Results

Husbands & Wifes Match 16/08/08

Hill Farm Lake

Place	Name	Peg	Weight
1st	John & Lynne Tennant	1	10lb 6oz
2nd	Roy & Darna Parkes	9	8lb 8oz
3rd	Keith & Diane Macfarlane	3	7lb
4th	Den & Pat Porter	10	4lb 6oz
5th	Mick & Carol Farmery	5	1lb 2oz
6th	Mick & Val Gray	3	0lb 13oz
= 7th	Barrie & Lindsay Stanley	8	0lb
= 7th	David & Irene Triffitt	6	0lb

 After last weeks deluge during the Ladies match; It was nice to see some pleasant sunshine when I arrived at the lake. The forecast said there would be no rain until around 4pm and I was hoping it would not arrive at all. Anyway back to the lake, the reports that I had received about the fishing at Hill farm were not promising and my own personal experience of this lake after night fishing there a few weeks ago only confirmed my suspicions that we were in for a hard time.

The turnout for the match was up on last year with 8 couples participating in what turned out to be a very frustrating match with only 3 large carp and 1 Bream being caught. The match started on time and progressed very slowly in the first hour with only a few roach being caught. Midway into the second hour and my wife hooked into what was obviously a largish carp. This worried me greatly as I had only 5 sections of my pole out and loaded with 3lb bottom, size 20 hook with a number 10 hollow elastic (My 6th section broke in my little accident during the Ladies match). Anyway after what seemed an age cajoling the better half into the finer aspects of fishing, the carp finally succumbed to the inevitable and I landed the fish. I need not have worried because the carp, unusually, seemed to be very dormant with no real fight in it, it did not even manage one serious run. All went very quite again until the 3rd hour when John Tennant launched into a carp on his feeder line. After what seemed like an eternity and being taken to the island and then down into the corner he finally managed to land what turned out to be a carp of around 9lb in weight. Just after this Den Porter landed a nice Bream of about 3.5lb followed by Keith Macfarlane landing a carp of around 5.5lbs which again came in very easily. The only notable action after this was both Den Porter and David Triffitt losing carp.

The match ended dead on time and we all happily packed up and weighed in. It was clear, by now, that generally the fishing had been pretty awful with the 1st three places being decided by solitary large carp, with a few roach and one Bream thrown in for good measure. In fact 2 pairs had blanked on a lake that last year was fishing its head off.The winners were John and Lynne Tennant with 10lb 6oz out of peg 1, the runner up was myself and my wife Darna with 8lb 8oz from peg 9 and the third place was Keith and Diane Macfarlane with 7lb off peg 3.

The presentations were made in the usual way and afterwards we all started to make our way home. It had been a very frustrating fishing session and I hoped that the lake would, in future, get back to its former self. I myself was very glad I had not blanked after turfing my wife (who had caught all of our fish) off my seat box to catch my only fish of the day which must have been all of an ounce in weight.

My final thought on the match was that my day will surely come sometime..... I dream that I can hit upon the perfect formula, where everyone has a good days fishing and I still come top. Ah well the best dreams, they say, are made in heaven....

Regards, A hopeful Roy

Many thanks to Roy for all of his efforts in organising the match, and for providing an informative report. To see photo's of the day, just click here