Match Report
This match was the first in series of 5 matches to be held on the River Arun at Watersfield over the match fishing season. I extended the number of matches from those held last year as they had been successful and everyone had caught. The fishing times are chosen so that the tide is coming in for an hour whilst we are setting then there is an hour slack and the rest of the match is fished on a falling tide. However this changed as there had been rain in the previous week and there was a strong upstream wind. There was also some gardening to do on some of the swims as only a few of the available swims are used by the barbel anglers. The match was almost fully subscribed as we limit the numbers as we only fish the top section. Again it was another warm sunny day – the only downside was the very strong upstream wind which made presentation difficult for some anglers. Overall everyone caught over 3lb of fish and the highlight was the 1-11-8 roach caught by Keith Hughes from the Mint Swim.Fishing the swim downstream of the stream inlet was Ray Huskisson who fished the feeder to catch 3 skimmers, 7 eels plus some silverfish to weigh in 7-13-8.
In second place was Vince Herringshaw who was fishing next to Ray, upstream of the stream inlet. He used the pole to catch roach and dace weighing 5-14-8 on maggot.
Third place was taken by Glen Riley who occasionally joins us in matches. He fished the furthest upstream just down from the fence and used the bolo float on rod and line to catch roach and dace on maggots and pinkies weighing a total of 5-11-0.