Southend Farm 16.06.2018

[keith]

Another new venue for me, Southend Farm. By all accounts it is stuffed with fish, plenty of carp with a few horses in amongst them, add in good skimmer weights and it was a day not to be missed. Despite work offering a good package to go in, I could not let those around me down..

I had spoken to Andy Gregory over Facebook and I had a game plan for the day, I had shared this with a club.It had worked before and I was confident in it working again. Meat at top four, a shallow meat rig and a margin rig would see the pole only used if I was not catching on the Pellet Waggler. I had brought two rods with me and set up a Drake 4BB Waggler to fish around 30m at a depth of 2ft. I also set up a 3AAA Drake to fish the same line but I had this set at 5ft and was hoping they would stay still long enough for bites.I also set up a bomb rod in case the wind was too bad.

It was my turn to drive and due to the fact that it was a new venue and we were going to be trusting Tom Tom and Mick Mick to direct us Troy decided on following us down.

Leaving Mick's at 0600 we made good headway, entering the fishery at 0650. This was the closest we have ever fished with Marsh barring Alders Farm. A good breakfast was soon devoured, it was a nice set up, plenty of lakes, plenty of parking available, tackle shop and cafe.

With monies paid it was time for the draw.I was hoping for a low number, we had all the pegs along the far bank and round the corner to about 14 so anywhere between 2 and 6 would be beneficial. In goes Mick peg 9, Troy goes in Peg 8 I go in peg 4, happy days. This Positive Mental Attitude thing is working.

At the all in I started on the pellet waggler using the 4BB drake I was able to reach 30m comfortably but the wind was blowing right to left and creating a significant bow in the line. I was feeding 3 or 4 8mm pellets regularly and despite swapping between long and short up or down all I had to show for it was a solitary skimmer after an hour. Tony Watkins on the next peg was also on the waggler and had hooked and lost two good carp. So with fish in the area I persevered. The second hour was just as bad with a smaller skimmer on the waggler line( I was warned they may take a while to turn up). I had however started feeding my pole lines. I needed to put some fish in the net, even if it was only for an hour. Gino was getting a few fish so silvers were a distinct possibility for a weight if the carp did not show.

I started on a top four at depth dripping in 4 8mm cubes of meat each put in and was getting a few small skimmers and some chunky roach on the drop. I probably had around 15lb of pole caught skimmers after 3 hours but a look down the sides changed things. I was getting a few better skimmers around 2 to 2.5lb mark from the right hand edge and was starting to get into a rhythm when John appears behind me and says I think I need to weigh this one, a double figure fish and it would mean having to catch around 6 good skimmers to catch that fish up. Next thing I know Tony on peg 3 has hooked a carp and although not as big as John's would still need matching.

I had been catching a lot of skimmers to the right hand side all on meat and going well but felt it needed a rest, so I switched to fishing a top two ( same depth) to the left this time with an 8mm hard pellet. I stayed on this for around 10 or 15 minutes with no bites, until the float buried and a proper fish was on 14.5lb of mirror carp for my first Southend Farm lump.

Back over to the right and a few more skimmers and roach on meat, another look on left hand swim, nothing no bites.John pops his head round the corner again with another even bigger carp. 16.5lb, Tony was in again but lost it along with the whole rig. Out he goes again with another rig and the same thing happens, no one likes to see that happen. During my chuckles I managed to pinch another carp from the left hand swim, a stunning Ghostie tipping the scales at 11lb 4oz. Tony had now got his act together and had placed a couple of smaller carp in his net. I was now getting a skimmer nearly every put in and going well. I had started another keepnet at 1430 and during the last 90 minutes I managed to put 35lb in it all skimmers.

At the all out I was confident I had 50lb of skimmers and roach, Added to the 25lb of carp I reckoned on having 75lb of fish. I knew John had caught carp and had a few in a keepnet, the Reverand Tony Roberts was keeping quiet so I knew he had caught, whilst Troy and Tony were saying it was close.

Overall

1st Keith Ashby 97-12

2nd John Holdsworth 54-04

3rd Tony Roberts 42-00

4th Tony Watkins 38-00

5th Troy Hillyer 31-12

6th Mick Wright 31-08

Another new venue, well worth another visit, even if it is just to break the ton mark. Another section win for Troy. My silver's nets went 72lb.Another MK Nugget for me.



Keith 5

Mick 5

[Spamwham]

Nice write up Keith. And well done on a clear win.
So what do I think of Southend Farm 2nd time around after what must be a gap of 10-15 years? Well overall I was pleasantly surprised. The match lake is a relatively deep one with an interesting mix of simmers and a few decent bream together with some proper carp that were'nt making themselves easy to catch - at least not yesterday. All in pleasant surroundings. Certainly worth another go next year.
Ok so the dam wall bank was definitely harder and with slightly fewer features - maybe we could persuade the owner to let us have the right hand pegs round from the car park to the far bank and leave the dam wall for pleasure angling?
Btw, yesterday I found the fish were quite picky with soft baits in general. Sure they liked the meat but for me they could get quite picky with that too. By contrast much better bites and results from 6mm hard pellets the longer the match went on.

[Tel]

Sounds a bit of a grueller

[keith]

Terry

All the better weights came from the expected areas. I think Tony got it spot on, the carp did not feed and a lot went out to catch carp. I was told there are plenty of skimmers in there and you needed to fish for them as well as the carp. I spent a good 2 hours fishing for carp with no joy. I was going no where until I changed tactics.