On the day thirty four fished. Lots of banter took place and a headache for me, thanks everyone. Twenty seven weighed in with twenty two weights between 10 and 32 kgs.
There may some more maggot only matches next year and may just maggot and caster only. Let me know what you think.
Thanks to all who fished if I had know about the water levels I would have text you all to let you know.

Thanks
Martin
 

1st  Steve West        31.930 kgs
2nd James Young    31.910 Kgs
3rd  Stuart Atkinson  26.000 kgs
4th  John Warmen    24.310 kgs
 

Section Winners

Mick Fell
Ray Fell
Fred Warmen
Peter Joiner
Brian Hooley
Paul Richards (Bamber)
Bob Atkinson
 

Twenty Three fished the match. The main lake shallows and the basin were fished, 1st and 2nd came from the basin and 3rd from the shallows. Most of the fish were caught fishing pellet over ground bait and pellet.
 
Bob atkinson won his section on the grassy bank on the waggler.  The lake fished hard on the day due high and low pressures over the last few days and strong winds on the day. The weights in the sections were very close in each section, 20 match anglers weighed in, out of 23.
 
Overall winners

1st   Martin Waters 8.520 kgs
2nd Gary Holden    8.040 kgs
3rd Jeff Boarder     5.900 kgs

Thanks to all who fished.
 
Martin Waters  

Open on the Match Lake

1st  Dan West 22 kg 500
2nd Ray Fell 19 kg 600
3rd Steve West 19 kg 100

Nineteen fished the open. The 1st five lanes from the car park,the lake did not fish very well at all. The better fishing was the 5th lane with only 10 to 13 fish for Mark and Bamber only 800 grms for the section win and 16 for Dan West.

Some friendly banter took place between Mark and Bamber about Skimmers in the net. Shane did well fishing the tip all day with 10 Kg 900, Well done. Dispite the poor fishing its always great with the friendly banter the goes on during the match and the weight in.

Thanks For A Good Days Banter

Martin
 

Four lads from Blean go in search of the Big Girl, in deepest darkest West Kent. Now before you get to many ideas The Big Girl in question is the largest fish on a day ticket venue, situated in the Elphicks Fishery.  So Connor, Steve, Paul and myself set out for a 48hour session on the North Lake at Elphicks.

Conditions were perfect when we arrived on Monday 10^th October, with a strong South Westerly and mild temperatures. Both Steve and Paul arrived an hour earlier than Connor and I and both decided where they would like to fish there session; Paul choosing the first swim in the corner and Steve deciding to go half way down opposite an island. With Steve, Connor and myself being more sociable than others, Connor and I decided to fish the open water either side of the island of which Steve was fishing to.

We all started the session with our own game plans with mine being to Spomb out 3kg of Mainline Cell Boilie (a mixture of both 15s and 18s) fishing a KD rig over the top. Connor was first into the action, after just a couple of hours he claimed a hard fighting 15lb Grass Carp. The rest of the day saw all four of us watching the water, seeing one or two fish over the far side where no one was fishing but having no runs between us for a good 8 hours.

After few takes the first day, day light fell and the moon shone bright which kept us up eager for a few fish over night, as we was still watching the water late into the evening. As anticipated Connor hooked into one at 11pm, a 30lb mirror which left us feeling good about the day to follow. After a few hours kip Connor was in again around 5am another decent Elphicks mirror of 29lb.

After spending the first night on his own Paul decided he would be a bit more sociable and moved opposite the second island two pegs down from myself. Steve also decided to move, after seeing so many fish over the far side, he took his rods and a few essentials across to a quieter section of the lake where he had seen fish throughout the morning. Once things had settled down I was the next into the action, a screaming run at 2pm and I had hooked into a lump, taking 40yards before i even realised the fish was kiting round to the island to my left then to my right; after 20 minutes I managed to get it to the margin. Seeing it surface a few yards out I realised that it was going to be a new PB (beating my previous of 32lb). After a dogged fight in the margin for about 10 minutes I finally had her in the net. Realising that it was a good fish, i called over the other guys to give me a hand. As we lifted the net it became apparent that it was the ‘Big Girl’ ! We were all stunned and after knowing that she had been out 2 weeks previous at 57lb 14oz we had a good feeling it was going to be bigger. At a weight of 58lb 12oz she had smashed my previous PB and also was now the biggest ticket fish in the country! After getting a few photos it still hadn’t sunk in that I had broken the lake record during my first session and my first fish on the fishery.

During this time Paul managed the bank his first fish a nice 22lb common, sorry though Paul but it was possibly the worst timing as we was still admiring the size of ‘The Big Girl’. After that we thought things may settle down, but we was wrong, after a couple of hours I was into another good fish from the same rod which I had ‘The Big Girl’. A typical chunky 30lb 6oz Elphicks mirror really made my day.

A few hours had past when Steve hooked into his first fish of the session, just as he was thinking about moving his stuff back to his original swim to settle down for the last night. Realising straight away that it was a good fish he called me round , however as i was on my way his second rod tore off with another fish.  Realising he was into a double take i rushed round there in time to help out with the second rod whilst he netted the first fish. Then taking over from me, Steve played and netted his second fish. Result ? A stunning brace of thirties, one of which was a mad fighting common and the other a beautiful mirror, an amazing sight to see, after a fantastic afternoon of runs!

Meanwhile around the other side of the island Paul was into another, again pretty bad timing Paul, as he landed a 17lb mirror whilst we was still admiring the Brace of thirties that Steve had worked really hard for, after moving and casting to fish, that he seen throughout the afternoon. Connor on the other hand had been quite quiet that afternoon but at 5:30 he reminded the three of us that he had been there before with a real lean mirror of 33lb making that his forth of the session.

The light fell quickly that evening but again the moon shone bright across the lake we had a pretty quiet evening compared to what we had witnessed that afternoon but after a few well deserved beers we settled down for the final night of the session. After putting out a few more baits over my rods with the moonlight shinning over the water I was woken at around 2am with another 30lb mirror over that same bed of boilie that I had put out at the start of the session. Really pleased with my third fish of the session I managed to get a few hours sleep before having to pack away early that morning.

To top off an awesome trip Connor was into his fifth fish of the session just as we were packing up, another typical Elphicks mirror of 29lb. All in all it was a fantastic session and with a total of 12 fish between us, I believe it was a pretty successful haul. Well done guys and thanks again for a brilliant couple of days. 

The warm October weather saw the return of the local experts to Cottington Match Lake.

Dan West came out on top with a total of 59 carp weighing 61.400kg, Martin Waters, also making a strong return to our summer series as he had a good weight of 47.680kg of good-sized carp. He mainly caught these in the last hour. Father of the winner, Steve West, managed third place with 40.000kg, however as the top three did not fish the first few matches they could not pick up the points. This left the maximum points still up for grabs with Steve(there’s no fish in here, I’m going to take up golf) Foreman inspiring us all to believe that anybody can catch fish, and we must all keep on trying, claiming the 40 points to leave the summer league up for grabs with one match to go.

Spencer made a return for his first match in over a year, however with his daughter, Sophie, next door it is up for debate whether or not her fish went into her dad’s keepnet to make him look better than he actually is. Only one man knows the answer, he knows the truth; it’s up to him whether he can live with it.

Thanks to all the guys that gave their support and helped out with the weigh-in and to Ron and Martin for doing a great job with the organisation.  

Click here to view the league table : images/uploads/cottington_2.10.11(1)(2).pdf 

They say that lightening doesn't strike twice,on this occasion maybe...
Back to Bax, with the top chef on the griddle, provided everyone with what seems to be the best start to the days fishing,a full English!

The usual banter took place during the draw with the normal comments of good or bad,flyer or horror,with people pushing for position.
Leaving Micky H trying to push in front of me,then we let fate decide.I offered him 3 times the chance to go in front of me,which he declined,only for me then to pull out the end peg.

4 pegs left in the bag and only the Warmans to draw,both pulling out mid section pegs,leaving me free on the end.
George put in a great performance,catching a good mixed bag for 3rd place,with Carl hot on his heels with an impressive catch of silvers.Steve put on a late charge but winning with 11kg was that good looking bloke !
 
Many thanks to Steve and the guys at Bax for their hospitality,and to Team KerryRon for doing the organising.

Click here to view the laegue table: images/uploads/NEW_TABLE(2).pdf

The Bank Holiday Monday was a good turn out for a Cottington open of late, on the Match Lake 24 fished. The top 4 was a father and son affair, the weight's were :

1st  Dan Warmen   67.300 kgs
2nd Dan West        55.400 kgs
3rd Steve West      39.000 kgs
4th John Warmen  37.100 kgs

The back up weights made for a good days fishing. There were 13 weights between 20 kgs and 36 kgs a slow start for most and the main part of the weights being caught in the last 2 hours. Some how Gary Holden manged to have a top kit pulled from his hand with a fish attached to the far bank and fished out by Steve West who kindly released the fish and returned the top kit on to the rest of Gary's pole this not only happened once but twice you had to see to believe i did and found it very amusing.

Just to let you all know on Sunday the 25th September there is Silver fish only on Black Lake at Cottington (35 pegs only), I'm sorry it clashes with the KM matches please book in at the shop (Blean Anging) or with myself Mark and Ray both have my number.

A great turnout for this fishery, with a full house, always going to fish hard and the bright sunshine certainly didn't make it any easier...
The hospitality from the guys, as usual was great, a very good breakfast to start the day always goes down well, but I don't really want to eat any more cherries!!

At least Mick (superpool) Fell got there on time,avoiding the 12 bore from the adjacent farmer as he drove his van through the field of peas.
Chris Shields made a welcome return,catching a few on a 3 hook flapper with lug before realising he was on a freshwater venue.

The Steve against Kev duel continued with Steve coming up trumps this week which, much to his disgust,meant Kev had to hand over the pound.  And hand it over he did...in coppers rather than the gold nugget!

Dan beat his dad and his grandad put together,whilst Kerry fluked a lump and finished match fourth.

But the story of the day must be the overall winner, the best looking angler in this bunch, after all these ugly photos of the ugliest bunch of people I've seen it must be a pleasure to have a photo of a dashing,handsome man at last.  Smashing, destroying, humiliating the whole field was me....

Click here to view the league table: images/uploads/july.pdf