Saturday 24th November 2007.
Monk Lakes. Match Lake 2.

"hi pete what are the chances of a days practice before the big day so as you can show me how to snare a whiskery critter or two lol" was the PM that I received from Bill on the Maggotdrowning.com Forum. He'd also posted our intent on the forum and a couple of the newer members, petemid and Ryan (Zephyr) soon agreed to join us as Ryan also wanted a Barbel.

So there I was loading my kit into my frost covered car for the trip down with the temperature registering 2°C . Suitably wrapped up as I know just how exposed Monk Lakes can be, the thermals were getting their 1st outing for a while.

Bill and I had decided that there was no need for an early start, and to meet at the fishery around 9 - 9·30am.I stopped for a couple of Sausage & Egg McMuffins on the way down and arrived just ahead of Bill, while a quick phone call revealed that that Pete and Ryan were already ensconced in pegs on Lake 2. Bill soon arrived and after he'd demolished a breakfast baguette we made our way up to Lake2, which i was pleasantly surprised to see was flat calm, a real bonus as the lakes normally catch the slightest breeze.

Pete had set up on peg47 with Ryan on peg48 and had been fishing for around an hour, so I let Bill take peg45 as I was positive that he would get his Barbel from there while i dropped into peg46.
On arrival I 'd had a chat with Ron the bailiff and he'd agreed that we could use keepnets for a little knock-up, and I'd brought a spare for Ryan as I knew he didn't have one.

We started the knock-up at around 10·45am after Pete & Ryan had gone and got something to eat and Bill and I finished setting up. Ryan was using a pole he'd borrowed from Pete for the 1st time and was soon into fish.

Pete was soon into a couple as well, and I felt that they may have an edge, given that they'd been fishing and feeding for an hour prior to the start.

I set up a couple of rigs, a top 3 for dead depth at around 3ft deep for an inside line, which would double as an up in the water rig on my main line at around 8mtrs. My other rig was set to fish dead depth at around 6ft on the 8mtr line.Bait was to be double red maggot on the size 18 Fox series2 hooks attached to both rigs. I started with ½ a pot of micro's and a couple of dozen red maggots at 8mtrs and a pinch of maggots on the inside line, though I doubted whether the inside line would work today as the water was icy cold.
Bill appeared to set up just a single rig to fish at 6-7mtrs and was feeding pellet and maggot as well and alternating between corn and maggot on the hook.

1st fish for me was a little Tench followed by an Ide and I think Bill got off the mark with a chub. I elected to pot more Micro's and maggots in, and for a horrible minute thought that I'd killed it, but the bites soon returned. Pretty soon I had the 1st Barbel, much to Bill's delight , soon followed by another couple, Vince phoned and found it hard to believe that Bill hadn't managed a Barbel at that point, especially as I managed another couple while chatting on the phone .
No sooner had Vince hung up and Dave(Red Leader) phoned for a report and much to Bill's delight, reckoned that he must be using barbel-less hooks .

Both Bill and I were catching reasonably regularly and at one point I tried some cat food as a change bait and managed a run of 6 Barbel in 6 put ins, not that I was counting, Bill was though as he waded through the chub, tench and carp to try and find a Barbel . A quick look down the bank revealed that Ryan was catching steadily, but Pete was struggling with big gaps between his bites .

Good to see as well, that the EA's bailiffs were out and about checking licences in the cold. On a day when there were no matches on and the weather ensuring very few anglers were at the fishery, they could easily have given it a miss and stayed in the warm without anyone being any the wiser.

Around 1pm the wind started to get up, blowing straight into us and realistically both Bill and I should have changed our light rigs to combat it, but we were both to lazy as we were still getting bites. Soon I looked up and could tell by the grin on Bills face that the fish sliding towards his net was a Barbel, which was soon captured for posterity .........

Shortly after Paul(nomorelongwalks) phoned for a progress report and let us know that he was off for a pint or two in a nice warm pub . Meanwhile I was building a nice mixed bag of Barbel, Mirrors, F1's, Tench (both green & golden) Golden Orfe and Ide, nothing big but regularly enough to keep warm .

By 3pm we decided to call time as the skies threatened rain and both Pete & Ryan had realised that trainers weren't the ideal footwear to keep your feet warm .

Thanks to Pete having scales and a weigh sling with him we had a quick weigh-in.
Ryan managing a creditable 22lbs on his 1st pole fishing session including his 1st ever Barbel..........

Pete had suffered however managing just 9lbs, though he did manage a final Barbel after the weigh-in that must have given him double figures............

My bag came to 26lbs, but you'll have to excuse the picture as Ryan was so cold by then that he couldn't hold the camera steady .................

Finally Bill weighed in with 21lbs including 4 Barbel that all beat his previous PB .............

Not the greatest of weights but given the light hearted nature of the day and the conditions, not to bad. Farewells made we set off, but we'll soon be doing it all again on the 15th December at the MD's Southern Fur & Feather match .