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ANGLING

All the up-to-date news from the Boston and District angling scene

With Barry Mallett

Angling news for week ending Sunday July 31, 2005

Cooler conditions welcomed

THE sun finally deigned to make its long overdue appearance on Sunday. But it emerged far too late in the day to make any impact on air and certainly none on water temperatures.

The week saw both of these decline in a mainly cloudy period. And midday on Sunday was more like November than the end of July.

Having said all that, both fish and anglers seemed to benefit from these cooler conditions as midweek pleasure men found both big fish such as tench, and smaller species of roach, perch and skimmers, all feeding in abundance.

The Stonebridge section of the Sibsey Trader Drain is the place to be for those tench and I have it on good authority that a peg in the 90s produced no less than nine big specimens in a single session.

Likewise those smaller species are making up nets of around the 12lbs mark at best from almost anywhere you would care to mention, be it the Bargate, Sibsey Trader or Hobhole Drains.

Thursday contrived to produce the worst of all conditions for Louth AA when they tackled the Stonebridge section of the Sibsey Trader Drain during an afternoon and evening session.

Thunderstorms, driving rain and quite cold temperatures, topped off with a mini-tornado, combined to turn the match into a real grueller as just a single tench of around 3½lbs was enough to clinch victory for John Walster. A few decent sized roach made up the rest of the weights, headed by George McKay, after whom the remainder of the catches were in the 1lb range.

Results: 1 John Walster 4lbs 11ozs; 2 George McKay 2lbs 14ozs; 3 Alec Lovesey 1lb 10ozs.

Drab time on Drain

The West Fen Drain appears to be in a sombre mood at present, as the Coach and Horses AC found to their cost when they tackled the Old Match length last Sunday. Bits, and very few at that, were the order of the day as Graham Upsall managed to hold off Danny Pettigrew senior, and denied him victory for the second week running, this time with a single ounce to spare.

Results: 1 Graham Upsall 3lbs 10ozs; 2 Danny Pettigrew senior 3lbs 9ozs; 3 Dave Helliwell 2lbs 9ozs.

Stickney AC travelled to the River Trent at East Stoke and it is nice to report success with a method close to my heart as Chris Chapman scored a fine win with a good net of roach to the stick float and caster.

Mark Thornton chose the waggler and caster for a slack swim and was rewarded with a bonus bream of some 4lbs plus to go with a couple of pounds of bits for second place.

Frank Scrupps could only sit and watch from an adjacent peg but still managed third place, taking two decent skimmers to his usual groundbait and swimfeeder tactics.

Results: 1 Chris Chapman 9lbs 14ozs; 2 Mark Thornton 6lbs 8ozs; 3 Frank Scrupps 2lbs 1oz; 4 Ray Taylor 1lb 12ozs.

Bream on the menu

Bream were firmly on the menu for Fishtoft AC’s visit to the Stonebridge section of the Sibsey Trader Drain last Sunday. Pegs in the early seventies was the place to be as Mick Whitham showed a clean pair of heels to those around him.

Feeder and worm was the preferred method and one which tempted some five decent specimens for Mick to take this week’s sweep.

Liam Shinn stuck to the trusty pole but could only manage two similar fish from the next door peg for third spot, while two more bream, also to the pole gave the runner-up position to Jerry Clifton from the next peg beyond.

Results: 1 Mick Whitham 19lbs oz; 2 Jerry Clifton 7lbs 14 ½ozs; 3 Liam Shinn 7lbs 3ozs; 4 Mark Cook 4lbs 9ozs.

Twelve anglers took part in the latest Monday evening match on Windsor Bank where Mark Griggs landed a good net of roach and skimmers to take the match, a mere six ounces ahead of Boston Junior Luke Morley.

Frank Scrupps employed his usual method of swim-feeder to land the near obligatory large fish, in this instance a tench of 4lbs 12ozs, to grab third spot ahead of 13-year-old Reece Dillamore.

Results: 1 Mark Griggs 7lbs 14oz; 2 Luke Morley 7lbs 8oz; 3 Frank Scrupps 5lbs 15oz; 4 Reece Dillamore 4lbs 5 oz.

Angling news for week ending Sunday July 24, 2005

Youngsters show prowess

The Boston Youth squad took on the country’s finest teams in the Angling Times Supercup final on the JBC Lakes. They were not expected to actually win anything, which indeed was the case, but they certainly enjoyed the day against top class company.

Top rod on the day was Ross Ingamells with fourth in section, and with support from Shaun Higgingbottom, Jonathan Taylor, Gavin Butler, Luke Morley and Nathan Underwood they finish 14th out of the 20 competing teams — a result which won them many friends and a good degree of respect from their peers.

Thanks go to all the other Boston Youth Angling team members who fished the earlier qualifying rounds and helped get the final squad to the final.

The ladies’ national championship took place on the Chesterfield Canal at Worksop last Saturday and here the venue proved to be rock hard for a good percentage of the field. Low weights could be attributed to the fact that a boat was put through the match length to stir up colour just before the start.

In effect anglers generally have had to put up with a total lack of that for most of the time, and certainly all those who put in regular practice found this to invariably be the case. Small chub was the main quarry and Starlets’ Julie Abbott made the most of a good draw to clinch an easy victory, more than doubling the weight of second-placed Karen Booth.

For our own girls, Ann Balderson made a comeback and finished best of the bunch, only just failing to win a medal in seventh place, an agonising 10 grammes short of that mark with 2.530kgs.

Linda Wells, on the other hand, was doing reasonably well until disaster, in the shape of a rogue boat, overtook. The man in charge seemed clueless on navigation and after crashing into the bank close by, then proceeded to reverse and swing the craft around in Linda’s swim, hence destroying all hope of any further catches by her and others nearby!

With aggregate weights counting in this event Starlets duly won the team title, Ashford holding on to the runner-up spot and a disappointed Boston team in seventh.

Individuals: 1 Julie Abbott, Starlets, 8.480kgs; 2 Karen Booth, Ashford, 4kgs; 3 Janie Hancock, Worksop, 3kgs; 4 Clare Dagnell, Starlets, 2.700kgs; 7 Ann Balderson, Boston and DAA, 2.530kgs.

Teams: 1 Starlets 12.630kgs; 2 Ashford 8.160kgs; 3 Warrington Red 6.350kgs.

Skimmers are receptive

Fishtoft AC travelled to Spalding to fish the Matmore Bridge section of the Coronation Channel on Sunday and found big skimmers in a receptive mood.

They also found big bream to be also interested and both the winner, in the shape of Jerry Clifton, lost five such fish off light tackle while second-placed Mark Cook fared even worse with eight similar fish escaping the hook. For the record, most fish were taken on a combination of pole, caster and maggot, as was the case for New Leake A C on adjacent pegs.

Results: 1 Jerry Clifton 16lbs 11ozs; 2 Mark Cook 12lbs 2ozs; 3 Rod Asher 11lbs; 4 Mick Whitham 10lbs 14ozs.

On the home front now and smaller skimmers abounded on the Nunn’s Bridge section of the Hobhole Drain where Chris Chapman had to settle for a tied first place with Tony Vamplew in the Stickney AC sweep.

Almost any bait and method produces good results at present, as the winners used a mixture of squatt, pinky and red maggot to short pole, while third-placed Ray Taylor opted for the waggler approach.

Results: Equal 1Chris Chapman and Tony Vamplew 7lbs 3ozs. 3 Ray Taylor 6lbs 8ozs; 4 Mark Thornton 3lbs 15ozs.

Skimmers are in lesser numbers on the roadside stretch at Swandyke Lane but here the odd big bream usually has a say in the direction of the prizes.

So it was for the Coach and Horses A C on a return visit last Sunday, and on this occasion Graham Upsall denied Danny Pettigrew senior a repeat win, taking one very large fish plus a good number of those skimmers.

Results: 1 Graham (Rolf) Upsall 9lbs 4ozs; 2 Danny Pettigrew senior 7lbs; 3 Lee Feary 3lbs 7ozs.

Maurice is runaway winner

Even with a good winning weight the poorest match of the weekend was that of Sibsey A C on the Northlands section of the Sibsey Trader Drain. Maurice Sharp was the runaway winner with skimmers and bream to 3lbs but only one other, in the shape of Colin Peltell, could make a pound or more.

Result: 1 Maurice Sharp 11lbs 2ozs; 2 Colin Peltell 1lb; 3 Pete Coulson 4½ozs.

Bang up to date now and a cold and dreary Monday evening sweep on the Windsor Bank section of the Bargate Drain attracted just 10 anglers. Just a majority fished the feeder as opposed to the pole and as it happens both methods provided the joint winning weights to Mark Thornton and Steve Lammiman. Mark chose the feeder and included a nice roach/bream hybrid while Steve gathered together a good net of bits to a nine-metre pole.

Results: Equal 1 Mark Thornton and Steve Lamyman 3lbs 10ozs; 3 Mark Cook 2lbs 8oz; 4 Frank Scrupps 1lb 14oz.

Angling news for week ending Sunday July 17, 2005

Big bream to the fore

THE present spell of settled weather has seen water temperatures on the rise and with that, it would appear, the end of the doldrums as far as big fish go.

Since virtually the start of the season, it’s been the case that one decent sized fish plus a few smaller specimens has generally been enough to clinch the winner’s spoils.

All that changed on Sunday (July 17) as the Hobhole Drain showed its true form with a couple of good weights of big bream from the Swandyke Lane area.

Not only that, but choosing almost any peg along most of its length, from the outfall at Fishtoft to the roadside stretch, results in good nets of hand-sized skimmers.

First of all, though, I must mention the Division One national championship which took place on the Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes last Saturday, not least for the fact that the Wisbech-based Dick Clegg Mark One outfit contained a strong contingent of young Boston anglers who generally held their own in this top class company.

As usual, 1kg to 1.5kgs gained mid-range section points and I’m pleased to report that three of the four involved were well in excess of that.

Starting with the lowest weight, but not so the points, was Shane Green whose 1.3kgs gained him 43 (out of 68 in each case).

Next up was Jonathon Taylor with exactly the same number from a 1.72kgs total and Gavin Butler topping the 2kgs mark for one point less. Of the Boston boys, the now senior and far more experienced Alistair Ogilvie topped this particular list with both best weight of 2.24kgs for 61 points, but pride of place must go to John Spalton who not only recorded the top weight of 4.27kgs and a fine win in section A but also a 15th place overall in the individual stakes.

Simon Fry of Starlets won the match with a near 2kgs cushion but the real lift was to see the re-emergence of Lincoln angler Howard Kaye in clinching the runner-up spot. Scunthorpe lad Graham Bontoft was in sixth place.

Team-wise, the crack Starlets squad won the day by two points per man over a heavily sponsored Tipton crew with Browning Hotrods just holding on to third.

Of the more local teams, DC Mark One could only manage 24th place, some way ahead of Lincs County in 32nd and Scunthorpe in 35th and so this year’s honours go to a surprised, and surprising, Lincoln and District AA Whisby outfit who took 14th place with a 507 point total.

Individuals: 1 Simon Fry, Starlets, 10.880kgs; 2 Howard Kaye, Lincoln DAA Whisby, 9.1kgs; 3 Simon Keiffer, Eastleigh and District, 7.49kgs; 4 Michael Keene, Ludlow, 7.33kgs; 5 Lee Newsom, Browning Hotrods, 6.59kgs; 6 Graham Bontoft, Scunthorpe and District, 6.2kgs.

Teams: 1 Starlets AS 633pts, 2 Shimano Tipton 608pts, 3 Browning Hotrods 598pts, 4 Collins Green 587pts, 5 Drennan North West 583pts, 6 Milton Keynes 560pts.

‘Yappy’ is so happy

Turning now to local events and Stickney AC was the club that benefited from the sudden upturn in form, and Ryan “Yappy” Mountain in particular who tempted those bream into a feeding mood.

Using the tried and trusted feeder and worm combination he landed fish ranging from those small skimmers to full blown specimens of more than 5lbs for an emphatic victory.

Mark Thornton, at the next but one peg took similar fish but could only hang on to his coat tails, taking second place nearly 15lbs behind.

Things were somewhat quieter after all this but all members had a few of those skimmers to put on the scales.

Results: 1 Ryan Mountain 42lbs 4ozs, 2 Mark Thornton 27lbs 9ozs, 3 Eric Brown 6lbs 13ozs, 4 Chris Chapman 2lbs 13ozs.

From best to worst as Fishtoft AC struggled on a very weedy South Forty Foot Drain at Wyberton Chain Bridge.

Practice during mid-week suggested a cracking match with plenty of quality roach and skimmers on offer but come Sunday only the winner had more than a couple of pounds to weigh.

Even then Mark Naylor could only conjure up five good roach, which actually gained him a pound advantage over second-placed Mick Whitham. Ben Jackson in third was unlucky to miss out by a mere half ounce, and Nick Mummery claiming fourth, the only other to break the 1lb mark.

Results: 1 Mark Naylor 2lbs 12ozs, 2 Mick Whitham 1lb 11½ozs, 3 Ben Jackson 1lb 11ozs, 4 Nick Mummery 1lb 4ozs.

It’s 1-2 for Pettigrews

The Pettigrews (father or son) seem to invariably feature somewhere along the line in week on week Coach and Horses AC results, but went one better this time around as they battled each other for supremacy on a very warm Windsor Bank section of the Bargate Drain.

On this occasion dad came out tops as he held on to win by 5oz in a match which saw average weights of 5lbs between the 14 club members attending.

Results: 1 Danny Pettigrew senior 8lbs 10ozs, 2 Danny Pettigrew junior 8lbs 5ozs, 3 Dave Halliwell 7lbs 3ozs.

The ladies take their turn for glory with their national championship being fished on the Chesterfield Canal at Worksop this Saturday.

If nothing else the match should be better attended than of recent years, and certainly from the Boston viewpoint, seeing a return to open waters as opposed to private lakes. So it’s good luck to our Boston girls and let’s hope that they return with some prizes.

Angling news for week ending Sunday July 10, 2005

Double top for Giles

A DRAMATIC change from the previous week’s rather damp and cool weather, but no such corresponding improvement in feeding activity from our resident (and abundant) fish population.

Club reports are also on the thin side this week but we start with the senior schools match that took place in atrocious conditions on the Horncastle Road stretch of the Bargate Drain.

Everyone in attendance should be awarded a medal for sticking to their task in pouring rain that lasted from before the draw, right through the two hour event and then well beyond the prize giving.

As you would expect, weights were by no means brilliant under such conditions but at least more than two thirds of the field had something to show for their efforts as most nets included small roach and skimmers.

Giles School provided a good percentage of the total entry and by no means a guarantee, this, together with some skill from various team members who also happen to belong to Boston juniors, helped them to achieve the top two places.

It could have been a different story though if the William Lovell D team was at full strength as Ross Ingamells and Nicky Bell managed to clinch third place between them.

Giles 2 were by far and away easy winners of the Centenary Trophy as they more than doubled the weight of second placed Giles 9, due in the most part to the top individual weight of Boston junior, Luke Morley.

This section proved to be a clean sweep of the top three prizes by Giles anglers as Reece Dillamore and Daniel Austin came home behind Luke.

The under 17 years category, as often happens, turned in lower individual weights and this time around it was down to Ross Ingamells to lead home Liam Shinn and Nicholas Wright.

Teams: 1 Giles 2 2.300kgs; 2 Giles 9 1.050kgs; 3 William Lovell D 0.830kgs.

Individuals: (Hudson Cup under-14) 1 Luke Morley Giles 2 1.350kgs; 2 Reece Dillamore Giles 2 0.950kgs; 3 Daniel Austin Giles 9 0.560kgs.

Beckett Cup under-17: 1 Ross Ingamells, William Lovell, D 0.600kgs; 2 Liam Shinn, Giles 9, 0.390kgs; 3 Nicholas Wright, Haven High A, 0.370kgs.

Thanks again went to the Environment Agency, Boston Angling Centre, Pilgim Tackle, Jonathon Taylor and Boston and District AA for the many prizes. Thanks also went to Norprint for the use of their car park, the police community services officer for safe crossing of Horncastle Road and to all the parents, guardians and teachers for their efforts on what was an extremely miserable night.

It’s grim on the Trader

Moving on to Sunday (July 10) and the Sibsey Trader Drain was particularly grim as between the Stickney and Sibsey angling clubs covering 20 pegs at Stonebridge, they could manage just two tench and two other weights over the 1lb mark between them. Stickney AC first and Alan Fear wrapped up proceedings with one tench plus a few bits, to be followed by Frank Scrupps with another lone tench. No surprise there then!

Results: 1 Alan Fear 4lbs 10ozs; 2 Frank Scrupps 4lbs; 3 Mark Thornton 1lb 4ozs; 4 Chris Chapman 15ozs.

Sibsey AC, on the adjacent pegs, could not manage even one better fish Colin Peltell emerged from a gaggle of poor weights to win with the day’s only pound-plus weight.

Results: 1 Colin Peltell 1lb 1oz; 2 Danny Martin 13½ ozs; 3 Maurice Sharp 6½ ozs.

Fishtoft AC did somewhat better on the East Stoke section of the River Trent on Sunday as most members had at least 2lbs of fish to weigh in.

The river showed no sign of any extra water and with a steady flow, waggler and maggot for roach was the chosen method for the majority. Nigel Taylor emerged top dog with a good weight of those quality roach, followed by Terry Gooding who feels completely at home with this method on this sort of water.

Results:1 Nigel Taylor 8lbs 9ozs; 2 Terry Gooding 6lbs; 3 Paul Cater 4lbs 7ozs; 4 Ben Jackson 3lbs 8ozs.

Teams are outclassed

The Boston and District AA junior teams, fishing their national championship at Woodland View, Droitwich last Saturday, found themselves outclassed in most cases.

This was more to do with the make up of the three categories, as previous successful teams have either moved up a group — and hence short of experience compared to other teams in that group — or, as in the case the intermediates, one man short of a six-strong team.

As for the cadets, it was their first time out in competition on this type of water, and their inexperience showed in finishing in fifth and last place. The bright spots here were the section win achieved by Steve Underwood and second in section by Sophie Williams. The juniors finished in a lowly 15th place and both Nathan Underwood and Nicholas Wright gained 22 points, the latter weighing 11.780kgs and qualifying for the Fish O Mania in eighth place overall.

The intermediates also finished in 15th place, not too bad considering the handicap, as Shaun Higginbottom turned in the best performance with 21 points (third in section) and good performances from Matthew Hassell and Ross Ingamells, both on 15 points.

Success for ‘the feeder’

The Monday evening match on Windsor Bank, which attracted 10 hopefuls, saw Frank “the feeder” Scrupps score another win, taking three bream plus a big eel from peg 38.

Results: 1 Frank Scrupps 11lbs 15ozs; 2 Darren Pickwell 6lbs 15ozs; 3 Ted Marsh 5lbs 9ozs.

Angling news for week ending Sunday July 3, 2005

Jerry tops as going gets tough

Fishtoft AC found the going hard on the Aladdin’s Cave section of the upper Hobhole Drain where a tench of around 4lbs separated Jerry Clifton from a gaggle of other members in the 2lbs category. Small roach were the order

of the day and Mick Whitham was the best of the rest with a shade under 3lbs, all taken on pole and pinky.

Results: 1 Jerry Clifton 6lbs 1oz; 2 Mick Whitham 2lbs 15 ½ ozs; 3 Rex Harrison 2lbs 9ozs; 4 Rod Asher 2lbs.

The Bargate Drain appears to be in somewhat better form and has been so right from the off and first of all on the Windsor Bank section Stickney AC found good numbers of small fish on the feed, apart from the usual bream and tench which naturally provided the better weights.

The tried and much tested method of worm, combined with quivertip and feeder brought another convincing victory to Frank Scrupps who took one big bream plus a fair share of good skimmers and perch for the day’s sole double figure net. Ray Taylor added a fine tench of some 4lbs 10ozs but could not add

anything else of note and was perhaps lucky to hang on to second place ahead of Eric Brown.

Results: 1 Frank Scrupps 11lbs 3ozs; 2 Roy Taylor 4lbs 13ozs; 3 Eric Brown 4lbs; 4 Mark Thornton 3lbs 10ozs.

Tench to the fore

The Coach and Horses AC match was on a par with their Stickney AC counterparts, even though their chosen pegs on the Horncastle Road section were used the previous day.

Tench once more was the name of the game and Danny Pettigrew saw off the opposition with two super fish taken on pole and worm in a double figure total. Steve Hooper took a distant second spot with two decent skimmers, while Ralph Philips grabbed third with a net of bits.

Results: 1 Danny Pettigrew 11lbs 4ozs; 2 Steve Hooper 4lbs 8ozs; 3 Ralph Philips 3lbs 9ozs.

That Saturday match involved Winterton AC from Scunthorpe and although the winning weight was somewhat less, the lack of big fish was made up for by a very nice catch of roach to pole and hemp, taken by winner Dave Mitchell.

Second placed Karl Maddison chose a different approach as pole and worm brought eight each of eels and perch. Tench did put in an appearance as Neil Suchoparek included one 4lb specimen for third and Mally Chambers a similar sized model for fourth.

Results: 1 Dave Mitchell 7lbs 10ozs; 2 Karl Maddison 6lbs 10ozs; 3 Neil Suchoparek 6lbs 2ozs; 4 Mally Chambers 5lbs 3ozs.

The open match on the Bargate Drain saw attendance in double figures at last. The Windsor Bank section continues to throw up decent weights of small roach and skimmers to both 5m and 9m of pole and squatt. Gavin Butler proved to be the best of the bunch by far this week as he came home with nearly two pounds advantage over Paul Marsh in this three hour match.

Results: 1 Gavin Butler 5lbs 10ozs; 2 Paul Marsh 3lbs 13ozs; 3 Gary Shinn 1lb 12ozs.

Positive news on youths

Going back a few days and I’m pleased to announce that the Boston youth angling team have, at their first attempt, progressed through to the Angling Times Clubman Supercup final, to be fished at JCB Lakes Complex on July 17.

The team of Gavin Butler, Jon Taylor, Shane Green, Shaun Higgingbottom, Ross Ingamells and Daniel Skerritt fished the semi-finals at Tunnel Barn Farm, a venue they had never seen before the day of the match. Without practice they still managed to finish in fifth place overall, so on that form a couple of practice sessions on the final venue will put them in good shape to compete for the top prize of £2,000.

Realistically they stand no chance against some of the top outfits in the land, but who knows what may happen on the day and at the very least they will gain some valuable experience.

The junior nationals are fished this weekend with Boston Cadets defending the title at Woodland View Fishery, Droitwich in Worcestershire. The Boston youth angling team have three teams entered in this year’s event — cadets, juniors and intermediates. So here’s hoping they put in their usual good performance and come home with some silverware.