Sunday 13 August 2017

Monks Lake 4 Marsh AC 12 08 17

After the fishing festivals, Stafford Moor and Yam Yams, a family holiday to Spain it seems that I have not fished a match for ages. I was really looking forward to getting out on the bank. I had done no preparation whatsoever, just sorted out a bait bag. Everything else was the same as my last match.
Monks Lake 4 was the destination so an early start for both Mick and I, but the traffic was clear and and a decent run saw us pulling into the car park around 0730, plenty of time for a chat. Richard was already there and the remainder slowly followed. A generous Bacon and Egg Baguette and a large Tea set me up for the day. A chance meeting with Mark Hathway, another Ghandi from another site was welcome. He was fishing one of the proper lakes on the complex. 
With no Dave Collier in attendance today. Tony Roberts would stand in for the Chairman and manage the pools and pegging from the comfort of his breakfast table. Mick had gone into the hat first, and promptly pulls out the end peg 152, whilst I had to settle for 140. On arrival at the peg I fancied it for a few fish. There were fish topping, I could see a swirl to the left hand side edge, fish crashing on the feeder line, but I had forgotten the rods, as I said no preparation.
I decided on setting up for 5 lines. Left hand edge with a .2 DS diamond to .16 Stream and a B911X 16 hook. Two lines at 2+2 at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, same rigs .4 DT Diamonds to .16 Stream and B911X, one a 16 with a hair-rigged band. The other a plain hook for with banding pellets myself or for fishing meat.
I set up a couple of shallow rigs for fishing long, one a drennan dibber for fishing an 8mm pellet and slapping, the other a shallow drennan bristle float for fishing a 6mm pellet.
For company I had John on 139, and Richard on 142 and at the all in I decided to let everyone pot in and just try for a sneaky carp down the edge without feeding. A couple of cubes of meat were lowered into the swim at top three and nothing. After 10 minutes I started my feeding regime. Pinging a few pellets long and potting a mix of 4 and 6mm pellets onto the 2+2 lines. These lines started fizzing fairly quickly and after a couple of minutes a 6oz skimmer was in the net, his mate followed but no carp. A look on the right hand side saw another small skimmer before my first carp of the day followed around the 1lb mark. I could hear Tony Watkins and Gino discussing their fishing and it sounded as if they were catching well, only small stuff but I was expecting them to be catching odd carp amongst them. I could hear odd splashing from John next door, so knew he was catching. Tony Roberts and Simon were on walkabout with Tony admitting to catching a few carp and Simon admitting to nothing. It seemed to be fishing very hard. I was speaking with a regular at the venue who stated a lot of the carp had been removed recently and this certainly seemed correct as the fish were not competing for food. 
With this in mind I set up another line and decided to only feed it, if I caught a fish and only with a couple of pellets. This seemed to work for an hour. I was fishing 11m feeding nothing but the hook bait. After each carp I would feed 4 6mm pellets and wait. In this time I caught 10 small carp between 1lb and 3lb. Then as quickly as it started it stopped. I tried doing the same on a different line but suffered more with foul hookers, coming off deck saw no bites, just touching or over depth resulting in foul hooked fish. Yet every now and again I would connect with another small carp of skimmer. 
Tony reckoned on 20lb for a good result today and I had that, just. But at the all in a lot of others were admitting to 20lb. It would be close.

Results:
1. Tony R peg 143 32-08lb
2. Keith Peg 140 22-08lb
3. Terry Peg 144 21-12lb
4. John Peg 139 21-00lb
5. Mick Peg 152 20-00lb
6. Clive Peg 148 18-04lb
7. Gino Peg 137 13-08lb
8. Jim Peg 151 12-00lb
9. Tony W Peg 136 11-00lb
10. Simon Peg 146 8-08lb
11. Richard Peg 142 6-08lb
12. Rod Peg 149 4-00lb

Section winners today: 136-140 Keith; 142-146 Tony R; 148-152 Mick

To be fair, the lake fished harder than we all expected, and does not do the complex justice. The other match lakes are far more competitive and enjoyable to fish. Still not to complain my positive mental attitude is continuing to bear fruit with another MK Nugget going into the coffers to make it 9-7 to Mick. The gap is closing.

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