Tuesday 19th sees me head to the Pondtail for a session on peg 2 from 9 to 11:15 but this time fishing a waggler. I had bought a 10ft Frenzee FXT+ match on spec when it was on offer at just £20 and Gareth and I had used it to trot a waggler down the Marden and also on the Stock Pond which it handled both scenarios admirably so I had grabbed it for today’s session as it was already set up (as is the case with all my rods),

Fishing about 3-4 rod lengths out into approx 6-7ft of water, I started on double maggot on the 16 hook and was soon into fish responding to the nuggets of groundbait and wheat I was feeding. After 21 roach, four perch and two gudgeon I switched to corn and although the bites were slower in coming the stamp of fish improved with a further 14 roach being added to the net for a 5-06 total.

With the three day MFSReborn Festival coming up, I decided to head for Monkhall Fishery just outside Bridgnorth on the Friday. I paid my peg fee and bought some pellet while having a chat with the manager and confirming the arrangements for the festival.I headed up to Buzzard pool and opted for peg 8 at the far end with the wind blowing directly in my face. There was only one other angler there on about peg 13. I fished from 10am to 2:15and decided to concentrate on two lines/methods. The first was to fish paste at 2+2 range and the second was to fish the right hand margin but trying a different feeding approach to the one I usually adopt. The paste line was tackled with 0.16mm line to a 14 using a homemade 0.6g rugby ball style float. Groundbait is not allowed nor is feeding paste but you are able to fish paste which tends to be self feeding anyway! So each put in I added a pinch of softened 4mm pellets and after the third put in I had my first indications that resulted in a carp of 4-5lb.

The manager had said that people tend to underestimate the fish and it is common for anglers to be over the 60lb net limit, this certainly rang true as that first carp looked about 2-3lb but when lifted the weight of the fish showed it to be almost double what it appeared,

I continued on the paste for about an hour and a half getting plenty of indications and fish before trying the margin, toss-potting in a small nugget of over dampened micros each put in with corn on the 14 hook again to 0.16mm line and a small homemade 0.5g BGT1 style float. The wind was proving a little awkward as it was blowing a lot of reed stems into the bank but I persevered but although I was getting bites and fish it was not as good as the paste line with too many fish foul hooked.

For the last hour I went back on the paste line and apart from a rogue barbel I had mainly carp up to 8-9lb and the odd F1 up to 2lb. I clicked 77lb which I was happy with given I tried various things during the stay in order to see what was most productive or indeed worked.

The time in between was used sorting out my tackle and preparing for the visit. I had booked an annex in Oldbury for the stay as it was on the right side of Bridgnorth and was about 15-20 mins a way from the venue. Wednesday arrived and having collected the money and gone through the details of the festival I got the draw underway. I tend as organiser to take the last peg and in this case it put me on Buzzard peg 5 which I was quite happy with, especially as it is the one lake that you can park behind your peg and today we would be facing storm Agnes!

As expected we had light rain at times during a cold gloomy and windy day. I fished the same as previously and although it was a lot harder and the margins did not work for me I managed 52-10 off the paste line and 4th in the 5 peg section. At this point I should mention that apart from the usual section and overall pools money available there was a very generous sponsorship of £500 made by one of our members Andy Winters and this was going to be split into 5x £100 to be fished for in five seeded groups of four. Now as I was in the lowest group it was a positive result to come 4th! Also I had on one side of me Fishomania Finalist Wayne Kearney and on the other the bagging machine that is Chris Martin! The wooden structure you can see in the picture on the left holds landing nets and keepnets – you must use the fishery provided ones and not bring any nets on to the site.

Day 2 sees me draw Swallow peg 10 with the weather still overcast but dry and less wind! Fishing the paste for three hours and the margin for two sees me put a mixed bag of carp and F1s on the scales for 80-08 and another 4pts, once again I was flanked by Chris Martin and this time Al Rutherford, another bagging machine!

The final day arrives and the pressure is on as I need to sort all the results asap at the end and then payout the 34 brown envelopes! As we had Buzzard and Hawk on days 1 and 3 with Swallow and Owl on day 2, we fish the other pool to the one we fished on day 1 so this time I end up on Hawk 2 with once again Wayne Kearney on my left on peg 1 and Al Rutherford on my right on peg 4! Wayne fished shallow for most of the match apart from the last hour when he turned to the margins and despite going over in three of his nets still weighed in 234LB ! Anyway I know my limitations and fishing shallow is not my forte so predictably I started on the paste line only to struggle with just two fish in the first half hour and no indications. This prompted me to start a new line to my right with just my top kit halfway down the slope fishing worm, this accounted for a few carp and by rotating the two margins plus the top kit line with the odd look on paste I ended up with 83-06, 80lb of which were carp/F1s and the remaining 3-06 made up of two perch, two little skimmers, a small crucian, two small carp and a big ide.

I had arranged for the boards from Buzzard to be brought to me at Hawk and I sat in the car to do the results away from prying eyes and distractions. I then joined the group in the Old Canteen on site and announced the results. The overall winner was James Howarth with a perfect score of 3 points and a total weight 568-10. Surprisingly I managed to win my group of 4 and went home happy at my windfall but disappointed I did not manage to quite get to the ton!

October is here and Bowood awaits with its pike!