11/10/25 - The Rotational Match/Susan Haine Memorial Trophy - Charlottes Lake - Harbourbridge.

Today’s match was in memory of someone who, very quickly became a dear friend, even though we only met a handful of times. Susan and Neil Haine brought their grandson along to an open day we hosted at Revels a few years ago. We got chatting and, probably because Neil was Susan’s carer, we all hit it off straight away. Without going into detail Susan became very ill extremely quickly, and all plans made to attend junior events and meet socially fell by the wayside. Susan died with Neil by her side earlier this year and everyone who knew her felt the loss.

Susan was the type of person that exuded warmth and made you feel at ease in her company. She was a great supporter of the juniors, and it is an honour to have known her and to dedicate this event and the trophy to her name.

Rest in peace dear lady…

Autumn always used to be my favourite time of year. All the venues I fished were transformed from the lush green of summer, into glorious palettes of ochre, crimson and gold. Trees once coated in the velvet grey-green lichens of warm summer days, are now darkened to a deep brown or even black against the vibrant colours of the twilight of another year passing into winter.

I remember the only thing spoiling this explosion of colour was the thick coating of leaves that covered the surface of the water, making fishing almost impossible on occasions. If only leaves counted in winter league matches…

The cool grey light blinked the sleep away from my eyes as I loaded the car for another day of junior fishing, this time at Harbourbridge Lakes. I would love to say that the Rotational match was my brainchild, but it wasn’t. I got the idea from a junior fishing group further up country, but it was going to be interesting to see how our group would handle the chaos.

Today was a good day because I only got as far as the Tesco’s in Dorchester before realising that I’d forgotten something. Today’s Whoopsie was my lunch… On returning home and bypassing the usual ‘You’re home quick’ or ‘That didn’t take long’, I grabbed my lunch bag and was told ‘Not to take the Beef Monster Munch, they are mine and I’m looking forward to them’…

A cold shiver ran down my spine as fight or flight held me in their icy grip.

‘Yeah, about that’, I said, ‘They may have got eaten yesterday’ (Big shop day).

‘You’ve eaten them, haven’t you?’, growled Mrs H.

‘I have’, said I and, if I had a tail, it would have been firmly between my legs in fear and submission.

‘You are a very naughty man and I am extremely cross with you at this present moment in time’, was what I would to have heard. But the words she actually used were far more hurtful than that.

I threw some filthy pillows and a thin thread bare blanket into the shed and looked forward to an uncomfortable night ahead.

I sped towards Nottington because the error had only given me 1-hour to drive the 8-miles to the venue and push eight peg numbers into the ground. Something that I normally give myself 2-hours to accomplish!!!

I stood on the edge of the lake and squinted down at the 4ft drop into the water.

The drought is playing havoc with many venues around the country at the moment, and Charlottes Lake is no exception. It is painfully low but still has enough depth in at the edge to make the use of keepnets a safe option.

When everyone had arrived, I went through the usual blurb that no one listens to. But, when it came to saying a few words about our honorary guest, my throat closed, and my voice broke. Fearing a complete loss of control, I staggered on with draw.

I can only assume that Susan felt all this unnecessary and had her hands around my neck to stop me talking…

Don’t get any ideas the rest of you!!!

The draw today was as follows:

Peg 1: Team Sleep-a-lot, Alec & Steven/Stephen (I never found out if he was a ‘v’ or a ph’)

Peg 2: Team Talk-a-lot, Alexander & Charlie

Peg 3: Team Read-a-lot, George & Ed

Peg 4: Team Feed-a-lot, Austin & Tom

Peg 5: Team Cold-a-lot, Mia & Wendy

Peg 6: Team Pole cost-a-lot, Josh & John

Peg 7: Team Slap-a-lot, Jayce & Michelle

Peg 8: Team Grow-a-lot, Josiah & James

Your Handbag of coaches (the correct collective noun for a group of six angling coaches) today were:

Graham Howard – Top Cat

Si Wagner – Benny the Ball

Jon Bass - Brain

Chris Ward – Choo Choo

Neil Haine – Fancy Fancy

Lloyd Richards – Spook

Today's late starter was Freddie Campbell, who was out late at a wedding party the night before...Ironically although he started fishing nearly hours after the others, he banged in two decent Carp very quickly. These two on their own would have earned Freddie second place on the day, the largest is pictured above... I'm not sure what else he caught, but he had a good day I think... Well done Fred...

Peg One:

Alec & Steven/Stephen:

5lbs 15ozs, 2nd place:

Alec and Steven/Stephen had drawn the closest peg to the carpark which is just as well seeing as there was very little energy left in Alec today. It looked promising at the start, with silverfish plopping into the keep net with the regularity of a recently constipated rabbit/bunny.

By one o’clock the fish catching machine had been reduced to a pile of clothes laid on the ground in a shape that roughly resembled Alec in a foetal position. So-much-so that no amount of goading, mickey taking, or teasing would generate any more than a single digit response. Which, to be fair, is all that teasing ever deserves.

Steven/Stephen was a complete novice to fishing and did pretty well under the stern, if rather sleepy tutelage of Alec.

Well done both…

Peg Two:

Alexander & Charlie:

4lbs, 4th place:

Alexander took off in his first stint ‘on the box’ and caught a good number of Roach and Rudd’s before changing over to his mum for her first turn. The memo where the junior coaches the senior partner was fast forgotten, and the newly created 6ft tall mount of earth just had to climbed. Over and over again.

Alexander was a microbe when he came to us. Very shy and extremely quiet.

Now, as all the shy ones do, you just can’t shut him up!

Chris Ward did a great job of the Owl box at Luckfield. I’m wondering if he could produce a soundproof version for overly verbal kids…Minus the Owls of course. That would be cruel.

To the Owls….

I’m joking, of course, because Alexander and Charlie have both rooted themselves in the fabric of the juniors very nicely.

Between them they managed a very tidy 4lbs of fish which included a very snotty little Bream which Alexander found just a little too disgusting for his personal taste…

Well done.

Peg Three:

George & Ed:

5lbs 5ozs, 3rd place:

George had come fully prepared to let his dad, Ed, fend for himself during the ‘NAP phases’ of the event. Not one to allow himself to become redundant, a book that was close to being finished was to be seamlessly replace by yet to be started material.

I guess it’s better than a phone!

In the end, however, George had been influenced by the mud scaling activities of his ‘peg-mate’, Alexander. They were having a whale of a time every 30-minutes when the silly fishing didn’t get in the way of their enjoyment.

Maybe the event needs some adjustment…

The two smallest members of the day were having a blast, but the they did it without running around like a couple of feral monkey monsters, and I thank them both for that.

Ed learned a few things throughout the day, particularly where the online booklets that I wrote are on the website, just laying there, abandoned, and largely unread. (the books, not Ed).

After a busy week, the fishing was a tonic for Ed. I’m glad it gave him some replenishment.

3rd place on the day was a great day for them both. Well done…

Peg Four:

Austin & Tom:

18lbs 14ozs, 1st place:

Austin and Tom brought two things to the table today.

One, the fact that I’d wished that I’d have made it a silvers match.

Two, they brought the bickering!!

I hadn’t realised that the cruel side of my character had been secretly hoping for some good, old fashioned, good natured arguing between the teams. That’s where the fun was, and they brought it in spades!

I loved the sound of Austin’s squeaky voice trying to persuade Tom to cast in the correct manner as taught by some very good coaches. Tom was ‘doing it all wrong’, whilst exclaiming ‘Watch this!’ as he sent the feeder in completely the wrong direction.

To be fair, he still caught a fish from his shocking demonstration of his casting prowess.

It was like watching a reversed before and after of Austin’s progress with his fishing. Tom casting like Austin used to, and Austin ‘doing it right’…

After dark times over more weeks than I care to reveal, it was an elixir watching those two going at each other, and very funny to watch.

Of course, they both spoiled the day, took it all too seriously, and bagged a netful of mud pigs/Puddle pets for a more than convincing win…

I jest, of course, and they showed everyone how to win and have shed loads of fun as you do it..

More of that please!

Peg Five:

Mia & Wendy:

1lb 8ozs, 8th place:

With absence of Uncle John, Mia and Wendy had to fend for themselves today.

Mia was brimming with confidence at the start. Not confident for the fishing match. More for the fact that she was determined to finish both lunches prepared for John and herself over the next five hours.

This was definitely the all-lady team; you could tell that from the carpark 120-metres away! There was food, blankets, pink chairs, it all looked very palatial and pretty. Sadly, the fish were not as impressed as I was. Maybe they were afraid that Mia would eat them too…?

(I must stop writing here because it is 10:40am. I know it is 10:40am because one of the alarms set for the change overs yesterday has just sounded from my phone sat next to me. Many will be delighted to know that I forgot to turn it off and it may have caused some ‘slight seepage’ if not ‘definite soilage’ due to the shock of a loud noise in a very quiet atmosphere of concentration.)

On a day that is supposed to be fun, who cares where you finish, right?

I hope they had fun…Well done Ladies…

Peg Six:

Josh & John:

3lbs 12ozs, 5th place)

After misfortune and a number of changes to Josh’s teammate, younger brother, John, was thrust into the limelight for the day. A boy of very little experience, and it might be fair to say even less enthusiasm for fishing, John could have been a ticking time bomb for how long his interest and patience would last.

Fair play to him though, he stuck at it until close to 2pm. Which surprised me at least.

The fishing had backed off quite a lot by the time they were packing away, so it is hard to say how much they would have added to their catch had they have stayed. But 3lbs 12ozs is a decent amount on the day, and there was no sibling punch ups either.

It was nice to see them working together though and, who knows, we might be able to squeeze 4-hours 5-minutes out of john next time!

Well done both…

Peg Seven:

Jayce & Michelle:

2lbs 7ozs, 7th place:

JC and Michelle.

Not an artistic duo from the 90’s house scene, but delightful pairing of gran/nan and grandson/nan-son…

These two were sat at the less productive end of the lake, but fished right to the last when I deafened Michelle by blowing the final whistle right behind her….

I had been sat for the final minutes trying to talk to Michelle about the art of ‘Slapping with a whip’, which she sat through without even the merest hint of a smirk. She’d obviously led a wholesome life. Smirkers get judged immediately as ner-do-wells…Naturally I deeply appreciated this level of dedication.

The smiles soon disappeared when I demonstrated what I was trying to get across by ‘having a go’ myself after the whistle. Being shown how to catch three fish in less than twenty-seconds even with shredded maggots probably is not the best way to endear yourself to people when they have just cobbled together two and a half pounds of fish in the last FIVE-HOURS.

But it had to be done.

With all credit to him, Jayce sat and caught some more fish with his newly found skills after he’d weighed in. Something that didn’t go unnoticed.

It was lovely to meet Michelle, and I hope to see her again in future events…

Good job both…

Peg Eight:

Jo-Jo & Jim-Jim:

2lbs 13ozs, 6th place:

With the water level so low, the far end of the lake was always going to be the tougher challenge. The shallower water usually produces the goods when the lake is topped up, particularly in warmer weather when the suns rays warm the shallower water.

But, when you can find more water in a Camel’s flip-flop, you know it is going to be hard.

It was so low in fact that you could SEE the part of the lake that Jo was fishing on top of earlier in the year!

A tough day, but a good effort…

Good job guys…

As I looked at the screen of my phone to take the picture of Jo and Jim, I realised just how old Jim is looking…

I’M KIDDING!

Seriously, all the juniors have grown, as kids do but, Jo in particular seems to have really shot up over that last twelve months or so…

This leads me to need to say something here.

I have been truly touched by the comments and support I have been shown over all the years, but more so the last few weeks. My decision to step down has hit me hard and only gets harder as each day, week, and month rolls by.

I’m feeling it already, and God only knows what state I will be in this time next year.

I love my juniors and all the friends I’ve made because of them…

I’ve been asked so many questions, and I hope I answered them adequately.

I will still be around.

I will support whoever decides to take over my position to the best of my ability.

Who knows where we will all be in 12-months’ time?

I know this is will not be the end…

Big thanks to Jim Roper for allowing us to play with your lake again, see you next month!

Thank you to Si Wagner, Jon Bass, Chris Ward, Lloyd Richards, and especially to Neil Haine for bringing friendship and a lovely lady into my life…

The next event is on Chester’s Lake at Whitemoor on Oct 25th.

Take care all…

Juniors Sec…