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Week ending March 11
Shy feeders in sunshine as season concludes
Well, that’s about it boys and girls for another season
of angling action. It has been a superb end to the season as conditions
remained almost summer-like to the end. But perhaps these were too good to
maintain the standards of recent match results. Such was probably the case
for the RAF match fished on the River Witham at Tattershall Bridge, where
those recent prolific big bream suddenly turned into very shy feeders in the
sunshine.
Most of those drawn between the Skirth mouth and the Bridge opted for a
feeder attack, but these tactics proved mainly fruitless as just the odd
bream showed throughout the stretch. Those who opted for an early change to
the hemp and tare approach took their rewards by catching some of the quality
roach on offer, but for many the switch was all too late.
The exception was eventual winner Gary Vongyer who opted for two pole lines
of 10m and 14m. Fishing for bream at 14m saw him hook and loose a few in the
early part of the match, then only managing a few decent skimmers from that
farther line. Most productive was the 10m hemp line that produced some
quality roach from the second half of the contest to see him to victory. An
unstable platform brought about the loss of around an hour’s fishing for Phil
Foster. But when reorganised, he weighed in a creditable net of quality roach
for the second spot. Third place fell to John Belcher took a mixed bag of
silver fish from between the two bridges and a late switch to the hemp/tares
combination saw him win the section by a clear 5lb. Results: 1 Gary Vongyer
18lbs 13ozs; 2 Phil Foster 17lbs 13ozs; 3 John Belcher 17lbs 3ozs.
It was a similar story from the final match on the same stretch the following
day, when Andy Dixon tempted a single bream to add to his winning catch of
roach, these of course falling to the deadly seed bait. Pole and worm was the
singular attack from start to finish for Steve Nurse who produced a good
catch of perch to give him second place, well clear of the rest. The chasing
group all chose the winner’s method and fought out a close battle for third
position as only ounces covered the next five anglers, headed by Spalding man
Brian Harding. Results: 1 Andy Dixon, Sensas Lincs County, 18lbs 6ozs; 2
Steve Nurse, Grimsby, 17lbs 12ozs; 3 Brian Harding, Bourne MG, 14lbs 7ozs; 4
Roger Woolhouse, Bardney, 14lbs 2ozs.
Hung over from the previous weekend was East Coast Junior
League match that took place on the Chapel Stretch of the Ten Mile Bank.
Bright sunlight, although very welcome after the rains, did nothing to put
the fish into a feeding mood, which left almost everyone struggling to keep
the bites coming. Many quality roach and skimmers were to be had during
practise the previous week, but these failed to show and so leaving the prize
order to be decided by the inclusion of the odd bream and tench.
Top rod on the day was local Kings Lynn angler Steven Hillman who switched
between feeder and pole to tempt a bream of 4lbs and a smaller tench of
around 2lbs to go with a few roach. Second spot also went the same way and
fell to in-form lady angler Kirsty Reed who fished the pole to 9metres for a
bag of small roach, third place going to Lincoln lad Danny Martin. Results: 1
Steven Hillman, King’s Lynn, 8lbs 11ozs; 2 Kirsty Reed, King’s Lynn Gold,
4lbs 12ozs; 3 Danny Martin, Lincoln A, 4lbs 6ozs.
In the team stakes the Boston machine still rumbles on and managed to tie
with Lincoln A for first place, both amassing 11 pts; 3 Holbeach 15pts;
4 King’s Lynn Gold 17pts; 5 Lincoln B 19pts.
Section winners: A section, James Wright, Holbeach; B section, Nicholas
Wright, Boston Green; C section, Chris Weedon, Boston Red; D section, Kale
Woodhouse, Lincoln A.
Teams overall: 1 Boston Green 66pts; 2 Kings Lynn Gold 89pts; 3 Lincoln
A 96pts; 4 Holbeach Red 100pts; equal 5 Boston Red and Lincoln B 107pts.
The final round will take place at Decoy Lakes on April 22.
Sad to report at this stage is the loss to the Witham and District JAF of the
Brewery Farm Complex at Coningsby. This has been in the Federation’s hands
for a few years and has been popular with local anglers, but the site owners
have taken the fishery back for exclusive use by their own staff, and it will
be unavailable to our own members from June 1.
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Week ending March 11
Witham maintains positive form run
The season is now just about all over and only the odd
midweek match or two remain to be reported on. Apart from the odd overnight
shower, last week’s weather was much drier than at first predicted and by the
time Saturday arrived most waters had fined down to reasonable levels and
flows. This was reflected in catches around the area and beginning with the
River Witham both midweek and weekend events prove my point.
The River Witham continues in top form, as it has mostly
been throughout this winter. And here big bream were again the deciding
factor. Wednesday’s match saw another runaway victory and on this occasion
Shaun Wright delivered the goods as he took five such fish in the 5lbs
category, plus an equal weight of big skimmers to feeder, worm and caster. A
single bream added to a good sample of those big skimmers made the difference
for second placed Alan Houlton, finishing well clear of Roger Woolhouse whose
net consisted mainly of perch. Results: 1 Shaun Wright, Sensas Mark One,
41lbs 7ozs; 2 Alan Houlton, Sensas Lincs County, 16lbs 8ozs; 3 Roger
Woolhouse, Bardney, 12lbs 12ozs; 4 Maurice Thacker, Lincoln, 11lbs.
Saturday saw less in the way of bream but Essex County star Lee Klimczuk,
drawn on the same peg as the midweek winner, found two to make the difference
in beating stable mate Alistair Ogilvie to the top spot. Alistair’s could be
considered the best catch of the day as this was almost entirely roach taken
on the pole, groundbait and maggot. Dave Ashmore edged into third with an
all-perch net while Maurice Thacker, again taking an all roach catch, had to
be content with fourth for the second time in four days. Results: 1 Lee
Klimczuk, VDE Essex County, 28lbs; 2 Alistair Ogilvie, VDE Essex County,
18lbs 6ozs; 3 Dave Ashmore, Grimsby, 17lbs 12ozs; 4 Maurice Thacker, Lincoln,
14lbs 8ozs; 5 Chris Elsom, Sensas Lincs County, 11lbs 10ozs.
The Gary Thompson memorial match had to be switched from the Trent due to
flooded tidal part of the river to a more amenable Foss Dyke Canal on the
Bridge Inn stretch. A pleasant day but the strong wind made conditions
very difficult and although the venue fished well, catches would have been a
lot better without that. Pole and pinky at 6m for roach was the winning
combination for Paul Clark who finished with a comfortable advantage over
second placed Dave Small. For his part Dave elected to stay with mainly pole
and breadpunch but did manage to tempt the odd better roach to caster, which
perhaps ultimately gave him the edge over match organiser Frank Butler. Frank
in fact did it the hard way with pole at 11 metres for a mixture of small
roach, perch and skimmers and ended the day just 5ozs down on
Dave. Results: 1 Paul Clark, Lincoln Whisby AS, 9lbs 1oz; 2 Dave Small,
Lincoln Whisby AS, 7lbs 8ozs; 3 Frank Butler, Lincoln Whisby AS, 7lbs 3ozs; 4
Justin Rose, Lincoln Whisby AS, 7lbs 1oz.
Experience seemed to be the deciding factor as the Bingham AA match on the
South Forty Foot Drain at Swineshead Bridge produced much higher weights on
Sunday, over their Nags Head AC counterparts the previous day. Perch, and
large ones to 1½lbs at that, completely dominated that Bingham match on
Sunday. Paul Gilbert easily won the previous outing to this venue and
Sunday’s match was no different as he ended the day with a 9lbs advantage
over Brian Matthews. He in turn finished well clear of a gaggle of other good
weights as Mick Payling just held on to third spot ahead of Steve Simpson and
Matt Wallington. Results: 1 Paul Gilbert 35lbs 6ozs; 2 Brian Matthews 26lbs
10ozs; 3 Mick Payling 20lbs 8ozs; 4 Steve Simpson 20lbs 6ozs; 5 Matt
Wallington 16lbs 10ozs; 6 Martin Fielding 15lbs 10ozs.
That Saturday match still produced reasonable weights and whereas the middle
pegs produced the goods on Sunday it was the higher ones that brought most
success in this instance. Drawing the same peg as a previous visit, Chris
Smith did much better this time around and instead of a mediocre pound plus
weight then, he held on for victory over Paul Brocklebank at the next-door
peg and needed well over 15lbs to ensure that win. Peg 1, right next to the
bridge itself, came up trumps for a change and gave Phil Kirk third place,
whilet down towards the far end his good wife Max, no slouch herself, beat Dougie
Crookes to fourth spot.
Things were infinitely better than the previous week, but Fishtoft AC
travelled to Wainfleet on Sunday for their final outing of the season, only
to find the River Steeping in a dour mood. Very small roach were the sole
takers and this obviously produced a close contest for the prizes as a mere
ounce separated first from second. Organiser Mark Cook won his second
match on the trot as he made the odd extra fish or two count against Jerry
Clifton in second and Rod Asher in third place, an exact mirror of last
week’s result. Results: 1 Mark Cook 5lbs 9ozs; 2 Jerry Clifton 5lbs 8ozs; 3
Rod Asher 4lbs 14ozs; 4 Gary Shinn 2lbs 10ozs.
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Week ending March 4
Eels dominate the Welland pairs match
As ‘February Fill-dyke’ moves into March, the continuing unsettled weather
seems to have little effect on matches around the area, other than higher
water levels of course. Some of these were unfortunately enough to call off
scheduled events — one such being the Fenland Pike Club match at Swineshead
Bridge.
Apart from a gorgeous early spring Saturday afternoon,
recent days have seen constant spells (or so it seems) of the wet stuff
to keep all waterways running off at full bore, and more seems to be on the way
as we head towards the seasons close.
Starting with the River Witham and this situation has been evident for both
the midweek and weekend sweeps at Tattershall Bridge. But matches went ahead
nevertheless. Under these circumstances most anglers naturally chose a
swim-feeder, worm and caster method to take reasonable catches of odd bream,
perch and skimmers.
This left last week’s winner Roger Woolhouse in a
comfortable second place, taking much the same sort of fish for a similar
weight, 2½lbs in front of Sean Wright in third. Alistair Ogilvie, on the
other hand, chose to stick with long pole and similar baits but with an hour
remaining looked to be one of the also-rans. At that stage however his swim
burst into life, and from then until the final whistle he landed three big
bream in the 5lbs category, plus a number of large skimmers to win by a
street from Roger, who was actually drawn at the adjacent peg. Results: 1
Alistair Ogilvie, VDE Essex County, 32lbs 13ozs; 2 Roger Woolhouse, Bardney,
17lbs 1oz; 3 Sean Wright, Sensas Mark One, 14lbs 9ozs; 4 Danny Breslin 10lbs
1oz; 5 Kevin Rice, Sheffield, 8lbs.
On to Saturday, and many more anglers – some 25 in
total – turned up to claim a piece of the action. On this occasion average
weights were even better but lack of those big bream in any numbers saw a
lower winning weight returned. This came in the shape of Bob Dyer, the NFA’s
match organiser, who succeeded with the feeder method for a mixed net of
roach, perch and big skimmers. Sean Wright also improved his weight and hence
position this time as he elevated himself to second spot, with young Sean
Higginbottom in third, and the winner’s son Alan easing into fourth. Results:
1 Bob Dyer Melton, Mowbray, 21lbs 10ozs; 2 Sean Wright, Sensas Mark One,
17lbs 9ozs; 3 Sean Higginbottom, Sensas Mark One, 16lbs 4ozs; 4 Al Dyer,
Melton, 14lbs 4ozs; 5 Chris Elsom, Sensas Lincs County, 13lbs
13ozs.
After many false dawns, match organiser Chris Mawer left it to the last match
of the season but finally made the top spot in the Saturday sweep on the
River Steeping at Wainfleet. He held on to keep Keith Dobson in second place
with Kevin Harrison closing in to take third. Everyone saw plenty of action
as those vast shoals of small roach ensured some real bumper catches being
brought to the scales. For the record Chris landed a few bonus fish to hemp
and caster whilst the others relied on the usual groundbait and pinky
approach. Results: 1 Chris Mawer, Boston AA, 11lbs 4ozs; 2 Keith Dobson,
Westwood Lakes, 9lbs 15ozs; 3 Kevin Harrison, Wainfleet AC, 9lbs 13ozs; 4
Barry Wigginton, VDE Essex County, 9lbs 4ozs; 5 Graham Cripsey,, Wainfleet AC
8lbs; 6 Bob Smith, Team Maver, 7lbs 6ozs.
Fishtoft AC made a forlorn attempt at the Devon mouth
section of the Newark Dyke but could only come up a mere handful of odd small
fish. One small skimmer plus three other tiny roach won the day for Mark
Cook, Jerry Clifton leading the rest with a single roach for second, and the
same result for Rod Asher in third. Results: 1 Mark Cook 5ozs; 2 Jerry
Clifton 4½ozs; 3 Rod Asher 3ozs; 4 Mark Naylor 2ozs. Sunday March 11, meet
Sluice Bridge 7.30am.
The River Welland in Spalding was in a similar state as the 52 anglers
involved in Sunday’s pairs match found very coloured and bank high conditions
within the town sections. The usual method of groundbait and pinky was soon
discarded as most anglers drew scant response from the vast shoals of roach
in this area. Instead it was good-sized eels of around the 8ozs mark that
saved the day and dominated proceedings. Dale Stones opted for pole and
chopped worm to top the list with 13 such models to hold ace matchman Wayne
Swinscoe at bay by a mere 2ozs. Wayne actually included two roach in that
catch, which was not the case for the next two in the prize list, Rob Middleton
taking 13 and Dave Rowle with 18 smaller versions. Best weight of silver fish
was that of Mick Dixon who gained 5th spot with over 5lbs of roach. Results:
1 Dale Stones, Wades MG, 6lbs 11ozs; 2 Wayne Swinscoe, VDE Essex County, 6lbs
9ozs; 3 Rob Middleton, Starlets, 6lbs 6½ozs; 4 Dave Rowle, Wades MG, 6lbs
3ozs; 5 Mick Dixon, Bourne MG, 5lbs 11ozs.
It was nip and tuck for the main event, which of course was the pairs
competition, as the dynamic duo of Wayne Swinscoe and Chris Jenkinson just
held on to take the title, a single point ahead of stable mates Lewis Moroski
and Alistair Ogilvie, Dale Stones and Ian Chesney a couple of points further
back in third. Results: 1 Swinscoe and Jenkinson, VDE Essex County, 7pts; 2
Moroski and Ogilvie, VDE Essex County, 8pts; 3 Stones and Chesney, Wades MG,
10pts.
Conditions permitting, the Gary Thompson Memorial match
will take place on the River Trent at North Clifton on Sunday March 11. Draw
White Hart Inn, Newton 8am. If unfishable, the event will be switched to the
Foss Dyke Canal. Tickets at £15 all in from Frank Butler on 01522 534174.
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