Alders Farm Match Lake

The match lake has established itself as one of the finest of it's kind in the UK. Even in winter the winning bags can exceed 200lb of mostly carp in the 2lb to 5lb range. The odd bigger fish will put in an appearance to keep the matchmen honest, and with fish into double figures a few of these can be the difference between winning and loosing.

Matches have been won on Pellet, Paste, Corn, Maggot and Luncheon Meat, indeed the winning pegs are as varied as the winning baits, making Alders Farm Match Lake a popular venue in the Open Match scene around Milton Keynes and the South of England.

Pole, waggler or feeder tactics, depending on conditions, can all figure during the 5 hour match period, although those pegs on the popular islands seem to get a little more feeder action than others.

Trevor Price

Co-owner of GOT Baits, Trevor Price has established himself as an authority on approaching a match at Alders Farm Fishery. His successes both on and off the bank speak for themselves. Trevor holds the lake record for a 5hr match at Alders Farm Fishery at 238lb 12oz.

Target Weight

To win a match at Alders you are going to need in excess of 80lb in winter and well beyond 150lb in summer, I believe the match record will tumble time and time again in the coming months, and I hope to be the one to do it.   

Don't be afraid to ask others at the draw about pegs you are not sure of. You'll be surprised how friendly the angers are on the Open Match circuit here at Alders Farm Fishery.

Don't forget to check out the results pages by clicking on the TAB above, here you can get a full break down on what is working well and what's not.

Winter

One of the top methods in winter is the maggot feeder. When cast to the slightly deeper water around the islands, or even in the deeper areas in open water the feeder can result for match weights in excess of 100lb. The key is not over feeding the fish, chopping and changing between the bomb will keep enough fish interested without over feeding. I'll often put the big waggler over the top of a feeder line to try and get a few bonus fish too. An 8-10gm Waggler is about perfect on the island pegs.

The feeder comes into it's own in winter

Don't forget the Pole, a few pellets at a time via a small kinda-eggpot will keep the feed in a tight area and the fish interested in feeding. Try the soft paste for the odd surprise on the odd warm day, but this line primarily is intended for Soft Hooker Pellet and Red Maggot. You may also find yourself drawn on the 'Snatch' Lake (The Silver Fish Lake) where you can push for a Winning or Top 3 place with plenty of Carp and silver fish on similar methods.

Bait

A very Good Selection of Pellets
2 Pints of Red Maggot
Casters, Sweetcorn, Paste

My Winter Rigs :

Summer

Paste, Paste and Paste. I love paste fishing, why? because it catches some huge weights. The GOT Paste was developed at two venues, one of them being Alders Farm Fishery. The fishery is perfect for the approach. The combination of Target Fish, Depth of Lake. It's also perfect for Pellet shallow for big weights of Carp too.

Fishing for a big weight could be simpler, At the all in Cup in two big pots of 4mm Cold Water Sinking Pellets. Put a bit of paste on the hook and fish immediately over the top of the loose fed pellets. I'll aim to catch at 3m, and even shorter if I can get away with it.

My Paste and Pellet rigs are shown to the right. Both are by Mick Wilkinson and are perfect for Alders Farm Fishery, indeed the Local Match Angler developed these floats with the complex in mind..

Keep Catching

The key to getting that magical Double Ton bag of Carp is to Keep Catching, obvious I know, but not as easy as it sounds. The fish will respond to the initial feed and the trick is keeping the fish interested for another 5hrs. For this reason, I'll feed the rest of my pellets by hand and create a 'Slosh' each time I top up the peg. Which will be on very regular intervals. Don't worry about running out of pellets, there are plenty available in the Alders Farm Fishery Shop! My baits will be the same as for winter, just a lot more of it.

Alders Farm Fishery is one of the finest of its' kind in the UK. It's always a pleasure for me to fish here. I look forward to seeing you all on the bank, either in a match or just there having fun during the week. Tight Lines. Trev.

World Record Holder Gary Thorpe

Fishing close to any fish holding spot makes a lot of sense. Make sure you keep plenty of feed going in on these lines. I like to use a small pot to drop the soft paste hook bait into the peg. I'll then 'slosh' in a hand full of pellets over the top.

If I'm fishing just pellet down the edge, I can put the hook bait and loose feed pellets in the pot. The pellets will drop together and you'll stand a great chance of fooling the Carp into taking your hook bait.