Match Report

‘This is the worse weather I have suffered in 30 years of fishing matches with this club’  The above is a quote from longstanding club matchman Vince Herringshaw.

In the last match fortunately the weather did not turn out as bad as the forecast. However the forecast for this match proved correct with very heavy rain and high winds along with strong gusts. The temperature also dropped during the match. Interestingly the wind dropped and the rain stopped for the last hour of the match which produced ideal fishing conditions. The banks were very waterlogged, proving difficult for trolley pushing. With all the rain the banks looked like lakes after the match.

The weather forecast reduced the number of anglers originally booked in down to 7 and these were pegged along the bunker straight with four before and three after the bunker. The number of anglers was reduced further as Ray lost his umbrella and decided that sitting out the rest of the match without protection was not for him. It was unfortunate as he had already caught 3 carp on the method feeder.

This match had a different format from the norm with a silverfish only match and a carp only match with the overall result being determined from the points gained in the two matches. Even though the conditions were poor there were some good catches of carp (mainly F1s), silverfish and two near 2 pound perch.

Silver Fish Only Match

Fishing the far end peg on the bunker straight, before the corner peg, was Mike Kitchener who weighed in 25 – 4 – 0 of bream and skimmers. These were caught on the pole on the top three sections using casters over groundbait.

Vince Herringshaw was fishing the peg before the bunker and caught 13 – 5 – 8 of skimmers and roach.

Next to Vince was Andy Gray who weighed in 11 – 7 – 0. Included in his catch was a near 2 pound perch. Andy had an interesting day with jammed pole sections and a broken umbrella arm.

Carp Match

Again in first place was Mike Kitchener who caught 27 – 5 – 8 fishing the same area and tactics as he used to catch the silverfish.

In second place fishing next to Kitch was Steve Simmonds who was struggling to catch fish until he changed over to use worm on the hook. Steve fished the top five sections of his pole to catch 22 – 15 – 0 of carp.

Mick Greenway was in third place catching one F1 on the feeder and 3 F1s on the pole. The pole caught F1s were caught in the last hour when conditions improved and were caught on expander pellet fished over micro-pellets. These weighed 7 – 9 – 0.

Overall the match was won by Mike Kitchener with 20 points from Steve Simmonds with 16 points. After two matches for the Presidents Cup Mike Kitchener is convincingly in the lead with 20 points from Steve Simmonds with 13 points.

In the club matches Kitch (155 points) is leading in the Clubman from Keith (140 points). Kitch is also leading in the Matchman (1425 to 867 points) and the Weights (319 – 10 – 12 to 186 – 0 – 0)