"Who would be up for a bash at Hawkhurst Fish Farm on the match lake, if you are interested let me know and i will sort a list out".
That was the post that Bill G put up on the Maggotdrowning Forum in the middle of March that led to us arriving for a 20 peg knock-up.
Pulling into the fishery car park at around 7·45 am a host of the usual suspects were in attendance including seven of the Marsh AC guys, along with a couple of 1st timers for what we hoped would be a good day with plenty of fish for everyone. The weather however obviously had other ideas with a dull grey sky and a cold easterly wind promising the threat of rain during the day. :(
Hawkhurst is primarily a Carp fishery, a fact that's rather given away by the carving of an old tree stump outside the bailiff's office overlooking the fishery :) ................
I can't say that Hawkhurst is my favorite venue in all honesty. The Match Lake is a strip lake with 10 pegs on either side with very few features for most to fish to except the boards down the edge for most, however it does have fish in abundance and is well capable of throwing up lots of 'Ton+' weights of Carp in matches, so it's normally a great confidence booster :).
A decent Full English in the on site café and a couple of side bets (£2 with Vince & £1 with Bill) was followed by the draw saw me drawing peg 11 at the far end...................
.........but at least I would have the wind off my back. Vince had drawn flyer peg 1 that was black with fish when we arrived while Dave C had the other flyer (peg20) opposite him. I had Colin opposite on 10 with Bill G to his left on 9, with Jeff D (on his 1st match with us) to my right on 12.
I set up a couple of top 2's, the 1st around 18" deep to fish tight to the boards on either side and another around 3ft deep to fish at 2mtrs out. These were both 0·14 Antares Silk Shock with size 18 Fox Series 2 hooks with 4X12 KC Carpa Shelf's and I set up another kit using the same line and hook but with a 4X14 Carpa Tricky to fish the 5ft deep 6 mtr line.
Bait was 4mm fishery pellet for feed with 4 & 6mm GOT expanders for the hook, with sweetcorn and GOT paste as alternatives.
10am and the all-in and Jeff on the next peg is straight in having dropped his unbaited rig in to double check it's shotting has a Carp take his bare hook :o !!!!! I dropped my expander baited 2mtr rig in and the float buried straight away and a nice little common was soon in the net, Game On
.Or not as it proved :(. The 1st hour saw me put just 5 fish in the net and from what I could see nobody was exactly taking their peg apart, with Bill suffering a few liners and just a solitary fish in the net ........
Jeff and Jay to my right having a few, but from what I could see smaller fish than mine.
Fishing tight to the boards is normally a banker for a few fish at Hawkhurst but despite keeping a few pellets trickling into both margins I couldn't find a bite there >:( and moved out to the deeper water at 6mtrs where at least i was picking up the odd fish. Bill had gone walkabout after about an hour and had completed a circuit of the lake by the time he got to me. His report was grim with most struggling , though Dave C seemed to be getting a few from peg 20
and then to top it all off it started to rain :(. Kevin's wife Jean however appeared with a very welcome cuppa from the café and with bites few and far between I re-fed all my lines and went for a walk of my own.Clive down on peg 14 was putting a few together but felt that Paul over on peg 7 was doing a shade better...................
Ryan next door on peg 15 was struggling and pinning his faith on finding a few from the margins.......................
while Matt on 18 had managed a run of fish up in the water but hadn't had a bite for 40 minutes :o ................
Dave C on 20 was indeed putting a few together fishing at 9mtrs to the stump of a cut down tree that had made the peg a real flyer on earlier days ...........
Over on fancied peg 1 Vince was having one of those matches we all dread with just a couple of fish to show for his efforts, while having to watch Dave opposite steadily pull away in terms of fish caught
, and Trevor on peg 2 wasn't fairing much better .............
Nick on peg 3 had forgotten about the pole and was fishing the waggler............
with Terry next to him struggling as well. Pete Midgley was soldiering on and managing the odd fish from peg 5...........
While Mike Jameson was racking his brains trying to put a few in the net and amazing us all that he hadn't packed up and gone home as he's well known for doing if he isn't enjoying himself :P ..........
Paul East appeared to be going reasonably well though on peg 7 and a chat with Al next to Bill revealed he was getting bites on banded pellet but having trouble hitting them.
Bill had finally managed to find a couple by fishing corn long at 12 mtrs.
Back at my peg, out came the bait bands and a banded 4mm at 6mtrs soon produced a bite and a 4lb'er in the net. Bill's bites on the corn however appeared to have dried up on him again :( though Al was nicking the odd one. Jeff D was catching by swapping lines, though his fish seemed smaller than mine which prompted me to stick to the 6mtr line as my fish still seemed to be of a bigger stamp.
Jay next to Jeff however seemed to be the only one catching down the margin next to the boards and was also taking some better fish long when he rested the margin line.
Thankfully 4pm saw the all out, and the speed that the scales came round signaled that the lake hadn't produced the expected weights, with Paul East leading the way with a very creditable 69lbs 08ozs from peg 7
. My fish came to 43lbs 08ozs which was good enough for 6th on the day and took my 4 peg section :). Down to the last peg and it was a question of whether Dave C had done enough to edge Paul out but a combination of the cold and Dave's arthritis saw Paul hang on as Dave's fish only came to 62lbs 08ozs, still a very good effort on the day .So that was it for another day, not the expected weights, but a £2 coin from Vince (we didn't give him much stick for blowing the flyer honest
) a £1 coin from Bill, some good laughs and plenty of banter helped out.Thanks to Bill G for sorting out the day, just have a word with the weather Gods next time Bill.
Position Peg Angler Weight
1st peg 7 Paul East 69lbs 08ozs
2nd peg 20 Dave Collier 62lbs 08ozs
3rd peg 13 Jay Lay 59lbs 00ozs
4th peg 19 Kevin Betts 50lbs 08ozs
5th peg 14 Clive Pritchard 47lbs 00ozs
6th peg 11 Peter Morton 43lbs 08ozs
7th= peg 8 Alan Loader 37lbs 08ozs
7th= peg 18 Matt Love 37lbs 08ozs
9th peg 2 Trevor Little 36lbs 00ozs
10th peg 12 Jeff Driscoll 31lbs 00ozs
11th peg 5 Pete Midgley 30lbs 08ozs
12th peg 16 Tony Roberts 27lbs 00ozs
13th peg 6 Mike Jameson 25lbs 00ozs
14th= peg 1 Vince Gould 17lbs 08ozs
14th= peg 10 Colin Sharrard 17lbs 08ozs
16th peg 4 Terry Goff 17lbs 00ozs
17th peg 9 Bill Gibbins 15lbs 00ozs
18th peg 17 Kevin Loveland 13lbs 00ozs
19th= peg 15 Ryan Wells DNW
19th= peg 3 Nick Gilbert DNW
