Colemans Cottage 13th September 2008

#1

Come on Dave, or you'll start to rival Malc for getting the results up.

#2

Patience is a virtue Mugger. But then again you have never been that virtuous have you.

#3

Here you go Mugger.

Unfortunately for us the complex appeared to have an off day yesterday. There were plenty of fish around but getting them to feed was a different matter. Still another typical Marsh day at Colemans with lots of banter and a good breakfast.

Even the local experts including Dave and Mick Vincent had a hard time on Woods lake where 3rd place had 76lb rather than the usual big tons those guys always seem to get.

Well done to the guests we had with us who showed us how to do it. Especially Jimmy who as well as 3rd place managed to land the biggest fish I have seen out of Pathfield lake at 15lb 8oz. ( the owner usually takes them out to stock his speci lake.)

Our last match is on 11th October at Hawkhurst and has a limit of 20 pegs. There are 3 guests who want to come with us and enjoy our company so please book early.

#4

Good to see the Guests showing you how its done

Im quite upset to see postman pat having a drynet

#5

Saturday saw me traveling down to Witham in Essex for a Marsh AC club match on Pathfield Lake at Colemans Cottage Fishery. I'd been looking forward to this match as I'd never visited the fishery before, but had heard good things about it

. As usual I'd arranged to meet up with Dave and follow him down and by 7am we were on the road. Blue skies and sunshine held the promise of a decent day, though this was replaced by dull grey skies as we exited the Dartford Tunnel :(, but a trouble free trip saw us pulling into the fishery car park around 8am. Into the fishery lodge and we were soon tucking into a hearty breakfast as Dave took the monies and organised the draw.

There were 19 of us present including 4 guests so with the draw done it was back to the car park to sort the kit for the day ahead, and collect our keepnets and landing nets which are supplied by the fishery before we made our way to our pegs....

It had been interesting to watch peoples reactions to the pegs they'd drawn, Dave had been more than happy with drawing peg 6, a peg he'd fished on previous visits

, and judging by his reaction peg 11 which I'd drawn wasn't bad either

. Thank heavens for my barrow as peg 11 appeared to be just about as far away from the car park as it was possible to get.

Setting up it didn't look to bad, though there was a bit of green scum on the surface, but with a bit of an indent on the opposite bank and a few fish moving things were looking promising though the water level looked like it was about a foot down on its usual height.

Tackle-wise I set up a couple of Mk3 Malman self cocking paste floats on 0·16 to a size 12 Drennan Carp Method. one to fish the 18 inches of water in the margins and the other for the 4 feet that seemed to be consistent from 3mtrs out to 11mtrs, and I set up a Malman 4X12 Adam on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match to fish pellet and corn at 6 and 10 mtrs as well as a Malman 0·3g MTD1 dibber on 0·16 to a size 16 Drennan Carp Match that would double up as a shallow rig and margin rig for pellet and corn. I also set up a pellet feeder and pellet waggler for right across. Bait was sweetcorn, pellet and GOT Atomic paste with 6mm hard pellet for feed.

10am and Dave called the All-in and I shipped out 2 large pots of pellet and sweetcorn onto a line at 10mtrs and 5mtrs and fed some pellet down both margins. To give those lines a chance to settle I started off on the pellet feeder across, but despite signs of fish moving about didn't get a touch in the 1st half hour :(. Out with the pole onto the 10mtr line but despite switching baits and working the rigs couldn't buy a bite there either. A look on the pellet waggler was no more productive either and I was starting to worry. Jim Etherington to my right on peg 9 had managed 3 or 4 Carp by now but from what I could see others were struggling. Judy on peg 8 seemed to be in the same boat as me............

....... and Terry on peg 7 appeared to have had just a single fish............

About 2 hours in my float finally dipped

, but rather than the elastic coming out with a Carp on the other end a small hand sized Skimmer flapped to the top, but was gratefully netted all the same. However with nearly 3 hours gone nothing had joined it. In desperation I filled it in at around 5mtrs pumped some expanders to try as a change bait, grabbed the camera and set off for a stroll looking for a bit of inspiration . Chris on peg 15 was admitting to a few silvers and 3 or 4 Carp and was soon sliding another into the net.............

Tony on peg 17 appeared to be struggling to get to grips with his peg, while Eddie down on peg 23 was handicapped by the painful effects of a slipped disc but was putting a few fish together ......

......... as was Jim Boase almost opposite on peg 26...........

Looking across to Wood Lake where there was an open being fished, I could see Browning's Dave Vincent but he didn't appear to be having much more luck than us, despite knowing the fishery really well ...........

Al on peg 28 was admitting to around 20lbs and with fish bubbling away down the track in front of him seemed to be firmly in the pound seats

..................

Meanwhile Paul on peg 34 was in danger of losing what little hair he had left trying to connect with bites that he was getting fishing the lead tight across to the island, mind you he had come to the match straight from a night shift so probably wasn't at his best, though it's always hard to tell with Paul

.........

Further along Clive had decided to target his margin and with 5 Carp in the net was hoping to crack on in the later stages

.......

Dave up on peg 6 was struggling at this stage too with just 3 Chub and a Crucian :(, but as I passed Terry on peg 7 he was firmly attached to a rather angry Carp that he'd hooked into the tail, well not so firmly as it turned out as it departed rather abruptly without gracing the landing net after charging round most of Terry's swim

....................

Back at my peg and I noticed a few bubbles coming up on the 5mtr line, so an expander was slipped onto the hook and the rig shipped out. Within 10 seconds the float slid away and a firm lift met with a pleasing resistance and a Common of around 3lbs was soon in the net

. Back out and almost straight away I was rewarded with another Carp, this time a Mirror of around 4½lbs

. Unfortunately I also suffered from a number of foul hooked fish which with the shallow water tended to charge around like lunatics disturbing the swim preventing me from building up any sort of rhythm though I did manage to keep catching reasonably regularly through to the end when Dave called the All-out at 4pm.

The weigh-in at Colemans is a delight to watch as a bailiff comes round with a quad towing a trailer. The scales are attached to the trailer so that the fish are transfered to the weigh sling weighed and returned with the minimum of fuss and the fisheries nets collected all in one go. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fish weighed 55lbs

, the second best weight at that point behind Jim Etherington's 66½lbs which contained a right lump of 15lbs. Chris put 64lbs on the scales but it was Al who took the honours on the day with a fine net of fish weighing 88lbs

, while Clive took 2nd place with a level 70lbs

.

Chatting with Dave Vincent afterwards in the car park it was plain that the Open on Wood Lake hadn't fish much better with some very good anglers struggling on the day :(. Back at the fishery lodge for a post match drink and the inquest was conducted. 3 guests had filled the top 3 spots, but all the club members seemed to have enjoyed the day even if the fishing had proved to be harder than expected. It's a cracking fishery and one I'd happily recommend that you pay a visit to if you're in the area. I know that I'll definitely be going back to it in the future

.

You can find my Blog report HERE

#6

Well to be fair to him he had worked the Friday night shift and came straight to the match after work. He had managed a reasonable weight but decided he needed to get home to get some sleep after being up for around 30 hours .
If he had thought about it he could have left us to weigh him in as we were using the fishery nets. Twat.

#7

Great pics and report Mugger

#8

Well done to Al on his win,and Clive on coming second,it was a hard day i had 5 carp for about 18lb which i put back(DNW)

Sorry i had to leave early but with both the sun shining on me all day and the lack of sleep i felt terrible at the end and decided i needed to get home ASAP.

I really enjoy my fishing not only with the Marsh AC boys but with the Maggotdrowning lot as well,but im seriously considering knocking Saturdays on the head,is too much after a nightshift and i can see myself falling asleep at the wheel on one of the journeys home after being awake for the best part of 25-30hrs

#9

This must be the only club that fills every match it has.

I can sympathise with a lot of you guys with the shift work and travelling long distances. I have started to take 1/2 night shifts off recently to try to avoid falling off my box into the drink or something worse

. The benefit is I can then fish 2 matches when I could end up with none if the distance are too far.

There was not a lot in it at the top and good weights that are close just adds to the suspense

.

#10

Keith, we get great turnouts for our matches. We only have 22 members, 6 of them were on holiday on Saturday and they would all usually have come. Another had a family emergency so with our guests ( 3 of who travelled well over 100 miles to fish) we could have had 26 this week. Colemans is also one of our favourite venues and nobody likes to miss it.

I suppose it helps that we only have one match a month so its fairly easy for members to organise family around our days out. Its a great little club and in the 7 years or so running regular matches we have never had any disagreements.

We also allow those with difficulties to fish swims close to the car park and where wanted pairs( Those with youngsters wives or just inexperienced anglers needing assistance) can draw first and have two swims next to each other.

#11

The thing is that the 'matches' are just treated as a days pleasure fishing with a weigh-in at the end really, there's always time for a stroll and a chat and to take a few photo's and the days always have a good atmosphere.

#12

Thanks for the invite to Colemans Dave :)
I really enjoyed the day good location good fishing and most importantly good company

My report on the day can be found at -> http://www.xanga.com/clivep

Clive

#13

Well done and top read Clive

#14

Glad you enjoyed it Clive.

Colemans is a first class venue and the facilities are top rate. Unfortunately the fishing was a bit harder than usual but the final weights were not to bad in the end.

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