17th Dec 2016 Hampton - Fur n Feather

A good turnout at Hampton for the Fur n Feather saw 20 split across Long, Meadow and Rock with everyone expecting Long to take the honours and Rock to be hardest draw.

In reality its been the reverse and all credit to Jason Connah who has drawn one of the least fancied pegs i.e. Rock p3 and fished a brilliant match from there in my opinion to end with 34.5lb of mainly carp on the feeder fishing very light gear with pellet and corn to the right hand island. This just pipped Barry Davis with 33.5lb, again from Rock p15 (I think) who fished maggot short into the deep water that the peg is known for and included some proper big perch! Mike White drew well and made no mistakes off Long p30 to record 30.7lb seeing off that Hampton regular Dougie Walsh on p32 by a couple of pound in the end.

Overall Rock and Meadow fished okay with more than half the weights on both lakes breaking 20lb and it was the originally favoured Long that many struggled on.

Well done to Barry Davis on securing the John Heald KO on the day and to Ian Lloyd for topping the Angler and Matchman of the Year for a second successive year with Billy Gore and Dougie Walsh the ever consistent chasing pair.

Finally I cant go without saying Jason was clearly on fire with only 75mins to set up, he wins the match, wins the Golden Peg and draws himself out as a Fur N Feather £20 winner!!!! I'm not complaining though as he also drew me out...thanks partner!!!

Have a great Christmas and for those not out on 30th Dec at Hampton a great New Year too!

Result

1st - Jason Connah - 34.5lb
2nd - Barry Davis - 33.5lb
3rd - Mike White - 30.7lb

10th Dec 2016 WL2 Hampton Long/Meadow

First time we have used two lakes and a section of 4 on Meadow looked good leaving 9 pegs on Long Island and with lots of fish boshing before the all in and mild temperatures all looked good for a few fish.

As soon as 5 feeders all started peppering the old island the boshing stopped and the fish sulked away. A few early feeder fish for a one or two soon faded and it was the pole that dominated the middle and end of the match. Steve Brew drew the "life buoy" flyer and made no mistakes with some early carp topped up with a good run of carp on maggot at 8m to weigh 54lb. Jason Connah pushed him close from p28 but lost fish cost him the win finishing short on 49.4lb catching on corn and pellet on the long pole. Ian Lloyd took 3rd with a fast finishing 40.6lb having wasted half the match trying to make the bomb/feeder line work only to find that the pole/maggot line was "black" with carp, big skimmers and ide.

Overall it's fished well with 35-26-20-20 back ups and all bar one breaking double figures

Result
1st Ste Brew 54.0
2nd Jason Connah 49.4
3rd Ian Lloyd 40.6

26th Nov 2016 WL1 Hampton Long

Result
1st Ted Neild
2nd Rick Keeley
3rd Jason Connah

8th October 2016 Old Hough

Result
1st Kieran Smith 35.0
2nd Trev Allpress 31.8
3rd Dennis Jones 30.8

2016 AGM Update

Proposals and changes from AGM

1. For 2017 the golden peg £1 will be replaced with a £1 winner takes all superpool on the day. The view was this removes any roll over and concerns about winning the Golden Peg by winning a 3 or 4 peg section. From 2017 the sections will remain as is i.e. 3-4 man sections as the discretion of the Match Secretary and the overall winner will win his section and pick up the superpool. On average we have 12-15 attendees so the winner gets c£12-£15 extra.

Proposed: Paul Robinson
Seconded: Ian Simpson
Vote was unanimous in favour

2. The existing Committee was proposed to be retained en masse
Henry Mellor - Chairman
Vacant - Secretary
Keith Williamson - Treasurer
Match Secretary - Rick Keeley
Asst to the above - Ian Lloyd
The Secretary role remains vacant and the Committee are open to consider applicants. Ian Simpson agreed to continue with the League and Blog updates irrespective of a Secretary being appointed.

Proposed: Ian Simpson
Seconded: Colin Cook
Vote was unanimous in favour

3. It was proposed Ian Simpson be given honorary WBAC membership from 2017 onwards for his work with regard to the league tables / blog / email communication and weekend away organisation for the membership over a number of years.

Proposed: Rick Keeley
Seconded: Keith Williamson
Vote was 10 v 1

Note: These are my recollections as I didn't take notes so pending confirmation of accuracy from Henry, Rick and Keith

24th September 2016 - Hampton Long&Rock

Result

1st Ian Lloyd - 124.4lb
2nd - Billy Gore - 122.3lb
3rd - Michael White - 53.0lb

17th September 2016 - Border Match Lake

Result

1st - Rick Keeley - 63.5lb
2nd - Keith Williamson - 42.5lb
3rd - Dougie Walsh - 39.5lb

10th September 2016 - Partridge Covey 5

Result

1st - Dougie Walsh - 50.5lb
2nd Billy Gore - 40.5lb
3rd - Alec Riach - 32.5lb

27th August - Border - Meridian

Rick to find results

13th August 2016 - Partridge Spey

Rick to find results!!!

9th July 2016 - Hampton - Long

Result

1st - Billy Gore - 96.2lb
2nd - Ian Lloyd - 92.8lb
3rd - Dougie Walsh - 88.0lb

23rd July 2016 - Border - 3 Islands

Result

1st - Ian Lloyd - 49.5lb
2nd - Dennis Jones - 20.5lb
3rd - Billy Gore - 17.5lb

25th June 2016 - Saughall

Result

1st - Trevor Allpress - 48.5lb
2nd - Ian Lloyd - 41.5lb
3rd - Dougie Walsh - 39.0lb

13th Aug 2016 - Partridge Spey

Rick to find the results!!

11th June 2016 - Hampton - Long

Result

1st - Ian Lloyd - 85.0lb
2nd - Kenny Stuart - 50.7lb
3rd - Rick Keeley - 45.3lb

28th May 2016 - Hampton - Willow

Result

1st - Barry Davies - 128.0lb
2nd - Ian Lloyd - 109.0lb
3rd - Dougie Walsh - 66.8lb

14th May 2016 - Cunneries (New Lake)

Result

1st - Brian Fogg - 15.5lb
2nd - Ian Dodd - 14.5lb
3rd - Alec Riach - 13.0lb

Not a great day by all accounts and we have a free match off the Cunneries to make up for the poor fishing

23rd April 2016 - Brookhouse Farm

Bar a super human effort from Dennis, Pete and Mike this was a low weight match with no one else even breaking a pound! Not a great start to the WBAC calendar!

Result
1st - Dennis Jones - 35.12lb
2nd - Pete Canavan - 10.7lb
3rd - Mike Richardson - 7.7lb

Yozzer R.I.P.

Not my words but says it all really from John who was with him yesterday at Lindholme.....

"It is with profound sadness that I must let you know of the death of Ian 'Yozza' Hughes (The Garden Gnome off this site) at yesterday's Garbolino club angler qualifier at Lindholme. Ian had a suspected second heart attack whilst packing up at the end of the match and he was pronounced dead at the scene. 

For those of you who didn't know Ian he was a much loved and well respected member of the northwest veteran's match circuit fishing regularly at Lingmere at Hampton Springs. He was also a pivotal member of Egremont Ferry Angling Society and our matches and meetings will never be quite the same without his banter and wind-ups. He was a top class angler with wins at many Whiteacres residents matches and having, I think, two previous Garbolino qualifier wins under his belt and a second in the final. Most of all though he was very good friend with a brilliant upbeat outlook on life despite his health problems. 

I would like to thank the fellow anglers who dived into Laurels to rescue Ian when he fell in and then performed CPR while waiting for the ambulance. We weighed Ian's catch in at the end of the match because I know without doubt that that is what he would have wanted. I'd like to thank Darren Cox and the other guys on the scales for that. Ian came second in his section by ounces but still would have had a smile on his face after a good day's fishing. 

I would also like to give my heartfelt thanks to Neil and Arron Grantham and their wives for the compassionate hospitality they showed to myself and two of Ian's fishing partners, Nick and Eric, while we waited for the police and coroner to arrive.

I know it sounds like a cliché but Ian really did die doing what he loved and in I take some solace from this terrible day.

Rest in peace mate, you will be sorely missed"

25th March 2016 - Conway WL14

Result

1st - Dougie Walsh - 31.3lb
2nd - Ian Simpson - 30.8lb
3rd - Ian Lloyd - 10.1lb

Congratulations to Dougie on winning on the day and it was enough to leapfrog Billy Gore and win the Winter League. A good win off a poor peg in very poor conditions that he turned into a flyer!!!

Ian Simpson missed out on the match win by 7oz and that would have won the WL too with Billy Gore just 1pt behind Doug so a very close run league over 14 matches.

Conway was very very poor with cormorants on it all match and only just over 7lb average with two thirds of the field not breaking 3lb. A poor end to what has been a prolific winter venue for us in prior years but I sense is one to miss for a while to allow it to recover.

19th March - Conway WL13

Result

1st - Billy Gore - 17.0lb
2nd - Brian Fogg - 16.5lb
3rd - Paul Robinson - 15.5lb

Lowest ever aggregate weight for Conway averaging 9lb a man..........

5th March - Hampton WL12

Result

1st - Kenny Stuart - 65.0lb (L10)
2nd - Ian Simpson - 39.8lb (L37)
3rd - Dougie Walsh - 32.6lb (R9)

20th February - Conway WL11

Result

1st - Mick Flanagan - 78.12lb
2nd - Dougie Walsh - 43.4lb
3rd - Paul Robinson - 28.4lb

13th February 2016 - Hampton WL10

A cold return to Hampton Springs this week with some close fought sections but Kenny Stuart ran out the winner with a pole and maggot caught carp and skimmer net fishing pole in the deeper water at 11-13m Kenny took top honours and the first win on Long Island not from P18 or P30. Kenny was on P11 at the end of the canal and fished a tidy match .

Second was Rick Keeley with 39lb closely followed by Ted Neild with 38lb, both off Rock and both fished the feeder for the majority of their catches. With a few other 30lb weights across both Long and Rock it fished okay given the temperature drop and only two anglers weighed less than 10lb.

Result

1st - Kenny Stuart - 46.8lb (L10)
2nd - Rick Keeley - 39.1lb (R?)
3rd - Ted Neild - 38.0lb (R3?)

6th February WL9 Conway

Another day when it rained from start to finish and to cap it all we had a bit of wind thrown in to make it a little more interesting! Several trashed brollys and a no7 section broken during the day showed Conway as its savage self

There were two balls of carp feeding and not much else really as Ian Lloyd and Ian Simpson shared a shoal in the bowl and fished method or hybrid with maggot on the hook. Ian L finished with 14 carp from next to the point with Ian S trailing on 9 from the middle of the far bank but as they were a better stamp the scales settled on 57.5lb for both and the result was a joint win.

Ehmmm.........in case you missed it Ian S with a second win on the feeder in as many months....it must have been black!!

Billy Gore fished a superb match battling the weather and 17m+ of pole and was able to present properly often enough to snare some carp and F1's from the sunken island to weigh 40.5lb for a well deserved 3rd place. If the weather had been better Billy could have been the runaway winner.

A few decent back ups with a 29lb, 25lb and 19lb but then the weights fell away sharply to 4lb and below including a blank, unheard of for Conway but as you were either on fish at some point or in the case of the top left handside.......it seemed the fish just didn't bother going there today!

Result

= 1st Ian Lloyd - 57.5lb
= 1st Ian Simpson - 57.5lb
3rd Billy Gore - 40.5lb

30th January -WL8 Hampton

A cold but dry day with a strong wind adding a real wind chill to the day. Dougie drew LOng 30 which has been consistently good of late and made no mistakes with a 53.3lb net of caro and F1's from open water on the feeder and bomb.

Ian Lloyd drew in the teeth of the wind on Rock 18 and after failing to catch on the feeder to the island started to put a few silvers and smaller carp together at 13m before having a very good last hour on a deep margin , sort of 2+1 line that catapulted him to 47.5lb including some bigger carp and a proper barbel!. Colin McPhail drew the other consistent Long peg at the moment i.e 18 and despite a few losses did enough to take 3rd for the second time this year on Hampton.....he's beginning to like Long Island.

Result

1st - Dougie Walsh - 53.3lb (Long 30)
2nd - Ian Lloyd - 47.5lb (Rock 18)
3rd - Colin McPhail - 29.5lb (Long 18)

16th January - WL7 Conway

A cold and icy day but no wind and only ten hardy fools for this round. We feared the worst when after an hour no one had a fish but slowly and surely the odd carp and F1 started to show but the roach where yet again absence.

The last two hour saw a number of anglers starting to catch well, including some proper munters coming out to about 15lb. Fish were being caught on the feeder, pole and waggler it you had carp in front of you, our had drawn them in.

Trevor ran out the winner with 62.4lb all on the method on maggot from the middle of the far end which was easily enough in the end. Dougie draw the sunken island and fish 17m taking 44.4lb again on maggot having catapulted maggot for a few hours before they came on. Steve Brew was to the left of the point and caught on the bomb and method in the pole with an odd fish on the pole for 37.5lb.

Interestingly the silvers did start to show in the last hour with roach and skimmers coming to the net but mainly 6oz and no small fish at all despite most of the field fishing maggot for most of the day.  

Result

1st Trevor Allpress - 62.4lb
2nd Dougie Walsh - 44.3lb
3rd Ste Brew - 37.5lb

9th January - WL6 Hampton

Lets just say Hampton was all about being called Ian and fishing the tip!

Result

1st - Ian Simpson - 44.5lb (Long 30)
2nd - Ian Dodd - 34.0lb (Rock 18)
3rd - Ian Lloyd - 29.5lb (Long 18)

Ian S with a first ever match win on the feeder!

27th December - WL5 Conway

Result

1st - Dougie Walsh - 95lb
2nd - Billy Gore - 65lb
3rd - Ian Simpson - 44.5lb