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.