Evening match down the Medway

I was off to fish the second Maidstone Victory evening match down the river Medway at Barming Bridge. I arrived and the water looked very clear and had little flow so I guessed it was going to fish hard!

There was about 20 fishing this evening and I pulled out a peg about 100 yards downstream of the bridge. The river here is not very deep at around 7-8ft down the middle and my swim had very little weed. Matt had come down tonight to take a few photos so hopefully I will catch something!

The tactics for tonight were simple with a 1g round bodied float with a bulk at about 3rd depth and a couple of number 10 shot as droppers. This was attached to a size 16 Kamasan 611 hook and a 0.08mm hook length. I also had a 3AAA insert peacock waggler set up to just drag the bottom. This was set up to fish on the drop and had the same trace and hook.

Bait was a big tub of tares, hemp and corn mixed together. I had a pint of caster too that I had turned from some leftover maggots as backup bait. Groundbait mixed up too and I was going to feed it at the start on the pole line.

At the off I fed 4 balls of groundbait full of hemp, corn and tares at 9 meters to hopefully get the roach feeding. Out with the rig and half an hour of running it through and feeding little and often produce very little. So time for plan two!!!!

I had been feeding a few casters on the far bank and flipped out the waggler, It drifted down towards a tree hanging over the far side and the float buried, I was attached to something a bit bigger and carefully played it towards the net. It turned out to be a chub of over a pound.

Another few runs through and I had another bite in about the same position as the first and a decent sized hybrid was in the net. I now had about 3lb. As you can see by the end of the rod in this photo I was on fire!!! ;-)

It soon went out though and I had very little for the next half a hour. The waggler line had died so I went back on the pole. Fishing a single caster with the hook buried in it I started to pick up the odd small roach and continued to do that for the rest of the match.

At the weigh in 5lb on the waggler was winning it so far and I managed 4lb 8oz, it looked like the bream had not fed and weights were low all along the length with most only weighing in a pound or two. That was until I got to the end on the match length and Trevor Froud put 5lb 6oz of small fish on the scales to take the match relegating me to 3rd overall taking the last money spot.

Thinking back I it was a mistake to put the groundbait in at the start on the pole line with the water so clear and it probably cost me the match win.

I’m off to Hartleylands next for hopefully a ton plus day!!!

Evening Match at Weirton Res

I was off the fish the first of the evening series of matches’ run by my local club Maidstone Victory. I was hoping to draw on the island side of the lake; the plan being to lob out a method feeder for bream then feed a few mixers to see if the carp will feed on the surface. The other option here is the fish the pole for a mixed net and this has won me quite a few matches in the past but was felling lazy and I had the carp and feeder rod set up already.

At the draw I pulled out a peg at the far side of the lake with the wind off my back, not where I wanted to be really as I have never known a match to be won from that area. So I walked past the nice coloured water on the windward side of the lake to the crystal clear calm water on the other side! On the plus side I had some deep water close in so it may be possible to draw a few bream in by lying down a bit of ground bait.

I got to the swim to find I had one of the club members John O on the next swim. Unfortunately for me he knows the water well and will be fishing in a similar manner with a feeder so we may end up sharing what few fish that are in front of us.

As bait I had with me some ground pellet type method ground bait, with maggot, corn and soft pellet to use on the hook. Also a bag of mixers for the carp.

The rig was simple too with a small Korum free running method feeder, attached to this was a size 14 Drennen eyed carp hook and 0.16 trace. This may seem heavy but I have found when fishing the method for bream you don’t need to go fine and can get away with relatively crude tackle.

At the off I baited the hook with a double 6mm expander and buried it in the method ball. This was swung out about 16-18 meters. The water here is a good 13-14 foot deep as it shelves down from the bank. This is the distance I have caught here before and the bream patrol, the mistake a lot make here is overcastting the fish. John on the next peg was casting out to 30 meters and fishing the open end feeder so we will see what tactic is best today.

Instead of dumping a lot of feed out at the start i like to build the swim by casting the feeder every 2-4 minute until the fish turn up, it is a tactic that worked well last year. 45 minutes and about 15 casts later I was just thinking I was going to blank and the tip of the rod sprung about line bite fashion. Sitting on my hands I waited and 30 seconds later the rod was pulled over and I was into the first bream. I had changed hookbait by this point to 5 maggots. This was landed and looked about 2.5lb. Unfortunately the action was short lived and for the next half an hour I was bite less. I kept on casting every 5 minutes though to keep some feed going in for when(or if) the fish did arrive. All the while I was also pinging out a few mixers but it was pretty dead carp wise with none showing.

With a hour and ten minutes left of the two and a half hour match the tip again jumped about with a line bite then as before 30 seconds later bent over and bream number two was in the net at about 3lb. Straight back out with the feeder and the tip went over again with bream number 3, things were looking up. At this point John who was blanking so far decided on some drastic shit or bust tactics and balled in ground bait out the same distance I was fishing! I’m not sure if this killed it or not but I sat there for the remaining hour of the match bite less, It may have just been a coincidence though.

So that was the end of a slow evenings fishing with 3 bites and 3 bream. The scales eventually came round and it had fished quite poor but as predicted the windward side had produced the top 3 money spots so far and were 13lb, 10lb and 9lb odd. Unfortunately my 3 bream went 8lb odd (can’t remember the exact amount) so I missed out and ended up 4th, although mine was the best weight from the side of the lake I was on.

So that was the first round of 6 out of the way and the next will be down the river Medway at Barming Bridge. Bream might dominate the frame weights of the next round but I will be fishing for roach on the pole hoping they don’t feed.

Invicta League Final Round Hartleylands Pear Tree & Bramley.

Today I am fishing the last round of the league I have been organising. With the weather forecast looking good this match should be a true test of fishing skill rather than the draw bag lottery we had at a couple of the earlier rounds due to bad weather.

It will be an interesting day as the two leaders Andy Silver and Kevin Pack are both tied on points. Me and a few others have a slim chance of grabbing the final money spot by winning my section but that is only if Collin Wood Doesn’t win his which is highly unlikely in a pole only match!

The two lakes for the day should produce some good weights all around and I was expecting a few ton plus to be recorded. We were fishing to a pole float only rule which in bad weather can often play into the hands of the pole pot yielding feed 6 pellet every half a hour boys. But today I doubt that will happen and a positive attacking approach should get the best result.

At the draw I ended up with Peg 21 on Pear Tree although I would have been happy with any peg to be honest as I felt they all had the potential to do a big weight. I arrived at the peg and did fancy the look of it there was a nice ripple on the water which is always good when you plan to fish shallow.

There will be no surprises when you discover my bait for the day is plenty of 6mm Skretting pellets, plus some 4 and 6mm expanders and a bit of groundbait. I also had today a small amount of chopped processed meat mixed with hemp that I won’t be revealing exactly what it is cos one day I will take a lake apart using it to fish shallow!

I will be feeding 5 lines today from the off the two margins to drop in later in the match, two at 6 meters left and right to hopefully pick up a few early fish on paste while lose feeding pellets out in front between the two to get the fish feeding shallow.

I set up 5 rigs the short line shallow rig with a 0.3g Drennan Carp 4 set at 2ft deep to start with a 14 Drennan Carp Hook tied to a 0.14 trace, another similar with a 0.4g float to long line if needed. The on the deck paste/pellet rig had a homemade 0.5g float similar to a Mick Wilkinson Diamond but mine had a 2mm hollow plastic bristle. The two margin rigs again was a homemade Diamond shaped bodied float, this one had a shorter thick glass stem to be used in shallow water. One was set at a depth to fish tight to the cover and the other was set at about 2.5ft to fish about a meter out. All top kits had a 10 latex elastic.

At the off it was out with a big cup of pellets and golf ball of groundbait at 6 meters on both sides, down both margins went the meat and hemp. I started off with a small bit of soft paste in the right hand swim on the 6 meter line; the rig was shotted double bulk style. While fishing this line I was lose feeding pellet in front between the two swims at around 7.5 meters. You may think this is a bit short to fish shallow but I always do this when the venue hold large numbers of fish. I will not feed long particularly when you have a lot of room as I believe you end up feeding the fish out unnecessarily and by feeding aggressively they will come to you.

carp of about a pound, this was followed by a couple of its mates, switching between the left and right lines I soon had 10 small carp in the net after about 40 minutes of the match. I fed the two lines again and felt it was time for a look out shallow although I haven’t seen any signs of fish on the surface. I didn’t need to worry though as I had an instant bite fishing 2ft deep with a 6mm pellet. Another small carp was swiftly landed and ended up in the net. I stepped up the frequency of the feed to about 6 pellets every 10 seconds and this produced a good run of fish and as the first hour of the match passed by I had 19 already.

Things got better and after another hour I was putting carp number 40 in the net with a few bigger samples mixed in. I had to employ all the tricks I know to keep the fish coming and continued to catch well. When fishing shallow it is all about working out when to feed and how much to feed and it seemed like I was getting it right today.

After 3 hour and 60 fish it was time to have a quick look down the margins where I had been feeding the meat and hemp for 3 hours. This would give the fish on the shallow line a chance to re gain their confidence. I tried to the left which produced an instant bite to a small cube of meat and I was attached to an angry 3lb fish that was soon in the keep net. Another one followed and it went quiet. So I had a quick look to the right margin which produced nothing apart from a small roach.

Time to go back out in front shallow and the 10 minute rest had the desired effect and it was solid. I spotted a largish ghosty cruising just below the surface so quickly stuck on an 8mm pellet and dropped it in front of its nose, this was taken instantly and the biggest fish of the day at about 6lb as soon in the net. It always amazes me that often the bigger fish come in with the least resistance and the smaller ones under 3lb give you all the trouble! More carp followed on the shallow line and with an hour and 10 minutes left I dropped in the margins again and picked up a few too.

With an hour of the match left and 81 carp in the net with plenty in front of me it was time to really try and force the swim by feeding aggressively and extract as many as I could before the end. I saw fish swirling at the feed just below the surface now so it was just a matter of feeding slapping the rig down and then hooking one. Amazingly the last hour produced another 37 carp! Disappointingly the biggest one hooked at about 6lb I missed with the net making it take off with the hook pulling out so should have been 38. At the end though the total of 118 fish was pretty good going and I guessed was the best part of 150lb.

As I wondered round the lake I got to Matt Loves peg and he had had a good day with 80 odd carp caught shallow but I think seemed a bit surprised when I said how many I had! His fish went a very good 104 lb putting the second ton on the scales in two matches and wining the section. Kevin Pack who was sitting 2nd in the league was in the same section and managed 86lb with a good run of fish towards the end of the match to get a section second. Andy Silver was leading the league needed the section win to beat Kevin but unfortunately he was on the next peg to me and seemed to struggle all day resorting to fishing paste at 13 meters to catch a few so was not looking very confident. I was the last to weigh and put 147lb on the scales to take the section and match win, not far off of the 167lb lake record too. This demoted Andy to 3rd in the section and 2nd overall in the league with Kevin taking the title.

Colin Wood over on Bramley fished a good match to win the section holding on to his 3rd spot in the league with 95lb of shallow caught carp. It wasn’t enough to win the lake though, Paul Kell fishing as a guest for the day won the lake with 112lb of shallow caught carp.

The lakes fished very well and it proved you don’t need to lob a method feeder or waggler to the island to get a big weight. I may have to re think my tactics next time on the lakes and get the pole out instead of the waggler.

The top 3 took away £300, £200, £100, plus some tackle prizes donated by Invicta Angling, Ashford. Collin Wood kindly donated his prize of pole floats to be given to a junior section of a local fishing club.

I will be running the event next year so if anybody is interested please email me to go on the waiting list. I have selected the same venues spreading the 6 matches on Monks and Hartlelands.

Full result here (apologies for not knowing your teams!)

1st Nick Gilbert 147-12
2nd Paul Kell 112-1 (guest)
3rd Matt Love 104-13
4th Collin Wood 95-12
5th Andy Goldthorpe 90-12 (guest)
6th Kevin Pack 86-1

League Places

1 Kevin Pack(Medway Tackle) 333-15 26
2 Andy Silver 332-12 25
3 Collin Wood 290-12 24
4 Nick Gilbert 417-6 23
5 Matt Love 338-9 23
6 Mark Hathway 271-8 21
7 Ian Carley 261-10 21
8 Martin Charnock 156-13 20
9 Trevor Little 205-12 18
10 Tony Clark 216-11 17
11 Jay Lay 198-14 17
12 Mark Holland 186-9 17
13 Russ Evans 229-0 16
14 John Haigh 118-0 15
15 Dennis Price 167-12 14
16 Chris Jones 140-12 14
17 Martin Twine 124-13 14
18 Mark Greenway 53-11 6
19 Jim McDowell 61-13 4
20 Mike Jameson 31-6 3

Invicta Round 5 Hartleylands Nicks Lake

The weather for the day was predicting rain so it was looking like the match was going to be a nightmare, and when I set off in the morning it was raining very heavy. Luckily by the time I arrived at the lake it has stopped and the skies were clearing. Maybe we where going to get a decent day for fishing at last!

I gathered for the draw with Matt Love assisting me. As I was running the match I don’t draw my own peg so got Trevor Little who was at the front of the queue to pull one out for me. I didn’t really fancy 27 or 29 as it would men I will be fishing the pole all day and fancied a day on the waggler. I got lucky and Trevor pulled out peg 35 which gave me an easy island chuck with a light wind behind me. The downside of this peg is that the fish tend not to live in the area in any numbers so it can quite often be a slow start as you feed them in as the match progresses.

We had a guest fishing for the day Nick Costar who was known on the forums as Bag Up. He is also know for being good on the method feeder and after taking a lot of stick on the forum for talking a good match was out to prove he could fish one.

I arrived at the peg and had Tony Clark to my left on peg 36 who was intending to fish the Map rocket (noddy) feeder!

My tactics for the day were going to be the pellet waggler which is no surprise to anybody that knows me. Two Preston 11ft waggler rods were set up both with 4AAA styro wagglers, one set at a foot and the other two foot. Mainline was 4lb Mr Crappie, attached to a 0.16 Fox trace and a 14 Drennan carp hook with a hair rigged bait band attached. I also had a bomb rod set up.
Bait for the match was plenty of 6mm Skretting pellets. With some 8mm if needed for hookbait .

I blew the whistle for the start and immediately started feeding the far side just short of the island with 6mm pellets, the idea was to feed quite heave at the start to create a lot of noise and draw a good number of carp into the swim. I felt 10-12 pellets every 15-20 seconds were about right to start with. It was a very slow start to the match and by continually feeding and casting I eventually hooked my first carp after about 15 minutes. This came off as fast as it was hooked! I was quite rusty on the method and several of my casts ended up in a small overhanging bush and it put up a good fight and claimed my trace 3 times in the first hour. To add to this a family of ducks had moved in and were intercepting my pellets as they hit the water and refused to move!! I did managed to avoid the bush and duck and land 3 carp though.

Tony on peg 36 and Bag UP on 3 were thrashing me at this point catching one a bung and I could see lots of rods bending into fish all over the lake so some good weighs were on the cards today. I managed to get it together for the next 2 hours of the match and put a run of fish together. Even the ducks were looking a bit full by this time and had retired to the island looking fat to digest all the pellets they have eaten. So with 3 hours of the match gone and I had about 35 carp in the net for maybe 40lb and I only managed to hook the far bank bush once but this time it claimed my whole rig.

With 3 hours gone to be honest I was thinking a ton plus weight was out of the question and took the decision to up the feed rate to force the swim and either empty it or kill it! I shortened my trace to 6 inches and proceeded to feed about every 10 seconds with around 10-12 pellets. This resulted in the fish rising high in the water and almost picking pellet off the surface before they started to sink and hung in the surface film. I had lots of carp in the swim now after about half an hour of doing this and proceeded to put a good run together using an 8mm pellet. It was casting high and letting the rig hit the water like a bomb resulted in an instant bite.

So with an hour to go I was on exactly 50 fish mostly on the small side for I guess around 50-60lb. It seemed the more frequently I fed the faster I could catch, so it went feed, cast, hook fish, feed, get fish under rod, feed, net fish, feed, unhook fish then bait hook, feed again then cast etc. ect. This resulted in my target of 70 fish with 15 minutes of the match left, some were a good size too and the best part of 3lb. It was as if the heavy feeding and filled up the smaller fish and the result was a better stamp. Amazingly I had another 11 in the remaining 15 minutes before it was time to call the all out. So 81 fish were in the net for what I guessed was about 90lb maybe more.

With the weigh in underway, Tony to my left had around 70lb, after having a good start to the match but struggling a bit towards the end. I was next and was surprised at the weight of my second net when I tried to lift it out, it turned out I put 117lb on the scales! I doubt this was enough to win and as I went round the lake there were several good weights in the 80s and 90s but no tons yet but I arrived at peg 15 where Matt had put 109 fish in the net. Surprisingly they only went 111lb! Peg 9 was another one to worry about where Russ Evans had had a good day putting 109lb on the scales.

The last to weigh was Bag Up who had been catching all day on the method feeder. It turned out he fished a good match as well as talking one and put 125lb on the scales knocking me down to 2nd place on the day.

All was not lost though as I ended up with the section win and a few quid for 2nd place. This somehow jumped me up the League table into 4th place and a chance of taking 3rd position overall and going away with a few quid after the last round.

I recon bar a disaster the winner will come from the top 2 and if Colin Wood can manage a section win next time he will hold onto 3rd place.

Full Result below

Ist Nick Costar(Bag Up) 125-8 Peg 3
2nd Nick Gilbert 117-3 Peg 35
3rd Matt Love 111-8 Peg 15
4th Russ Evans 109-13 Peg 9
5th Collin Wood 93-1 Peg 20
6th Kevin Pack 89-8 Peg 8

League Places

1 Andy Silver 264-9 22
2 Kevin Pack 247-14 22
3 Collin Wood 195-0 19
4 Nick Gilbert 269-10 18
5 Matt Love 223-12 18
6 Ian Carley 203-2 18
7 Mark Hathway 196-14 18
8 Jay Lay 198-14 17
9 Mark Holland 186-9 17
10 Martin Charnock 108-11 16
11 Martin Twine 124-13 14
12 Russ Evans 181-10 13
13 Tony Clark 136-3 13
14 Trevor Little 133-13 13
15 Dennis Price 134-12 12
15 Chris Jones 97-9 12
17 John Haigh 118-0 11
18 Mark Greenway 53-11 6
19 Jim McDowell 61-13 4
20 Mike Jameson 31-6 3

Quick trip to Wierton

I had a couple of hours spare and the sun was out so a quick trip floater fishing was in order.

I arrived and found my favorite swim opposite the central island free with a chuck to the far bank marginal weed of about 30-35 yards. I fed a few mixers to the island and soon had the carp swirling at the feed, some big ones too!

Tackle was my old 12ft North Western carp rod, with a Daiwa Capricorn 3500 reel, the rig was a 4g Drennan controller, with a number 8 hook attached to a 10lb mono trace. I baited it with a single mixer and withing 10 second it was taken and I was into a good sized fish.

You have to hang on to steer them away from the far bank weed!

About 10 minutes later I had the 25lb fish on the bank.

Not bad for about 15 minutes fishing. it goes to show get the conditions right and familiarize yourself with the water you fish and you don't have to sit for hours behind a bank of rods to catch some nice sized carp.
(photos by Deborah Gilbert)

Pads Army Charity match, Monks Lake 1 and 2

A brief report this week as I don’t have much time.

I wasn’t going to fish a match till the next round of the Invicta but as the weather got warmer when I got back from Holiday I booked myself into this match at the last minute cos I just know it would be a good day for the pole shallow one of my favourite methods.

There was a few good local anglers at the draw so this was not going to be an easy match to win, I expected several ton plus weights to come out. I went in and pulled out peg 36 on Lake 1. Not really a noted draw up the wrong end of the lake, but I was quite pleased cos I have won off of it before.

Tactics for the day were going to be simple as always. I set up two shallow rigs a Drennan carp 4, 0.2g with a short line of about 12in to the pole tip to fish about 12 in deep. The other was a Drennan Carp 4, 0.4g with a longer line of 3-4ft to the pole tip for swinging out; being a clam day I expected the fish to shy off the pole tip. Both of these had a 14 Drennan Carp hook attached to a 0.14mm trace. I also set up a margin rig to drop in down the edge if I wanted to rest the shallow line for a while.

Bait wise I had with me 10 pints of 6mm pellet, a couple pints of 6mm expanders as change bait. A small amount of groundbait to feed at the start. I also knocked up a bit of paste too. I’m so confident these tactics will work today I never had a backup plan so this is all the bait I had with me.
It was a strange start to the match as Paddy the guy running it had a 15 minute baiting up period before the match started similar to the world champs! So the whistle went and I threw in 4 balls of groundbait laced with pellet at 7.5 meters, and the rest went in down the right margin. Now all I had to do was fed about 6 pellets every 30 seconds over the top until the whistle for the start sounded.

When the whistle went I noticed some fish moving down the margin so I dropped in the margin rig with 6mm soft pellet as bait. This produced a quick bit and a carp of about a pound, and a few minutes later it was joined by its mate of the same size. After them two quick fish it was out with the short line shallow rig set 1ft deep. By feeding every few seconds and constantly working or slapping the rig down I had a good start and when the first hour of the match was up there were 20 small f1 carp in the net and well on the way to a ton plus as you need about 80 carp on this lake.

The second hour was much the same but bites slowed a bit as the little bit of ripple I had on the water disappeared and I was faced with flat calm. The solution to this was switching to the long line rig and swinging away from the pole tip. So for the next couple of hours I changed between the two rigs using the long line one when there was no ripple on the water and the other when the wind got up a bit. The carp were very cagey giving only tiny dips in the float but I was connection with a fair few and catching pretty steady. I did have to add another section to the pole going out to around 9 meters as the fish seemed to be hanging on the far side of the feed. By the start of the final hour I had around 65 carp and a few small chub, a skimmer, barbell and tench! I wasn’t taking the place apart but catching quite well.

I couldn’t spot anybody emptying the place so was sure I was ahead on the lake.
For the last hour I again added another section of pole and was now fishing at 11 meters as the fish seemed to back off a bit further. This was a good move as I had a run of 20 more carp in the last hour finishing with 85 carp in the net at the end so it looked like I had over the 100lb mark.

The scales arrived and 75lb was winning the lake so far. I put 112lb on the scales easily taking the lead. Word was that there was a few ton plus weight off of lake 2 so I went to have a look. Matt Love on the wrong side of Lake 2 who has been quizzing me for months about fishing Monks shallow fished a good match putting together a weight of 114lb managing to beat me by 2lb fishing similar tactics. I guess that is what I get for saying he will never win off of that peg. That is what makes Monks such a good summer venue there are so many potentially winning pegs and you can never predict what one will win.

Invicta League Round 3, Hartleylands Bramley and Pear Tree

I don't have time to write a blog this week cos im off on holiday but it was a disaster of a match for me only scraping 2 points and puting me out of contention to win the league.

It was dry and warm all day for a change but the lakes were very peggy as you can see from the section results.

This match was a bit of a non event for me. I pulled out peg 12 which I quite fancied. I t turned out my end of the lake was devoid of any feeding fish and managed 16lb odd at the end caught on soft pellet at 11 meters. I managed to beat the guys on the next peg but was still only 4th in the section effectively putting me out of contention.

Mark Holland did well to make it two wins in a row and is on top of the table.

Here is the results.

Ist Mark Holland 65-13
2nd Nick Allen 54-4
3rd Jay Lay 51-15
4th Ian Carley 50-4
5th Andy Silver 47-11
6th Kevin Pack 40-7

League Places

1 Mark Holland 156-6 14
2 Andy Silver 150-3 13
3 Kevin Pack 126-5 13
4 Ian Carley 130-10 12
5 Collin Wood 80-7 11
6 Martin Charnock 52-12 11
7 Nick Gilbert 117-6 10
8 Jay Lay 107-12 10
9 Matt Love 78-10 9
10 Martin Twine 65-0 9
11 Trevor Little 62-12 9
12 Dennis Price 93-2 8
13 Mark Hathway 74-2 7
14 John Haigh 45-2 7
15 Chris Jones 42-4 7
16 Tony Clark 35-10 7
17 Russ Evans 46-14 5
18 Jim McDowell 61-13 4
19 Mark Greenway 22-9 4
20 Mike Jameson 31-6 3

Pear Tree

Section 1

Peg 2 Matt Love 25-9 3
Peg 4 Ian Carley 50-4 5
Peg 6 Collin Wood 28-11 4
Peg 8 Russ Evans 19-7 2
Peg 10 Mike Jamson DNW 0

Section 2

Peg 12 Nick Gilbert 16-10 2
Peg 15 John Haigh 0-13 1
Peg 17 Trevor Little 18-1 3
Peg 19 Tony Clark 19-4
Peg 21 Martin Charnock 25-4 5

Bramley

Section 3

Peg 2 Martin Twine 31-8 3
Peg 4 Jim Mc Dowell 23-2 2
Peg 6 Mark Holland 65-13 5
Peg 8 Nick Allen 54-4 guest
Peg 10 Kevin Pack 40-7 4

Section 4

Peg 13 Jay Lay 51-15 5
Peg 16 Dennis Price 27-12 3
Peg 18 Chris Jones 14-9 2
Peg 20 Andy Silver 47-11 4
Peg 22 Pete Allen 33-5 guest

Next round is down Monks Lake one on the 18th May

Invicta League round 2. Monks Lake 1

The weather running up to this match was getting mild so expectations were high for a good match, but the day before the temperatures took a turn for the worst with north winds and snow forecast!

I arrived just before the draw at 9am and the snow had already started and it was freezing cold. The good thing was we had the whole 44 pegs of the lake between all of us so I decided to split the sections with 5 fishing on each bank. All the usual faces were at the draw and I had this deal with Mike Jameson that I was going to draw his peg as I apparently had a golden arm! So in I went and out came 25 which he was quite happy with as it won the match last weekend. Mike did the honours for me and I ended up with 29. The peg everybody wanted stayed in the bag number 23, in fact it didn’t come out at all and Matt was left to pick it out at the end. Unfortunately for me it was also in my section so if he doesn’t bugger the peg up I was likely to be fishing for 2nd place.

I arrived at the peg and had Mark Hathaway and Dennis Price on the pegs next to me for company. The bait menu for the day was not my normal selection of pellets and more pellets. Because of the freezing conditions I have pinned all my faith in natural baits and had half a kilo of worm, a pint of casters and three pints of maggots with me costing about £20! A bit different to using a few quid’s worth of pellets, although I did have some pellet and corn in the bag but didn’t expect to use it.

Tactics were simple I was going to use two methods, one was the maggot and waggler out at around the 20 meter mark, the other was caster/worm/ground bait on the pole just past bottom of the shelf at about 7 meters. The waggler set up had a 3AAA Drennan insert peacock, four number 8 down the line and was set to fish just touching the bottom at about 4ft, trace was a 0.12mm fox and a 20 Kamasan Animal hook. The pole rig was set up with one of my home made floats, this had a diamond shaped body with a 1.2mm glass stem and hollow 2mm plastic tip. The heavy glass stem makes it very stable. This was set up double bulk style with two number 10s about 3in from the hook and a bulk of number 8s 6in above this. Trace line was again a 0.12mm attached to a size 16 Drennan carp hook. Set at dead depth this rig will result in a very positive bites as the float buries or lifts and you will miss very few bites. I also set up a margin and shallow rig but didn’t expect to use them.

I called the all in and at the off the pole line was fed with a large ball of ground bait full of caster and worm. This will be fed again in half an hour or so in a similar way until I fish it. I kicked off on the waggler and was lose feeding about 10-15 maggots every cast about every minute or so. Hook bait was 3 maggots. This may seem a lot in the sub zero conditions but you need to be positive at Monks with the number of fish present and it is no place for feeding tiny post of maggots if you want to end up in the frame at the end of the day. I was soon catching a run of small fish, a mixture of small tench, ide, chub and the odd carp, with a hour gone I recon I had about 10lb in the net so things were going well, bites slowed so it was time to rest the waggler line and just feed it. I had a look on the pole with a half worm on the hook. There were a few fish there and I had 10 in as many put ins, although most were small tench and ide with the odd small skimmer. I was catching well but was finding it difficult to hold the pole in the conditions as the snow was getting quite heavy by now! After about 10 minutes you couldn’t feel your hands!!

For the next couple of hours I switched between the two methods fishing the pole till my hands went numb then having a spell on the waggler. This worked quite well and I managed a steady stream of small tench, ide, chub, plus the odd barbel and carp. The pole line eventually died with a hour to go so I just fished the rest of the match out on the waggler feeding maggots little and often picking up the odd fish until the end, the biggest of the day come just as I was about to call the all out a F1 of about 2lb.

I guessed I had about 30-40lb and as it turned out I wasn’t far wrong putting 38lb on the scales taking the lead. It wasn’t to lead for long as Matt on 23 put 44lb on the scales to claim first place, but not for long as Mark Holland on un fancied peg 10 managed 49lb of mostly carp on the pole to win the match. This put me in 3rd spot overall winning a few quid but still only with a section 2nd.

The day turned into a feat of endurance rather than a fishing match because of the cold and three did give it in and go home, I would have been tempted to join them if I wasn’t running the match!

Full result below

Ist Mark Holland 49-0 Peg 10
2nd Matt Love 44-0 Peg 23
3rd Nick Gilbert 38-4 Peg 29
4th Kevin Pack 37-0 Peg 6
5th Dennis Price 31-0 Peg 31
6th Trevor Little 30-0 Peg 22

Section1

2 Jay Lay 28-8 3
4 Ian Carley 24-0 2
6 Kevin Pack 37-0 4
8 Jim McDowell 22-0 1
10 Mark Holland 49-0 5

Section 2

14 Chris Jones 12-9 2
16 Russ Evans dnw 0
18 Andy Silver 23-8 4
20 Tony Clark 16-7 3
22 Trevor Little 30-0 5

Section 3

23 Matt Love 44-0 5
25 Mike Jameson dnw 0
27 Mark Hathway 26-12 2
29 Nick Gilbert 38-4 4
31 Dennis Price 31-0 3

Section 4

35 Martin Charnock 19-9 4
37 John Haigh 12-4 2
39 Martin Twine 18-6 3
41 Mark Greenway dnw 0
43 Collin Wood 28-6 5


League Places

1 Andy Silver 102-8 9
2 Mark Holland 90-9 9
3 Kevin Pack 85-14 9
4 Nick Gilbert 100-12 8
5 Ian Carley 80-6 7
6 Mark Hathway 74-2 7
7 Collin Wood 51-12 7
8 Matt Love 53-1 6
9 Trevor Little 44-11 6
10 John Haigh 44-5 6
11 Martin Twine 33-8 6
12 Martin Charnock 27-8 6
13 Jay Lay 55-13 5
14 Dennis Price 45-7 5
15 Chris Jones 27-11 5
16 Mark Greenway 22-9 4
17 Mike Jameson 31-6 3
18 Russ Evans 27-9 3
19 Tony Clark 16-7 3
20 Jim McDowell 38-11 2

Invicta League Round 1, Hartleylands Nick's Lake

Last year I decided to start the league of 6 matches on some of my favourite fish filled venues to run this spring. I had a chat with Tim who runs Invicta Angling in Ashford, Kent, who kindly offered to put up some prizes for the overall top 3. Then a quick call to book some lakes and the league was born.

The first round was to be at Hartleyland Farm, Nick’s Lake, and the weather running up to the event was looking grim. The forecast for the day was rain and cold wind from the north.

At the draw the talk was that you needed to pull out peg 8 or 9 to do well and due to the cold I would expect the fish not to be spread well over the lake. At the draw Trevor little was at the front of the queue and as I was running the event I thought I better get someone to pull out a peg for me so asked him? In he went and out came 9! That will do me I thought. The only downside of the draw was peg 8 is in the same section of five.

I got to the peg and the weather wasn’t too bad and the predicted north wind had not arrived yet. The tactics for the match were simple. I did run a practice match the week before and figured out what was needed to score good points. Two feeder rods were set up, one with a small Fox method and the other with a running rig where I can attach a bomb or a feeder. Both had a 0.16 trace and a 14 Drennan Carp hook with a hair rigged bait band attached. I also had a pellet waggler set up ready to go but didn’t expect to use it.

Bait for the day was 2 kilos of BCUK groundbait made up the day before with some dead maggots, corn and pellets mixed in the morning of the match giving me a choice of 3 hook baits.

I was ready for the off and the weather conditions were getting worse, the wind had started to swing round and there was light rain making the condition unpleasant to say the least! I called the all in and had the choice of two islands to fish to. I chose the right hand one for the simple reason less people wound be casting to it and I had a long section from the point to halfway along all to myself. The danger of choosing the one to the right is that peg 12 and 21 will be fishing a similar area if they start on the feeder giving you less of an area to draw fish in from.

I started towards the point of the Island which I was going to realise was a bad choice, casting every few minutes with the method feeder to get a bit of bait down with a 8mm pellet on the hook I had 4 bites in the first 90 minutes and that produced small carp. I tried corn and maggot on the hook too but these came to the pellet.

Things were very slow and for some reason I had a feeling I was fishing the wrong area so dropped the feeder 15 ft to the right on the same island, this resulted in a instant bite and a carp of about 2lb. About another 10 followed in the next hour so things were picking up. But as I got into the 4th hour of the match it was getting really cold and to be honest I just wanted to go home. These are the sort of conditions I try to avoid by not fishing winter matches!

For the final two hours I was just going through the motions although I was still managing to put a few fish in the net, I was pretty sure I had a section second anyway cos 3 of the pegs were really struggling so was happy to settle for that. Andy Silvers on the next peg was now out catching three fish to my one although they did look smaller. I must have had about 30 carp for what I though was around 40lb and was very glad when I called the all out to signal the end!

I was very surprised when my 30 odd fish went 61lb, catapulting me into the lead with 56lb leading the match up until then, I wasn’t in first position for long though as Andy silvers on the next peg managed 79lb to take the lead and the match.

I guess not giving the match 100% because of the weather cost me first place and a section win.

Full result below;


1st Andy Silvers 79-0
2nd Nick Gilbert 62-8
3rd Ian Carley 56-6
4th Kevin Pack 48-14
5th Mark Hathway 48-2
6th Mark Holland 41-9

Peg by peg section points.

Section 1

36 Matt Love 9-0 1
2 Kevin Pack 48-14 5
4 Mark Greenway 22-9 4
6 Dennis Price 14-7 2
7 Chris Jones 15-2 3

Section 2

8 Andy Silvers 79-0 5
9 Nick Gilbert 62-8 4
12 Charlie Chawner 24-3 Guest
13 Martin Charnock 7-15 2
15 Martin Twine 15-2 3

Section 3

17 Russ Evans 27-9 3
20 Mark Holland 41-9 4
21 Jay Lay 27-5 2
23 Ian Carley 56-6 5
24 Trevor Little 14-11 1

Section 4
26 John Haigh 32-1 4
27 Mike Jameson 31-6 3
32 Mark Hathway 48-2 5
33 Jim McDowell 16-11 1
34 Collin Wood 23-6 2

League Table

1 Andy Silvers 79-0 5
2 Ian Carley 56-6 5
3 Kevin Pack 48-14 5
4 Mark Hathway 48-2 5
5 Nick Gilbert 62-8 4
6 Mark Holland 41-9 4
7 John Haigh 32-1 4
8 Mark Greenway 22-9 4
9 Mike Jameson 31-6 3
10 Russ Evans 27-9 3
11 Chris Jones 15-2 3
11 Martin Twine 15-2 3
13 Jay Lay 27-5 2
14 Collin Wood 23-6 2
15 Dennis Price 14-7 2
16 Martin Charnock 7-15 2
17 Jim McDowell 16-11 1
18 Trevor Little 14-11 1
19 Matt Love 9-0 1
20 Tony Clark 0-0 0

New Foum Added

Have a look on the right and you will see I have added a forum for any questions you have and general fishing chat.

Maggotdrowners Match at Monks.

You have no doubt noticed there have not been many blog entries lately. This is because I rarely venture out and fish a match in the cold. The problem being on most venues you can almost predict where the winner will come from and a few will catch well while the rest struggle, which I find rather frustrating. So against my better judgement I decided to fish this match at Monks Lake.

The venue for the day was going to be Lake 1 which is the best one to choose as the fish tend to be in most swims so at worst everybody should catch something. 25 turned up to fish this match that was being run under the Maggotdrowners Forum banner. It was only open to forum members and there were plenty of familiar faces at the draw and a few new ones. I like fishing these matches as it is never too serious with plenty of banter. The temperature was barely above freezing and there was an east wind so the conditions were unpleasant!

I quite fancied a draw on the far side of the lake with the wind of my back today as I reckoned that where the winner is likely to come from. My drawing arm deserted me today and I pulled out 18, a peg on the wrong side of the lake but thankfully I still had the wind blowing from behind me. I still expected to catch a few fish though.

Tactics for the day were going to be simple. I set up a 13ft Maver Reactolite Number 1 float rod and My TD-Sol reel. The rig was a 3AAA insert peacock waggler, set a few inches over depth. This had a 0.10 trace and an 18 Kamasan 611 hook. All the shot was under the float apart from a number 10 6in from the hook then two equally spaced number 8s. This was to be fished in about 4ft of water. I also set up 1 pole rig! This was a Carpa Chimp 4 x 16, this size of float was needed to combat the tow, this also had a size 18 attached to a 0.10 hook length. Shotting was nothing complicated with a bulk and two number 10 droppers. Elastic was an 8 latex. This will be fished at about 11 meters as a backup to the main waggler line.

Bait for the day was 3 pints of white and red maggots, plus a couple of pints of soft expanders.

I will mention something I see a lot, guys setting up multiple top kits, a waggler, feeder, bomb etc, then have about 6-7 different types of bait on display when a couple of simple rigs and baits would do. This says to me that they have no confidence in what they are doing or haven’t found out what works at the fishery.

Anyway back to the days fishing. At the off it was out with the waggler around 20 meters and feeding a pouch full of maggots about every minute. I was feeding quite a large area so I can cast to the back of the feed and slowly twitch the bait through it to induce a bite. Bait was double maggots. I was also feeding pellets on the pole line at around 10-11 meters every few minutes to try later on. Vince on the next peg had a carp first bung on the waggler and most others fishing the method where soon into fish! Bill next door seemed to be struggling on the pole so I think the waggler was a good choice to start with.

During the next couple of hours I did pick up a few F1s , tench, ide and chub. Bill to my right had switched to the waggler by now and was catching more than me, but on the other side Vince was struggling and I guessed I was ahead of him. A quick look on the pole at 11 meters produced nothing which was surprising as I thought they would be queuing up there by now!

Back out on the waggler again and it was slow going just picking up the odd fish during the next hour. Twitching the bait through the feed area seemed to produce the bites with double white maggot the best bait. I did switch to feeding a few maggots on the pole line and intended to have another look later on. Looking up I spotted those on the far bank turning blue with the freezing east wind in their face, I was so glad I wasn’t with them!!!

The 4th hour of the match I went out again on the pole and this time had a few bites picking up some small chub, this eventually died on me and with 45 minutes remaining I was back on the waggler which I had continued to feed. It was solid out there now after giving it a rest and I put about 15lb in the net in the last part of the match including a surprise perch around the 2lb mark!

The whistle went to signal the end and I doubted I had enough to win with possibly 30lb odd in the net. The scales arrived and so far Matt’s 37lb was the best weight on my side of the lake. Bill on the next peg had 35lb and I was sure he had beaten me. My first net with carp in it went 26lb 12 oz, followed by my silverfish that surprisingly pulled the scales down to 10lb. But only good enough for 2nd place on my side of the lake and 4th overall. As I guessed the area on the far side that I fancied produced the two top weights where Omega Mike did well to land over 50lb on the maggot and waggler.

Here is the full result on the day considering the cold weather the lake fished well with no blanks.

1st Omega Mike 54lbs 12ozs
2nd M.T.Net 44lbs 04ozs
3rd Yalding Bloke 37lbs 00ozs
4th Nick Gilbert 36lbs 12ozs
5th gibbinsbill 35lbs 00ozs
6th Jay L 29lbs 14ozs
7th Steve Clinch 29lbs 04ozs
8th Up-Yah 21lbs 12ozs
9th Kev the Catch 21lbs 08ozs
10th Grouty 20lbs 04ozs
11th Sven C 20lbs 00ozs
12th Jim Boase 19lbs 04ozs
13th Peter 18lbs 10ozs
14th Chris 18lbs 00ozs
15th Vince 17lbs 00ozs
16th nomorelongwalks 14lbs 00ozs
17th spamwham 13lbs 10ozs
18th Clive 13lbs 00ozs
19th Dai 11lbs 08ozs
20th aliwoo 10lbs 04ozs
21st petemid 9lbs 00ozs
21st The Hat 9lbs 00ozs
21st Ron B 9lbs 00ozs
24th Zephyr 4lbs 02ozs
25th Wily Coyote 3lbs 12ozs

I won’t be out much now until the first of my League Matches Down Hartleyland Nicks Lake. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer then!!

Roach Fishing down Wylands

Me and Yalding Bloke were invited to have a day down Wylands by M T Net, on the Old Specimen Lakes.

With tales of 50lb nets of roach and plenty of carp we went off to sample a days fishing. The weather was far from ideal with a overnight frost, wind in the north plus a bright clear sky I would be surprised if we caught anything!

Trever(MT Net) was going after roach, Matt(Yalding Bloke) was going to target the carp, and I was fishing for anything that swims! The £1 bet was made and we started to fish.

Heres Trevor ready with his whip in hand

Matt Fishing for carp, not sure where they are though!!

The fishing was hard but we all managed to catch a decent net of roach, unfortunately the 50lb nets were not going to happen due to the weather but even so it fished well considering. Matt did briefly hook a carp but as soon as I picked up the camera it came off

Here are a few pictures of the days haul and it was decided a draw was in order for the £1 side bet as I didn't want to take a pound off of them again The pics are a bit blury cos I had dirt on the lens

Sams, The Medway and Hartleylands.

Sams Lake

I haven’t had time to put up a blog entry for a while so here it is.

Earlier in the month I was off to Sams Lake to fish a match with a £500 top prize with £200 and £100 for 2nd and 3rd.

I drew quite a nice looking peg with an island chuck of about 30 meters. Apparently it was the wrong end of the lake! It was going to be an all out carp attack and the methods for the day were going to be the bomb and the pellet waggler.

The event was pretty dire and not a lot was caught on my lake! By the 4th hour of the 6 hour contest I only had one small carp on the bomb. I keep on feeding 8mm pellets in the hope that a few moved in with little reward. There was obviously no feeding fish in the area as all round me were carpless!

I was quite board by now so decided to set up a shallow roach rig just to catch a few fish. Flicking out a few maggots at 8 meters and baiting with a single maggot I was straight into a few nice roach. It was at this point I realised I had got my tactics for the day wrong. Not being familiar with the lake I didn’t know it was solid with all types of silverfish. I recon I could have put at least 30-40lb of these in the net if I had switched tactics after the first hour. In the next hour I put about 12lb in the net that included a nice pound plus roach and a 4lb 2oz chub!

With just 30 minutes to go I noticed a bit of movement by the island so a quick switch to the bomb again baited with a 8mm pellet got me a bite. Unfortunately this fish came adrift after about 5 seconds. Wit just a few minutes left I did hook and land another small carp but it was probably too late.

The word was that Vince Webb had been emptying it from the other lake and he had over 150lb, taking advantage of a good draw. But the rest of us had struggled so I may have still been in with a shout of a frame place. 35lb was second and 20lb odd third, I ended up with 16.5lb for around 5th spot.

I missed out today by making the wrong choice and continuing to fish for carp when they obviously had switched off. Its decisions like these that would have had me going home with £200 instead of leaving with nothing.

The River Medway

I decided to run a small knock up on the river down the free section at Monktons Lane in Maidstone. A few days before the match 20lb nets of roach had been coming out of the river. Unfortunately it coincided with the first few frosts of the year. The colour had drooped out of the water and you could see a good 6ft down! 7 of us turned up and most will wish they hadn’t.

Not a lot happened and I picked up an 11oz perch on the waggler and maggot running it through at about 10 meters out after about 20 minutes. That was it for the rest of the match! Everybody blanked so a decisive win. I would like to think I caught the perch by superior fishing skill but couldn’t convince anybody else of that fact.

Hartleylands Reservoir Silverfish Match

I got an invite to fish a match at the Res. The format was going to be silverfish only and a rod and line had to be used, poles were banned. I did fancy my chances of winning this as these days most suffer from politus (only use a pole) and I use a rod and line for at least 50% of my match fishing so am well practiced. It was going to be a pair’s match decided on weight and the winner takes all.

At the draw I pulled out peg 13, not realising the new platforms had not peg numbers on yet I was really on a peg in the mid 20s.

I don’t think the draw meant a lot today as the roach in the lake are everywhere and I expected to do well from any peg as long as I can avoid the vast numbers of carp.

Tackle wise I set up two 13ft Milo New Era Powerlights, quite possibly the best waggler rods made. The two rigs were simple one was set to fish shallow with a small loaded Drennan Onion which will initially be set at about 3f deep. Just two number 10s were down the line and the hook was a Kamasan 510 size 20 attached to a 0.10mm Drennan rig line trace. This rig will double up to fish just touching the bottom about a rod length out to my right. The other was a 2AAA Drennan insert peacock set the fish just touching the bottom at 7ft, down the line I had two number 10s and a number 8 evenly spaced to fish on the drop with the same hook and trace.

Bait for the day will be 2 pints of casters and 2 of maggots. This will be plenty to feed little and often for the duration of the match of either bait. I don’t plan to put too much in as it may attract the carp.

At the off I fed maggots 6 at a time every 20-30 seconds out at about 10 meters and was soon getting a few bites on the full depth rig. Most came as the rig settled at full depth and after twitching the float a few inches. Quite a few roach in the 2-4oz range ended up in the net on single maggot hook bait during the first hour and I switched to the shallow rig as the fish come up in the water.

Alternating between the two rigs produced a steady stream of bites but the roach were mostly small, a switch to caster didn’t make any difference size wise so I stuck with maggot. I had been feeding casters down the to my right about a rod length out and dropping in here every now and again picked up a few bigger samples in the 8-12oz range.

It was easy fishing for the duration of the match just feeding maggots or casters little and often and alternating between the two lines. Looking around no one seemed to be catching faster than me so I just stuck with what I was doing and ended up with 119 roach and one perch. The surprising thing was I didn’t hook any carp. I put it down to the clear water and recent frosts pushing the fish out onto the middle of the lake.

I was sure I had enough to win the match but wasn’t sure how my pairs partner had done. Walking round I discovered he had only caught 3lb odd and was sitting in last position so not good news. The best weights were around 15lb with plenty 10lb plus so things were looking grim for us. I weighed in nearly 23lb and we then had a combined weight of 26lb odd (I can’t remember the exact amount) surprisingly it put us in the lead. The only challenge was going to be from Matt (Yalding_bloke) and his partner, who had put 11lb on the scales. As it turned out to his disappointment they ended up 8oz behind so we managed to win. I was first in the match on the day and my partner was last but the combined weigh was enough!

Finally have a look on the top right and you will see a link to details of the 1st Invicta Angling Match League. There is a list of the anglers fishing at the end, would you like to pick a winner from that lot, I cant?

Hartleylands Match

I was off to fish the Maggotdrowners Southern Champs a match organised by Vince Gould a members of the forum.

After stopping of for a breakfast on the way with Mike Jamerson (Omega Mike) I arrived to see some familiar faces at the draw as well as some new ones. As well as the overall match there was also a pairs contest for the sum of £1. This apparently was a random draw but I think this was a bit suspect as I had Mike. I call him the “Floating Feeder Master” or Noddy for short due to the nature of the method he uses which involves a feeder with a strip of rig foam attached to make it float. This is then filled with Vitalin to attract the fish. The results are devastating and it can dominate matches.

We were on two of the fairest match lakes in the south if not the country, that was Bramley and Pear Tree. Most of the pegs are a 25 meter ish chuck to the island and as long as I’m on one of them I will be confident of a top 3 finish fishing the Waggler. The wind does affect your results a little and if you do get it off your back it will always be worth a few extra pounds in the net due to it being easier to feed and present the bait, but even with a strong cross wind it is still possible to frame.

At the draw I pulled out peg 18 which was at the end of one of the islands on Pear Tree. I had for company on peg 17 Matt (Yalding Bloke) on the next peg who was pretty useful on the waggler and I expected him to do well. Directly opposite I had Omega (Vitalin) Mike.

One look at the peg and I knew I would be up against it today, Mike opposite had a lovely breeze from behind him so a nice leisurely chuck to the island was all that was needed. I however had it in my face blowing round the corner of the island so not so easy!

Bait for the day was easy as a 6 pint limit was in force, it was made up of 6 pints of Skrettings 6mm pellets, I had a few different sized hookers a handful of expanders plus a bit of paste. I also had some groundbait mixed up too feed the margins with so I could save the entire pellet quota for the waggler.

As normal for here I set up my two Carbonactive 11ft rod, one with a 4.5g Drennan Puddle Chucker. Not the greatest float for casting but they hold out well in an awkward wind. On the other was a 6AAA Styro waggler for fishing very shallow less then 12in deep. Both had a 0.16 trace and a 14 Drennan Carp hook. The bomb rod was also set up to fish a hair rigged pellet over the feed area, and a top 4 to fish down the margins with a 2g BGT Short, with a 0.16 trace and size 14 hook.

At the off I fired a good 3 pouch fulls of bait out to try to draw in some fish quickly, then is was about 10 every 15-20 seconds to get them interested, it was proving difficult to feed in the wind and had to give some pellets a brief soak in water to add a bit of weight, not ideal as they sink a bit quicker but it is a better option here than to switch to 8mm. I eventually managed to get my first carp after about 10 minutes on the styro rig set at 12in deep. This was followed by a further 14 in the first hour so things were going OK.

I continued to feed quite frequently and switch around with baits and was still picking up a few fish but not a large number, a brief spell on the bomb tight to the island picked up a few too but they were rather small. By the second hour I was on 25 small carp for I recon about 25lb. I had been feeding the margin so a quick look there with paste produced nothing. So back out on the waggler I started to pick up a few more carp.

The conditions were difficult and a trick I use started to get me a few, I set the float at 2ft deep than put on a floating expander. Now what I do now is wrap the pellet in paste. When you cast out the bait will sink very slowly with the weight of the paste and leave a tempting cloud in the water, but the good bit is it will then start to slowly rise again as the paste melts away. Obviously you can only do this if floating baits are allowed because the bait will eventually end up on the surface.

With about one hour to go I had 49 fish in the net for I recon about 50lb odd. But I had a bit of good fortune as I could see a few down the margin and a quick look every now and again produced 2 fish of about 3lb each, plus one of around 5lb. Another 7 0n the waggler saw me with 59 carp at the end for I guessed about 70lb.

Mike weighed first and had 69 fish for 83lb to take the lead. Next best was Matt on 17 with 60lb. lifting my nets out I know it would be close and didn’t quite have enough with 77lb so ended up taking second on the day and handing Mike the pound back I won of him last year .

Full result and peg numbers here

Omega Mike P4 83-02
Nick Gilbert P18 77-01
Yalding Bloke P17 60-11
Clive P15 49-13
Aigy P8 44-05
Sid06 B20 39-04
Nomorelongwalks B5 30-04
Fadd1st B9 27-09
Wily Coyote P20 26-11
Spamwham B19 26-11
Up Yah B16 25-05
M.T.Net P24 24-05
vg1037 B6 24-03
Gibbinsbill P11 23-10
Dai Fish B8 18-07
Croydon Angler P6 16-12
SimonElsey B17 16-09
Kev the Catch P2 9-01

Im off to Sams Lake next weekend to fish the £500 top prize match so look back after Sunday for my report.

And Finally

I am thinking of running a series of 6 matches on some local waters like Hartleylands and Monks next spring/early summer with a payout on the day for the top 3, plus 6 sections not in the main frame and an overall league paying the top 4.

I will be looking for 30 anglers entry fee will be £15 pool plus the peg fee making it £21-22 a match. Send me a mail if you are interested in entering as I’m sure places will go fast.

Sams Lake, Headcorn, Kent

I was off to a new venue today; it was Sams Lakes near Headcorn, Kent. The club I joined this year the Maidstone Town League were running a small match on the top lake. This would be good practice as I had a match here next month with a £500 first prize on offer.

I arrived and found a very nice looking fishery, the lawns surrounding the lakes looked like a golf course and there were lots of vegetation all around with several islands in the lake. The lake we were on had 30 pegs but we were only fishing 1 to 17 most had plenty of water in front of them to draw fish in from. I pulled out peg 17 that was apparently at the beginning of a section known as the graveyard! A narrow bit of the lake that had the island at about 14-16 meters away that had a reputation as being devoid of fish. Great I thought. I have included an overhead shot of the lake so you can see what I mean

I got to the swim and it looked OK with a big tree on the far bank that was 11 meters away, there was also a couple of gaps in the cover where you could drop the float into at around 13 meters.

Today I was going to experiment to see what worked in preparation for the bigger match next month. I had 3 baits with me to try, hard and expander pellets in several sizes, corn and some maggots. Also a few chum mixers as floating baits are allowed.

I set up a few rigs one shallow with a Drennan Carp 4 to fish pellet. A on the deck pellet/corn rig to fish tight to the far bank cover and one to fish down the middle at about 7 meters both with Carpa Chimp floats. A lighter on the deck rig for maggots also with a Carpa Chimp float. Then finally a margin rig with a BGT short float.

I had a new rod with me to try today too, a 10ft Shakey Match 3 feeder, this would be ideal for fishing a bomb short over the pole line, something I have been doing well with lately. This was set up with a short 6in trace of 0.20mm, attached to a 12 hook to hair rig a pellet.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do so thought I would wing it! At the whistle I cupped in some pellet over by the tree and maggots down the middle. Out went the rig over by the tree with a single 6mm expander as bait. This produced nothing for about half an hour! I started to think no wonder they call this section the graveyard as there was no signs of fish anywhere! So it was down the middle where I had been feeding maggots with the lighter rig, baiting with a double white maggot I started to pick up a few small roach. I continued to feed the far bank with a catty about every 2 mins with about 6-10 6mm pellets in the hope of drawing something in while knocking out the roach.

The wind had been steadily increasing during the next hour and was really blowing strong by now from one side; this was making it difficult to hold the pole steady. I felt it was time to go back over the far side with pellet but holding the pole at the 13 meters needed was difficult to say the least. It bent quite alarmingly so I threw it up the bank as I didn’t fancy my chances of it staying in one piece. I picked up the bomb rod and baited it with an 8mm pellet wrapped in paste. This was swung out into the gap in the far bank tree. I was just tightening the line and the rod was almost pulled off the rest. Without too much trouble a 3lb carp was soon in the net. At least there was something in the graveyard!

Several of its mates joined it in the next hour or so some fish to around 5lb. Sport was slow but steady for the rest of the match as I continued to catch a few by feeding two areas of the far bank with the catty and pellet and swapping between the two. I ended up with about 15 carp by the end of the match.

I was last to weigh and 48lb was the best weight, followed by a 36lb and a 32lb. I ended up with 35lb putting me in third on the day, apparently this was a good weight from the swim I had and most had expected me to struggle to catch any carp. I managed to draw a few in by feeding positively little and often.

Stones Fishery 2 Day Festival

I was off to fish a 2 day event at the fishery, I’ve only ever been to the place once before so wasn’t that familiar with the best tactics so decide to just fish it how I see it on the day. From my previous trip I know the lake held lots of carp and F1’s plus roach, rudd and skimmers. There were 40 anglers fishing the event on the match lake and pegging was going to be a bit tight as the place is not very big.

Day One

At the draw I pulled out peg 37, this didn’t mean a lot to me but when I arrived it looked OK with a big reed bed out in the middle of the lake at about 9 meters, this was right in front of me so I had a limited amount of water to fish. The two pegs either side of me were quite close and there was no cover down the margin so it didn’t look like it would be worth fishing there!

I didn’t set up many rigs just a on the deck one with a BGT Short float that could be used up against the reed bed, the depth was the same at 4ft all along so this would cover all along it. Also a shallow rig with a Drennan Carp 4 dibber to fish pellet and one to fish the margins but I didn’t expect to catch there.

Bait wise I had with me plenty of 6mm pellets, 6mm and 4mm expanders, corn and a pint of maggots. I also knocked up some groundbait.

At the whistle I fed 3 small balls of ground bait mixed with 4mm expanders at one end of the weed bed to try to attract skimmers, at the other end I started shallow on the pellet rig. The first hour on the shallow rig produced not a sniff of a fish. The whole lake was producing very little! I had been feeding a few 4mm pellets at the other end of the weed bed and dropped the bottom rig in over the top with a 4mm pellet and had a bite almost immediately and an 8oz skimmer was in the net, then nothing for the next half an hour. Another spell on the shallow rig still produced nothing. I had been feeding the margin and had a go there and had not a sniff. Lucky for me the rest of the lake was fishing poor with only the odd carp being caught.

A quick re think and I though I may be able to win the section with small fish, so I quickly got out another top kit with a number 8 latex in it, I attached a small dibber, 0.12mm trace and a size 20 Kamasan Animal hook. You may think the hook and trace bit strong for small rudd and roach but I wanted to land any bonus carp I did hook so it was a bit of a compromise.

With a single white maggot hook bait, feeding little and often I started to pick up a few small rudd and roach, nothing big but as least I was putting a few in the net, the guy to my right in my section had had a couple of carp though so I really needed one to catch him up. Just as I was thinking that the float buried and I was into a carp, playing it very carefully it was only about 1.5lb but the way the lake was fishing desperately needed. A few smaller rudd followed and with a hour left I was running out of maggots!

I did notice a carp nosing the reed island in front of me so I quickly picked up my shallow pellet rig, flicked out a few pellets to the edge of the reed and dropped the rig in, this produced an instant but and another small carp of about 2lb was in the net. As I only had a few maggots left I continued to fish pellet shallow against the reed but didn’t have another touch.

With only 15 mins to go and a handful of maggots left I went out again with the shallow maggot rig and feeding 5 at a time picked up another 10 small rudd before the whistle went.

The lake had fished really poor and sections were being won with low double figures. I didn’t think I had done that well as surely someone had caught a few carp in my section? Unbelievably the top weight in my section was only 8lb 6oz with most just having a couple of carp, and one guy had blanked! My two small carp and rudd went 8lb 11oz taking the section. Setting out to catch small fish was a big risk but it had paid off on an out of sorts lake.

The section win put me 4th on points as 3 of the other section winners had a better weight than me although the top 5 all had one penalty point. I was well in contention for day 2.

Day 2

It a good job I’m not superstitious as I pulled out peg 13, This was good looking peg that juts out into the lake with lots of open water in front of me.

I had 3 pints of maggots with me today just in case it fished poor again but looking at the lake I had a feeling I won’t be needing them today, you could see a few carp moving which they were not doing yesterday so prospects were looking better.

It was quite warm so I decided to go for an all out shallow pellet/pole attack, although I did set up a on the deck rig, a margin rig and the shallow maggot rig just in case. Being a wide part of the lake I also set up a pellet waggler rod.

I had one of the section winners from day one for company on the next peg just to make thing interesting.

At the start I dumped some pellets in the margins and went out with the shallow rig at around 9 meters where I had already seen carp cruising. Feeding pellet little and often things where slow with not one bite in the first 45 minutes. Everybody around me seemed to be picking up the odd carp fishing on the deck with the guy on the next peg caching 6! Where I had been feeding shallow the peg was fizzing so I dropped in with the on the deck rig and had plenty of indication on the float. Unfortunately none of these were bites; you could feel the fish rubbing against the line if you lifted the float but the seemed to be shying away from the line. They were obviously in the swim and feeding but I couldn’t hook one.

Two hours into the match I suddenly had a brainwave, quickly setting up a bomb rod, I attached a small bomb and on the end was a size 14 hook with an 8mm hair rigged pellet, I wrapped the pellet in a big lump of paste and swung it out 9 meters over the pole line. Tightening the line the rod got pulled round and I was into my first carp, this was followed by another one quite quickly.

I continued to feed little and often to try to get the fish shallow and did spot a few swirls so quickly went out with the shallow rig and picked up 2 F1 carp. And that is how the rest of the match went, fishing shallow feeding little and often then if I spotted a bit of fizzing in the peg just drop in with the bomb rod and more often than not I would pick up a carp. I can’t remember the exact number of fish I had but it was around 15 by the time the whistle went picking up 7 on the bomb and the rest shallow.

The lake had fished a lot better today with over 60lb winning the match but luckily not my section! 25lb was top in my section and the word was none of the previous day’s section winners had won today. With just me and two others left to weigh my carp went 29lb and the other two couldn’t better it.

So with a 2 point score over the two days this was enough to take the title, a big trophy and collect £510 for the two section wins and overall. So I was well pleased.

Looking back swapping to the shallow maggot rig and catching rudd on day 1 while other sat it out for carp, and switching to the bomb on day 2 were crucial. It was a difficult but challenging 2 days fishing.

Next week I’m fishing a small club match at Sams lake, Headcorn. Somewhere I’ve never seen before. If anybody has any info on the place send is a mail!

Hartleylands Nick Puncher Memorial Match

I make it no secret that this is in my opinion is the best match venue I have fished, so was looking forward the match. It is always well supported with all the peg fees being donated to charity. 100 plus were booked in today with most of the top rod from the south east fishing. The 3 match lakes and the res are all being used. I would expect a ton plus will be needed to win today and that would more than likely come from the Res or Nicks lake, but you cant rule out Bramley or Pear Tree to throw up 100lb but I don’t think any will be in the top 3. The payout for the day will be top 3 in the lake so it doesn’t matter what one you are on. There is also a £5 super pool for the overall top 5.

I arrived at the lake to discover Mark the match organiser and Paul Ward the fishery owner had an interesting £5 side bet going on. Paul had bet that I would finish in the top 3 on the day from wherever I draw!

At the draw was some rules put in place for the day and one had me worried for a bit, a 3AAA limit on waggler! Luckily towards the bottom of the board was another saying max pellet waggler size 4g, which happened to be 5AAA, the biggest float you will ever need on the lakes.

A big queue was at the draw and I eventually got to the front and pulled out peg 14 on Nicks Lake. I couldn’t remember exactly where it was but was told I was halfway along the back island with no form whatsoever. I wasn’t too bothered where I was to be honest as I have said many times before you can frame from virtually any peg on the match lake in the summer so had my chance to prove it today.

I arrive at my peg and was not disappointed at all, there was a slight cross wind but I couldn’t see it being a problem today. It was a nice easy 20-25 meter chuck to the island so obviously it was going to be a waggler attack (what a surprise you are thinking!).

As always I set up two 11ft waggler rods with 4.5AAA Styrofoam float. One set at 12inches and the other at 8 inches. They both had 0.16mm hook lengths with size 14 Drennan carp hooks and a hair rigged bait band. I also set up a top 4 in case a few fish moved in down the margins and a bomb rod with a rig I have been experimenting with that I will have to keep to myself for now as it was not my idea.

I will bore you with the bait I had today in case you are new to the blob but most will know what I will be using. I had with me plenty of 6mm coarse pellets which are the best size at the lakes, some paste, plus some 8mm hookers and a few of pints of expanders to feed the margins.

The hooter went to signal the start and I fed 4 big pouch fulls of bait quite quickly to the island, the thinking behind this is to draw some carp in quickly, the reason being the two blokes to the right were also fishing to the island so I didn’t want to lose fish to them and maybe I will pinch a few. I continued to feed about 10 pellets every 15-30 second and casting over it. 15 minutes into the match I had my first small carp, things started slow but steady and an hour in I had 10 carp on the 8 inch deep rig. I had a lot of fish in the swim but they were not really “having it” they would come to the noise of the pellet and were proving difficult to tempt. I tried various ways of feeding, different hook pellets, wrapping the pellet in paste and nothing seemed to work well. I wasn’t too worried because you can build the swim and the last two hours of the match are always the best. Paul the fishery owner came round to see how I was getting on and told me the lakes were fishing quite hard with no one emptying it yet which was good news.

By the end of the third hour I only had 30 carp averaging about a pound in the net, five that were caught on the bomb so not so good. I was still struggling to put a decent run of fish together but still felt I was in with a shout. The next hour was more of the same with another 10 fish although some were a better stamp around the 2lb mark. With an hour of the match left I recon I had about 50lb in the net made up of 40 small carp.

I still think I had a lot of fish in the swim so maybe could still have a good last hour, so I took a gamble on feeding quite heavy and very frequently(cant tell you why just had a feeling it would work), my suspicions were confirmed as carp started to show on the surface every time I fed. Shallowing up to 6in deep, feeding a big pouch full of bait then landing the float on top resulted in an instant bite. I had 15 carp in the next half an hour (one every 2 minutes), the biggest around the 3lb mark. The final half an hour resulted in another 10 so when the whistle went I ended up with 65 carp, 25 that were caught in the final hour.

The scales came round and the best weight on my lake was 84lb 9oz which was lying third overall in the main frame, I guessed I had around 80lb so it was going to be close for third spot, Mark who was doing the weigh in was worried he had lost his £5 side bet. My first net on the scales went 44lb; the second was 40lb 2oz, giving me 84lb 2oz putting me second on the lake and forth overall picking up £150 and only 7oz away from a few quid more! A decent result from a peg that was apparently not too good!

The top two on the day came from the Reservoir, I can’t remember the exact weights but they were around 140lb and second place just over a ton.

Not out fishing next weekend but will be fishing a 2 day event at Stones fishery on the 8the and 9th of September so look out for my report on how I get on.

Hartleyland Match

I was off to my favourite match venue today to fish with the Maidstone Town league a local club I joined this year. There are a number of reasons I rate Hartleyalnds so much as a match venue. For a start it looks nice with plenty of bankside cover. You can potentially win from anywhere in the summer on Nicks, Bramley, or Pear Tree lake. Added to this there are no silly rules and you will encounter the best conditioned carp you are likely to catch. Today I was on Pear Tree the lake I used for my Pellet Waggler write up for Southern Angler. The lake is roughly rectangular in shape with two islands running down the middle giving you roughly a 25 meter chuck to them.

I arrived and discovered there will be quite a few fishing with nearly every peg in. At the draw I pulled out peg 13 that put me about halfway along one of the two islands that run down the middle of the lake. There was a light cross wind and there was only one method I was going to use here today and that will be the pellet waggler. In my opinion this method is unbeatable here during the warmer months if you have an island to chuck to. Today I was going to try out some Styrofoam waggler I had knocked up, only 3 inches long and taking 4-5AAA they were a perfect size.

I set up my two 11ft Carbonactive rods, one set to 8in deep, and the other 12in. both had Mr Crappie 4lb main line, with a 0.16 trace. Attached to this were a size 16 Fox carp hook and a hair rigged bait band. I also set up a bomb rod with a new set up on the end to try that I will tell you what it is another time and a top kit and number 4 section to drop in the margins.

Today I had 6mm pellets for bait as they will easily reach the island and I prefer this size here if I can get away with it. Also some 6mm expanders to feed the margins and a bit of paste.

The all in was called and I put a good handful of pellet in each margin and fed a dozen pellets just short of the island, starting on the 12in deep rig it wasn’t long before I got my first bite and a small carp of about a pound was in the keepnet, the carp seemed to respond to very frequent feeding today, about 10 pellets every 10-15 second, I had a very good first hour putting 20 small carp in the keepnet! Things slowed up during the next hour and I found an 8mm hook pellet seemed to get a bite quicker than using the 6mm that I was feeding. I could see a lot of carp in my swim waiting for the feed and the shallower rig produced more bites.

I needed to constantly change bait size and cast around the feed to keep the fish coming. You would only get a bite if the bait was moving and once it had hit full depth it was ignored. I had to feed then drop the float on top, if I didn’t get a bite after about 5 seconds feed again and slowly twitch the bait through the lose offerings. This way most cast came back with a fish on the end.

About half way into the match I hooked a bigger fish, at about the same time Yalding Bloke from the Maggotdrowner Forum turned up, I think he came round to see how I fished the waggler but I gave a good demo of how not to land a big fish. Keeping the rod low I slowly got it in netting range without too much trouble. I missed it with the net and the fish promptly went berserk and it took me another 5 minute to get it in the net!

I continued to feed the margins and had a quick look every now and again if the waggler swim went quiet, this didn’t produce any fish, but if you do this and continue to feed without fishing when you go back over with the waggler you will often get a several fish quickly.

I was counting the carp today and 15 minutes before the end I had 102! I decided on one last look down the margin before the end for a lump. I hooked on two 6mm expanders and wrapped them in a big lump of paste and dropped it in to my right. The float jumped about a bit so I know there was something down there, the float suddenly went under and I was into a good carp. This time I demonstrated how to land them properly and holding the pole low the fish came back to me and a quick lift and one about 4lb was in the net. I had another couple of bites and bumped one down the edge and that whistle went to signal the end. I had 103 carp, 1 rudd and a barbel!

I guessed I had about 120lb and I wasn’t too far out for a change and put 145lb on the scales. It turned out to be easily enough to win as 79lb was second so a good result for the waggler at Hartleylands.

The Styrofoam floats worked well too, although I think I would have still caught as much on a balsa one. I could always jump on the bandwagon start selling them at £2 a go!!

Im back here next week fishing a big open match with all the lakes in, i quite fancy peg 9, 23, 25 or 32 on Nicks lake.

Stones Fishery Sherness

I was going to visit Stones today for the first time; I thought I better fish a match there before the 2 day festival in September.

The lakes are on the side of Stones Garden Centre that conveniently has a café that opens in the morning for breakfast, the draw was carried out in the café and I pulled out peg 31 which meant nothing to me but I was told you can do well from anywhere on the lake. It is a strange looking lake as there are pots in the water with reeds growing out of them!

This was a day for experimenting being my first visit so I was going to try a few different things, I was limited to only fishing the pole as there is no way I would get any carp in fishing beyond the pots on a rod and line.

I set up a couple of shallow rigs made up from Drennan Carp 4 Dibbers, one with a long line for swinging away from the pole. These had a 0.14 trace and a Drennan eyed size 14 carp hook attached. A on the deck rig with a Carpa Chimp float, these all had a number 10 latex in the top kits. One for each margin with a BGT Short float with 0.16, and a size 14 Fox Carp hook. These had yellow Drennan hollow in them, the main reason I use this down the margins is with the extra stretch if I hook a big fish I can just hang on keeping the tip low, and then don’t have to follow the fish out and add extra sections.

The plan for the day was to feed a long and short lines down the left margin, and one to the right. But the main attack was going to be shallow between the two pots in front of me where there were quite a few carp cruising around. Bait as always was lots of Skretting 6mm pellets, 4 and 6mm expanders and some paste. I have the utmost confidence in this bait when commercial carp are the target even on unfamiliar water.

At the off I fed the margins, then went straight out with the shallow rig, I did however stick out a couple of balls of groundbait out where I was fishing shallow to hopefully draw some fish in. Feeding 6-8 pellets every few second I was soon into my first carp a fish of about 2lb, soon followed by its mate another one about the same size. Half an hour in I hooked a bigger one about 5lb, when it surfaced I missed it with the landing net and it went crazy! Unfortunately the hook then pulled out.

Things were very slow and two hours into the match I only had 5 carp in the net, word was the lake was not fishing too well. I did drop in where I was feeding the margins but there was little sign of anything down there. So back out with the shallow rig and adding a section took me to beyond the two pots full of reeds. I started to pick up a few more small carp and f1’s here, I was warned not to use a light elastic by the reed pots but they came in with not too much trouble, you just lift slightly into a fish then instead of shipping back pushing the pole forward slightly seemed to confuse the fish then you can easily lead it between the reed.

I keep on dropping down the margins but had no response, so carried on picking up the odd fish shallow. I did try a maggot hookbait for a short while and had a few roach and rudd.

30 minutes from the end I spotted a carp down the left margin, dropped in a bit of paste and immediately had a bite and hooked one, another 2 came out from here before the whistle went to signal the end.

When the scales came round 90lb was winning and I knew I had nowhere near that, I stuck 37lb on the scales, the half of the lake I was on didn’t fish as well as the top end where the winner came from. I had an enjoyable days fishing though and would recommend a visit to the lakes, I will certainly be back.

I did fish on after the end of the match down the margin and had one a bung! The margin was solid, I’m sure the carp know!

Willow Park Battering

Today I was off the Willow Park for the first time. I was representing the www.maggotdowners.com team; there are 3 other forum teams in attendance, Total-fishing, Talk-angling and Angling forums. The team orders were I had to be last in my section to keep with the tradition of Maggotdrowners finishing last. I was on the middle lake that apparently held plenty of carp, f1s, and silverfish and would be perfect for the pole shallow, or even the pellet waggler.

I was a bit worried in the run up to the event when I noticed a club match was won on the lake with only 27lb. Surely a lake that demands a £10 a day peg fee offers better fishing than the result reflected? Further alarm bells rang when I read on the forum that the carp had all escaped from the lake in a recent flood. Added to this one of our team was down there the day before for a look around and reported not a lot was being caught on the middle lake! Things were starting to look grim.

I arrived the morning of the match and I must admit the lake looked good although the pegging was tight. After a tea and chat with the other members of the team the draw was made and I was on peg 20, this meant nothing to me not having seen the lake before but I was informed it was a decent draw. Arriving at the peg it did look good, a large willow to the left overhung the water, and a corner to the right with plenty of cover in the margin was the 2 obvious places to fish. Disappointingly I was limited the distance I could fish out in front of me without “crossing swords” because my peg faced a line of anglers on the other banks.

With the enforced bait limit of 3 small bags of pellet my tactics were going to be fishing shallow with the limited amount of pellet I had, also I was going to target the margins with paste and corn, I would have rather used pellet but didn’t have enough to use for both, an all out carp attack. I also had a few maggots with me to avoid a blank if things went wrong!

I won’t bore you with the rig details but I set up one for the margins, a couple shallow and one for on the deck. Also a pellet waggler rod.

At the off I fed a few ball of groundbait on the pole line straight out in front, and some corn and hemp in the margins both sides. I started with the on the deck rig but flicked out a few pellets every 30 seconds to try and catch shallow. During the next hour I went through several hook baits, corn, pellet, paste, eventually catching a small roach on maggot! The swim was devoid of fish as I was getting very few indications on the float.

During this time I also was flicking half a dozen pellets out to my right at about 25 meters as I noticed the odd carp cruising, I had a few cast with this rod to try and mug one of these cruising fish but again caught nothing. I wasn’t keeping track of time but at about the 2 hour mark with only a few small roach to show for my efforts I dropped a lump of paste in my right margin where I had been feeding, the float settled and started moving about then went under, lifting the pole I was into a carp, then 10 second later it came off. I won’t repeat what I said next!

The next hours were a not event fishing wise as I had a few more small roach by switching between the lines I have fed. It was now time to really attack the swim to try and make something happen, out of desperation I took the decision to concentrate on the pellet waggler and I had 2 pints of 6mm pellet left, so stepping up the feed to a dozen pellet every 15 second where I had spotted the odd cruising carp out to my right. All this achieved was to push the carp out of range!

40 minute were left and I quickly set up a shallow maggot rig to put a few more fish in the net, flicking a few maggots out at about 6 meters I managed about 10 small roach then hooked something a little bigger, playing it carefully it was a F1 of about 3lb. No more followed and I was relived when the whistle went to signal the end.

This scratching about sort of fishing that was required on the day is not really my style and to be honest I didn’t get the best from the peg. 2 hours in I had lost interest really!

The scales came around and I put a pitiful 4lb on them, putting me about 14th out of the 20 anglers on the lake and 4th in the 4 man section. 18lb won the lake!!!

Thankfully I did my bit and our team came in last on the day as expected.

The result being.
Angling Forums 40 pts Total Fishing 1 38 pts Talk Angling 33 pts Maggot Drowners 29 pts

I was tempted to ask for a refund of my peg fee as the fishing was poor, personally I expect to catch a few if I am paying £10 and quite frankly the place is not up to standard, There was plenty of talent fishing the lake and most struggled. I do think the 3 pint pellet limit is in place to stop you overfeeding the few fish present! The rumoured lack of carp in the lake seemed true as I saw little evidence of large numbers of fish present, it was a hot sunny day and you would have expected to see plenty of fish cruising in the surface layers.