Maggotdrowning Pairs Matches & Pleasure Fishing days - Alders Farm 2021

[sporty]

Well done mate , what peg was you? I was pines 4 -90lb ,46lb of that was skimmers

Did brilliant ,you caught shallow aswell yes ?

 

[davered5]

Brilliant weekend great laughs pity everyone does stay for Saturday Night they miss the best part of the weekend
Thanks for organising it Dave and Peter

 

[Peter]

Bet that was relief to get home without breakdown Peter

Certainly was Dave, it's booked in Wednesday for some TLC.

 

[arkwright]

First of all thanks to trev for letting me come down thursday and set up slowly appreciated trev ...great weekend as usual despite the deluges and this year i even managed to catch a few ...
Great to see my old friends again as always and make some new ones as well ..great to see dave the fish sat for a good long chinwag and a few brews .
Sat night i was going to just have a couple at the social and actually fish the sat night but that soon deteriated as it normally does ... the fire pit was lovely after the deluge in the day as was steaks jd fire ...there was quite a few horizontal moments but dougie your a legend your legs worked worse than svens and larrys did at peterstone lake lol.
Was going to come and see the presentation but we had a couple of hours to get the bivvies down dry and away and i wanted to get back to try and catch auntie pat before she went to work ..
Godber your going to love this one
She went out friday afternoon with friends and did a delboy ....in a local no seats leant on the wall except it wasnt it was the door to the ladies loo full plant on her back in front of a packed pub ...and nobody caught it on camera
..her backs a bit sore but shes alreet ...cant get the fools and horses theme tune out of my head at the moment .
Thanks to dave and mugger for organising it and to trev and the fishery team for doing a great job ..

 

[arkwright]

Comedy moment of the weekend ..
Markywhizz enrolling johnstep in trying to put that tent up ...there were bits stuck up in all directions there was something real urgent i had to sort in my swim while that was going on
It was a pleasure to meet you john

 

[sporty]

Certainly was Dave, it's booked in Wednesday for some TLC.

Great stuff Peter,take care mate

 

[chefster]

Did brilliant ,you caught shallow aswell yes ?

I only had 3 carp shallow, the rest all came on the worm/caster skimmer line I thoroughly enjoyed catching them skimmers, made a nice change

 

[160642fishing]

Better late than never but many thanks to Trevor for getting my gear to my peg and the young man who got it back to my car,no way would I have managed that slope with a trolleyI was a bit upset at the draw when one member seemed to think I perhaps didn't need a lift but I can assure you that with two arthritic knees and being fitted with an internal de-fibrillator is not fun,especially after having had a sporting life as a younger man and carrying my gear over miles of various riverbanks.

 

[slaner]

I only had 3 carp shallow, the rest all came on the worm/caster skimmer line I thoroughly enjoyed catching them skimmers, made a nice change

cracking net of fish mate

 

[Markywhizz]

It’s taken me a couple of days to recover sufficiently to give an account of my series of disasters.

Disaster 1) I could not come down on Friday as I got a last minute call up for a hospital appointment.

Drove down Saturday morning, leaving home at 4.30AM having not slept a wink. Arrived as the gates opened at 7.30 and proceeded to make my way straight to the tent field. The lane was an absolute quagmire and I needed to swing quite wide to get through the gate.

Disaster 2) Got completely stuck on the slope with wheels spinning everywhere. Set off cap in hand to find @Dave and his trusty Hilux. Dave was very obliging and efficiently pulled me out backwards onto the lane.

So I reversed down the lane and seeing a car parked at the car park end of the dam I pulled up behind it. Unfortunately I was about a foot further over than I thought I was.

Disaster 3) I slid into the ditch with my van leaning over at 45 degrees. A small group gathered and assured me that my situation was a lot worse than it looked from inside the van. Put your handbrake on hard and get out veeeery carefully was the advice. One kind guy ran to get help whilst I cautiously dismounted. The situation was indeed as bad as they had suggested. One wheel was on the path but the back wheel on the same side was in the air. The two nearside wheels were on the slope at the edge of the precipice. I was advised not to fart near the van or it would be in the lake. At that point help arrived in the form of a man in the Alders Mule. I can’t describe how anxious I felt whilst they towed me very slowly back onto the track. Gratitude does not do justice to what I felt towards the Alders man who had got me out. Park over there was all he said.

So I parked over there and got my tent out. I found a lovely spot fairly close to @John Step on Oaks and not far from the van.

Disaster 4) Took the tent out of the bag, a nice new Khyam quick errect job which cost me a bob or two. I am no newcomer to Khyam tents and am completely familiar with how you erect them in two minutes. Something was definitely amis with this one. The poles were sticking out at completely the wrong angles and the top hub from which everything is supposed to position itself was upside down. After about twenty minutes of wrestling hopelessly with it John Step came over to assist. There followed a further twenty minutes, this time with two of us wrestling with it and we had to admit defeat. At least John assured me it was the tent that was wrong and not just me being an idiot and many thanks to him for his efforts. So I was sleeping in the van. Decision made.

By this point I realised I was quite late for breakfast. Off to the caf I went looking forward to getting filled with a full english

Disaster 5) I was too late. They had run out of everything. They had eggs left. Right I said I’ll have eggs. Any beans? Yes beans and tinned tomatoes. So I had a rather compromised breakfast that I’d prepayed £7 for.

Really enjoyed the match and the barbecue on the Saturday. Maggotdrowners are without exception top lads and I really enjoyed to banter. And thanks go to my long suffering pairs partner @Knight of the round pond and to @chefster and @crayfishtraps who were unfortunate enough to draw next to me and who provided some good advice and banter on the Saturday. I managed 50lb on the best peg on the lake which had provided the winning weight of getting on for 300lb on the Friday. I‘m sure I caught 200lb or more, my peg was rammed with big carp, but I just kept getting broken off in the reeds and undergrowth. I had to have my clutch wound down completely and then I was failing to back it off quickly enough when I’d got them out into the lake. I should probably have backwound but I didn’t.

Disaster 6) Slept through my alarm and woke up at 10.00 on Sunday when the all-in was 11.00. By the time I’d struggled to get my trolley up the hill to Pines and through the mud and found out what peg I was on, peg 3, I had half an hour to get set up so I was a bit flustered.

This time I was next to @chefster again (poor bloke) and @Nickp69 the venue expert. Tried down my right hand edge and had two, of which I landed one. At the end of an hour I had one fish. At the end of four hours I had one fish. I had tried everywhere in my swim, down both edges and out in the lake, same distance as @chefster was catching carp and a constant stream of skimmers (ok they weren’t skimmers they were bream, Gaz called them skimmers though. Due to my casting technique which I call ’random’ I fished in @Nickp69 s swim quite a bit of the time. He was very gracious about it but probably thought I was a bloody idiot.

With an hour to go I found fish at 5m. Method feeder with maggot. I was bagging for the last hour and got my weight from 4lb to 34lb so I managed to save face a bit even though I think I came last on the lake.

Disaster 7) Loaded my trolley up and rolled it six feet at which point a wheel came off. Not just the wheel but the bracket. Completely broken it was. Once the weigh in was completed the mule arrived to see if anyone was struggling. I don’t know the name of the guy but he works at Alders and he is a big strong lad. He wheeled my trolley on three wheels all the way to my van. I owe him a huge debt. I couldn’t even hold it upright on three wheels. It must have taken a lot of muscle to do what he did.

Despite my 7 disasters I had a terrific time. I’ve decided there might be something to this match angling lark. I think only MDs would be willing to put up with me but I will certainly be fishing more MD events.

It was great meeting all these guys, I have only mentioned a few but they are, without exception, top blokes.

 

[MunchMyStump]

There I was thinking that this 5hit only happens to me! Thank you @Markywhizz for reassuring me that I am not alone!
Great write up buddy and we both look forward to seeing you at the Pork Pie Match, assuming we do actually make it there?

Munchy and Mrs Munch

 

[chefster]

It’s taken me a couple of days to recover sufficiently to give an account of my series of disasters.

Disaster 1) I could not come down on Friday as I got a last minute call up for a hospital appointment.

Drove down Saturday morning, leaving home at 4.30AM having not slept a wink. Arrived as the gates opened at 7.30 and proceeded to make my way straight to the tent field. The lane was an absolute quagmire and I needed to swing quite wide to get through the gate.

Disaster 2) Got completely stuck on the slope with wheels spinning everywhere. Set off cap in hand to find @Dave and his trusty Hilux. Dave was very obliging and efficiently pulled me out backwards onto the lane.

So I reversed down the lane and seeing a car parked at the car park end of the dam I pulled up behind it. Unfortunately I was about a foot further over than I thought I was.

Disaster 3) I slid into the ditch with my van leaning over at 45 degrees. A small group gathered and assured me that my situation was a lot worse than it looked from inside the van. Put your handbrake on hard and get out veeeery carefully was the advice. One kind guy ran to get help whilst I cautiously dismounted. The situation was indeed as bad as they had suggested. One wheel was on the path but the back wheel on the same side was in the air. The two nearside wheels were on the slope at the edge of the precipice. I was advised not to fart near the van or it would be in the lake. At that point help arrived in the form of a man in the Alders Mule. I can’t describe how anxious I felt whilst they towed me very slowly back onto the track. Gratitude does not do justice to what I felt towards the Alders man who had got me out. Park over there was all he said.

So I parked over there and got my tent out. I found a lovely spot fairly close to @John Step on Oaks and not far from the van.

Disaster 4) Took the tent out of the bag, a nice new Khyam quick errect job which cost me a bob or two. I am no newcomer to Khyam tents and am completely familiar with how you erect them in two minutes. Something was definitely amis with this one. The poles were sticking out at completely the wrong angles and the top hub from which everything is supposed to position itself was upside down. After about twenty minutes of wrestling hopelessly with it John Step came over to assist. There followed a further twenty minutes, this time with two of us wrestling with it and we had to admit defeat. At least John assured me it was the tent that was wrong and not just me being an idiot and many thanks to him for his efforts. So I was sleeping in the van. Decision made.

By this point I realised I was quite late for breakfast. Off to the caf I went looking forward to getting filled with a full english

Disaster 5) I was too late. They had run out of everything. They had eggs left. Right I said I’ll have eggs. Any beans? Yes beans and tinned tomatoes. So I had a rather compromised breakfast that I’d prepayed £7 for.

Really enjoyed the match and the barbecue on the Saturday. Maggotdrowners are without exception top lads and I really enjoyed to banter. And thanks go to my long suffering pairs partner @Knight of the round pond and to @chefster and @crayfishtraps who were unfortunate enough to draw next to me and who provided some good advice and banter on the Saturday. I managed 50lb on the best peg on the lake which had provided the winning weight of getting on for 300lb on the Friday. I‘m sure I caught 200lb or more, my peg was rammed with big carp, but I just kept getting broken off in the reeds and undergrowth. I had to have my clutch wound down completely and then I was failing to back it off quickly enough when I’d got them out into the lake. I should probably have backwound but I didn’t.

Disaster 6) Slept through my alarm and woke up at 10.00 on Sunday when the all-in was 11.00. By the time I’d struggled to get my trolley up the hill to Pines and through the mud and found out what peg I was on, peg 3, I had half an hour to get set up so I was a bit flustered.

This time I was next to @chefster again (poor bloke) and @Nickp69 the venue expert. Tried down my right hand edge and had two, of which I landed one. At the end of an hour I had one fish. At the end of four hours I had one fish. I had tried everywhere in my swim, down both edges and out in the lake, same distance as @chefster was catching carp and a constant stream of skimmers (ok they weren’t skimmers they were bream, Gaz called them skimmers though. Due to my casting technique which I call ’random’ I fished in @Nickp69 s swim quite a bit of the time. He was very gracious about it but probably thought I was a bloody idiot.

With an hour to go I found fish at 5m. Method feeder with maggot. I was bagging for the last hour and got my weight from 4lb to 34lb so I managed to save face a bit even though I think I came last on the lake.

Disaster 7) Loaded my trolley up and rolled it six feet at which point a wheel came off. Not just the wheel but the bracket. Completely broken it was. Once the weigh in was completed the mule arrived to see if anyone was struggling. I don’t know the name of the guy but he works at Alders and he is a big strong lad. He wheeled my trolley on three wheels all the way to my van. I owe him a huge debt. I couldn’t even hold it upright on three wheels. It must have taken a lot of muscle to do what he did.

Despite my 7 disasters I had a terrific time. I’ve decided there might be something to this match angling lark. I think only MDs would be willing to put up with me but I will certainly be fishing more MD events.

It was great meeting all these guys, I have only mentioned a few but they are, without exception, top blokes.

What a weekend mate, and what a brilliant write up, I’m still laughing now lovely meeting you mate, and hopefully see you again on an MD get together, and well done Mark

 

[Alantherose]

Man, you did well just to keep soldiering on @Markywhizz

 

[Dave]

Markywhizz, we all have those days once in a lifetime, let's hope this was yours

In all fairness Peg30 on Ash will either love you or hate you, it's my nemesis, I've yet to get on with it despite having had a brief coaching session from Trevor. The fish are there in their numbers but as you found you'll foul hook more than you catch and it's those foul hookers that charge off towards the snags and do you in everytime.
The trick is from what I've gathered is to feed heavy in the margins but ignore them, instead fish a line further out laying on the bottom and feed lightly there, just enough to stop the passing fish and get bites. You can only hook one fish at a time so in theory you only need that one fish feeding.
You get the foul hookers when you have too many fish in your swim, hence why fishing in the margin in that peg is a disaster waiting to happen if that's where you are feeding.

The "guy who works at Alders" was Lewis, one of the owners
A brilliant bloke who as you found is more than willing to muck in and help out

... see you at the next one

 

[Markywhizz]

Well Lewis, if you are reading this, I can’t thank you enough. You saved my van from certain death and all my tackle, which I would never have got back to my van before 10pm. I am so so grateful. You went above and beyond mate

 

[Markywhizz]

My 34lb haul on Pines. Not much compared to others on the lake but I’m proud of it all the same. All caught in the last hour. Wish I’d found the fish earlier but there you go. Thoroughly enjoyed myself

 

[robert d]

My 34lb haul on Pines. Not much compared to others on the lake but I’m proud of it all the same. All caught in the last hour. Wish I’d found the fish earlier but there you go. Thoroughly enjoyed myself

A good way to catch when there is loads in the margin is put a bomb or feeder down the edge and also lower the tip of the rod right down to the bottom, your line is the flat on the bottom hold on for grim death though and step up the line breaking strains.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

It’s taken me a couple of days to recover sufficiently to give an account of my series of disasters.

Disaster 1) I could not come down on Friday as I got a last minute call up for a hospital appointment.

Drove down Saturday morning, leaving home at 4.30AM having not slept a wink. Arrived as the gates opened at 7.30 and proceeded to make my way straight to the tent field. The lane was an absolute quagmire and I needed to swing quite wide to get through the gate.

Disaster 2) Got completely stuck on the slope with wheels spinning everywhere. Set off cap in hand to find @Dave and his trusty Hilux. Dave was very obliging and efficiently pulled me out backwards onto the lane.

So I reversed down the lane and seeing a car parked at the car park end of the dam I pulled up behind it. Unfortunately I was about a foot further over than I thought I was.

Disaster 3) I slid into the ditch with my van leaning over at 45 degrees. A small group gathered and assured me that my situation was a lot worse than it looked from inside the van. Put your handbrake on hard and get out veeeery carefully was the advice. One kind guy ran to get help whilst I cautiously dismounted. The situation was indeed as bad as they had suggested. One wheel was on the path but the back wheel on the same side was in the air. The two nearside wheels were on the slope at the edge of the precipice. I was advised not to fart near the van or it would be in the lake. At that point help arrived in the form of a man in the Alders Mule. I can’t describe how anxious I felt whilst they towed me very slowly back onto the track. Gratitude does not do justice to what I felt towards the Alders man who had got me out. Park over there was all he said.

So I parked over there and got my tent out. I found a lovely spot fairly close to @John Step on Oaks and not far from the van.

Disaster 4) Took the tent out of the bag, a nice new Khyam quick errect job which cost me a bob or two. I am no newcomer to Khyam tents and am completely familiar with how you erect them in two minutes. Something was definitely amis with this one. The poles were sticking out at completely the wrong angles and the top hub from which everything is supposed to position itself was upside down. After about twenty minutes of wrestling hopelessly with it John Step came over to assist. There followed a further twenty minutes, this time with two of us wrestling with it and we had to admit defeat. At least John assured me it was the tent that was wrong and not just me being an idiot and many thanks to him for his efforts. So I was sleeping in the van. Decision made.

By this point I realised I was quite late for breakfast. Off to the caf I went looking forward to getting filled with a full english

Disaster 5) I was too late. They had run out of everything. They had eggs left. Right I said I’ll have eggs. Any beans? Yes beans and tinned tomatoes. So I had a rather compromised breakfast that I’d prepayed £7 for.

Really enjoyed the match and the barbecue on the Saturday. Maggotdrowners are without exception top lads and I really enjoyed to banter. And thanks go to my long suffering pairs partner @Knight of the round pond and to @chefster and @crayfishtraps who were unfortunate enough to draw next to me and who provided some good advice and banter on the Saturday. I managed 50lb on the best peg on the lake which had provided the winning weight of getting on for 300lb on the Friday. I‘m sure I caught 200lb or more, my peg was rammed with big carp, but I just kept getting broken off in the reeds and undergrowth. I had to have my clutch wound down completely and then I was failing to back it off quickly enough when I’d got them out into the lake. I should probably have backwound but I didn’t.

Disaster 6) Slept through my alarm and woke up at 10.00 on Sunday when the all-in was 11.00. By the time I’d struggled to get my trolley up the hill to Pines and through the mud and found out what peg I was on, peg 3, I had half an hour to get set up so I was a bit flustered.

This time I was next to @chefster again (poor bloke) and @Nickp69 the venue expert. Tried down my right hand edge and had two, of which I landed one. At the end of an hour I had one fish. At the end of four hours I had one fish. I had tried everywhere in my swim, down both edges and out in the lake, same distance as @chefster was catching carp and a constant stream of skimmers (ok they weren’t skimmers they were bream, Gaz called them skimmers though. Due to my casting technique which I call ’random’ I fished in @Nickp69 s swim quite a bit of the time. He was very gracious about it but probably thought I was a bloody idiot.

With an hour to go I found fish at 5m. Method feeder with maggot. I was bagging for the last hour and got my weight from 4lb to 34lb so I managed to save face a bit even though I think I came last on the lake.

Disaster 7) Loaded my trolley up and rolled it six feet at which point a wheel came off. Not just the wheel but the bracket. Completely broken it was. Once the weigh in was completed the mule arrived to see if anyone was struggling. I don’t know the name of the guy but he works at Alders and he is a big strong lad. He wheeled my trolley on three wheels all the way to my van. I owe him a huge debt. I couldn’t even hold it upright on three wheels. It must have taken a lot of muscle to do what he did.

Despite my 7 disasters I had a terrific time. I’ve decided there might be something to this match angling lark. I think only MDs would be willing to put up with me but I will certainly be fishing more MD events.

It was great meeting all these guys, I have only mentioned a few but they are, without exception, top blokes.

@Markywhizz Im sorry you were struggling a bit. I walked by by you on Saturday morning on the way back from getting some bait and saw you rummaging with your tent, but you looked in complete control. Same again Sunday morning. I forgot something and went back to get it, I saw you and asked if you were fishing today. You only have to ask for some help if you need it, I would of gladly pushed your trolly up to pines for you.

 

[Len Wade]

Friday night was a quiet affair around Landlords car boot. A few jokes, a bit of pee taking(sorry TRFC2000) some of Fat Pikes excellent stories and a relatively early night.
Saturday night was a anything but a quiet affair. After an excellent bbq by Dave the serious business of getting blutered got started, an absolute Tsunami of jokes from Nomorelongwalks, banter, stories and STEAKS JACK DANIELS GROGG The legendary Len Wade tok full advantage of Steaks very generous offer to 'gettit darn thees neck'......... What followed was one man carnage oh so perilously close to the roaring fire pit, Len Wade had turned into floppy rubber, his gyros had toppled, his cv joints had gone, his suspension had done a runner Len had been possesed by the demon booze as shown

What a man, what a laugh. A great night, eventually about 01:30 those that remained retired for the night, full bellies, full bladders, empty tins and sore sides. Fantastic night.

Well, what can I say, the camera doesn't lie so there's no wriggling out of this one:

Judge: "Mr Wade, you stand accused of bringing the fine reputation of maggotdrowning.com and all of its members into disrepute by your disgraceful behaviour at a social gathering in a field at Alders Farm on Saturday 31st July: how do you plead?"
Me: "Guilty as charged, M'Lud."
Judge: "Can you offer any extenuating circumstances that might possibly alleviate the severity of your impending sentence?"
Me: "Yes, M'Lud."
Judge: "Please proceed."
Me: "M'Lud, it had been raining all weekend and the grass was very long and very wet and very slippery and someone had set my chair up on a slope so that when I stood up to go for a leak after a few scoops of Steak's jungle-juice my dodgy knee sort of gave way and I sort of fell over and sort of rolled downhill."
Judge: "Were you inebriated?"
Me: "No M'Lud, I was completely ****-faced."
Judge: "Was anything damaged?"
Me: "Only my self-esteem."
Judge: "Mr Wade, you are herewith declared a maggotdrowner of the First Water and are therefore exonerated from all charges of disrepute or misconduct, now or in the future: may the Farce be with you."

All joking aside, many thanks to Dave and Peter for organising such a great weekend:
Thanks to Trevor for towing me into the camping field:
Thanks to Mr Arkwright for the advice and the tabs:
Thanks to Godber and the other good Samaritan who poured me into my tent on Saturday night, and who woke me up on Sunday morning.

It was good to meet a lot of new guys and put faces to names: gentlemen, maggotdrowning weekends are a steep learning curve but now you know what to expect in the future!

 

[sporty]

I only had 3 carp shallow, the rest all came on the worm/caster skimmer line I thoroughly enjoyed catching them skimmers, made a nice change

Great net of skimmers mate ,well done