In the past, the Coaches blogs have been labelled as rather long and sometimes waffling.
For this edition, there is a shorten version below.
There was a lake and some weather.
Some people caught fish.
Some caught more fish than others and were rewarded for it.
Someone fell out of a tree.
For those with a few spare minutes to read a report on a junior fishing session, that may or may not be lettered with weak attempts at humour by someone that just enjoys the process, read on…
It was good to get back into the groove after our wedding. I’ll be honest, we were so busy that I didn’t really get chance to miss fishing much. Although I did pop out to Harbourbridge for one of the matches.
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that helped us celebrate our very special day, for all the kind gifts, messages, and love that we received. It was genuinely a day that Trudie and I will never forget.
The Senior/Junior pairs match is a tough one to come back to mainly because I’m in it!
With all the spare keep nets, coaches equipment, and my own vast array of fishing tackle, it’s a very good job that we have such a cavernous car. The onlookers at the end of the day could not believe just how much stuff got crammed into it! You couldn’t fit a single strand of spaghetti in there when I’d finished.
Big up Hyundai and their fat bottomed Tucson!
Talking of fat bottoms, mine dragged its sorry self into the car park at Todber Manor promptly at 07:30am. After seeing the sign on the door saying the shop did not open until 08:00, it dragged itself back out again and straight to the peace and quiet of the lakes.
In the watery sunshine of a late summers’ morning, all looked quite serene.
It was chilly, but I was happily back doing my ‘job’, and was looking forward to spending the day with my fishing family. The Heron that I startled was so not happy though, and if I could speak fluent Heron, I’m sure gave me some quite unsavoury advice.
Of course, all I heard was a loud ‘Aaaark off!’….
Very rude…
The pegs numbers were set, and it was evident that this was our biggest event to date. Because the numbers had only been used up to peg 17, he last three pegs to peg 20 were unsoiled. They have now all been 'bloodied' and our new record is 20…
The chilly day had turned warm, and I was now sweating like Dianne Abbott in a maths exam. Nice bloke Tim had arrived. He was sweating about how to fish, much like I was a week earlier. There’s nothing like watching someone looking at fishing tackle with a ‘now where does this go?’ look on their face. It’s like riding a bike in that it’s uncomfortable at first, but you soon get used to it.
I drove back to the hopefully now open shop to find a crowd had gathered. They were also eagerly awaiting the opening of the doors into the hallowed interior.
I must say, the new restaurant looks rather swanky. I look forward to an event at Todber that isn’t a mile up the road so we can use it!
Back to the lake after off loading shed loads of cash, and competitors were starting to arrive. Last in was Dr Ed and the wunderkind, George, who was competing in his very first match!
At this point, the report would become very blinkered because, of course, I couldn’t see more than a few people either side of me. So I will do a quick run down of the results with a couple of comments as we go…
Pegs 1 & 2:
John and Mia Evans:
From the end of the top lake that would usually host good results, it looked to have been a bit of a struggle. The thing about fishing is, you can never truly tell what the day is going to bring. John would weigh 31lbs 13ozs and Mia 34lbs for a team score of 19 points.
Maybe not the day they had hoped for, but at least Mia has bragging rights over Uncle John… Well done both.
Pegs 3 & 4:
Harry Willmer and Tim Broughton:
Things seem to have picked up a little by peg 3, with Harry weighing a very respectable 47lbs 4ozs, and Tim blowing off the cobwebs for a ton-breaking 102lbs 1oz. Their score for the day would be 10 points, good enough for 4th place overall. I wonder if Harry did use the 14mm boilies and braided hair rigs he was asking me about?
Pegs 5 & 6:
Jerry Bracey and Josh Roe:
A good team result for these two which give them 3rd place overall on the day. Jerry would load 78lbs 11ozs on to the scales which would backup Josh’s weight of 81lbs 13ozs. With the weights on the up as our journey along the lake progressed, it was looking good for anyone at the windward end.
Before the match, Josh got fixated with brown envelope in which the pegs numbers were handed out. He started to get a little flustered and more than a little heated about it. So-much-so that, I nearly told him where he could shove the envelope!
Ah, kids…You gotta love ‘em!
Pegs 7 & 8:
Josiah Wells-Parkes and Si Wagner:
It’s fair to say that their confidence was on a high level. In human terms this is known as ‘Si’cological Warfare’ (Did you see what I did there?!)
In angling circles this is known B*** Sh***ing the opposition.
But could they both back it up with results?
Well, yes.
Yes, they could….
Josiah would have won the match individually with 170lbs 3ozs and was backed up by Si with 110lbs. This would give them 3 team points, but would it be enough?
Well done guys, brilliant fishing!
Pegs 9 & 10:
Paul Cryer & Jack Cryer:
This fishing lark is a doddle, right? All these idiots with mountains of tackle and thousands of pounds worth of carbon fibre. You just need to fish at your feet, from a chair, with minimal experience and just blitz it…are just some of the thoughts that went through Paul Cryer’s head when he chucked the last of 131lbs of Carp onto the scales.
Jack Son-of-Paul was just as tooled up as his dad catching, as he did, 103lbs 6ozs.
Team Cryer also scored 3 team points…
So who was the winner?
It would have to be decided on weight.
Team Jo Si Wells Wagner Parkes weighed 280lbs 3ozs to take the win over team Cryer’s
234lbs 6ozs…
Congrats to Team Jo Si….and all that.
Excellent result and good defence of your title that we will no doubt hear all about for the next 12 flaming months!!!
Well done…
Pegs11 & 12:
Jack Copp & Dave Copp:
Team Copp had arrived looking the part. Matching clothing can always make you fish better in my opinion, but would that be the case today?
Jack had end peg advantage to his right, and 'dad disadvantage' to his left… But the child prodigy is always brimming with confidence. It would turn out that the lower lake was no match for the other lake results wise, but it was all about points, albeit larger points than the top lake.
Jacks 68lbs 10ozs and Dave’s 54lb 6ozs would give them 11 points in total, landing them 5th place on the day.
Well angled, Copps!
Pegs 13 & 14:
Chris Ward and George Ellis:
Team Ward/Ellis (sounds like an inventor from WW2!) had two main handicaps. One, Chris had to put post-it notes on his rods saying which end to hold it has been so long since he last fished.
Two, it was Georges first ever competitive event. Something that I forgot to celebrate due to other issues occurring at the time. So, on behalf of us all, WELL DONE, GEORGE!!!!
Chris admitted that he struggled in the first hour of the match. No amount of willing the float under was working. I’m not going to write here that he was hammered by a six-year-old in his first ever match, I wouldn’t do that.
I think Chris was trying to give his partner a boost by limiting his catch to just 20lbs 6ozs, in order to make George’s achievement of 38lbs 4ozs that much more momentous than it already was! The actions of a true gentlemen, I think we can all agree…
George was on fire. Beating anglers have been fishing many years longer than he had even existed! (I tried to put a number in there, but I got a nosebleed from thinking too hard!).
Yes, they had a high team score (Bad thing), but who cares when you see the joy in eyes of a man who has just seen his teeny tiny partner cane his backside off in a match?
In all seriousness, well done guys.
Pegs 15 & 16:
Harry Cryer and Jon Bass:
Jon was the first angler that I could see along the bank. Not something that everyone would wish for, but fortunately I am a fan. Jon is one of those anglers that quietly catches fish when you aren’t looking. Some say stealthy, others say sneaky. But I felt sure that he’d caught more than 37lbs 12ozs. But there it is…
Harry was not allowed to beat his senior partner, limiting his catch to 34lbs 3ozs.
The match was at it’s worst in the middle of the lower lake, something that is proven by the weights.
Well done chaps…
Pegs 17 & 18:
Graham Howard and Kenzie Toulson:
Kenzie and I had done a little practice, and I felt confident that we could do well if Kenz got a good envelope. I don’t know if I would call it a good draw, but there were definitely worse.
I asked Kenzie for 4th or 5th place in the junior section. He gave me 6th and I am very proud of him for that.
He asked me for 1st, and I also gave him 6th place.
He wouldn’t speak to me as he left….
KT weighed 48lbs 2ozs and yours truly heaved on 65lbs 1oz.
I wasn’t happy with myself on the way home (I rarely am) but Kenzie had done me proud.
Well done KT!
Pegs 19 & 20:
Austin Scott-Kennedy and Oliver Smith:
Ollie had promise to beat me repeatedly throughout the day. To be fair, he did. But only just. I would given vital parts of my anatomy to catch just more decent fish to wipe that sickening smirk from his stupid face. But I am not bitter about it…
The real shame is that, sadly for him, he may find himself disqualified from every match for the rest of the season if he ever mentions it again…
Austin, sick of breaking fishing tackle himself, threw his grandad onto a pole section because he was too busy catching fish to do it himself.
Ollie’s weight of 69lbs 10ozs and Austin’s weight of 50lbs 8ozs, gave them enough points to be top team on the lower lake.
Good effort guys, well done…
A complete listing of all competitors in points order are;
Josiah Wells Parkes & Si Wagner, 3 points, 280lbs 3ozs.
Jack & Paul Cryer, 3 points, 234lbs 6ozs.
Josh Roe & Jerry Bracey, 7 points, 160lbs 8ozs.
Harry Wilmer & Tim Broughton, 10 points, 149lbs 5ozs.
Austin Scott-Kennedy & Oliver Smith, 10 points 120lbs 2ozs
Jack & Dave Copp, 11 points, 124lbs.
Kenzie Toulson & Graham Howard, 12 points, 113lbs 3ozs.
Harry Cryer & Jon Bass, 17 points, 71lbs 15ozs.
George Ellis & Chris Ward, 18 points, 58lbs 10ozs.
Mia & John Evans, 19 points, 65lbs 10ozs.
Another cracking event on the whole, it was a little tarnished by events that followed during the points calculations, but I will address that at the next event…
Thank you to our angling coaches today. I am going to suggest that any practice for next years event will be carried out by driving to (insert venue), and simply throwing money into the lake, and driving home again. Why do we even bother???
Big thank you to John Candy and all the staff at Todber Manor for, yet again, making us feel so welcome…
The next match will be on Whitepost Upper Lake (the one where all the fish are!) on 14th September. This match will be limited to just 12 anglers, so get in fast.
Reminder that Todber Manor are hosting a Preston Innovations open day on the 21st of September. More importantly, that’s my birthday! (55!). Maybe we could christen the bar/restaurant? I might even bring the pants!
Thanks all, it’s good to be back, onto the next!
The Mud-Slinger….
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