Mallory Park Fisheries - Snide Rumours & Dirty Lies

Match report provided by Kev Russell:

A forecast of strong winds and heavy snow showers meant only the hard core of winter anglers turned up for the last match of our winter league series. Due to the cold wind the early pegs on pool 1 were not used for this competition, this decision was also influenced by the fact that some of the anglers had been practicing all week on the flyers in the middle of the pool, although pools 6 and 7 would also be used. The usual few were like pack dogs on a kill trying to get their peg number and race away to their pegs (suggestions have been made as to the reason for this).

I had been drawn on peg 107 (pool 7) and it had been good to me in the past, so I was quite confident of a few fish. The match started reasonably well with all the anglers on pool 7 getting a carp in the net quite early. The match was tight through the morning but then a couple of anglers managed to keep the carp coming steadily until the end. John Pagett ended up the winner with a good weight of 45lb, followed closely by Phil Clayton weighing 41lb, Scott Brown was third with a few big fish for 30lb. I was saved the misfortune of being last by an angler who was frightened to weigh. I did have the consolation of catching a fine 3lb perch, not by accident I might add, it was targeted and caught on worm.

From my peg I had a good view of pool 6, and could see the match developing. My drawing hand Bob Eaton had drawn behind me and had a carp almost straight away, and soon there were a few caught along the length of the pool. There ended up being a real battle on the first two pegs between Les Wright and Andy Towers, both were fishing different methods but both catching well. Les finished the winner with 45lb of carp caught on the straight lead with bread punch, and Andy second with 33lb of carp on the pole with corn. Bob Eaton had the skimmers really lined up and coming thick and fast and finished third with a 22lb catch, later saying that he could have been second if his 'pal' Carl hadn't sky-lined him in the last hour and a half. After his telling off Carl was too upset to weigh, and saved Dagga from being the last in section.

What happened on pool 1 is a bit sketchy as I was being fed my information via mobile phone. My source had got Gordon Parker as an early leader with a bread/lead caught carp, but on my second call my contact informed me that Chris Downs had started his usual rout and was catching good skimmers. My contact had one small roach and was contemplating an early bath. Roy had also called from peg 26 and reported that it wasn't very good at that end of the lake, with only small fish coming out, although Chris Needham was catching these well and as it turned out Chris Downs had won the first section with a net of mixed sized skimmers for 28lb-13oz. Andy Kind was second with just 1oz less, again skimmers but of a better stamp, perhaps he should spend less time on his mobile! Steve Slater was third with 26lb, the other section was won by Chris Needham with 16lb of small fish, Chris Allen second with 14lb of similar sized fish, and John Duncan was third with 10lb.

And finally, it was brought to my attention that a certain angler had drawn on the flyers so often recently he had bivvied up and was going to stay until next week. It would be unfair to mention his name because if the council found out they would charge him rates, due to the size of his bivvy. The angler's name sounded like Jim Chessman. Carl Redman was last seen thumbing a lift back to Burton-upon-Trent, and Bob Eaton has been given a yellow card with Roy promising to show him how big a 1lb carp is during his weekly over-practice sessions!

Russelli.

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