Match Report

In the weeks before this match we had had a lot of rain and the Arun had gone over its banks at Pulborough on the Monday before the match. I went up to Watersfield on the Wednesday and the found everything was OK, access was possible under the railway bridge and the river was within its banks. The day was sunny but very windy and made it a match of two halves- half of the anglers had the wind at their back whilst the other half had the wind blowing straight at them or from the side, making pole or rod fishing difficult, particularly as it was aginst the flow of the river.

Eight anglers turned up and set up as the river was close to the top of the tide although it did rise further during this period. The match was fished from the top of the tide down although the river did not drop that much during the match. John Williams who was third in the first leg struggled in this match and left early to visit the local hostelry.

Steve Hanson was fished in the top swim close to the fence and had the wind blowing straight at him forcing him to use the feeder. He caught roach, including one of 1-3-0 and a skimmer to weigh in 6-14-0 on the feeder, using maggot to win the match.

In second place was Vince Herringshaw who was fishing the mint swim, the same one that the absent Steve Simmonds had won from in the 1st leg. He caught 4-13-12 of mainly roach and dace on maggot using a lollipop float on the pole. Vince was fortunate to have the wind blowing on to his back making float control a lot easier than the majority of the other anglers.

Fishing to the left of Vince and also benefiting from the wind on his back was John Shepherd who caught 2-1-8 of roach and dace on the stick float.

Overall Vince was the convincing winner of the Kirkby Bott trophy with two second places.