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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 September 25, 2005
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World champion joins tribute match Friends, family, school mates and Boston junior team members, totalling 78 anglers, took part in a match in memory of young Liam Wilson and had a great day at Priory Lakes, Ruskington on September 24. Four times world champion Bob Nudd also took part as
most of the youngsters wanted to fish against him and try to beat him. In the
end they all settled for a chat with, plus an autograph from the great man at
the end of the event. He also presented the trophies that were donated by
Pilgrim tackle, Boston and District Angling Association, Unicorn Inn, and the
Environment Agency, in addition Boston Angling Centre donated a fishing reel
which was raffled during the match, raising some £180. Unfortunately
the event came after a cold night
which brought a touch of ground frost to most places, making the carp slow to respond, with some anglers
failing to catch. Shaun Higginbottom
took the honours with a decent net of small carp to 12 ounces to pole and
mainly pellet. He easily beat the rest of the field as the rest of the
field failed to make double figures. Kevin Hinchcliffe led the chasing pack but
a special mention must be made of young Oliver Summer who, at the tender age
of 11, not only won the under 12 age group but also claimed the overall third
place — beating Bob Nudd along the way, I must add. Results: 1 Shaun Higginbottom 22lbs 8oz, peg 101; 2
Kevin Hinchcliffe 9lbs 12oz, peg 39; 3
Oliver Summer 8lbs 2oz, peg 64; 4 Paul Underwood 6lbs 13oz, peg79; 5
Jim Smith 6lbs 1oz, peg 72; 6 Bob Nudd 5lbs 8oz, peg112. 12 and under: 1 Oliver Summer 8lbs 2oz; 2 Jack Whitehead
4lbs 12oz; 3 Nathan Brittan 4lbs 3oz. 16 and under: 1 Nathan Underwood 5lbs 4oz; 2 Daniel
Austin 3lbs13oz; 3 Leighton Holland 3lbs 6oz. Winners of Blind Pairs Trophy were Shaun Higginbottom
and Rob Old 22lbs 8oz. After the match the day was rounded off with a barbecue
and the presentation of trophies by Bob Nudd, which everyone enjoyed. Dave,
Julie and Lauren Wilson thanked all
who took part and helped to make the day an outstanding success. Pairs event delight for Fred and John The Ray Smith Trophy pairs match on the Bargate Drain
was less affected by the cooler temperatures but the main story is that the
abundant population of small skimmers failed to respond in any sort of
numbers compared to last week. Instead, most of the 50 anglers taking part had to
concentrate on the smaller roach population or sit out the five hours for a
bonus fish, which for bream in particular, all failed to catch. The Horncastle Road section was effectively the place
where the trophy was won or lost and in this case a fine tench not only helped
to bring second place to Fred Bispham but together with partner John Holmes’
winning weight, they carried off the spoils with a perfect score. Spare a thought, though, for Mick Stamp and Mark Griggs
who assumed that they had done enough for victory in taking third and fourth
respectively in their sections but still finished five points adrift. No such complaints though from Gavin Butler and Trevor
Ogilvie in filling the third spot, just two points ahead of Boston Labour
club pairing of Paul Wood and Kevin Hunt. Back to the individuals and John Holmes, in catching
steadily throughout, claimed that first place from next to Mount Bridge,
whilst further along the drain, Danny West clinched third, just 4ozs in front
of a gaggle of anglers in the 7lbs category, headed by Harlequins’ Steve
Winter. Results:1 John Holmes, Mayfair Newark, 9lbs 2ozs; 2 Fred
Bispham, Mayfair Newark, 8lbs 8ozs; 3 Danny West, Boston, 8lbs 1oz; 4 Steve
Winter, Harlequins, 7lbs 13ozs; 5 Mark Nesbitt, Mayfair Newark, 7lbs 8ozs; 6
Mark Griggs, Harlequins, 7lbs 4ozs. Pairs: 1 John Holmes, Fred Bispham 50pts; 2 Mick Stamp,
Mark Griggs 45pts; 3 Gavin Butler, Trevor Ogilvie 38pts; 4 Paul Wood, Kevin
Hunt 36pts; equal 5= Jamie Osgodby, Neil Smithson & Mark Allen, Stephen Garrard 35pts. Club matches round-up Much the same for the Coach and Horses AC, on the early
pegs of the Horncastle Road stretch where the Pettigrew show continued.
Members also had to rely on small fish as the bream refused to show any interest
and Danny junior came to the fore once again with a nice net of small roach
and perch to keep Mark Beasley firmly in his place. Results: 1 Danny Pettigrew junior 5lbs 4ozs; 2 Mark
Beasley 4lbs 8ozs; 3 Lee Feary 3lbs 13ozs. The worsening conditions really had no effect on the
pound length of the River Witham as this has remained in a parlous state from
the beginning of the season. Abundant weed, gin clear conditions with an
almost total lack of fish has been the norm and was no different for Stickney
AC’s visit on Sunday. Two large perch helped Alan Fear to a runaway win as
both Frank Scrupps and Mark Thornton could only manage a pound, and a tie,
between them — enough said. Results: 1 Alan Fear 2lbs 6ozs; equal 2 Frank Scrupps
and Mark Thornton 8ozs; 4 Andy Dillamore
4ozs. Fishtoft AC travelled to the River Glen at Money Bridge
and found many more fish in residence by comparison. Roach to pole and squatt
was the only method and Gary Shinn scored an easy victory over both Sean
Creasey and Mark Cook as they ended the day more than two pounds adrift. Results: 1 Gary Shinn 6lbs 7ozs; 2 Sean Creasey 4lbs 6ozs; 3 Mark Cook 4lbs 2ozs. Most members will be competing in next week’s Boston
Winter League and will be meeting at the Ball House 8 am. The Fenland Pike Club’s season got off to a cracking
start on the Stonebridge section of the Sibsey Trader Drain where some 10,
mainly good-sized fish, were taken. ‘Big Mark’ from Skegness clinched the
runner-up spot with the biggest fish of the day, but had to give best to
Spider Pawson who took prime position with specimens of 7lbs 1ozs and 12lbs — another double figure fish bringing third place to Andrew Leverton. Results: 1 Spider Pawson 19lbs 1oz; 2 Big Mark 14lbs
12ozs; 3 Andrew Leverton 10lbs 12ozs. |
Angling news for week ending Sunday September 18, 2005
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Downpour brings a change A downpour throughout September 15, which lasted from
dawn until dusk, and beyond, certainly brought about a big change in local angling
conditions. Not immediately obvious, but those involved in Sunday’s
(September 18) round of competitions on local Boston waters soon discovered
the almost complete absence of any bigger fish such as bream. It was much the same story for the vast majority of the 400-plus anglers in the Ivan Marks memorial match on the River Welland above four-mile bar. Five small bream were easily enough to give victory to Leeds angler Colin Wilde from a peg well beyond Crowland Bridge. Jim Ashman of Hull held on to the second place, after which a bevy of anglers fought over the minor places with Boston angler Jan Cebula clinching fourth behind Rotherham’s Andy Booth. Results: 1 Colin Wilde, Leeds, 7.990kgs; 2 Jim Ashman,
Hull, 4.330kgs;3 Andy Booth Tigra, Rotherham, 3.650kgs; 4 Jan Cebula, Boston,
3.480kgs; 5 Tony Harrison, Dorking, 3.400kgs. The lack of big fish was more than made up for by an
abundance of skimmers of all sizes for most of the 37 competitors in Boston
and District AA’s own Memorial match on the Windsor Bank section of the
Bargate Drain. Early pegs in the Mount Bridge area produced the goods this
time as four anglers in a line all produced nets in double figures. Weights
in the 7lbs to 8lbs category were commonplace as Paul Spriggs needed well over 9lbs to hang on to sixth place. The day, though, belonged to Lincoln star Dale Whelan
who not only took the match in his stride but also at the same time prevented
Dave Simpson from recording a rare hat-trick of wins in Boston and District competitions.
John Slote was pegged on the other side of the winner to Dave and came within
an ace of his weight but had to settle for third, some 20 ounces ahead of
Boston’s in-form Chris Kerbel at the next peg. Results: 1 Dale Whelan Sensas, Lincs County, 13lbs 8ozs
peg 12; 2 Dave Simpson, Harlequins, 12lbs 5ozs peg 13; 3 John Slote, Mayfair
Newark, 12lbs 3ozs peg 11; 4 Chris Kerbel, Boston, 10lbs 14ozs peg 10; 5 Mark
Allen, Poacher MG, 10lbs 4ozs peg 23; 6 Paul Spriggs, DC Mark One, 9lbs 8ozs
peg 30. Lincolnshire Junior Championship The Horncastle Road section was ‘a whole different kettle
of fish’ for the Lincs Junior Championship which this year boasted 56 young
anglers aged between 7 and 17 representing Boston, Holbeach, Horncastle and
Lincoln in three age groups. As not many skimmers were on offer in comparison
to the town section, the odd tench or two came to the rescue to give weights
an air of respectability, roach making up the backing weights. In the under-18 intermediate section the top rod turned
out to be Lincoln lad Shane Spraggins who fished short pole to land two tench
a large eel plus a few bits for a level 9lbs. Second place went to team-mate
Matt Brandon who also tempted one tench to go with a few roach and making it
a clean sweep was Scott Dunn. Results: 1 Shane Spraggins, Lincoln, 9lbs; 2 Matt
Brandon, Lincoln, 5lbs 6ozs; 3 Scott Dunn, Lincoln, 1lb 8ozs; 4 Scott
Watkins, Horncastle, 1lb 4ozs; 5 Matt Hassell, Horncastle, 1lb 3ozs. Previous team practice definitely paid off in their case
as with three section winners Lincoln took the team trophy with just 6points
ahead of Horncastle on 8 points and Holbeach in third on 10. Boston were
unfortunately unable to field a team in this category. A different story in the junior category, in which
Boston lads filled the backing places behind winning Horncastle youngster
Thomas Atkinson. He also included a single tench to go with a few bits to
stay well in front of the chasing pack. Results: 1 Thomas Atkinson, Horncastle, 4lbs 3ozs; 2
Nicholas Wright, Boston, 2lbs 8ozs; 3 Nathan Underwood 1lb 14ozs; equal 4
James Taylor and Like Morley 1lb 10ozs. Three section winners saw the Boston Raiders take the
junior team trophy but not without a fight as Horncastle ran them close with
one section winner and three seconds. Results: 1 Boston Raiders 5pts; 2 Horncastle 7pts; 3
Boston All Stars 14pts; 4 Holbeach A 16pts; 5 Lincoln 18pts; 6 Holbeach B
21pts. A new Cadet age group was introduced to this year’s
competition for anglers under 12. From a Boston point of view the highlight
of the day was 11-year-old Ryan Potter who gained a narrow victory in his
first match for the town. Nothing went well during the first half of the
match but sticking to his plan to catch mainly roach with pole and squatt
over hemp, he gradually forged ahead during the last 90 minutes to clinch the
win with just two ounces to spare. Jordan Shinn was that second placed angler
and Steven Underwood made sure of a clean sweep of the top three places, and
the team trophy, for Boston. Results: 1 Ryan Potter, Boston, 1lb 6ozs; 2 Jordan Shinn, Boston, 1lb 4ozs; 3 Steven Underwood, Boston, 1lb 3ozs; 4 Sophie Williams, Holbeach, 1lb 2ozs; 5 Hannah Kitchen, Boston, 14ozs; 6 Andy Wood, Boston, 12ozs; 7 Alistair Wood, Boston, 9ozs. Local clubs news No bream were interested this week for Coach and Horses
AC members on a revisit to the Swandyke Lane area. Instead they had to make
do with a few small roach, perch and skimmers and the Pettigrew show
continued with Danny Senior taking the honours ahead of Junior this time
around. Results: 1 Danny Pettigrew Snr 4lbs 14ozs; 2 Danny
Pettigrew Jnr 4lbs 5ozs; 3 Barry Molsom 3lbs 4ozs. Much the same for Stickney AC on their annual visit to
Sharps Bridge on the South Holland Drain where John Briggs continued his fine
run and made it a hat-trick of wins with a nice net of roach and skimmers to
the pole, squatt and pinky. All recorded similar nets and Alan Fear only just
failed to overhaul him, finishing just two ounces adrift, with Steve Evans
much further behind in third. Results: 1 John Briggs 6lbs 10ozs; 2 Alan Fear 6lbs
8ozs; 3 Steve Evans 4lbs 14ozs; 4 Chris Chapman 4lbs 3ozs. |
Angling news for week ending Sunday September 11, 2005
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Bream and tench to the fore AFTER a superb late summer period through last week, the
settled spell finally came to an end as rain descended upon us from dawn to
dusk on Saturday. Leaden skies and a cold northerly wind greeted the forty
anglers to the Benevolent match on the Horncastle Road section of the Bargate
Drain last Sunday which, plus that previous day’s constant downpour, seemed
to put most small fish down. Fortunately this was more than made up for by the
showing of a good few bream and tench throughout the match length. Pegged outside the cemetery gates at permanent peg 107,
Trader champion Dave Simpson put in another good performance to land four of
those bream plus a good sized perch and a few skimmers to clinch victory
using the feeder and chopped worm approach. Grimsby raider Rob Thompson also
got in on the act with three bream and a number of skimmers to quivertip and
maggot in his case, to grab second spot from peg 81. Bob Reall took third with a similar catch, which in turn
was well ahead of friend and club mate Kevin Hunt, who found two large tench
from peg 74 towards the wall end. At that peg itself (71) March angler Derek
Yorke also found the bream initially in the mood but after a couple of decent
sized fish and a few skimmers the bites dried up to leave him out of the
prizes in fifth place, as was the case for Alan Houlton at 106, pegged next
door to the winner. Results: 1 Dave Simpson, Harlequins, 15lbs 12ozs; 2 Rob
Thompson, Pelham AC, 13lbs 7ozs; 3 Bob Reall, Boston Labour Club, 13lbs; 4
Kevin Hunt, Boston Labour Club, 9lbs 9ozs;5 Derek Yorke, March AC, 9lbs 2ozs;
6 Alan Houlton, Lincoln, 9lbs 1oz. Absence of big fish No big fish around for Stickney AC members on the Ings
Bridge section of the Hobhole Drain where a few small skimmers and perch were
sufficient to bring victory to John Briggs for the second week in a row. Alan
Fear was a few ounces behind in second place with a similar net – Steve Evans
and Andy Dillamore tying for third with the only other pound plus weights. Results: 1 John Briggs 2lbs 2ozs; 2 Alan Fear 1lb 11ozs;
equal 3 Steve Evans and Andy Dillamore 1lb 1oz. Small skimmers were obviously in greater abundance on
the boathouse area of the River Witham where Mark Cook scored a comfortable
win with 1lb to spare over Gary Shinn. He in turn kept a good gap between
himself and third placed Ben Jackson who did much the same to Rod Asher in
fourth, most catching fish on a combination of pole and maggot over
groundbait. Results: 1 Mark Cook 6lbs 10ozs; 2 Gary Shinn 5lbs
10ozs; 3 Ben Jackson 4lbs 15ozs; 4 Rod Asher 4lbs 8ozs. Danny junior is tops again A much better class of skimmer was on offer for the
Coach and Horses AC on the Windsor Bank of the Bargate Drain where Danny
Pettigrew Jnr was king again. Both he and Mick Corkrum were head and
shoulders above the rest, being the only two to end the day with double
figure nets. Some big bream were hooked and lost, which may well have cost
Lee Feary a loftier place than his third spot. Results: 1 Danny Pettigrew Jnr 12lbs 8ozs; 2 Mick
Corkrum 11lbs 11ozs; 3 Lee Feary 6lbs 15ozs. Match anglers should also soon consider their entries for
the Boston and District Angling Association Winter League which begins on
Sunday October 2. Teams of four at £40 for the five-match series, plus
optional pools on the morning to Barry Mallett. The Kings Arms/Riverside Tackle individual series will
take this year on the River Witham at Kirkstead and is again organised by Ron
Chambers. The series starts on Saturday October 15 and runs fortnightly
through to December on the following dates: October 29, November 12 and 26
and December 10.
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Angling news for week ending Sunday September 4, 2005
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Championship day success WHAT a brilliant day! The organisers, stewards and most
of the 570 competitors enjoyed the Third Division National Championship that
took place on Boston waters last Saturday. Unfortunately the weather was a touch too good to make
it exceptional but nevertheless some good weights of mainly bream were
recorded in most sections. The match as a whole threw up some interesting
statistics, as the overall average weight was somewhat higher than other
championships, no outstandingly bad sections and fewer dry nets. Team-wise the surprise package was the unfancied Telford
AA outfit who, despite no section wins, put in an otherwise solid performance
all round to snatch the title from under the nose of Slaithwaite and District, by the slim margin of just five
points. Knowing some of the anglers involved, my money was on
the Mayfair squad from Newark and my instincts were nearly right as they took
the third spot and bronze medal. For them Lincoln man Alan Houlton made the prize money
in 10th place overall with 7.75kgs of bream from the Cowbridge Drain and an
even better result as local crack Andy Scott recording a fine section win
from Windsor Bank with just under 5kgs of roach and skimmers. Of the local teams the Poacher MG, despite gaining
promotion, were a little disappointed in finishing out of the medals in sixth
place as a blank in section L ended
any hopes of that. For them, both Mark Cook and Stephen Garrard gained 41
points from their respective sections to head the team points list. Yarm
Angling suffered much the same fate and were also a mere three points short
of glory but in their case it was more due to be a man short of the twelve
required. Holbeach and District were also up there with the best in eighth
spot, being also just a few points short of a medal. The Boston and District AA team was both disappointed and disappointing as
the best they could muster was 50 points less than requirements for promotion
and consequently a mid-table position at 24th, saw them well beaten by many teams from far flung
areas of the country. Best points hauls for Boston was that of Danny West with
1.160kgs and 35 points from the Horncastle Road section and Dave Edgoose,
some three pegs off that huge bream shoal on the Cowbridge Drain, with 33
points. The most consistent section by far was F on Windsor Bank
where no less than 41 of the 47 competitors produced catches exceeding 2lbs
of small roach and skimmers. Best section for bream catches must be D on the
Cowbridge Drain, which saw seven anglers in a line recording weights in the
10 to 45 lbs range to give six of those a place in the top 11 individuals. Duncan Folkes from Ramsey took the runner-up place with
that high end weight, but even so, he came nowhere near that of the winner, in
the shape of Shaun Coaten from Holbeach, who caught big bream off the first
peg on the roadside stretch of Hobhole Drain. Missing the first two bites he then switched to a
heavier tackle with which he immediately contacted his first fish, one of
around 5lbs. Fifteen similar models followed steadily throughout the
remaining four hours or so to give him a runaway victory with some 35lbs in
reserve over the second place. Teams: 1 Telford AA 409 pts; 2 Slaithwaite AC 404 pts; 3
Mayfair Newark 391 pts; 4 Yarm Angling 388 pts; 5 Triana North 387 pts; 6
Poachers MG 387 pts (lower aggregate weight); 7 Tigra Rotherham 382 pts; 8
Hobeach & DAC 377 pts. Individuals: 1 Shaun Coaten, Holbeach and DAC,
35.730kgs, peg A25; 2 Duncan Folkes, Ramsey and DAS, 20.640kgs, peg D11; 3
Zbigniew Sajewicz, Radcliffe AS, 15.710kgs, peg D9; 4 Giovani Barbato,
Godalming AS, 13.830kgs, peg D10; 5 Richard Malpass, Stoutshill AC, 13.250kgs
peg L32; 6 Pete Collier, Stoke-on-Trent, 11.100kgs, peg L33. The outstanding success of the event is all down to the
dedication and hard work put in by affiliated club and committee members of
the Boston and District AA who worked tirelessly to prepare, peg out and
steward the various drains. Thanks are also due to our tackle shops for their
help to visiting teams, as well as local businesses and farmers who gave us
temporary access to river banks and parking areas, from which I hope that
— traffic jams apart — those who enjoyed the day may want to pay
Boston another visit in the future. Bream haul joy for Danny The Coach and Horses AC sweep took place over the same
pegs of the Swandyke Lane area on Sunday that, contrary to all expectations,
carried on where it left off the day before. The previous day’s winning peg,
was also still very much on the boil as Danny Pettigrew senior returned to
the top with another good weight of bream, some of which weighed in at over
6lbs. Lee Feary also got in on the act to take second spot
only one fish behind at those sizes, but in general the pity was that almost
all bites ceased after the first hour. Results: 1 Danny Pettigrew senior 33lbs 12ozs; 2 Lee
Feary 28lbs; 3 Graham Upsall 9lbs. Stickney AC gave the Hobhole Drain at Nunn’s Bridge a
whirl and here John Briggs made up for his disappointment the previous day
with a good net of small roach. In doing so he also beat team-mate Steve Evans who, with
a similar catch, kept ahead of Ray Taylor and Jamie Broughton, both of them
relying on a few skimmers for that third place. Results: 1 John Briggs 4lbs 9ozs; 2 Steve Evans 2lbs
15ozs; equal3 Jamie Broughton and Ray Taylor 2lbs 10ozs. Jerry Clifton also overcame some disappointment at not
finishing in the top five in his own particular section by winning Fishtoft
AC’s latest match on the Hobhole Drain in the Duke of Wellington area. He
took the match at a canter with a couple of pounds of skimmers to spare over
Ben Jackson in second place. Results: 1 Jerry Clifton 5lbs 1½ozs; 2 Ben Jackson 3lbs;
3 Alan Dixon 1lb 4ozs.
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