Saturday 10/09/2022 - Dave Crookes Open - Hunstrete - With Pool

Always try to fish Dave's memorial Match. He was a great servant to the club and a hard act to follow. A young Dave pictured inspecting the Monk prior to the opening of Withy Pool.

Some food and drinks laid on by the club at the draw. Committee members cooking whilst the fishery Manger was doing his best to wash up under close supervision - pictured.

Two matches in memory today - A 24 hours carp match on the Main Lake and us match anglers on Withy pool. The carp crew pictured - bet they don't look so fresh tomorrow morning. When I left a few fish had come out with one going 28 lb 8 oz. More details and results will be available on the BAA website.

I walked around Withy with Aaron Brinell to give some guidance on the usual pegs used by the Over 55's. With 21 fishing it wasn't too bad finding pegs even though some may need fishing in front of the platform. Due to the lack of rain the pool was down at least two foot and flat calm - it was going to be a hard match. Aaron repegged the match and for those that wasn't there peg 1 was perm peg 71 and went anticlockwise around the pool.

I was feeling really good today so no short walk for me even though some of the short walk pegs have been fishing well for carp. Our pegs were drawn for us, peg 7 is where I would spent the next 6 hours which was peg perm 62 on the North bank a peg I seem to keep drawing. Found myself next to Aaron on peg 6! This bank is very shallow at normal water levels, with low water it was going to be hard. I didn't think carp was going to be an option so set the roost up for silvers but did have a paste rig handy in case a carp or two arrived late on. I expected to catch mainly small Ronnie's which meant fishing long would be too slow so set up the 4 metre whip which got me 3 foot of water. I also set up the long Ronnie rig which got me 6 inches less. The margin was 2 inches so would fish the paste out in 2 foot - but was to stay in the roost for the duration.

GB laced with Pinkies was fed on both lines using either top two of top three at arms length. Started short and started to catch Roach fry so the next GB feed had large DR's in and once the loose GB reached the bottom I caught some 1 - 2 oz Ronnie's and tiny skimmers. However, until it reached bottom the fry were very active. The upshot was I spent half the match on the short line and the second on the 4 metre whip without a sign of a carp or anything over 3 oz.

My silvers weighed 14 lb 7 oz which was about 200 fish. This got me first in the silvers - so mission accomplished. Last year I won the Dave Crookes and now the silvers, happy with this - one for you Dave.

The match was won by Kevin Fothergill (pictured with the silvers winner) with 89 lb 3 oz from peg 10. Kev caught on the method over to the sanctuary bank using micro and banded pellet. His catch consisted of 13 carp.

Glenn Bailey drew the point peg and out of desperation fished round the corner margin with paste and nearly got dragged into the sanctuary twice - up on the tip of his toes at one time - hilarious.

The club raised £1,000 for charity - well done everyone.

Back to the Compton for a well earn pint of Doombar.

Result:

1. Kev Fothergill 89-03-0 peg 10

2. John Smith 52-0-0 peg 3

3. Kev Winstone 45-09-0 peg 12 (P51)

4. Leighton Palmer 42-0-0 peg 17 (P42)

5. Luke Fothergill 41-15-0 peg 8

Silvers:

1. Mike Nicholls 14-07-0 peg 6

2. Kev Winstone 11-06-0 peg 12

3. John Smith 11-06-0 peg 3

Weigh Sheet: