21.06.2020 -Summerhayes - Longs Match Lake

A full house for today's match with a maximum of 20 anglers able to fish on the 39 peg venue. Odd number swims were in use today so a nice platform of space between anglers which was a good set up. People seem to be very keen as I was there just after 8 am and many of the swims were already occupied and anglers were in the process of setting up.

It was good to see a few people that I hadn't seen for while due to either being on lock down or working and I was pleased to see my old mate Eric back on the bank again along with the normal faces.

A bit of social distancing conversation and banter prior to the match always go down well and today was none the different. Its what makes a Sunday worth while even if you don't catch. Then the guru tart turn up in a red top and what looked like a orange mini skirt if he had green trainers he'd have looked like a set of traffic lights.

George picked up his winnings from the previous week along with Golden Peg money but was still a grumpy old git as he passed my peg calling me a " little illegitimate person" in his weird northern accent as he waddled to his swim, he does deserve all the grief he gets.

The draw was done again on Friday evening with the normal format of Steve drawing the draw order and myself drawing the pegs. I had a look at the previous weeks results from Jamie Rich blog - Against Men and Fish which 135lb won the overall and 20lb won the silvers so in my head I wanted a silvers draw this week and wanted to be road side. 

There are some good pegs on the lake for carp with peg 7 by the lillies being favored by many but they do tend to take you staring into the lillies so heavy gear or lots of spare rigs required here. 

I manage to get my road side draw and I was also fortunate to be drawn with Eric, however he spent the day catching fish so he didn't have anytime to break into song. It was good to see him catching as the previous day he only had a handful of bites at the Sedges - Canal lake. On my other side I had Graham for the second time in 3 weeks and was also good to see him catching as he unfortunately had the same experience as Eric did a few weeks back.

Mr Warren wasn't looking forward to his peg on 5 as Jamie Rich only had a couple of pound of silvers the previous week and didn't weigh in his carp, although I didn't tell Steve that he was a silvers angler and left him mulling over his poor draw for then next 48 hours. 

The draw was as follows with Golden peg nos 9

Peg nos 

1 - Roger Coombes

3 - Dave Allen

5 - Steve Warren

7 - Steve King

9 - Tony Fry

11 - Phil Beards

13 - Dave Tunstall

15 - John Wolstencroft

17 - George Fletcher

19 - John Bradford

21- Martin Western

23 - Danny Donnahay

25 - Paul Bowyer

27 - Garham Birbidge

29 - Nigel Coram

31 - Eric Searle

33 - Tony Newell

35 - Paul Lock

37 - Brian Chivers

39 - Shane Western

In difficult conditions with wind , rain and sunshine a good amount of fish was caught around the lake and a new experience of me seeing Paul Bowyer fishing paste and catching a few good bream.

Results

Overall - 

1st - Eric Searle                 - 115lb - 07 oz

2nd - John Woolenscroft    - 101lb - 11 oz

3rd - Stev King                   - 97lb - 00 oz

Silvers

1st - Dave Tungstall         - 19lb - 08 oz

2nd - George Fletcher`     - 11lb - 10 oz

3rd - Nigel Coram            - 11lb - 03 oz

Well done to all those who framed today.

Next up is Trinity - Woodlands

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEXT 2 MATCHES ARE FULLY BOOKED BUT MEMBERS CAN STILL RING STEVE AND BE PUT ON THE RESERVE LIST.

It is with great sadness to hear the news that former Chairman Kevin Hayes has passed away,. 

Chairman Phil Beards commented "Today I received some sad new that his friend and good fishing buddy had passed away.. Not only was he a great character but a true gentleman and will be missed by not only me but the rest of his fishing mates at HLS Angling Club"

The club send its condolences to the family in these difficult times. RIP Kevin Hayes.

Results

The Guru Tart - Literally being a tart dressed in his Amber Skirt, he left his pink trainers at home this week. Looks like another sweat shirt that hes grown out of!!!

Landsend Fisheries 14.06.2020

Todays meeting was at the newly acquired Landsend Fishery now owned by darts legend "The Flying Scotsman" Gary Anderson and was a little bit surreal in seeing someone of his status who you come accustom to wearing his Scottish tartan shirt whilst playing darts to a fishery owner wearing his scruffs. He was accompanied by the previous owner Mike who is now working along side Gary to show him the ropes.

16 anglers were booked in for today's match on what started the day being overcast with very  little breeze, to when setting up, a couple of heavy showers which managed to get the brollies out for some.  Luckily the day turned out hot and sunny which saw lots of carp cruising in the shallow waters. Again people arrived early and paid their dues before plodding off to their pegs in anticipation of catching a few fish.

Steve and I did the draw again on Friday and the balls of doom produced the following

G/P - NOS 5

PEG NOS

1 - Callum

2 - Sausage

3 - Grumpy John

5 - Mutant George

7 - Dave Allen

9 The Guru Tart

11 - Sharp Shopper Shane

13 - Bob Pascoe

15 - Lord C

16 - Moany Steve

17 - Danny

18 - Queenie

19 - Dave Tunstall

21 - Quiet Graham

22 - John Bradford

24 Tony Fry

Results

Overall

1st - John Wolstwncroft - 148lb -14oz

2nd - Steve Warren         -  83lb -14oz

3rd - Steve King             - 75lb - 10oz

Silvers

1st - George Fletcher - 19lb - 00 oz

2nd - Bob Pascoe       - 12lb - 09 oz

3rd - Paul Bowyer      - 11lb - 10oz

Well done to John who smashed the match today and George who also won the Golden peg. 

Next up is Summerhayes fishing on Longs Match Lake. 

Please remember to book in with Steve Warren asap for all matches

Sedges - Canal - 07.06.2020

With the proposed fixture at Shiplate being cancelled as the fishery is not yet open due to Covid 19, Steve managed to get a match on the canal. A lake that I had never fished before so I was looking forward to it.

A great number were booked in this week with 21 attending and again it was nice to see Steve Coles back with us and again Roger Coombes enjoying the sport in the terrific weather we are witnessing.

Now last week when there were murmurs of using the canal, my mate Stan Butt said to me, if you draw the car park end then all well and good, if you draw the far end then you might as well go home. There was a match on the canal on the Monday and results were not brilliant and true to Stans words- the results were spot on with his prediction so when me and Steve did the draw I was hoping that I would get something good.

Myself and Steve did the draw where Steve called out the drawing order and with the help of our bingo balls I would choose the peg. All above board and all on face time, we tried recording the draw but unfortunately when you got 2 technophobes trying to use these gadgets it was never going to work.

By the time I had arrived at 8.05 most people were already at there pegs setting up and the car park was very congested. Maybe people just keen to get out of the house .

Golden peg was drawn - nos 59

Draw as follows

41 - Martin Western
42 - Steve King
43 - Tony Newell
44 - Danny Dannahay
45 - Phil Beards
46 - Brian Chivers
47 - Roger Coombes
48 - John Bradford
50 - Steve Warren
51 - Paul Boyer
52 - Tony Fry
53 - Graham Burridge
54 - Nige Coram
56 - Stan Butt
58 - Dave Tunsten
59 - Dave Allen
60 - George Fletcher
61 - Rich Coles
62 - John Wolstencroft
63 - Steve Coles
64 - Shane Western

So for the 2 people who carried out the draw we ended up on the shallow end of the lake so no fixing going on here.

The good thing with the draw being done like this, is that when people turn up they go to their peg and have plenty of time to set up and after they have set up they can wait for the all in which generally means a little discussion with fellow anglers but obviously following social distancing rules and on nice sunny days its all relaxed. Even the Guru tart was relaxed today rather than being a coiled spring and the atmosphere was such a pleasant one.

So how was it gong to fish today, nice sunny conditions, not too windy and looking really nice, one issue though, no topping fish when we were setting up and for me two tall trees either side of me so a day in the shade. The water depth - down the track 2ft, margin 1 foot - far bank 9 inches oh dear not great but hey, its a days fishing with some good guys.

At the end of the match and looking at the results sheets, Stans predictions were again correct - I wonder if he can predict the lottery numbers - he also predicted he would win his £2 from Tony and Phil - he got that right as well, I wonder if he does tarot cards?

Results -

Overall

1st - Steve Cole          - 66lb - 08oz
2nd - Martin Western - 60lb - 02 oz
3rd - Roger Coombes - 49lb - 14 oz

Silvers

1st - Paul Bowyer      - 14lb - 02 oz
2nd - Dave Allen       - 7lb - 08 oz
3rd - Danny Donahay - 6lb - 08oz

Well done to everyone who fished and a great effort by Sausage bagging 14lb of silvers from the not fancied shallow end. Thank you for those who helped weigh in and the results sheet.

I did take a photo of Georges feet but to be honest its not great viewing and even if you thought Covid 19 was bad for your health, a picture of Georges feet could end it for everyone, So why the picture of his feet, well to be honest it was his socks, he was sporting a very woolly pair of Christmas Sock - really George!!!

Next week we are at Landsend on the match lake and probably fishing in 2 feet deep water again. Please note that the club has been informed that all nets must be dipped - those who do not dip will be disqualified and asked to leave.

Limited spaces of 18 and 15 have already booked in so please ensure you phone Steve Warren to book your place.

Finally just a short message to the members who have been house tied due to this pandemic, our thoughts are with you and we look forward to seeing you on the bank in the very near future. Stay safe.

Trinity -Woodlands 30.05.20

Well, after a longer few months away from the banks we received news on Wednesday that match fishing was again on the agenda. After a massive effort from Steve Warren the club managed to get necessasry equipment to carry out weing safely and approval from the fishery owners to get this party started.


A new format was put in place where the draw for the order of fisherman was put in place then followed the pegging, all carried out on face time between myself and Steve, so no cheating. Thankyou to those members who said they liked the draw this way, maybe its the way forward but it made it easier on the morning of the match?


16 Anglers were available this week and to be fair the draw went very well. With complete fairness in mind we decided that 8 anglers were to be on each bank with no empty pegs between anglers.


Reports that some good weights have been comming out from numbers 9 to 13 on the far bank and also from 22 - 16 so these were the pegs to be sat on. With the weather having been really warm and sunny for the past 10 weeks I was surprised to see the fish still spawning, maybe a few late commers.


On arrival veryone was doing there very best to comply with the Angling Trust and Government Guidelines for social distancing and having informed people prior to the match, people had there fees ready to avoid unessary handling. People would off load their equipment and make their way to the pegs that they had drawn the previous evening. It meant that the earlier the members arrived, the longer they would have to set up for the 10.00am all in.


It was quite commical in how the draw ended up with the noisey neighbours on the far bank and the calm collectives on the near side (except shane) and with Queenie, Mutant George and The Guru Tart all next to one another this was the battle of the loudest.


Some members must have saved some money over last few months with George and Danny sporting new margin poles and Sausage with his new Oculus 999. Rumour had it that George had got so fed up with Danny taking his pound off of him that  giving carp fishing a bash and in order to to ensure that George didnt get the better of him Danny would match him and was also sportig a new margin pole as he was contemplating carp fishing. After such a long lay off The Guru Tart must have replenished his stock of Guru Floats and had now have a full tray of floats again. Tungsten Dave actually admitted to cleaning his equipment and actually this was his first outing since lockdown and it was nice to see Roger back on the bank again.


Queenie was on form with his banter towards the other members with George being his main source of comedy and Phil losing yet more floats and messing up the best swim on the lake yet again. I hink weve all missed George and his use of a few choice words ( Iam not small and am not illegitemate)


There were plenty of fish at the surface with large dark shaddows to be seen everywhere and for Roger and Brian they had to put up with the spawning fish in the margins. Im sure the method and thoughts would be to try and mug a few with hard pellet and slapping, whilst others would have a more traditional approach.


Draw


Golden Peg 31


6 - Roger Coombes
7 - John Wolstencroft
8 - Richard Coles
9 - Dave Allen
10 - Steve Warren
11 - George Fletcher
12 - Steve King
13 - Phil Beards
24 - Shane Western
25 - Paul Bowyer
26 - Danny Donnahay
27 - Stan Butt
28 - Tony Fry
29 - Nigel Coram
30 - Dave Tunstill
31 - Brian Chivers


Results


Silvers


1st - Rich Coles - 47lb - 05oz
2nd - George      - 19lb - 11oz
3rd - Danny        - 18lb - 07oz


Overall


1st - Dave Allen                - 115lb - 13oz
2nd - Nigel Coram             - 90lb - 11oz
3rd - John Woolenscroft    - 73lb - 03oz


The great thing about fishing is what method do you choose on the day, do you fish long or short, deep or shallow, what bait do the fish want most, paste, hard pellett, corn, soft pellet, worm, castor or maggotts. Rich Coles got his method dead right but with the exception of Rich who had a brilliant day on the silvers the match was close with only a few pounds between 5 anglers and some nice large bream were caught and Stan catching an eel about 2lb which had Queenie backing away from the weigh net.


Dave Allen who smashed his paste rig up with about 45mins to go and reverted to the feeder, then caught late to snatch the overall weight.


All fishermen caught and we all lost fish aswell, but the main thing was that we were out on the bank, having a great day basking in the sunshine and enjoing one anothers company even if it was at distance.


Thanks for Steve Warren in getting the match on at such late notice, to Danny making his adapted weigh machine (which is just going throught he patent process) and to Steve King who had the labouious job of the weigh in which took a bit of time.


Next Sunday we are at the Sedges on the canal lake. To enter you must contact Steve Warren by 7pm by Thursday evening at the latest, there will not be anyone accepted after this time. The draw will be done again via facebook on the Saturday evening. Please ensure that you bring the correct money again.


The club would like to pass its sympathy and thoughts to Tony Newell and family, following the passing of former member John Newell who passed away last Friday evening.