AMFFC Div 3 round 2 at Bewl - 21st May

This was my first trip to Bewl Water in Kent so I was looking forward to the chance of fishing somewhere new. The match is a team competition made up of four 6 man teams from Bewl, Tunbridge Wells, Invicta and GWFFA. A friendly competition with great club rivalary mixed with freindships and banter on the water.
I was drawn with Mark Searle of Invicta Fly Fishers and although neither of us had practiced the day before we had plenty of information from our fellow team mates who had. I set up a Di5 with a Fusion blob on dropper and a Wufter booby on the point.The plan was to pull all day as the fish were up for chasing. Mark set up a midge tip line with blob, nymph, nymph, booby cast. Invicta's info was obviously different to ours but we would soon find out who had the right method.
The fleet of 12 boats all headed for Chingley area of the lake, basically the middle drifting to the dam. I had 2 fish quite quickly both on the Wufter. Mark quickly changed method despite having a couple of pulls. He changed to a Di3 as the fish seemed to be higher in the water than i thought. Mark caught as well and by 11.00 I had 4 fish inthe boat and Mark 2. Over the next hour or so Mark caught me up so by 12.00 we were on 4 each. I decided to changed to a Di3 as Mark had been catching I had stopped. In the time it took me to changed the line, less than 2 minutes he had 3 more fish in the boat in 2 casts. A double hook up followed by another on the next cast. Suddenly I was 7-4 down. Mark bagged up at 1.30. I had another 2 as well but still needed 2 more to finish. After changing the 40 plus Di3 to a Sixth Sense Di3 I caught my last 2 by 3.15pm. After a quick tour around team mates boats we headed for the harbour and what was to turn out to be a long wait till 6.00 for the rest of our teams to come in.
At the weigh in my 8 fish weighed 13lb plus 2 3/4 pound time bonus. The rest of the team weighed in and although we had done well we still only managed 3rd place overall.

Round 3 is at Hanningfield on 26th June.

FMFFA Odds & Sods Eliminator

The first of the National Eliminators was held this weekend at Rutland with 44 anglers fishing for a place in the National Final later in the year. This is a 2 leg qualifier with the second round at Grafham in June.

Craig Barr had kindly offered to accompany me on the Saturday for some practice so with the weather forecast as sunny and windy we arrived at Rutland around 9.30 to find a strong westerly wind had whipped up the swell. This was going to be a rough day. We set off and headed for Barnsdale Bay getting soaked on the way as we hit the waves. Fishing Di7 line with a blob, nymph, booby cast we had an unproductive drift through the bay followed by a long drift along Whitwell where we saw only 1 fish that jumped clear of the water. On reaching Whitwell Creek there was some shelter from the wind and the water was a lot calmer. I got a pull! I was in to a good fish that seemed to be pulling back quite well until it turned out to be a length of rope and some chain!!!!! Craig did get a fish here though. We continued to drift along Stockie Bay, where Craig picked up another, and on to Sykes Lane. After a several zig zag drifts we ended up at the south end of the dam where several boats had congretated. Eventually we hit on the method. Di5 blobs or boobys. I continued with 3 flies but Craig switched to a single Blob. Craig 5 me 2 by the end of the day.

Sunday, match day, and the weather was a little better with slightly less wind and plenty of cloud cover. With the knowledge from the day before I set up a Di5, 12ft leader and single booby. I was fishing with Ed Foster (England Captain) so knew we would head straight for the fish. I had 4 fish by 12.00 all on the single booby that Craig had given me the day before. Then I lost it, Disaster!, After 3 hours of nothing in the main basin Ed suggested a move to W and X bouys where he had found fish the day before. We had the place to ourselves and after a couple of unproductive drifts I chaged my pink boobt to a Fusion Blob and had a fish straight away followed by 3 more in 30 mins and finished at 4.10pm. Ed was catching steadily as well and finished at 5.10pm. More boats had joined us by then but we were done and headed for the harbour.

I weighed in my 8 fish for 17lb 9oz plus time bonus to give me just over 19lb. I was more than happy with 10th place so I now have a great chance at Grafham in June. A good result there and I could make the National Final.


Top 10 :-
1 - Paul Haskey - 24lb 8 1/8oz
2 - Graham Pearson
3 - Ashley Davis
4 - James Britten
5 - Rob Sosbe
6 - Harley Smith
7 - Clive Morgan
8 - Ron Gent
9 - Gaeth Tilley
10 - Kevin Appleton

Rod Average 6.11

1st GWFFA boat match

1st of May was the first boat match at Rutland. Strong Easterly winds were forecast and duly blew all day. In fact they had been blowing all weekend. It was going to be a tough day. I arrived at Rutland to find we still had an odd number of members fishing and with single man boats banned due to the wind speed i had a choice of 3 in a boat with Chris Bobby and Nick Preston or find another single angler to pair up with. Ken from Hawick Angling Club, Scotland was that man. After the usual introductions we set off for the Dam and started a drift at Fantasy. A few drifts and about an hour later I had a fish on a Di7 a blob and a booby. That was to be the only fish of the day.
After moving around to Whitwell, Barnsdale Bay, Sykes Lane and a final drift from Fantasy to Normanton church with not even a pull, tap or fish we gave up at around 3.30pm. Ken had to drive back to Scotland I had to take the kids home and several hours of bouncing around in strong swells and high winds was enough. I left the rest of the members to slog it out till 6.00.

One or two of them found fish in several different areas and the final results can be found here www.gwffa.co.uk/?p=1549