Saturday 1st August 2020 saw twenty seven (27) anglers pegged across the whole of the complex for a special one-off NHS fund raiser event. The match was ran and organised by local men Leigh Harbutt and Bryan Burley in an effort to help raise money for a fantastic cause during what have been extremely difficult times for everyone in the face of the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Woodside pool
Topping the field on Woodside pool was Adam Pearsall from peg 1. Adam found quality carp to around 12lbs down both his edges to corn and pellet to weigh in 69-08-00.
Finishing in second place from peg 19 was Bryan Burley. Bryan started well on pellet waggler tactics but, like most, as the match progressed the fishing got more and more difficult with just odd fish coming to shallow pole and pellet tactics during the final half of the match. Come the end of the five hours, Bryan offered a level 47lbs to the scales.
Rounding off the top three finish on Woodside was the ever-consistent Scott Rhodes from peg 14. Fishing pellet shallow on the pole for most of the match, Scott was able to catch cruising fish to weigh in 37-04-00.
1st Adam Pearsall, Peg 1, 69-08-00, Pellet & corn in the margins
2nd Bryan Burley, Peg 19, 47-00-00, Pellet shallow
3rd Scott Rhodes, Peg 14, 37-04-00, Pellet shallow
Island pool
Island pool was won by Garbolino's Les Thompson from peg 14. Fishing pole and pellet shallow over to the island, Les found a few carp before switching to casters for silverfish late on when bites became difficult to weigh in 48-00-00.
Finishing close behind in second place was John Moore with 41-02-00. John caught most of his fish during the first couple of hours of the match on dead maggot down his edge to finish narrowly ahead of third placed Mike Hartland, who offered 40-02-00 to the scales.
1st Les Thompson, Peg 14, 48-00-00, Pellet to the island & casters short
2nd John Moore, Peg 12, 41-02-00, Dead maggot in the margins
3rd Mike Hartland, Peg ??, 40-02-00, Pellet & corn short
Charlies pool
Charlie's pool was won by Mark Williams who drew peg 2. Fishing pellet shallow and short Mark was able to keep a steady number of fish coming to the net to weigh in a final 61-07-00 and put plenty of daylight between him and second placed Dave Watson.
Dave (Maver / Bait-Tech) drew neighbouring peg 1 and opted to fish a method feeder with 8mm banded pellet for the full five hours to weigh in 32-08-00.
1st Mark Williams, Peg 2, 61-07-00, Pellet shallow & short
2nd Dave Watson, Peg 1, 32-08-00, Method feeder
Although the standard of fishing on the day didn't quite live up to expectations, it was a superb day enjoyed by everyone for a cause especially close to a lot of people at the moment. Taking into account entry fees, money raised from raffle ticket sales and a very generous donation from Steve Hughes - aka the Pink Fairy - (pictured above) a grand total of over £1,300 pounds was raised on the day for the NHS.
Well done and thank you to all the anglers that took part.