Our Summer Two Day Fishing Festival was held on Saturday 29th July (Railway Lake) and Sunday 30th July (Barford Match and Colton Lakes) 2006. The winner was decided on weight over the two days. Entry was £70 and there was a £65 section every 5 pegs and £78 every 6 peg section. £100 was given to the top weight on the day. Overall top 4 were paid out with the winner receiving £400, 2nd £195, 3rd £141 and 4th £80. There was also an optional super pool of £5 on each day which paid the top three. Payouts were for 32 anglers and we have 50 places available for next year
- so overall payouts would be better!
Overall Placings
1st Nathan Watson (Middy Tackle) 253 - 06
2nd Mick Bartram (Daiwa/Angling Direct) 212 - 04
3rd Jim Randell (Future/Whizzo) 199 - 10
4th Mick Thraves (Future) 197 - 08
5th Johnny Howard (Daiwa Goldthorpe) 179 - 13
6th Graham Dack (Future) 174 - 06
Group Shot from left: Mick Thraves, Jim Randell, Nathan Watson and Mick Bartram
Day One - Railway Lake - Saturday 29th July 2006
On a 'not so on form day' at Railway - anglers found they had to chop and change on baits and methods to keep the fish coming. It seemed that around the island and in the 40's that as the wind got up the fish would disappear for spells.
Steve Porter from Leicester (pictured above left) won the lake on peg 44 (by an ounce!) Fishing half the day on paste at 4 metres and the other half up in the water on hook pellet whilst feeding 4mm Barford pellet.
In a very close second place was a gutted Glen Burden (Barford Tackle) who fished on peg 60 and has 70lb 15ozs. Glen fished a spud hookbait and fed 4 mm pellet.
In third place was Tony Dawson ( pictured above middle) who drew peg 1 and had a few on paste but after a succession of dodgy bites, changed to fishing mid water at 12.5 metres.
4th on the day was Paul Ashford (pictured above right) with 58lb 15 ozs from peg 32. Paul started out on paste and had a few fish but wasn't catching at any speed so after an hour and a half switched to fishing up in water with a spud hookbait whilst feeding 4mm pellet.
Dave Ludlan (pictured above left) on peg 50 had 34lb 11ozs.
Nathan Watson (Middy Tackle) had a good first 2 hours but struggled a bit in the third and found he had to try fishing 18 metres to the tree to pick up
further fish. He won his section on peg 10 with 54lb fishing hook pellet mid-water whilst feeding 4mm pellet at 14 metres.
Tony Robinson on peg 30 had a good start fishing paste whilst feeding hemp and had 48lb 5ozs. Tony had several Tench (pictured above right fishing peg 30 on Day 2).
Graham Dack (Future) fished on peg 40 and fished absolutely everywhere to pick up some fish!! He fished dried out hook pellet up in the water and tried corn down the edge and scrapped together a very respectable 56lb 3ozs.
On peg 34 was venue regular Colin Allport (above left) who felt the fish just weren't playing the game as they usually do. He had lots of Roach and got carp in between. He fished a hair rigged hook pellet up in the water whilst feeding pellet and found he had to move around his swim a great deal to find the carp.
Mark Hoye (Future) fished on peg 2 (above right) and won the award for most frustrating day! After finding all of the snags on the far bank and subsequently losing most of his feeders I asked for a photo for the website that summed up his frustration (see on the right) - but Mark still found it hard not to look happy! Mark you also get the certificate for best attitude in angling!
Will Freeman (above right) fished peg 6 and caught on a groundbait feeder chucked tight to the island with corn hookbait. He also had a couple on paste early on and 6/7 up in the water. Will weighed 48lb 3ozs and also gets an award - for the most 'interesting' looking rod!!
You can get a rough idea of who's doing well as you walk around towards the end of the match. You can also tell if someone's having a bad day by their comments (or lack of them!) and with one hour to go I discovered this sight on the right and kind of guessed that Andy Fowkes (Leicester) wasn't havng the best match of his life!!
Day 2 - Colton Lake
The wind was a pain for the anglers who wanted to fish 14 metres mid water and many had to fish shorter in order to hold their poles. Alan Tuck on peg 32 fished up in the water and found at times his swim was black with fish cruising around but they just weren't too bothered by anything other than his float! Alan still managed the odd one and weighed in 63lb 7ozs.
It seemed though that the fish who were playing the game were down the edge and fancied paste for dinner!!
The now seasoned paste angler - Jim Randell (pictured above left) won the lake from peg 16 - whilst, surprisingly, fishing paste. Jim had fish throughout the match and weighed in 152lb.
Rob Wooton on peg 18 fished down the edge and came 3rd and won his section on the lake with 123lb 6ozs.
Mark Hoye (pictured above right) had a much less frustrating second day and fished paste mostly down the edge and had a fantastic 131lb 4ozs from peg 6 and came second on the lake.
Fred Bates (above) fished paste on peg 12 and had 73lb 11ozs.
Day 2 - Match Lake
The Match Lake fished far better and nearly half the weights were over 90lb!
Johnny Howard on peg 1 (above left) , fished worm feeding corn, worm and caster on the deck at 12 metres and also fished tight on the right hand bank margin. Johnny weighed in 152lb 5ozs and amazingly came 4th!
Micky Bartram (Daiwa/Angling Direct) had an extremely close call (pictured above right). Fishing up in the water he found that due to there being blank pegs either side he had lots of fish competing in his swim and unfortunately foul hooked many fish. When the hook pulled out of one fish the float pinged back and narrowly missed his eye. Something to bear in mind when fishing - sunglasses seem a good idea after seeing this!. It didn't appear to affect his fishing too much though as he came second on the lake with 193lb 8ozs.
Tony Dawson (VDE) concentrating well (above left) on peg 7 fishing down the edge on luncheon meat.
The battle of the match had to be though between Mick Thraves (Future) and Nathan Watson (Middy Tackle) who are pictured above right. Pegged next to each other both angler were fish for fish all the way through the match. Both anglers had most of their fish down the edge.
Mick (above) had a few fish up in the water on spud and banded pellet but switched to a very productive margin fishing corn and feeding hemp and caster and weighed in 169lb 11ozs placing him 3rd on the lake and giving 4th place overall.
Nathan (pictured above left) caught up with a few silver fish early on but soon had the carp move into his swim which he kept there for the duration of the match. he weighed 199lb 6ozs and was the top weight on the day.
Opposite on peg 17 was Paul Gardiner (Leicester) who claimed Day 2's most frustrating day award and had one of 'those' days. After losing several fish Paul still managed a respectable 94lb 1ozs. Paul was fishing a paste bait whilst feeding pellet.
Darren Mallet (Norwich) was on the far bank (pictured above right) where anglers had the wind in their face all day, which made it difficult to feed up in the water. Darren had a bad couple of hours and struggled until the last couple of hours where he caught up in the water on spud whilst feeding 4mm pellet and had 69lb 4ozs.
Thanks again to all those who fished this year - it was an enjoyable weekend - as usual!
Roll on next year's festival!!!!
