I guess I should have expected a day like this. On the day when we remember a much beloved and much missed cantankerous old git like Mr Martin Vine, that the weather much like the fishing should be bordering on the deary.
It has been five years to the day since the sad and sudden passing of my old mate. Time which has sped past apace. Of all the people that have left this world during my own lifetime, there are few that only conjure up memories of laughter and of good times. Martin is one of those.
Of course, I lament for my own loss of a dear friend and of someone to whom I owed a great deal. He helped me personally, financially, and emotionally and, it’s fair to say that I helped him too. But I miss the harsh sense of humour that some have taken as real malice in the past. Few things were off the table, and we wound each other up mercilessly.
Martin touched the lives of so many people. Being a shop owner will do that. But few leave the impression that he did in that not many had a bad word to say about him, and still don’t to this very day. If, when my time comes to fall through the great maggot riddle in the sky, that I would be remembered with a fraction of the affection that has been afforded to Martin, I would deem my life to have been well lived.
It is an honour to have called him my friend, and a bigger honour to remember him in the form of a memorial match for our juniors.
Rest in peace mate….
Autumn has descended upon us all like a grey discarded wet wipe making the trees and bushes so sad that they seem to shed their leaves through sheer misery.
But the weather has been stable, and I hoped no change would make the fish hungry.
I was wrong…
I had set up my gear for newbie, Freddie, to use and had a little go before he arrived. With not a sniff on maggot, I started to get a trifle concerned. Then with only two small fish on Pinkies, I became properly worried…
The fishing was going to be HARD!
It's a shame because Chester’s Lake at Whitemoor has been good to us in the past. But clearly the weather conditions were not conducive to lots of bites. Revels had been hard the Tuesday before, the weights from Todber matches had been lower than usual, and other lakes around Whitemoor were not fishing well on the day either. There had been some maintenance work (Micro-Chalk) on the canal on the Friday, which my have accounted for the form there. But, on Chester’s, there had been some practicing by some anglers from the Royal Legion the day before. They had, apparently, had a few fish. So, it was ahead scratcher as to why the fishing was so tough today.
On the subject of non-attendance, yet again we were let down by a lack of a curtesy call from those that could not make it. It wasn’t a problem last time, just annoying.
But this time it really cost those that did attend.
Without the knowledge of who were and who were not coming, we drew the match for those not yet arrived. This left a huge hole or gap in the pegging, a gap which was unnecessary and that could have been closed giving juniors more space in which to fish. On a hard day like today, this could have been critical to the results.
As it was, we had two bunches of anglers at either end of a struggling lake, giving the fish massive areas in which to back off to. I had already left out a number of pegs (on advice) which concentrated the fishing to one side. Now with a gap the size of a bus the match looked, quite frankly, ridiculous.
I will be partitioning the committee to allow me to take measures against repeat offenders to not allow them to junior events in future which will be backdated over the 2024 season. You will also be required to pay for any sessions missed without a curtesy call (as per the Club Constitution).
I feel I have the right to insist on a curtesy call if, for whatever reason, you are not able to attend the junior events in future.
Your juniors for today were:
Peg 1: Alec ‘The Mullet man’ Campbell.
Peg 2: Josh ‘Matrix Fanboy’ Roe.
Peg 3: Harry Wilmer (Vacant).
Peg 4: Josiah Wells-Parkes (Vacant).
Peg 5: Jack ‘T’other Jack’ Cryer.
Peg 6: Harry ‘The Specimen Hunter’ Cryer.
Peg 7: Jack ‘The Festival Eater’ Copp.
Peg 8: Austin ‘Rambo’ Scott-Kennedy.
Non- Competitive Participant: Freddie ‘Patience’ Campbell.
Your ‘Flamboyance of coaches’ (The correct collective noun for a group of five angling coaches) for today were:
Graham Howard as ‘Julian’ – often mentioned by Aunt Fannie.
Jerry Bracey as ‘Dick’ – Cheeky, witty, and teases his sister.
Chris Ward as ‘Anne’ – Brave and resourceful but frightened in enclosed spaces.
Neil Haine as ‘Georgina’ – Cuts her hair short, Headstrong and Courageous.
and
Tim Broughton as ‘Timmy the dog’ – A friendly, clever, and affectionate. Often provides physical protection.
Peg One:
Alec Campbell:
“No!” was the answer when I insisted on taking a picture of Alec.
‘Blame your dad. He ticked the box saying that I could’.
‘No!’…
‘Ah, c’mon…I’ll photoshop a mullet on you if you don’t!’, said I.
‘Oh, he’ll like that! He’s trying to grow one’, said dad, Ian.
I hate it when threats fall flat on their face. I was reduced to threats because there wasn’t a lot of fish being caught anywhere. The whole lake was a hive of inactivity. But fair play here, Alec was giving it his all…
In fact, it was Alec that prevented us from finishing at 2pm instead of three. We needed a unanimous vote, and Alec vetoed that right off the bat. Contact details for hate mail are available upon request and for a hefty bribe. (I’m joking, of course. Or am I???).
Towards the end (Yes, we’re at the end already! There’s nothing else to write about!) Alec did hook a small Carp that had already eaten a whole lot of ‘Nope!’ as it buried itself in the roots of an adjacent bush and was lost.
By the end of the ‘match’, things had got so desperate that I didn’t even notice that Alec had caught TWO fish. I thought it was only one. I apologise.
I give kudos to Alec today because I think he could smell points in the air and that every ounce counted. Hence why the keenness to stay to three. He managed more than just ounces though, and his TWO fish dragged the scales to one whole pound which was, unbelievably, good enough for third place on the day!
Well done…
Peg Two:
Josh Roe:
Josh and Martin had arrived with Martin looking he’d been dragged through a burning hedge backwards, by a large very angry Penguin that had some pretty darn bad social issues due to global warming. (Political social comment there).
Josh was naturally concerned about ‘the old man’, and I witnessed a conversation about returning home almost as soon as they arrived.
Josh was set up as Martin retired to the van for some beauty sleep. Of course, no one can be allowed to sleep THAT long, and Martin re-emerged looking like the Penguin had been finally vanquished. The trouble was that it was now Josh that was suffering with exploding eyeball syndrome.
I hate eyes. But, just for Josh, I licked my hands clean and peered into his now quite reddened eye lids. I couldn’t see anything but offered josh an eye bath anyway.
Fishing is not a great pursuit to have when you want to constantly rub an itchy eye and, with the eye bath graciously declined, the correct decision was taken to pack up and head home.
With the few fish in his net only weighing 9ozs, it was a measure of the day that Josh still managed fourth place and some good points.
Feel better soon Josh and Martin….
Peg Three:
Harry Wilmer:
DNW…
Peg Four:
Josiah Wells-Parkes:
DNW…
Peg Four & Five:
Jack & Harry Cryer:
I put these two ‘Herberts’ together because they were virtually fishing the same peg anyway. Fish were showing, particularly in Jack’s peg, and Harry had a peg with form from previous events here, but none of that matters on a day like today.
The air pressure was way up from normal, forcing the fish higher in the water. I had not seen this before but, there was a strange almost algae-like ‘scum’ on the surface of Chester’s Lake. I mentioned this to owner, Tom, and it was agreed that it was a result of dead leaf decay. With the fish being forced into this ‘film’, it makes me wonder if this was at least part of the reason why the fishing was so tough.
The fallen branch in Jacks swim offered some sanctuary from the scum, and you would have needed more than just bait to tempt the hiding fish from within. They were not coming out for anything less than a multiple lottery win and controlling shares in Amazon.
Both Jack and Harry had to settle for one teeny Carp each, one of whom didn’t weigh enough to move the scales from zero! It looked about an 1oz, so we agreed to that as being good enough. Otherwise, it was just 4 drams, and I don’t think there is anything that small in there!
Jack fished it out in human form, whilst Harry reduced himself to his default boredom setting of a pile of soiled laundry. But one hand was left on his rod handle, just in case!
The scales coughed to 2ozs for Jack, and Harry was crowd funded his 1oz…
Better luck next time guys…
Peg Six:
Jack Copp:
Jack must be getting bored of people mentioning his recent success in beating a bunch of seniors at their own game at Whitemoor a few days earlier, so I won’t mention that again here….
But, Chester’s Lake was proving a different animal for the child prodigy, and even he was struggling. There was talk of a run of fish here and there, but even Jacks skills with a long pole fishing to the island with every bait he could think of, did not pay off for him.
I remember thinking that, although I hadn’t given it the full beans as far as effort was concerned, and I didn’t have all of my gear present, I had struggled in the 30-minutes or so that I had fished. With that in mind, and the fact that Jack was struggling too, left me in no doubt that the lake was out of sorts on the day.
Jack did manage to weave 4lbs 1oz together for a second-place finish.
It was a good effort on a tough day. Well done….
Peg Seven:
Austin Scott-Kennedy:
Whitemoor was the venue that may have haunted Austin for a while (a year to be exact), but he put those ghosts to bed today. Last year he saw his Championship fall into Jacks hands at Chester’s Lake, but this year he kept his head. I don’t want anyone to think that he didn’t struggle every bit as much as the others, but he did struggle less.
Austin had the end peg advantage, but at the same time, he didn’t. He was on the end of the match, but the aerator rope restricted his casts.
Without the pole or pole skills necessary to match Jack on the next peg, Austin could have been up against it. But he is good on the feeder and made that work in his favour well.
The day was tough, the fishing was uncharacteristically bad for Chester’s Lake, and Austin was sat next to a junior who has been in the form of his life lately. Some anglers would have crumbled to intimidation and pressure.
Maybe the fish caught today were the stupid ones, but Austin found more stupid ones than anyone else to claim the win and the 25-points that go with it.
Non-Competitive Angler:
Freddie Campbell:
Being a newbie to fishing isn’t easy. You want to catch fish because that’s what you’re there to do, that’s the bit you enjoy. To ask a nine-year-old to be patient and just stare at a motionless float is a bit like Mrs H turning down a fish and chip supper or getting a discount in Alan’s Angling. Both are highly unlikely…
Freddie had come clutching a new Whip and some fresh bait. Sadly, the fish didn’t know this and were conspicuous by their absence.
In desperation I tied on a paste rig to a top kit, and we managed to winkle out a couple of stupid ones from the margin.
Not being confined to barracks like those in the match, Fred was able to have a go in the newly dug ‘Little Chester’s’ Pool.
To the dismay of those pulling their hair in the match, Freddie managed to catch four little Carp, which may have been enough to get him 3rd or 4th place! Obviously, I would have disqualified him for moving pegs, but we’ll skip over that bit.
The thing that impressed me is that Freddie, despite the lack of fish, busied himself by practicing his casting and doing some of the thousand other things that he will learn over the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years!
I have repeatedly said that the fishing was tough today, but that’s no reflection on the lake itself. ‘That’s just fishing’ was a well-worn phrase during the day and, ‘If it was easy, it would be called ‘catching’ not fishing.
Not catching is boring sometimes and juniors have energy to burn. I can’t let this energy be burned by allowing running around and shouting.
It sets a bad example for other people at the fishery, it could disturb other anglers, it sets a bad image in the minds of others about the good things we are trying so hard to achieve with the juniors, and more importantly, it sets a bad example to younger juniors who are just starting out with us.
I completely understand how boring it can get, but I do not apologise for the course of action I took and the words I used to bring the horseplay to an abrupt end.
The most disappointing part is just how many times I must keep repeating myself on this matter. Some have been coming to the juniors for years now and should therefore know better. It will not be tolerated at anytime and never will be. I ask the juniors to restrain themselves from messing around, and the parents to control their juniors in a manner more befitting to the club in future please. I do not want to be forced to convert words into action.
Championship Standings:
224pts - Austin Scott-Kennedy
197pts - Jack Copp
Silverfish Championship: (Rounded down for convenience) 42lb Alec Campbell 35lb Harry Cryer 32lb Josh Roe 32lb Jack Cryer 32lb Austin 29lb Jack Copp
Big thank you Jerry, Tim, Chris and particularly to a returning Neil. Good to have you back my friend.
Thanks to Tom at Whitemoor for another year of fishing and for your continuing support.
We wish all involved at Whitemoor a successful rest of 2024, and very happy Christmas, and a prosperous new year…
Our next event is on the River Stour somewhere in and around Sturminster Newton next weekend on the 16th of November.
The chances are that we will be fishing on the ‘Bull Tavern’ stretch of the river. More details will follow on WhatsApp during the week.
Order your bait in plenty of time. 1-pint Red Maggots, ½-pint of Fluoro Pinkies, and a tub of Dendrobena worms, plus ground baits.
Take care all,
Juniors Sec….
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