The final club match of the year was to be held at Hartleylands Reservoir In Kent. This lake shuts for matches between April and September and we normally try to book the first Saturday in October for our last match of the year, but due to another booking we had to re-plan it for the second Saturday. We have always had good close matches on the reservoir with a variety of methods winning and framing.
I was driving today and when I arrived at Mick's house to collect it was a nice 11 degrees, it was still dark as we travelled the 2 hour journey to the Knoxbridge Cafe, around 15 minutes from the venue. The breakfasts here are really good and value for money. The weather though had changed and it was now 9 degrees and getting foggy in patches. However, arriving at the venue saw clear skies, but the temperature was still low.
With a couple of late drop outs we had 10 anglers on the lake and after speaking with the bailiff we decided to only fish 2 and a half banks of the reservoir. leaving the rest open to pleasure anglers. I already had a plan in mind and this consisted of fishing the pellet waggler for the first hour, longer if I was catching and then coming to 5m and the margins for the remainder of the match.So at the draw I was glad of peg 9 coming out. This was 1 peg off the flyer (10)by the willow tree on the far bank, it was flat calm but stronger winds were expected later in the day. Mick had drawn peg 8, so no getting away from him, Tony Watkins was on Peg 10 and with his brother on 7 and Clive on 6 it would be interesting.
However, my plans very nearly went out of the window, when I realised I had left my wagglers at home, but Clive came to the rescue with one I could borrow, although I did need to add 2 AAA shot to it, to stop it looking like a lighthouse. I plumbed up at 5m and set my rig to fish dead depth, with a plan to fish 6mm hard pellet on this line and I rigged up both margins to fish with corn.
At the all in I pinged a few pellets out towards the middle of the lake and chucked the waggler out with a 5ft tail and an 8mm hard pellet. After around 10 minutes the float dipped and fish number one was on, a nice common around 6lb, Tony had also set up a waggler and had lost a fish at the net. I went out again and another 10 minutes of pinging, retrieving, pinging, casting, pinging and so on passed before I had another fish of 11-04 ( all fish over 10lb had to be weighed and returned). So two fish in the first half hour and I was going well. I could see John and Gino both catching on the favoured pegs 4 and 5 and felt I was still in it. Pushing on I had another two smaller carp on the waggler before the wind got up and made the fishing awkward. The wind was blowing the line all over the place and although I could cast the distance easy enough, the bow in the line was causing issues on a strike. I then tried the 5m line with a 6mm pellet and was plagued by little dinks from small roach and skimmers. A switch to an 8mm banded pellet and a carp was hooked.
With the increased wind, which was now blowing into Simon and Clive's bank, I was struggling to keep fish coming, so I upped the feed and put 3 inches of line on the deck, this saw improved presentation, but an increase in foul hooked fish. Shallowing up to 2 inches off deck saw the rig running through with the tow a little but I would also get proper bites and hook fish in the mouth. Clive was now catching well and I reckoned that I was always one fish behind him throughout. I would catch one and then Clive. Simon was struggling and had nicked a couple of carp, Tony was catching odd lumps, whilst Mick was having a nightmare on peg 8, with only a couple of roach and 2 carp caught late on.
Overall
1st John Holdsworth 86-00
2nd Clive Pritchard 66-08
3rd Keith Ashby 62-04
4th Gino Exell 52-08
5th Tony Watkins 42-00
6th Terry Goff 41-04 ( including a 23-08 carp caught in the tail with 10 minutes to go)
7th Tony Roberts 41-00
8th Simon Watkins 26-12
9th Mick Wright 13-08
10th Rod Turner DNW
Well, that's it for another year with the Marsh AC lads, I have thoroughly enjoyed the matches that I have been able to attend. Good to see a few new venues appearing on the calendar. See you all next year.
On the MK Nugget front I have taken gone in front for the first time this year and now lead 6-5 with time and available dates running out. Never Give Up.
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