Angling column: Colder weather creates more challenging competition conditions
“We’re moving into winter and in the angling world that means carp are no longer producing the huge weights”
It’s gradually getting colder, nothing serious yet but degree by degree, and especially late at night, we’re moving into winter and in the angling world that means carp are no longer producing the huge weights that they do in the warmer months and silver fish are becoming more important in an angling sense.
It’s not that huge carp weights aren’t around they still are but not as many of them and some carp fisheries are now also holding silverfish only competitions. There are some anglers however that seem to catch big weights regardless and one of them is Jamie Lovitt. Jamie fished two matches over the weekend and did well in both of them.
The first was the Walkley Winter League which is never an easy match to win and was fished by 50 anglers at Woodhouse Grange on the Dog Kennel, Ghost and Heron Lakes. Jamie was the lake winner on the Dog Kennel Lake with a staggering 166lbs 3ozs and the section winners were Andrew Morley, 155lbs 6ozs, John Stone, 114lbs 11ozs, and Jason Buck with 129lbs 11ozs.
Matt Batham was the winner on the Heron Lake with 63lbs 13ozs and the section winners were Peter Morley with 50lbs 11ozs, Carl Roberts, 33lbs 13ozs, and Gary Yorke with 33lbs 5ozs. Graham Webster was the Ghost Lake winner weighing 83lbs 7ozs. The section winners were Paul Burton, 53lbs 8ozs and Tony Camm, 59lbs 5ozs.
The second was the Sunday open at Lowfield Lakes which Jamie blitzed with a weight of 90lbs 9ozs. Ben Fox was the number one challenger taking 36lbs 10ozs for second place ahead of Brandon Denton who finished third with 33lbs 12ozs. Chris Nardoni was fourth with 26lbs 7ozs.
Wednesday’s Ravenfield Ponds AC’s midweek match fished on the canal at Croda was for once fished in almost perfect conditions being overcast with just a slight breeze and four pegs in the 70’s made all the running. Peg 72 had the edge with Stuart Senior finishing with a winning 8lbs 11ozs net of roach and perch.
Alan Tomkins at 75 was second with 7lbs 4ozs with two anglers John Williams and Stewart
Riley tying for third and fourth place with 5lbs 13ozs each from pegs 73 and 74.
Anglers fishing Doncaster DAA’s midweek event on Southfield Reservoir found it hard going but some still found a few fish with Trevor Parkin finding more than most and landing 7 skimmers from peg 39 for a round 8lbs. In second place was Mike Donnison who managed a bream and a skimmer for 3lbs 8ozs.
The section winners were Barry Owen, 2lbs 10ozs, Ade Haywood, 2lbs 12ozs and Charlie Dickinson, 12ozs.
Saturday was the first round of the new Ulley Country Park Feeder Championships featuring four sections of six anglers spread round the reservoir with the winner of each six peg section going through to the £3000 final.
Winning the match (just!) and earning the golden ticket by weighing 20lb7oz from peg 15 was Russell Dowding while Mathew Williams won the section by default and was unlucky to miss out on qualifying weighing 19lb11oz from peg 11.
In joint second, and just 2ozs behind Russ, and also both qualifying for the final was Bradley Smith and Matt Wright from peg 20 and 22 respectively with 20lb 5ozs
Qualifying from Bridge section B winning that zone with 9lb 9oz was new feeder convert Andrew Bailey from peg 7, and the final qualifier, winning the Tower section, was Martyn Long with 11lbs 6ozs from peg 31.
Overall the qualifiers were Bridge A - Andrew Bailey - 9lb9oz - peg 7, Bridge B – Russ Dowding - 20lb7oz - peg 15, Quarry - Brad Smith/Matt Wright - 20lb5oz - peg 20/22 and Tower - Martyn Long - 11lb6oz - peg 31
Ravenfield Ponds AC fished round 4 of their Winter League on the Gt. Pond and in first place on peg 19 was Brian Ellis with 15lbs 8ozs. In second place on peg 9 was Stuart Senior with 14lbs 4ozs while in third place on peg 26 was Jim Fisher with 11lbs 5ozs and fourth place went Paul Davis on peg 23 with 11lbs 2ozs.
The section winners were Stewart Riley peg 5, 3lbs 2ozs, Tony Copnell on peg, 13 5lbs 3ozs and Les Varley peg 21 with 6lbs 8ozs
Ben Fox was the winner of Wednesday’s open match at Lowfield Lakes with 41lbs 13ozs, Chris Nardoni was second with 30lbs 8ozs.
Dave Cheetham won Tuesday’s match at Barnburgh Lakes with 77lbs 13ozs. Tom Hill’s 67lbs 2ozs put him in second place ahead of Martin Sedgwick who finished third with 61lbs 2ozs. Rob Dearnley was fourth with 56lbs 13ozs, Paul Nash fifth with
45lbs and Kev Allen sixth with 39lbs.
Mel’s Lodgers fished their latest match on the Lost Island Lake at Lodge Farm where Bill Corbyn took the honours with 42lbs 1oz. Dennis Hughill was second with 38lbs 15ozs leaving Roy Hardy in third place with 31lbs 3ozs. The section winners were Stuart Oxley, 16lbs 3ozs and Mark Hopkinson, 21lbs 15ozs.
Rotherham’s 65’ers fished at Adam’s Lake at Hayfield for their latest match which Nick Platts won with 82lbs 12ozs. 84lbs 4ozs gave Trev Fisher the second place leaving Tom Amos’ 77lbs 14ozs in third and Mike Rhodes’ 69lbs 2ozs in fourth. The section winners were Tom Hamilton, 61lbs 8ozs, Alan Harrison, 38lbs 12ozs and Jack Evason, 55lbs 15ozs.
Ray Marklew was the winner of Rotherham UAF’s latest match fished on the Don at Cadeby with a 9lbs 9ozs net of small roach and perch. Andy Anderson had a similar catch fishing the whip for 8lbs 10ozs while Kev Vickers had 8lbs 2ozs of mostly perch for third. Ian Lee was fourth with 6lbs 1oz, Ian Turner fifth with 4lbs 7ozs and John Hands fifth with 3lbs 15ozs.
Two matches at Kiveton Hall Farm this last week. Mick Robinson was the winner of last Thursday’s competition with 32lbs 12ozs. Steve Ogden was second with 26lbs 8ozs with Lee Morris third with 21lbs 4ozs.
Andrew Morley’s 23lbs 8ozs net gave him victory on Sunday with Brian Divine second with 10lbs 8ozs. The section winners were Stuart Charlesworth and Roy Childs.
Bank End fished the first of it’s Winter League Series last week, a match which Declan Bailey won with 21lbs 14ozs of skimmers. Alan Gregory claimed the second place with 13lbs 4ozs with Steve Nurse third with 12lbs 8ozs. Paul Davis was fourth with 11lbs 9ozs just ahead of Pete Riley who weighed 11lbs 5ozs for fifth and Andy Bailey sixth with 11lbs.
Pete Smith had a busy weekend winning both the Thursday and Sunday’s matches. Thursday win came by way of a 60lbs 2ozs catch and Sunday’s with a 71lbs 1oz net.
Steve Plant was second on Thursday with 45lbs 15ozs and Keith Dodd third with 39lbs 7ozs. Steve Rylance was second on Sunday with 42lbs 5ozs and Andy Regan third with 22lbs 2ozs.
Wentworth’s Monday match showed evidence of the cold and Joe Cox needed just 10lbs 9ozs caught with the feeder to win. John Tollerfield was second with 10lbs 5ozs easing Ian Douglas’ 9lbs 9ozs into third place who in turn just beat Ernie Gilberthorpe’s 9lbs 8ozs into into fourth place. Colin Moss was fifth with 8lbs 8ozs.