Clattercote 2008 Match ResultsRejecting the cold food and poor service they received from the local Tesco store in Banbury at the last Clattercote gathering in April, most of us met at the nearby Brasenose Arms public house for breakfast. So at least we got off to a good start with a wholesome and very enjoyable full English inside us. The pub did us proud and no doubt we’ll be back there next year.And boy do we usually need a good breakfast, for our Clattercote fish-ins, no matter what date we choose, are traditionally on cold and very windy days where a good breakfast helps you to get through it unscathed. Something had gone wrong this year though, contrary to the forecast we actually had quite a long spell of calm water, and when the wind did get up it wasn’t as bad as previous years. Even the rain didn’t set in until towards the end of the match. As usual we were pegged along the car park side, starting at peg 13 and ending at peg 54. We left out peg 17 as it’s almost enclosed each side with tree branches. At the draw there were cries of “yes!” as the high numbers came out and anglers had visions of big carp being hauled from under the boards, and then more muted whinging as some drew the lower numbers and left the heavier gear in the car. Chris Barker, otherwise known as MankyBait and totally without sight, muttered, “oh yes, I’ve drawn a blinder,” when the peg number he’d drawn was read out to him. There were three memorable catches, the best of course, being the winner, Steve Wilson with 40lb, especially memorable as he was using a method most of us had never seen before: a slow sinking bagging waggler, which paid off for him in the last hour or so of the match when he caught most of his fish, all carp except for a solitary tench. The all black waggler has a cage feeder on the bottom, and Steve fished it with a 3ft hooklength and a balancing shot. You cast to the swim and it sinks very slowly; obviously attracting bites at all depths through the water, with fish coming up from the bottom to attack the bait, or following it down from somewhere near the surface. The next memorable catch was Mark Wintle’s, who fished maggot on a waggler at about two rod’s length, and took a, mainly, bag of excellent roach to well over a pound. A wonderful day’s fishing regardless of the match result. And the third memorable catch was Neil Maidment’s, an almost all tench catch from the end peg in the shallows taken on a margin pole. But let’s not forget Steve Spiller’s splendid effort that won him a coveted copy of the video ‘Getting Wet for Crappie’ presented by Bill Dance. This video was donated by John McLaren for the angler who put up the best performance. Steve caught one fish and lost nine under the boards. After losing the ninth fish Steve made a difficult decision and upped the strength of his gear to finally land one successfully.
After the match most of us went back to the Brasenose arms for the presentation and chips and sausage, which went on FishingMagic’s tab. Stu Dexter presented the winnings, with 3rd place going to me, second place to Neil Maidment, and first place, and the trophy, to Steve Wilson. Well done Steve! Many thanks to Nigel Connor for arranging breakfast and the after-match snack. Sorry for lack of photos this year but most seemed to be too busy catching fish for a change to be bothered with taking photographs. Full Results
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