Chris and Fraser settled in to peg 5 while i sat on peg 4. Chris set up a small feeder for himself and a light waggler for Fraser, with bait being maggot and corn, while i set up my pole and went with expander pellet as bait.

With a couple of feet in the margins and maybe five feet down the middle it's nice simple fishing and Chris was soon off the mark with a small carp. Fraser and i were soon following, me with with a carp and Fraser with his 1st ever tench.

Fraser

All day long sport continued with a succession of small carp and tench keeping things interesting for both father and son.
I sneaked over to Peartree for a final couple of hours and found that the bottom must have been carpeted with small tench, nothing big, with a pounder being a bonus but a fish virtually every put-in.

All to soon, it was time to pack away the gear, and seeing them off from the car park the final site was Fraser's grinning face looking back and waving. I don't think it will be to long before they're back.

Next up Sunday,
and a Hawthorne AC club match on Milton Lake at Old Bury Hill.
One of the most popular venues in this part of the country, and the usual suspects turned up along with Omega Mike from TF.Com and Peter9000uk, both eager to guest and have the chance of getting amongst the Crucians and Tench that the venue is so well known for.

Everything looked lovely at the draw and i found myself with peg 19. (The same as i had drawn in our last club match there)

Peg 19

Shortly after the all in at 9am however, it soon became clear that all was not well, as the fish seemed to have almost entirely switched off. I have never seen this lake fish so badly, whether it was the rainwater that had gone in the previous week, or the couple of cold nights leading up to the match I don't know, but the half time weigh-in took all of 5 mins as only a couple of anglers had enough to trouble the scalesmen.
Omega Mike decided that the comforts of home were more attractive and left half way through and i can't say i blamed him. Stiffy, another TF poster turned up for a short chat as he was fishing the estate lake and had a similar tale of woe as all but a couple of pegs on there were struggling.

I finally managed to extract 4 Crucians and a similar number of Rudd for a grand total of 4lbs 9ozs and 7th place. The winner managing 33lbs 1 oz off of peg 4 which is an out and out flyer, but with 3 dry nets and a similar number only weighing in ounces, it was overall a very disappointing day.

Just to add insult to injury walking back to the car park i passed Bonds Lake only to see 7 anglers all playing carp at the same time. How can 2 lakes just 10 yards apart fish so differently on the same day??????

Hartleylands Farm. The Reservoir.

Saturday 16th October 2004.

I went down for a day on the reservoir at Hartleylands with Andy (The Hat) as I had promised him a while back that if he ever brought a pole I would spend the day with him, helping him to get to grips with it.

Now Andy has spent the last 35 years as a serious member of the Bivvy and Boilie brigade, notching up some notable fish including "SHE" from the School Pool at Faversham at 34lbs 12ozs way back in 1977.

Andy with "SHE".

On arrival I was pleasantly surprised to find that the weather had relented, and although overcast the incessant rain of the last couple of days had stopped. Andy was already setting up in peg 1 and I dropped into peg 2 next door.

Rather than going for the full monty straight away, I persuaded Andy to start at about 10mtrs, so that he could get a feel for the pole. He has had a Zyrium margin pole for a year but this was his 1st time using a full sized one.

Some time was spent going through the basics of the set up, ensuring he was comfortable with shipping in and out and mastering feeding with both catapult and pole cup.
After about half an hour Andy lifted into his 1st carp on the long pole.
His face was a mixture of excitement, anxiety and relief as it slid over the net.

 

NO1 in the net.

The day as a whole was great fun, with Andy picking my brains throughout, as he attempted to refine his approach. Thankfully the fish co-operated with a number of carp for both of us in the course of the day...........

All in all a fun day, and interesting to watch an angler from a completely different discipline, trying to get to grips with my type of approach.

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Go to Reports 20