Simple Match Fishing Forum

I fished the Congleton match last week and many were saying it was great to fish a big open.Mmm the biggest match I fished was the Ouse champs on the relief channel 1450 pegs , they needed 10 draw bags! and we didnt get our money till 8 oclock .I met nuddy for the first time he won his 150 PEG section. A close 2nd was the 1971 national 1392 pegs on the Severn a good job we had got buses if it was private cars half would still be trying to get out of the car park the other half would be lost! It was nice to win that last old national team event as the next year it went to 80 team divisions just a knock up

I was on the Congleton match pete ...... hope you drew better than i did lol

Sadly proper big matches have become a thing of the past and with team fishing in serious, possibly terminal decline i dont think we will see (nationals apart) anything above 120/140 peggers again


Hope i am wrong

1450 pegs, I bet that took some organisation

Yeah, I fished that Severn National.
Drew at crappity smack Grimley; there was one 20 lbish and for the rest it was Grimmer than Grim
The week before I practised and had 86lb of barbel. Robin Harris drew that peg and it is still called Harris's Pitch cuz he won the match with 40 lb I think.
I think the HQ was the Civic Hall in Stourport.
Happy days, still have the programme somewhere

I would have loved to have fished matches like that

1971 National result
Leicester AS 124-8-8; BAA 112-8-8; Peterborough 93-5-12; Whitmore Reans 91-9-8; Gloucester 86-11-4.

Ind. Robin Harris (Peterborough) 40-5-0; Ron Haynes (Whitmore Reans) 33-1-8; John Toulson (BAA) 30-13-0; Brian Envis (Leicester AS) 30-2-0; Dave Blackmore (IW Stafford) 30-0-0; Roy Marlow (Leicester AS) 27-2-4. The first six came from five different sections.
Total amount of fish caught 4723 lbs.

Dunno what peg Leicester AS were on; BAA were on 77.

Information from the Anorak News 1971 National result
Leicester AS 124-8-8; BAA 112-8-8; Peterborough 93-5-12; Whitmore Reans 91-9-8; Gloucester 86-11-4.

Ind. Robin Harris (Peterborough) 40-5-0; Ron Haynes (Whitmore Reans) 33-1-8; John Toulson (BAA) 30-13-0; Brian Envis (Leicester AS) 30-2-0; Dave Blackmore (IW Stafford) 30-0-0; Roy Marlow (Leicester AS) 27-2-4. The first six came from five different sections.
Total amount of fish caught 4723 lbs.

Dunno what peg Leicester AS were on; BAA were on 77.

Information from the Anorak News

Extracts from the 1971 Programme

Brookes of Northfield were selling Severn Special Floats 8 for £1
BAA season permits £1.65
Angler's Mail 5p
Angling Times 6p
20 Players Number 6 Tipped 20.5p

How much were pellets then bill ???

crappity smack pellets off

Would you get 1450 people willing to fish a single match these days ?

Sadly not a chance Simps in my opinion :( :(


If it did happen it would be fantastic ......... which venue though ???


And who would run it ???

When I was Watching that Woodbine challenge Video I was thinking how good it would be to take part in something like that.
But 150 person sections would be intense. If you won your section you would be buzzing for years I reckon

Section winners from the 1971 Div One All England on the River Severn, -
A Robin Harris (Peterborough) 40-5-0
B Roy Marlow (Leicester AS) 27-2-4
C D. Marchese (Tonbridge) 25-12-0
D D. Fletcher (Essex County) 14-13-0
E Brian Lees (Stoke) 21-9-12
F F Peel (Leighton Buzzard) 16-2-0
G Mac Willis (Newark Fed) 18-2-0;
H H Nicholson (North Yorkshire) 14-8-12
I Ron Haynes (Whitmore Reans) 33-1-8
J John Toulson (BAA) 30-13-0
K Dave Wall (Bradford) 26-9-8
L Dave Blackmore (IW Stafford) 30-0-0.

In those days, if you won your section, did n't you get a chance to fish for England?

I remember Roy Walker (BMAA) saying that he had done so after he had done well in a National.

Good thread Grumpy  

Can’t live with you guys…………..never ever fished any of the big ‘opens’ in this neck of the woods back in the 70's such as the BAA ‘Bigun’ – think that used to be around 650+ pegs across both the Severn and the Avon. No doubt Bill will correct me or add a further couple of his memories of fishing them.

Did however fish the Div 3 national on the Trent in the early 90’s – think there was around 80 odd teams then – can’t remember was it 12 man teams   – if so getting on for a thousand pegger - but again I'll stand corrected.

I’m having to dig into the old grey cells now. Practised a few various sections in the lead up to it – don’t ask me where   – I just used to get into Kevin Ash's white transit van with half a dozen (or more) of us, stop an hour later, get out walk a field or two – hadn’t got a clue where I was.  


Come the day,loads of coaches at a county ground(?) and two 52 seaters took us to our section - I ended up just in a spinney by the mangrow(??) field.

I was carrying a 40 page dossier (well we all were) that gave a run down of every section and every peg – depths, methods, moods, that the peg was likely to throw up – don’t know from which Trent crack Bill Ash picked that up from.  

It was also double banked – at least where I was - I’m sure Roger Mortimer was opposite with Ian Heaps not far way.

And wait for it………….





It was a   grueller for most…………….think IH on the opposite bank snared drams for good points on the day in his section that I’m sure saw quite a few DNW’s.

On a personal front, think I weighed in around the 2lb mark – not sure if I cracked 2lb – the grey cells are letting me down – for somewhere mid section. Not a lot came from around me, but remember getting ounced to my left  


Back to HQ for the results – we just missed out promotion by not a lot……………




I never did tell Bill and co that after an hour on the stick I had a chuck on the wag and promptly got smashed up………….them points would have seen the team up a division  


Well that's that secret out  

In it's time the Annual BAA Big'Un as they used to call it was the biggest match in the UK. I might be wrong but I think the entry may have peaked at somewhere round 5,000.
I never, ever fished it.
One I used to fish, years ago, was a Round Table match on the Shroppie in the Soudley area. The turnout was around 1000 on that one.

Just thought, I might be getting a bit mixed up with the BAA Big'Un and the BAA H Samuel; one of them was, I'm sure around a 5000 entry.

You will have tp put this error in memory down to Old Timers but I'll check it out.

I've just had my tablet and the mind is now clear.

The annual BAA Big'Un regularly arrtacted over 3,000. As TK rightly pointed out they were lined up on the Avon and the Severn. At its peak somewhere around 5,000 actually fished but I'm not sure if exact figures are available.

The H. Samuel used to attract a meagre 3 or 400; that was on the canal.

At its peak somewhere around 5,000 actually fished

I was only a decimal point out

Perhaps it was on the 'wane' with the figues that sprang to my mind............pass me a tablet too Bill

In those days, if you won your section, did n't you get a chance to fish for England?

I remember Roy Walker (BMAA) saying that he had done so after he had done well in a National.

I think it was a bit of a strange system Bros. They actually used the guy with the best weight from each of the top half a dozen or so teams that were placed 1-6 in the All England.