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ANGLING
All the up-to-date news from the Boston and District angling scene
Angling news for week ending Sunday November 27, 2005
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Clear-cut success for Edwards
Before
conditions took a downturn in the run-up to the weekend, the result from the
latest midweek sweep on the River Witham at Kirkstead was in complete
contrast to the previous week. The match took place on the minus pegs right
under the bridge itself and brought roach and skimmers on to feed from the
off. Pole
and bronze maggot was again the successful bait and combined with the pole in
the safe hands of Sheffield crack Dave Edwards it was virtually no contest as
the only other angler in the same street was Southrey local Dave Bontoft. Results:
1 Dave Edwards, Sheffield, 16lbs 2ozs; 2 Dave Bontoft, Southrey, 15lbs; 3 Ron
Chambers, Riverside Tackle, 8lbs 5ozs; 4 Barry Wigginton, Mayfair Newark,
7lbs 10ozs; 5 Andy Scott, Harlequins, 5lbs 15ozs. The fifth and final round of the Boston and
District Angling Association winter league competition turned out to be a
torrid affair for all but about a dozen of the 80 competitors as only around
25 of those had anything to show for their efforts at the whistle. The
preceding bitterly cold days, followed by constant heavy rainfall over the
Saturday night, certainly saw to that. And although remaining cold on Sunday,
it at the least, remained dry. Jack
pike, and not many at that, were unfortunately the prevalent species caught
on the Horncastle Road section where only four valid weights of course fish,
out of a grand total of forty anglers, were brought to scales. Things
were somewhat better in the Windsor Bank area but even here most of the
catches were confined to the short section between Wheelers Close and the
swimming pool footbridge, which, of course, also contained all of the leading
individual weights. Those lucky enough to be drawn here found a better class
of roach than has been on offer in previous rounds, feeding to squatt and
hemp combined with pole. Poacher
MG captain Mark Allen came up trumps on this occasion and took the winner’s
spoils thanks to Mick Stephens, who failed to spot a few more ounces of fish
retained in his own keepnet at the weigh in, and hence relegating himself to
the runner-up spot. Nathan Underwood, next peg to Mark, then clinched that
third place with just two ounces to spare over Chris Howard at the adjacent
peg, after which catches declined dramatically and Sean Creasey was able to
take the last prize position with a touch over 2½ lbs. Teamwise
and my comments after the previous round concerning the direction of the
Second Division honours nearly came back to haunt me. My assumption was that
Pilgrim Tackle had virtually wrapped up the title having held a 10-point lead
and one of 14 points over an Improving Fishtoft AC. This
quickly unravelled as they could only provide two scores as opposed to three
good efforts, including a section win, from the latter. At the end of the day
though the section win gained by Nathan Underwood proved decisive in two ways
— first in ensuring a tie on points with Fishtoft after these five rounds,
and then on countback over the series, where section placings come into play,
to lift the title with a sum total of nine against six. Division
One was much less predictable and with a mere dozen of these crack anglers Troubling
the scales the title was up for grabs after the previous round which saw DSC
1 holding a single point lead over Mayfair Newark Gold. In the
event Doug Jackson and Barry Wigginton brought home the bacon for the latter
and succeeded in converting that deficit into a similar winning margin, the
consistent Burgh outfit, and one time favourites, holding on to third spot. The
Division One individual championship was really between the top seven on the
leader board. But as already described, many failed to catch, which left
previous winners Chris Howard in top place, Barry Wigginton the runner-up and
Alec Rawlings in third. Likewise
in Division Two, the leader, in the shape of Darren Snow, failed to trouble
the scales and so it was left to the likes of Paul Pettener of Mayfair Newark
Red, and Holbeach angler Darren Crofts to claim first and second place respectively. Results:
Individuals on the day, 1 Mark Allen, Poacher MG, A 8lbs 8ozs; 2 Mick Stephens,
Old Codgers, 8lbs 1oz; 3 Nathan Underwood, Pilgrim Tackle, 6lbs 14ozs; 4
Chris Howard, Bart’s Mob, 6lbs 12ozs; 5 Greg McLaughlin, DSC 2, 3lbs 15ozs; 6
Sean Creasey, Fishtoft AC, 2lbs 9ozs. Overall
Division One, 1 Chris Howard, Bart’s Mob, 48 pts; 2 Barry Wigginton, Mayfair Newark,
45 pts; 3 Alec Rawlings, DSC 1, 41 pts; 4 Pete Andrews, DSC 1, 40 pts; 5
Danny West,BAC A, 38 pts. Division
Two, 1 Paul Pettener Mayfair, Newark Red, 58 pts; 2 Darren Crofts, Holbeach,
56 pts; 3 Nathan Underwood, Pilgrim Tackle, 53 pts; 4 Phil Jackson, Fishtoft AC, 52 pts; 5 Sean Creasey,
Fishtoft AC, 51 pts. Final
team positions: Division One, 1
Mayfair Newark Gold 147 pts; 2 Dons Saturday Club 1 146 pts; 3 Burgh 140 pts;
4 Poacher MG A 123 pts; 5 Mayfair Newark Blue 122 pts. Division
Two, 1 Pilgrim Tackle 176 pts (better section placings); 2 Fishtoft AC 176
pts; 3 Dons Saturday Club 2 164 pts; 4 Mayfair Newark Red 155 pts; 5 Poacher
MG C 149 pts. The
Fenland Pike Club suffered a similar fate on the Old Match length and even by
actively trying to catch those species —
pike that is — they all but
failed as just three fish, and all jacks for that matter, was the sum total
of all their endeavours. Andrew Leverton led the way home with a single fish
of 3lbs 4ozs, Spider Pawson holding on to that second place with another of
just 2lbs 8ozs, 4ozs better than Graham. Sunday December
4 sees Fishtoft AC members being asked to meet at Algarkirk for a visit to
the River Nene at Wadenhoe, which is just west of Oundle. Meanwhile, weather
permitting another open match will be staged on behalf of the Boston Trades
and Labour club this coming Sunday on either the Bargate or West Fen Drain. Chris
Kerbel has details. Following on from this and the ever-popular Christmas
Benevolent match will take place on Sunday December 11, venue to be decided
nearer the event. For details and bookings contact Barry Mallett on the usual
number. |
Angling news for week ending Sunday November 20, 2005
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It’s a barren five-hour stint! The King’s Arms open match on the Pound Length of the
River Witham on Saturday was a victim of circumstances and having to take place
some way from the early pegs, it suffered the ultimate fate. Most of the 18
anglers taking part stuck it out to the bitter end, especially seeing the
likes of grebes and kingfishers taking small fish, but at the end of five
hours the whole contingent remained entirely without so much as a single bite
between them. I have no report but the event peg closest to the bridge itself
at least returned a few ounces apiece. Ron Chambers will be using those self same pegs closest
to the bridge next week, which hopefully, given different climatic
conditions, will return much better catches than those from last weekend. A
similar fate awaited the youngsters in their latest match in the newly formed
junior league on a well-frozen South Holland Drain at Sharps Bridge. A bit of
spadework helped clear the pegs of thick ice but organisers decided to call
it a day after a fishless 2½ hours. The Pike House stretch of the Foss Dyke Canal was home
to the latest Lincoln match on Saturday and the ‘hot peg’ 59 once more came
up trumps, on this occasion for young Dale Whelan. Fishing pole and bloodworm
he winkled out 6lbs of good roach and
small perch to finish well clear of the chasing pack, led by Howard Kaye.
John Small and Malc Firmstone in turn followed him home. All were pegged in
the same section incidentally (i.e. the 50s). Results: 1 Dale Whelan, Lincs
County, 6lbs 8ozs peg 59; 2 Howard Kaye, Lincoln Whisby, 4lbs 12ozs peg 55; 3
John Small, Lincoln Whisby, 4lbs 2oz peg 54; 4 Malc Firmstone, Lincs County,
3lbs 10ozs peg 52. It wasn’t all bad news as a totally different tale
emerged from an equally frozen Windsor Bank section of the Bargate Drain,
where the latest Trades and Labour club open attracted 15 anglers this week.
Three of those declined to fish when they saw the conditions and appeared to
have made the right decision as a blank hour followed a similar ice breaking
operation. Thankfully though, the drain burst into life and
frenetic activity followed throughout the remaining time, which brought good
catches of small roach to most of the remaining dozen. Punch and liquidised
bread was the most successful bait as Keith Dobson scored an overwhelming
victory, taking some 280 such fish and finishing nigh 6lbs to the good over
second placed Don Green. Don himself could only muster 160 similar sized
specimens to like tactics, after which a gaggle of anglers ended the day in
the 8lbs category, headed by Russ Parsons who took that third spot with
mainly maggot caught fish. Results: 1 Keith Dobson 15lbs 2ozs; 2 Don Green
9lbs 9ozs; 3 Russ Parsons 8lbs 8ozs; 4 Greg McLaughlin 8lbs 6ozs; 5 Trevor
Ogilvie 8lbs 5ozs. Sunday November 27 is the final round of the Boston and
District AA’s winter league is on the same venue. Fishtoft AC chose the only real piece of free water.
That, in fact, was the Kelsey Bridge area of the Cowbridge Drain. Not that
this in itself was any recommendation as really tiny roach and perch made up
all the weights, such as they were. Ben Jackson topped this particular list
for the second club match running and easily beat his nearest rival, one Gary
Shinn, by almost a pound and Ernie Heseltine a little further adrift in
third. Results: 1 Ben Jackson 2lbs 12ozs; 2 Gary Shinn 1lb 13½ozs; 3 Ernie
Heseltine 1lb 11ozs; 4 Mick Whitham 1lb 7½ozs. |
Angling news for week ending Sunday November 13, 2005
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Johnson homes in on skimmers An occasional night frost and a general dip in
temperatures made sure that weights were never going to better those of
previous weeks. Both days last weekend remained fairly bright but a lack of
any significant rainfall also meant that any colour in the water was actually
falling out, making bites even more difficult to come by in many places. The
Kings Arms open match on the River Witham at Kirkstead was reasonably well
attended with 18 competitors taking part last Saturday. Those pegged in the teens found skimmers surprisingly
still on the feed, alongside some good class roach and this was the case for
Ray Johnson who took many such fish to pole and bronze maggot to finish
nearly 2lbs ahead of John Baxter and a similar amount again over travelling
companion Brian Harding. Results: 1 Ray Johnson, Bourne MG, 8lbs 11ozs peg
15; 2 John Baxter, Riverside Tackle, 6lbs 15ozs peg 17; 3 Brian Harding,
Bourne MG, 6lbs 13ozs peg 9; 4 Paul Richardson, Lincoln, 6lbs 4ozs peg 11. Ron Chambers is now also organising a series of midweek
matches on the Pound Length, the first of which took place last Wednesday
when Dave Edwards emerged top dog, 11ozs ahead of Tom Wilson. Results: 1 Dave
Edwards, Sheffield, 7lbs 3ozs; 2 Tom Wilson, Spalding, 6lbs 8ozs; 3 Dave
Padley, Lincoln, 4lbs 1oz. Things were very patchy compared to previous weeks but
still highly competitive and some good catches of class roach taken from the
middle sections. Indeed, the early pegs on Horncastle Road and those on
Windsor Crescent provided the most activity. The former gave us a battle
royal from adjacent pegs 75 and 76 where just a single ounce separated Kevin
Harrison and Steve Winter at the end of the day. Both struck off with
breadpunch but as bites slowed a switch to squatt over groundbait speeded up
the catch rate and at the final whistle it was Kevin who emerged the victor
by that narrow margin. Similarly those pegged on either side of the swimming pool
footbridge found themselves in a real dog fight for the minor places and in
this instance Ernie Heseltine came out head and shoulders above the others
and took third spot by the comparatively comfortable margin of 9ozs over 4th
placed Barry Wigginton. Teamwise, the wheels really came off the Burgh
bandwagon as, after striking the front on the previous round, two of the team
failed to catch this week while the other two could only take a middle of
section placing, resulting in a fall to third place overall. The Mayfair Newark Blue team made the running this week
and held off their compatriots in the Gold team by a single point, with DSC1
a further point behind in third. All is not entirely lost for Burgh as they trail
Mayfair Newark Gold and a rampant DSC1 by six and seven points respectively
but they have it all to do with the final round scheduled for next Sunday
week. No such problems in Division Two where the Pilgrim Tackle lads kept an
equally competitive DSC 2 at bay, also by a lone point, and look to have the
league sewn up thanks to another solid performance, which in itself reaped no
reward for the day’s efforts. Overall they lead by a massive 10 points from
Mayfair Red team, who under the circumstances have been a revelation, not
having fished our waters before this year, and cling to that second spot by
two points from our local DSC 2. Results: Individuals, 1 Kevin Harrison, Mayfair Newark
Blue, 8lbs 9ozs peg 75; 2 Steve Winter, Harlequins, 8lbs 8ozs peg 76; 3 Ernie
Heseltine, Boston Angling Centre C, 8lbs 1oz peg 27; 4 Barry Wigginton,
Mayfair Newark Gold, 7lbs 8ozs peg 86; 5 Alec Rawlings, Dons Saturday Club, 1
6lbs 11ozs peg 30; 6 Mick Stephens, Old Codgers, 6lbs 5ozs peg 43. Teams: Division One, 1 Mayfair Newark Blue 38pts; 2
Mayfair Newark Gold 37pts; 3 Don’s Saturday Club1 36pys; 4 Barts Mob 31pts; 5
BAC A 30pts; 6 Harlequins 24pts. Overall: 1 Dons Saturday Club 1 125pts; 2 Mayfair Newark
Gold 124pts; 3 Burgh 118pts; joint 4 Mayfair Newark Blue & Harlequins
112pts. Div Two: 1 Pilgrim Tackle 39pts; 2 Don’s Saturday Club 2
38pts; 3 Mayfair Newark Red 35pts; 4 Fishtoft AC 34pts; 5 Poacher MG C 30pts. Overall: 1 Pilgrim Tackle 155pts; 2 Mayfair Newark Red
145pts; 3 Don’s Saturday Club 2 143pts; 4 Fishtoft AC 141pts. Section Boards: Div One: 1a John Dawes, Time Team,
3¼ozs; 1b Chris Howard, Barts Mob, 5lbs 12ozs; 2a Alec Rawlings, DSC 1, 6lbs
11ozs; 2b Mick Stephens, Old Codgers, 6lbs 5ozs; 3a Kevin Harrison, Mayfair
Blue, 8lbs 9ozs; 3b Barry Wigginton, Mayfair Gold, 7lbs 8ozs; 4a John Holmes,
Mayfair Blue, 5½ozs; 4b Mark Nesbitt, Mayfair Gold, 6lbs 1oz. Div Two: 1a Nathan Underwood, Pilgrim Tackle, 2½ozs; 1b
Ernie Heseltine, BAC C, 8lbs 1oz; 2a Paul Pettener, Mayfair Red, 3lbs 13ozs;
2b Rob Smith, DSC 3, 3lbs 8 ½ozs; 3a Mark Thornton, BAC B, 4lbs 14ozs; 3b
Darren Snow, DSC 2, 3lbs 11ozs; 4a Sean Higginbottom, Pilgrim Tackle, 1lb
1oz; 4b Graham Neal, Fishtoft AC, 4lbs 15ozs. Most of the United Anglers contingent faired little
better than those in the winter league who were pegged on the same length
between the railway bridge and cemetery. Not exactly a titanic struggle but
the result turned on mere drams as only ¼oz separated the top two, in the
shape of secretary Shaun Bell and Steve Howard at adjacent pegs. Shaun was
the unlucky loser for the second time on this venue this season, chopped worm
for perch being the only answer for both himself and Steve as the rest of the
field after Mick Toyne could only manage the odd ounce. Results: 1 Steve
Howard 12½ ozs; 2 Shaun Bell 12¼ozs; 3 Mick Toyne 7½ozs. |
Angling news for week ending Sunday November 6, 2005
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Peg four success for Smith SHIRT-sleeve weather seems to have finally come to an end.
And as temperatures declined over the weekend the predicted strong winds and
driving rain duly moved in during Sunday morning. The Kings Arms open match on the River Witham at
Kirkstead got under way before any great deterioration in conditions on Saturday
with 15 anglers taking part. Consequently good weights of mainly skimmers
were recorded from pegs on the Pound length and particularly those
competitors pegged in the one to 10 range. Les Smith scored an easy win from
peg 4 with his trusty method of heavy waggler and maggot to finish the day
with a near 4lbs superior weight than Maurice Thacker. For his part Maurice
had to switch between pole, tip, worm and maggot to keep the bites coming and
also held on to a 3lbs advantage over
Bob Walker in third. Results: 1 Les Smith, Lincoln, 15lbs 14ozs; 2 Maurice
Thacker, Lincoln, 12lbs 3ozs; 3 Bob Walker, Sheffield, 9lbs 1oz; 4 Bill
White, Lincoln, 8lbs 2ozs. Next Saturday same time same place, draw Kings
Arms, Kirkstead Bridge 8.30am. In any event the poor conditions, come Sunday, had no
detrimental effect on catches and in most cases exceeded all expectations.
This may have be the case on the Horncastle Road section of the Bargate Drain
where a few hardy souls took part in the latest Boston Trades and Labour club
open match. Despite the gales most elected to stick it out on pole
and worm for better-sized fish, and from Don Green’s point of view this was
the right tactic as a bonus small tench of around 2½lbs helped him win. Big
skimmers gave Sean Coaten the edge over Graham Cripsey, with nearly a pound
to spare, which was also much the same for Graham, ahead of fourth placed
Barry Wigginton. Results: 1 Don Green, DSC, 8lbs 13ozs peg 86; 2 Sean Coaten,
Holbeach, 8lbs 9ozs peg 87; 3 Graham Cripsey, Skegness, 7lbs 10ozs peg 76; 4
Barry Wigginton, Mayfair Newark, 6lbs 8ozs peg 84. The Windsor Bank section also continued in top form and
despite a much smaller class of fish on offer, newcomers Barnstone AC from
Melton Mowbray enjoyed good weights of roach, perch and skimmers along the
pegged match length in the 40s and 50s. Some 200 of those small fish brought
home the bacon for Andy Gammon at the end of the crescent, whilst down
towards Vauxhall Bridge Kelly Redwood held on to a comfortable second spot
some 8ozs adrift of Andy and 12ozs ahead of John Stone in third. Results: 1 Andy Gammon 9lbs 5ozs peg 41; 2 Kelly Redwood
8lbs 13ozs peg 49; 3 John Stone 8lbs 1oz peg 47; 4 Barry Clemence 7lbs 12ozs
peg 53; 5 Bryn Morrison 7lbs 9ozs peg 51. A reminder to anglers at this juncture that the fourth
round of the Boston and District AA Winter League will take place on both the
Windsor Bank and Horncastle Road sections of the Bargate Drain this coming
Sunday (November 13). Ben triumphs on West Fen Drain Despite the well-known oozing mud, coupled with gin
clear conditions on a low West Fen Drain at Frithville, Fishtoft AC members
totalled around the 100lbs mark of mainly roach from the school end of the
length. Pole and punch was the choice for most and this method brought an
overdue success to Ben Jackson who finished with a shade under 12lbs. to beat
both Mick Whitham and Mark Naylor who tied for that runner-up place. Results: 1 Ben Jackson 11lbs 15 ½ ozs; joint 2 Mick
Whitham and Mark Naylor 10lbs 7ozs; 4 Ernie Heseltine 10lbs 3ozs. The Northlands section of the Sibsey Trader Drain
produced the poorest result as a good sized tench made up most of Alan Fear’s
weight and so clinched victory over Chris Chapman with a net of small roach. Results: 1 Alan Fear 4lbs; 2 Chris Chapman 3lbs 8ozs; 3
Mark Thornton 2lbs 6ozs. The newly formed East Coast Winter League kicked off
with the inaugural match on the cut-off Channel at Hilgay, King’s Lynn on
Sunday morning. Eight teams of four, aged from eight to 17 fished the match in wet and windy
conditions and we must pay tribute to their enthusiasm and dedication in such
circumstances. The league was formed following this year’s Lincolnshire
Junior Championships held in September, with five main clubs taking turns to
host a match every month throughout the rest of the season. Team managers from Lincoln, King’s Lynn,
Holbeach, Boston and Horncastle will enter up two teams for each match,
giving the youngsters a chance to fish different venues all year round, and
so creating opportunities for them to become good all round anglers. Those adverse conditions almost guaranteed that the
bigger tench and bream would not show, most youngsters therefore electing to
fish the pole at 7-8 metres. Main method was to use bronze maggot over
groundbait initially for small roach, a better class of fish coming to a bed
of hemp late on in the four-hour match. Boston new boys Reece Dillamore and Andy Wood were drawn
next to each other in D section and found the bigger roach to take the top
two individual places, ahead of Lincoln lad Shane Spraggins in that third
spot. Individuals: 1 Reece Dillamore, Boston Raiders, 5lbs
12ozs; 2 Andrew Wood, Boston All Stars, 4lbs 14ozs; 3 Shane Spraggins,
Lincoln A, 4lbs 11ozs. Section winners: A section Kayleigh Williams, King’s
Lynn Gold, 3lbs 2ozs, B section Daniel Abbott, Holbeach B, 3lbs 11 ½ozs, C
section Mathew Chapman, Holbeach A, 4lbs 5ozs. D section: Tom Cockle, King’s
Lynn Gold, 4lbs 5ozs. Teams: 1 Boston Raiders 8 pts; 2 Lincoln A 12pts; 3
Holbeach A 15pts; 4th King’s Lynn Gold 17pts; joint 5 Boston All Stars and
Holbeach B 20pts; 7 King’s Lynn Blue 22pts; 8 Lincoln B 29pts. Next match will take place on Sunday November 20 on
South Holland Drain. Any clubs wanting details of the new league or wishing
to join the league should contact secretary Dave Rance on his usual number.
It is hoped more teams will join and give everyone a greater choice of
fishing venues. |