Today saw me teaming up with the lads from Marsh AC. I had a mare at Coleman's Cottage with the lads last time out and knew a good performance would be needed at Rockells Farm. Travelling with me today was Vic Nugent, a fellow GOT angler and a dedicated pastehead. As familiar guests we knew most of the lads and find their company a great laugh and the banter can fly from any direction. The pegs were placed allowing all the top end of the lakes to be utilised. Previous visits to the venue suggest that you needed to be at the top end of the lake to be in with any chance. The Marsh Lads had a great day out there last time round with plenty of personal bests being broken along the way. Could the same be achieved or had they already peaked?

My day started with Vic driving over to mine and loading the gear into one car for the 60 mile trip to Saffron Walden. The trip itself was uneventful with early morning fog that kept you on your toes across the country roads. The only mishap was seeing a car miss the roundabout and plough straight over, but with only damage to the car and both occupants alright we proceeded on our way.

Arriving at Rockells was a delight, the fog rising and fish in the margins on every peg we stopped at. Gradually the Marsh AC lads turning up and with myself and Pete "Mugger" Morton being nominated with the pegging we quickly got on with it and pegged 9 down one side and 11 down the other. The better pegs being 1,2,3,16,17,18 and 19. A lot of other pegs could throw up a weight if the fished showed in any numbers but you needed to get them there in the first place and would require regular and a lot of feed to draw them in.

I had planned to fish pellet for the first part of the match followed by paste in the second match. These were 2 x 3 hour matches and a total weight deciding the winner.

Vic was into the hat quite early for him and pulled out peg 2, Mugger had drawn peg 17 and Al Loader on peg 18. My hand dipped in a small lump of wood with peg 1 stuck to it. A right result for the effort we put in pegging. Dave Collier, our host and dangerman Colin Sharrad had drawn just off the flyers and were more than capable of drawing fish from other pegs. Martin Hucker finally turned up on peg 3, much to our despair as we were hoping no one would fish it. Martin had a big weight last time he fished here, so we knew he would be the man to beat with his floater tactics.

As said earlier my plan was to fish pellet then paste, dependant on how i got on after the first match so I set up 2 pole rigs for the pellet to fish dead depth on top twos either side. I was surprised to find 2 1/2ft close in and thought this was ideal. A paste rig for a top three straight out in front was also set up. Floats on the pellet rigs were MW margin taking 2 number 8s onto .16 Colmic Stream to a size 16 B911. The paste rig was a MW self cocker and set to fish on the deck in 3ft of water. Red hydro through my Garbolino Margin Manager would suffice.

Feed was 4mm GOT sinkers with 6mm GOT expanders and 6mm GOT Liver soft hookers as hookbaits. I had brought 16 pints of feed pellets with me and expected to use the lot during the following 6 hours.

At the all in I tried to fish the left hand margin and although I was getting bites I could only connect with odd fish, mainly roach and I knew that they would not win me anything so re-fed after 15 minutes and gave the right hand swim a go. Feeding by hand saw a steady stream of carp coming to the net. I did not a lot of carp coming up for the feed as it dropped through the water so shortened my rig to fish 18inches deep in the 2 1/2 foot swim. This brought with a lot of fish and also a lot of problems with foul hookers and with my elaastic set too tight I was pulling out of a few fish. Vic was catching steadily as was Martin, I could see Mugger netting a few lumps and knew he would be there or thereabout, that is his class. Al was cursing his luck and blaming his elastic for lost fish.

Now 3 hours flies by, but with regular slight changes in depth I managed to keep in touch with the fish and knew I had done a ton by the all out. Martin had blitzed the field and both Vic and Mugger had  performed well. With pegs being weighed from peg 19 first 120lb was leading the field and Mugger was out in front. A lot of decent 3 hour weights came out around the lake and a few disappointed anglers could not understand why they were not catching. Martin had fine floater caught 180lb with his peg getting better as he went on. Vic had put a good paste caught 133lb from peg 2 and as I was last to weigh in was surprised to see my "ton" weight go 148lb and second after match one.

10 minutes before the all out on match one I had deposited 3 good handfulls of 4mm sinkers into the swim and hoped that would enough to keep the fish interested with all the commotion of emptying the nets, repositioning them especially as i was fishing so close. I had, by now made a decision to keep with the pellet and fish to my strength's. I swopped the topkits over and allowed a softer red on the pellet rigs as the paste rig would now be redundant. I also moved both pellet rigs to fish shallow and shortened the line from poe tip to float to allow more positive bites.

Armed and read for the all in again it was 10 minutes before I had my first fish. Vic had had 3 and Martin was catching again. But with the bites coming as it dropped through the water, they were soon coming thick and fast. Feeding 2 or 3 times kept the fish coming and with the softened elastic meaning less hookpulls I was managing to land nearly everything I hooked. I still got foul hookers but think that was enevitable. There were a few bigger lumps in my second match and thought I had done enough to equal my first weight. The same old faces were still catching well and I was confident that it would be close at the end between Martin, Vic, Mugger and myself.

After 6 hours of fishing, the final shout goes out across the lake and I was relieved to finish. I was knackered. My back was aching. I was first to weigh in this time around with the weighing in reversed. My weight was an astonishing 234lb, a total surprise and a new personal best for a 3 hour match and a total of 382lb, which in itself is a PB for a 6 hour match. Vic was next and with his 173-04 (PB for 3 hours) added to this 133lb from match one giving him a total of 306-04. Martin had thought he had the same as before and with 180-12 banked he put a very good 202-08 to pip me for first overall by 1lb 4oz. A lot of PBs were broken around the lake with Dave Collier increasing his to 254lb, Colin Sharrad also breaking the double ton mark. It would be down to see what Pete "Mugger" Morton could do. I had seen him catching regularly throughout and knew he had a big weight. 210lb later saw him just miss out on a 3 hour match win. However with his combined weights hitting 330lb he had set 2 more PBs along the way.

Today saw myself and work colleague Mick Wright travelling down to Colemans Cottage as guests of Marsh AC. A friendly bunch of reprobates who enjoy their fishing and the banter even more. We were booked in on Pathfield Lake and in previous matches the weights were extremely high. The expectations were good for a good days fishing and a craic.

Our day started at 0530am when I picked Mick up from his house to travel the 1 and 3/4hour journey( according to the AA). However I am sure they do not take into account a lot less traffic on the roads at silly o'clock time and my driving. Pulling into the car park at 0700 left us with plenty of time for a cuppa and a couple of Bacon Rolls in the cafe before the masses arrived. A quick look around the lake left us impressed and we could easily see how the weights were so big. It would be another hour before the draw, so a quick chat and another tea with the gathering Marsh members is always welcome. A chance to catch up, as a few I had not seen for nearly a year.The fishery provide all nets so at least the smell on the way home would be either Mick or myself.

I had tapped up some info on Pathfield from Lee Ripper, Lol Summers( 2 fellow GOT anglers) and venue regulars Chris Vanderveilt(someone I had talked to on the internet but never met.He is though shorter than I imagined) and Bernie Fraser(always short). Nearly to a man they said meat and pellet at 4m at 10 and 2 o'clock but also take some worm and caster for fishing longer. Unfortunately the meat was still in the fridge at home so it would have to be corn. The draw was kind to me giving me peg 9. A cracking looking peg with margin reeds and an overhanging low bush across on the edge of the main island. Mick had drew peg 8 another noted peg and with the wind blowing strong and hard into it should be good for a few fish.

Now plumbing up was a problem, not only was there a high bank behind me that hindered shipping the pole back and forth, but, the wind by now had got so strong you could not hold the pole beyond 7m. Not good news in a 13m peg. I did managed to plumb the line and found only a foot of water just in front of the bush. A look down the margins on my side of the bank saw around 8 inches to my left and a foot to the right. The long rig doubled up on this line. However at 4m I found around 2 1/2 ft going steadily out to 6m where I had 3 1/2 feet. I decided that if the planned wind did not drop then this would have to be my main line and concentrated my efforts here. If it did then I could go across to the bush. I fed all lines with pellet with a bit of corn and a couple of toss pots of paste also went in the right hand side. I started on the expander at 6m and before the float settled I looked round and saw Mick playing a good sized carp.

On my second put in the float dipped viciously and yards of black hydro came streaming out of the pole and after a brief encounter with the bushes on the far bank the hooked parted company. I tightened up the elastic as I felt it was too soft. Out again and this time after about 5minutes the float dipped a touch and a mirror carp of 5lb sat sweetly in the bottom of the landing net. A few more stockies and crucians followed, before I noticed a tail waving at me from down the left hand margin. A quick change of rig and in it went not to hit bottom. Black hydro out and then straight back in.*%%$£ foul hooked. Two proper fish lost and only one in the net. Mick was still catching steadily and did so throughout the match. Colin Sharrad on peg 7 was biteless fishing his normal paste tactics and Dave the Fish and Al were walking the bank.

I had decided now that the wind was not going to blow itself out, so put another pot of corn and pellet on the 6m line and fish corn on the hook hoping for a run of fish that could quite easily build a weight. This tactic seemed to work as after 5 minutes i had hooked and landed another, before losing some more. I could never quite get the balance right. The elastic was soft yet whilst playing fish and plenty of elastic out the hook would pull out. By retracting it the crows foot and lifting just left the elastic in the water. Do not understand this.

After around 3 hours Colin had landed his first fish and was now cruising. Mick was still plodding away and I was still landing one or two and losing some.It was not even just on one top kit as I changed over to a different one after the 3rd lost fish.

At the all out I felt I had not done the peg justice and my weight of 24lb 8oz was nowhere near the frame. Mick had secured 4th with his net of fish for 45lb 12oz whilst Colin had snuck on the rails to win comfortably with 71lb. Dave the Fish andAl who had been walking the bank earlier had obviously seen something I was doing and copied it because back at there pegs they proceeded to come 2nd and 3rd on the day with both weights around 55lb after "struggling" in the first half.

As always it was good to meet up with a few new and very old faces and share a laugh and a joke. Well done Marsh AC. This is what club fishing is all about.

Above are the results and Colin Sharrad. Colemans May 16th Winner.

Another split day was planned for the Thursday, a morning on Pines to capture Andy and his Golden Tench followed by a treat. Emily's lake is a brand new lake and never had a match on it before. It was stocked with fish upto 2lb and was only carp. I am sure our assosciation with GOT Baits helped in being the first group to be allowed to have a knock up on it. The pegs were being planned in for the Fish'o'mania event on the Saturday so would provide Andy Seery with an insight into what could and would be caught on the day.

Pines

Talking to Andy Seery about Pines guided us to Pegs 9 to 13, where weights were steady and consistent. Troy on 9, Myself on 10, Andy 12 and Pete on 13. Vic had decided to fish Tanner's and sat behind us along the spit dividing the two lakes.

I had become used to fishing the MWS floats now and having prepared a few I decided to fish 1 at 4m and a bush to my right. The 4m line was around 4ft deep and the bush around 3ft so I had a nice depth on both lines. Feed was GOT Baits AC 4mm expanders and 6mm GOT AC for hookers. I was soon into fish and was steadily building a weight from the 4m line, nothing big but steady, skimmers, roach, crucians and tench were coming every put in. Everyone seemed to be catching and a good session for all was on the cards.

Every peg had a feature and Andy was soon stuck into the tree on his left. Pulling for a break the MWS float he was using decided to come free and embed itself in Andy's finger. Some people will never learn to keep an angle between pulling direction and themselves. Still with a plaster on his finger and no damage to the float Andy continued in his quest for the elusive camera shy Golden Tench.

After around 4 hours and the planned match on Emily's ahead to look forward to we decided to pack up and have a bite to eat before going to venture's new.

Emily's

This used to be one of Andy's stock ponds and since we were here last he has completely drained it and moved the stock of fish to the other lakes on his complex. The fish have been reared on pellets and this would ensure a healthy and fast growing fish. I decided to fish 2 lines. First at the bottom of the shelf that extends to 3mwith another .4 MWS float to size 16 B911  and another .2 MWM to 14 B911 down the edge on the slope. Feeding both lines with 4mm GOT sinkers and using GOT AC 6mm Expanders on the hook would be my line of attack.

I fed a pot of each onto both lines and was into fish straight away, fish to 12oz and of every colour imaginable, mirrors, commons and ghostie are so beautiful at this stage of there development. As years go by and they grow they will be a lovely addition to the already well stocked complex. However, you could not keep them going. You would get 2 or 3 fish then nothing. A slight change in depth would get them going againbut 10 minutes later you would be changing it back. Steadily I was catching but not anywhere as quickly as Troy, Pete and Andy who were bagging. All of us were fishing expanders as this seemed right for the lake.

However I think it was due to the depth of the lake that decided the results. Troy and Andy were at the back to the shop side with Pete on the opposite bank. Myself and Vic along the straight between them. Troy losing out to Andy by 4oz with 68-10 to 68-06. Pete weighed in 66-06 with myself 31lb and Vic 28lb.