Mallory Park Fisheries - Snide Rumours & Dirty Lies

Sunday was the last match in the third group of our winter league campaign. With two matches cancelled in the group it would be two from three to count for points. Team Abacus were on good form with Rob multitasking well, taking entries for the Acorns charity match in June as well as the entries for the day's match. Dagga was also multitasking well, insulting as many anglers as he could whilst taking money for the pools. One angler even turned up at the draw with no money this week and asked if he could pay out of his winnings! Apparently the pools fee had been spent on a special valentines gift.

Once again there were certain pegs that everyone wanted to draw; pegs 1 and 2 and peg 86 were amongst the favourites. Jarrad had sent me a text me on the Saturday evening suggesting some of the jammy anglers that may be on these pegs, I will not name them as this may cause embarrassment. Well when the really hot peg 2 came out it was Jarrad that had it in his hand, enough said really. I was not so lucky at the draw and a trip down to peg 92 was not looking to be very exciting. Quite a few anglers were quick to remind me that even Chris Allen had not framed from it the week before! I was needing an early carp to get me on my way.

Jarrad Smith

The report from pool 1 during the match was good and most of the anglers had caught their first carp quite early. The fancied pegs were proving to still be the hot area in these very cold conditions. Jarrad on peg 2 and Max Higgott on peg 1 were on a very similar catch rate, with Stu Johnson and Dom Lanni also catching well on 4 and 5.

Honest Jim Chessman and Robber Roy were not doing quite so well, that is until Roy went for a walk up to steal some of Mr Ward's coffee and also pinch back some of the bread that they had shared out equally at the draw. As usual Roy had left ‘Rodney’ the rod rest trying to catch him a carp as he went off rambling, but as he walked back to his peg he could clearly see Jim playing a good fish, as he got closer he noticed his own rod was bent double with ‘Rodney’ holding on tight to a hard fighting fish. By the time Roy got to his peg Jim had the carp in his net and as Roy picked up his rod it was clear that his tackle was also in Jim’s net! Now being the honest man that he is Jim explained that the carp was caught in his own peg and didn't know how Roy’s tackle also ended up being landed with the fish! Jim’s fish was big enough to help him to a second place in the section behind Jarrad in top spot and just edging out Max into third.

Section 1
Peg 2 - Jarrad Smith - 40lb
Peg 7 - Jim Chessman - 35lb 9oz
Peg 1 - Max Higgott - 35lb

Rob Bowser had 3 big carp for 25lb on peg 17 to win the middle section. Mr Ward was runner up, doing another massacre job on the angler at the next peg. This week it was the turn of ACE Chris Downs, who apparently had to go for walk so he didn't have to watch the anglers bagging up either side off him. Mr Ward was quick to point out that it was valentines day and perhaps ‘pot frog’ would give him a cuddle on the way home. There was a draw for third with trainee fishery manager Rich Bedder and Steve ‘Billy’ Conway both on 7lb.

Section 2
Peg 17 - Rob Bowser - 25lb
Peg 19 - David Ward - 9lb 15oz
Peg 12 - Steve Conway - 7lb
Peg 15 - Rich Bedder - 7lb

The final section on pool 1 was very close with Andy Towers taking the win, Kerry Dyson in second and my drawing hand Bob Eaton in third.

Section 3
Peg 20 - Andy Towers - 21lb
Peg 23 - Kerry Dyson - 19lb
Peg 27 - Bob Eaton - 17lb

Dave Caulkin

Down on pool 6 Bob had drawn me a nightmare. After loosing a big foul hooked fish early in the match, I was not graced with another and suffered my first blank for years. The pool was in general very hard with the little girl's peg throwing up six carp for the winner Dave Caulkin, who after a slow start was coached by Andy Finley during the latter part of the match. Albert Bray added to his run of form catching skimmers on the feeder at peg 90 to finish in second spot, whilst Rich Wells had two carp at 87 for third.

Pool 6
Peg 86 - Dave Caulkin - 22lb
Peg 90 - Albert Bray - 15lb
Peg 87 - Rich Wells - 9lb

Pool 7 was also hard work with only a few carp in each angler's net. Brian Hill received man of the match and probably had the most bites on the day with a second placed catch of 20lb of small ‘buddy’ carp caught on the pole. Chris Needham apparently fished a very gay waggler at peg 106 to take third spot. Once again it was Chris ‘frog pot’ Allen in the number one slot, he swore that he would not mention his win to his travelling partner ACE on the way home. One lesson that was learned on pool 7 was that if you do not pay your pools money you do not get as much winnings at the payout, we were assured that £10 was just about enough to by a few bits and bobs from the chinky on the way home for the Needham family!!!

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