Saturday 6 December 2008

Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. December 6th, 2008.

Ryan’s Winter Knock Up.
magtrans.gif MD's Logo picture by pnm123
nickslake.jpg picture by pnm123
It was definitely a day for the thermals today as I loaded the car ready for the trip down To Hartleylands Farm for a friendly little Knock Up on Nick’s Lake that Ryan (Zephyr) has organised through the MD’s forum. By the time I arrived at the car park it was around 8am and it appeared that I was the last of 17 lunatics to arrive. Fortunately Mick had managed to arrange for the catering wagon that had been at Broad Oak to turn up, so breakfast was taken care of courtesy of a cuppa from Andy and half of one of the monster breakfast rolls from Trevor Thanks lads.

Nick unfortunately had a black out and cracked his head, but after we had got him into the back of a van and Kevin had administered a spot of first aid he thankfully recovered enough to fish, especially once he realised that peg 9 was left in the hat for him.

My draw had yielded peg 36, not a great area in winter, but with a nice short walk from the car and a bit of shelter looked like being a bonus today, and as only sections were being paid out today instead of the top 3 I still had something to fish for. For company today I had Andy(The Hat) to my right on peg 36, and to my left 3 of my fellow Marsh club members, in Kevin, Terry and Dave on pegs 2,4 and 6.
W1-13.jpg Nick's Lake. (Peg 36) picture by pnm123
The peg was comfy enough with just a short chuck to the corner of the island, and with it being so cold I only set the feeder up. Bait was simply a couple of pints of reds and some groundbait. The one doubt in the back of my mind was the colour or rather lack of it in the water. The recent frosts appeared to have knocked the colour right out of it which is unusual on Nick’s regardless of how cold it gets.

So 10am and the All-In is called, feeder to the point, tighten up and wait for the action to start …………….and wait ………….and wait ………………and wait. Thankfully Kevin’s partner Jean broke the monotony by providing me with a hot cup of coffee, but apart from Dave getting a small Carp and receiving all our hearty congratulations……NOT there didn’t seem to be much happening, In fact the only person that appeared to be doing anything was Steve Allen on peg 8. Now Steve normally fishes with his two sons Pete and Nick, but it was obviously a little to cold for the poor things so he’d brought his mate, Terry with him for company. A quick chat with Andy revealed that at least he’d had 3 small fish, better than me at that point with his more “speccie” orientated approach……
W2-13.jpg Andy (The Hat) Spreadbury. picture by pnm123
Well with 1½ hours gone without as much as a nibbled maggot to show for it, I decided I should get the pole out, at least shipping in and out would keep me warm. The rig was a Malman 4×10 Snake1 to ·12 finished with an 18 Drennan maggot hook. I set this up to fish at around 6mtrs where I had around 3½ft of water with soft set white hydro in the top kit. A pinch of maggot followed by the rig soon rewarded me with a small roach, at least I hadn’t blanked.

Terry was alternating between the feeder and a pole approach but was struggling like the majority of us, nothing really seemed to bring him a run of fish……………
W4-13.jpg Terry (Wily Coyote) Goff. picture by pnm123
Dave meanwhile had managed to nick another small carp on the feeder, but was also sorting out a pole rig in an attempt to find a bit of action………
W3-12.jpg Dave (The Fish) Collier. picture by pnm123
Indeed regardless of where I looked it was hard to find anyone who was getting amongst the fish apart from Steve whose could be seen with a bend in his rod on a regular basis.

I managed to keep the small roach coming, not quickly enough to build any real weight, but fast enough to pass the time and keep me focused.
W5-12.jpg Kev (The Catch) Loveland. picture by pnm123
With about 10 minutes to go Kevin finally had a bite on the feeder and was rewarded with a small carp, however in his enthusiasm to get back out there his next cast ended on the island and the resulting break ended his day with 5 minutes to go. I chucked the feeder out just in case there was another in the area, but the tip remained stationary till the All-Out was called at 3pm.

At least it didn’t take to long to pack up and get the gear back to the car, and a stroll round with the scales showed just how hard it had fished today. Steve had walked the match today putting 42lbs 12ozs on the scales for a comfortable win, in fact everyone else only managed single figures apart from Trevor whose 10lbs 4ozs of silvers won him his section. Steve’s mate Terry Goulding realised he had tipped back a weight that would have won his section but Hey Ho…….. That's fishing, and of course we were all very sympathetic……….NOT.

Thanks to Ryan for organising the day (his 1st attempt at organising a match). Next up is the Maggotdrowning Southern Fur & Feather match at Wylands next Saturday. How will that turn out? You can read about it here next weekend.

Position  Peg                      Angler     Weight
 1st Peg 8 Steve(Rookery54)Allen 42lbs 12ozs
 2nd Peg 32 Trevor(MT Net)Little 10lbs 04ozs
 3rd Peg 13 Jeff(Jeff D)Driscoll   7lbs 04ozs
 4th Peg 21 Alan(Al)Loader   7lbs 00ozs
 5th= Peg 36 Peter(Mugger)Morton   6lbs 12ozs 
 5th= Peg 6 Dave(The Fish)Collier   6lbs 12ozs
 5th= Peg 23 Tony(spamwham)Roberts   6lbs 12ozs
 8th Peg 17 Pete(petemid)Midgley   5lbs 12ozs
 9th Peg 34 Andy(The Hat)Spreadbury   5lbs 08ozs
 10th Peg 24 Lewis(Super ted)Keen   4lbs 00ozs
 11th Peg 12 Ryan(Zephyr)Wells   3lbs 06ozs
 12th Peg 15 Mick(The Chippy)Pearson   3lbs 00ozs
 13th Peg 4 Terry(Wily Coyote)Goff   2lbs 12ozs
 14th Peg 2 Kevin(The Catch)Loveland   2lbs 04ozs
 15th Peg 20 Keith(Chief)Wells    1lbs 01ozs
 16th Peg 9 Nick(Bag Up)Costar       DNW
 17th Peg 26 Terry Golding       DNW






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