Fantastic Fletch

 Heronbrook Fishery - Bridge Pool

4th March 2023

20 anglers made the trip to Heronbrook fishery including new member Spadger, welcome on board.

Dave Edwards had bought a new tuktuk and we were all hoping it was going to break down to give us a laugh but selfishly he made it in one peice.

The club hadn't fished here for a few years but with the fishery having new owners, having recently been stocked, and with new pegging giving everyone plenty of room, it was time to give it another chance.

With 20 fishing it was spread over the whole of Bridge Pool with 5 sections of 4 anglers.

Doing the weigh in was new captain Richie Williams and it went well apart from him throwing the weigh sling in the lake and breaking the tripod.

In the first section the runaway winner was Carl Fletcher taking out both the section and the match overall with 69lb 10oz. He dobbed half of his fish across and the rest down the track on maggot.

In the second section it was new member Spadger who took the win from peg 6 with 34lb 12oz. He's caught using maggot and groundbait in the deepest water.

In the third section it was Carl Harrison who won with 16lb 4oz having caught two fish all day he then added a mirror of 11lb 2oz with about 15 minutes to go to set the benchmark in the biggest fish of the year contest.

In the fourth section it was Grahame Offlands who got off to a flier fishing pellet short on the deck. He switched it to maggot for a few more before his peg has died. He'd already caught enough to take the section and second overall in the match with 42lb 11oz.

He had to put up with Terry singing the Wombles theme tune and the Calgon jingle on one side and Tony Wilson throwing his pole away and launching boats on the other so fair play to him. 

In the fifth section it was Keith Howard who took the money with 26lb 15oz of mainly dobbed fish.

The golden peg rolled over as Bob just missed out by a measly 68lb.

In general it fished pretty poor and I'm not sure how soon we will return. It's just that bit too far for a day out. 

The overall winner and framers were;

Carl Fletcher - 69-10 - Peg 4

Offy - 42-11 - Peg 18

Mike Cox - 36-03 - Peg 1

Progressing to the second round of the Winter Knockout Cup are Dave, Paul Mc, Keith, Carl H, Offy, Carl F, Mike and Spadger.

League tables etc have all been updated.

 Review of the year 2022

Overall League Winner - Tony Wilson

Winter Cup Winner - Mike Cox

Summer Cup Winner - Tony Wilson

Veterans Cup Winner - Carl Fletcher

Gary Hooper Memorial - Carl Fletcher

Division One Winner - Mike Cox

Division Two Winner - Jack Edwards 

Best Weight - Tony Wilson 172lb 12oz

Biggest Fish - Dave Edwards 12lb 8oz

Review of the year 2021

 Review of the year 2021

Overall League Winner - Tony Wilson

Winter Cup Winner - Tony Wilson

Summer Cup Winner - Tony Wilson

Veterans Cup Winner - Carl Fletcher

Gary Hooper Memorial - Tony Wilson

Division One Winner - Tony Wilson

Division Two Winner - Carl Fletcher

Best Weight - Carl Fletcher 205lb 9oz

Biggest Fish - Les Cousins 12lb 8oz 

Review of the year 2020

 

Review Of the Year 2020

Well the main thing 2020 will be remebered for is the dreaded Covid-19 and the lockdowns that went with it. This obviously affected the fishing and meant that a few matches had to be cancelled or rearranged. We did what we could however, and managed to finish both the league and the cups.

The season started with trip to a new venue in Bradshaw Hall. The fishing wasn't great and it was too far anyway meaning most of us were happy not to bother with it again. Tony Wilson won the match with 46lb and new boy Rob Jones was 2nd with 40lb. Always nice when a new member gets a decent weight early as it feels more appropriate to give them some stick. Over the course of the year he has proved himself to be a very good angler and has acheived promotion to division one at the first attempt. Well done Rob, good to have you on board.

A couple of weeks after this match the country was put into full lockdown by the government and we wouldn't have another match until June. In the meantime we recieved the very sad news that Norman Smith had passed away. A member of the club for the last 6 years and a great all round angler with a great sense of humour. He will be sadly missed, RIP Norm.

 The weekend away in June unfortunately had to be cancelled because, although we were allowed to fish again, we couldn't stay over. Quite a few members decided to fish the matches that we had booked and the fishing was great. Lez Smith broke his PB both days weighing 58-10 and 67-04, there were also new PB's for Jack Edwards with 58-08 and Col Roe with 70-02. There were other notable weights with Paul Mc 95-00, Tony Wilson with 165 and 183 and Dave Edwards failing to even win a section on the second day with 161-12!

The club also had 2 matches at Blundells which didn't fish very well. The first was on Ash and Pine and was won by Den Clayton with 38lb and the second was on East and West which Tony Wilson won with 61lb. That doesn't tell the full story though as a lot of the back up weights were really poor. I don't think its a venue we'll be rushing back to. 

The league match which produced the biggest weight of the year was in July on the beautiful Clay Pit at Weston pools. Dave Edwards drew peg 1 and fished in the right edge with various baits over balls of groundbait. He bagged all day and weighed 142-14 which nobody else got close to this year. This match also saw Neal Howard set a new PB of 109-06 despite being on the ale the whole match.

There was a match on Bess's at Hall Lane which was another match to forget for most people. Tony Wilson sat on a stack of carp and won with 81-10 while most people failed to even make 10lb. Another one off the list. In future we will just stick to fishing Gwen's when we book Hall Lane. 

August's match on Stretton saw some more big weights. Another win for Tony Wilson with 120lb and Mike Cox announced himself on the scene with 111-14 off the next peg. There was also a ton for Dave Edwards with 105lb including the seasons biggest fish, a carp which weighed a whopping 13lb 14oz. There were also weights of 91lb for Rob Jones and 87lb for Neal Howard (bevvied again).

Going into Autumn and there was a win for Grahame Offlands on Willow at Hampton Springs with 79-04. He had more than double the weight of second place. He would also go on to win the Summer knockout cup final. 

In October we had two matches back at Weston. The first was on Canal pool and it was won by Paul Mc from unfancied peg 4. His 69lb was just enough to hold off the opposition for a great win. The second was spread over Weir and Belvedere. It was won by Tony Wilson from peg 15 on Weir with 75-12 which meant he had wrapped up the league early. A relief after finishing second on five occassions before. Belvedere was won by Bob O'neill with 55-04 from the lovely peg 25. 

Novembers match had to be cancelled due to travelling restrictions related to Covid so, we finished the season with two matches on the local Yew Tree fishery. The first one was won by Mike Cox who blitzed the match with an excellent 74lb. Col roe picked up second place with 43lb and Richie was third. The second match was won by Dave Edwards with 34lb for just his second win of the year, not like him to win so few. I think with the addition of some new anglers, who clearly know what they're doing, and everyone else improving, it's going to get more difficult next year. 

We have recently recieved news that founder member (as he loves to remind us) of the club Lez Smith has taken ill and I would like to take the opportunity to wish him well from everybody involved with the SAS. We all love you Lez and are thinking about you. Stay strong buddy x 

2020 

League Winner - Tony Wilson

Summer Knockout Cup - Grahame Offlands

Veterans Knockout Cup - Dennis Clayton

Winter Knockout Cup - Tony Wilson

Gary Hooper Memorial Cup - Paul McColgan

Best Weight - Dave Edwards 142-14

Biggest Fish - Dave Edwards 13-14 

Division One Winner - Tony Wilson

Division Two Winner - Rob Jones

Promoted - Rob Jones, Neal Howard

Relegated - Paul Edwards, Richie Williams 

It was blaccckk

 Yew Tree Fishery

19th Dec 2020

The final match of the year was a rearranged fixture due to having to cancel earlier in the year because of Covid-19.

The league title was already over but there was still the Winter cup final, a three way race to see who could finish 3rd overall in the league and relagation and promotion from both divisions to be decided.

Due to a few illnesses, and some people just being afraid of temperatures below 10 degrees, there were just 10 members and 2 guests. 

The first section saw Colin Roe and Tony Wilson battle it out for the Winter Cup. Col lost a few decent carp which proved costly as Tony put 20lb on the scales to win. Col's 15lb wasn't quite enough meaning Tony also won the final Golden Peg of the season too. 

The second secton saw Dave Edwards get off to a flying start before the reflection of the sun made it all but impossible to see the area's where he had been catching. It turned out to be enough though as he weighed 34-06 to take the match win.

In the third section Rob Jones banked 12lb to win a tough section off peg 17, despite moaning that he was up against all the fliers beforehand. 

The final section was taken by Keith Howard with 16lb from peg 19. He must have just been toying with Dennis at the beginning of the season and has managed to claw his way back from 7-0 down to 7-3 and restore some pride. 

1st. Dave Edwards 34-06

2nd. Tony Wilson 20-00

3rd. Keith Howard 16-04

Mike Cox wins on Yew Tree

 Yew Tree Fishery

5th December 2020

After a couple of months without matches, due to the Tier 3 regulations, the club was back out. We managed to rearrange a couple of matches, at local venue Yew Tree fishery, to reduce the amount of travelling.

17 hardy souls including 4 guests attended this one and, after some of the recent bad weather it was a relief to have a still day with plenty of sunshine to keep everyone warm. 

The match was won by, soon to be member, Mike Cox. He drew peg 13 and fished maggot in the deeper water. His patient approach and frugal feeding resulted in 74-04 of winter carp and saw him win easily. He's going to take some beating next year based on his performances so far.....prick. 

In second place was Colin Roe on peg 3. His patient maggot feeder approach also saw him catch mainly carp to weigh 43-04 and take both the section and progress to the Winter cup final.

Third place overall went to Richie Williams. After drawing Golden peg no.17 and a 'no show' in his section he only had one to beat for the money. He chopped and changed throughout the day and caught on bomb and bread, maggot feeder and the waggler to pocket the cash.

There were also section wins for Den Clayton 9-04, Tony Wilson 32-00 and Les Cousins 8-00.

The Winter cup final will be between Col Roe and Tony Wilson on December 19th. This is back at Yew Tree and is also the last league match of the season. The battle for 3rd place in the league is hotting up with 4 people seperated by just one point. 

Garbolino club angler of the year

Garbolino club angler of the year 

This is a competition which the club have had a good history with. We have had at least one qualifier in 4 of the last 5 years. 

This year we had four entrants into the midlands qualifier of the competition at Tunnel Barn Farm. Unfortunately, if somewhat predictably, Dave's van broke down the day before and he couldn't make it. That left myself, Bob and Offy to travel down on the Tuesday for a sneaky practice. The recent drop in temperature had taken it's toll and both the local tackle shop and the fishery told us it the venue was in full winter mode and the weights were right down.

A few hours on New Pool on the Tuesday saw everyone catch a few fish on both soft pellet and maggot and a plan was hatched for the following day. 

A few pints in the boozer whilst tying rigs, a nice meal and an early night for the three amigos. 

Wednesday morning was an early start for the rolling draw and all three were handed pegs on High Pool. I was on peg 2, Bob on 44 and Offy on 12. 

I've started across to the island on soft pellet in 3.5ft and had a couple of F1's and a carp early on to settle the nerves. It was immediately apparent that there was very little being caught around the lake. Odd spells on maggot short on the deck in 6ft kept me ticking over and a late run on the same line pushed me to 74-11 which was enough to take the lead as I was first to weigh. 

Offy on peg 12 has caught a few fish across and has also had two short lines set up at angles, one with pellet and the other with maggot. He caught steadily through the match for 46-10 moved into  2nd on the lake with about 15 still to weigh. There were a few more 40lb+ weights but he had enough to finish second meaning Offy and I had both qualified.

On Bob's bank, from the high thirties to peg 51, had fished terrible and his 17lb wasn't enough to see him through.

There was then a long wait in the car in driving rain to see whether I had made the main frame and picked up a few quid. 

The results were read in reverse order and Offy picked up £50 for the section win. When they started with the top five overall we realised I was up there. It turned out I'd finished in 1st place and picked up £540. There were then photographs for Match fishing magazine and even an interview about how the match had gone. 

A happy car on the way home but gutted for Bob who was beaten at the draw bag and had no chance. Plans were made for the final which was at Barston lakes on Wednesday 14th October. 

A practice session on Barston the day before saw us catch plenty of fish and some absolute monsters for Offy. We were left wishing we had taken scales to see just how much the two biggest carp weighed so Offy would know his new PB. Safe to say the biggest one was surely over 20lb.

Onto the final and I drew peg 31 with Offy on 109. Not the best of draws but we were still confident we could catch a few.....well we were wrong. The whole lake has fished terrible and Offy's 8lb odd wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. I had 2 skimmers for 9oz and one of them was foul hooked. The match was won with 34lb which is unbelievable considering how it fished the day before but that's Barston for you. 

We will return next year and hopefully some more of the lads will have a go, it's a great competition.