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!!!)
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| 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 …
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| Looking left from peg 7 on Richardson’s Lake |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.)
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| 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!!!
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| 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.)
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| 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:
- Matchangler.com, 6 points
- Brian's Bandits, 14 points
- Chertsey Bait, 16 points
- Guildford Angling Centre, 17 points
- Team Bagger, 17 points
- Buster's Bandits, 20 points
- Trev's Tornadoes, 22 points
Top 3 individuals:
- Darren Dodge (Matchangler.com), 75-10-0
- Phil Morris (Team Bagger), 43-15-0,
- 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.
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| 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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