ANGLING

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

With Barry Mallett

Angling news March 2006

Round-up for week ending March 12, 2006

Dramatic upturn in Witham’s fish yield

So, that’s it for another season boys and girls. And if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time on too many occasions you will no doubt say good riddance to some bleak times. Many, of course, will continue to get their weekly fix by visiting the many private lakes around the region. But others, like me, will have to turn attentions to tasks around the home and garden — at least when this icy weather relents.

Despite no real improvement from the previous week, the River Witham showed a dramatic return to good catches as proved by both the Wednesday and Saturday sweeps in the Tattershall Bridge area. First the midweek match saw good nets of roach and skimmers for most of the 21 anglers who employed a variety of methods and baits to tempt fish to 12ozs. Grimsby ace Steve Nurse took the honours on this occasion using both pole and stick float with maggot to finish 2lbs clear of second placed Paul Andrews. Results: 1 Steve Nurse, Grimsby HAC, 12lbs 4ozs; 2 Paul Andrews, Sensas Lincs County, 10lbs 4ozs.

Saturday brought a slightly better attendance and even better weights as veteran Maurice Thacker showed his younger counterparts a clean pair of heels. No spring chicken himself but Ted Rowe took close order with a similar net of roach and skimmers, less than a pound separating those top two. Results: 1 Maurice Thacker, Lincoln, 18lbs 3ozs; 2 Ted Rowe, Lincoln Whisby AS, 17lbs 6ozs.

The Swineshead Bridge section of the South Forty Foot Drain continued in top form right to the last as Fishtoft AC members found to their delight on Sunday. Pole and maggot was the simple approach for most and Jerry Clifton emerged a convincing winner with exactly that method for a level 26lbs of quality roach. He took the match with some ease having more than 3lbs advantage over second placed Mick Whitham and 4lbs and more ahead of Danny West and Mark Cook. Results: 1 Jerry Clifton 26lbs; 2 Mick Whitham 22lbs 11ozs; 3 Danny West 22lbs 1oz; 4 Mark Cook 21lbs 4ozs.

Matt is clear winner of junior contest

The penultimate round of the East Coast Junior League took place on Sunday on a cold and windy Marsh Lake, which is a newly-formed water as part of the Moon Lake complex at Tattershall. Unlike the previous round on the South Holland drain where only sticklebacks were in the offing — all of the 26 youngsters taking part managed to catch at least one fish for their efforts, much to the match organiser’s relief. Waggler and bronze maggot brought a runaway victory for Lincoln’s Matt Brandon, nearly 10lbs better than runner-up Cameron Flowers who, in turn, finished more than 6lbs ahead of King’s Lynn angler Kayleigh Williams. Despite the lack of individual success, the Boston Raiders team scored a vital win to push Holbeach into second spot and more to the point the Lincoln outfit into third place. But they still have it all to do in the final round to overhaul that same Lincoln team for the title, the match in question to be fished on Decoy Lake on Sunday April 23.

Individuals: 1 Matt Brandon, Lincoln A, 31lbs peg 28; 2 Cameron Flowers, Holbeach B, 20lbs 2ozs peg 8 pole; 3 Kayleigh Williams, King’s Lynn Gold, 13lbs 14ozs peg12, 4 Alistair Wood, Boston All Stars, 7lbs 1oz peg 26.

Teams: 1 Boston Raiders 11points;2 Holbeach A 16pts; equal 3Kings Lynn Gold and Lincoln A 17pts; 5 Holbeach B 19pts. Overall: 1 Lincoln A 58pts; 2 Boston Raiders 68pts; 3 Kings Lynn Gold 78pts; 4 Holbeach A 80pts; 5 Lincoln B 81pts; 6 Boston All Stars 88pts.

The Fenland Pike Club wound up their season with a good day on the Sibsey Trader Drain where every one of those that turned out found some action. Not all landed fish that took the bait, but the top three anglers all weighed in four fish each of varying sizes from 3lbs upwards to the best of 17lbs 12ozs. This fine specimen fell to the eventual winner Barry Moore, whose total exceeded that of second placed George Lacey by almost 10lbs. Spider Pawson also took four lesser sized fish for third spot with Ernie Crisp in fourth, he being the only other weigher. Results: 1 Barry Moore 27lbs 4ozs; 2 George Lacey 17lbs 10ozs; 3 Spider Pawson 13lbs; 4 Ernie Crisp 10lbs 13ozs.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back scribing on the angling scene after June 16. Presumably we’ll have had a few days of summer warmth by then!

Round-up for week ending March 5, 2006

‘Outsiders’ leave locals adrift

The past week brought little change in the weather compared to what was predicted. And certainly there was no real alteration to the prevailing conditions for the Fenlands and more southern areas of Lincolnshire, which saw only the lightest of snow coverings. Daytime temperatures remained fairly constant in the mid-single figures but increasingly hard overnight frosts brought a dramatic decrease in catches over the same period. Forecasts suggest a move to warmer but somewhat wetter conditions as we move towards midweek and perhaps see of the last of the hard frosts by the time you read this column. This is about the norm for the time of year and but if too much water descends upon us in the meantime we may well see a dramatic rise in water levels to spoil the dying days of the season, next Tuesday being the last for open waters.

The River Witham appeared to go against the trend as the normal Wednesday sweep actually produced lower weights than its Saturday counterpart over much the same area at Tattershall Bridge. As it turned out, the successful local anglers did not get a look in on this occasion with Spalding angler Brian Harding taking the honours ahead of Brigg’s Roly Moses and Barry Wigginton from Ashfield. Pole and maggot gave Brian a near 2lbs advantage over Roly, all three anglers taking nets of roach, skimmers and hybrids. Result: 1 Brian Harding, Bourne MG, 7lbs 14½ozs; 2 Roly Moses, Brigg, 6lbs; 3 Barry Wigginton, Mayfair Newark, 5lbs 13ozs.

Much the same sort of action on Saturday as Dave Edwards employed the 6m whip with maggot to deadly effect for a double figure net of those roach and skimmers. At the end of the day, though, he had to settle for a tie with another Bourne MG raider, this time in the shape of Rob Jackson, who pushed Lincoln’s Chris Elsom into third place. Not in the picture this week but previous good performances ensured the top spot in series for Dave Bontoft who finished with a comfortable five-point margin over second placed Dave Edwards and Maurice Thacker. On the day: Equal 1 Dave Edwards, Riverside Tackle, and Rob Johnson, Bourne MG, 11lbs 10ozs; 3 Chris Elsom, Lincs County, 9lbs 8ozs. Series: 1 Dave Bontoft 11pts; equal 2 Dave Edwards and Maurice Thacker 16pts.

The final round in the Saturday series on the Foss Dyke Canal took place at Odder with some of the pegs being covered in ice before the start of the match. Few decent roach were in the offing and so the match was again dominated by large perch which were mainly confined to the passing bay of the canal. Here John Small drew in this hot spot at peg 45, and added two bonus perch going around 4lbs between them, to around 2lbs of small roach for a match winning total. Team-mate John Blades also took full advantage of his draw which was next door to the winner at 44 and also tempted roach and perch to take second spot, staying just 3ozs ahead of third placed Alan Henry with an all perch catch. Results: 1 John Small, Lincoln Whisby AS, 5lbs 15ozs; 2 John Blades, Lincoln Whisby AS, 3lbs 13ozs; 3 Alan Henry, Lincoln Whisby AS, 3lbs 10ozs; 4 Malc Firmstone, Lincs County, 2lbs 15ozs.

The race for the top position in the series went to the wire as both last year’s winner Malc Firmstone, and Howard Kaye tied on 40 points, but on countback of best section results the title went to the latter. Almost equally so for the minor places as only a single point covered the next three anglers with Ian Snowden winning that particular battle. Results:1 Howard Kaye 40pts; 2 Malc Firmstone 40pts; 3 Ian Snowden 39pts; 4 Dale Whelan 38pts; 5 Dave Small 38pts.

Fishtoft AC found the going hard on a freezing River Glen at Surfleet last Sunday as most recorded odd ounces. A bonus perch of some 1lb 5ozs saved the day for Rod Asher who finally came up trumps to win this latest club sweep, having finished runner-up in recent events. The perch did not actually tip the scales in his favour, as he would still have had around a pound of small fish to weigh, against mere ounces of tiny roach from both Jerry Clifton and Mark Cook. Results: 1 Rod Asher 2lbs 4ozs; 2 Jerry Clifton 3½ozs; 3 Mark Cook 3ozs. On March 12, meet Sluice Bridge 7.30am.