Simple Match Fishing Forum

A warm and sunny day for us at Alders. 17 fished.
Despite the weather, many parts of the lake were slightly below par, although the high numbered shallow pegs fished well.
On a personal note, plenty of action spoiled by endless foul hookers and fish bumping off. Rounded the day off with the spectacle of the lost car key - I wont bore you with the details, save to say thank to Gino for two lifts up the hill! And to Mick for joining me on a nice little walk round the lake!!!
Talking of which he was todays victor with 153lb off end peg 30 and Mugger not far off in 2nd palce with 144lb from the next peg 29. 3rd framer was Nick P with 133lb from the next peg 28. That corner certainly gave the lads a good days sport. Well done fellas.
Result:
1. Mick peg 30 153-08lb
2. Peter M (guest) peg 20 144-00lb
3. Nick P (guest) 28 133-00lb
4. Madd (guest) peg 8, 103-00lb
5. Chris T peg 25 93-08lb
6. Gino peg 12 88-08lb
7. Mark F peg 4 85-08lb
8. Dennis (guest) peg 1 82-00lb
9. Josh peg 27 76-00lb
10. Keith peg 20 72-08lb
11. Terry peg 7 55-04lb
12. Chris W (guest) peg 5 52-04lb
13. Jime E (guest) peg 2 48-00lb
14. Tony R peg 18 47-08lb
15. Clive peg 21 40-08lb
16. John H peg 12 36-08lb
17. Dave C peg 23 34-08lb
Section winners: 1-7 Mark F, 8-12 Madd, 20-25 Chris T; 27-30 Mick

Prior to moving up to Yorkshire from South London I used to be a member of Marsh AC and today they had a club match booked on Ash Lake at Alders Farm and the opportunity to catch up with the lads was to good to miss and I had booked in with the chairman (Dave the Fish) to get a guest place. So that's why I was up with the lark and loading the kit into the car just after 4am and setting off down the M1 for the 135 mile trip to the fishery. It was a smooth uneventful trip down as dawn rose promising a warm sunny day ahead which was more than welcome after what had seemed like weeks of dull grey rainy days and after a single stop for a welcome coffee in the services I found myself pulling into the fishery car park just before 7am.

First thing as always was to get the nets out and dip them and get that out of the way and the first face I saw was Trevor (the fishery manager) who was busy as usual in the bait shed riddling off bait for the day ahead. It's always good to catch up with him and find out the prospects for the day ahead and pick his brains. Back to the car to get the kit loaded up and into the tackle shop for some fishery pellets and a breakfast ticket as the car park started to fill up and it was good to see some familiar face that I hadn't seen for a while as the participants for the days match arrived.

So time to head down to the Pumphouse for breakfast via THE HILL, 25 yards off hell that only those that have been to Alders will appreciate as gravity threatens to drag you and your trolley straight into the specimen lake at its foot should you lose your footing. Then a short stroll across the dam to the cafe................
with Charlotte and Sophie taking care of our breakfast needs today. It properly sets you up for the day ahead and the banter flows back and forth across the table as everyone catches up and mulls over their prospects at the draw and the day ahead. With 17 of us today Keith sorted the pegs out for today while Dave collected the money and at 9 am it was time to draw.

Into the drawbag and peg 29 was mine for the day and I was happy with that as it's a decent peg. Peg 30 is an end peg and acknowledged flyer but I always feel that 29 can compete with it as can 28 and 27 on their day. So for company today I had Mick Wright on 30 and Nick Pringle on 28, both locals so I would have my work cut out.
Set up for the day? I always try to keep things simple at Alders as I feel to many options can just end up confusing things so today it was basically going to be just top 2+2 on 3 lines, the 1st straight out and the other 2 for left and right margins while a small hybrid method feeder was set up on the rod as a get out of jail option if things didn't go as planned. The pegs on this bank are very shallow, not much more than a foot of water on any of my chosen lines, but the fish are comfortable there with overhanging trees and bushes providing cover for both margins. Rigs were the same for all 3 lines, 0.2 NG XT Margins on 0.17 N-Gauge finished off with banded size 16 B911's on 0.15 N-Gauge.
Bait wise just Fishery pellets 4mm's for feed and 6 mm's for the hook + some dampened micro's for the feeder if needed. Had it been warmer and more settled prior to the match I would probably gone for Paste but with it being so unsettled I had discounted that today. Others favour Maggot (a gallon for 5 hours seems the norm) but there is a large head of perch in the lake and while there are some decent ones I can't be doing with wading through the small ones till the carp turn up.

So 10.30 am and it was All-In and it was 4 mm.s fed on all 3 lines with a banded 6.mm offered up straight out in front, a couple of lift and drops and the float slid away, a lift saw a carp speeding off as they are want to do in shallow water but steady pressure soon saw it sliding over the rim of the landing net, a 3lb Common to get me off the mark.
From there it was just a question of keeping the bait trickling into all 3 lines and concentrating out in front while the margins settled.

With the trees and bushes either side of me I couldn't see peg 30 or 28 but could hear the splashes of fish being played but I had a good view of the cafe bank and dam wall and could see that nobody appeared to be off to a flyer with just the odd fish being taken. Unfortunately one of the problems such a shallow swim presents is the fact that you tend to get a few liners and foul hookers and the speed they shoot off at sees a high percentage of those come adrift and I suffered with a few myself early on but after an hour I had 10 carp in the net for about 30lbs.

By then it had properly warmed up into a lovely sunny summers day, the line out in front had started to slow but I could see fish moving in and out of the left hand margin so moved onto that. This provided a run of fish of much the same stamp, none of the edge dwellers I was hoping for but after 90 minutes I suffered a run of foul hookers, so decided a rest was in order and that was my cue to grab my camera and take a stroll and have a catch up with a few of the lads.

Passing peg 25 Chris Thomas was having a bit of a mare and was in the process of changing his approach to something he hoped would reap dividends in the time remaining...........
While Dave the Fish on 23 was having one of those days that could well end in the results sheet being blown out of an open car window on the way home.
Round to 21 and I found Clive wearing his best Jap Sniper head gear doing his best to get among a few but it seemed to only attract the smaller stamp of fish..........
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Keith meanwhile on peg 20 was giving it his usual 100% in an effort to keep one of his nuggets from falling into the hands of Mick but his peg resembled a jacuzzi and he was sure that it was due to skimmers sitting midwater and not the carp he was after, though he did manage to extract one while I watched.
Next up was Tony aka Spamwham perched in all his glory on peg 18 the only peg with a platform on the lake, not having the best of days, endless foul hookers and fish bumping off bringing on an attack of Tourettes from time to time..........
Looking across I could see Gino over on peg 12 looking reasonably content and obviously putting a few together............
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While John on peg 10 appeared to be really struggling to get to grips with it today which was strange as he really likes Alders..............
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Meanwhile along on peg 8 Phil Young appeared to have a plan and was following it as closely as he could to put a few in his nets................
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While Terry next door on peg 7 appeared lost in thought, probably wondering if his trip up from the south coast would prove to be worthwhile...............
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That must have taken me a good half hour, so it was probably best to get back and try for a few more and as I returned I noticed that Nick was targeting his right hand margin and despite his protests that I was battering him I knew that it would be close between us at the death
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So back to the business of catching a few more in all honesty it was just a case of steady away down the margins and keeping a few fish coming my way which is exactly how it turned out with my 42nd and final fish of the match being hooked just as the All-Out was called.......
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Packing away the kit while waiting for the scales I knew I'd had a Ton+ and was happy with that, it had been a nice days fishing in good company as it always is with the Marsh AC lads.
When the scales arrived my fish came to a level 144lbs which proved to be good enough for second on the day. Mick winning with 153lbs 8ozs and Nick coming 3rd with 133lbs, so pegs 28-30 were definitely the place to be today. Could I have won? almost certainly but it really didn't matter as I really enjoyed it and that's all that really matters.

Me and Mick
My Thanks go to the lads at Marsh AC and to all at Alders Farm Farm who made the day possible.

A full blown Morton write-up. Been a while since I've seen one of these Pete. Nice one
Like you say its enjoying the day that counts