Barclays National 2015

This years National was again at Pitsford over two days and was set to be quite difficult. On practice day Mike and I struggled to find many fish apart from a few browns wich would need to be put back after you kept one. However we had noticed that they had tipped a stocking in over the causeway and for the last two hours decided to see if we could catch a few - especially since I hadn't done much for a while. I was amazed that after a short while of getting the position right and reducing the size of the Orange blobs to 12's and 14's we got into a rythem and we must have had 30 fish returned by the two of us. I had not done this for a long time and gave us both a boost of confidence. However as always competition day was different and was absolutely chucking it down and the fish had moved to into the corner. Mike and Ash were on them first and all but bagged up. We then jumped in their spot and started catching but by then they had thinned a little and were moving around more. However I had 4 for 8-4 which was not bad on the day. On top of that I can't remember having fished with John Clarke before and it was a shame because he was brilliant company and made it a really enjoyable day.

Overall the most successful team were Thames and Solent with 16 fish for 40lbs 8ozs who managed to find the better quality fish in Sailing Club Bay including Shane Tibbetts with a 3-8 and Ross Jordan taking the best fish Trophy with a rainbow of 4lbs 3oz. Oscar Boatfield 3rd individual with 6 fish for 13lbs 4ozs.

Second place went to Barclaycard helped by Ash Cooper leading the way to finding the early fish and Mike Philpott taking the best bag of the day with 6 fish for 14lbs 8ozs. These stockies were a little fresher and liked the orange blob too much before they had a chance to feed up! Third place went to Clearing Services and Vernon Beak took 2nd place and the most fish trophy with 6 fish for 13lbs 13oz