My first Division 1 National - a bit different to your usual club match as this one included Raison, Shipp, Cox, Edwards, Scotthorne, Kerry and Ashby to name just a few!
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| 5 times world champion, Alan Scotthorne |
This match was held on the Bristol Avon and I drew H section which was the Melksham stretch - thankfully this turned-out to be much narrower than the downstream sections we walked the previous evening!!! (Some of these pegs frankly looked dangerously unfishable with the river carrying extra water, and the muddy fields and styles didn't look too suited to the heavily laden barrows the modern match angler likes to push around.)
Due to recent rain the river was up a little and really pushing through with a lot of colour - especially in my peg where I had 2 or 3 different dogs go for a swim along the far bank prior to the all in!
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| Drennan Team England regular, Alan Scotthorne |
I decided to stick with what I know and I focused on the stick float today - fishing the long pole over groundbait on rivers is something I've never done, so even though it seemed to be the fashionable thing to do in this match I steered clear of it.
I don't mind admitting to being a little nervous at the start - and as a result I was amazingly relieved to have my stick float pulled under by a small roach on the first trot through! In the end most of my fish (roach and dace) fell to double maggot on the stick float - some shallow and some on the deck (which was at least 8' directly under my feet). I also managed a perch and and 6 ounce chublet on the straight lead with double worm during the final 30 minutes.
I don't mind admitting to being a little nervous at the start - and as a result I was amazingly relieved to have my stick float pulled under by a small roach on the first trot through! In the end most of my fish (roach and dace) fell to double maggot on the stick float - some shallow and some on the deck (which was at least 8' directly under my feet). I also managed a perch and and 6 ounce chublet on the straight lead with double worm during the final 30 minutes.
In the end I weighed 860 grams which gave me 17 points from a maximum of 51 - not bad considering that this is the country's premier team event, I hardly ever fish rivers and the concept of practising was never, ever considered! Unfortunately my Godalming AS team could only manage 49th place in the overall team standings.
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| Daiwa Dorking, victors with 433 points |
Congratulations to Daiwa Dorking who dominated and won by 30 odd points - but just look at the line-up in the photo above! Calum Dicks (back row, far left) was 3 pegs upstream of me today - below is a link to this blog if you want a more technical write-up of the day:
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| Alan Scotthorne - beaten on the day by yours truly! |
Ostudying the results in the Angling Times on the following Tuesday I discovered I'd drawn in the same section as Alan Scotthorne and beaten him by 10 points - get in!!!!! In all seriousness this is one of the best things about the sport of match fishing - it's very easy for the average angler to fish the same matches that the superstars do and if you have a bit of luck drawing the right peg on the right day you always have a chance to beating them!
Finally a big thank you to Dave Woolgar for organising the Godalming AS team and to Steve from Apollo Marsh Farm for helping out with the bait.
Finally a big thank you to Dave Woolgar for organising the Godalming AS team and to Steve from Apollo Marsh Farm for helping out with the bait.
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