It was fantastic when Arnold beat his fight against cancer so this charity match to help raise funds for the ward that helped him through I had been really looking forward to it.
It was my third day on the trot this week and I was hoping for a nice day, anchored up ticking back some nymphs but that wind just didn't let up! I was fishing with John Wilson - not the one off the telly but the one from Barclays who I hadn't fished with for a while. John is a great friendly competitor who keeps me on my toes as well has having a nice day out.
It was a difficult choice at the start of the day, table bay or Stone barn? After making room for Dobby to get into his boat and rescuing another that went adrift from the platform we were in a chase with Powie and chad who had also decided on table bay.
It was difficult to anchor in the wind. We shifted position a few time but the first few hours were going to plan with 4 fish caught between us on my melanistic buzzer and a daiwl bach. It was clear then it was going to be a tough day for many. The fish then switched off and John decided to try a wet2 and caught another along with a few takes on the blob. Damm! This made us think that if we want to catch more fish we were going to have to drift and cover more water and yes nearer the dam in the white horses.
We battened down the hatches put on the Di5, Sparkler booby and blobs, pulled in the anchor, threw out the drougue and took a deep breath.
As we drifted from the Pines to the overflow the number of takes increased. It was difficult to keep in touch with your flies all the time hense a number of missed takes but we did manage to catch fish. We had our drifting line sorted to hit the red buoy on the way to the overflow, next time around john would say "make sure you aim for the blue bouy" next time was "make sure you aim for the yellow buoy" Yes, Yes so I realise now it was actually green! And the micky take didn't let up and after a couple of last minute motor starts and drogue retreivals John says "just in case kev, that sign on the on the dam says turn off your engine when travelling down the overflow" Great!. I got my own back on the journeys upwind as i timed the wave splash perfectly with sandwich mouthfulls!
Well by this time we were thinking we were doing alright and would be in with a good shout when John Goodman shouted over and asked what we doing. We thought nothing at the time of saying we were catching on blobs because they would have had to work hard to catch up. But fair play to John he went along the dam further and managed to get the anchor to hold off the point and then proceeded to bag up up in double quick time on the recent stockies.
We then realised that if we were to be in with a shout we needed to do the same and managed to catch the last few to finish off with 8 fish each. We would have finished earlier but as John had what we thought was his last fish on it was pulling very hard and we were convinced it was a big fish. As I sat there with john's net in my hand I did what they called later "an Arnold Haddon" and as it made a run round the back of the boat it got caught on one of the flies on my packed up rod. As I lurched forward to free it, the fly stuck in my fingure, the fish went free and John's net went overboard and - as Gavin and Simon who were looking on, later recalled - floated out of site. Nice! I then pulled out the prizes list and reminded john that if he finished in 4th place the prize was a new net. 3rd place must have seemed like an anti climax! here's John Wilson weighing in.
The weigh in was a simple occasion as the weather had affected the catches more than I had thought and perhaps only 8 to 10 people had caught out of the 50. Dobby summed up the day in his usual way, with his pants down.
It was then to the pub for a few beers and nice meal and the obligatory speaches. John Goodman took first place, myself second, John third and Simon took 4th and the best fish of 3lb 6.
Nice day!
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