If I was to be asked such a question, I’d say that the worst weather conditions for fishing at Marsh Farm would be those bright, sunny, still days – on that basis today’s match (with heavy showers and near 50mph winds) should’ve been a proper bag-up session!
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| Cracking weather forecast! |
Despite predictions of terrible weather conditions today’s event (an inter-club match between Godalming AS and Woking DAA) saw an amazing turn-out of 44 anglers grace the banks of Richardson’s Lake at Marsh Farm – a fact even more amazing when you consider that the recent Wednesday matches have been won with weights not even close to 30 pounds!
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| Looking left from peg 8 on Richardson's |
My dip into the bag of dreams saw peg 8 bubble to the surface – a pretty wide peg in the area just down from the favoured pegs directly in front of the tackle shop. (They are favoured as you can pick-up the Wi-Fi from the clubhouse and they’re a short walk from the shop if boredom really sets in!)
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| Hooklength components for the cage feeder |
During the week I’d devised lovely plan consisting of fishing a pellet/cage feeder to the island, long pole to the left with loose fed maggots and long pole to the right with 4mm expander pellets over softened micro pellets/groundbait – however given the super-strong winds I decided to leave the pole in the bag at the start and instead went with just the two tip rods.
The first featured a 24g Guru pellet feeder and a 10cm hooklength of 0.19 N-Gauge to a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band; the second a 10g Drennan cage feeder with an additional 5g stick-on weight – I find the 10g feeder to be the perfect size for those hard days but I add an extra weight as I find 15g to be a much better for accurate casting. The hooklength for the cage feeder rig was 18 inches of 0.13 to a size 20 LWG – ideal for a single maggot and the prospect of some decent tench and skimmer bream.
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| Fish on |
Like most Godalming AS club matches at Marsh Farm today’s competition was scheduled for 6 hours – though I’m not sure why as in my experience the fishing really tails-off here after 3 or 4 hours! I spent the first hour on the cage feeder 6-8m from the far bank – hopefully into the deeper water just before it starts to shelve-up before the shallow far margin. Despite dropping my feeder in roughly the same spot a number of times (no mean feat given the mega left to right wind that was blowing) my Old Ghost Green Alga and single dead white maggot could only tempt a single bite – a feisty one pound crucian that nearly dragged the rod in (serves me right for being on Facebook rather than paying attention).
Going into the second hour I decided to give the pellet feeder a go a little further up the shelf and almost instantly switched my 24g Guru model for a small 30g Preston effort in order to combat the ever increasing wind. Unfortunately no bites materialised on this, so as Ken Russell on the peg 9 was catching a few on the pole I decided to set-up a rig for fishing at top kit plus 3 – as far as I dared venture for fear of snapping a section or two!
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| Sit down you Muppet! |
The pole also failed to yield any bites so by twelve thirty I was back on the cage feeder – just as I was starting to get a little despondent (peg 8 is too far from the clubhouse to get the Wi-Fi and the 3G signal around Milford is patchy) the tip pulled ‘round and a nice 3lb bream was soon in the net.
Even more surprisingly another one snapped-up my single dead white maggot hookbait next cast – game on! The following cast was fishless but a switch to a shorter 12 inch tail and double maggot saw a smaller specimen hit the landing net. Things then started to dry-up, but a switch back to an 18 inch tail eventually led to another skimmer, leaving me in a decent position going into the final two hours.
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| Duck! |
As is often the case at Marsh Farm the final third of today’s match was absolute torture and I could only manage one more bite – a reasonable fish that inexplicably fell-off half way back to the bank. (As ever I was pretty sure this mistake was going to cost me come the final reckoning.) Well at least the weather improved – well it stopped raining for the last hour anyway!
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| The scores on the doors |
As is often the case the Grim Reaper was soon at my peg with the scales and my crucian and four skimmers could only pull the dial ‘round to 9-11-0 (to be honest that’s a lie – the scales were those new digital ones that nobody trusts). Here the top scores on the day:
- Nick Stunt (Woking DAA), 17-13-0
- John Brownlie (W), 16-9-0
- Ian Covey (Godalming AS), 15-0-0
- Pete Worsfold (W), 14-3-0
- P Makins (W), 12-11-0
Section winners:
- Ken Russell (G), 11-8-0
- Adie Hoile (W), 12-10-0
- G Whiting (W), 12-2-0
- Colin (Legend) Underwood (G), 12-1-0
So congratulation to Nick Stunt on taking the spoils and to Woking DAA for picking-up most of the prizes!
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| All the gear ... |
Conclusions: Well as predicted that final lost fish really cost me as it probably would’ve put me in front of Ken Russell and into the money as a default section winner – though as ever I’m the one saying that tales of lost fish in the car park after a match count for nothing! I could also claim that two further bites from decent bream would’ve won me the match – but if it was as simple as that why couldn’t I manage it?!?!?!
Until next time …
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