AMFC Round 1

Report From Neil Jones:

As I said to Grant yesterday post match, it was a little hectic at the weigh in, so was not fully aware of the procedings, so until 'official' results come out, the following report is a little sketchy.

After meeting up with Chris & Dave at their B&B the night before to get some intel, it appeared that buzzers were the order of the day. So after meeting up in the car park, Stu Ellins also turned up, and we were good to go.

All four divisions were at Hanningfield for the 1st match, so there was a plethora of conversation, and even one car with a ready to go fly tying kit in his boot!

It was a bright sunny day, with a moderate wind, with the occasional gust to make it slightly uncomfortable out at the top end of the reservoir.

Chris, Dave & Stu all headed for the peninsula (along with most of the fleet), whereas my boat partner took me along to middlemead, and we were joined by another 3 boats.

Using the tactics that Chris & Dave advised, I also added a cruncher, and waited to see what happened.

By midday, the waves were so uncomfortable at middlemead, that we were forced to retreat back towards the inlet, where there was no waves at all. By this time, I had been smashed on the cruncher, and got a nice 3lb 4oz rainbow on a stealth buzzer - thanks Chris & Dave.

When I got to the inlet, I found Stu was on 1, and Chris had 3, but the general consenus was it was a difficult day.

All 4 boats from our team stayed between the inlet and the goldfish bowl, but not a lot of rod bending was seen, so my boat partner and I ventured back towards middlemead, where I lost another couple

The last hour was spent BACK at the peninsula, where it turned out that Chris, Dave & Stu had all added to their tally, and at the weigh in, we were suprised to find that Bristol only had 2 of their team catch fish, and the other team (the name escapes me due to the sheer amount of people at the weigh in as said before) again only had 2 fish.

This meant that the fish that Chris (5), Dave (5), Stu (3) and the one I caught, meant that we won the opening match of the season!

Overall, there were LOTS of blanks, and I only heard of 2 bag limits. I believe that there were somewhere in the region of 60-70 anglers?

Anyway, I was told at the beginning of the season, that the emphasis was on staying in the division, after all the hard work that had gone into getting us into Division 2, so a 1st place will take a bit of the pressure off the next matches!

Many thanks for Grant allowing me to fish this match (having never been there before), but the rest of the guys who fished deserve all the credit as they caught more fish than me, and it also showed that a practise the day before pays dividends - duly noted!

Onwards and upwards!

P.S. If I resign tempoarary captaincy now, I can remain undefeated!!