Monk Lake 1 30th May 2020

[Dave C]

CANCELLED

Right as we are now able to at least get out its time to sort some things out. Can you please read below and let me know your answers as soon as possible please. I haven't worked out the best way to collect money or do the draw/weigh in yet but they can all be done safely and ill be sorting that later.

As we are part way through our season I don’t believe its worth collecting any club fees this year. For any matches that we do get to fish I will collect the relevant day ticket fees whatever they may be. Where we have a whole lake booked I will consider reducing the booking to individual pegs depending on how many fish and the overall average cost.

Monk lake 1 is our next booked outing and seeing as things can change quickly, I would like to know who would be wanting to fish depending on the situation at the time.

1) Matches not allowed but we are able to keep our reserved pegs and we can all turn up and fish our predrawn pegs for our normal times 10 til 4 but no keepnets or weigh ins. ( This may be considered an organised event depending on rules In force at the time.)

2) Matches not allowed we keep our reserved pegs but turn up and fish whenever we want as individuals and fish predrawn pegs.

Let me know if you would be going if that were the situation. This will allow me to be in a position to discuss what would be allowed with Monk lakes.

There was a suggestion that we could estimate our own weights but I have dismissed that as it would put Mr Pinocchio “Ive had a really crap day” Roberts and Mr Keith “Ive only got 30lb” Ashby at far too much of a disadvantage.


Keith. No
Dave. Doubtful
Mick No ?

Tony Yes
Jim Yes
Simon Yes
Gino Yes
Terry Yes
Josh Yes
John Yes

[keith]

Hi Dave

On a personal note I will still be isolating until June 1st so would miss out on the Monks match anyway.

At present the Government guidelines are NO matches, as this could be construed as a social gathering. As stated above this could change at any moment. This is said to be being reviewed in June.

If the ban on matches is lifted by the next match Puddledock I believe, then I will be attending. I enjoy the banter and camaraderie of fishing the Marsh matches, but also enjoy the competitive side of fishing. So bearing this in mind I would prefer a normal match 10-4 with a way of drawing a peg, weighing in safely and socially distancing where possible.

I think a lot of venues are a long way to travel for a pleasure session.

Hope this is clear.

PS If you check last seasons match results I am not far off my 30lb limit.

[Dave C]

Thanks for the reply Keith, I hope you are well.
It’s no surprise that your unwilling to travel so far for a pleasure session, I would probably say the same.
I’m sure that Rod and Mick will also be isolating and I’m still in doubt if it’s safe for me to venture out.

Stay Safe

[Tel]

Looking at Monks site and FB it seems they are pretty busy and at the moment it's first come first served for pegs, on the match lakes it is alternate pegs only so they could all be gone by the time you turn up.
On the other hand Hartley lands are operating a booking system and payment is made online only, their website gives details of how many swims are available on each lake and again it is alternate swims only ( Pear Tree is odd numbers only) , I am going to venture out there on Wednesday and at the moment there will only be 7 people on the lake out of a possible 15.

[SiDev]

Hi guys, I would be happy with a turn up and fish approach if we can have garunteed pegs but not if we have to go in a lottery with everyone else.

[naughtycockney]

Same as Si, I don’t mind just fishing, but not just turning up hoping I’ve got a peg mate

[john_holdsworth]

I'm happy to fish but would like to be garenteed a peg

[Spamwham]

Me and Jim are ok to come along. Frankly its only worth while if we can have one half of Lake 1 or both sides of the spit, or if numbers are low just one bank. Ie they honour our booking and allow us to 'individually fish' in a group (obviously no weigh-in and pegs drawn in advance; fish 10-4 and if anyone wants to fish on beyond that then fine). If my memory serves me right one bowl of Lake 1 is about 20ish pegs so with every other peg in, we would need 10 on the day to justify this. If we were to have just one bank then thats 5 or maybe 6 max. Dave, I think you need to have a chat with them - for all we know they may not be willing to do this anyway.

[joshdon]

I would be open to the idea, and agree it would be good if they can book us 1 bowl so that we know we've got our pegs!

I fished Puddledock on the snake lake last Sunday and it was busy but not crazy, I did still have 3 empty pegs either side of me all day, so wasn't terrible, just the short walk pegs were back-to-back packed with people... but I feel that was due to it being people's first opportunity to get back out, lots of them were not regular anglers and simply people going out in the sun, fishing on a whim with their sea-fishing rods and pike floats

[Dave C]

At the moment Monks lakes are jam packed. people were queuing back to the main road at 7 this morning. It took them 3 hours today to fill the place and when Puma and Bridges are full ( fishing every other peg )they are sending everyone up to the match lakes. I have asked if we can still hold onto our booking for the Spit on lake one and fish as individuals for a maximum of 12 anglers.

He needs to speak to the boss to get his agreement and I need to get back to him on Monday.

[Clive]

Hi Dave

Most of the venues are too far for me for a pleasure session doubt I'll be back until all the restrictions are lifted and we can hold proper matches again

Clive

[Spamwham]

At the moment Monks lakes are jam packed. people were queuing back to the main road at 7 this morning. It took them 3 hours today to fill the place

That doesn't sound great Dave. Sounds like people are paying at the gate one by one, hence the queue?
Not sure I fancy a long unpredictable wait.

[Dave C]

I have just spoken to them. They have been trying to see if its possible to organise a small match but no one seems to take social distancing seriously so they will not be doing anything. I think that even if they agreed to us keeping the booking, the issues of trying to get through the likely queues and stopping day ticket guys from taking our pegs would cause too many issues.

I have therefore cancelled the booking. Hopefully as our next match is 4 weeks away things should have changed for the better and we can all have a decent day out at Puddledock fishing as normal.

[Spamwham]

Thanks for trying Dave.
I think you've made the right call. Sounds like demand at Monk Lakes is a bit crazy at the mo. Realistically they probably couldn't guarantee us a section of pegs even if they wanted to. Probably a bit of a free for all once you've queued and paid up.
As you say maybe we can try aagin at Puddledock.

[joshdon]

Match fishing has been given the green light - does this impact our state of play for Saturday?

[joshdon]

I’ve also been told Monks have matches booked for tomorrow and Sunday - so I’m assuming they should be able to sort us for Saturday also?

[Spamwham]

Josh - when Dave spoke to Monks yesterday about reserving us pegs they were having none of it, so Dave was left with no option but to cancel next Saturday. That was the right call imho. Realistically we need to know where we stand a week in advance. Looks like we should be able to get things kicked off at Puddledock tho, subject to a bit of thought esp to weigh-in - see new thread.