AT National Championship 2016 – Partridge Lakes, Warrington

After a long trip up to Warrington on the Friday, we didn’t quite make it in time to have a good look round the lakes. Reports that the expected method of castor fished shallow were not really working, it would be a case of seeing what lake Ryan was drawn on, and if he had any features that may produce well. They would be fishing on either Spey or Marsh lake, with Spey having a slightly better size of fish, that would be the preferred lake.

After a good breakfast, it was off for the draw, and hoping the rain kept off. He was drawn on F1 (peg15) of Marsh. Not really the lake he would have chosen, and also right in the middle of the lake. He would have to work hard over the 4hr match.

Just after starting to set up, down came the rain, which felt very cold, and certainly wouldn’t help conditions. He chose to fish 5 lines, 13m to far bank, 6m on 2 lines (one chopped worm/castor and the other pellet), margin left and right.

At the ‘All in’ he fed the long far bank with a few micro pellets, and both 6m lines. Going out to the far bank and trickling a few micros in through a small pot, with a 4mm banded hard pellet, there were signs that there were a few fish about, but nothing positively taking the bait. Eventually after about 30 mins, the float dipped, and he was in to his first F1. Continuing on the same line, still feeding a few micros each put in, he started to pick up a few more fish, but they were not really feeding well.

After about an hour he had landed 4 fish, and with the rain stopping, the sun finally came out. As it started to warm up, the bites seem to be coming quicker, but the odd larger fish was taking him in to the tree roots, where he was losing the odd one, and bites were drying up a bit. He tried maggot on the hook, but nothing really changed. So a try on the shorter 6m line produced a couple of fish, but there didn’t seem many fish there.

With some great advise from one of the coaches, he went back on the far bank, and this time fed a cad pot of loose groundbait each time. This produced much better results, and really started to get them feeding. With about 1hr to go, he had a really bad patch for 30mins, and kept getting snagged up. A quick look down the margins, but nothing really showing, so back out on the far bank. The break form there had seem to have done some good, and the last 30 mins produced 1 fish after the other.

As the ‘All out’ was called, he was absolutely shattered, and with around 30 fish in the net, it looked like he was well behind the lad 2 pegs down, but I think he fished it the best he could, and we would have to wait for the weigh-in now.

Spey was weighed first, and no real surprise that some big fish had come out of there, and the best weight was 25kg (55lb). The first net weighed in at 7kg, and the second at 11kg, a total weight of 18kg 510g (41lb). A great weight, and the comment from the official weigh team was that he had done really well, as that was as good as the seniors normally have over a 5hr match. So, after the next peg weigh (2kg), it was on to the lad who we thought had done better than Ryan. It was very close, but Ryan pipped him by 1.5kg(3lb), giving Ryan the section win and the best weight on his lake. Unsure what other weights had come from Spey lake, it was a case of now waiting to see where he finished.

The Team had ended up with a total of 13 points, finishing in 3rd place, and Ryan had done enough to finish runner-up. A fantastic result, and very proud moment for all the hard work he has put in over the last year.