Back off!
No… NO!
I’m warning you!
Behave!
Not a transcript from trying to get Mrs H to put her crafting gear away so we can eat from a table instead of the floor. No, this was me trying to prevent two particularly boisterous Swans from eating all my ground bait at Chard…
Much to the delight of the two other ‘friends’ that I had for company, I appeared to have plenty of animal magnetism. Sadly, not so much Timothy Chalamet, more like Dr Doolittle as I was surrounded by 25 noisy ducks, 4 freaky-footed coots, and two rectally dysfunctional Swans.
Jerry helped me out the best way he knew how by telling me that Swans had very sharp teeth, and Martin could only just maintain his composure and balance on his seat box from laughing so hard…
Jerry’s glee would be short lived as the legs on his seat box repeatedly gave way causing him some butt-clenching moments of the highest order. Hearing someone making sounds as if they are walking on thin ice as it cracks, was somewhere close to Jerry not wanting to endure a dunking on his birthday.
Martin didn’t escape easily either despite how ‘easy this Bream fishing lark is', a phalanx of very angry squirrels had followed him to Chard and were hurling unwanted acorns at him from the highest boughs of the adjacent trees.
All in all a very fun day in good company, angry Squirrels, and insatiable wild fowl.
On to the match then and a depleted field surrounded the newly recontoured Trendals Lake at Revels. With all the good will in the world, the river Stour it was not. But the Stour had vomited over the Dorset countryside a few days earlier and was still not feeling up to visitors at this early stage. Like a sewer from a curry house, it was still running fast and brown. Not really safe for inexperienced Shrimps.
I have not given up on the quest to wet a line on running water so watch this space for further developments…
I had taken young Alexander on a taster session a few weeks ago, and now he and his mother Charlotte were back for an official coaching session. Would he actually sit on the lead coaches sext box this time?
No….no he wouldn’t…
The foldaway chair was good enough for him. You can keep your Preston Absolute Station, mate!
Setting up pole rigs was seemingly too much for Alexander (bored out of his mind!) who had nodded off at one point despite the cold conditions!
With some of the unusual usuals absent or elsewhere, the reduced numbers looked like this after the draw…
Peg 1: Alec ‘Bring out ya dead’ Campbell.
Peg 2: Josh ‘Jamie’s Nephew’ Roe.
Peg 3: Harry ‘Jeremy Paxman’ Wilmer.
Peg 4: Mia ‘Dip-Dip’ Evans.
Peg 5: Austin ‘Rambo’ Scott-Kennedy.
Peg 6: Alexander Adey (Non competitive angler and yet to be assigned a nickname).
The Juniors were not the only ones depleted, with only Graham Almighty and Jerry Christmas attending, everyone knows that the correct collective noun for a pair of angling coaches is known as ‘a Swanery’ of coaches…Not to be confused with a Swannery because that would be ridiculous…
Talking of Swans, imagine the delight for Jerry and Martin when a young female swan decided to do practice take offs and some terrible landings on the lake that we were fishing on. ‘Have you bought your mate with you? Ha ha ha’ and other such ‘witty’ comments were banded about throughout the duration of the day. It’s a shame that there weren’t nine other lakes close by where she could have practiced without incurring the wrath of anglers…
Peg One:
Alec Campbell:
Two ghosts trudged toward me, and I thought ‘Oooo, Nasty!’
Normally it is Alec that is not the early bird, but this time Ian was also looking a trifle ‘Peaky’.
‘We’ve both got colds’ Ian sneezed at me. ‘I got mine from him!’ coughed Alec.
‘Is that right?’, I shouted from the other side of the lake…There was no way that I was taking a germ bomb present home with me…
Alec had drawn in the far corner which is usually a reasonable peg as a rule.
What none of us knew was that there had been the first frost of the year out here in the sticks, and the brass monkeys were buying thermal underwear faster than a Chav in a vape shop.
‘One is a good peg on it’s day’ I said. This was met with a lift of the chin, a sneer, and a sound that I’m struggling to put into words. Alec said nothing…
The long and short of it all is that there is absolutely nothing to report other than four small Perches that willed the scales round to just 3ozs.
Health was not on Alec’s side today and with that comes the mental capacity to concentrate and all the other things that help you to catch more.
The Ironic thing is that, by the time we were weighing in, at least six Carp had risen to the surface and were feeding happily off the top! Right over where Alec had been fishing the feeder for most of the day…
Better luck and health next time!
Peg Two:
Josh Roe:
On reflection we could have spread the pegs out a bit. But it was muddy in places, and nobody likes mud… Josh was a little tense because he was being hemmed in from both sides, and I sympathised with his claustrophobia. I guess the lesson learned here is to set your boundaries out early with your neighbours (before the start), and if you can’t agree, get me to do it!
Josh maybe demure in stature, but he is right up there for his long pole ability. He comfortably fished 11-metres in some breezy conditions, and it paid off with some early Carps. But couldn’t hang on to them for long and started to struggle with everyone else. His concentration was deflated by worrying about the anglers either side, and I get that it can be distracting. But I can’t help thinking that energy used to give focus to others, could and should be more useful on his own match. Something to work on for the future and that will come in time I’m sure.
The gap in the islands may have offered a chuck to the far side with a feeder, and I don’t know if he tried that? Either way, he needed the Carp because there was not much else.
4lbs was good enough for second place on the day and 20 champs points. Well done!
Peg Three:
Harry Wilmer:
Jeremy Paxman was in full swing by bombarding me, Jerry, his dad, the other parents, the other juniors, two Sparrows, three chickens, the sky, and grass with questions from the off. Some of them sensible, some not so much. I’m never sure how to answer questions like ‘Are there any Arapaima in here?’, or ‘Have you ever caught a 30lb Perch?’, or ‘What would happen if you threw a hand grenade in there?’.
His thirst for knowledge gets scrambled almost like someone throwing a bag of scrabble letters into the air and saying what it spells as they lay on the ground. There are good questions in there, but they must wait their turn…
At the end, Ross had the demeanour of someone that was going to spend three hours smashing lemons with a hammer, before screaming into a pillow and crying himself to sleep.
In all seriousness, a day like today was never going be to that kind to anglers with little experience. I think we call them character building.
Harry matched Alec’s 3ozs for a shared fourth place and equal 15-points.
Peg Four:
Mia Evans:
OFFICIAL APOLOGY INBOUND:
Look, I’m 55-years old with diminished responsibility. There’s a fair chance that I have an ‘Acronym condition’ of some kind, the sky was blue, and it was windy…
I can’t be expected to remember everything!
I cannot be held responsible for the fact that, despite running the juniors for going on seven years, hosting over 200 junior events during that time, getting photographic permission from every junior we have ever had, I am still expected to remember to photograph the fish caught by all the juniors especially those that have framed for the first time ever!!!!
Yep…I threw her fish back without taking her picture with them…
Wendy suggested I go in after them. I respectfully declined that offer…
Mia was fishing in a much more organised fashion, something that I am going to take credit for. Uncle John had binned the silly revolving seat, and she looked far more efficient. The one thing I did address in the coaching was speed. Mia fishes in sssllloooowww mmmoooottttiiiooonnn (Slow motion). In the time it takes for her to land a fish, I saw Oak trees grow, mature and die before she’d landed it (which was already dead, and three generations of its offspring were flapping in her landing net).
Urgency is just something that happens to other people, and a tight line is very optional.
It's good to have something to work on and, if you stop learning in fishing, you may already be dead!
She fished well today but lacked a sharp edge to make decisions.
As it gets colder, the fish will want to move less and less to get food. They are reluctant to move far to feed, like in the summer. So, you need to move around your swim to find them by fishing in different places.
Both Mia’s nets weighed 10ozs, so 20ozs is what she announced as her total weight. 1lb 4ozs would have been more appropriate.
Bless her, no one was happier than I to see her get her first voucher for third place, and she received a big cheer when she did.
Maybe next time the doughnut photographer will actually capture the occasion!!!
Sorry x…
Peg Five:
Austin Scott-Kennedy:
It is fair to say that Austin had a golden opportunity to extend his lead over his rivals today, with the fishing being so unpredictable, it wasn’t a forgone conclusion.
I had a rare opportunity to fish on the same venue as the juniors because of a coaching session that had finished early. They were all struggling. Some with one or two Carp, others yet to catch anything. I hopped on my box and tried to work out what they needed to do (Jerry called it ‘Having a little pleasure fishing session whilst he did all the work’, But I called it exploratory research whilst I had a little pleasure fishing session leaving him to do all the work)…
It was clear to me that they could catch fish by carefully feeding minimal amounts of bait on light gear with small hooks.
After ten fish in eleven ‘casts’, I relayed the info to the juniors to see if they would/could react to it.
Being perfectly honest, the reaction was less than I had hoped for…
The only one that seemed to respond effectively was Austin. He had borrowed a lighter elastic from the coaching kit, and it was paying off.
No one was going to touch him today, and he was the only junior to break double figures with 10lbs 12ozs.
Austin has taken a significant lead in the championship now, but anything can happen in fishing. I ain’t ever over until it’s over and I will expect the others to push him right to the wire.
Peg 6(?):
Alexander Adey:
Young Alexander (5) was along for his first coaching session with mum Charlie. He didn’t last long, only an hour and a half, because of the cold wind, but managed to catch a few fish with some help of the Lead Coach and Jerry Christmas. He was offered a place in the match, but Charlie said it would not be fair on the others because of the amount of help he received. Both Jerry and I agreed with her and so it was that he enjoyed his day for as long as it was fun.
All Alexander wanted from the day was to catch a proper Goldfish. I’m happy to report it was mission accomplished on the very first cast! Happy days!
We did weigh his fish before he left and he put 1lb 14ozs on the scales, which would have put him in 3rd place! Well done!
So, a difficult day for most, one found it easier.
Colder weather can do strange things to fish. I expect the fishing across the country took a hit with regards to catch rates if they had any kind of chill on Friday night.
Your fishing has to change and so does your fishing tackle. Hooks must get smaller, line must get thinner, and bait must be applied carefully.
Ears and minds must be more open too.
Despite valuable information being passed to them, some juniors simply did not or did not know how to react. If they didn’t, they should have. If they didn’t know, then they should have asked.
Knowledge about tiny balls (Cheeky!) of ground bait and two or three pinkies fed in a small pot, was met with the sight of handfuls of micro pellets being thrown in by hand.
I saw 7, 8, 9lb line, when you needed 1.5, 2 or 3lb lines. I saw size 12 hooks with 8mm pellets, when you needed size 20 with two pinkies…
I know there wasn’t a report because of the late change of venue. But we are there to answer your questions and we were already telling you what to do after 30 minutes. I proved that what we were saying was working, and only one junior SEEMED to react. (Others may have tried to copy me but couldn’t. That is fair enough).
Austin Scott-Kennedy 184
Jack Copp 152
Alec Campbell (on count back) 125
Jack Cryer 125
Harry Cryer 115
Oliver Smith 104
Josh Roe 102
Kenzie Toulson 80
Mia Evans 75
Harry Wilmer 52
Josiah Wells-Parkes 44
Kit Freeman 23
Finley Kew 14
George Ellis (Clothing Bonus) 5
With Harbourbridge next weekend for a silvers match, it will be a similar story as far as the fishing is concerned. The bonanza days of summer are gone. It’s time to start fishing for real now.
Thank you to Jason Fricker at Revels for hosting us at the last minute.
Big thanks to Jerry for his help and humour!
See you at Harbourbridge!
Juniors Sec…
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