Nights are drawing in... but plenty of summer angling ahead
THE last week has seen crowds gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the longest day, which in angling terms means that in just a few months we will be forgetting about the current sweltering weather and starting to think about winter leagues.
But don’t worry there are a lot of fish to be caught before then. At the moment we still have venues where fish are spawning, or that they aren’t feeding because of the heat, or in cases that they have produced totally unexplained results, not forgetting venues like Elsecar which continues to portray an unexplained absence of fish.
One venue which continues to improve is Ravenfield Ponds where the second match of the Wickersley Angling League fished last Saturday saw the venue’s match record being broken. Scott Bufton was the angler in charge and who landed an excellent 64lbs 11ozs of predominantly ide from peg 7, which is going some for a silver fishery.
Richard Brookes was second from adjoining peg 8 with 35lbs 5ozs while Mick Barry, who only renewed his permit the day before, was third with 21lbs. 15Lbs 10ozs put James Fisher in the fourth spot with Paul Slack fifth with 15lbs 8ozs and Gary Yorke sixth with 15lbs 1oz. The section winners were Paul, Gary and Andy Shaw who weighed 13lbs 14ozs.
Hall Croft’s Bridge Lake also produced a huge silverfish weight in last week’s Rotherham Aged, Blind and match at the venue. A day when the carp weren’t really interested proved to be ideal for Ron Smith, who usually targets silvers, and who finished with bag of roach and skimmers weighing 71lbs 8ozs to claim victory.
Steve Roe was second with 45lbs 1ozs of carp edging Jack Evason’s 42lbs 5ozs into third place. The section winners were Vernon Howard, 28lbs 6ozs, Derek Oldfield, 34lbs 12ozs and Dave Mitchell, 37lbs 5ozs.
Silver fish also featured in the The Horse and Jockey’s latest match which was fished at Spring Vale’s Duke’s Lake and where Roy Waites took the honours. Roy fished his normal method feeder with maggots to land 70lbs 4ozs.
Harry Booth opted for a pole and pellet combination to find 64lbs 11ozs, again silvers, and push Dean Woodhead’s 61lbs 4ozs of carp into third. Geoff Rutter was fourth with 47lbs 11ozs, Mick Litchfield fifth with 40lbs 10ozs and Dick Hurdiss sixth with 38lbs 4ozs.
Last Wednesday saw the fifth qualifying match of the region’s most prestigious match, the NuFish FeederKing competition, being fished at Southfield Reservoir, where large bream were massively outnumbered by ‘peckers’ their smaller offspring.
Jason Law managed to find a few larger samples to win not only the match but also a ticket to the £10k final with 17lbs 15ozs. Tommy Pickering was second and also qualified for the final with 14lbs 10ozs.
Simon Fry was the third angler to qualify for the final taking a weight of 9lbs 13ozs. The overall result saw Jason and Tommy in first and second places, Bradley Smith was third with 13lbs 2ozs and Barry Owen fourth with 12lbs 6ozs.
The section winners were Jim Evans, 7lbs 8ozs, Roger Edmond, 11lbs 9ozs, Jake Dye, 8lbs 14ozs, Trevor Parkin, 10lbs 8ozs, Neil Mallinson, 6lbs 14ozs, Geoff Askey, 10lbs 4ozs, Gaz Lambert, 7lbs 4ozs, Adam Garnett, 5lbs 4ozs, Glen Loverance, 5lbs 12ozs, Mick Axon, 5lbs 7ozs, Z Solt, 3lbs 12ozs, and Simon Fry, 9lbs 13ozs.
Monday's competitors at Wentworth sweltered in the heat but it was well worth while with the top six anglers all catching well. Paul Wilkinson fared best of all taking a winning 38lbs 12ozs from peg 20. In second place was Darren Coxx with 22lbs 10ozs just ahead of Dave Rose who weighed 22lbs 6ozs for third. Ian Douglas was fourth with 19lbs 9ozs and Dave Howitt fifth with 16lbs 15ozs. The section winners were Dave Howitt and John Tollerfield with 16lbs 3ozs.