The venue was none other than the Bridgwater and Taunton canal at wide waters. Now whilst in the car park at the boat and anchor pub it became apparent that Mr Dave Nash was not going to turn up as he had been scuppered by a hang over and poor Phil Dodd had fallen victim to gravity and had just fallen down the stairs, The rest of the absentees all had excusal notes signed by their wives, So then there were only five to do battle.
But this added to the problem of the draw because where there was supposed to be 7 now there was only 5 But Alan the match secretary decided on what seemed to us remaining mere mortals an extremely complex dialogue “right if you draw out 7 you can fish in 6 if wish but only if no one pulls out 5 or , if 5 is pulled out but not 4 you can have a choice of pegs of 4 or 5 and 6 only if the person who pulls out 7 decides not to fish 6 but wants to fish 7. If you get 4 you can fish 5 or 3 depending if 6 have been drawn and if the person who’s peg is 6 decides if wants fish 7 if that peg is not pulled out. Right if 3 is one of the numbers that comes out that angler can have if he wants, a choice of either 3,4 or 2 depending if 1 is drawn out in that case the angler on 1 who has a choice of 1 or 2 might want to fish 1 but if 1 is not fished and the guy on 5 decides to fish 6 that leaves the angler on 7 with only one choice so instead if 5 wants to fish 6 and not 5 or 4 and if the person on 2 decides to fish 2 or 3 but not 1 the guy on 7 which depending if 6 or 5 is pulled out can have an option of 1 or 7 but obviously this depends on the on 3 and 4 so………”etc etc etc !
Right once the pegs were drawn and we had the numbers we anglers took certain steps.
Rob Dodd decided to ring some of his friends at the Met office and with the aide of their super computer it was decided that Rob should fish peg 5
Dave Colley did a similar tactic and rang some people he knew at NASA and they concluded that he should fish peg3,
Paul got on his mobile phone and rang dial a clairvoyant who duly got in touch with Albert Einstein the result was that Paul should fish peg 1
Yours truly took the number drawn divided it by pi and then found it’s antilog which gave me peg 6.
Alan Bland just worked it all out in his head and fished peg 2.
The weather was overcast and except for a few splutterings of rain was on the whole dry. There was a slight breeze but nothing to worry about.
The winner on the day was none other than the mighty tactician Alan Bland. He had amassed a total of 8lb 14oz. This winning catch consisted of a tench of 4llb 7oz tench and a perch of 1lb 13oz and smaller bits. Alan fished right across to within 2 foot of the far bank with chopped worm and caster.
Mr Bland just pipped Rob Dodd by 4oz for a weight of (work it out yourself) 8lb 10oz. This comprised of 2 Tench the biggest was 4lb and bits . Rob had one Tench from the middle and the other from the far side. Rob used pinkie and maggot. Rob got smashed up 3 times on Tench.
3rd place Paul Smith had a reasonable weight of small fish for 7lb he used a combination of pinkie and bread punch but he said he got his better fish on red maggot. He also got smashed on his elasticated whip by a Tench.
4th place was Mr I drive a different vehicle every time to a match Dave Colley, who had managed to put on the scales 5lb 07oz, Dave used the whip through out and the bait which he used was no other than the humble maggot.
The peg that I had drawn was a bit awkward as it was under a over hanging tree so I could not use my waggler rod. But instead had to use the pole. I used mostly bread punch and now and then pinkie. I fished varying distances but caught most of my on punch about 5 meters to my right. I caught a total weight of 4lb 2oz to be crowned the wooden spoonist. BAH. Never mined always next time.
| Position | Peg | Name | Weight |
| 1st | 2 | Alan Bland | 8lb 14oz |
| 2nd | 5 | Robb Dodd | 8lb 10oz |
| 3rd | 1 | Paul Smith | 7lb |
| 4th | 3 | Dave Colley | 5lb 7oz |
| Last | 6 | Pete Curnow |
4lb 2oz
|
The next match in the series will be at the fast stretch on the river Tone, if this becomes unfishable owing to heavy rain etc the alternative venue will be the Bridgwater and Taunton canal at wide waters once again. Tight lines people.
