Fishing in the dark is great fun and gives you a better chance of catching specimen fish as they have more confidence in feeding as you can see from my latest trip to the River Trent in
Nottingham.

Me and my son Jordan have a session once a week, and fish from around 6.00pm until around 11.30pm, the first couple of hours is about feeding accurately and getting some bait down as very often you get no signs of fish at all until dark then its like a different river and can be bites galore.

The main target fish is Barbel so I am using a Shakespeare Mach 2 Barbel Rod perfect for the job, It has the strength to land Barbel well into double figures and also delicate enough to land Chub and Bream. The Reel I am using is a Mitchell Avorunner V2 7500 as you need a reel with a bait runner and you also need a reel that has the power on a big rivers like the

Trent.

I am using 10lb line to a size 9 swivel tied to a 8” sink braid hook link. A size 8 JRC Connect 1 barbed hook set up as a hair rig. Tied to the end of the hair is a Korum quick stop as these are good to use in the dark as they are tied to the hair and never come off. On the line I first of all add 2 float stops 2 feet above the swivel. This acts as a semi bolt rig and also a weed stop. As in the Autumn weed is floating down the river and when it hits your line it will usually slide down to your rig but with the stops it prevent this as the weed will gather around the stops.

Then I have a beaded clip swivel that can run freely up and down the line this also allows me to alternate between a 2 to 3oz feeder or a 2 to 3oz JRC Connect pear flat lead. And last of all a buffer bead which you can slide down and fit snugly over the swivel this tidies the rig up and also acts as a buffer for the feeder/lead when running up and down the line.

I set my rod up pointing up at 45° to the river to stop the drag of the current, its also good to see your bites materialise, so I add an isotope or a clip light towards the end of the rod so you can see the fish showing interest. Also another good tip is at the start of the session cast to were you want to fish and put your line behind your line clip on the reel then between your reel and first eye tie a piece of bright coloured pole elastic in a slip knot leaving a ½” tag either side (around a number 4-6 rating).

As you don’t want your line clip on when you hook a Barbel, so the idea is to cast to your line clip take the clip off and engage your bait runner if you get a bite and land a fish then you can cast out of the way somewhere to the elastic and put your line clip back on, then reel in and bait up again, then cast to were you are fishing. If you don’t get a bite put your line clip back on and reel in. At least this way you always know how far out you are casting in the dark.

The bait I am using today will be Berkley Gulp Squid & Liver12mm Boilies using one on the hair, also before casting I dip the Boilie into a Berkley Gulp Squid & Liver Dip which gives it extra flavour that fish can pick up on in the flow of the river.

 Today I start the session at 6.30pm with a feeder which I fill with a fish meal based groundbait with some Berkley Gulp 4.5mm Halibut pellets a few larger ones and a few free boilies scattered in the mix. And when I use a straight lead I always use a PVA bag full of pellets around 30-40 small pellets and 2 or 3 boilies in it, its up to you one day the feeder will work another day the lead will work its up to you it just gives you a second option.

I cast into the middle of the river at around 50yds out I do this every 10 minutes for the first hour to get some bait down then every 20mins or every fish afterwards. It’s dark at 8.00pm. I then get my first bite a 4lb Chub followed by another 2 x 4lb + Chub, good start. Then it goes quiet for around 20mins and I hook into a Barbel feels a good one yes 10lb 8oz.

I don’t get another bite until 9.00pm then the rod keeps rattling I strike a very big Bream comes to the net, that’s the end of the Barbel as a  huge shoal of Big Bream move in and I catch 10 of them in the next 2 hours 9lb 2oz, 8lb 8oz, 8lb 4oz,  4 x 7lb+ and 3 6lb+ fish, 14 fish for over 90lb in 4hrs not bad,

I now call it a night at 11.00pm as got to go to work in morning.

Shakeapeare Individual Championship Winner Andrew Murphy

Saturday 27^th August

70 Fished.

With the previous day’s heavy rain adding colour to this notoriously clear stretch river, many competitors were hopeful of a few better skimmers, bream, tench and barbel. However, only a handful of better fish showed and those who’d stuck to the ‘safe’ small fish option came out on top.

Welsh International Andrew ‘Spud’ Murphy put in a sterling small fish performance from peg 49 to take top spot, and the £6,000 cheque that went with it. Fishing over a dark groundbait mix of Sensas Lake, Roach and soil that he’d potted at 13m, Andrew plugged away for the first three hours of the match catching small roach and skimmers steadily. As the colour dropped from the water bites started to dry up, but he managed to keep the odd fish going in the net through the later stages of the match to finish with a total weight of 13-11-0.  When asked what he intended to do with his winnings, Andrew said a new kitchen was the first thing on his shopping list,

Second and third was a closely fought affair between regular Match Fishing columnist Lee Kerry and Garbolino-backed Ian Didcote – the verdict eventually going Ian’s way by just 6oz! Ian weighed in 12lb 10oz from peg 46 and, after catching 4lb on the pole in the f irst three hours, he switched to the waggler to find a run of small skimmers. Lee Kerry took another superb small fish catch of 12lb 4oz from fancied peg 64 – the first peg below Hampton Ferry rope. This catch was made up of 4lb of silver bream, and 8lb of roach.

For a full run-down of the event, results and happenings check out the October issue of Match Fishing magazine.

Result

1 Andrew Murphy (Tredger Angling Centre) 13-11-0 (peg 49)

2 Ian Didcote (Garbolino/Bait-Tech) 12-10-0 (peg 46)

3 Lee Kerry (Preston Innovations/Sonubaits) 12-4-0 (peg 64)

4 Denis White (Maver) 10-9-0 (peg 79)

5 Mark Brush (Daiwa Gordon League) 9-7-0 (peg 48)

6 Martin Howard (Daiwa Gordon League) 8-13-0 (peg 75)

7 Gary Miller (Maver Bait-Tech) 8-12-8 (peg 11)

8 Chris Jenkinson (Maver Bait-Tech) 8-7-0 (peg 74)

Team Winners Dorking

Jon Arthur reports on Shakespeare Superteam’s third place in the 2011 Evesham Festival Match Fishing Team Championship

After two good individual draws Saturday and Sunday, could I draw five flyers for myself and the other four Shakespeare Superteam members in the Match Fishing Team Champs? Er, no was the unanimous answer! Rob Middleton had an average Peg 9, Richie Reynolds had a very poor Peg 23, I had a very average Peg 40, Tony Skinner had a dodgy 56 and Lee Gardner was perhaps our best angler on Peg 70. No stand-out swims so not the best of team draws that’s for sure!

All the talk before the match seemed to be that Dorking would be hard to beat. I wasn’t so sure as Barnsley Blacks had at least three really good pegs in 30, 46 and 75 – so that’s who I plonked an each-way bet on. I rarely have a bet but it seemed too good an opportunity this time. History tells you that Dorking did indeed win it and Barnsley were second so I still won a bit of coin afterwards!

I wasn’t overly confident with my peg but I still had a team job to do. Peg 40 has had no form this season and the river looked really clear as I surveyed the swim. I had fished the area a couple of times last year, however, and felt there was a chance of an odd quality roach if I persevered on the long pole. I was also buoyed by the fact that although Paul Glenfield really struggled on the peg on Saturday, Tim Kaye fished it Sunday caught a couple of eels and two big roach on hemp. Some fish were hopefully in the area then – I just needed to coax them to feed.

With team points top of the agenda I set up a lot of gear including a waggler, feeder, seven roach rigs, an eel rig and a close-in perch rig. The only rig I caught on all day, however, was a 1g Jean Francois shotted with an olivette, three No10 droppers and a size 20 PR311 to a 0.07mm hooklength and No5 Slip elastic. Unlike the day before where I constantly had to swap rigs and the speed that they went through the swim, this day was simply a case of putting the rig through at the pace of the current and eventually it would go under. I tried to do fancier things but it never seemed to matter!

I balled in 10 jaffas of my standard Sensas groundbait and soil mix at the start and cupped two joker-rich balls over the top. This time I also fed an 8m swim with three cupped-in balls for gudgeon and perch where it was the same depth. The first 10 minutes were poor as I couldn’t get a positive 1.5g rig going through properly and it kept picking up fine silkweed every run through. Swapping to the 1g rig made all the difference and I never looked back.

The fish were few and far between but at around four or five to the pound they were really worth catching. They quickly backed off after one or two were caught, though, and it was a real battle trying to guess when to risk topping up as I didn’t want to ruin the peg but I still felt like the fish needed coaxing back into the swim. I probably topped up nine or 10 times in all and, unlike the previous two days, the topups did seem to have an effect. The shorter swim wasn’t great but I did manage about 10 tiny gudegon and a few perch here – all valuable weight builders.

I worked my socks off constantly shipping in and out, running the rig down the peg as often as possible and changing my bait regularly to keep bites coming. I knew I was doing something right as the runners told me no one else in the section was really catching. I therefore only had a couple of looks down the inside for eels and perch as it was too much of a gamble coming off productive swims.

I dripped in hemp for a couple of hours but gave that up. I also stopped dripping in bait on the waggler line as I needed to concentrate on the pole. It was the right thing to do as after five busy hours I reckoned I had close to 5lb of dumpy roach. The scales actually recorded 6lb 2oz for a very satisfying £200 section win. The anglers either side on pegs 39 and 41 only managed 1lb and Sam Wildsmith was second in the section with 4lb from Peg 46. I was well happy with that!

It turned out that I was actually fourth in the match too, but alas they only paid the top three. Michael Buchwalder was on my peg from the day before and netted an 8oz roach on the whistle to weighed in 6lb 4oz – beating me to third by just two ounces! Rob Jones’ tench-assisted 7lb was second and Chris Jenkinson weighed in a fine 7lb 2oz of roach off Peg 7 to take the top individual spot.

Back on the team front, it sounded like we were out of it. Leigh Gardner had won E Section thanks to his finely tuned ‘kinky feeder method’ catching some valuable perch across the river but Tony Skinner had really struggled in D Section. Two late hemp roach did claw back valuable points however. Richie Reynolds also struggled on Peg 23 but clawed some vital small fish on the waggler tight across for reasonable points while Rob Middleton had put in a good effort in the low numbers for 3lb 10oz of small fish and a section fourth. We suspected a fourth or fifth place was on the cards, not great when they only pay the top three teams, so when we all got back to the results board we were elated to see we had in fact finished third with 51 points! That gave us all a massive smile – not to mention a £1,000 cheque for the team and a podium place for the presentation. It wasn’t a great draw but we had somehow put in a solid team performance and I reckon we really deserved that third spot!

It was a difficult festival for some, with the clear river affecting weights and a lack of bonus fish throughout, but there were still small fish in every peg to be caught and top names featuring in the frame each day. Personally, I’d had the best weekend’s river fishing of my career so far, learned loads and picked up a few trophies too. It’s great to get on that podium as a team too.

Once again, the festival was smoothly run and despite the weather being a bit chilly by the Monday the crowds were still there soaking in the atmosphere. Diana and all the staff at Evesham had done everyone proud and DHP and its staff and all the exhibitors had once again put on a brilliant festival.

Here’s to next year!

Team Result

1st Daiwa Dorking, 59 points

2nd Ultimate Barnsley Blacks, 54 points

3rd Shakespeare Superteam, 51 points

Individual Result

1st Chris Jenkinson, Maver Bait, Peg 7 – 7-2-8

2nd Rob Jones, Leicester Sensas, Peg 63 – 7-0-0

3rd Michael Buchwalder, Daiwa Dorking, Peg 29 – 6-4-8

4th Jon Arthur, Shakespeare Superteam, Peg 40 – 6-2-0

Larford 6th Feb 2011

When i arrived at Larford this weekend the weather was very mild with an air temp of 12 deg C and a very strong (storm force) south westerly wind. Given the previous weeks icy conditions it was stark contrast and expected carp to show in numbers. The match was on the specimen lake and with the wind blowing down toward the chalet end of the lake, this is where the carp were expected to show in numbers. At the draw, i pulled out peg 69 which has a bit of recent form and was in a good area.

It’s a reasonable walk round to this part of the lake and by the time i arrived the wind was really blowing and definitely a rod only job. So much so, only one person set up a pole. Given it was a good area, i decided on primarily a method feeder approach as plan A, with a standard open end feeder rod set up as plan B. Set up for the method was a MACH 2, 12ft Commercial feeder rod and Mach 3 front drag 4000 reel. The rod is 2 piece and has a great action for this sort of fishing. The tip section is soft enough for skimmer bream but also has some backbone for playing the largest of match carp and capable of casting a method feeder 70 yards plus, without being a poker stiff. It is also the advantage of being carried set up in a ready rod holdall.

The method was a 30 gram in weight with natural Swimstim and crushed tiger nut pellet groundbait mixed 50 / 50. Hookbait was either sweetcorn or white boilies, alternating single and double baits of each type. Hooklength as 0.19 with a size 18 hook. On the whistle i cast out around 60 yards, with the wind making accurate casting very difficult. It was important that you cast at 11 o’clock and feathered the line to ensure the method landed at 12 o’clock with such a strong wind, which by now was very strong and realistically only legering a viable option. During the winter months i don’t clip up and prefer to cast around my swim a little. There are also some very big carp 20lb plus which could break you if you cannot release line from the clip in time, which therefore provides a safer option. If a good day is on the cards then it sometimes pays to clip up and have a baited area. This is best done by having an identical rod set up, to a clipped distance and swap between the two. The skimmer rod set up was the Superteam 11, 12, 13 ft set at 11ft with a medium tip and same reel.

On the whistle i launched the method out and managed to cast to my intended spot. Despite the conditions, i was confident that carp would be caught, as the wind was just making the fishing difficult but expected the fish to feed well. I had my fist bite after 10 minutes resulting in a carp around 5lb to double 8mm white boilie. A further ten minutes later i had a good skimmer around 1.5lb on sweetcorn. A pattern was starting to develop and caught another carp around 15 minutes later, again on boilies. There was a good turn out for the match which was great to see, however, this resulted in every peg being used which are quite tight in the 60′s and 70′s making casting accurately at distance very important. The angler on my left had not caught at this stage however he had a fish on, as i was recasting. A few minutes later a carp was in his net at around 13lb, (why were my carp not as big!) The second hour was a little slower and reasoned that it maybe not quite as good as people had expected, although it is normal for this to happen.

Patience is key to this type of fishing especially during winter months and if in doubt would suggest that you leave your baited method in place rather than recasting too frequently. I’m a big believer in big baits equalling big fish and therefore stuck to double baits in the main. The angler on my right had also caught a few fish so persevered and managed to keep in front, just about. After 3.5 hours i had 8 carp for around 55lb and expected 60 to 80 lb to win and was on target. The last 1.5 hours were little slow, but 3 carp in in 20 mins put me well back in the race. My neighbouring anglers had slowed, though remained confident of at least 1 more carp and possibly 2 in the last half hour. Most of the bites were reasonable pulls of the tip. Given the distance and bow in the line, you tend not to get ferocious bites, especially during the colder months. With 15 minutes remaining i was glancing at other anglers on the far bank to see if they were catching. Looking back at my tip, it had always had a fare bend in it, due to the tow throughout the day. On this occasion though i reasoned that the fact it was tugging round by 3 ft that it might be a bite!!! I carefully played each carp all day and had lost only 1 mid match. This one was fighting very hard and suspected it might be double figures and needed to land it badly. It fought hard at the net and finally managed to land it after a few minutes. I was slightly disappointed to see it was around 8lb and fought well for it’s size compared to the others i had caught. The last 15 minutes remained biteless, though had 11 good carp, a stocky and a few skimmers.

The scales arrived quite quickly to be told that 52lb was the best weight so far upto my neighbour who placed 62 on the scales. It was now my turn and eventually weighed 82lb. I was pleased with this and quickly packed the remainder of my tackle away and awaited the results from the far bank, as i knew there were at least two other anglers who had caught quite well. I found out back in the carp park that 70 and 64lb were the next best weights and was very pleased to have won. Despite the wind i had a great day on plan A, and never really needed to change. These type of match wins are great when they happen, more often you have to work very hard and constantly changing tactics. Surprisingly, I’ve decided to give it another go next week at the same venue!!!

Cheers

Neil.

After weeks of freezing weather which resulted in the River Wye completely freezing over, I was desperate to get out on the river. Come the big thaw and what happened, Man Flu, so I had to give the match a miss, however the boys did well with James Robbins winning with 26lbs on an out of sorts river carrying a lot of colour and extra water.

The next week  was hit by heavy rain and by Thursday evening the river was over the banks and the match was called off.

I was now getting despondent but the next week saw temperatures plummet and the river level dropping quickly. Come Friday and everything was looking good for the weekend. They’d even forecast a rise in temperature for Saturday night so things were looking promising for a good match.

On Saturday morning I bought three pints of casters and four pints of maggots from my local tackle shop. In the afternoon I mixed 5kgs of ground bait in preparation for the match the next day.  My usual mix for the Wye is Sensas River and Gross Gardons or Roach Noire mixed 50/50 and I always mix it up the night before so any water is fully absorbed which in turn ensures that the ground bait gets to the bottom quickly.

Come Sunday morning I was up at 05-00 getting everything sorted out before setting off at 06-00.

Arriving at the Rowing Club the with the river 2.5 ft up it looked perfect however the colour which had been present all week had all but dropped out and a lack of topping fish left me with mixed feelings as to how the river might fish.

Standing in the queue with Lee Gardener and Nigel Davies, we were hoping for a good match. We knew from experience that if we drew anywhere in the 40’s or early 50’s we’d struggle for bites so with that in mind we were all hoping to be below the Rugby Club where sport is usually quite consistent.

When I drew peg 61 I was quite happy as it’s a good dace peg and peg 60 above me had framed in the last few matches. Lee was also happy when he drew peg 92 but Nigel although positive had mixed thoughts when he drew peg 78 on the railings as it was one of those pegs that is brilliant with water on but unpredictable without.

Walking to my peg I passed Colin Harvey on 65, Hadrian Whittle on 64, Shaun Gould on 62, a young up and coming angler on 62 and then Dave Roberts pegged above me on peg 60. Any thoughts of an easy match rapidly disappeared because in a section with anglers like this you’d have to work hard for every fish and all I could think was that I was glad it wasn’t the festival.

I set up two Superteam whips at 6m and at 7m both rigged with 4gm Jean Desque, St Bernards. My 16ft Superteam LXL was set up with a 14 No 4 stick and my Mach 3 13ft with a 10 No 4 stick with a spread out shotting pattern. Both the pole rigs and my heavy stick rig comprised of an ollivette followed by 2 No 8’s eight inches below, another 2 No 8’s eight inches below and then a single No 8 eight inches below. My hook length was 0.14 dia Superteam AML to a size 14 B611 on all my rigs.

Reels were my ever faithful Mach 3 XT’s with 0.166 dia Berkley XWR main line.

Once I had my gear set up I mixed up another 5 kgs of ground bait but swapped a bag of Roach and River for brown crumb. I then mixed the two batches of ground bait together so I had a uniform mix.

Because of the lack of fish topping earlier I decided to go for a softly, softly approach and only put four balls of ground bait laced with casters in at the start of the match. This was the opposite of most of the anglers around me who put ten to twelve balls in.

Feeding a ball a chuck straight out in front of me, twenty maggots or so slightly upstream in addition to feeding the same quantity of maggots as far down the peg as I could, I spent the next hour biteless. This was very worrying as Dave Roberts also hadn’t caught. While contemplating setting a feeder rod up, I decided I’d go for a short walk t see what was happening.

When I stopped to talk to the young lad below me, he informed me that he’s just had his first fish which was a dace. Knowing that the fish often move up river during the course of a match I went back to my peg and started feeding twice a chuck both at the top of my swim and halfway down. Within minutes I had my first fish which was a good dace. Once I started to put a few fish together I tried my 7m whip over my ground bait and was rewarded with a few dace followed by a couple of small chub however it wasn’t quite right.

Switching back to the stick and I quickly started to put a steady run of dace together. Feeding my ground bait and caster on the inside and maggots a little further out saw me put a good run of dace and chub together. It seemed that I’d get two or three chub in as many casts before they backed off and then I’d catch a few dace before the chub came back.

Although I tried off bottom and dragging on, I found it was best to just trip bottom and to hold the float back a rod length down stream before letting it go again. Almost every time I did this it would result in the float burying and going down the hole. If I didn’t get a bite at that point I’d let the float run another rod length and often pick up a dace or roach.

The last hour saw a better stamp of chub as I stepped up the feed. I also picked up more roach as the light started to go.

At the end of the match I knew I had a good weight however bank side rumour had it that Hadrian Whittle had bagged up from the start and when it comes to catching big weights there aren’t many better. In addition I also knew that Dave would have a good weight  as he’s very consistent on the Wye and one of the best anglers on the river.

When Hadrian arrived with the scales Dave was first in the section to weigh. When he struggled to get his net out of the water I knew he had a very good weight and when the scales declared 70lbs 13 oz I didn’t think I had enough to beat him.

When I also struggled to get my net out I knew it would be very close. When the scales went 73lbs 9 oz I was both very relieved and quite happy but the question was would I have enough to beat Hadrian?

Next to weigh was the young lad below me who weighed 32lbs and on the next peg Shawn Gould weighed 44lbs.

When we got down to Hadrian it was obvious that he had a very big weight. When the scales went 94lbs we congratulated him on what was a fantastic win. By all accounts he’s fished a very good match fishing the Bolo and groundbait down the middle of the river, alternating between maggot and bread on the hook.

News quickly filtered in that on the other bank on peg 88 Danny Ashington also had a good day weighing 67lbs of roach, dace and chub, while Lee Gardener on peg 92 had weighed 60lbs to just miss out on the main frame by 3lbs which was incredible. At least he did manage to get the section by default, unlike the unlucky guy in his section who weighed 59lbs and didn’t win a penny.

Overall it was a fantastic match and although the pegs in the 40’s and late 70’s struggled there were plenty of 20, 30 and 40lb weights below the Rugby Club.

The sad news is that there are now only two winter league matches left before the end of the season so here’s hoping for two good rivers and couple of good draws.

The Finals

August 28^th to August 30^th

Shakespeare Championship (70 pegs)

This match saw the river dropping after a three feet rise two days earlier but it was still very coloured and most of the competitors felt it would be a match dominated by big fish.

It was no surprise then when Gary Miller took the title and the £6,000 top prize from downstream Peg 67 with 22-4-0 of bream.

Using an open-end feeder with groundbait, casters and chopped worms and a worm on the hook

Gary  landed fish to 5lb and set a new weight record into the bargain.

Second place fell to Simon Willsmore, a regular framer at the venue, who improved on his third place last year by finishing runner up this time with 13-0-0 of chub with blockend feeder and maggots from Peg 36.

Third was Rob Wootton at fancied Peg 1 with 12-0-0 of bream and following him home was Steve Ashmore who took the first of his brace of festival double figure barbel with an 11lb fish from Peg 7. Completing the main frame with the best pole caught weight of the day was Pole Fishing editor Jon Arthur with 11-1-0 of mostly skimmers from Peg 64.

RESULT

Gary Miller (Maver Bait Tech) 22-4-0 (Peg 67) £6,000

Simon Willsmore (Team
Milo) 13-0-0 (Peg 36) £2,000

Rob Wootton (Middy/ Dynamite Baits) 12-0-0 (Peg 1) £1,000

Steve Ashmore (WB Clarke) 11-6-0 (Peg 7) £800

Jon Arthur (Pole Fishing/ Shakespeare) 11-1-0 (Peg 64) £500   

£150 section winners

Mark Treasure 7-4-0 (Peg 6)

Tony Bench 6-14-0 (Peg 17)

Matt Godfrey 8-2-0 (Peg 22)

Sam Wildsmith 9-0-0 (Peg 40)

Darren Davies (Drennan) 5-3-8 (Peg 52)

Mark Pollard (Fox Match) 9-15-0 (Peg 63)

Ian Didcote (Garbolino) 9-5-8 (Peg 72)

Abu Garcia Wychavon Championship (70 pegs)

The river had dropped well for this match and many competitors felt that roach, which had been largely conspicuous by their absence on Day One might play a part. Big fish were also likely to feature with the colour in the river and no one was surprised when it was announced over the tannoy that Steve Ashmore at Peg 30 had caught the bigger brother of the 11lb barbel he had landed from Peg 7 just 24 hours previously! This one weighed 12-12-0 and boosted his catch to 16-15-0 for the match he had most wanted to win for several years. Steve had already won the Saturday final in 2000, when it was sponsored by John Smiths. He was also the individual winner of the team final in 1999 so it meant that he had now won finals on all three days of the festival, a feat only previously achieved by two other anglers, namely Dave Harrell and Colin Perry.

Second place, with a bag of bloodworm caught roach and skimmers weighing 13-5-0 from Peg 13 was the ever-consistent Sam Wildsmith ahead of Denis White with 12-8-0 of the same fish from Peg 10. Ian Didcote finished with 12-0-0 of skimmers and bleak from Peg 63 and Hadrian Whittle with 8-15-0 of roach on bloodworm from Peg 79.

RESULT

Steve Ashmore (WB Clarke) 16-15-0 (Peg 30) £3,000

Sam Wildsmith (Maver Barnsley) 13-5-0 (Peg 13) £2,000

Denis White (Maver Barnsley) 12-8-0 (Peg 10) £1,000

Ian Didcote (Garbolino) 12-0-0 (Peg 63) £500

Hadrian Whittle (Kamasan Starlets) 8-15-0 (Peg 79) £250

£150 section winners

Brian Pollard 7-11-0 (Peg 11)

Keith Hobson 7-12-8 (Peg 12)

Danny Ashington 6-13-0 (Peg 22)

Mark Downes 7-2-0 (Peg 39)

Dave Harpin 6-13-0 (Peg 46)

Andrew Murphy 6-12-0 (Peg 60)

Richard Steele 5-8-8 (Peg 75)

Match Fishing Team Championship

14 teams of five (70 pegs)

The river had dropped still further for this match and was only around six inches on when the match got underway.

The Maver Bait Tech team comprising Wayne Swinscoe, Gary Miller, Chris Vandervleit, Dean Barlow and Chris Jenkinson made very few mistakes and finished seven points clear of its nearest challenger, finishing on 59 points.

Second place, with 52 points, went to Leicester based Quorn VDE, a five man team which included
Milan based Milo Columbo and
Surrey based Darren Davies. Third was Maver Barnsley with 50 points ahead of National champions Kamasan Starlets on 47 and Saints on 45.

Individually, Shakespeare’s Michael Buchwalder improved on his runner up spot last year by taking top position this time round with 14-7-0 of roach on bloodworm from downstream end peg 80. Dean Barlow made good use of the top upstream end peg and finished with 14-3-0, a catch which included a 4lb tench as well as some quality roach and third place went to Bob Bates of Mark One Sensas who included a big barbel in his 13-3-0 total.      

RESULTS

TEAMS                                                                                  POINTS

1st           Maver Bait Tech (£3,000)                                  59

2nd         Quorn VDE (£1,500)                                             52

3rd          Maver Barnsley (£1,000)                                    50

4th          Kamasan Starlets                                                 47

5th          Saints                                                                     45

6th          Shakespeare Mach 3                                           43

7th=        Daiwa Dorking                                                      42

7th=        Shakespeare Superteam                                      42

9th          Daiwa Gordon League                                         36

10th        Leicester Sensas                                                  31

11th        Sensas Mark One                                                 27

12th       
Preston Innovations Delcac                               21

13th        Drennan Oxford                                                    17

14th        Fox Match Trentmen                                           13

INDIVIDUALS

Top three

1st           Michael Buchwalder (Shakespeare) 14-7-0 (80) £750

2nd         Dean Barlow (Maver Bait Tech) 14-3-0 (1) £500

3rd          Bob Bates (Mark One Sensas) 13-3-0 (13) £250

£150 section prizes

A – Ricky Hines (Saints) 10-7-0 (14)

B – Chris Jenkinson (Maver Bait Tech) 7-9-0 (16)

C – Hadrian Whittle (Kamasan Starlets) 11-9-0 (39)

D – Sam Wildsmith (Maver Barnsley) 10-11-0 (49)

E – Darren Davies (Quorn) 11-9-0 (68)