On the 28th October the Over 60s moved onto Avington for the first canal match of the 2020/21 series. 13 anglers turned out on a bright sunny day, and with the canal carrying some colour, expectations were high of a good day. There was some concern as tree work was being carried out on the opposite bank. With 15 minutes to go for the start whistle, a chain saw could be heard opposite of Richard Wiggins on peg 13 (you couldn’t make it up!), followed by a loud crack and a large tree falling. Although it fell along the line of the bank, many sizable branches hit the water. Richard was offered a move, but elected to stay put, a good decision as he was overall 4th in the match.
Well, the match started reasonably Ok, with most catching a few small roach and gudgeon until a string of boats came through. After the boats (especially the Broad Beam) the match became a tale of two ends, with the six guys in the middle really struggling for bites (average weight for the six of them was 1lb 1oz).
The highlight of the day, had to be the half hour when the sky suddenly blackened and a roll of thunder, followed by high wind and heavy rain ripped along the canal, which had everybody scrambling for waterproofs and brollies, with the Match Sec doing a fair impression of Mary Poppins!
Who said fishing was boring!! The top weights were:
Dave Smith on end peg 15 found some skimmers and put 7lb 5oz in the net for the win.
2nd on peg 3, Wilf Squires with 3lb 13oz of mainly Perch.
3rd on peg 2, Chris Evans with a mixed bag small fish for 3lb 8oz.
The 6th Over 60s Match of 2020/2021 was held on Dobsons on the 7th of October.
16 anglers turned out on a bright breezy day, and expectations of a good day were high as fish were seen topping all along the lake. Hopes were soon dashed though, as it quickly became apparent that its residents were not going to surrender easily!
Wilf (Corner peg) Squires snaffled an early Carp, Steve (Northern Git) Myers had a 4lb Tench on the two hour mark and the rest struggled for the odd bite.
And then? well not much really, except Alf McGarry lost two carp, Wilf snared another carp and Northern Git never had another bite after the Tench.
All caught fish, but three didn’t bother to weigh in. The top three were:
1st Wilf (Corner Peg) Squires 15lb 10oz (Two Carp)
2nd Steve (Northern Git) Myers 4lb 11oz (One Tench plus roach and perch.
3rd Dave (Wing Commander) Smith 2lb 8oz. (Perch and Roach.
