The PR Floats charity event welcomed thirty six (36) anglers to Woodside Fishery. Anglers were pegged across the two main match lakes - Woodside and Island pools - with a stand-alone six peg section in on Charlie's pool. Conditions on the day were not ideal with high pressure brining with it plenty of warm sunshine resulting in the resident carp cruising in the upper layers showing very little interest in angler's baits. That said, it was very much a match of two halves with anglers enduring a relatively slow to middle part of the match before fish started to show both short and in the margins. The final hour and half of the match produced frantic sport for most - especially those pegged on Woodside pool - with over 70lbs needed in the end to finish in the main frame.
The event paid out the overall winner across all three lakes with additional prizes being awarded to lake winners and section winners on each lake. Lake winners received £65 with section winners collecting £40.
Overall Result:
Overall winner on the day was Wayne Boden (Steven's Tackle / Black Country Match Anglers), who drew permanent peg 4 on Woodside pool in the channel close to the island. Like most, Wayne was able to find odd fish throughout the day, but struggled to get into any sort of rhythm. However, an inspired change of tactics which saw him fish maggot over groundbait on just his top kit in front of his keepnet, resulted in a late run of quality carp averaging 4-7lbs with better fish up to around 9lbs. Wayne caught quality edge fish for the final hour and a half of the match to finish with 126-09-00, which was enough to secure overall victory.Wayne collected £100 plus £36 super pools.
Wayne was able to switch his margin line on to turn his match around
Finishing in second place overall on the day, and winning Island pool, was Richard Green (PR Floats). Richard drew peg 9 (permanent peg 14) and started his match fishing sweetcorn on the pole over to the island to take small carp and quality F1s for the most part of the match before switching to his margins to boost his catch with quality edge fish late on. At the end of the five hours, Rich offered 100-10-00 to the scales to finish comfortably ahead of the rest of the field on the lake.
Richard Green caught well for the duration of the match
Finishing in third place was Stuart Campbell (PR Floats). Stuart drew peg 15 on the dam wall on Woodside pool and opted to fish most of his match on the pellet waggler to take F1s and carp up to 6lbs. Switching to his margins late on, Stuart then found a better stamp of fish down his inside to weigh in 77-13-08 to finish just 8dr in front of Maver's Dan Bache on peg 9 to win his section and collect £40.
Stuart Campbell slips the net under another good sized carp
Woodside Pool Result:
Overall winner on Woodside pool was Wayne Boden (Steve's Tackle / Black Country Match Anglers) with 126-09-00 from peg 4. Wayne caught late on fishing short on just his top kit with maggots over groundbait to take quality carp up to 9lbs.
Finishing in second place on Woodside pool was Stuart Campbell (PR Floats). Stuart drew peg 15 on the dam wall and found carp and F1s to pellet waggler tactics before switching to his margins late on to finish proceedings with 77-13-08.
Local rod Dan Bache on his way to a third place finish on Woodside pool
Finishing close behind in third place was Maver's Dan Bache (Bag 'Em Baits). Dan found himself on fancied peg 9 round the back of the island and opted to fish long across to the far side cover to find small carp and F1 hybrids before switching to his margins late on to finish with 77-13-00.
Maver's Rob Cooksey secured fourth place from peg number 5 in the channel close to the island. Rob had a relatively slow start before finding a few fish during the middle part of the match down the track. However, a switch to his right hand margin with a couple of hours to go paid dividends with a good run of quality fish during the final throws of the match giving him a final weigh of 64-10-00 and a section win.
Rob Cooksey found himself on plenty of fish
Steve Todd (PR Floats) finished in fifth place on Woodside from peg number 17 on the dam wall. Tufty started his match fishing the pellet waggler to take good-sized carp and big F1s before switching to his margins late on. Unfortunately for Tufty, his edge fish did not show in the numbers he was hoping for having gone fish for fish with Stu Campbell for most of the day and finished the match with 57-01-00.
Event organiser, Phil Reynolds, does battle with a hard fighting Woodside margin munter
Event organiser, and PR Floats man, Phil Reynolds (Marukyu Hereford) finished in ninth place on the day drawing peg 19 on the dam wall. Fishing meat down his inside over corn, Phil found carp late on in the day to end the match with 35-13-00.
Island Pool Result:
Winner on Island pool was Richard Green (PR Floats) with 100-10-00 from permanent peg 14. Richard caught well for the majority of the match managing to catch small carp all day on the long pole over to the island and later down his margins.
Second place was taken by Dave Lightowlers, who drew peg 23 close to one of the islands. Starting his match fishing to marginal cover, Dave took a few good-sized fish early on before finding carp in numbers down his inside to end the match with 55-10-00, winning his section in the process.
Dave Lightowlers found a good stamp of fish down his edge
Finishing close behind in third place was Chris Senter (Shakespeare / Alan's Tackle), who drew peg 18 on the point of the island. Starting his match fishing tight to the far side cover, Chris was able to find odd carp, but was also plagued by small silvers. Later, Chris switched to his left hand margin with maggots over groundbait to find bonus edge fish and boost his overall final weight to 51-10-00.
Andy Newton (Stewponey AC) finished in fourth place from peg 7 winning his five-man section with 38-08-00.
Also winning his section to finish fifth overall on Island pool was Blake Hobbs (Alan's Tackle), who drew peg 2 on the dam wall weighing in 22-15-08 from a notoriously difficult area.
Charlie's Pool Result:
With massive pleasure weights being taken from Charlie's pool in the days leading up to the event, the six anglers that drew the pool had high expectations. Unfortunately, however, the resident carp and koi had other ideas and showed a complete lack of willingness to feed. Weights, therefore, were disappointing.
Overall winner on Charlie's pool was Simon Dicken (Black Country Match Anglers) who drew corner peg 1. Opting to fish short and down his inside, Simon found small carp and silver fish to weigh in a modest 28-12-00.
Simon Dicken topped the six man field on Charlie's pool
Luke Webster finished runner-up from peg 5 on the opposite bank. Opting to fish shallow for the majority of the match, Luke was able to find odd carp amongst the nuisance rudd and roach to offer 24-05-00 to the scales and take the section win.
Simon Farmer (Middy Dams & Locks) finished in third place from corner peg 3 weighing in 17-08-00. Fishing most of his match long down his inside, Simon found odd small carp patrolling the margins to finish ahead of fourth place Dave Lewis.
We would like to say a big thank you to all the anglers that took part and helped raise money for a fantastic cause. The weather was kind, the fishing good enough and the banter superb!
2015 PR Floats Charity fund raiser competitors
A special thank you to all of the bait companies that kindly donated bags of groundbait, pellets as well as a whole host of bait-related paraphernalia including Bait-Tech, Dynamite Baits and Marukyu. Thank you to those who donated tackle prizes including Les Thompson (Matrix), MAP, Dan Bache (Maver), Simon Farmer (Middy Dams & Locks), Ben Hughes and PR Floats themselves, who donated several packs of handmade floats. Finally, thank you to Fosters of Birmingham and Mal Storey (Halesowen) for their kind donations. All in all, over twenty (20) raffles prizes were awarded after the match helping to raise money for the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch. With revenue taken from raffle ticket sales after the match and sponsorship money raised through his Just Giving page, Phil raised over £600 - a fantastic effort from all involved.
Such was the success of the event, there were suggestions that this may become an annual event of Phil's! Watch this space for more details.