| |  Marsh Angling Club
I'm down at Churchgate Lakes in Essex today with Marsh AC for match 2
We were supposed to be fishing Top lake but as they have made Top lake smaller to turn it into 2 lakes Dave felt that there weren't enough pegs for us to have a bit of room so he swapped the match to the Bottom lake
Makes no difference to me as I've never been to the place before so Top or Bottom it makes no odds 
I had a nice easy drive down this morning the TomTom reckoned it could get me to Churchgate in 1hour 46mins and fair play it was spot on again
I went into the cafe to order my breakfast before the rush arrived and was soon sat with a hearty full English and a steaming mug of tea before me happy days!
Once everyone had arrived Dave got the draw under way
I pulled peg 20 out of the bag a quick chat with a few of the guys that had fished Bottom lake before revealed peg 20 to be just below the cafe and not too far to walk Result!
I loaded up the shuttle and set off to peg 20
Plan today is to fish on the deck at 13m straight in front
And I also set up a margin swim in my left hand margin
I also set up the feeder rod to chuck across to the island if things didn't go to plan
When Dave phoned me yesterday to tell me the match was being moved from top lake to bottom lake he did mention that it would be more silver fishing than Carp fishing as the lakes at Churchgate are not stuffed with Carp they are more like natural lakes
Unfortunately I was on the A34 and sat in very slow moving traffic at the time and by the time I eventually arrived at the tackle shop it had been shut for 20 mins  so that would be no maggots for me then!
So my plan is to use up the Swimstim I have left over from Makins as I still have a bag of 3mm pellets and a bag of green swimstim , as there is supposed to be a large head of Bream in the bottom lake plus a few Carp I intend to fish meat over groundbait and pellets and see if I can draw the Bream in and any stray Carp that are passing
For company next door on peg 21 is Ed and to my left on peg 19 is Dave's wife Gladys who last year gave Peter a good thrashing which he is still trying to live down 
So if my plan doesn't come together I may be joining him in the "I got beat by Gladys off the next peg" club 
On the all in I shipped a ball of green swimstim groundbait out to 13m along with half a pot of 3mm pellets with a few cubes of meat then went in over the top with a 6mm cube of meat on a size 16 B911 hook tied direct to 0.14mm Silstar line under a 4x14 Malman Thicko set to fish with 3 inches laying on the deck
Gladys was like a whirling dervish next door on peg 19 fishing maggot on a top 2 in front of the platform she was knocking fish out 1 a chuck and after 30mins had over 60 fish
I like most other people was still waiting for a bite but Gladys was showing no signs of slowing down this was starting to look bad!
All of a sudden my float slid under and I had a fish on I shipped it back and soon had a skimmer of about 6ozs in the net back out to 13m with another cube of meat on the hook and as soon as it settled the float shot under and I had elastic streaming out of the topkit I soon had it shipped back and slid the net under a Tench of about 12ozs next put in I had another Tench of around the same size looks like the plan may come good after all
On the next put in the float buried then screamed off up towards the top of the lake looks like I have hooked 1 of the large Carp 
I had it on for a few seconds then the hook pulled and the elastic snapped back into the topkit
For the next 10mins my float sat motionless so I re-fed with 2 balls of groundbait and a pot of 3mm pellets then gave the margin swim a try
I had been flicking corn down the margin all match so tried a grain of corn on the hook tight into the reeds but after 10mins gave it up as a bad job
Back out at 13m and the re-feed seemed to have done the trick as first put in the float buried and I had a 2lb Ide in the net next put in the float screamed off again this time as I played it I could tell it was a Carp and after a short battle I managed to slide the net under a Carp of about 4lb back out again and the float buried again this time another Ide of around 2lb things were starting to look a lot better so I shelved the plans to sneak next door and push Gladys in 
She was still catching and although they were only little fish the way she was going she will have well into double figures by the end of the match
Next put in I had another Ide of around 2lb then on my next put in when the float dipped and slid under I lifted in something different a bit of weight but very little fight all was soon revealed as a large Bream of about 3lb flopped onto the surface I guided it over the net and went back out and was rewarded with another of the same size
Then the bites got a bit longer between so I re-fed again with another 2 balls of groundbait and a pot of pellets
I went back in over the top again with a 6mm cube of meat on the hook and when I lifted into the next bite I thought I had hooked another Carp as there was a lot of weight and power and after a few lunges it suddenly gave up and flopped to the surface in front of me and by the look of it it must have been a Bream of about 7 or 8lb it was like a huge bin lid about the same size as my landing net
I started to guide it across the surface to my net when the hook pulled  the fish just lay on the surface for a few seconds out of reach of my landing net then just slid under the surface and swam away 
I had another 2 Bream both around the 3lb mark then the swim got very slow
Peter came round for a chat and took a photo for the blog
He was struggling with only a few bits in the net and seeing Gladys bagging up next door didn't make him feel any better 
Dave came along for a chat and a try of my Beastmaster as he is thinking of getting a new pole and wanted to see how the Beastmaster compared to his pole
I decided to re-feed the swim and go for a walk and see how Peter was getting on
As I got down to the corner of the lake I could see Tony(smasher)Roberts playing a decent fish I was just about to get the camera out when there was a loud ping followed by a loud cheer from the other bank of the lake no point asking Tony how it's going then 
Round on peg 2 Peter is still struggling and is fishing a small method feeder out to the end of the island as I was chatting to him the rod took off and he was into a fish
Then as he was playing it the rod tip flew back and the fish was gone
There was a cruel chorus of cheers from anyone and everyone that witnessed Peters sad loss
But he wasn't too impressed with the loss of his Gladys beating fish
Although he did eventually see the funny side of it
Back on peg 20 I had a few more fish right up until the end of the match mainly Bream from 1 to 3lb with the odd Carp thrown in and by the time the whistle went I reckoned I had between 40 to 50lb
Just before the end of the match with 2mins to go there was a loud shout from peg 2 and a lot of groans from around the top end of the lake as Mugger Morton lived up to his name by Mugging a 12lb Carp right at the death to escape another thrashing by Gladys
Nice 1 Peter 
When the scales arrived at my peg I managed to weigh 45lb  which put me in the lead and I stayed in the lead right round the lake until we got to micks peg where he weighed a fine 63lb to take the match win knocking me back into 2nd place
Peters 12lb Carp gave him a total of 16lb which eased him ahead of Gladys fine 12lb of bits
Position | Peg | Name | Weight | 1st | 10 | Mick Wright | 63lbs 04ozs | 2nd | 20 | Clive Pritchard | 45lbs 00ozs | 3rd | 7 | Al Loader | 23lbs 00ozs | 4th | 18 | Dave Collier | 22lbs 08ozs | 5th | 25 | Tony Roberts | 20lbs 00ozs | 6th | 1 | Keith Ashby | 17lbs 12ozs | 7th | 11 | Jim Boase | 17lbs 00ozs | 8th | 2 | Peter Morton | 16lbs 04ozs | 9th | 8 | Colin Sharrard | 15lbs 12ozs | 10th = | 14 | Roger Noakes | 12lbs 08ozs | 10th = | 19 | Gladys Collier | 12lbs 08ozs | 12th | 12 | Ken Walker | 9lbs 08ozs | 13th | 9 | John Holdsworth | 8lbs 04ozs | 14th | 5 | Terry Goff | 8lbs 00ozs | 15th | 16 | Martin Hucker | 6lbs 08ozs | 16th | 21 | Ed Dobson | 5lbs 08ozs | 17th | 26 | Judy Hermite | 4lbs 12ozs | 18th | 4 | Zack Johnson | 3lbs 00ozs | 19th | 24 | Kevin Loveland | 1lbs 00ozs | 20th | 22 | Rod Turner | DNW |
All in all it was another fine day in the company of the Marsh lads and lasses good weather good fishing in great surroundings
Roll on the next match
|
| | Posted 4/25/2010 6:43 PM - 118 Views - 2 eProps - 2 comments
Give eProps or Post a Comment |
