Simple Match Fishing Forum

yep cold here and warming slightly here with rain or snow by tonight or in the night 
at least last year it cold everyday throughout december this weather at the moment seams even colder

remember dry netting on a witham national a lot of years ago.....13 in a line never had a bite at kirkstead and last year at fish filled sion farm.... me and grant allbut were next to each other and never had a bite ....also on an end peg that day...... do i qualify bill?

fishe d a semi final at halcroft drew next to mr scothorne we drew as niether of us managed to get a fish out he foul hooked one and so did and both lost them
but he did say nice kit kiddo

in 4 years of fishing the hereford festival on the Wye (3 days in mid-November) I blanked on 2 days twice ..... so that's 4 to start with!!
3 section wins out of the other 8 days - so not all bad, but let no-one say it can't be peggy!

looking at the weather out here there will be a few new members to this club by monday

I hope Man City dont blank on sunday !

I don't wanna break ice any more

I'll join that club as well........

hehehehe i won't be this weekend i ain't fishing

Not looking good two WL's on the Avon this w/k end and the one thing we didn't want was more rain after all these frosts !!!!!
It will be hard !!!!!!

Not looking good two WL's on the Avon this w/k end and the one thing we didn't want was more rain after all these frosts !!!!!
It will be hard !!!!!!

could it be a new member coming up

There can’t be many match anglers who haven’t had the kind of days that Frank Barlow often described, and who thought afterwards: ‘I wonder what Frank would have made of that?’
One such day came my way in a winter league match on the Trent and Mersey Canal. There was a hard frost, and the canal promised to be tough going, with bites very hard to come by.
No more so than on the section that I’d drawn – it was typical Frank territory. The only good thing about it was that it was a very short walk. The bad thing was that it promised to be pretty much devoid of fish.
It was bare concrete bank on both sides, which I’ve always though lowers the water temperature even more, and the whole section had but one feature, a small bush on the bottom end peg just above Dallow Lock. Ken Anderson drew it. Caught one fish, and won the section. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Some of the pegs were opposite a playing field, others faced the back gardens of houses, the gardens coming right down to the canal edge.
I drew one of the house pegs, and it almost boasted a bit of cover, with a wisp of dead stinging nettle overhanging the water, which when I plumbed up turned out to be all of six inches deep.
The match was only a few minutes old, when the owner of the house opposite me came out of his back door and walked down to the bottom of his garden to take a look at me.
Incredibly we recognised each other, having both worked for the local brewery many years previously.
I remembered him well. He was a black belt at karate – which made me very polite towards him – but to paraphrase what Frank might have said – he also had a black belt in yapping, so I was expecting a bit of earache.
He was dressed in jeans, T-shirt and carpet slippers, so I hoped the freezing cold might encourage him back to the house quite sharpish. Not a bit of it, that karate must have made him rock hard.
Having exchanged a few pleasantries, he shouted across: ‘You know, I think I’ll have a go myself!’
He went into his garden shed, and after a lot of banging and clattering emerged with his tackle. First up was a folding chair. Next came his rod. It looked about 6 ft long and suitable for doing battle with conger eel. On the rod was a tiny fixed spool reel of unknown pedigree, but if pushed I would have plumped for either Chad Valley or Fisher-Price. His line was so thick that the reel could only have held about 10 ft and it coiled up through the three remaining runners on the rod like a bedspring. Attached to this was a float.
I use this in the loosest of descriptions. It was so large it looked as though it had been liberated from the admiralty, and with the addition of a flashing light and clanging bell, it could have warned shipping away from sand banks on the southern approaches.
My old friend ripped out the nettles, and was lucky enough to find a worm, which he impaled on a hook that could have supported a side of mutton. With a mighty cast he heaved his float into the water, about 1 ft from his own bank. He then settled back into his creaking chair and the chat started again.
Luckily, after about an hour the cold must have started to penetrate, and he threw his tackle into the shed and strode back to the comfort of his house.
The ultimate nightmare, from which thankfully I was spared, would have been for matey boy to catch a fish.
It was a small mercy on a day best described as ‘five hours of hard yakka.’

Great story , very well written


Not a chance of me being so patient black belt or not !

Enjoyed that trypewriter

Choppy won't be blanking saturday ...... it's been cancelled!!!

Off to Hemmington Alex, hopefully for some roach fishing ! Tony Scott won last week with 21lb on casters and hemp. Evesham Sunday !

Pub and football all day for me again today

Is there anything worse than spending a couple of nights getting prepared for a venue then the match being called off last minute such is life and always another time

Pub and football all day for me again today 

Is there anything worse than spending a couple of nights getting prepared for a venue then the match being called off last minute  such is life and always another time 

too right dodge
a bit of work in the morning then
taking the family out nice sunday dinner in a nice country pub
its a longtime since we have done that

few names to add to this club after the weekend i know

Des shipp for one

Me too Saturday