Churchgate Lakes. Essex. The Bottom Lake. October 13th, 2007,

Marsh AC club match.

Another cracking day out as usual with Marsh AC. This was to be the last match of the year for the club on a venue that was a new one on the club calendar. I have to say what a lovely looking venue Churchgate Lakes is, consisting of 3 lakes (we fished Bottom Lake) but it switched off big time on the day for no apparent reason.

I had drawn peg 7 and I have to say I fancied it, with a nice comfortable chuck to the point of an island and a nice level 7ft of depth on the pole line at around 12mtrs…

I had Terry Goff (Wily Coyote) for company on peg 8, and with Dave (TheFish) and his wife Gladys on 9 & 10 and with Paul (nomorelongwalks) and Tony (spamwham) next to them, it was resembling a mini MD’s match.

Things however were slow from the off and though people could be heard saying they were catching fish one a chuck, it turned out that these fish were small Pumpkinseeds and tiny Ide!! Next door to me though it was Terry who had managed a decent Mirror Carp on the feeder early on……
I couldn’t buy a bite on the feeder though, not even a liner. Well I did have one bite, but of course that came while I was tying up another hook length with Dave the Fish chatting to me, so as you can imagine he was totally sympathetic.

I stuck it out with maggot on an 18 fishing on the deck for the majority of the session nicking small 4oz Skimmers and a solitary 3lb’er. I was briefly attached to a ‘lump’ which bottomed out my black Hydro in record time, but with 30 minutes to go and an estimated 7lb in the net I remarked to Terry that it looked like he had me beaten on the day. ‘Knowing you, you’ll probably mug a lump before the end ‘ was his reply. Nice to know that he had faith in my piscatorial skill and tenacity being rewarded.

Well with 5 minutes to go I lifted into another dip of the float only to be greeted by yards of black Hydro streaming out of the top kit !!!!. Obviously a decent fish, it was a slow plodding fight and I managed to net it just as the whistle went for the end of the match. It was a chunky Mirror Carp which weighed 17lbs 6ozs, equalling my PB Carp and the largest fish that I’ve ever caught on the pole. Added to the silvers it gave me 25lbs 14ozs  which proved to be enough for the win.

A special mention for Judy Hermite who managed to catch 2 decent Carp (1 of them a double) on her pole, Judy’s more at home fishing with a rod and reel and these were her largest pole caught fish and gave her 2nd place on the day. Well done Judy.

Also to Gladys Collier, on her 1st Marsh AC match, doubling hubby Dave’s weight off the next peg much to his delight. As you can imagine of course we were all full of sympathy for him at the weigh-in………………….NOT.

Position	Angler	Weight
1st	Peter Morton	25lbs 14ozs
2nd	Judy Hermite	21lbs 02ozs
3rd	Paul East	13lbs 10ozs
4th	John Holdsworth	13lbs 08ozs
5th	Gladys Collier	12lbs 04ozs
6th	Terry Goff	11lbs 08ozs
7th	Tony Roberts	10lbs 08ozs
8th	Roger Noakes	8lbs 08ozs
9th	Zack Johnson	5lbs 10ozs
10th	Dave Collier	5lbs 08ozs
11th	Kevin Loveland	3lbs 08ozs
12th	Graham Manning	3lbs 00ozs
13th	Arthur Thompson	2lbs 08ozs
	Martin Hucker	DNW
	Chris Withall	DNW
	Ed Dobson	DNW
	Rod Turner	DNW