The Black Hydro Fishing Adventures: Monk Lakes

Maggotdrowners Southern Championships

Monk Lakes 19th August 2006

Match Lake 2

Well I had a nice easy drive down to Monk Lakes today It only took about 1 1/2 hours and as I left home at 6am I was there 2 hours too early

So with some spare time on my hands I had a walk around the complex and after meeting up with some other early maggotdrowners headed off in to get some breakfast

9.30 arrived and time for the draw

having walked around match lake 2 it all seemed to be pretty much the same with no 1 area looking any better than any other apart from the fact that 45 - 49 were by the car park and an easy walk

So I was more than happy when I managed to pull peg 47 out of the draw bag

The pegs either side of me were empty but on peg 45 I had Peter for company and further down on peg 49 Dai

Despite the angle of my Maver windsock the wind was coming straight across the lake at full force and it looked as though I was going to have it in my face all day

With the rain clouds starting to build things were not looking good and with the strength of the wind using an umbrella was out of the question so it could be a wet drive home!

11am and Vince shouts the all in (A whistle would have been better)

I had decided on two lines to fish first attack would be paste @ 8m and another line fishing meat in the margin to my left

Plumbing up on the 8m line I found I had 9ft of water a bit deep for paste when it's blowing a gale but I decided to give it a go

In the margin tight up to the reeds I had 2ft of water

So on the all in I put 2 pots of GOT 4mm sinkers out at 8m and 2 pots of hemp and a few cubes of meat into my margin swim

Then shipped out a lump of paste and tipped it in over the top of the pellets

With the wind and heavy ripple/waves it was almost impossible to get the float to cock at the right height after a few adjustments I had a happy medium and was just considering giving up on the paste line when the pole tip dipped and my black hydro shot out after a short tussle a small Barbel popped up ready to be netted

nice result my first still water Barbel and though it was only about 6oz it fought like a 2lb carp

With this capture all thoughts of giving up on the paste line disappeared and I was soon potting another lump of paste and a few pellets out

A succession of small Barbel around the 6-8oz mark were coming now but it was impossible to keep the float on the surface so I was just waiting for the pole to dip or the hydro to shoot out and then lift into the fish

A quick glance across to Peter and I saw he too was catching small Barbel around the 6-8oz mark but he was fishing at 3m with just his top 2 and it looked like he was fishing pellet shallow but his catch rate was twice what mine was

I should have given up then and moved into the margin swim but as I was catching regularly I persevered with the paste

Eventually after 2 hours and numerous tangles caused by the howling gale and the length of my rig I lost the will to live and threw the paste rig down and decided to give the margin swim a look

I fished an 8mm cube of luncheon meat tight into the reeds and first put in the float bobbled then buried and I had a 6oz Barbel from then on I had a fish every put in mostly around 8oz with a few knocking the 12oz mark though the fish were the same size as the paste line fish these in the margin were a lot less hassle to catch and my catch rate got a lot faster

After about an hour a decent fish ripped my float into the reeds and managed to snag me and as I was using 0.16 straight through with soft set hydro it was impossible to pull for a break which meant clambering down the bank with my top 2 and grabbing the line and ripping it out by hand

Unfortunately this disturbed the swim and moved a lot of the reeds/roots about which resulted in me hooking roots and reeds for about the next 15 mins and the fish seemed to have headed for the hills

So I topped up with a few pots of hemp and sorted out a new rig

During this time Peter decided he was close to the 50lb net limit for both of his nets and put out a third net

He then performed a little known ritual of throwing himself in the lake cussing under his breath and stomping up to his car to change his foot wear

Whatever it's significance it seemed to do no harm because on his return he was still catching a fish a chuck

Also on my next put in my float buried so it looks as if some of his South London water dance magic had spread my way

That's the way it continued for the rest of the match with an 8oz Barbel a chuck with a small break from the Barbel when I caught 2 Golden Tench and a small Carp then back onto the Barbel right up until 4pm when Vince shouted the all out (he really needs to buy a whistle)

When the scales came alone the bank there was a 63lb a 65lb and an 81lb on the board so though I knew I wouldn't beat Peter I was hopeful of coming second in the section but unfortunately I only managed to weigh 78lb 8oz not good enough to put me anywhere in the match but still a great days fishing with 78lb of Barbel