Sunday, 20 October 2013

20 October 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

There are some people out there who believe that the £25k Parkdean Masters was the biggest fishing event this weekend - obviously they are wrong as the final round of the Godalming AS teams of four was clearly much more important!!! Could Team Bagger pull back 2 points on Trev's Tornadoes to claim 4th place? Could the unimaginable happen? Could they beat Chertsey Baits by 10 to snatch 3rd?!? Read on to find out …

All the gear?



I’ve written many times about my exploits at Marsh Farm and regular readers of All the Gear, No Idea will know that today’s venue – Richardson’s Lake – is a pretty consistent venue where every peg has a central island at about 20-25m and the target species are skimmers, tench and crucians. Given the time of year and the number of anglers on the bank today (32) the fishing was expected to be challenging but fair with 15-20lb certain to be rewarded with excellent section points.

I was on draw bag duties for Team Bagger once again and managed to pull-out the same set of pegs as the previous round (which we’d managed to win with a convincing 9 penalty points) – however the sequence was slightly different with Dave on peg 11, Debs on 25, myself on 38 and Claire on 50.

Peg 38 was an end peg on the day (‘what a surprise’ I hear you say) and is situated towards the far corner of the lake where the bank opposite to Harris Lake meets that parallel to Johnson’s Lake – the reason it is normally an end peg is that there is an aerator to the right in peg 37. In terms of features I had some inviting looking reeds extending into the water from my left margin and a tree-lined island at about 22m – however a couple of branches reaching-out at awkward angles limited the spots I could cast to one or two fishable areas.

Pellets, pellets and more pellets!

As ever on Richardson’s my pre-match plan of attack centred on two complementary tactics – a small pellet feeder fished towards the margin of the central island backed-up by a delicate pole rig for fishing at a slight angle to the left at top kit plus four sections. Experience has shown that the bigger, match winning fish normally fall to the feeder whereas the fish caught on the pole are often smaller but help to fill-in the gaps left when resting the feeder line.

In terms of bait I actually had some worms and casters with me today – however I have very little confidence in such baits on this venue and I only had them as they were left over from last week’s visit to MBK Baron’s Ponds! My major focus was on fishmeal-based products – soaked micro pellets for feed, hard 6mm and 4mm expanders for hookbaits on the feeder and pole (respectively) and some Sonubaits F1 sweet fishmeal groundbait as an option for feeding on the pole line. (Three different bottles of Kiana Goo, a tub of Sounbaits Stiki Pellet binder and some 8mm pop-up boilies completed the list.)

The pellet feeder is always my first choice for fishing to islands

I started today’s match by feeding a reasonable amount of soaked micro pellet on the TK+4 pole line and casting my pellet feeder towards the central island (not too tight, but within the shadow of the overhanging trees) – by 1002 I was attached to an angry tench and by 1005 I had 3lb in the net! As I was only chasing a self-imposed target weight of 20lb this was clearly a great start and the ideal way to settle any pre-match nerves.

However the next five casts only led to some tiny line bites (no doubt induced by very small fish pecking at the feeder) so after half an hour it was off with the hooklength and in with 5 quick casts to get a bed of 2mm pellets over the far bank line. 15 minutes on the pole only produced a single ‘blade’ skimmer on a 4mm expander so I decided to feed a nugget of Sonubaits F1 groundbait on that line and get back on the feeder – three 10 minute casts only led to a solitary bite but as it was from a 3lb bream it was very welcome! (Interestingly this fish fell to a feeder full of 2mm pellets with an added squirt of Perfect Peach Goo.)

The rest of the second hour was spent swapping between the two approaches, with a crucian and another blade falling to the pole and a bonus common carp taking a fancy to my pellet feeder set-up. This saw me going into the third hour with about 10lb in the bag – I couldn’t really see many other anglers but at this point I felt I was probably up there with Mick Hall on the peg to my left in terms of leading the section.

Relatively light terminal tackle for the pole

In a similar fashion to events in the match from two weeks ago the third hour kicked-off with an amazing run of four big fish in as many casts on the pellet feeder – two proper bream, a tench and a second surprise common carp boosted my weight by a further 10-12lb in a very productive 15 minute spell!!! An aborted take on cast number five however seemed to spook the shoal and bring an end to proceedings – I believe carp anglers use the phrase ‘getting done’ to describe the situation where a good fish has your hair-rigged bait in it’s mouth but manages to eject the hook (either way it is incredibly annoying).

After a few biteless chucks I decided to re-feed with 5 quick casts and as the existing pole line failed to produce any bites I set-up a second rig for fishing along the reeds to my left. Given the snaggy nature of these rushes I dug-out a heavy rig for Marsh Farm – a 4x12 KC Carpa Force on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge mainline to a hooklength of 0.13 with a size 18 Kamasan B911 and white Hydro. (My thinking is that whilst I may struggle to get bites on such thick line I’d rather not hook a fish as opposed to hooking one and losing it on light gear.) Whilst this new swim looked extremely fishy I failed to receive a single bite from it through to the end of the match, despite trying it quite a few times and keeping it topped-up with regular amounts of chopped worm and caster. (See my comment above about having no faith in ‘traditional’ baits at Marsh Farm!)

Luckily a return to the feeder led to another decent bream (this time a squirt of Tutti Frutti Goo did the business) and 3 more small skimmners from the original pole line (based on a 0.2g SconeZone V2 on 0.11 to a 0.10 hooklength with a size 20 Tubertini 808, pink Hydro) saw me enter the final 90 minutes with an estimated 25-26lb.

Looking right towards the aerator (before the downpour)

Despite a torrential downpour on the way to the venue and a contradictory forecast today’s weather had actually been pretty decent so for – however that all changed at 2 o’clock when the heavens opened and what can only be described as a monsoon descended upon leafy Milford!!! This put paid to any hopes of a bag-up session towards the end of the match and all I could muster was one decent (1lb) skimmer and one better (3lb) bream on the tip before the final whistle was eventually blown.

Results from A and B sections …

Following the scales from the top of D section back towards the lower numbers saw Simon Duke open proceedings with a creditable 16-13-0 from end peg 51, which was leading that section until Eddie Rippon put a stonking 26-7-0 of waggler and white maggot caught skimmers and tench on the scales from unfancied 44 to steal first place. (Claire had done well for Team Bagger by securing a valuable 3 points.)

Mick Hall was first to weigh in C section and put a superb 22-14-0 of pole caught bits and pieces on the scales – had I done enough to secure top section points for Team Bagger? Even though I had a lot less fish than Mick the quality I’d managed to catch on the feeder shone through and in the end my 30-12-0 was enough to win the section and the match as a whole.

Overall top 4:
  1. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 30-12-0
  2. Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg 44, 26-7-0
  3. Mick Hall (matchangler.com), peg 39, 22-14-0
  4. Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 16, 19-5-0

Section winners:
  • John Wilkins, (Chertsey Baits), peg 2, 17-1-0
  • Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 16, 19-5-0
  • Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 38, 30-12-0
  • Eddie Rippon (Guildford AC), peg 44, 26-7-0

Top 3 teams on the day:
  1. Guildford AC, 9 points
  2. Matchangler.com, 10 points
  3. Chertsey Baits, 17 points

Unfortunately two good results combined with two not so good results had contrived to leave Team Bagger in joint fifth on the day with 20 points, but well done to Guildford Angling Centre who won the day by a single point from matchangler.com.

… and those from C and D

So where had today’s results left the overall team and individual standings?

Final league standing:
  1. Matchangler.com, 63 points
  2. Guildford Angling Centre, 73 points
  3. Chertsey Bait, 97 points
  4. Trev’s Tornadoes, 106 points
  5. Team Bagger, 109 points
  6. Brian’s Bandits, 134 points
  7. Team Rog, 136 points
  8. Buster’s Bandits, 147 points

Individual top 10:
  1. John Wilkins, 13 points (2-3-4-1-2-1)
  2. Andy Rogers, 15 points (4-2-5-1-2-1)
  3. Eddie Rippon, 15 points (2-3-3-3-3-1)
  4. Phil Morris, 22 points (1-9-1-9-1-1)
  5. Darren Dodge, 24 points (9-1-1-9-1-3)
  6. Dave Johnson, 25 points (2-1-7-9-3-3)
  7. Max Calverley, 26 points (9-4-2-4-5-2)
  8. Chris Kampa, 26 points (5-3-6-5-4-3)
  9. Trevor Haskell, 27 points (1-2-7-1-9-7)
  10. Claire Hollis, 27 points (3-9-2-9-1-3)

(Note: 9 points indicates that the angler in question did not fish a particular round. No concept of dropping worst scores applies here.)

Congratulations to matchangler.com for taking the honours on the team side of things and to John Wilkins for bagging the individual title ahead of Andy Rogers and Eddie Rippon. A big thank you must also go to Godalming AS match secretary for organising another great event – see you next year!!!

I’m still chasing that elusive pot of gold!!!

Conclusions: today once again proved that the quality, match winning fish are more often than not there to be caught on the feeder to the island – it is often a ‘bottle job’ but for the second match in a row at Marsh Farm a golden spell of a number of good fish one after another made a real difference to my final weight today. The pole with expanders over micros/sweet fishmeal groundbait is also proving to be a good back-up that serves two purposes – it allows the feeder to be rested whilst putting something in the net. (I only had five fish on the pole today but that 4-5lb made a difference.) I could’ve caught more on the pole if worked it harder at it and fished it for longer, but would I have caught more overall? I very much doubt it!!!

Until next time …


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Sunday, 13 October 2013

13 October 2013, Big Lake (MBK Baron's Ponds)

One of the beauties of fishing is that it is an outdoor sport – personally I spend five days a week commuting to London and back, and being constantly stuck in an office means I’m often daydreaming about my day on the bank at the weekend. However, at the end of every summer there seems to be a point where the weather takes a turn for the worse and we start down the path towards the cold, dark days of winter. Yes, you’ve guessed it – today was that day! I had been looking forward to today’s match, but that fact that it poured with freezing cold rain from the beginning of the match until fifteen minutes after the “all out” took the edge off of my enjoyment somewhat!!!

MBK Baron’s Ponds



MBK Leisures has three main sites – I can only remember visiting the Pump Station once, but I’ve written about the Colour Ponds on numerous occasions. Today’s match was held on the Big Lake at Baron’s Ponds – also known locally as St Patrick’s Lane. As the name suggests this is quite a big lake (40-50 pegs) with an island at one end and a damn wall at the other.

My draw put me on peg 11 – the venue isn’t permanently pegged, but on the day peg 11 was two or three from the corner where the damn wall is sited and I had my back to the causeway between the Big Lake and the Small Lake. I had vacant platforms to my left and right – this might sound like a really good thing, but I’d hate to fish a match were every peg was in as the platform to my right was only 6 or 7 metres away!!!

Given the rain I was quite happy to find myself fishing under a tree – it was a bit of a parrot cage, but nothing too serious as I’d be using a 10’ tip rod. Having drawn a peg towards the damn wall I was miles away from the central island and hence had open water in front – as the venue is double-banked I had an angler directly opposite me at about 50m.

Gear for making PVA bags

Having not fished the venue for a good few years I did my usual trawl through the angling forums, websites and Twitter during the week to try and build a plan. I could remember reading an article on matchangler.com ages ago where Ian Dixon bagged-up on quality roach, but some of the match results on the MBK website suggested that carp would be the target.

A quick walk around the venue yesterday (when the weather was much, much better) led to a chance encounter with fishery owner Kenny Wright who implied that the roach weren’t showing in great numbers and that bigger fish were falling to sweetcorn on the short pole. As a result my opening tactics were to be the straight lead with optional PVA bags of 6mm pellets and the pole at top kit plus 3 with corn and soaked 2mm pellets.

Much better weather the day before the match!

I started the match by feeding a small amount of bait over my pole line then cast my bomb rig to about 25m – on the hook (well hair) was a bright yellow Ringers Allsort and in this instance I had chosen to attach a small PVA bag of pellets. I was willing to leave this first cast in the water for anything up to 20 minutes, when after 6 or 7 the tip slammed ‘round and I found myself attached to a very angry carp that took ages to land – having said that at about 7lb this fish was very, very welcome!

No further bites followed in the next half an hour so I decided to give the pole a try – as the water was quite deep (about 6’) and as I was looking to catch carp this rig consisted of a 4x12 KC Carpa Force (which actually takes the shot associated with a typical 4x14) on 0.15 Guru N-Gauge mainline to a hooklength of 0.13 with a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. The shotting pattern was a spread bulk of number 10 stotz starting from 20cm from the hook and elastic as white Hydrolastic.

Unfortunately, despite a large amount of fizzing, I couldn’t muster a bite on the pole so it was back to the tip – what happened next can only be considered a complete and utter disaster! I’d gone in again with a yellow Allsort and a PVA bag of 6mm pellets when after 3 or 4 minutes the tip slammed ‘round and the clutch started spinning – so far, so good. However, as casting was quite awkward (given the overhanging tree) and as I was double-banked I’d put the line into the clip to ensure I didn’t go past the halfway mark. Yep you’ve guessed it – the carp continued to strip line from the reel until it hit the clip, at which point the rod hit it’s maximum and the 0.19 hooklength that normally looks as thick as old rope rapidly turned into a pig’s tail made of ultra fine cotton!!!

Looking right from peg 11

After that ‘interesting’ first hour the final four hours were frankly a long, hard slog – the influx of cold rain seemed to kill the sport for the majority of the twenty-odd competitors who were by now huddled under umbrellas or putting their Gore-Tex clothing to the test.

No further bites materialised on the straight lead or top kit plus 3 pole lines, and a new line opened for roach at 13m with casters over Sensas Match Blend was equally fruitless. I did however manage a handful of small perch on worm over chopped worm and caster fairly close to the bank at top kit plus 2 to my left, so at least I had the pleasure of watching the float dip a couple of times!

Pre-match hype, but no Sky TV cameras on the day!

Eventually the final whistle was blown and it was time to pack-up – I can assure you that putting away wet gear in the pouring rain is certainly not on my list of top ten things to do on a Sunday afternoon!!! However on the plus side that early carp turned-out to be enough to sneak a default section win after Pete Worsfield’s last gasp double on the short pole next door propelled him into the frame.

Overall top 4:
  1. Andy Rogers, 15-0-0
  2. Chris Kampa, 13-5-0
  3. Jim Findlay, 13-0-0
  4. Pete Worsfield, 12-0-0

Section winners:
  • Gary Woking, 9-12-0
  • Phil Morris, 7-13-0
  • Brian Stevens/Keith Jeffries, both 7-6-0

So congratulations to Andy, Chris and Jim for successfully overcoming the conditions to fill the top three places – they were in different areas but were all pegged fairly close to the island and presumably shallower water. (I’m not totally sure but I think their catches were made-up of small roach and perch as opposed to bonus carp.)

Luckily this doesn’t apply to matches!
Conclusions: having read the above you can probably guess the two conclusions I’m going to draw today – that fishing in cold rain isn’t as enjoyable as fishing in glorious sunshine and that lost fish cost matches!!! I’m the first person to berate people for tales of broken lines and hook pulls in the car park after matches so that incident will haunt me for a few weeks yet, especially as if the carp on the other end had weighed 7-4-0 or more I’d have won three matches in a row …

Until next time …


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Sunday, 6 October 2013

06 October 2013, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

As I was loading the car this morning I saw a single magpie. Then just as I was contemplating not even bothering to fish (after all it is “one for sorrow”) I saw a further pair together. Whilst I was trying to figure-out if the “two for joy” had cancelled-out the initial dose of bad luck I saw another lone magpie – all this and I was trying to wean myself off my superstitions by intentionally not wearing my lucky red T-shirt today!!!

Team Bagger's pegs



Today’s match was round 5 of the Godalming AS teams of four held on Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm. Last time I was handed the drawing honours I saddled us (Team Bagger) with the weighing-in duties – despite this I was made captain for the day again and luckily (magpies or no magpies) fortune was on our side on this occasion and not only had I managed to avoid the dreaded scales I’d also managed to put us on some pretty decent pegs!!!

Personally I found myself on peg 11, on the outside of a bend with the ends of two different islands in range of a 25m chuck – nice! Not only that, but being on a kind of point I also had lots of open water to go at and peg 10 to my right was vacant – first hand experience shows that any extra room can be a real bonus at Marsh Farm so I was more than happy with this arrangement, especially as the anglers to my left seemed to be squeezed into a line with no spare pegs between them!

The SconeZone V8

As ever on Richardson’s Lake my plan of attack was two-fold – a small pellet feeder to the central island straight in front and delicate pole rigs for fishing on the deck at top kit plus 4 to the left and right.

Gear for the pellet feeder was my usual arrangement of a small 20g Preston Innovations pellet feeder on 8lb Daiwa Sensor to a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 Guru N-Gauge with a size 16 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band. Feed was simply soaked 2mm fishery pellets and the main hookbait was the ever reliable 6mm hard pellet, though I did have some fluro boilies and 3 bottles of Kiana Goo in reserve.

On the pole I had some new floats to try today – the SconeZone V8 in 0.2 and 0.3g sizes. These are lovely looking bits of kit with a fantastic finish, a strong looking eye and a perfect body shape (something between a Chianti and a pencil float) for fishing pellets for shy biting fish. The rigs where made-up on 0.11 Reflo Power mainline to 15cm hooklengths of 0.10 and size 20 Tubertini 808s – the elastic was pink Hydro.

Looking right towards the gap between the islands

The weather today was unseasonably warm and sunny with not a breath of wind – conditions that are normally the kiss of death on this and many other venues. I was contemplating this point after a biteless first half an hour on the feeder when first drop in on the pole with a 4mm expander saw a four ounce skimmer in the net. (I’d been feeding small amounts of soaked micros via a cupping kit between casts on the feeder from the start.) This at least got me off the mark but I’d already fallen 8 or 9 fish behind Simon Duke to my left on peg 12 – a fact compounded when I couldn’t buy another bite on the pole!!!

Before switching to the pole I’d removed my hooklength from the feeder rig and made 3 quick casts to get some bait down – this seemed to do the trick as after those 10 minutes on the pole the rod slammed ‘round with a nice tench first chuck back on the tip. This opening tinca tinca was quickly followed by two more and a nice skimmer before the feeder line suddenly faded – this time I re-fed with 4 feeders’ worth of bait before switching back to the pole and picking-up a nice little crucian. (I also managed to bump another decent fish being too clever for my own good by trying to feed via a pole-mounted pot with a fish on – when I tapped the pole to release the pellets I gave the fish every excuse it needed to shed the hook!!!)

The shadow starts to form in front of the island

The re-feeding tactic didn’t work as well this time and only one skimmer hit the net after returning to the pellet feeder line. The pole was also pretty slow so I had a quick re-think and came-up with the “Goo bombe” – a clever combination of soaked 2mm pellets compressed in a medium Preston Innovations pellet punch with some Perfect Peach Goo in the middle!!! (Hopefully this would see a nice ball of pellets fall to the deck where they would break-up releasing the sweet smelling Goo – well that’s the theory anyway!) This tactic seemed to work to a certain extent as two nice skimmers fell quickly to a 4mm expander before the line once again faded.

The start of the fourth hour (1300) saw the sun moving to such a position that a nice shadow started to form in front of the island – this coincided with a great run of fish on the feeder with six good skimmers and a tench in as many casts in what is usually the hardest part of any match at Marsh Farm!!! Following this golden half an hour/40 minutes the pattern for the day continued as after a run of fish the swim died so it was in with 5 feeders’ worth of bait and back onto the pole. Unfortunately this only led to a few very iffy, unhittable bites – normally a sure sign that tiny micro skimmers are the only fish in the peg – so as a result I opened a new pole line to right in the same depth of water as the original. This can often lead to a run of fish but today it certainly didn’t!!!

Looking left from peg 11

Today’s match was a five and a half hour affair running from 1000 to 1530 so it was always likely that the best part of the match would be from about 2 o’clock through to the end. This theory was proved correct as the final 90 minutes yielded an excellent return of 5 skimmers, 1 tench and a bonus 3lb common carp on the feeder, plus 3 further good skimmers on the (original) pole line.

Results for A and B section …

By the time the scales for my section arrived at my peg Andy Rogers was leading from Ken Russell with 26-7-0 to 16-13-0 – as a result I was mightily pleased to see my mixed bag drag the scales down to 35-8-0. As things turned-out this was enough to win the section and the match as a whole.

Overall top 4:
  1. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 11, 35-8-0
  2. Darren Dodge (matchangler.com), peg 32, 32-0-0
  3. Claire Hollis (Team Bagger), peg 25, 30-15-0
  4. Andy Rogers (Guildford AC), peg 3, 26-7-0

Section winners:
  • Phil Morris (Team Bagger), peg 11, 35-8-0
  • Claire Hollis (Team Bagger), peg 25, 30-15-0
  • Darren Dodge (matchangler.com), peg 32, 32-0-0
  • Percy Allan (Trev’s Tornadoes), peg 45, 22-5-0


    … and those for C and D

    Not only that but the rest of Team Bagger had pulled-out all of the stops as Bagger had done brilliantly to hammer Dave Johnson off the next peg and win B section with 30-15-0 (enough for third overall), Dave Woolgar did the business with a second in C section and Paul Etherington had done really well to secure a mid-table finish in D section from a very poor peg. This gave us a total of 9 penalty points and a clear victory from Chertsey Bait and Guildford AC who both finished on 13 points.

    Top 3 teams on the day:
    1. Team Bagger, 9 points
    2. Chertsey Bait, 13 points (on overall weight countback)
    3. Guildford Angling Centre, 13 points

    League standing after round 5:
    1. Matchangler.com, 53 points
    2. Guildford Angling Centre, 64 points
    3. Chertsey Bait, 80 points
    4. Trev’s Tornadoes, 87 points
    5. Team Bagger, 89 points
    6. Brian’s Bandits, 111 points
    7. Team Rog, 116 points
    8. Buster’s Bandits, 122 points

    Today’s result has kept Team Bagger in fifth place, but we’ve closed the gap on Trev’s Tornadoes to 2 points and we’re just about in striking distance of Chertsey Bait in third who are 9 points better off. Going into the final round it is for matchangler.com to lose as they are ahead of Guildford AC by a seemingly unassailable 11 points.

    Happy days!!!

    Conclusions: there has been a lot written in the angling press about the future of team fishing so I’ll chip in with my view. Basically winter leagues and nationals involving teams of 10 or 12 fished on natural venues are now completely off the radar for the typical match angler – there are many reasons for this but the main one is that the best anglers gravitate to the best teams, making it impossible for the lower-profile teams to compete so they eventually give-up. Having said that the buzz of winning today’s team event was awesome – it was only a low profile club event, but being able to share success with your teams mates is brilliant. As a result smaller teams of 4 matches will continue to increase in popularity, especially as they can be fished on local commercial-style venues where the creature comforts we have all become accustomed to can be enjoyed with our mates – roll-on round 6 in two weeks time!!!

    Until next time …


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