Todays match ( Saturday 27 August 2022) was held at Trinity Waters and for most people in the club know it is not exactly my favourite venue. Not because it is a crap venue, oh no, it is a well stocked water with an abundance of fish and the majority of anglers love the place. But for me when I fish matches there I normally end up in the bottom 3. I am at a loss of why this is so, perhaps it is indeed down to sheer incompetence of ones certain angling ability. I like to think I approach these matches rationally by thinking things out and having some sort plan but with that am flexible and change things about if needs must by watching what other anglers do. But things don’t seem to work out for me at Trinity. For all my efforts the out come is always pretty lousy. So that’s thinking it rationally, so what about thinking irrationally, illogically or in an unreasonable manner. Well here goes.
It quite possible but more likely implausible that every time I fish at Trinity I simply pass though an invisible cloud of fish repellent. Who knows. But I like think it all down to a guy called Jim Ignatowski. Yep good old Jim. I reckon if not irrationally that there is a celestial governing body and within that governing body is a department that allocates guardian angels. Well that certain fateful day, the day I was assigned mine, the members of the said department were in a jovial mood after a lunch time session down the pub, thought they have a laugh and duly assigned me dear old Mr Ignatowski. Who is Jim Ignatowski I hear you cry. Well for people of over a certain age might just remember a fabulous American sit com called Taxi. Jim Ignatowski is one of the main characters of that show. The character of Jim is that of a left over from the 1960’s drug culture and his most common character trait is his extremely spaced out behaviour as a result of drug misuse. Poor Jim gets things muddled up and some times thinks that weekends are 9 days long “because we had switched to the metric system”.
According to catholic teaching guarding angels influence our will. So called guardian angels cannot directly move the will but they can indirectly influence it through our senses and intellect. This means that guardian angels try to influence every part of our being for the better. Now you got to bear in mind I am lumbered with Jim who appears to sway my train of thought within in a mindset of a spaced out junkie. See the problem.
First on the day and this was achieved in some style was Eric the Carp basher Searle who trounced the rest of the field with a fine performance of 126 lb 04 oz. Eric used the feeder with pellet and wafters (orange). What a fine performance from peg 31. But Eric don’t make a bloody habit of it, gave the rest of mere mortals a chance. LOL.
Second place went to Alan Bland our Spielsekretärin fuhrer with also a very fine performance from peg 16 of 95 lb 03 oz. Yep you guessed it, for people familar to these write ups, Paste. what else. Spielsekretärin fuhrer Bland seems to be hitting a good run of form of late so it’s a very well done to him indeed.
Rod Dodd had a good day from peg 27. It was a slow start for Rob but things gradually picked up which lead to a reasonable catch of 77 lb 06 oz. Pole and worm did the business to earn 3rd place. Rob bagged the top silvers weight.
Young Ian Grabham took 4th from peg 30 with 73 lb . One of his tactics was to fish with pellet up in the water. This guy like Alan Bland seemed to have hit a vein of form so it a hearty congrats to him.
In 5th position we find our special guest star Ian Townsend. Old smiler was once a member of the Watchet club but had to leave owing to work commitments. But Ian did find time to fish today and had a worthy catch of 63 lb 08 oz from peg 24. Ian put his favourite bait of meat on the back burner and opted for paste instead. Things were slow at first but the last one and a half hours did the trick.
Another guy who had a good day on the paste was Paul Smith who put 58 lb 13 oz on the scales from peg 22. Paul finished in 6th.
Stuart Frampton in 7th from peg 21 had an all carp weight of 54 lb 02 oz. Stu had his catch on meat.
My next door neighbour on peg 12 one Mr Ian Ricketts ended in 8th spot with a haul of 38 lb 03 oz. Ian used expander pellet and worm to achieve a weight of 38 lb 03 oz. He also managed to get 2nd highest slivers weight.
Yours truly from peg 10 got 9th placing with a total weight of 33 lb 01 oz. I managed to catch 3 chunky carp which were all caught on paste. I did use the feeder with worm which got me the bulk of my slivers. But unfortunately bites dried up in the 2 hours thus the placing.
Veteran Tony Richards on peg 28 put 32lb 05 oz on the scales, which gained him 10th place. The bait employed was maggot and caster. Tony had one of the biggest carp of the day weighing in at 13 lb 07 oz’s Tony showed his angling skill by landing the beast on a size 18 hook and 2lb hook length.
Placed at 11th was Dave Nash who had corner peg number 6. Dave who was sporting his wide brim somerset cricket hat had a total haul of 28 lb 10 oz. Baits used was maggot , corn and caster.
12th was Phil Dodd who used mostly the feeder and obtained a net of 21 lb 01oz from peg 25. Phil had to leave the match for about an hour to check on his much beloved dogs. Thus could of had a better weight if it wasn’t for his benevolence towards his canine friends.
Bob Pascoe did not have the best of matches and his misfortune provided some entertainment for the rest of gang. This poor guy hooked a carp but lost his top 2 section. As a consequence the pole section decided to go on a merry little journey around the pond courtesy of the hooked carp. Many people who had their feeder rods handy tried casting to it but that was easier said than done as every one who saw this spectacle (and that was everyone fishing) was amazed at the speed of the thing. But there was a happy ending to this episode in that Bob did get his top 2 back. Bob finished in 13th spot from peg 14 and corn was his main bait.
In 14th place was dear old Alan Jenkins He was doing okay on the silvers but like me struggled in the later part of the match. Alan Had one carp but lost another when his pole elastic snapped. Mr Jenkins was pegged next to me on peg 8 and used various baits.
Foot note ……. as you can see I did not finish in the bottom 3 as normal and thinking rationally I think Jim must of had a lie in.
A few weeks ago as some of you might recall certain members of the Watchet team went to fish the semi finals of the Angling Times Supercup at Gold Valley lakes under the guise of Watchet AC red. Almost immediately after the weigh in and when able to do so we buggered of and did not wait for the results. This was a tactic to spare our blushes as we knew we did not do all that well. The angling time on the 9th of August printed the results and the tactic of clearing of as soon as possible proved the correct one.
Owing to the unfishable state of the King Sedgemoor drain the next match is back at Trinity lakes on September 10th.
Until then tight lines.
Pete C.
