“Matches in future will require cooperation and common sense” - Dom Garnett

IT’S only been a few weeks since my final pre-lockdown fishing match, but already it seems a lifetime ago. 

The reaction of clubs and fisheries was interesting in those strange early days of the virus. Many matches were cancelled, but the bigger venues tended to crack on, albeit with social distancing measures. 

For my money, though, a smaller club match seemed the safest bet. And so, with just a handful of competitors and some proactive ideas on keeping Covid-19 at bay, I joined the lads from Taunton AA for a knock-up on the canal. 

So how would they manage to compete without risking a bout of virus? Well, for starters, wider-than-usual pegging and fewer than 10 anglers would help – I wouldn’t have fancied a 50-pegger on a busy commercial fishery! 

Match organiser Dan Baldwin had also identified the two biggest risks of any match: the draw and the weigh-in both tend to encourage a scrum of anglers at well under two metres. Pegs were therefore all drawn by one person, with everyone else at a safe distance.

Talking of that magical two metres distance, it might seem that we’ve been conscious of it forever, but before the lockdown, the message really hadn’t got through to most of the public! Our competitors were highly compliant, though, and took it with their typical banter (“I’m not social distancing, I just don’t like you lot!”). Does it also help that pole anglers already think in metres? 

The same could not be said for the passers-by, however. From groups of friends acting as if it was a picnic, to runners panting their way along a narrow towpath, it felt like the safest place to be was right on the water, facing the other way! 

I had an unmemorable match. I kicked myself for not bringing a long whip, as the regulars stole a march with hordes of small bleak and roach. 

Nor did my usual chopped worm approach work. Two measly rudd were the sum of my bonus fish, while my neighbour Steve Kedge netted a tench and two solid perch to sail into a huge lead. 

If playing a tench on light line wasn’t perilous enough, the next challenge would be the weigh-in. Again, match organiser Dan stepped in while onlookers were reminded to keep their distance. The main possible transmission risk would be each angler’s keepnet, but with disposable gloves and hand gel on standby it was no recipe for danger. 

For me, the match was a strangely heartening experience. The world can’t shut down forever and at some stage match fishing has to continue but it will require cooperation and common sense.