Hartleylands Farm Reservoir 3rd October 2015

[Dave C]

Our penultimate match is at Hartleylands Farm. Apart from a couple of special matches the Reservoir has not been match fished since April so hopefully we will bag up on it. I need to find out what the pegging is like now as on previous trips some of the pegs were not fishable.
So who is going

Dave
Troy
Mick
Terry
Tony W
Chris
Tony R
Gino
Al
Rod
Clive
Gary
Keith
Kris Old
Jim Etherington

15

Not available
John
Martin
Zack
Kevin
Jim
Simon

Possibles
Graham
Tom

[wat2tone]

Yes please dave

[Tel]

That'll be a yes

[Dave C]

Yes to the match or yes to finding out the pegging or both ?

[SiDev]

When are you considering a pegging mission?

[Dave C]

Tuesday or wednesday next week depending on weather. Me Terry, possibly Tony.

Might even meet at Hawkhurst for brekkie and get some pellet before going on to Hartleylands.

[kris]

Thank you Dave

[Spamwham]

I'll be there Dave, but Jim's away on hols.

I see you and Terry are thinking about a prac fact finding mission next week.
Let me know which day asap and I'll try and arrange diary to fit.
Certainly need a new supply of pellet from Hawky - down to the last kilo now.

[Dave C]

Looks like Tony can only make Tuesday now. So who wants to join the 3 of us on our fact finding /pellet collecting mission. Fresh cups of tea supplied during the day ,free of charge, but bring your own cups.

[wat2tone]

Sorry boys I know it's a bit cheeky but any chance if you go hawkie could someone pick me up some 4 mill pellets and I will pick them up on the next match
Tony

[naughtycockney]

Count me in please, I take it we will be doing brekkies?
As I will be retired after next week my have to celebrate with a big brekkies

[Dave C]

Meet at Hartleylands Res around 10am . Tony is going to drive down to Hawkie some time during the day for pellet. So that's no brekkies Gino.

I assume that once you are retired you will be wanting to join the Fact Finding Team on future missions.

[Clive]

Yes please Dave

[naughtycockney]

That may be so Mr Chairman,only if I'm invited of course

[SiDev]

Creep!

[SiDev]

Dave, alas could not take a one day retirement so unable to join you Tuesday, may the rains pour

[Tel]

Terrible place - no sign of the car park yet Clive

[Dave C]

Due to the excessive competition from other supermarkets and the downturn in its business Tesco have scrapped plans put forward by Mr Pritchard to build its next superstore at Hartleylands and turn the Reservoir into a car park.
We will therefore be able to continue with our matches there and Mr Pritchard will have to put up with it and work harder to learn how to catch there .

Following our fact finding mission yesterday we can report the following facts.

1) The banks are now natural banks and without platforms but nearly all swims are fishable though some swims have a bit of a slope. We will have to use our own peg numbers so someone will have to do pegging out.

2) If the wind stays the same blowing down to the car park those low number pegs in the wind and also out of the sun WILL be cold.

3) There is a 70lb net limit and a separate net for silvers, PLUS fish over 10lb will need to be weighed and returned. If you have scales please bring them so we have enough spread round the lake.

4) The fish are bigger and stronger than before so make sure your gear is up to it. Between us we had 10 doubles with Terry getting the biggest at around 15lb.

5) There was only one other guy fishing so it will obviously be a bit harder than for us but seeing as we all had well over a ton each everyone should have a good day especially as the lake hasn't had lots of pressure for most of the year..

[Spamwham]

Just to add to Dave's info, I had 21 fish for 185lb - so average was a tad under 9lb with the range being 5lb-13lb. I think Dave's average size was a bit lower than this and Terry's a bit higher. Most of our fish were caught in the margins on paste or pellet. As usual they tear off into the depths and put up a right old scrap before giving up. As is often the case with paste fishing, we did have a few foul hookers which tested the tackle to its limits.
I suspect they will take longer to come into the margins on Sat. When I fished a long pole line there was quite a tow and added to the good depth you will need to tackle up accordingly; if you dont fancy that then the feeder is a better option. When asked, the bailiff's advice was to start longish to the second shelf with long pole or feeder and feed the margins till they come in; he suggested meat as his preferred bait. I didn't try this or corn but no doubt you will catch on these.

[Dave C]

Tony , whatever you do DONT tell Mick that the carp like meat.