Hartley Lands – Silvers only Open match
Another cold and wet morning, as Ryan went through his tactics while eating breakfast in the Knoxbridge cafe. 20 people were fishing as we arrived at 08:30 for the draw on The Reservoir, and Ryan drew peg 21.
Ryan chose 2 pole lines, 9m straight out, and 6m to the left hand side, about 3m outs as peg 22 was free. Also had the 4m whip set up, which is what he would start on.
All in
Still raining, as the hooter sounds for the all-in at 10:00, and Ryan is soon catching small roach on pinkies & maggots, with the odd one around 6oz. He has had around 35 fish after 90 minutes, before it starts to go a bit slow on the bites, so time to go on the bottom with the long line using 4mm expanders. The roach are a little larger now, until the inevitable carp shows up.
Straight back in it goes, as they don’t count in today’s match.
The bites are very gentle and he is missing a few, but it looks as if the skimmers have turned up in between the roach, and more carp. Peg 20 has been catching well on the whip all day, and they are a good size, but he has a longer whip than the 4m one we have. May be an idea for a Chrissy pressie !!!
As the bites start to slow up a little around 1:30, Ryan tries the whip down the edge, and although not many bites, he does have a few better size roach.
Back on the long pole for the last hour, and changing between expanders/maggot/pinkies, a few more bream and roach end up in the net before the the hooter sounds for the end of the match at 3pm, of at the same time it stops raining.
Result
Well, all excited, Ryan goes off to help with the weigh-in, as I end up packing away as usual. As they get to weigh Ryan’s net, he registers 20lb 10oz, which puts him in the lead as they move on to peg 20. It looks fairly close, as Ryan drops to 2nd by 1lb 12oz. Only another 6 to weigh-in now, but could he hold on ?
He does finish second, and a great result against more very experienced anglers. Another very proud moment for me as he picks up his winnings, and congratulations from everyone. Alan, the Bailiff, is going to book him in to all the Open matches. I have set him a target of catching 100lb’s in a match by the end of next year, so he is going to be very busy. Well done mate.
10/10/12 – Hartley Lands Open Match – Farm Reservoir
1st – J. Pizzey 22 lb 06 oz
2nd – R. Kennison 20 lb 10 oz
3rd – A. Short 20 lb 02 oz