Guest blog by Mark Hathway - A Match of Two Halves

I asked a couple of guys to write a guest blog about recent matches on lake 2 at Monks so we can all see how the new bait limits are being approached with success. Here is the first blog from Mark Hathway:


Matt invited me to write a blog on the latest Medway Trotters match on Monk Lakes 2, so here goes.

Following on from my hard earned 50lbs from p76 on Saturday, I wanted to try a different approach today. I used to fish and do well on matches a few years ago fishing UITW with baits like caster and worm heads but more recently had turned to fishing slop and porridge the ‘Pikey Way’.

I wasn’t fussed what peg I drew and couldn’t believe it when I drew P47, this was the 3rd time in 4 matches on the lake, although P48 was in, P46 was empty which would help. However with Steve ‘Spock‘ Peters on P45 the writing was really on the wall. I won off the peg (47) a month or so earlier catching mainly barbel in the margins, I decided as the lake was calm with the winds promised for later in the match to fish 2 matches. The first 3 hours would be UITW at 6 mtrs and then I was sure I could plunder the Barbel at the end of the match.

I set up 2 x UITW rigs (I’m useless at float names) a short stubby No.3 on a long line and a 4x10 slim float on a short line (0.12), both being set at 2’ deep to a 16 Tubertini 808. I also set a small bulk of No.10 shot about 8” from the hook. This acts as a sort of bolt rig and was something the Raison’s and Gardner’s used to do when they plundered the Willow Park silvers years ago. For the margin two identical NG floats
set to come up the slope on 0.16 and a 16’s 911 hook.

For bait I had 6 pints of maggots and a few 6mm pellets. Starting on the short line at 6mtrs, I fed sparingly with maggot (and odd pellet for noise) and had my first fish an Ide of 1lb after about 10 minutes, the line gradually sprung to life and I started to put F1’s in the net. From what I could see I was keeping up with Spock on the flyer. An hour passed and I reckon I had 20lbs in the net, I saw no reason to up the feed and plodded along nicely, the 2nd hour was similar, more F1’s, odd chub and Ide. At this stage I still hadn’t fed the margin and had used about 2 pints of bait.

In the 3rd hour things drifted way a bit, maybe I hadn’t fed enough, who knows? I did alter things around, using the long line, tapping, splashing etc and still nicked odd fish. At the ½ stage I had 23 F1’s in a net (they weighed 48lbs) and about 15lbs of assortments in the other net. Which included a mirror carp of 4” long that I wanted to show Morgan the fishery manager, he later confirmed it was a survivor of the 2009 spawning.

Into hour 4 and I began to up the feed on both my 6 mtr and margin line, a quick drop in on the margin gave me an early Barbel but then those pesky hand size skimmers got in on the act. I reckon I added a further 20lbs to my nets.

With 2 hours left it was now margin time and to be fair it was solid with barbel (just like when I won off it ) and I caught frantically for the last 2 hours. The Purple Hydro seemed to reduce the playing time, whoever says Barbel don’t thrive in still waters should sit on a nest of barbel at Monks ! A little trick I use is to very, very slowly draw the bait up the slope, as your doing it the fish rip the pole out of your hands, no strike required.

As the match drew to a close I was pleased the way I had fished and really enjoyed the day. I topped things off by beating Spock off P45 with 147lbs to his 138lbs but lost out to Rusty ‘5’ pegs who had 170lbs from the pleasure gardens at P52.

My conclusion is that the bait limit will restrict your feed patterns if targeting different lines and therefore reduce weights, which for fish welfare reasons is ok in my book. Who needs more than 150lbs anyway!

Laters – Hathers