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.

James Hopwood Jeans is a man most people would probably never heard of, one can say here he is definitely not a house hold name. But lets not take any credit away from dear old James who passed away back in 1946, for James or should I say Sir James to give him his proper title was in his day a very outstanding person in his field. He was a guy that could be termed a genius. He was a professor in applied mathematics at Cambridge and Princeton. He made important contributions in many areas of physics including quantum theory and the theory of radiation and stellar evolution. But he was known among his followers and acolytes for a saying that represents the density of Stars in the cosmos “put 3 grains of sand in a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars” Now fishing Saturday’s match at Trinity Waters this saying has certain overtones to the amount of feeding fish in my swim. Hence put 3 grains of sand in a vast cathedral and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than my swim is with feeding fish.

Trinity Waters Woodlands lake is as the saying goes is marmite. You either like or you don’t and I am afraid that I loiter in the latter camp. All respect to the owners and this is not to slag of the venue , for me to do this would be absolutely wrong, indeed such actions would enter the realms of total fabrication. No this venue to me in relation to catching fish is a total enigma. It is not as though when one enters ones peg that yours truly plays loud rock music or tests out the latest model of pneumatic drill or invites The London philharmonic Orchestra along for a rehearsal. No I must simply put it down to that I am either absolutely crap at this venue, a theory which I like to sweep under the carpet and keep it there, or that the fish some how have a sense of my presence (not through lack of hygiene I can well assure you) and simply bugger of to take up residence in other pegs thus leaving my swim with the same density of feeding fish as already been described. But never mind the match fished by the Watchet Angling on Saturday June 4th and taking me out of the equation produced some very good weights especially where silvers were concerned.

It was as we say in angling terms “double bubble” that of top weight overall and top Silvers for the illustrious Rob Dodd. Rob had an outstanding bag of silvers which tallied to a weight of 49 lb 10 oz added with a carp haul of 30 lb 04 oz he managed to put on the scales 79 lb 14 oz from peg 8. Fishing mostly straight out on the pole it was corn and maggot over ground bait. So it’s a hearty well done to him.

Second went to recent newcomer Stuart Frampton. Stu had corner peg number 6 and caught a reasonable weight of 68 lb. Within his catch was a 3lb tench, a perch of 1 lb 10 oz and a bream of 3 lb 09 oz. His tactic was to fish down the edge to his right with corn.

Eric Searle in third had peg 12 and every time I looked up over towards where he was fishing he seemed just to be sitting there with his hands in his pockets and looking like he was having a kip. But looks can be deceptive and this was certainly the case with Eric who weighed in 44 lb 09 oz. Pellet and feeder was employed.

Ian Grabham got 4th spot from peg 28. Fishing mostly down the edge with corn and meat he managed to get a weight of 35 lb 10 oz. But it was not plain sailing as he struggled in the first part of the match.

Our NHS hero Dave Colley found himself in fifth with a haul of 33 lb 06 oz. From peg 14 Dave was constantly reminded by a few other match anglers near by, that there was a snag to his left. This was all done in the name of sarcasm, as poor Dave found out several times to his cost. Pole with maggot and corn was Dave’s plan of attack.

Paul Smith in 6th had a middling sort of day from peg 30 for catch of 26 lb 03 oz. This was achieved by pole with mostly soft pellet, corn and maggot.

7th was Ian Ricketts, fishing on peg 27 and like the other Ian (Ian Grabham) struggled in the first part but redeemed himself later on by ending up with 22 lb 14 oz. Ian used paste to tempt his carp.

Good old Alan Jenkins grabbed position number 8 on peg 25 with 21 lb 09 oz. When asked about methods and bait his reply was quite simple “allsorts”. Fair enough thanks Bertie Basset.

In at number 10 is yours truly with 17 lb 7oz from peg 21. Now the weight of 17 lb 07 oz I must admit is shall we say a bit of a facade a deception of sorts in terms of the sport that was had. In all I had a total of 4 fish. At 1:30 with just 14oz in the net and fishing the margins to my left with pellet the float plunges under, I strike, the elastic storms out and the carp makes a b line to my next door neighbours swim that of Mr Nigel Coram where it done its upmost best to cause as much commotion and mayhem as possible, and it did a pretty good job in all. After what seemed an age I managed to get it to the net. As soon as the fish was about to be scooped up, BANG the pole snaps, the fish still on the hook then decided to take refuge under one of my keep nets. A plea for a landing net went out and the well mannered Nigel Coram came to the rescue and gave me his. The beast was finally landed, but that was it. After that there was no more bites for me or poor old Nigel. The foul hooked carp came to 16 lb 9 oz. This was my get out of jail card, a sheer fluke.

Alan Bland was pegged on number 17 and came 11th. Lack of bites was the main problem for Alan but fishing the margins with meat he managed to land 2 carp in the last half hour to get a weight of 17 lb

Laid back angler Phil Dodd had most of his action in the last part of the match when he landed 3 nice skimmers on the feeder with maggot. From peg 24 Phil’s net came to 14 lb 11 oz.

Veteran angler Tony Richards drew out peg 31 and managed in the end 14 lb 01 oz for 13th. Tony used the pole with maggot, caster and bread punch.

The unfortunate Nigel Coram who was pegged next to me on peg 22 had an all silvers bag of 12lb 04 oz obtained by fishing the pole with a variety of baits. Remember because of a certain episode in the match poor Nigel couldn’t buy a bite after 1:30. Sorry mate.

Bob Pascoe on peg 10 must of had at least 150 fish, but match fishing is not a numbers game but a weights game and owing to the size of fish Bob good effort could only muster 10 lb, all from pole and maggot.

The next match is at the Sedges on the Canal Lake on June 18th so until then it is tight lines from Pete the Fluke.

Looks as they say can be deceptive. Just have a look at the photo taken during the match, there is blue sky and the sun is out and shining. This scene can be depicted as a nice summers day and it is nice and warm. Wrong! it was bloody cold and participants on one bank could easily have suffered from hypothermia or frost bite or both.

But it was this scene that made my mind wander. Wander back to the golden age of children’s TV. The years of the 70’s and early 8o’s Saturday morning TV back then was dominated on the ITV channel by a programme called TASWAS. TISWAS was acronym of Today Is Saturday Watch And Smile. This zany program was stitched together with sketches with an odd assortment of comical characters such as the phantom flan flinger, the dying fly and Trevor Macdoughnut. This mixture of madness was presented by The wonderful Chris Tarrant and the delightful Sally James.

But when the series ended for the season it was replaced by a program with a similar format called The Fun Factory hosted by Jeremy Beadle, Therese Birch and Billy Butler.

Just like TISWAS it had it’s share of amusing characters, but one in particular stands out, that of Mr Nasty. One of his fortes was to pick a volunteer from the studio audience (which it must be said consisted of all kids) and have a argument with them.

On this particular occasion which is the subject of this part of the blog a victim was chosen, a young kid about 12 was invited to sit at Mr Nasty’s desk. Mr Nasty then produced a photograph similar to the one shown below.

Mr Nasty’s argument was that this picture was taken in a hot place. His reference point for his logic if one can call it that was that the suns temperature is 5000 degrees and the sun is prominent in the sky hence it must be a hot place. The sheer weight of the bombardment of sarcasm, illogic, rudeness, intimidation and subterfuge dealt out by the aggressive Mr Nasty was such that the poor boy was simply over whelmed and wrong footed at every turn by such an onslaught and thus in the end just put up the white flag and simply gave in. But as memory serves me right I think that the poor kiddie at the end who ended up a total bag of nerves and probably still suffers from post traumatic stress did get given a prize of sorts. so the moral of the story is that if you swapped the photo that I took with Mr Nasty’s, he still would have won the argument.

Near the end of the program Mr Nasty announced a new competition for the viewers at home. A prize would be given to who ever sends in the most nastiest parcel or package. Well as you can imagine the chance to get ones name mentioned on national TV was a great incentive. Children’s minds ran riot and the most disgusting and revolting things known to man were concocted, put in packages and parcels and duly posted of. Now the competition as you probably can gather was announced on a Saturday morning. Come the following Thursday it was mentioned in the press and on TV that several tons of packages and parcels which had been addressed to Mr Nasty at Granada TV (makers of the program) had to be destroyed by the Royal Mail owing to the odious, repulsive and revolting contents. Animal excreta, body fluids, used nappies and other horrendous substances were the culprits which set in motion the actions of the post office. Now I am willing to swap photos with Mr Nasty but not packets or parcels.

Oh by the way the match was fished at Trinity Waters on Woodlands Lake on Saturday the 9th of April 2022.

First on the day was able match man Rob Dodd who on peg 14 tempted most of his fish in the margins more or less right at his feet. The winning bait was sweetcorn. His weight of fish was a creditable 83 lb 8 oz.

Mr consistent AKA Steve Warren found himself in the money yet again. Finishing in 2nd place Steve tempted a weight 63 lb on what appears to be one of his favourite tactics that of meat and pole. This was achieved on peg 10.

From peg 27 Ian Townsend got 3rd spot with a fine weight of 60 lb 8 oz. All caught on corn. In amongst his catch was a carp of 16 lb.

In 4th we find a new kid on the block that of Stuart Frampton. Before the start of the match me and Stu had a good old chin wag because as school kids we used to hang around in the same gang. Stu had a good day and put on the scales a reasonable weight of 51 lb 1 oz. Pole and meat was employed also Pellet fished shallow was utilised. A fine specimen of a carp weighing 17 lb 01 oz was part of Stuart’s haul.

In at number 5 was Eric Searle who on peg 23 alternated between feeder and pellet and pole and maggot tempted 32 lb 1 oz.

Yours truly managed the dizzy heights of finishing 6th. From peg 21 I had all my fish from the margins to my right. Baits used was sweetcorn meat and maggot. Total weight was 26 lb 12oz which included a carp of 12 lb.

Ian Grabham who on peg 9 got into 7th place with 19 lb 3 oz. Corn for the carp and maggots for the skimmers.

Ian Ricketts managed to put on the scales 14 lb 14 oz from peg 24 for 8th place. This was obtained with pellet and feeder pole and paste.

Dave Nash in at 9th had the top slivers weight from peg 7 with 13 lb 6 oz. Dave who had no Carp just used the waggler at 25 yards with red maggot.

In 10th we see good old Alan Jenkins who on peg 29 caught a weight of 11 lb 13 oz. Alan used mostly the pole and when asked about bait used just gave a simple reply of “all sorts”.

Now this only happens once every so often but we had a joint placing. In at 11th was both Alan Bland our beloved match secretary and another new kid on the block Mike Griffiths. Ironically both were pegged next to one another. Alan on peg 11 used pole corn and maggot and Mike on peg 12 used just pole and maggot. Both weighed in with 11 lb 2oz.

Tony Richards who was pegged next to me on 22 finished in 12th just scraped in with double figures with 10 lb 2 oz. Pole and maggot was his method.

Tony Richards who was pegged next to me on 22 finished in 12th just scraped in with double figures with 10 lb 2 oz. Pole and maggot was his method.

The one and only Bob Pascoe was in 13th spot with an all silvers catch of 6 lb 10 oz obtained with pole and maggot.

Paul Smith found himself in unfamilar territory at number 14. Paul who usually does a lot better struggled from peg 13 with an all silvers weight of 5 lb 13 oz this was got with pole and maggot.

In last place on peg 28 was Nigel Coram. Poor Nige had a night mare and just weighed in 11 oz. But with this fella it’s a case of watch this space.

The next match for some is the bait tech cup match against Exeter at Kia Ora lakes at Cullompton on Saturday 23rd of this month. The week after is the match on specimen lake at Landsend fishery on the 30th.

Until then Tight lines Pete C.

The Results.

Position	Angler	Slivers	Carp	Total	Peg
1st	Eric Searle	2 lb 09 oz	77 lb 09 oz	80lb 02 oz	14
2nd	Nigel Coram	6lb 13 oz	65 lb 02 oz	71 lb 15 oz	23
3rd	Ian Townsend	10lb 09 oz	61 lb 04 oz	71 lb 13 oz	31
4th	Alan Bland	5lb 10 oz	58 lb 04 oz	63 lb 14 oz	27
5th	Steve Warren	7 lb 02 oz	41 lb 02 oz	48 lb 04 oz	29
6th	Paul Smith	14 lb 02 oz	29 lb 03 oz	43 lb 05 oz	8
7th	Bob Pascoe	10 lb 10 oz	28 lb	38 lb 10 oz	12
8th	Phil Dodd	1 lb 08 oz	33 lb 10 oz	35 lb 02 oz	16
9th	Dave Colley	1 lb 09 oz	31 lb 02 oz	32 lb 11 oz	6
10th	Rob Dodd	14 lb 09 oz	10 lb 08 oz	25 lb 01 oz	10
11th	Dave Nash	5 lb	7 lb 08 oz	12 lb 08 oz	21
12th	Alan Jenkins	4 lb 10 oz	XXXX	4 lb 10 oz	25

Position	Angler	Weight	Peg
1st	Rob Dodd	14 lb 09 oz	10
2nd	Paul Smith	14 lb 02 oz	8
3rd	Bob Pascoe	10lb 10 oz	12
4th	Ian Townsend	10lb 09 oz	31
5th	Steve Warren	7 lb 02 oz	29
6th	Nigel Coram	6 lb 13 oz	23

Summary

Ardent readers of my beloved blog will probably first of all look at the bottom part of the results table to see once again how badly yours truly has done. Well sorry to disappoint you my angling flock but you will not find me there, alias you won’t find me in the top part either. For Friday I had to travel to Boots in Taunton to have my 2nd vaccine jab. I may now be resistant to the old Covid bug but in this situation it seems a give and take situation or a balancing act has arisen. For although in theory I am now fully inoculated, it came with a price. Soon after the jab say about an hour and a half I had the most thumping headache which lasted for a good day. So come Saturday the day of the Trinity Waters match I just put up the white flag and threw a sickie. Hence this abridged match report is done thanks to the co operation of the match secretary Alan Bland. Alan was kind enough to phone through the results and gave me a very brief summary of what went on.

So here goes, in Alan’s own words the “fishing was very spasmodic and the fish really did not feed with any confidence throughout” and as normal with this venue it was Carp that made up the main bulk of the match weight. One good point to note was the quality of some of the Perch that was caught. Ian Townsend who got 3rd had one of 2 lb 4 oz. Nigel Coram in 2nd spot had a nice one of 1 lb 14 oz, Mr Alan Bland caught one of 1 lb 11 oz and veteran Bob Pascoe netted one of 1 lb 3 oz.

Now we all know that the Watchet Angling club is blessed by having a really good match secretary in Alan Bland , no one can deny that. Saturday however dear old Alan broke with tradition. Owing to the fact that this guy works a night shift a couple times a week, poor fellow come Friday night and he’s absolutely shattered, goes to bed for a good nights kip. Nothing wrong in that you may ask, well there was a slight hiccup in that he did not get out of it until 08. 30am Saturday morning and the snag is that the draw is at 08.45am. For the first time ever Alan was late. Well Alan did arrive at Trinity Waters car park at 09.00 am to a standing ovation from the club members (we can be a right sarcastic lot sometimes you know). This was the match where the draw was going to be made for the clubs pairs competition. This should’ve been done at the beginning but because of sleepy head this was now done after the match.

Draw for the pairs

Pete Curnow V Dave Nash

Alan Bland v Ian Townsend

Paul Smith V Alan Jenkins

Dave Colley V Phil Dodd

Bob Pascoe V Tony Richards

Eric Searle V Steve Warren

Rob Dodd v Nigel Coram

I was just had an interesting chat with the chairman of Bridgwater Angling Association Nigel Gillard. Nigel who is one of the major inspirations behind the revamp of the club gave some more snippets of the proposed plans for Dunwear. As mentioned before it was put forward that a bridge was to be built at the Sedgemoor road end of Railway pond. This bridge would span the narrow end of the pond and in turn would save anglers a lot of time in getting to the swims on the far side. Well I can tell you that work on the bridge will start later on in the year. Another bit of info that came to light about railway pond is that when the pond was blighted by that dreaded Water Primrose a survey was done to see the best way to eradicate this menace, but something else came out of the survey, the people behind the survey stated that they had never seen so many Tench before in one lake. Well here’s to the future then. The stocking policy I was told for the Railway pond come the new match lake will be predominantly done with silver fish, any carp over 6 lb will be removed. (what a good idea). Also later this year a restocking of South pond will take place.

Well that’s all folks, take care and tight lines.

Pete Curnow.

Ps I wish to apologise to our newest member of the club Steve Warren because and I am not apportioning blame but I was told your surname was Warner. Hence the mistake in the previous post. Sorry chum.

Way way back in the 1960’s when I was 6 years old, yours truly was invited to a friends birthday party, that day after school had finished mum picked me up and of we went to the house of concern. Mum knocked on the door which was soon opened. We were met by the smiling face of Marlene the mother of Mark whose birthday it was, she ushered us in to the hallway. Mum reached into her hand bag and gave me Marks present. “go on give Mark his present then” I went into the front room which was where the birthday bash for the under 7’s was going to be. Marlene and mum had a good old chinwag and after a few minutes mum left. It was the first time I had been to Marks’s house and the configuration was completely different to my abode. The scene before me was about 6 kids sat around a large table playing with spinning tops, Lego and plastic Meccano etc. I went up to Mark who was pleased to see me. I handed him a box that was gift wrapped. He opened it up and stared at a toy die cast racing car made by Matchbox. His eyes lit up and with an enthusiastic grin the table for the next 5 minutes to him was Brands Hatch.

I sat at the table and started to look around at the room. At first, I looked out of the window at the front lawn then at the side wall which had a fireplace with a mirror above. I turned around to look at the back wall and there on the wall was something I had never seen before. Now bear in mind I was 6 at the time and most kids at that age are still taking in life, certain concepts such as the legal requirement to go to school and father Christmas. Oh, and Janet and John books (look it up if you’re under a certain age).

This discovery of mine had me fixated, I was so obsessed by the item on the wall all the noise of the kids around me just faded away. What on earth was this thing on the wall I was absolutely mesmerised. With the limited knowledge of 6-year-old I had eliminated the thought that this was a picture, a photo, a clock and it definitely was not a mirror. My scant description of this mysterious object was that it was rectangular shaped and had yellow edging. I was dragged out of my reverie by the arrival of Tressa who was Mark’s Auntie. Tressa was like her sister cheerful, friendly and smiling. “Right put all the toys away and let’s put the tablecloth on shall we” she said. The toys found their way back in their boxes and as a result the tablecloth was laid. Tressa, who was still in the room, spoke once more with a slightly raised voice “Ok Mar all set” I once again I had my eyes set on the strange object on the wall. Shooosh I was taken back and slightly startled, the centre of the object moved side wards, in an instant the centre had been replaced by the jovial face of Marlene, “ok here we go” spoke Marlene. At the tender age of 6 I had my first encounter with a serving hatch. Moments later plates of jelly, trifle and biscuits were carried through from the kitchen to the front room via the hatch. Amazing!

Halfway through the party I turned around again and looked at the serving hatch and had a bizarre thought. You could open the serving hatch get someone you don’t like tie their hands behind their back put their head through the hatch slide the door back until their head was jammed, the person would be stuck, and if you really didn’t like the person you could use something heavy like a baseball bat or lead piping and whack their head. ( Okay I’m still only 6 and I still have to learn right from wrong).

Now put the clock forward 50 years or so and I am getting ready to fish a match at Trinity Waters, so to get some info on how it’s been fishing I decided to look at their Facebook page. Well scrolling down I came to this post.

And the past week the BBC put on their website this picture.

Well it’s when I see things like this my mind drifts back to Mark’s birthday party back in the 1960’s, the serving hatch and that bizarre thought.

The Match itself.

At number one spot was NHS hero Dave Colley. Dave fished on peg 14, his tactics for his winning haul of 45 lb 05 oz was pole at 10 meters and later in the the margins his main bait was sweetcorn. Well done mate.

2nd spot went to maestro Rob Dodd who on peg 24 just used double red maggot to tempt his fish. The main weight of his fish came in the last hour in the margins. For his efforts Rob’s total weight was 34 lb 10 oz.

3rd was Ian Townsend on peg 10. Now get this he had a little moan about lack of bites but managed to put on the scales a very creditable catch of 29 lb 06 oz. Ian used meat which appears to be his favourite bait at the moment. He fished mostly down the edges.

In 4th place on peg 29 and everyone was pleased for this guy was Tony Richards. This veteran angler who has been very poorly indeed and owing to his illness haven’t fished with the club for 14 months. Regardless Tony put in an excellent performance with 19lb 14 oz this consisted of a Carp of 10 lb 04 oz. Tony fished close in on maggot all day. Welcome back.

The match secretary Alan Bland ended up in 5th from peg 26. He had a single Carp of 12 lb and 7 lb 01 oz of silvers, Alan fished maggot at vaying distances.

Paul Smith had the top silvers weight of 12 lb 06 oz from peg 9. He employed pole and waggler with worm and maggot. His was an all silvers catch. Paul also had a nice eel to boost his haul. Paul finished in 6th.

On peg 22 and sitting comfy on his chair was Phil Dodd who fished the feeder with dead maggot all day. For 7th he had a all silvers catch of 11 lb 01oz.

In at number 8 was Silvers angler Dave Nash. Dave fished the pole and whip with single maggot on peg 7 which happened to be golden peg. His all silvers catch came to 9 lb 10 oz.

9th was angling veteran Alan Jenkins from peg 21. Alan just had 2 fish a Carp of 7 lb 11 oz and a handy size Perch which weighed a creditable 1 lb 10 oz. His tactics was pole with maggot or meat. Catch total was 9 lb 05 oz.

Shaun Dyke found himself at 10th spot with a catch consisting of 2 Carp which came to 9 lb 03 oz. Peg 10 was his abode, his method was pole and expander pellet.

On peg 6 was Brummie Dave Gartenfeld. The corner swim did not produce for poor Dave whose fish tipped the scales at 5 lb 02 oz. Double red maggots fished on the pole was employed by Mr G who finished 11th.

Yours truly Pete Curnow could only muster 4 Skimmers and some bits for 12th. Fishing the pole mostly at 13 meters with single and double red could only buy me 5 bites and 4 skimmers Fishing both margins only resulted in bits. I was on peg 12. My total was a measly 4 lb 02 oz. I did miss a Carp at the net though “honest”.

Having a torrid time on peg 11 was Carp king Eric Searle, unfortunately the Carp in his swim went on hunger strike so poor Eric could only put together a weight of bits of 3 lb 03 oz. Maggot and pole was his effort.

On peg 13 was Nigel Coram. Nigel stuck it out to the bitter end but decided not to weigh in.

The next match is on the April 24th at Landsend Fisheries on the match lake.

Until then take care and tight lines.

Pete C.

Welcome

That old adage “all good things comes to those who wait”. Well believe it or not it is 91 days since our last match and boy have we waited. We have endured, endured a span of weeks that seemed to some extent that we were living in a post apocalyptic world. They called it Lock down but it might just have been called lock out. A lock out of things we loved so much. A lock out from reality. An isolation from the norm, an isolation that shoved us through the door in to a world that no one in this country had ever experienced before.

While we can understandably show great joy that our much loved pastime has been dragged from its mouth balled state and plonked back in to the land of normality. But we should not take our eye of the ball. Lock down was a means to an end, it was a necessity, a must do. For since our last match 40,000 people has passed away. To put that into perspective its a number greater than the population of Bridgwater. Stalin once said “one death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic”. (Surely this saying is a product of an evil mind). Well thank god the death toll is not a million. But take the figure of 40,000 and there are 40,000 tragedies. Somewhere within lies the scale of the toll, the agony , the sorrow, the anguish, the grieving and the mourning. Least we forget. We must never forget.

But it’s human nature to hail the return of that we love and cherish. We knew the day would come but no one could fore tell precisely. But on this overcast, grey laden, blustery, showery Saturday, here we are. The gang is back. We few, we happy breed, we lovers of fishing we band of match anglers. The arena is open let us once again immerge ourselves and travel down that magical road and let the humble compete with the mighty. Let battle commence.

Right then the results.

postion	Angler	Silvers	Carp	Total	Peg
1st	Rob Dodd	43lb 12oz	32lb 04oz	76lb	10
2nd	Paul Smith	21lb 02oz	53lb 06oz	74lb 08oz	26
3rd	Dave Nash	30lb 08oz	34lb 04oz	64lb 12oz	22
4th	Alan Bland	11lb 08oz	49lb 08oz	61lb	29
5th	Ian Townsend	4lb 10oz	56lb 01 oz	60lb 11oz	13
6th	Bob Pascoe	4lb	48lb 06oz	52lb 06oz	14
7th	Phil Dodd	1lb 07oz	37lb 12oz	39lb 03oz	25
8th	Ashley Johnson	06oz	37lb 06oz	37lb 06oz	11
9th	Alan Jenkins	12lb 14oz	20lb 14oz	33lb 12oz	31
10th	Pete Curnow	7lb 09oz	15lb 13oz	23lb 06oz	28
11th	Dave Colley	6lb 05oz	8lb 08oz	14lb 13oz	6
12th	Dave Gartenfeld	1lb 03oz	6lb 02oz	7lb 05oz	7

First on the day and carrying on from where he left off before lock down was number one club angler Rob Dodd who had a weight total of 76lb. But in amongst that was a cracking weight of slivers which came to 43lb 12oz Rob fished the pole 9.5 meters and the margins on his beloved worm.

2^nd top rod was angling stalwart Paul Smith who started of on the waggler but then fished the inside line with worm and soft pellet. Paul weight was a very descent 74lb 08oz.

3^rd was the one and only Dave Nash who topped the scales with 64lb 12oz. Mr Nash fished close in on dead red maggot.

4^th was Alan Bland who used his favourite bait for most of the time, Paste. Fished the margins for most of his catch. His weight was a not to be scoffed at 61lb.

In at number 5 was Ian Townsend who fished the margins and close in on the pole using meat had a good little weight of 60lb 11oz.

6^th was Slivers man Bob Pascoe, bulb t this time could only muster only 4lb of slivers but had a trick up his sleeve when he banked 48lb 06oz of Carp. His haul was caught on the pole using corn. Bob had a ledger rod set up with (wait for it) a spring tip. A relic from the 1970s.

7^th was angling veteran Phil Dodd who was on the feeder and managed to put on the scales 39lb 03oz His baits where worm, maggots and dead reds.

8^th place was new kid on the block Ashley Johnson who happens to be Dave Gartenfeld grandson. Well Ashley had a very reasonable weight of 37lb 12oz. He alternated with using pole and corn and feeder and hard pellet.

In 9^th place was fishings have a go Alan Jenkins who put 33lb 12oz on the scales. Alan had a nice eel of 3lb 10oz. Nice one mate. His method was meat and maggot on the pole.

10^th place and in his least favourite venue owing to the fact this is probably one of his best results for this place was yours truly. Typically started of on the feeder when later it was discovered that all the fish were in close. But never mind I had 23lb 06oz and was not last. Main bait was meat.

11^th placed was NHS front line worker Dave Colley. This gentleman put l4lb 13oz on the scales but the weather conditions did not help for were he was. He means of attack was mostly meat to his right from peg 6.

12^th Was one of Brum’s finest Dave Gartenfeld who struggled through out and could only collect 7lb 5oz for the scales. Dave was on peg 7 next to Mr Colley so perhaps the weather was also an affecting factor.

Pete King was not present ( a note from his parents).

Owing to the ongoing situation with lockdown conditions affecting certain people Tony Richards and Eric Searle were unable to attend. But the club wish them well and hope to see them on the bank soon.

Before the we started the draw for the pairs competition took place and the result of the draw is listed below

Rob Dodd v Dave Gartenfeld

Phil Dodd v Dave Nash

Pete Curnow v Dave Colley

Alan Bland v Ian Townsend

Paul Smith V Alan Jenkins

Bob Pascoe V Ashley Johnson

The next Watchet Match will be on the Canal lake at the Sedges on Saturday June 20th.

So see you then Pete C.

Woodlands trinity Waters

Position	Date
4/14	06/06/2015
7/12	08/04/2017
13/13	03/06/2017
9/10	07/04/2018
11/12	02/06/2018
12/14	06/04/2019
7/13	01/06/2019

The above table shows my abysmal results at Woodlands lake Trinity Waters. Now hand on heart it does not make good reading I admit. In the about me page of this blog I put down that I was Mr average when it comes to angling. Well looking at the above table you might well think I need to replace the word average. But on reflection and no disrespect to the venue I have renamed it my Spoons venue.

A few years ago I was talking one of the security guards at work called Ted, he was a tall bloke and always had time for a few words. It was one of these friendly encounters when Ted told me a funny story which has always stuck with me. When Ted was in the Royal Marines they used to play a game with the recruits new to the unit called spoons.

The game is played with two people sitting opposite each other at a table both with a spoon in their mouth. When the game begins one of the guys looks down at the table and closes his eyes while the other whacks him on the head with the spoon which still in his mouth. Each take in turns with this said action. The object is to get the other to submit. But unknown to the new recruit there is some one standing behind him with a soup ladle. Well you can guess the rest, the new recruit instead of getting hit with a spoon gets whacked with a what ?

The connection between this game of spoons and yours truly fishing this venue is that I feel that I have something in common with the poor recruit. That is I am in a competition and don’t have a cat in hell chance of winning.

Right that’s the whinging out the way Dare I say it here is the report.

First and foremost the match was well attended by 11 hardly souls. It was nice to see a few faces from the past such as Dave Gartenfeld and Ian Townsend. The weather was 99% dry but the wind was somewhat blustery. As a testimony to this, whilst setting up, my fishing trolley was swept of it 4 wheels and promptly deposited in to the lake. Luckily with the help of Tony Rchards who was in the next peg we managed to retrieve it. What a great start.

Well some anglers done alright considering the wintry conditions and some anglers didn’t. Now with the information in the above table and the law of statistics have a guess which group of anglers I ended up in.

First on the day was the ever friendly, the ever jovial, Mr happy go lucky, the one and only Paul Smith with a very creditable weight of 17lb 12oz. Paul fished 13 meters with maggot and caster, This Watchet veteran had a nice size golden tench which was tempted on maggot. Well done Paul.

In 2^nd was “I am always in the money” Rob Dodd with 14lb 4oz., Rob tempted all his fish on double red maggot out on 12 -13 meters.

3rd place was Mr Birmingham City FC Dave Gartenfeld. Who amassed a reasonable weight of 9lb 6oz, Dave started out on the tip but to no avail, So swapped to the pole and caught at about 8 meters using 3 casters on a size 16 hook. Dave also had a tench which he caught on corn.

4^th was Mr secret agent Eric Searle. Mr 007 had 7lb 6oz from peg 29 Eric fished mostly the pole at 12meters for all his fish but when asked what bait he had used, he replied with the code word coconut, which in GCHQ terms means maggot. Eric also caught a nice Crucian.

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5^th place was match secretary Alan Bland. Alan put 5lb 4oz on the scales, he fished 9-10 meters out and caught all his fish on red maggot.

6^th was Mr Dave the cash Nash who for the first few hours uncharacteristically fished the small feeder, but could only scrape together a smattering of small bits. In the last hour he went on to one of his favourite methods the waggler and ended up with a total catch of 4lb 1oz.

7^th place was “I am moving to Bristol but don’t know when” Dave Colley, This jolly chap caught a catch of 2lb 2oz, all on the pole and maggot.

8^th was Mr bee man Tony “ I help save your trolley” Richards. Tony struggled in the peg next to me and caught 1lb 10oz of bits. Alternating between short pole and waggler. Main bait maggot.

9^th was yours truly. Well I had to come somewhere. I managed to catch and put on the scales a meagre 10oz Well I don’t like breaking with tradition. I tried feeder for the first 3 hours and went on the waggler for the last 2 but you can see 10 oz just tells the story.

Ian Townsend and Phil Dodd decided not to bother with the scales hence DNW.

Position	Name	Weight	peg
1st	Paul Smith	17lb 12oz	31
2nd	Rob Dodd	14lb 4oz	23
3rd	Dave Gartenfeld	9lb 6oz	25
4th	Eric Searle	7lb 6oz	29
5th	Alan Bland	5lb 4oz	22
6th	Dave Nash	4lb 1oz	26
7th	Dave Colley	2lb 2oz	32
8th	Tony Richards	1lb 10oz	27
9th	Pete Curnow	10oz	28
	Phil Dodd	DNW	24
	Ian Townsend	DNW	21

I like to put forward an idea for the match fishing fraternity and that is to offer a new prize. The prize should awarded at the end of each match season and should be called The Abingdon Town FC award. This award should be given to the person who packs up the most times before the end of the match. Why Abingdon Town FC. Well Abingdon Town who play in the 10^th tier of the football league were playing rivals Abingdon United in a local derby in front of a crowd of over 160 in December last year. Well at half time Abingdon Town were losing 8-nil. So at the interval the players went in the dressing room got dressed, packed up and went home. There you have it.

The next match in this winter league series will be on the River Tone. But if the river is in flood the reserve venue will be the Bridgwater and Taunton canal. Right I normally do crap on the Tone and reasonably well on the canal, so to spare my blushes for the next match can you all do me a big favour, every day for the next 2 weeks can you all please clean your windows.

Many thanks.