27 July 2014, Richardson's Lake (Marsh Farm)

Regular followers of this blog will know that Marsh Farm (near Milford in Surrey) is very much my home venue. It is about a 15 minute drive from my house and it has all of the amenities we come to expect from a modern commercial fishery – a decent tackle shop, toilets, secure car parking and easy access to every peg. However at times the fishing can be hard and the place can seem devoid of fish – in fact on my previous visit to Marsh Farm (in early June) I blanked!!! (To make matters worse I was hammered off the next peg by Dave Johnson who smashed-out a couple of roach and a jammy skimmer for a good pound or so!!!)

Team captains queuing for the draw

Having said that there have been some good match weights recently, especially in the Wednesday opens and the Friday evening Apollomania – the most recent of which was won with nearly 90lb. However individual glory wasn’t the aim today as this match was the first of the 2014 Godalming AS Teams of Four series – so for Team Bagger (Claire Hollis, Dave Woolgar, Sam Beswick and myself) the aim of the game would be those all important section points …

Looking left from peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake

YouTube video of the view from my peg 

Those of you who are familiar with my Picasso-esque drawing abilities will not be in the least bit surprised to hear that I managed to draw the very peg from which Russ Berryman won the most recent Wednesday open with a whopping (for Marsh Farm) 88-10-0!!! This was peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake – a pretty decent looking swim, fairly close to the tackle shop with the usual central island at about 22m with a nice set of overhanging trees.

The Guru pellet feeder

As per usual my main plan of attack would centre on the pellet feeder fished towards the overhanging trees rooted on the central island. In fact my swim had a nice little gap slightly to my left that would allow me to cast pretty tight to the island and inside the typical line of overhanging trees – hopefully right on the patrol route of any fish circling the margin of the island.

However, rather than using my usual Preston Innovations pellet feeder I was giving the 24g Guru equivalent a first go today – the Guru pellet feeder is by no means a new bit of kit but for one reason or another I’ve never gotten around to trying them. On the surface the stem and the front loading of the main weight should provide better stability and accuracy – but the proof of the pudding is in the eating after all!!!

In order to complement the feeder approach I also set-up a pole rig for fishing 4mm expander pellets over micros on a top kit plus 4 sections – this rig consisted of a 0.2g SconeZone V8 on 0.11 main line to a 15cm hooklength of 0.10 with a size 20 Tubertini 808. Elastic was pink Hydro.

Looking right from peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake

I started the match by feeding a pinch of micro pellets on my pole line and then casting my loaded pellet feeder into the gap between the trees on the far bank. No signs during the first few casts but it wasn’t long before a few tell-tale liners started to appear and before I knew it the first tench of the day had caused my tip rod to double over!!!

All-in-all the first hour and fifteen minutes of the match progressed nicely and by eleven fifteen I had a total of seven tench, one crucian and one nice skimmer in the net – but even though I had 9 fish in the net the tench were of the smaller stamp found in this lake so my clicker had only clicked onto 14lb.

All of these fish fell to a hard, 6mm pellet on the hook (hair) – I did try my new favourite Bait-Tech Micro Pop-ups a couple of times but no pulls were forthcoming. Interestingly a number of the tench nearly pulled the rod in as I was sinking the line – this is very unusual behaviour for Marsh Farm where bite time is typically between 2 and 4 minutes after casting in. (Was this down to the change of pellet feeder? Do the Guru feeders discharge much quicker than the Preston ones? Looking at the design of the Guru pellet feeder there are certainly more gaps in the body of the feeder for water to be able to push the pellets out quicker so this is certainly possible.)

The SconeZone V8 0.2g, perfect for Marsh Farm

The next two hours (i.e. from 1115 to 1315) also went pretty well and I was able to click another 21lb on my clicker – the feeder line started to falter and I was only able to add a further four tench (which interestingly came along as ‘two in two chucks’ twice), but the pole line proved a useful back-up and contributed a further 10/12lb of skimmers, crucians and two bonus tench that gave a good account of themselves on light gear.

At this point I must add that (not for the first time this season) I had my feeder rod dragged into the lake by an angry fish! Luckily this time the rod dropped onto the top of my keepnets about 4 feet from the bank so I was easily able to jump in the water and retrieve my rod (and land the fish) – though I did spend the remainder of the match with wet feet and boots full of lake water!!!

Would my mid-week tackle preparation be worth it?

As is often the case the final two hours or so of today’s match seemed tortuously slow – things weren’t helped by the weather ‘improving’, with the sun coming-out and the wind dropping completely to leave the surface of the lake resembling a mirror. However I managed to winkle-out a few more fish on the pole and a couple on the tip – including a nice tench in the last five minutes after the feeder had been in the water for precisely 14 minutes and 37 seconds!!!

(During these final few hours I did open a new pole line at TK+4 to the right and I tried dropping the feeder at different spots along the tree line, but neither led to any bites/fish.)

Those all important results

In the end that last gasp tench had pushed me up to a total of 43-15-0, often a weight good enough to win such a match but not today as it was only good enough for second overall (and second in section) as Darren Dodge on peg 9 had managed to fish a brilliant match a drop an amazing 75lb plus onto the scales!

Team result:

1. Matchangler.com, 6 points
2. Brian's Bandits, 14 points
3. Chertsey Bait, 16 points
4. Guildford Angling Centre, 17 points
5. Team Bagger, 17 points
6. Buster's Bandits, 20 points
7. Trev's Tornadoes, 22 points

Top 3 individuals:

1. Darren Dodge (Matchangler.com), 75-10-0
2. Phil Morris (Team Bagger), 43-15-0,
3. Ian Dixon (Matchangler.com), 43-12-0

Section winners:

• Darren Dodge (Matchangler.com), 75-10-0
• Alan Chadbone (Chertsey Bait), 31-4-0,
• Ian Dixon (Matchangler.com), 43-12-0
• Claire Hollis (Team Bagger), 31-9-0

As you can see Matchangler.com started where they left-off last year and won the team event with a brilliant 6 points (2 section wins and 2 seconds) from Brian’s Bandits in second on 14 points. Team Bagger had mixed fortunes – Bagger did well to win her section (and beat the legend that is Dave ‘Johno’ Johnson off the next peg in the process), but unfortunately Dave and Sam struggled leaving us on 17 points.

Guru pellet feeders – not new, but very impressive!

Conclusions: a pretty typical Marsh Farm match really! The headline plan of looking to catch the bulk of my weight on the pellet feeder backed-up with a few on the pole is still working well, though as ever the latter part of the match was a struggle. Tackle-wise the Guru pellet feeder certainly worked well and it is a distinct possibility that they will replace the Preston version as my weapon of choice!!!

Until next time ...

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20 July 2014, Match Lake (Sumners Ponds)

Following a two week stint at White Acres today was to be my first match in over three weeks. That previous match was on the Cornish bagging Mecca that will be forever Bolingey and today’s was on the West Sussex equivalent – the mighty Match Lake at Sumners Ponds, home to some proper big fishes!!!

Welcome to Sumners Ponds …

My one and only previous visit to Sumners Ponds was back in September 2013 – incredible really as this venue is actually closer to home than venues such as Gold Valley and Willow Park. That day saw me draw an end peg flyer (for a change) and win the match with a personal best 189-2-0 – and to think that when I started fishing on the upper Thames all those years ago 20lb seemed an unreachable target. How times have changed, eh?

Looking through the gap in the islands to the far bank

YouTube video of the view from my peg

Today’s match was a combined Woking DAA and Godalming AS affair and hence saw a decent turn-out of roughly 30 anglers – talk before the match was that this would be too many and would impact the quality of the fishing. Anyway, my draw saw me on peg 8 (on the day, no permanent pegs at this venue), sited on the near side of the lake (to the car park) and was on the far end of the first island with a nice gap between the two islands slightly to my right. The peg looked fishy and an absolute nightmare in equal proportions – there was a nice bare bank of an island to chuck to but there were also two fallen trees lying in the water, a recipe for disaster when you could be dancing the tango with twenty pound carp!!!

Plenty of SconeZone V6s tied and ready to go!!!

Prior to the all-in I primed one of my 10’ tip rods with 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line and a small, 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder for fishing to the island – hooklengths were 4” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with either size 14 or size 16 QM1s with a hair-rigged pellet band. My other tip rod was set-up with a 1/3 of an ounce Guru square bomb and 12” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band for fishing the bomb & pellet into the gap between the islands.

I also set-up two margin rigs, both consisting of 0.3g SconeZone V6s on 0.22 line direct to a size 12 Guru MWG and red Hydro – one for fishing in 12” of water in the cut-back to my right, the other for fishing tight to the bank to my left where the depth was about 18”.

Bait was essentially some soaked 2mm pellets and a variety of hookbaits for the feeder, 8mm pellets for loose feeding over the straight lead and a combination of Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait, dead red maggots and worms for the edge.

Looking along the island to my left

I started the match (which itself was rescheduled to 1030 to 1630 due an incident involving match organiser Stuart’s car and the AA) by casting my pellet feeder fairly tight (2’) from bank of the island directly in front. A few iffy liners were followed by a couple of proper pulls from small tench and crucians, before the inevitable happened and the first proper carp of the day swam straight into the tree in the water to my left and shed the hook.

This seemed to kill the island line stone dead and a switch to the bomb & pellet saw loads of fizzing but no proper bites, so with half an hour gone I was fearing the worst! A return to the island line was also fruitless – however after a while I figured out (due to the lack of a discernible drop between the feeder hitting the water and the bottom of the lake) that the water tight to the island was probably less than 12” deep. With nothing to lose I took five turns out of the clip and cast short of the island – this looked awful but led to a run of fish (not big carp but some decent tench, crucians and chub) meaning that by the end of the first hour I’d clicked my clicker round to 22lb so at least I was up and running.

Just as I was figuring that 22lb an hour for 6 hours with a bumper last hour would put me on 150lb and a match win the peg died a death once again and by the end of the second hour I’d only clicked up to 24lb – don’t you just love it when that happens?!?

The KC Carpa Force

The third hour was equally as poor, the only reassuring factor being that the whole lake seemed to have switched off as everybody else seemed to be moaning and walking about!!! By this point I have to admit I was becoming pretty frustrated and was seriously thinking about giving-up fishing and trying my hand at golf so I decided to stop fishing and give my gear and bait a bit of a tidy-up – this may seem a little OCD but when things are going badly I find it better to actually stop fishing for a while and have a proper think about what to do next.

The plan I came-up with was to consciously not start fishing down the edge for as long as possible (not before two thirty, if possible not until 3 o’clock) and to swap between a new line at 5m with hard pellets and the odd chuck on the feed to the island until then. To this end I set-up a KC Carpa Force 4x12 on 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a 15cm hooklength of 0.17 with a size 16 MWG and a hair-rigged pellet band (with purple Hydro) for fishing 8mm pellets on the deck at top kit plus 2 slightly to the left.

This led to a couple of decent carp and a big (4lb) tench virtually straight away before foul-hookers became an issue – I foul-hooked two, one of which fell-off pretty quickly but somehow I managed to land the other even though it was hooked halfway along its flank! In order to try and get around the foul-hooking problem I dropped the pellet feeder over the 5m line and less than ten seconds later I was attached to another decent (8lb) carp that found its way swiftly into the net. Once again this proved to be a false dawn and I didn’t manage another bite on the 5m line (either on the pole of pellet feeder) during the match.

However those fish from the 5m line and a few more tench, crucians and chub from the island swim saw me finish the fourth hour with about 55lb and a sniff of a chance going into the final two hours.

An inviting looking cut-back to my right, but very shallow

By two forty-five I could wait no longer and fed four full 250ml cups of groundbait into the margin to my right – as noted above this area was essentially a cutback into the main bank, but was only 12” deep. However in my experience big carp are more than happy to feed in such shallow water if the fancy takes them and at the back of my mind I knew this could be a match winning line if it went off properly! So rather than fishing another line to allow the groundbait to settle I decided to go straight in with two full dendrabenas and ten seconds later a huge carp cruised into the swim – I could see every scale as it came in with its back virtually breaking the surface!!!

Fortunately it headed straight for my bait and the float shot under – game-on!!! The fish was quickly subdued (I wasn’t fishing for roach on 0.22 straight through to red Hydro after all) and safely in the net – there is a rule at Sumners Ponds that you have to weigh and return ‘big’ fish straight away so that was a nice 15-13-0 on the board in a matter of minutes!!!

Despite feeding more and the sight of some churning this was to be the only fish from this line – though I did manage three smaller specimens from a new margin line opened tight to the back in slightly deeper water to my left. Unfortunately I spent too much time in the margins without the response I was hoping for – though it is very tempting when any minute a 15 or 20 pounder can come along.

Fortunately a spell on the feeder to the island with about half an hour to go saw a good run of tench and chub hit the net – though my match ended badly when another decent carp ran straight into the sunk tree to and snapped me up!!!

The scores on the doors …

After what had seemed a rather disappointing and frustrating match, my two weighs (and the 15-13-0 of margin munter already on the board) totalled a surprising 97-5-0 – one fish away from the magic ton, within touching distance of second overall (well, kind of) but miles behind the winner Billy Marchant two pegs to my left!!!

Top 4:

1. Bill Marchant (Woking DAA), 173-5-0
2. Andy Love (W), 130-14-0
3. Dave Steer (W), 125-1-0
4. Nick Stunt (W), 123-11-0

Section winners:

• Stuart Kendall (W), 70-7-0
• Phil Morris (Godalming AS), 97-5-0
• Trevor Haskell (G), 81-13-0
• Claire Hollis (G), 86-0-0

Well done to the Woking boys on taking a clean sweep of the podium places and to Bagger for keeping up her good form!!!

The Match Lake at Sumners Ponds

Conclusions: after a couple of weeks off it was nice to be back on the bank again and what was on the surface a frustrating match saw nearly 100lb in the net so it couldn’t of been that bad. With hindsight I’d have ignored the bomb & pellet between the islands and have only fished the margin in brief spells (after all when they are there in the margin the spot goes under more or less immediately). Plus I should’ve tried paste made from 11 year old pellets on the pole at 6 or 7m – after all that was what Billy Marchant caught all of his fish on!!!

Until next time ...

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