I think everyone was looking forward to this match as Little Geary’s had started fishing really well the week before with multiple 100Lb weights, however the festival a few days prior had brought the weights back down to less than half the previous weeks and this was a sign it was going to be a much harder match.

Our esteemed Chairman was again sacrificing a days enjoyment fishing for the long hard slog behind ensuring the Charity bike ride everyone stays safe and the last riders brake lights are working…..

Match Section

19 anglers graced the day and a very close match it proved to be with a winning weight of 46lb but with 10 anglers from 27lb upwards.

We knew this day was coming the Celebrity lesson and 2 hours of intense casting with no hooks on and finally Hamper John realised his mistake and in a match you do actually need to attach a hooklength on!

Arise Hamper “Albutt” John Hodson with a feeder caught 46lb 03 from

peg 3 to win the match edging out 2^nd place by 2lb.

In 2^nd place was Mr man in form and the man that can catch fish out the margins of your bathtub

“Endpeg” Roy Ravenhill peg 23 came within a whisker of making it 3 x Adroit AC match wins on a trot with 44lb dead.

This is making him very hard to beat this year on the individual league with such consistency on nearly every match.

3^rd place was Denny “The Chimp” on peg 13 who as most people will realise if F1s are the name of the game he ain’t going to be far away and so it proved again with 36lb 9ozs on the scales come the end

In 4^th place was Ben “The Student” Taylor that fished a method to island and caught 32lb 3ozs of F1’s and a few carp to just snag the last frame.

Rob was left to weigh his lad in as an early exit down to the smoke was required by Ben for the usual 12 x pints of snakebite and his   however I seem to recall him saying to his dad “treat yourself to a fly line” for the underhand trick of him not packing his sidetray LOL

The 1^st section was won from peg 5 with 31lb 5ozs by Semi Pro Daz again with an envelope who caught long on caster shallow and he lost loads of fish apparently on a snag so he could have troubled the leaders.

The 2^nd section was won by Mick “No Barrow” Drew AKA – the Vagrant   from peg 28 with 31lb 1ozs who upon arrival at the fishery was sporting a bit of unkempt face fuzz stating he wants to look designer and suave like them off the telly…

I responded he did a bit “ just like Catweazle” hehehehe

Banter & Funny Occurrences

It was beyond quiet due to the nature of the shape of the lake and the mature layout in as much as you couldn’t see hardly anyone so it was a very peaceful day but not one that lended itself to much banter. ☹

Come the weigh in there was a few cries into song to certain anglers “he’s only got one net” and that was about it…

Denny retrieving his quid from the margins

Denny who was on next peg to me we have our normal quid side bet on the day and he duly spanked me by 7lb so I graciously passed it to him only 2 feet away from him…

My Match Good or Bad Result

Drew Ok on peg 15 but as the weights had been so good in the run up to the match I felt sure you would need 60-70lb+ to win or 50lb plus to frame – how wrong I was. ;-(

Not being able to see anyone I could only see Roy opposite (2^nd) and Stobart so your mind starts playing tricks on what is possibly being caught around the lake?

I started on the 2+3 on slop + few pellets and I caught 3-4 but lost 3 x F1s and then it went dead. I had fed and tried meat in margins after 3 hours and only had 2 x perch so I went long on pole shallow and got 1 x F1 and lost 1 but felt I was going nowhere really it was to few and far between bites.

I picked up the feeder rod and had 1 x F1 straight away and lost one but after 30 minutes I felt I wasn’t getting bites quick enough to catch up the barren spell.

Left way too many fish in peg as I believe I should/could have done 40-50lb minimum off it if I had stayed 2+3 or 2+4 and not flitted around peg trying to force methods.

I also never gave the tip long enough to build it either and if I’d started on that I felt a good day was possible however we ALL make calls on the day I just made wrong uns!

TBF  Frying most of time…….;-)