helping the others with netting and photographing their fish.

Next to grace my net was a 28lb 8oz Mirror, a new Pb, and a fish that had fought long and hard.

Again apart from a few line bites I had nothing more in the daylight hours and as night fell I had a strange feeling that I'd catch, and so it proved when at 5.45am I landed a 19lb Mirror closely followed by an 11lb catfish.

The next couple of days didn't produce anything to me although Luke was still managing to find one or two. It wasn't until the early hours of Thursday morning that I managed another Carp and this was again a new Pb for me, 29lbs 10ozs of Mirror carp, still not the elusive 30lb'er I was hoping for on this trip, but very welcome all the same.

Spurred on by this success I decided to bait heavier and fired out about 4kg's of boilies to see if this would encourage more takes. Well it obviously worked as at 6.30pm this cracking Common took a liking to my bait tore off at an alarming rate. At one point I was beginning to wonder what I'd hooked and thought that maybe this was be the 30lb fish I was hoping for. On the bank the fish looked fabulous and reminded me of the 26lb 12oz common I'd had back in July 2009, both had fought well above their weight and were both stunning fish.

I was to manage one more fish during the week and this came along at 5.20am when I was fast asleep and into a strange dream. (I was fishing my mates garden pond, fishing the pole, gnome like, and was attached to a shark) see I said it was strange. Well the alarms put paid to that dream and it really was fish on. Again the fish fought well and after about 6 minutes this 28lb 8oz Mirror was laying on the unhooking mat.

I have to say the week at Elphicks was a real pleasure. Once again the GB Baits boilies worked well and produced some cracking fish, not only to me but to a number of the others. In total 34 fish were banked, 32 carp and 2 Catfish, with 5 of us recording new personal bests. The staff were friendly and helpful and the lads with me made it a great time. My diet wasn't too brilliant, bacon and cheese rolls or sausage and cheese rolls, washed down with copious amounts of coffee but I felt great and wasn't too tired by the end of it all. Jamie turned out to be a super chef, cooking all the food, his Coleman dual fuel cooker was brilliant and used about half a gallon of unleaded throughout the week. I can't recommend it highly enough and at around £80 it's well worth the money if you do a lot of night fishing or camping.

Will I go back again, of course I will, in fact we've already booked the lake for a week in August.

Have I given up match fishing and turned to the 'Dark Side', well not yet but who knows, If I start to lose too many pound coins to Peter again this year I may just have to consider my future.

Next time I'm on the bank will the a Charity match at Monks Lakes on Monday 3rd of May, helping out a lovely young lady called Faye, who suffers from a debilitating disease that keeps her bed ridden pretty much most of the time. the way things are looking a load of money will be raised for her favourite charity, Postpals, ( http://www.postpals.co.uk/ ) If anyone wants to donate a little to help it would be very much appreciated, the charity could do with all the help it can get.

Look out for my next report soon.

Tight Lines.

Elphicks North Lake - November 2009 Session

After my successful session on North Lake back in July I was itching to get back to the place and have another go. Even though it was November the weather was quite mild although the forecast was for a fair amount of rain. This proved to be the case with rain lashing down on us most of the week.

Jamie Melham joined me again for this 72hr session.

Despite this we all managed a few fish, I ended the week with 6 Carp to 23lbs whilst Jamie managed 11 to 26lbs.


The strange thing was all the fish fell to baits fished in conjunction with plastic corn, the banker methods of maggots failed badly with only a couple of missed runs to show for it.

One thing I was pleased about was the way my new bite alarms performed. They are a set of Sundridge Wirelessa alarms and proved to be excellent value for money.

Jamie and I are already planning another trip once the weather warms up, hopefully sometime in April 2010.

This time we're planning on booking the whole lake so we can have the choice of whatever swims we want.

Sams Lake - Silver Fish Match

As I was car less Bill Gibbins kindly offered to pick me up for this one and with all the gear loaded we made our way to the Weald of Kent Golf Club where we to meet a few of the others taking part in the match for a hearty breakfast.

Having never fished Sams lakes before I picked Nick Gilbert's brain about what the best approach was going to be and soon had a plan formualted.

Arriving at the fishery it appeared it might be a bit hard today as conditions weren't exactly perfect and it was likely to be won at the draw bag. Putting my and in the bag I pulled out peg 25, fairly comfortable with the wind off my back.

That was where my luck ended as my match was really hard going.

I ended up with a measly 5lbs 12ozs and a few pulled muscles as my box leg collapsed part way through the match and despite yelling for help I struggled to get myself upright.

The match was won by Matt Love with a creditible 24lbs 13ozs from peg 11, with Anglingman coming second with 21lbs 7ozs.

I quite enjoyed the day and will make another trip to Sam's sometime in the future probably when the weather is a little better.

At the end of the match Nick gave me a selcetion of his new hand made floats and I have to say they looked superb. If they perform as good as they look they should be superb.

What a great day !!

I was lucky enough to be invited along this afternoon to fish a syndicate lake a few miles from where I live. A friend of mine set up the syndicate some 18 years ago and to be honest hasn't really fished the lake much because of work commitments so he was keen to take me along to see how the lake was fishing.

I tried to glean a bit of information about the place but all he could tell me was that there were Tench and Bream to about 5lbs, Roach to 2lbs, Perch to 4lbs+ and some very big Pike. Also about 10 years ago one of the members stocked 100 Carp at between 3lb and 5lbs which in his opinion was a mistake. I decided to take along a waggler rod and also a feeder rod which would be used on a buzzer as a bit of a sleeper rod. Bait wise I had the usual pellets, a bag of groundbait, some corn and a few worms.

On arrival at the lake I had a look around and settled on a nice looking swim with a small island about 25 metres away as well as some nice reed beds in both margins. Setting up the feeder rod I baited it with 2 grains of corn on a hair and managed to drop it tight to the island first cast. Before I'd even got the rod on the rests it was off, the reel screaming. I just lifted the rod and hung on. Clearly this was far bigger than anything I'd heard about, other than maybe the pike, so I was looking forward to seeing what I'd hooked. A few minutes later and a fine looking Mirror carp of 15lbs 4ozs was staring back at me from the folds of the landing net. 'Blimey' my mate said ' they've grown on a bit" !!!!!!! With 4lb mainline I was beginning to wonder if I was a little undergunned but thought that maybe I'd just been lucky and caught a mug fish and would be OK.

Next cast and within 2 minutes I was in again, this time the fight lasted somewhat longer but eventually I slid the fish over the net, another mirror, this time going 16lbs 12ozs.2 fish in 2 casts and over 30lbs already I was beginning to enjoy this.

One thing Steve had told me was the way the Bream leap from the water when hooked and this I was looking forward to seeing. Well I didn't have to wait long as Steve soon struck into one. I couldn't believe my eyes, as this Bream of about 3lbs just leapt from the water time and time again like a rainbow trout on speed. I've never seen anything like it. After the Breams aerobatics I went back to trying to get my waggler rod actually in the water but again was interupted by another screamer and I was again attached to an angry carp. This one didn't fight at all and was soon netted, Not a mirror this time but a gorgeous leather carp of 11lbs. That was it I just chucked the waggler rod up the bank and concentrated on the feeder, I put the buzzer away and fished it normally.

Well as the afternoon wore on it was Carp after Carp, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. To be honest I might have, as the place is gorgeous, totally peaceful and miles from nowhere. I even saw 2 kingfishers in the few hours I was there. They have even built a small lodge with full cooking and washing facilities. By the time 8.30pm came along it was getting blooming dark so we packed up. Steve had managed a great bag of Bream and Roach as well as a couple of Carp whilst I finished with 14 Carp all between 10lb and 16lbs 12ozs. I also had a couple of nice perch both around the 2lb mark and a few Bream.

I have to say I've not enjoyed a session like that for years, and can't wait to go back. At least now I know what to expect I might go a bit more prepared next time. I'm quite pleased now I left the pole at home.

As the syndicate has a publicity ban I didn't take my camera along so sorry no pic's this time.

Maggotdrowning.com Southern Champs 2009

Today saw me making the short journey to Hartleylands Farm Fishery for the Maggotdrowning.com Southern Champs 2009.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day even though I struggled off a fancied peg 23 on Nicks Lake and managed to smash the power waggler rod I bought from Nick last year in two places on a 1lb 8ozs Carp.

It didn't matter what I tried but I just couldn't get the fish to take ANY bait I tried on the method feeder despite the swim being absolutely stuffed with fish by the island. Hard pellet in 3 sizes and 3 different colours, soft pellet in 4 sizes and flavours, maggots and corn all failed to produce more than 2 bites. Even tried pellet wrapped in paste and that didn't work either.

Fed up with all the inactivity I decided to try the pellet wag however even that didn't produce either, which was a major shock as this was my banker method, and I only managed a handful of bites on it all match.

With 3/4 of an hour to go,and somewhat in desperation, I decided to fish the margins and ended up catching well in the last hour at 5 metres with paste, why oh why didn't I try it earlier, it was solid.

Never mind, at least I managed to take another shiny gold coin from Peter with my 31lb 8ozs so that was a bonus, in fact it was my 3rd £1 coin from Peter in my last 4 outings.

Well Done to Nick Coster on his win, and finally a message to Matt, all you needed to do was hook a duck like Peter and your day would have been complete. Hard luck mate you hard a real mare of a day.

Roll on next years Southern Champs, surely it can only get better.

Southern Intersite 2009

(Picure kindly borrowed form Peter Morton's blog http://www.petermorton1.xanga.com/ )

After all the bragging the day of reckoning was upon us.........................

Over the years a series of matches has been organised between Talk Angling, Total Fishing, Angling Forums and Maggotdrowning.com. This has become known as the Intersite series and has become a hotly contested group of matches.


More recently numbers have dropped off and not all the matches have been held however the Southern match has always managed to appear in the calender.

And so it was that 40 souls decended uopn Monk Lakes in Kent to contest the 2009 Southern Intersite Match.


For my sins I was once again organising the match and this year it was to be held on Match lakes 1 & 2 and at 9am everyone was eagerly awaiting the draw. As I needed to be back at the Clubhouse early after the match and as I was the Maggotdrowning.com captain I picked Peg 4 on Lake 1 as my home for the day whilst everyone else drew for their pegs.

Matt Love was well pleased with peg 22 on the end of the spit on Lake 1 and to be honest he would be in with a shout of winning the match from there.

Peter my arch nemesis was happy as he'd drawn peg 60 on Lake 2, he's not a fan of Lake 1.

My plan for the day was to fish two lines on the pole, the first at 7 metres straight out in front and the other in the margin to my right. I also had set up a pellet wag in case the fish wanted it shallow at distance.

I called the 'All In' and cupped two pots of pellet on each pole line and started firing pellets out on the wag line, about 10 pellets every 15 seconds, to try and get the fish up in the water. 1st cast on the wag and it was fish on, not huge but at around 2lbs it was welcome. Unfortunately it was a loner and nothing else followed and by the end of the first hour Iwas struggling.

By now I had seen a lot of bubbling at 7 metres so tried that line. Again 1st put in resulted in a bite, not a carp this time but a lunatic Barbel of about 1lb. This was soon followed by half a dozen more before the line died. I had continued to fire pellets out on the wag line and there were more fish rising for them so I went back out. After a few missed bites I finally connected with something ablittle bigger, a carp of 5lbs which really put up a fight. I managed about 4 more fish in the next hour before giving up again.

The 7 metre line was still bubbling so I went back there again.
Again it was Barbel that were present and this time there seemd more of them as over the next couple of hours I put 15 in the net, all around the 2lbs mark.

Around me others were struggling and it appeared that Lake 1 wasn't fishing particularly well. I had heard that quite a lot on lake 2 were bagging and it was becoming clear the winner would probably come from there.

Matt was having a mare on peg 22, despite this being a real flyer peg he just couldn't put a run of fish together whatever he tried. To my left Paul Law (Talk Angling) had by now started catching regularly and it looked as though he was doing better than most on Lake 1.

The reaminder of the match was a bit of a struggle for me, I would catch one or two fish before having to switch lines. The margin swim proved worse than useless as all i could muster from there was two tiny skimmers.

At the 'All Out' I knew I would be nowhere near framing as the catch rate of others around me had improved in the last hour. With only 4 in each section (1 from each team) I was hoping to maybe get reasonable points. I knew Paul had beaten me but I hadn't seen the others catching much. Paul was 1st to weigh and put a fine 103lbs-04ozs in the weigh bag, I was next with 54lbs 10ozs. Dave Churchwood from Angling Forums weighed 87lbs 4ozs whilst Brian Jackson from Total Fishing returned a miserable 25lb 4ozs. So I was third in section and that meant 3 points for the team.

The weigh in revealed that indeed Lake 1 had fished hard and Paul law eneded up the winner of the lake. Matt had really suffered and only mustered 47lbs 8ozs from a peg many thought might be the winner.

The final team points are below:

1st
Total Fishing
20 points

2nd
Angling Forums
21 points

3rd
Maggotdrowning
28 points

4th
Talk Angling
31 points

Individually the match was won by Nick Gilbert (Maggotdrowning.com) with a fine 168lbs 4ozs from peg 67 on Lake 2. As I suspected this lake had fished much better with only 4 anglers recording less than 100lbs.

Back to the tea wagon for the presentation and then home to reflect on where I went wrong. To be honest I don't think i could have done much more, the fish just weren't there.

Never mind there's always next year which may well be on a new venue.

Sorry there's only a couple of pic's but my daughter had used the camera the day before and flattened the batteries.

Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Weekend

Rolfs Lake 8th & 9th August 2009

Following my week away Carp fishing it's back to my first love, Match Fishing, and the Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Weekend at Rolfs Lake in Oxfordshire.

Rolfs Lake has reputation for throwing up some huge weights so everybody was looking forward to some real Carp bagging.

Leaving home around 8.30am I made my way to Rolfs via the dreaded M25 and then the M40. I was stunned though to be pulling into the fishery just before 10am. I couldn't believe how quiet the roads had been. Already in attendance were the lads that had fished the invitation match Dave the Fish had organised for the day before and a good number of tents and bivvies were already erected. I take the easy option and sleep in the car during these weekends (more of that later) so all I had to do was wander round having a chat and find out about how the match had fished the day before.

The news wasn't great, the fishing had been fairly hard with the winning weight being taken by Teepee despite him starting an hour and a half after everyone else. Well done Teepee.

In no time at all the draw for the Pairs was being made and I was paired with Westy (Tim Westmorland) who really cheered me up by telling me he'd only caught one fish on the friday.

Soon after the draw for pegs took place and I was delighted to find myself with Peg 6 for the day, a known flyer peg which can always be relied on for a decent weight. (that is of course until an angler of my calibre draws it)

Company for the day was to be Simple Simon on peg 34 opposite me, Mickthe Chippy on peg 7 and the Malman brothers, Gaz and Alex who despite travelling loads of miles had managed to draw next to each other.

After seeking some advise I was told the only way to fish Peg 6 was to feed a line at 5 metres and stick with it. Apparently the fish follow this line after entering the little lake from the bigger side and there is a little weed on the bottom which seems to hold the fish.

At the all in I fed 6 big potfuls of 6mm Skrettings pellet on the 5 metre line and a couple in the margin to my right and waited for my first fish. Bait for the day was going to be exclusively paste.

Right from the start I was being plagued with strange bites that just lifted and dropped the float without really taking the bait properly. Sometimes the float would just sit under the surface about an inch and stop. Eventually I got fed up waiting for the float to bury and hit a few of the strange bites. However this only resulted in foul hooking the Carp and the net result being a scale on the hook. MicktheChippy was sniggering away to himself in the next peg every time this happened, still at least he was happy. Eventually I managed to snare a decent fish which just came straight to the surface so I slid the net under it. Looking down it was a lovely looking carp and when weighed went 16lbs 4ozs. Eddie was on hand with his camera and took a few shots before I returned it to the lake.

Despite the problems I was having these were nothing compared to Simple on Peg 34. He had like me been struggling a bit and eventually hooked in to a Carp that took him straight under the bushes. Whilst trying to get it free his top three came away from the rest of his pole and just sat their like excalibur. Now Simple may be his name but he's not silly, he knew if he waited long enough Malc would come round and retrieve it for him however before Malc had chance to arrive Mitch on the next peg offered to help and just stripped off to his under crackers and jumped in.

As soon as he was in the water you could hear camera shutters going off from all around the lake, (poor Mitch). Soon enough he'd retrieved the top kit and was helped from the lake by Simple. Alas the fish had long gone.

My day turned out to be a frustrating one with foul hooker after foul hooker coming my way and by the end of the match I'd got 16 scales sitting on my side tray. I did manage to land 3 more fish and ended with a total of just 56lbs 120zs, not what I was hoping for especially as I'd had my usual £1 side bet with Peter 'Mugger' Morton.

As the scales made their way around it soon became clear that the lake had again fished hard for many, the eventual winner on day one being Dave Moore from Peg 8 with 116lbs 12ozs. More than half the field had however had less than 50lbs so I somehow managed to end up in 9th place. Better than that though was the news that Peter had really struggled from his least favoured peg 13. Recently he's drawn the peg on quite a lot of occasions and I think his heart just wasn't in it. His 39lbs 8ozs meant that after more than 18 months I'd finally won a £1 coin back. Hurrah !!!!!! My partner Tim and I were struggling in the Pairs competition and were in 9th place after day 1, in the lead were Dave Moore and Paul East (nomorelongwalks) with 13 points.

The handing over of the coin was duly photographed for posterity amongst rather a lot of banter from the assembled masses.


The evening was spent like every other year with a fine barbie and the comsumption of more than enough Lager before I finally retired to my car around 1am. I was quite surprised how chilly it felt in the car when I shut the doors and got ready for sleep so looked for my sleeping bag, Bugger, I'd left the bloody thing at home. All through the night I kept waking up probably as I was shivering so much, by the time I finally got to sleep I was wearing 2 sweatshirts, 2 polo shirts, 2 pairs of trousers and a coat and was still freezing!!!!!!!. I woke the next morning around 6.30am still absolutely frozen so decide to get up and see if anyone else was about. A few were beginning to stir so I stopped for a chat with one or two before scrounging a cup of Coffee off of Malc to warm me up. With the draw not for a good few hours I made up some new pole rigs and a couple more balls of paste before grabbing a bite to eat.

The draw for day two was eagerly awaited by everyone and some hoped they would not draw any where near where they had been the day before. Peter was of course one of these, and I could see he was hanging back a bit waiting for a few others to draw before trying his luck. Webbo however had other ideas and said that the bottom pair from day one would draw first. Unfortunately for Peter he and Dirk were in last place so they would be first in the draw bag. With drums rolling Peter dipped his hand in the bag and was pleased to see he'd got Peg 20, then his head seemed to drop when he realised where it was. It was not an area that had fished well of late so it looked like he may be in for another hard day.

My peg for day 2 was to be peg 32, yet another fancied peg, and right next to the car park so a nice short walk.


For company today I had Clive on peg 31, Dave Moore opposite on peg 9 and Gemma "The Minx" Doyle on peg 8.


There are 2 lines to fish on this peg, one at 7 metres diagonally towards peg 9 and the other over the top of the small bush along the bank to my left. At the all in I baited both lines with copious amounts of 6mm pellet and waited. The wait was a long one and 3 hours into the match I was fishless. Mind you I did have couple of scales on my side tray. Clive on the next peg was also struggling.

From where I was I could see Peter and knew he too was having a difficult time, this meant that if I could get a few fish feeding I might just have a chance of taking yet another £1 coin back. John , the lake owner, came round and suggested I feed a lot more along the margin line as this was always good for a few fish late on in a match so I upped my feed rate. Try as I might though I couldn't get anything that even resembled a bite and by the end of the 4th hour I had only 1 fish in the net which I'd caught at 7 metres. Clive by now was picking up the odd fish so there was hope for me yet and not much later I struck into Carp number 2. By the end of the match I'd caught just one more Carp and knew that I'd cocked up yet another flyer.

From what I'd seen Peter had yet again suffered a mare but I wasn't sure exactly what he'd caught so I'd have to wait for the scales to see if a miracle had happened for the 2nd day running.
The scales showed that Gaz Malman had easilly won the match with a fine 165lbs from Peg 37, 70lbs more than the 2nd placed angler which was Methodgob with 94lbs. By the time we reached Peter the others were giving him a fair bit of stick, by the time he'd weighed his fish he was getting plenty more. A meagre 16lbs 40zs was all he had to show for his efforts however I knew I'd not got much to weigh but thought I'd probably done enough. My fish were put on the scales and there seemed to be a sharp intake of breath from everyone following the weigh in, the good news for me was my fish went 19lbs 4ozs. I'd done it, 2 £1 coins from Peter in consecutive matches, unheard of before and unlikely to happen again so I was delighted. Peter took all the banter he received well and congratulated me on my fine weekends work. I've got a sneaking feeling he hasn't heard the last of it yet though.

Webbo dissapeared to work out the final placings,

and after a short while announced that DavetheFish and Alex Malman had pulled back a deficit of 12 points to overtake Dave Moore and Paul East to win the Maggotdrowning.com Pairs Championship for 2009.



The good news for me was I'd somehow managed to secure 2nd place in section by default on day 1 so picked up a little beer money.

As is always the case the weekend was a fabulous success, thanks must go to Dave 'Webbo' Webster for organising the whole thing and to John and Pauline for providing a fine fishery even if the fish didn't really want to play ball.

As a footnote I've managed to work out where it all went wrong for Dave and Paul on day 2,

Paul was obviously totally stunned and confused after his day 1 placing so much so that he couldn't find his peg on day 2 and fished in the middle of a field.

Roll on next year, I can't wait.

My next trip out will be the annual Southern Intersite match at Monk Lakes so keep checking back in for my report on the days events. With any luck my run of luck winning £1 coins from Peter will continue.

Elphicks 26th - 31st July 2009

North Lake 5 day Session

Well the time had finally arrived for my 5 day session carp fishing at Elphicks Fishery in Kent. The original plan had been to fish somewhere in France but my mate went and got his girlfriend pregnant and now, as they say, the rest is history and he is the proud father of a gorgeous little girl. So after looking around for somewhere in the UK to go we settled on North lake at Elphicks just a few minutes from home.

Arriving around 1pm we had a look around the lake and settled on the first 3 swims on the right hand bank. Word from the bailiff was that these swims had been producing a lot of fish and were always popular. Neil (one of Jamies work colleagues) took the first swim, Jamie the 2nd and me the 3rd. Knowing how the lake was stocked both Jamie and I had set a target of beating our personal bests, mine 27lbs 90zs and Jamie 26lbs. Neil having only starting carp fishing a few months ago was going to be happy with anything he caught.

In what seemed no time at all I was set up and raring to go. The usual method at Elphicks is to spod out a decent bed of particle and pellets and fish single hookbaits over the top so thats what we did. Bait for the week was to be either Mainline Fusion or Cell boilies in 18mm size. As you can see from the buckets above, there were 2 more in the bivvy) I'd got plenty of bait to put in. (More of that later)

The daytime proved very frustrating with just a few bleeps and not much else but once the darkness fell things started to improve. Jamie was the first to connect just after midnight, with one of North lakes residents and it sure gave him one hell of a fight, not a huge fish, a Common of 14lbs, but in lovely condition. As it turned out we were to see a lot of fish this size during the week.

At 2.15am I was next to have a screaming run, mine too was to prove to be one of the lakes smaller resident Commons but at 14lbs 8ozs I was relatively happy.



During the first night both Jamie and I had a couple more fish but they were all of a simlar size. Neil however had nothing at all, mind you I doubt if he have heard his buzzers, that guy could sleep for England.


Monday morning and the sun was shining. Having heard about the lakes Catfish I decided to put one rod out with half a tin of chopped ham and pork on the hook. Dropping it close in the margins on my right I threw the contents of a tinm of sardines and just left it. The other two rods were to be fished the same as yesterday. The Catfish bait had only been in the water a short time when the buzzer started screaming and all hell let loose. Hanging on for dear life the fish made a series of powerful runs stripping line form the reel even with the clutch set tight, however after about 15 minutes I finally got it close to the bank. As I was sliding across the surface I could see it was a good size cat, probably around 40lbs+ but the hook hold was very dodgy being right in the front of the mouth in the boney crushing pads. Very carefully I brought it closer to the net when it decided it was having none of it and turned and fled. Unfortunately the hook pulled and the fish was gone.



I carried on trying for a Catfish throughout the week and was finally rewarded with this monster, which incidentally took a Maple 8 pop up boilie fished on a Zig Rig just under the surface.

I was to hook into another monster Cat on Thursday which gave me one hell of a work out. After making 6 massively powerful runs it decided to dissapear round the back of the island 3 swims down and all I could do was try and put the brakes on in the hope of turning it. Alas the hook pulled. The guy in the next swim down saw the cat twice during the fight and estimated it at around 8o-90lbs, no wonder it gave me the run around. Next time I'll go a bit better equipped with the right tackle to handle these monsters.

Monday evening into Tuesday morning during darkness was fairly frustrating, with only 1 run for Jamie, which resulted in this, a ghost Common of 18lbs 4ozs,


and just 1 run for me which resulted in my best fish of the trip so far, a Mirror of exactly 20lbs.

The frustrating part was the fact that there were obviously a lot of fish moving around causing liner after liner but they just didn't want to get their heads down on our baits. I must have woken 6 times to shorts bursts of bleeps from the buzzers which then stopped.

Tuesday morning was very quiet, there didn't seem to be in the way of fish moving around as they had done previously, something just didn't seem quite right. Maybe it was because it had been very still overnight and in the morning there was a horrible green slick across the surface which looked very much like Blue Green algae to me.

The wind however picked up mid morning which cleared the slime and as lunchtime approached Jamie struck in to what was a powerful fish. the fish was definately better than anything we'd caught so far and so it proved with this beauty of 26lbs 10ozs soon gracing Jamies landing net. As you can see he was very happy as it was only day 2 and he'd beat his PB.

As the afternoon wore on Neil managed a few of the smaller carp mainly around the 12 - 15lb mark however he did manage to connect with one better one a Mirror of exactlt 20lbs.

At 3.45pm I was in again and againhad to hang on. This one must have been taking some of the Rolfs Lake steroids as it just didn't want to come in and took nearly 15 minutes to get to the bank. I was well pleased though, when it turned out to be my 2nd 2olb+ fish, a lovely Common of 21lbs 12ozs.

Tuesday night was another one of those nights when the smaller fish came out to play with a succession of 12-15lbs fish falling to all three of us.

Wednesday proved to be Jamies day when after catching nothing since 2.30am he had a screamer of a run. This was definately something better and Jaime took his time with this one. By the time he'd fianlly got it on to the unhooking mat he was shattered but the smile soon returned when the fish was weighed and went 32lbs 8ozs smashing his PB out of sight.

After that fish whatever happened was going to be a bonus and we all managed to land plenty more, this one of Jamies went 21lbs 4ozs.

And this Common with a touch of Ghostie about it went 14lbs fell to me.

As the sun came up on Friday morning I had a wander around the lake mainly to try and get some reception on my mobile, if you are not on O2 it's blooming useless. I stopped and had a chat with a couple of guys fishing just down the bank from me who'd we'd got friendly with. They had been bagging all week with a lot of big fish. By now they had had 5 fish over 30lbs and had lost count of the amount of 20's. In total they finished with around 1200lbs of fish between them.

I knew they had been doing something different because of the success they had had but hadn't managed to work out what. After having a chat and a cuppa I found out what it was. Do you remember that earlier I mentioned about of bait I had well this paled in to siginificance compared to what they'd got through. 40 kilos of spod miz 60 kilos of boilies had gone into thier swims, at my estimation thats somewhere around £700's worth of bait that had gone in, no wonder there were a lot of fish in front of them.

Coming to the final night and after more fish between 12 and 14lbs and I was still secretly hoping for something a bit bigger. I had 4 kilos of spod mix and around 4 kilos of boilies left so most of that went out into the lake, 2 rods were fished over the bed of bait and I put another rod out for a Catfish. The Catfish rod was the first to go but as before it proved to be another kitten this time around 3lbs.

At 1.05am the left hand rod screamed off and I leapt from my bivvy hoping that this would be the one. As it turned out it was another of those pesky 12lber's so it was back to dreaming of that monster. 2.45am and another screamer and this time things felt much better. After a series of strong runs I finally slid the fish over the net and a big smile came to my face, I knew it was a good fish but how good and would it beat my PB?

The scales told the story, 26lbs 2ozs, not quite a PB but a stunning fish, and just look at the size of the paddle at the back no wonder it tore line from the reel with ease. It looked a young fish so has plenty of growing to do. I'd love to catch it again in a few years time when it will undoubtably have packed on some weight.

All in all I was well pleased with the 5 days. Yes, I know there are a lot of bigger fish in the lake, but as a relative novice specimen Carp angler I was pleased with my final totals, as we all were.

Neil finished with 9 fish for 133lbs, Jamie had 10 fish for 182lbs 4ozs including beating his PB and I finished with 15 fish for 200lbs. (those little Cats certainly didn't help my total weight)

Would I go again, Yes!!! I'd go tomorrow, I loved every minute of it.

Will I stop fishing matches and take up Specimen carp hunting, no chance, well someone's got to make Peter look good.

Actually, we are already looking at what to do next year, do we go back to Elphicks or maybe venture to France as originally planned. At the moment Elphicks is favourite as we learned a lot while we there, however it's along way off and things change so we'll just have to see. Maybe I'll look to make it a Maggotdrowning.com Fish In, now that would be fun.