There used to be a angler called Syd Huggins, who wrote a column for the old Matchfishing magazine. He had all sorts of mishaps along the way, yet always tried to look on the brighter side of fishing. Looking back over my weekend it feels like I have stood in his shoes. Nothing has gone right on the fishing front. Honestly if they had not cut all the trees down at Alders you would have found me dangling from one.
But true to my word, I will not resort to just blogging about good days, we all have bad ones, that need learnings taken from them if you can find them.
Saturday saw the start of the Marsh AC series of matches that are scattered around Essex, Herts, Bucks and Kent. We were hopeful of a good days fishing if nothing else at Claygate fishery near Maidstone. After picking up Mick, who was returning from knee surgery, passing over the driving duties to me. See I can be nice.We made good steady progress through the traffic to Kent in good time. A breakfast stop at Monks was called for and duly received before travelling the remaining 10 minutes to the venue.
With all the club fees paid for the year, it was good to see some old faces and some that were looking even older than I remembered. It was strange, I could see all these faces and think they should be two stone heavier for that face, still all that was quashed when Al turned up and I found where all those extra pounds went.
Anyway onto the fishing, Mick had requested a short walk due to the above surgery, and pulled out 24.Right next to the flyer island which even Mick could reach with a pole. The alternative was the hospitality peg 17. Another flyer on the other side of the flyer island. So where did I draw, peg 12. Now when you consider that 7,8,9,10 and 11 are left out because they are rubbish in the colder months( Owners exact words) I was not too hopeful of a good day. You really needed to be on the 24 to 34 bank to have any chance. Still fish have fins, as they say. We were hoping to catch plenty of F1s with an odd bonus carp. With this in mind I had 4pts of maggot, a mixture of 4 and 6mm hard pellets and some 6mm expanders with me.The peg itself was approximately 20m across with plent of overhanging trees making it impossible to fish. So I decided on a softly softly approach at 13m and 6m one with expander, the other with maggot. It all started quite well, feeding a few micros and fishing a 6mm expander, I was getting the odd bite and and slowly building a weight. Then it went dead, I started another line 2m to the left and another couple of fish came albeit smaller. After an hour I had 6 fish for around 8lb. I could see Troy catching on the tip across where he could get closer but still not tight to the far side. Terry was getting a couple of indications but it was slow going. Simon on 17 was bagging, but losing a few along the way. Hour two saw a couple of fish added to the net before the third hour saw me put another 8 in the bag. I was getting a few liners so switched to fishing off the deck for 30minutes to no avail, a bad decision, as when I went back on the deck I had no more bites. The last 3 hours dragged to be honest, very few bites on any line despite trying all the baits in rotation. Perhaps pinging a few pellets was wrong on the day and it caused the fish to drift off.Terry was starting to catch well on meat at 8m.
At the weigh in I had 23-12 for nowhere. Al had fished 16m all day tight to the bank of the island to weigh in 82lb for the match win. Simon was second with 55lb and Mick was third with 40-08.Troy had the consolation of a section win with 29lb.
Well done the framers and Mick who takes the lead in the MK Nugget challenge for the first time in over a year. 1-0 Mick.
Sunday saw the start of the Alders Spring League. 5 matches on Ash Lake with teams of 3. Our team consisted of Ian Pretty, Madd and myself. I was really looking forward to this match as I had not fished at Alders since December. I even took a rod with me in case I drew an island peg.Again with the pools all paid, Madd was designated Team Captain and drew the pegs for us. The three sections put Ian on peg 7, probably our best feeder angler and no island to chuck to. Madd drew himself peg 20, a good draw and possible section winner. Myself had peg 22. Now this is rarely used in matches, by the overhanging tree and if the fish are there you can have a good day, but if not you will struggle.
Well to cut a long story short, they weren't there. I started off at 14m but the cold northeasterly wind made that uncomfortable fishing. I came in to 12m and felt much better feeding only via a tosspot to keep it nice and tight. No matter what bait I tried I did not have a bite. The only time the float went under was when my neighbour hooked a carp on the island and it kited into my peg dragging my float under in the process.
At the time of writing I am not sure on the result. Madd had caught well and was in the frame for the section win, Ian was disappointed as his peg seemed devoid of fish, yet the island pegs had a few between them.
Still if thats the worst weekend I have this year, its out of the way. Things can only improve.
