Simple Match Fishing Forum

We looked at that option endpeg ........ nearly in crappity smack London Dont envy you coming up to the River Weaver from the Coventry area


Wish all roads were like the A50 ........ its brilliant

bloody miles to them canals.

good thing its all motorway.

We looked at that option endpeg ........ nearly in crappity smack London       Dont envy you coming up to the River Weaver from the Coventry area    


Wish all roads were like the A50 ........ its brilliant  

Weavers a fairly straightforward journey so I dont mind it too much.

Im sure Chris V and co would agree that Cov is near London.

Why we use Mancetter

The Plough at Mancetter been used for many years for both the Angling Times league matches and the Nuneaton League.

The AT matches are always at Atherstone or Nuneaton, except one year when the Captains also voted for Coventry. The sections are therefore only ten mins max from the venue. League rules permit teams who rent their own water to have a match to help pay rent etc. This was agreed many years ago when the league was first formed and before some teams even joined. Thus Atherstone, who have always supported the AT, have a match every year. It was extremely disappointing that a certain team did not send anglers to the practice match and dare i say if i had not phoned them they would not have had the courtesy to tell me this. At the end of the day all venues were agreed by the Captains and as such should be fully supported.

The Nuneaton Winter League sections all used to be local ie Atherstone, Mancetter, Hartshill and Nuneaton which avoided travelling too far from the Plough. We have however over the last couple of years had matches at Cov City at the request of the teams. It is a good venue and last weeks match proved that. The disadvantage of course is the 30 minute drive to the sections and the numbers returning to the pub has dropped. A lot of anglers requested Cov City last week due to the weather. We always try to be flexible with sections, as a lot are weather dependent, and use local venues where possible. We only decided on the City Centre at the last minute as the local sections were very coloured. The local sections will be used in the next rounds. In addition Cov City Centre is now rented by a club and you have to book through them if you want to run a match.

I am all for the league organisers getting together before next year and deciding on dates to avoid clashing matches next winter. This year we really struggled to get dates that did not clash with Hankat, Loughborough etc and resulted in the league being 4 rounds instead of 6 and no matches in February. I am sure if we all got together over dates we can get the magical 50 pegs on all leagues. We are only just short anyway. I know a lot of anglers do not like our venue but equally many do. It is different to other canals and can be hard especially when coloured. I like to think its a 'thinking anglers' canal that requires you to do something different to get the best from it. It is certainly not a shipping canal like Hankat/Dams & Lock but i think the matches/weights this year at Atherstone were generally good, with the odd section not performing.

The larger league Jon is considering is interesting however the Nuneaton League goes a long way to help small local clubs pay their canal rent and it would be a loss if this revenue could not be realised if the league was swallowed up. The Nuneaton League has a lot of history and it would be sad, like any other league, if it was lost. We had many regulars really pleased that we managed to find dates so that they could fish the league as well as their other commitments. A bit of planning may help all.

PS The breakfasts are good at the Plough

Please, please, please, will someone explain to me how to get to Mancetter from Stafford/Stoke/Manchester without going on the A5.

If you can I bow to your better judgement.

The match calendar is becoming very congested.

In past years I have always talked to Tony and we have managed to avoid any clashes between the FMS and HanKat leagues.

My two rounds before xmas were forced on me by them being the only two saturdays left.

Next year i will probalby have all 6 rounds after Xmas.

The Midlands canal curcuit may seem like it is flourishing but i think it is on a decline.

10 years ago there were 50+ peggers on both squatt and B&J matches in the West midlands. The squatt matches fell by the wayside and only B&J matches got 50+ in winter. This was made up of mainly North west, Staffordshire and West mids anglers. Now we seem to be attracting anglers from further afield (East mids) but the attendances are still going down.

Mick Hatchard said something that i find very worrying at the Nuneaton round of the AT league this year when he mentioned that he knew the christian name of EVERY angler fishing...It shows to me that their are very few anglers coming through

Nice one Bert Woodhouse, you are spot on.

It was extremely disappointing that a certain team did not send anglers to the practice match and dare i say if i had not phoned them they would not have had the courtesy to tell me this.

Since when has it been a requisition that you have to ring up and say you are NOT coming to a match. Can't ever remember it being a requisition of any WL that you HAVE to fish the practise matches.

TEAM ECLIPSE member

Bill yards

Stop on M6 get off at either

Junction 4 Use A446 to Coleshill then B4114 and the B4116 to Atherstone, or a bit further

Junction 3 Use A444 to Nuneaton B4111 to Atherstone

You get to Mancetter through Atherstone

In both case Atherstone is less than 15 mins from M6 and no A5. If you wanted to pay you could also use M6(Toll) to Coleshill. Probably not much point in the morning but may save time on M6 through Birmingham in the evening.

Bill yards

Its not a requirement to attend but all Captains ring each other as a matter of courtesy so that the match can be pegged out properly.

There would have been a lot of complaints if we had put 10+ extra pegs in that were not used.

Please, please, please, will someone explain to me how to get to Mancetter from Stafford/Stoke/Manchester without going on the A5.

If you can I bow to your better judgement.

I already have. Reply #59! Paul explains it a lot better too...

BTW, my original thoughts for a league was for an individual event, perhaps run along a similar format to the UK Champs with decent sponsorship and 4/5/6 rounds well spread.

with decent sponsorship and 4/5/6 rounds well spread.
[/quote]
jon i think the days of a decent sponser have gone for the time being

Paul,
We find the M6 around Birmingham a complete nightmare and have had too many bad experiences on it. In recent years we have got stuck in volume/accidents and got diverted that many times it is ridiculous, this is morning and evening. We used to use it when the volume of traffic was much lighter. We do use the Toll but that now puts an extra £9 on the travelling.
We don't even use the M6 (B'ham) to get to Dams and Lock. The last time we tried it in the summer it took us exactly 2.5 hours as we were diverted off the M6 and large parts of the A5 and A38 were also closed due to accidents. We were diverted to the other side of Coventry somewhere and had to thread our way back.
I used to frequent the Atack club in Nuneaton (by the railway) on a regular basis playing billiards, I also have relations in Nuneaton, and it is just one of those places that takes an age from our neck of the wood yet it is 25 minutes by rail. I remember catching a taxi from Nuneaton to Stafford not so long ago, the driver was very reluctant to do the job because it was that awkward to get to; I daren't tell you how much that cost!
The Stoke lads, with just one pick up, do 127 miles round trip to fish on the Cov in your area; it does add quite a few more miles to fish in Cov itself with a draw at Mancetter. Jobs, time and money very obviously become an issue with some then.
The A5 may be slow but it is 15 minutes from Stafford and a far more direct route. We do less miles that route but it still takes an age. Despite that it is more reliable and probably safer than the M6. I know when my relations come over they always come that way for the very same reasons I have pointed out.
If I remember right Paul the week of the Atherstone practise was a shocker weather wise with ice, thick fog and quite dangerous roads. There was a match 'on our doorstep' that day and it simply was not worth risking life, limb and jobs to get there and back; some may see that different but that is how we saw it.

I know you have partly rescinded your comment about ringing to NOT book in but I am organising this years Div One and I honestly wouldn't expect you to ring me to say you are not coming!!!

Respectfully yours

Bill Yards

OK then i wont bother Joff Mr glass half empty...  :'(


I know several companies/people that have asked me for an event to sponsor. All they need in return is professionalism, publicity and value for money.

I take on board what youve said Bill but Im always travelling up and down the M6 with few problems, It can occasionally snarl up between the M42 and M5 so thats when the Toll comes in. Strangely, my worst ever M6 nightmares have all come from between J11 and J14... in Staffordshire!

You wouldn't think so but travelling south on the M6, even at that time of a morning does cause major problems; I am sure the northern contingent will vouch for that too. There is the odd exception though but we always seem to find problems. A friend of mine went to Raunds (near Northampton) last Sunday. He got stuck for ages at Brum and his journey took 3.5 hours; the A14 was closed too!
I know what your saying, I was on the M6 last night, 10pm and got diverted. We could'nt get off at Stafford. Apparently they are doing some work at nights only.
We have no problem getting from Stafford to the Toll on the M6 but it is a very short run.
In a nutshell the roads are crap and not big enough to cope.

Prepare to groan:

A motorway walks into a pub one day and orders himself a drink. He just sits down when in walks a strip of tarmac.

The motorway sees the tarmac and starts to panic, jumps over the bar and ducks down so the tarmac won't see him. The barman looks down at the motorway and says, "What's the matter? Why are you hiding? You've got six lanes and two hard shoulders so why are you frightened of a piece of tarmac?"

The motorway replies, "You don't know him like I do. He's a cyclepath!"

Gerr off!

Point taken Bill yards re travelling

I wasn't trying to ruffle feathers just highlighting the main part of this thread which is how difficult it is to organise well attended matches and the disappointment, after all the effort, that attendences are lower than expetced.