Simple Match Fishing Forum

Well things were not as good as expected even though the weather was much better than last year. Full report tomorrow but for now these are the results.

Please dont be too hard on Mugger, afterall he did try hard but must have got a bit lonely with the empty peg either side of him.

Least your weigh nets will last a good 2 years longer than your others at that rate.

Thats OK Si when they are almost worn out Im going to donate them to Cashmores. That should extend their life by a good few years.

I hear that someone got his bum smacked by a novice who aint fished for 12 years. And he also had a spare peg either side of him

I had 15lb of gudgeon today too. He must be gutted

Thats not true Simple.

It was a guy who hasnt fished for 3 years using a new pole when he has only ever used rods before. He also got his bum smacked by Judy on the other side of him as well. But then again he probably enjoyed that. The bit about the blank peg either side was true though.

Vince must be well gutted as it would have been his one chance to get a pound back but he couldnt make it.

Not so much smacked Simps as handed to me on a silver platter.
It's the worst session I've ever had at Monks.
The one consolation was that Vince couldn't make it as he was taking his cat to the vets, because he'll never have a better chance of getting one of his £1's back.

I Don't Believe It !!!!!!!!!

The one chance I get of taking a £1 of Mugger and i can't bleeding make it.

My only consolation is laughing at the the fact he got beat by so many including Wily, Judy and a pole novice.

12lb 4ozs, It must have been solid

You forgot to mention 14 year old Zac who nearly trebled Muggers weight.

Would have been worse if he hadnt mugged 4 F1s in the last 30 minutes

it was when dave t offerd mugger a bit of tuition ,i nearly fell off my box with laughter  
it didnt matter what bait dave used the float went down the hole.
mugger was doing a very good impression of  a garden gnome,
all dressed  up in his new protak wet weather gear.
 when the weigh in was being done kev loveland was using to hands to hold the scales up as the nets were laden wth fish   when he got to petes he lifted  the net with one hand  

Well today saw the 1st Marsh AC match of the year taking place at Monk Lakes on Match Lake 2 . These matches are always light hearted affairs and there's bound to be a bit of banter flowing throughout the day, and hopefully a few fish to be had  .

Loading up the car for the drive down it was dull grey and drizzling and by the time I arrived around 8am nothing had really changed. A cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie took care of breakfast . 15 club members and a couple of guests lined up for the draw One of those being Dave Talbot, who had received a new pole as a result of his daughter Faye's appeal on the Maggotdrowning.com forum at Christmas. Bill G had come along too, but he was going to spend the day helping Dave get to grips with the pole has he hadn't used one previously  .

Into the bucket and peg 51 stuck to my hand. Colin and Dave drew last and ended up with the two flyer's 66 and 45  . Settling into my peg, despite having a free peg to my left with Judy next up on peg 53 and what turned out to be a free peg to my right as Bill G had drawn it (but would spend the match coaching Dave Talbot) I can't say I was delighted with it, the wind was blowing straight into it and I would have to watch those on the opposite bank fishing with the wind off their backs for the whole match  :(. Also it's a peg that doesn't get fished a lot during the week, pegs 45, 46 and 47 seeing a lot of action on a regular basis due to the resident Barbel.



Setting up I selected 2 top kits with Black Hydro, these were rigged with a 4X16 Preston Bazzerla PB19 on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a 10mtr line where I had around 6ft of water and a KC 4x12 Carpa Tricky on 0·16 to 0·14 bottom with size 16 Drennan Match Carp hook for a closer margin line where I had 2-2½ft of depth. I also set up my Shakespeare Mach 3 Micro - 11' Waggler which was rigged with a Premier 4AAA insert waggler. Bait wise, Got 6mm expander pellet along with 6 and 8mm hard pellet along with corn and meat would hopefully provide something appetising for the fish while 6mm pellet and some Special G groundbait took care of the feed.

10am and Dave blew the All-in. I fed 3 balls of ground bait on the 10mtr line and some pellet into both margins.
Dave Talbot on peg 49 had been under instructions from Daughter Faye to catch a Barbel, and got off to the perfect start as the 1st fish on his new pole proved to be a Barbel (Mission Accomplished  ).



After about 5 minutes I had my first bite on the 10mtr line and with what felt like a decent fish taking elastic, was more than a little put out when the hook pinged free as i was getting ready to net it  .
From that point on my day went downhill rapidly. Judy was sorting out a few of the lakes resident Ide......



..... and Dave T was taking some decent fish on a regular basis, much to Bill G's delight  , was it Bill's coaching or was he sitting on a shed full? It didn't matter really because I couldn't buy a bite  :(.

Wherever I looked people were catching fish, Colin was fishing towards the aerator on peg 66 and steadily putting fish in the net..................



If I looked to my right, Dave, Kevin and young Zack were filling their boots from the early pegs. Indeed the only angler who seemed to be as inactive as me was Martin over on peg 60...................



I finally managed to put a fish (a small Tench) in the net after about an hour and that was quickly followed by a Gudgeon before things ground to a halt for me once more. A look on the waggler fared no better but as I could see young Zac and Kevin catching regularly on feeder set ups I got my feeder rod out of it's ready bag and chucked a banded 8mm pellet out in desperation. After 10 minutes the tip wrapped round, the culprit being revealed as I netted it as probably the smallest F1 in the lake. Needless to say no more bites followed in the next 30 minutes after this  :(.

By this point in the proceedings word had of course got out, and I received several visits from those who were keen to commiserate with my predicament and offer some sympathetic words of advice.......................NOT

By now the sun was shining, but all that did was blind me as I tried to fish the ripple on my 10mtr line, so I came shorter and 1st put in I was rewarded with an F1 of around 1½lbs, but that again proved to be a solitary fish. Things were getting truly desperate for me by now, I'm sure that Bill hid my knife in case I was contemplating suicide  , and when Dave C strolled down again with more words of sympathy (Yeah Right  ) I strolled back with him to see what a decent peg looked like and acquire some maggots off him.

By now I was convinced that I was stone last on the day, the maggots were at least getting me some bites, but these were only from 1oz blade skimmers and even smaller Ide fry . I was so fed up that with half an hour to go I stripped my top kits down to pack them away, and as I did that the wind dropped down a bit, so I decided to give the waggler a final chuck. Two red maggots on the hook and at last I could catapult some feed out to a reasonable distance, out with the waggler, it sailed away and a nice chunky F1 was soon in the net. I pulled out of the next one trying to bully it in too quickly but did manage another three before Dave blew the all out at 4pm .

The weigh-in started from the opposite side with Colin on peg 66 putting 71¾lbs on the scales for a fine win on the day  . Dave C took second on the day with 63¾lbs from peg 45 while Dave Talbot completed the frame with a fine 48lbs, a fantastic effort using a pole for the 1st time, and a result that I'm positive will ensure that Faye is suitably proud of her Dad  ..............



My few fish weighed a meagre 12¼lbs much to everyones delight, my one consolation being that Vince hadn't been able to make it on the day, thus missing out on what would have been his best chance this year to get one of his £1 coins back from me   .

You can find my Blog report HERE 

Great reading Mugger
I won't take the yellow stream no more
Because what goes around comes around as you have found out

The is strong indeed.

dave the fish invited myself and fayes dad dave to fish one of his marsh ac club matches, this was to be held at monk lakes on lake two ,as dave hadnt as yet been out with the pole that we the maggot drowners had all donated towards.
well we arrived in convoy [dave and myself] and after feeding ourselves with a bacon butty it was into the draw bag for dave ,i would be on the next peg to keep an eye on him and give hima few pointers ,well that was the plan .
he pulled peg 49 so i would be on peg 50.
now the flyers of the lake are pegs 45 and 66 and these were drawn by dave the fish [45] and colin sharrard[66].
the draw having taken place at 8.30 fishing was to be from 10 till 4.
so plenty of time to get dave sorted out with his new toy .
now dave dosent own a box so dtf had bought an old spare that he had in his loft and with the bits and peices set up by twenty to ten it was cup of coffee time .
for company to daves left was supposed to be myself but i had decided that my time would be better spent sitting with dave all match and hopefully get him a few fish ,so it was in fact an empty peg next door and on the next peg to that was peter morton [mugger]
to the right was another empty peg and then it was young zac who is only 14 .
with the wind doing its usual and blowing straight into our faces
i had told dave that we would just fish a top four as this would enable us to feed by hand and keep things relatively tight
so at the whistle for the all in dave shipped out for the very first time with his new pole .
now dave hasnt been course fishing for around twelve years and the pole was a totally alien way of fishing to him but he had shipped out and laid the rig out almost proffessionally first go ,i was impressed .
feed was 4mm skrettings and hook bait was corn and within a minute the float went down and the ensuing strike met with nothing more than a bad word uttered.
next put in again saw the float slide under the ripple and this time a yard or so of twelve elastic was stretching out from the end of the pole ,dave was now in panic mode but with a few words of wisdom passed to him he was soon down to the top two and sliding the landing net under a barbel of around a pound and a quarter.dave said that faye had told him to catch a barbel for her and he had done this with his first fish .
out with the rig again and it was a bite a chuck as fish after fish were soon being landed by dave who by now thought that he was living in a dream as we were bagging ,what with a barbel every other fish and carp and f1`s coming thick and fast also .
lookng down toward peter and he was having the complete opposite type of day as he couldnt buy a bite.
dave the fish came down to see how things were shaping up and was pleasantly surprised to hear that mugger was struggling and with a few carefuly chosen words let him know it .
lol.
as the day went on dave continued to catch and was highly delighted and releived to slide the net under a nice mirror carp of around six pounds as it was giving him a really good run around and had taken over ten minutes to land .
dtf and myself had promised dave that he would have at least thirty pounds and catch some barbel so when the whistle went for the all out and i said to him that he had more than forty pounds he was grinning from ear to ear .
well colin won the match with seventy odd and dtf was second with sixty plus ,and third out of eigteen that fished was dave with 48lb
it was a thoroughly enjoyable days fishing for all concerned and dave was an extremely good pupil ,the way he played the fish was for a first timer excellent and with a little more tution could be sitting on his own fishing matches and kicking some good anglers backsides .
thanks to dtf for the invite and to dave for being a really good student


a quick insight to faye ,and that is she really wants to be at monk when we have our match downthere ,and dave is sure that she will be.

I've published my thoughts on the day and they can be found in the usual place,
http://petermorton1.xanga.com/

Nice write up Peter - you managed to remain fairly philosophical while actually you must have felt like . Just one of those days mate, we all get 'em. looking forward to you dishing out the revenge verbals to dtf & the dingle man when the time comes .

Quite pleased with my 39-8 given an unfancied middle peg - had to work really hard at it tho, after a reasonable start @9m with soft hookers and corn on the hook it all died , eventually ringing the changes on 3 separate maggot baited swims (feeding each every 60s) proving to be the saviour in the last 2 hours - but put 2 fish in the net and they just backed off every time hence the juggling between 3 - even thought about starting up a 4th.

Still no report from Le Frog? ::)

Im here but been very busy helping me Dad out.

Glad those maggots helped you Peter otherwise it could have been worse.

I've published my thoughts on the day and they can be found in the usual place

Enjoyable read Mugger and good to read of someone gracious in defeat

Look like the was certainly in town

it sure was and i didnt even fish