MOST anglers, if they were watching other anglers catching well with an hour to go and no fish in your net, would be thinking of packing in — after all, you are hardly going to win from this position —are you? That was just the situation in the latest Mount Pleasant Angling Club's match at the Pot Kiln Pool at MEASHAM.
Wayne Stubbs and Lee Turner were sitting there watching the other anglers enjoying all of the action when suddenly it all began happening right in front of them.
In that final, hectic hour, Stubbs caught enough fish to put him into the runnerup spot and Turner just one place behind him with 46lbs 12ozs and 44lbs 8ozs respectively.
Another half an hour would have seen them both vying for top spot as they were only a few pounds behind Dave Higton, who had the distinction of sitting by himself in a corner of the fishery and treated the day as if it were a pleasure session.
His net contained 55lbs 6ozs of carp and that was more than enough for victory.
It is not all carp at this fishery though as Dave Baker proved with over 30lbs of rudd, all in the 3-6 ounce range.
The catch of the week though goes to John Adams as he pulverized the rest of the Burton Veterans into submission at the THORPE CONSTANTINE FISHERY.
He netted 101lbs of carp and barbel on the pole and maggots to win by a bit more than a length as his closest rival was Terry Carpenter with a lowly 37lbs 10ozs.
His weight is normally more than enough to win on this venue and in some respects no matter how brilliantly he fished, his performance will always be second fiddle to the outstanding winning weight.
The winning weight also takes away just how close a match it really was as Dave Sherratt was only two ounces behind Carpenter and George Teather a few ounces further behind him with 36lbs 14ozs It was a case of fishing as usual in the latest STOPPOS OPEN. The method feeder, with sweetcorn on the hook, took the top three places. The back-up weights though came to corn or bread fished up in the water, a tactic that will surely come into it's own over the next few weeks.
The winner was Colin Stokes, who improved on his third place last week with a level 29lbs of carp and in doing so, usurped the intentions of youngster Tommy Hancock in making it two wins in a row whilst on his school holidays.
Hancock was one fish short of a second win with 27lbs of carp in his net.
Third place went to A Crumby, who had more bream than carp in his net for a total of 23lbs 8ozs.
Team-mates Kev Moseley and Andy Horton must have conversed prior to the match as they both fished the same method, corn or bread high up in the water to take 22lbs 4ozs and 20lbs of carp.
Twenty one anglers fished the match and they put 290lbs of fish onto the scales The Rangemore Club proved that water can fish on two consecutive days when they held their latest match there.
The winner was Chris Allen with 31lbs 7ozs of carp and he beat off the challenge of Horton, fresh from his ‘practice session’ the previous day on 28lbs.
After that the weights fell away with Ivan Priest the next best rod with 20lbs 11ozs.
RESULTS Burton Veterans A/C, Thorpe Constantine: 1, J.Adams, 101-0-0. 2, T.Carpenter, 37-11-0. 3, D.Sherratt, 37-8-0.
4, G.Teather, 36-14-0. 5, F.Bennett, 34-12-0. 6, P.Gourlay, 34-10-0.
Rangemore A/C, Stoppos Fishery: 1, C.Allen, 31-7-0. 2, A.Horton, 28-0-0. 3, I.Priest, 20-11-0. 4, R.Bumstead, 19-11-0. 5, S.Gregory, 18-5-0. 6, M.Walker, 15-11-0.
