Saturday 12th May marked a welcome return to the anglers from BLESMA (British Limbless Ex Serviceman's Association) for their annual West Midlands meet. This year saw nine (9) anglers take part on Woodside pool in very warm and still conditions. Fish had been showing signs of getting ready to spawn in the build up to the match and could be heard crashing around amongst the marginal growth around the island. Anglers were instructed before the match to split their fish and give the margins a miss if there were signs of fish moving in to spawn.
With the fish a little preoccupied, fishing on the day was a little hit and miss for the most part. However, as the day wore on, many started to catch with some lovely fish showing to double figures.
Winner on the day was last year's winner, Dave Watson. Dave drew peg 12 and started his match fishing over to the island on the method feeder with 8mm pellet on the hook. Dave was straight into fish, but his bites dried up within the hour. A brief spell on the pellet waggler produced a couple more fish before Dave finally went down his edge at around 3pm to find carp in numbers, again to 8mm pellet, over loose fed 4mm's. Dave ended the day with 37-04-00 to win the event for a second consecutive year, much to everyone's dissatisfaction!
Finishing close behind in second place was Lee Bagley, who drew peg 16 on the dam wall. This was Lee's first visit to Woodside and opted to keep things simple. Lee caught well for most of the match on the waggler finding some good sized carp before switching to his edge late on to find some better quality fish to weigh in 25-08-00.
Completing the top three finish on the day was Roger Fullbrook, who drew peg 20. Roger endured a slow start to the match, but persevered to find some decent carp amongst the roach and skimmers to offer 24-04-00 to the scales.
The biggest fish prize was taken by match organiser, Nick Tuck, from peg 8 with a superb 11lb ghost carp caught on the bomb with sweetcorn over micro pellets.
A huge well done to the anglers that took part in this year's event and a special mention to Dave Lewin, who for the second year running, beat his personal best match weight and biggest fish!
We look forward to welcoming BLESMA back again next year when we have plans to make it much bigger and better!
1st Dave Watson, Peg 12, 37-04-00, Method feeder / pole & pellet in the margins
2nd Lee Bagley, Peg 16, 25-08-00, Waggler
3rd Roger Fullbrook, Peg 20, 24-04-00, Feeder
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