Marsh AC Tylers Common Willow Lake 03 06 2017

Many years ago when I joined Marsh AC, it was because I could get to fish venues that I would not normally bother with due to the distance involved. Yes I could fish them on a day ticket or even book into an open on them but it would never be the same as fishing with a group of friends. Tyler's Common was another new venue for me, the club had fished it the previous year and knew what to expect yet I was going into the match with limited information. What I did know was that the lake contained a lot of small carp with the better pegs in the corners.
Mick was driving and had even sorted out a breakfast venue in nearby Brentwood, a cafe named Konchi's Kafe. In fact it was a Pie and Mash Shop that does a mean breakfast.
John and I were asked to peg it out whilst the others paid their pools and sorted their gear out. Walking around the lake there was a lot of fish movement. Every peg was solid with fish swirling just under the surface and cruising around. Back at the draw, I fancied a peg from 8 to 11, the wind was blowing into them and all had good looking margin swims. Mick had drawn peg 5, a noted peg that won the match last year, whilst I drew peg 7, just off where I fancied but not in the corner and on the back bank. My plan of attack was to fish meat and with this in mind I had 5 tins available at my disposal. I also had a selection of pellets, 4mm, 6mm and 8mm. 4mm for feed and 6 and 8mm for hookers.
I set up 3 shallow rigs to cover from 6 inches to 18 inches, a slapping rig and a deep rig, all to fish one line at 2 plus 2. I could feed comfortably here and as I expected a lot of small carp did not want to waste time shipping in and out. I also set up a rig for the right hand margin close to a tree coming out into the water. I would feed this with pellet.
Starting of on the slapping rig I was soon into a run of small carp, although small by Tyler's standard I was hopeful of a few better fish turning up. The fish were coming right up in the water and even taking the small frenzee flot I was using. I switched to the 6 inches rig and again although I was catching, they were only small fish, averaging just over a pound. A switch to meat caught me a couple of slightly larger fish around 1 1/2lb but I was having to wait for the float to go under. A look down the edge saw no real change of fortune, just small average sized carp.  After 3 hours I reckoned on about 75lb and had plenty of fish. John on peg 8, fresh from his coaching day at Alders Farm with the Garbolino team, was catching well on floaters with a ton weight, Clive on peg 6 had also caught well fishing an 8mm in the margin. Mick had fared slightly worse than me with 70lb. Kevin had plenty of fish for 81lb and Simon was just edging out brother Tony. It was clear at this point though, that the corner pegs were producing the better stamp of fish.
Going into the second half of the match I needed to catch a few of the better samples of carp I had seen during the weighing in. Nearly everyone in the corners, had proper 2 to 3lb fish yet mine were all smaller 1 1/4 specimens. I tried upping the feed and changing the depth regularly but to no avail. I had just drawn a peg where it was solid with those small carp. Nothing I did seemed to affect the change in size of carp, no matter where I placed the rig, margins, up in the water or on the deck. I felt hopeless and out of ideas. Do not get me wrong I caught plenty of fish, probably between 120 and 130 fish but my total weight of 166lb reflected the size.
Overall
1st John Holdsworth 337-08
2nd Tony Roberts 280-00
3rd Clive Pritchard 270-12
4th Tony Watkins 256-00
5th Simon Watkins 255-00
6th Terry Goff 187-00
Mick just pipped me for the MK Nugget and now takes an 8-3 lead going into Tuesday's match. I can honestly say that I did not enjoy that match, I left feeling frustrated and vowing never to return as I felt I had no control over the fishing., but in hindsight I think I got it all wrong from the off. Analysing the match I possibly should not have fished meat for an hour, trying to chase a few bigger fish. I should have also ignored the fish up in the water and fished hard on the deck with a bigger pellet feeding more aggressively to push the fish down. Still onwards and upwards. My next Marsh match is at Hartleylands Farm in a couple of weeks.