Arriving at Monk Lakes the weather was looking decidedly dodgy , for a moment I thought Malc was visiting Kent. A good number of Anglers, Danglers, Maggotdrowners, Venue Experts and Paul East(looking tired as usual) were eagerly tucking into sausage sticks from the food van and looking forward to a decent days fishing. Dirk had rung to say he was stuck on the M25 behind an accident and would be late.

The talk was all about which pegs people wanted to draw or perhaps didn't want to draw and estimates of the winning weight varied from 70 - 150lbs.

The draw went smoothly and my home for the day was to be peg 61 half way along the causeway, not where I wanted to be as the wind and rain were to be right in my face all day.
I settled on fishing 3 lines today, 2 in the margins to my left and right and out in front at 8 metres. As a back up I'd brought along a feeder rod set up in a ready rod bag in case things were tough. As is customary I'd joined in a £1 side bet with Peter, Paul and Dirk.

2 large cups of 6mm Skrettings pellet went in on each of the margin lines with 3 pots going in a 8 metres. Leaving these lines to settle I chucked the feeder about 20 metres and sat back and waited. The wait wasn't long as Carp no.1 was soon in the net after taking my paste hookbait. Back out and within seconds the tip went round again and an Ide of about 1lb was quickly landed. Then things died and the tip sat motionless for about 10 minutes.

On to the right hand margin line with 6mm expander and a small skimmer was the first to take the bait. 2 more put ins and 2 more baby skimmers made me think I should leave the margins for a while longer. A trip to 8 metres proved no better so it was back to the feeder. 2 more Carp quickly followed and then nothing. The match for me continued like this for the next 3 hours, the odd fish from the margins and a couple of fish from the feeder but I just couldn't get them to feed confidently. Looking around throughtout the match it seemed no-one was particularly bagging although Peter told me Simon Edwards was doing quite well.

Every so often I would take a slightly better fish but in the main they were all quite small. No Green Tench, Golden Tench or Barbel seemed to be present in my swim so it was a case of sitting it out for the Carp. I carried on taking the odd fish on the feeder till the end of the match and felt a little dissapointed that I hadn't done better but they were just too finicky.

As the weigh started James North was leading with 52lb 12ozs till we reached John Haigh who had 58lbs. Phil Brice then better that with 66lbs 8ozs from peg 48. A lot of people were complaining about how bad the fishing had been but it was clearly down to the change in the weather since last weekend.

By the end of the weigh in Nick Allen ran out the winner with a creditible 73lbs 12ozs on a difficult day. Well done Nick. Most of his fish were Carp taken 3 sections out on paste. I finshed with a dismal 27lbs 6ozs beating Dirk and Paul, however Peter took another £1 from me with 34lbs 40zs.

Unfortunatly the weigh sheets got rather wet during the weigh in and by the time I'd got home they had welded themselves together making them impossible to read. Luckily I'd already started making a new list which stayed dry so I'd still got the top twenty weights. For those not listed I'm sorry but at least no-one will know Paul recorded a DNW...........OOOOOooooopps

Story Above By: Vince Gould

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Peter Morton's Story

Well today was the day for a Charity match taking place at Monk Lakes at Marden in Kent supporting the fund raising efforts of Disabled-Angler.co.uk for Macmillan Cancer Support & Rainbows the East Midlands Children's Hospice, and hopefully with nearly 40 anglers booked in we would raise a few quid for the Charities.

Loading up the car didn't bode well A solid grey sky was already dropping rain and with 4 large boxes of Braham & Murray Pure Hemp products to load up along with my gear, the car was a little full to say the least.

A phone call from Dirk as I drove down to the venue informing me that he was held up on the M25 and might be late, wasn't good either. Arriving about 8am I met up with Vince and it was soon obvious that despite the weather most had made it. Simon Edwards had endured the TomTom trip from hell on the way down from Northampton as it warned him about the M25 hold up and diverted him through Central London!!!!!

9am and Dirk arrived just in time for the draw, which saw a few £1 side bets placed, with Vince and Paul East joining in with Dirk and myself, for a four-way battle of the £1 coins and bragging rights . Peg 75 on the causeway was to be my peg for the match..........

with Vince and Dirk in the 60's on the other side of the causeway while Paul, Clive and Alan were opposite me on the far bank. To my right I had Simon and to my left young Nick Allen. With plenty of time to set up prior to the 11am start I set up 3 pole rigs, one at dead depth which would cover from 5mtrs to 13 mtrs due to the even bottom, a shallow up in the water dibber rig and a margin rig. I also set up the pellet waggler (though I felt the conditions would rule it out today) and a feeder rod as a get out of jail option, however I'd forgotten my cage feeders, but fortunately I managed to borrow one from Vince . Bait wise for me, with it being the middle of May it was pellet, pellet and more pellet, with some meat as a change bait. Simon however was committing mass murder on a bait box full of worm & caster with some Atomic and hemp added for good measure!!!!!!

11am and with Vince blowing the whistle for the start I fed a pot of mixed pellet on the 11mtr and 5mtr lines and fed the margins by hand. Meanwhile young Nick had already landed his 1st fish and was into a second . Simon lost the 1st fish he hooked as a skimmer did a passable impression of a trout and shed the hook as it took off however he was soon into a few fish. I was really struggling to buy a bite but finally got off the mark with an F1 of about a pound. However I couldn't put a run of fish together unlike Nick and Simon who were catching regularly and a combination of a cold NE wind and the rain made conditions unpleasant to say the least (Strange how it never bothers you if you're catching ) but at least I had the wind off my back.

After about 2 hours of going nowhere fast I re-fed my pole lines and got up for a leg stretch and popped down to see how others were doing.......

Vince was huddled under his brolly trying to escape the wind and rain that was blowing straight into his bank and was fishing the feeder.........

....... but although he was admitting to around 15lbs in the net, was having trouble as his bites seemed to be very finicky .

Dirk was a couple of pegs further down, and was starting to wonder why he'd made the trip down from Rugby? He enjoys Monks and had won his section on his last couple of visits, but sitting there with the wind blowing straight into him and his hands starting to lose all feeling, it was turning into a struggle as he had to go to almost 14mtrs just to find a bite

Meanwhile Matt, just behind Dirk was suffering as well, despite having won a match on the lake the previous Saturday with a fine bag of 114lbs, it wasn't working for him today and he'd reverted to a method feeder to see if it would bring him a few more fish.

Back at my peg, there was still no action on any of my pole lines and i decided that the feeder was the way to go with soaked 4mm pellet in the feeder and a hair rigged banded 8mm hard pellet for bait.........

After about 10 minutes the tip wrapped round and a nice Mirror of around 3lb was a welcome addition to the net .

Looking across I could see that the far bank was struggling with nobody getting anything other than the occasional fish. Paul was sticking at it and seemed to be concentrating on his margin swim in an effort to put a few together.......

While Clive appeared to be alternating his approach between the margin and his line straight out in front, though apparently for little reward

Meanwhile a few more Carp and F1's along with a couple of Barbel kept things ticking over for me, though I won't pretend that I wasn't pleased to hear Vince blowing the whistle to signal the end of the match at 4pm. The weigh in soon confirmed that I was about as close to a bit of Cod as I could be (Battered both sides ) with Nick to my left weighing 73¾lbs for the match win and Simon to my right putting 52½lbs on the scales to eclipse my 34¼lbs and take my £1 . However every cloud they say has a silver lining, and on this occasion I had the pleasure of receiving £1 from Vince, Dirk and Paul .

Back to the car park for the presentations it was generally agreed that the fishing had been as hard as most could remember given the time of year, However the aim of the match had been achieved with around £500 raised for the Charities and all the Anglers taking away some Braham & Murray Hemp Products for their efforts, so a big vote of Thanks to all those that attended .

Chatting in the car park as we all set off for home, I remembered something in my pocket that I handed back to Vince with my Thanks, Yes the cage feeder that he'd lent me and enabled me to take his £1. His face was a picture and I can't repeat what he actually said to me