Game Match Results 2007

17th Mar15th April29th April6th SeptemberSeptember
14th October21st October


Click on the match for the Individual Results (where available)

Spring Bank ~ Jutland Cup
Total Fish27Best FishSimon Lewis3lb 13oz
Total Weight75lb 11ozBest BagDuke Elsworth11lb 12oz
Average Weight2lb 7ozBest Boat
Rod Average< 2lb
Fishing Report
As usual the weather was the primary concern for the opening match at Bushyleaze again this year. The day started pight and cold with light winds picking up from the South East, which favoured casting from the bank opposite the car park and hut; unfortunately there were not many fish over there. Unusually, there was another group of fishermen using the lake so numbers were up in the forties, more than the lake can take when the wind picks up, which it duly did as the day wore on. Most fish were taken in the North West corner where trees and the wind made the process quite tricky. Unusually for this fishery, there were three blanks and some gave up in the face of strong and cold windy conditions before the planned close of fishing at 4 pm.

The other group fishing were from Marks and Spencer's. They put on a lunchtime buffet, which allowed us to get into their fishing spots and they graciously invited us to help them with their oversupply of food and beer. It has been suggested that we compete against M&S next year, as they also have their opening match at this time each year, so that we can jointly control the numbers at the location and get exclusive use by booking for over 30 rods. A joint match would also set some ground rules on how the lake is used.

Duke Elsworth and Will Black were the only ones to catch their full bag of 4 fish and Duke narrowly took the best bag at 11 lb 12 oz and was duly awarded the Jutland Cup as winner of the Spring Bank Angling competition. The best fish was caught by Simon Lewis at 3 lb 13 oz. Mark Glass had the best Mobile after dropping both his fags and mobile in the lake!

RNRM v Kingsbridge Heavyweights
Total Fish110Best FishNigel Evans4lb 9oz
Total Weight291lb 6ozBest BagMike Barfoot-Franks22lb 6oz
Average Weight> 2lb 6ozBest BoatAl Mundy & Tony Baldwin38lb
Rod Average5lb
Fishing Report
The first reservoir outing of the year was unusually warm and sunny this year and Chew produced an impressive head of fish. Most had good bags and fish were found in many places including Wick's, Herron's and behind Deny's Island.

The day started very bright and those prepared for normal conditions at this time of year found themselves discarding their warm gear to match the summer like conditions. The most productive fishing was had during the morning session. The fish were deep and feeding on very large Buzzers. Judging by the number of fish over 3lb, there were lots of over wintered fish who generally put up quite a tussle before being pought into the boat.

The local knowledge of Kingsbridge Heavyweights allowed us all to get to where the fish were known to be and a catch limit of 7 to be weighed in followed by catch and release, which would not be weighed in saved the RN&RM team from a heavier defeat. KBHW won on 167 lb 11 oz against the RN&RM's 123 lb 9 oz. The best boat was Al Mundy & Tony Baldwin, with a total of 38 lb. The weigh-in produced 3 identically weighted fish of 4 lb 9 oz, providing a dilemma with prizes but since ? had already won a prize for best boat, there were them just two, …………. …………. Prizewinners so another fly box was rustled up. The best bag of the day went to Mike Barfoot-Franks.

RN v Associates
Total Fish38Best FishMark Glass6lb 2oz
Total Weight102lb 3ozBest BagMike Barfoot-Franks23lb 1oz
Average Weight2lb 6ozBest BoatTony Wilkinson & Ron Tutt23lb 8oz
Rod Average2lb
Fishing Report
From a starting availability of 30 only 17 actually fished the RN v Associates match at Chew on Sunday the 29th of April. The weather started warm and bright and some fish were caught early on, both behind Deny's and in Herron's. As the day drew on the weather cooled and the boats split up to find fish. There were plenty of fish taking Black Buzzers at Wick's but they were tightly grouped and getting the depth right was a constant challenge as the fish changed feeding depth with the weather.

The bountiful catches of the early part of the season were no longer evident for the majority of Anglers but Tony Wilkinson and Mike Barfoot-Franks managed to each the limit of 7 before going on to catch and release. Mike took a further 3 resulting in him having the best bag of the day. There was some confusion over who had the best fish and best brown but in the end Mark Glass had the best fish at 6 lb 2 oz and Ted peck had the best brown at 3 lb 2 oz. In the end the Associates took the day with 63¾ lbs compared to the RN's 34 lb.

Even taking into account the imbalance of Nos, the Rod average weight for the Associates was over 6 lb and the RN's just over 4 lb. Unfortunately the two new rods to boat fishing were unable to bring any fish in despite Bob Jones hooking into at least three and one that took him all the way down to the backing before snapping him off.

It was a good day, some good fish were caught and it didn't appear to put those new to boat fishing off

Army/Navy v EFFA
Total FishBest Fish
Total WeightBest Bag
Average WeightBest Boat
Rod Average
Fishing Report
The annual combined Army & Navy match against EFFA took place at Pitsford on Thursday the 6th of September. The day was split in two by a break for lunch where once again good information on what was being caught, where, and by what methods were exchanged. The Army struggled to put out a full team and although we managed to get the numbers, it was a close run thing with Mark Glass confirming his Dad, Noels, availability the afternoon before the event. In the event only 15 boats were filled rather than the planned 16.

The fish were definitely in the top of the water and some had frustrating times casting to huge numbers of rising fish without being able to make the take. Ron Tutt was our most successful rod achieving a full bag for 13 lb 4 oz. Ted Grant was our next best rod at 5 fish for 9 lb 3 oz with all our other team members catching 2 or 3 fish. The best fish of the day at 4 lb was caught by John Mees, in a boat with a very frustrated Ed Smith, who only managed 2 for 3 lb 6 oz on a water he calls his own.

We were soundly trounced by EFFA who had 127 lb 2 oz against our 107 lb 10 oz, which included Peter Hartly's (EFFA) contribution of 8 fish and 13 lb 3 oz to our catch. Despite the result, we all had an excellent day in fine conditions and good company.

Inter Services
Total FishBest Fish
Total WeightBest Bag
Average WeightBest Boat
Rod Average
Fishing Report
The Inter Services this year was bedeviled by accommodation problems, which Mark Glass stepped in to sort out. Two Lodges were obtained by Mark in the Married Patch at RAF Wittering for Associates and "Rantings" and the Officers were billeted in RAF Cottesmore. The spreading out of people had the effect of reducing the information flow and our normal practice of having a structured debrief at the end of each day didn't happen. The value of daily depiefs was brought into stark relief by our performance in the actual competition.

The First day's practice (Friday) went well with some poor results in the morning being improved upon by going to the right place and using a method that had worked well for Chris Anderson in the morning. Chris managed to Bag Up but his boat partner Mark Glass recorded his first blank on Rutland for as long as he can remember (short memory!).

On Saturday we had the professional help of Craig Barr to act as our coach. We gained useful local knowledge as well as the four people who had Craig in their boat getting detailed coaching and first hand experience of how Craig fishes. Our two most experienced rods, Tony and Ron spent time with Craig and extracted more from the experience than many of us would. On Sunday the remainder of the squad arrived at various times during the morning with some not making it until as late as 1400. Results on Sunday were patchy and despite having a detailed debrief of the day from Craig Barr and some focused advice we didn't have the sort of exchange of intelligence that we normally do.

On Monday the wind rose very strongly in the morning and many got wet and tired in the difficult condition. Craig Barr warned us that every day on Rutland is different and in the end Monday didn't add much to our total knowledge of the fishery. The evening meal at the Odd House was well received by all as usual and we actually had a full squad of 14 for the competition on Tuesday without having to fish Bill Jones as we had to last year (to devastatingly good effect).

On the day of the event, as usual, the Army and RAF dictated where to fish and our team started out using the techniques described by Craig Barr. After the first hour it was obvious that our team had reverted to type and were going back to favored methods. What was abundantly obviously was that both the Army and the RAF were exchanging information on lines and flies by previously understood codes and our people didn't have the range of lines to copy successful methods. In the end the RAF had 78 fish, the Army 61 and we had just 23; our worst showing for some years. Paul Vine, who was unable to attend any of the practice days, was our best rod at 4 fish for 8 lb 13 ½ oz. He was followed by Martin Lester-Hinchliffe, Mark Glass, Nick Tompkins, Chris Anderson, Spencer Gorton, Ed Smith, Neil McFarlane and Ed Cain in that order of success. Two who counted in our best 12 blanked so we really missed some of our stronger team members who were unable to make the event for operational reasons. I look forward to Al Mundy and Damien coming back into the fold next year.

Al Mundy will be taking over as Secretary next year and Damien will be running the AMFC matches. Oh well! Better luck next year.

We all had good times but learnt some painful lessons this year that we must use to change our approach in the future.

Secretary's Cup
Total FishBest Fish
Total WeightBest Bag
Average WeightBest Boat
Rod Average
Fishing Report
Despite being a Sunday, the normal intrusion by sailors dropped to nothing after a while due to the near total lack of wind but they did have an impact on the fishing. Conditions were overcast for most of the day with the sun putting in only occasional appearances. 15 of the potential 20 places were taken up with the odd number being made particularly odd by Ron Tutt not being able to make the event. As usual, Keith Howard ended up on his own and only managed a single fish.

There were six blanks but there were fish to be caught. Bob Jones broke his blank on Chew and ended up with two fish compared to the three his boat partner (Tony Wilkinson), which they found behind Denny's. Many found fish in front of the Sailing Club but also found lots of perch. If you counted perch I don't think anyone blanked. Along with the perch there was also the problem of the wildly optimistic sailors inching their way out of the Sailing Club and clogging up drifts. Moving away from the sailing club to get away from stooging yachts and perch was probably a mistake but most did move.

The biggest fish of the day (at 3 lb 4 oz) was caught by Tony Wilkinson, which put him in the lead for Best brown in competition of the season. The best Bag of the day went to the Secretary with 4 fish for 9 lb 7 oz using a Di 3 line on a washing line with a black boobie with green eyes and three nymph droppers fished on a quick figure of eight and long pull every 15 - 20 seconds. The Secretary's Cup was awarded to Al Mundy for his help throughout the season and his effort in running the AMFC matches for the second half of the season. Al Mundy will be awarding the Cup next year since he has taken over as Secretary

Trafalgar Shield
Total FishBest Fish
Total WeightBest Bag
Average WeightBest Boat
Rod Average
Fishing Report
A chilly start with freezing mist sat on Bushyleaze soon cleared into a warm bright day with just gentle winds. The normal strong winds that generally make some parts of the fishery un-fishable were absent so all of us were able to get access and fish where we wanted to. Most people managed to catch their 4 fish limit with hours to spare and Bob Jones left early having got his limit by 1130. Out of 18 Anglers, 13 caught their bag limit of 4 fish and no one blanked.

Mark and Noel only had 2 and 1 respectively but they did take time out to go to the local pub for dinner with Mark's mum. Taff Rowley had 2 fish on his first outing with the association and Martin Lester-Hinchliffe and Ted Peck struggled ending up with just one fish each. There were plenty of fish over 3lb and the winning bag went to Al Mundy with 15 lb 9 oz from just 4 fish. The best fish was caught by Chris Anderson with a 5 lb 6 oz fish that came to a black fritz goldhead that was nearly two inches long. Black and green flies fished slowly seemed to be the most effective but if you went to the bay on the right, with the lodge at your back, early in the day it seemed as if the fish would take just about anything.

The assembled company agreed that this year's Trafalgar Shield was the best for many a season and Al Mundy closed the event by taking on the role of Game Secretary and proposing a vote of thanks for Lin's work on the web site, which was warmly supported, and finished with, "oh and cheers for your bit Chris"!