How Gerry's of Nottingham achieved a shock win in this year's Supercup
This year’s Angling Times/Bait-Tech Supercup has been like no other thanks to Covid-19, but it reached its climax last weekend on a sun-drenched Barston Lakes and Meadowlands Fishery complexes with the grand final – and a win for a team who thought they’d got no chance!
Gerry’s of Nottingham are the new champions, scoring 31pts for a clear win from fellow Midlanders Tackle Shack Gold and North West outfit Sixfields Warriors in third. Such was the shock to the winners, that two of their team had already headed home, thinking they’d come nowhere!
Gerry’s skipper Mick Ryan with the famous trophy.
At Barston, Gerry’s scored 9pts, with a section win from Chris Horobin and two fourths from Ben Dutton and skipper Mick Ryan. Meadowlands was harder, with Jake Hemmings sixth, Simon Cooke seventh and Aaron Braithwaite ninth in their sections.
“We’re just floating, we really are - this is a massive shock!” said captain Mick.
“We thought Tackle Shack had won, because the rumour was that they’d got three section wins. But our scores were more consistent.”
“This is our second year in the event. Last year we didn’t have a full team to pick from, so we made a vow to have a proper crack at it and put the time in,” he continued.
“The win is also a fitting way to show our appreciation to Gerry Woodcock, who has looked after us for years. The shop has been brought by Nathan Hughes and will soon be Nathan’s of Nottingham, so it’s a great last hurrah for a famous name in fishing.”
At Barston, Mick tackled peg 96 with 13lb of little skimmers on short pole and maggot plus a carp on the feeder. However, a phone call from Chris Horobin told him to get on the pellet waggler in the last 90 minutes. That worked a treat with two double figure carp and two big F1s to give him 47lb.
Chris was almost opposite on peg 50 and he had a similar story with only skimmers on the feeder and two F1s on bomb and pellet. A change to the pellet waggler with two hours to go was key, seeing him land six big carp for 68lb and that section win. Ben on peg 118 also used the waggler, catching the bulk of his 84lb net on it, backed up by a big carp on the long pole and feeder.
The Lambsdown Lake at Meadowlands was always going to be harder and Jake on peg 4 fished the Method feeder to trees on the opposite bank for 62lb. Simon’s match at peg 35 also stuck to the Method for the final few hours, picking off skimmers and carp for 42lb. The hardest match was endured by Arron on peg 68 with only 19lb to show for his efforts on a bomb and pellet.
Gerry’s of Nottingham were so shocked to win that two of their team had already gone home.
Hundreds raised for charity in Northern fishing event
A fishing match held at a venue in Cheshire has been deemed a complete success by organisers, with hundreds of pounds raised for a cancer charity.
Danny hopes to turn the match into a yearly event for Northern anglers
The match held at Meadow View Fisheries in Lymm, was hosted by Danny Fenson, who hopes to turn it into a yearly event for Northern anglers.
“In the end we had 19 anglers attend the event. This ranged from experienced match anglers to people that have never fished a match before,” says Danny.
“We have now raised over £700 for a pancreatic cancer charity. The money raised will help fight this awful disease."
Danny revealed why the charity is so close to his heart…
“I lost my dad in early February this year to the disease and as you can imagine it hit our family quite hard.
“So I decided to arrange a charity fishing match in his honour. We used to go fishing together when I was younger. last year I took fishing back up again and wanted to take him one last time but it was too late.”
You can still donate to Danny’s cause here: https://fundraise.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/fundraisers/danielfenson.
One barbel enough for 3k win
One BITE and one fish were enough to seal the Evesham Angling Festival title for Andy Richings, as the Gloucestershire man left it late to take the £3,000 top prize with a big Warks Avon barbel that took him from zero to hero!
Andy Richings with the Evesham trophy
The match was the second of three that make up the angling extravaganza on the river at Evesham and, after drawing his peg, Lobby’s Tackle man Andy decided on a big-fish approach that was all or nothing.
Pegged on 15, a swim that had blanked the day before, Andy was at least in a good area for catching a barbel and, with the river still coloured from rain, there was always a chance. With 15 minutes of the match remaining though, he was nowhere, but then one bite and a 10lb 4oz barbel later he was being installed as favourite to win! Added to a few perch, his weight of 10-6-4 beat Dan Abbott’s 8-0-0 from peg 2.
“I had Iain Jennings, the winner of the Wychavon the day before, next to me, and he reckoned my peg was a consistent one for barbel,” Andy said. “I had two choices – either fish for 3lb of tiddlers and come nowhere or try for a barbel, go for one bite and maybe win £3,000. It was no contest!”
Casting a cage feeder packed with halibut pellets and groundbait down the middle, he had little success with pellet on the hook. A change to a thumbnail-sized piece of meat did the trick and over went the rod tip with 15 minutes to go. Geared up with strong line and a big hook, the fish was soon landed.
The barbel feeder rig
“As soon as I netted the fish, the crowd behind me said ‘that fish is worth three grand – you’ll win with that’! It was only when the scales worked their way around the river that I knew the crowd was right!”
How Andy Bennett made history...
A rousing comeback in the second half of this year’s Fish O’Mania Final saw Andy Bennett become the first angler to secure back-to-back titles in the competition’s history, earning him that slice of history and the £50,000 winner’s cheque.
Andy Bennett become the first angler to secure back-to-back titles in the competition’s history
Fishing in autumnal conditions on the Island Lake at South Yorkshire’s Hayfield Lakes, Guru/Blake’s Bait man Andy, who qualified for the final automatically as defending champ, seemed out of it at the halfway stage. Then the carp turned up and a run of fish on the bomb helped him to make his move. The Manchester man finished with 40-100 from peg 10, enough to fend off runner-up Luke Sears on next-door peg 9, who took 33-850.
Strong winds made pole and waggler fishing all but impossible and many of the finalists, Andy among them, went down the quivertip and short pole route.
With two and a half hours gone, though, he seemed to be well out of the reckoning, with triple Fish O’ champion Jamie Hughes seemingly in control.
However, the fish vanished from Jamie’s peg and a group of big carp settled in front of Andy and Luke. The fourth hour turned into a golden 60 minutes, propelling last year’s champion into the lead, albeit a slender one of just a few kilos.
With Luke snapping at his heels and Andy’s peg suddenly seeming lifeless, he felt one more big carp would get the job done, and sure enough, with 15 minutes left the tip went around and the fish he desperately needed was in the bag, along with the title! Andy takes up the story...
Hours one and two
“In the opening two hours I caught seven kilos while the leaders were on 20-odd kilos, so I was well behind. Even though it was windy I could fish shallow on the long pole, but it was looking grim, bar a massive change. I needed some fish in front of me.”
Mid-match
“Until halfway through, the peg seemed dead. I managed a carassio on the waggler, but this was my only bite on the float. Luke to my right had been catching, so I began feeding more heavily to try and draw some of his fish towards me. I went from loosefeeding six 8mm pellets to double pouching 15 pellets at a time and finally I began to catch on two red eight-millers.”
A run of fish on the bomb helped him to make his move
Golden spell
“The next 90 minutes were really good, but I still felt I couldn’t catch the leaders up. Then my bank runner Paul Holland told me that a lot of the leaders had stopped catching, and that I was still in with a shout.”
A nervy end
“With an hour to go, I was three kilos ahead of Luke, then the peg died and I couldn’t buy a bite. Luke only needed one big fish to overtake me and he lost two in that final hour, a cause for panic on my part! I needed one more fish to put enough of a cushion between us. With 15 minutes to go, I got it.”
The final reckoning
“Even now, it surprises me that I won, because the peg had no form. It’s not a victory for patience or coolness, it’s more down to chance that the fish stayed where they did. Because my tactics were right, I felt that if I had a number of fish to work with, I was in with a chance, nothing more. To win back-to-back finals is a dream – I guess the next question is, can I make it a hat-trick? Who knows! As champion I won’t have to qualify next year, but at Hayfield any peg is capable of winning.”
“To win back-to-back finals is a dream”
40lb-plus carp taken...on the POLE!
YOU don’t always need beefy rods and big hooks to land massive carp, as Dean Rowden proved this week when he banked a 44lb giant while targeting silverfish on the pole.
The keen match angler, from Southampton, was on holiday in France and knew the day-ticket lake he visited at Etang De La Chauffie, Pressignac, held some big mirrors and commons.
His trip got off to a flying start when he ticked off a new 34lb personal best specimen using Method feeder tactics, but little did he know that switching target species would lead to an even bigger surprise.
After deciding to have a go for the lake’s resident tench and roach using pole tactics, he rigged up with a 5lb hooklength and size 14 hook baited with worm.
Dean says:
“I got a bite, struck, and thought I’d finally hooked a tench, but it didn’t take long to realise that a fish of a lifetime was attached to the other end!
“It fought for more than 40 minutes and the moment I saw it I called for my dad to borrow a much bigger landing net!”
Dean Rowden and his 44lb mirror carp caught on the pole
'The match of a lifetime' - Jon Arthur pockets £1000 winnings in blazing heat!
Oppressive heat and searing temperatures without a breath of wind are hardly the best of fishing conditions, yet double UK Champion Jon Arthur made light of the recent heatwave to top round two of this year’s event in style – with a new competition record weight of 477-14-0!
Matrix/Dynamite Baits man Jon landed 62 carp from peg 22 on Yew Lake at Decoy Lakes near Peterborough, ending the day miles clear of runner-up James Collison’s 282-1-0 off next-door peg 19. Richard Drage completed the top three with 263-7-0. Jon’s reward was not only a new record and a section win, but also £1,000 in winnings!
“That was the match of a lifetime,” reflects Jon.
“We all knew that under the right conditions 300lb was a possible winning weight because it is so rare to see 400lb caught at Decoy.
“I thought the weather certainly wasn’t right. It was the hottest I have ever been while fishing, but there were so many carp in front of me, I kind of felt that if enough of them fed, a massive weight was possible.”
At the peg
“I drew peg 22 on Yew Lake and headed there thinking that it would either be a day catching shallow, short or in the edge because they’re the three methods that normally win on the strip lakes at Decoy.
“You’ve got to catch a weight as well, so 200lb was the kind of figure I was aiming for. When I got to my peg there were hundreds of carp on the surface all the way across the lake, so it didn’t take long to work out a strategy!
“I set up three mugging rigs with different lengths of line between the float and pole, as well as a margin rig for late on.”
What a start!
“After 80 minutes, I’d caught 20 carp and the peg was carnage, with fish all over the place. I caught from 5m out to 13m out, but generally between 5m and 8m was the best range using a 6mm banded red pellet or a 7mm Dynamite Baits Washter and a 0.3g dibber fished 15ins deep. I like to fish deeper than normal because I think that when you’re mugging, you catch a lot of fish as the bait falls as opposed to them coming to the splash of it hitting the surface. Hook was a size 16 Matrix MXC4 to a 16-18 Slik elastic.
“What was also important was working out which way to lay the rig in front of fish. I like to cast to them, putting the bait closest to the fish and the float further away, and I also varied how the bait went in. Sometimes a hard slap on the surface worked while, on others, gently underarming the bait so it hit the water with a plop was better.”
“That was the match of a lifetime”
Getting hotter and hotter
“In the second and third hours the temperature picked up even further and it was merciless. I fished in a vest and shorts but was dripping with sweat and sinking litres of water while wiping my head with a mouldy old towel in my carryall that I’d soaked in the lake!
“The stamp of carp seemed to tail off as well, but there were always enough fish in the swim to target, even though I reckoned 90 per cent of them weren’t interested in taking the hookbait. At this point I did begin to feed a bit of bait, 6mm pellets at 6m, and caught a few fish doing this – but it was really only a throwaway line.
“With 90 minutes to go I fed the margins, picking a swim that had the shallowest water I could find. Although carp moved into the edge, I couldn’t catch them so I started to throw in casters by hand around 2m out from the bank and picked off a few carp fishing shallow here.”
The weigh in
“I ended up with 62 carp for no idea what weight! It was only after I saw the lads around me weigh and worked out the number of fish for those weights that I thought my carp must average 8lb apiece. That’d make my weight over 400lb so I must have got my sums wrong.
“That said, 60 carp at 5lb each is 300lb and a lot of my fish were bigger than 5lb! It really was a red-letter day and amazing, given how unbearably hot the weather was.
“It’s nice to have the event’s record back again and I just hope the next round at the Glebe is a mugging day because I seem to do okay on that tactic in the UK Champs – last year I won round two at Hayfield mugging and the year before won a round at Barston doing the same!”
The top three
700lb-plus haul smashes match record!
THE six-hour match record at a top northern fishery has just been obliterated with an incredible 714lb 15oz of carp.
Mosella Quaker-backed bagger James Roper was fishing peg 38 on Angel of the North Fishery’s Bowes Lake when he netted fish to 14lb on a mixture of margin and shallow tactics to beat the 642lb best.
“On the day my peg looked perfect as it was red hot and the wind was blowing in,” he told us.
“In the first hour alone I had 100lb down the edge on 6mm expanders over micros, then for the rest of the match I caught steadily on 8mm hard pellets fished shallow at 10m range.
“The peg was solid, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t exhausted – I even had cramp in my forearms three times!”
Using a strong pole and a size 20 elastic, James landed a carp every two minutes and ended the contest with 17 keepnets in the water – half of which he stored in the next peg due to a lack of room!
Just part of James Roper’s phenomenal haul of carp
Bob's trademark white cap became a beacon to attract spectators - Keith Arthur
Bob Nudd MBE came to match fishing quite late in life, but it didn’t take him long to reach the very top.
The quietly-spoken man from deepest Essex was the first Southerner to be picked by Dick Clegg for England’s World Championship squad. I’ll never forget sitting next to Dick on the way back from the Killyhevlin section of Lough Erne on the ill-fated 1985 Sealink Classic, telling him he’d picked the wrong man for the 1984 Championships and how Steve Gardener or Dave Vincent would have been better bets. This was despite the fact that in 1983 Bob was part of an Essex County team that won the World Club Championship in Italy – and that sort of thing doesn’t happen often. Shows what I know!
Bob soon became an integral member of a great squad and in 1990 won the first of four World Championship individual gold medals. His trademark white cap became a beacon to attract spectators and there was always a big gallery behind his zone.
The highlight of his England career was winning double gold, team and individual, at Nottingham’s Holme Pierrepont rowing course in 1994. Although Bob’s forte is pole fishing, I was there to witness his skills with a long-range slider float.
The highlight of his England career was winning double gold, team and individual, at Nottingham’s Holme Pierrepont rowing course in 1994.
I was also there for Bob’s final individual win in 1999 on a roasting-hot canal in Toledo, Spain. The wait for the final Spanish angler to weigh in on Bob’s section was one of the tensest moments in angling I’ve ever known.
Bob still competes at the highest open match level, preferring the natural waters of the Fens near his home, and is now back in the England fold at ‘veteran’ (a term he despises! level, so his hoard of gold may not yet be complete.
Always happy to talk to the crowds, and free with his advice and knowledge, Bob is a legend, and his impact on the sport will endure for many years to come.
His England team mates applaud Bob’s victory.
For more fishing history, pick up Angling Times magazine every Tuesday and turn to Arthur’s Archive
Fish O'Mania final to be fished behind closed doors - will we see bumper weights?
SPECTATORS will not be allowed to be present at this year’s Fish O’Mania final following the Government’s decision to further limit crowd attendances at live sporting events.
The 2020 Fish O’ Mania final will be behind closed doors
It will be the first time in the competition’s 26-year history that the final will be fished without supporters, although the format for the match will remain unchanged – with 24 anglers still competing for the £50,000 first prize at Hayfield Lakes on Saturday, August 29.
Fish O’Mania NXTGEN (Next Generation) goes ahead as planned and eight young anglers will compete for a £2,500 winner’s cheque.
Losing the crowds is a double-edged sword, says the 2015 and 2017 Fish O’Mania winner, Jamie Hughes.
“I really feel for the new guys who won’t get to experience the amazing atmosphere I did,” he adds.
“The crowds make a huge difference and I’ve found the pressure from supporters encourages you to fish to the best of your ability.
“The lack of noise and activity will improve the fishing, though, so we could see some huge weights.”
There will be no scenes like this a Fish O’ this year!
Billy Lane, the wizard of floatfishing - Keith Arthur
The great Billy Lane never won the National, but he came close. When cash prizes were secondary to silverware, nobody had a trophy cabinet as well stocked as his.
Then in 1963 he became England’s first World Champ and that enhanced his reputation still more. There were no such things as feeders or catapults allowed, and Billy’s floatfishing skills made legering redundant.
Nobody had a trophy cabinet as well stocked as Billy Lane
The Missile – a huge loaded, bodied waggler, around long before the term waggler had been coined – helped anglers to fish the wide, deep, waters of the Fens, but the first of his inventions that I adopted was the Trent Trotter. Billy designed this float for very shallow areas of the river. It was basically an Avon float with the stem chopped off directly below the body. An eye was whipped on and the float was fished bottom only, with a bulk shot locking it in place, one No4 shot set at half-depth below the float and another set at double the depth ABOVE the float.
This was what we now call a back shot, and it dragged bottom, slowing the float down. On some Middle Thames winter roach swims, only 2ft deep, it was particularly deadly.
His seminal work on the subject, the Billy Lane Encyclopaedia of Float Fishing, was published in the 1970s and remains a go-to read.
His tackle shop in Coventry is still a haven for anglers, and the maggot farm he set up produces some of the finest bait in the country. Keeping the Lane tradition of winning big matches going, his grandson Tom famously won the 2015 RiverFest title on the River Wye in conditions that even the great man may have struggled to find a float for. Tom’s 4oz feeder did the trick and enabled a second-day performance that was more than enough to clinch the title.
Billy Lane in his shop
To read more fascinating fishing history, pick up Angling Times every Tuesday and turn to Arthur’s Archive
Broken pole not enough to stop £1000 match win
Bait-Tech’s Gareth Lennox ended his weekend £1,000 better off after winning the Fish O’Maniac Final at Devon’s Stafford Moor complex.
He saw off the 17 other finalists on Tanner’s Lake with 173-2-0 of carp, the win coming despite Gareth snapping his pole.
After a qualifying match the day before, the 18 finalists lined up and Gareth got peg 20 from the bag.
Starting on pellet short he caught only a few skimmers. That meant a change to fishing at 16m down the margins to pick off a few carp – then he broke his pole!
With no spare section, he picked up the bomb rod and cast down the edge with worm on the hook over loosefed pellets.
It worked like a dream as the peg got stronger the longer the match went on to see him home. The win follows Gareth qualifying for the Golden Reel Final – quite a productive spell!
A broken pole didn’t stop Gareth from securing the win at Stafford Moor
Second on peg 16 was England ace Des Shipp, who went for a pellet attack at 6m and in the margins to land carp for 157-1-0.
Result:
1 G Lennox, Bait-Tech, 173-2-0; 2 D Shipp, Preston Innovations, 157-1-0; 3 L Werrett, Middy/Bait-Tech, 155-12-0; 4 A Lee, Banstead, 153-2-0; 5 A Allen, Stafford Moor, 133-13-0; 6 M Heard, Stafford Moor, 126-11-0.
The winning catch
Match Fishing Is Changing - Reader Letter
“I’m not an avid match angler but I do follow the scene with interest and watch out for the results in Angling Times each week.
“Two things have stood out recently, the first being the increase in attendances at matches on natural waters since lockdown ended.
“Maybe match anglers have outgrown those stock pond commercials and are returning to fishing events that offer a real challenge.
“Okay, some of the catch weights might not be headline-makers but they usually make for close competitions.
There has been an increase in attendances on natural water matches
“The second thing I discovered was that Jamie Hughes keeps getting through to the Fish O’Mania final each year – this time marks his ninth final in a row.
“I don’t know how he does it, but there’s no denying he’s got a serious talent there and I’ll be cheering him on come the day of the final.”
Jamie Hughes just keeps winning. There’s no denying he’s got serious talent.
Letter sent in from Alex Ross, Lancashire
Send us your letters and pics to: atletters@bauermedia.co.uk
First visit to the venue and a big match win!
There are those who swear that an intimate knowledge of a venue is a must for success, but Lee Kerry showed that’s not always the case by winning the latest Angling Trust RiverFest qualifier on the River Weaver – on his first visit to the North West waterway!
Lee Kerry knows a thing or two about catching bream (Southfield image)
Having booked on at the last minute, Lee weighed in 46-15-12 of bream and skimmers to cruise to victory from Kevin Hall on 25-7-0. Lee was helped by drawing a great peg, but good pegs don’t fish themselves.
“I don’t get the time in summer to fish RiverFest but I saw a few tickets for sale and had heard that the Weaver was fishing well, so fancied a go,” Lee says.
“I drew peg 2 on what’s called the old river, a good swim. It gets pleasure fished a lot, is wide and deep and a known bream area. There was a feeder and a pile of pellets in the peg when I got there, so that told me all I needed to know!”
Picking one line to fish the feeder at 30m, Lee used one as a negative swim with small baits and finely chopped worms through the feeder, the second being more positive with corn, 2mm pellets and rougher chopped worm fed. Kicking off on the negative line, he then moved on to the positive once he felt a few fish were about.
The rig that won
“The opening hour was slow, but I could see some bream rolling so I kept the faith and once I got a bite, things got better and better,” he continues.
“By resting and rotating the swims, I had a great three hours catching around 25 fish before things fizzled out in the last hour. From people walking about, though, it seemed that no-one else was catching that well in the match, but you never know on a river with bream – it’s possible to catch 50lb in an hour!”
400lb bag smashes Larford Lakes record
Mikey Williams crushed the opposition to win the recent Golden Reel match at Larford Lakes with a venue record weight of 401-8-0, booking himself a return visit to Larford in September for the final and a crack at winning £50,000.
His end peg 30 on the grass bank of the Match Lake had no angler to his right until the opposite bank, and pegs to his left were not drawn. That meant more fish to draw into his own peg.
“They seemed too far up in the water to catch them on pellet, so I put two dead red maggots on the hook to get a slower fall of the bait,” Mikey says.
“After 55 minutes I had 127lb on my clicker. After 90 minutes, though, the carp drifted off to the space on my left.
I needed to get them back in my peg.“I started lashing in casters at 13m, fishing two maggots shallow on the same rig I’d used to mug early on, and I caught another 150lb in the next two hours, but the lad opposite me was bagging as well, so I wasn’t having it all my own way.”
By fishing corn over groundbait to both margins, in the final 15 minutes alone he had 44lb of carp from the left-hand side, which proved to be the better of his edges. “It was solid with fish!” he says.
Larford is on fire at the moment
Biggest F1 ever landed!
The biggest F1 ever recorded has been caught by a carp angler from a Lancashire club water.
David Williams got a huge shock when he netted the colossal 13lb 8oz specimen during a recent carp fishing trip. The fish is considerably bigger than the assumed ceiling weight of F1s, which normally grow to a maximum of about 6lb.
A cross between crucian and common carp, F1s were first farmed 30 years ago to provide year-round sport on the growing commercial match scene.
Simon Hughes, who created the breed, tells Angling Times:
“That is definitely an F1, and by the looks of it it’s one of ours.
“It’s the biggest I’ve heard of, so it’d be a record as far as we’re aware.”
There has never been an official British record for F1s and Simon said the biggest he had previously encountered were around the 9lb-10lb mark.
David (46) caught the new unofficial British best while targeting specimen carp with a 14mm pop-up boilie on a chod rig.
“It gave me a proper scrap,”
said David, who weighed the fish on Reuben Heaton scales.
“When it came in I looked at the lateral line, and then saw no big barbules, and thought it had to be a huge F1.
“My friend had one weighing 10lb 6oz from the same water last winter, so I knew there were a handful of big ones in there.”
David Williams and the unofficial F1 record
Big match win confirmed on long drive home
Such are the effects of social distancing measures in match fishing that sometimes winning anglers don’t know they’ve won until an hour after leaving to go home. That’s what happened to Andy Power in a recent Fish O’Mania qualifier at Tunnel Barn Farm.
Rules state that anglers must pack up and leave immediately after weighing in, and after putting 238-6-0 on to the scales the Preston Innovations man did just that, thinking that he hadn’t won. A text 90 minutes into his journey back to Somerset told him he actually had!
“I had a bit of luck, as Luke Bamford went over the weight limit in one of his keepnets,” reveals Andy.
“He’d have won the match easily otherwise!”
Andy’s plan for his peg 5 on Extension Pool draw was based around casting shallow and then fishing tight across to the reeds on the island.
Three hours in on the shallow line at 6m using banded caster he’d caught really well, an estimated 150lb of F1s. When this slowed up, he went out to the reeds with banded 4mm pellet to take around 80lb of carp and F1s in the final two hours.
Andy Power (pictured) had no idea he had won the match until 90-minutes into his drive home.
Nationals won't go ahead in 2020
Fish O’Mania and RiverFest will go ahead this year, but the historic Division 1 and 2 Nationals will not, the Angling Trust has revealed.
A few months ago the idea of any matches being fished seemed far-fetched, so the release of the Trust’s Coarse Competitions calendar this week will be welcome news to the nation’s match anglers.
However, concerns about social distancing mean the Division 1 and 2 Nationals, events that often draw over 500 participants, have been cancelled. It was a tricky decision for the Trust to make, but John Ellis of the Canal and River Trust is fully behind it:
“I’m a huge supporter of our national championships, but deferring both these events for 12 months is a sensible decision that I know most anglers will support.”
The Division 1 & 2 Nationals won’t be taking place this year.
Anglers celebrate after Government lifts ban on competitive fishing
THE final piece in the jigsaw of angling’s full return slotted into place this week after Government gave the green light for competitive fishing to return.
Pleasure anglers received consent to return to the banks three weeks ago, but social distancing guidelines banning big gatherings of people meant that many fishery regulars and matchmen were unable to follow suit.
This has now all changed, however, after the Angling Trust successfully argued that match fishing deserved special dispensation as entrants could socially distance at all times, including at the draw and weigh-in.
The news came as a huge relief for Britain’s commercial venue owners, and the reaction from anglers has been overwhelming, with many fisheries struggling to cope with the instant demand for pegs.
At Somerset’s Viaduct Fishery the phones started ringing off the hook as soon as the announcement was made. Manager Matt Long says:
“We expected anglers to get involved, but we didn’t anticipate selling every ticket for our first batch of matches within 10 minutes! It shows that lots of people are itching to get back.”
Euphoria aside, the welfare of visiting anglers remains a priority for venue owners, and safety protocols have been introduced.
Matt Long adds:
“Everyone’s pegs will be drawn for them. Entrants will be asked to keep away from the weighing-in area.”
Similar provisions have been made at Partridge Lakes in Warrington, where technology is set to play a role in making sure safety guidelines are followed.
Owner Barbara Ikin says:
“Anglers will book on and pay for their peg using an online system and all payouts will be done via bank transfer. It means that everyone can get back to match fishing and stay safe.”
The news has been welcomed by Britain’s top matchmen, among them former Fish O’Mania champion Andy May, although he was keen to sound a note of caution.
“I can’t wait for the buzz of competing again, but Covid-19 hasn’t gone away,” he says.
“It’s important we follow the rules at each fishery to make sure angling continues to be held in high regard by the public.”
The green light has been give to competitive fishing
Time to give Dick Clegg a Knighthood - Reader letter
It sometimes annoys me how little recognition angling gets from the country’s bigwigs.
If an England football manager had as much success as Dick Clegg had as manager of our national fishing side, he’d have been knighted by now (Angling Times, April 21).
I know that he has been awarded an MBE and an OBE, but I still don’t think that’s enough to mark the contribution he’s made.
Quite simply, he took the side from also-rans to number one in the world and kept them there for 17 years. I bet that our England football bosses can only dream of picking up six world titles. Even one would be a start.
Mark Lester, Nottingham
Dick Clegg guided England to be the best in the world
‘What I wish I’d known at 20’ - Adam Rooney
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so for this series, we asked some of angling’s stars what nuggets of wisdom they would share with their 20 year-old selves and why. It makes interesting reading...
Adam Rooney - former starlets ace and boss of guru tackle
“When I look back at my fishing at the age of 20, there were clearly things that I should have done differently. One of my biggest flaws was setting up too much gear and this often made me late for the start of contests.
“I’d regularly fish the White Acres festivals with top anglers such as Richie Hull and Gaz Stanley and although I experienced success there, I would certainly have a lot more rods and top kits out than pretty much anyone else!
“It all boiled down to a lack of confidence in certain areas on my attack, but I now know that you need to focus on a select few methods that you feel that you’ve mastered. If you stick to your guns with these, they tend to work more times than they fail. One of the best ways to realise what your faults are is to surround yourself with anglers who are proven winners.
“Fishing with Richie taught me so much. I’d take time out from actually fishing and sit behind him, taking note of every little detail. He was the best by a mile at commercial meat fishing and by quizzing him almost constantly I managed to master the tactic.
“It’s so tempting to rush to the lakeside and start fishing as quickly as you can but if there are local experts on site, take a little time to have a chat with them. There’s no doubt that small amount of time will make a massive difference to the amount you catch when you finally wet a line.”
Starlets were quick to recognise the talent of a young Adam Rooney.
The trophy that put Adam on the road to big-time match fishing success.