South East Reservoir Championships – report and pics
Perfect two section wins give Brian title on weight over two days at Kent reservoir
Sussex angler Brian Nesbit took on the cream of southern match angling – and the elements – to be crowned Drennan south east Reservoir Champion at Bough Beech Reservoir.
The NuFish man scored a perfect two section wins to take the £3,000 top prize in the 60peg final.
Posting five-point section scores from both the grassy bank and dam wall areas of the Kent water, Brian ended up tied with former Essex County star Gary Miller on 10 points, meaning total weight then came into play. But Brian had enough in hand to take the win by a little under 7lb, thanks largely to a superb opening day bag of 44-10-0. Ending the event with 59-8-0 saw Brian take the cash and an Acolyte 13ft Distance Feeder rod from competition sponsor Drennan while Gary, on 52-14-0, had to settle for £2,500 and an Acolyte rod.
Daiwa man Nick Howell completed the top three as the best of a host of anglers on nine points to bag £2,000 and a rod.
Lashed by wind and rain, the reservoir still produced the goods with skimmers on the feeder and some fine roach catches on the pole despite plenty of pike trouble.
Brian put his marker down early with that big day one haul off the grass bank, backing it up with a 14-14-0 net off the dam wall to earn that all-important second win.
Here’s how Brian conquered the reservoir and the assembled field to take his win…
Day one
“I drew on the grassy bank but to be honest I was expecting to really struggle. The consensus was that the roach weren’t here.
“It’s very shallow on this section, perhaps an average of 3ft on both feeder and pole, and knowing that few skimmers were likely I went for a pole match to try and catch what I could.
“The plan was to kick off at 13m and see if there were roach about. I could bring them back closer and it shows what we know, as there were loads of fish there. By the end, I was catching them on a top kit in just over 2ft of water!
“Six balls of groundbait went in at the start at 13m and from that point I then loosefed, getting through four pints of casters and two pints of hemp fishing a 0.3g float and single maggot on a size 16 hook. Amazingly, there were no pike about either, so I was really able to get into my stride and must have had more than 300 fish by the end.
“To weigh over 44lb was a result, as with relatively small sections there were always likely to be ties on points at the end.
“A bit of a weight advantage would be handy, and being 16lb in front gave me a little bit to play with on day two.”
Day two
“The rotation of sections meant I would be on the dam wall, and I drew one peg off where the section was won from the day before, near the tower. “Even better, the end peg wasn’t drawn so I only had three anglers in my section and was on an end peg! I didn’t really look at the boards from Saturday, though, because I know how the fish can move around.
“With it being so windy and wet, I went for a feeder attack with two lines at 40m and 20m, fishing NuFish Zippla Riser feeders holding groundbait with casters and dead red maggots. I felt putting chopped worm in would only pull tiny ruffe into the peg. On the hook went a dead maggot and a dead fluoro pinkie.
“Patience would be important, as it was a struggle for the first half of the match. I had only a handful of small skimmers for around 2lb and plenty of pike trouble. When I changed to the
short line it improved and I picked off skimmers, just enough to keep me in the hunt.
“I felt it was close for the section between me and Terry Harrison to my right, but in the final half-hour I had four skimmers and a hybrid. I couldn’t get the feeder in fast enough and thought they might just get me over the line. In the end, though, I won the section by almost 6lb!”
The runner-up
For second-placed Gary, the feeder played little part in his attack as the Maver/Bait-Tech man stuck to pole tactics and enjoyed two great days’ fishing for roach to weigh in 28-9-0 and 24-5-0 from the yacht club bank and dam wall respectively. “I began on the feeder on day one in the yacht club area, but it was very slow and I was soon on the pole at 6m as it was very windy. Feeding groundbait and fishing caster on the hook I had a brilliant day, winning the section and sitting second overall on weight,” Gary explained.
“Day two on the dam wall was more or less a carbon copy of day one. The feeder wasn’t great, but on the pole it was a bite a chuck.
“Again, I fished at around 7m with loosefed caster after I balled in groundbait on a 1g rig but it was hard to line up the better roach. It was a case of ‘head down and catch a fish every chuck’, regardless of size.”
Day one result: 1 B Nesbit, NuFish, 44-10-0;
2 G Miller, Maver/Bait-Tech, 28-9-0; 3 R Taylor, Preston Innovations Delcac, 24-9-0; 4 N Howell, Daiwa, 24-0-0; 5 A Laycock, Paddock Wood, 21-8-0; 6 I Germaney, Preston Innovations Delcac, 20-12-0.
Day two result: 1 D Davies, Drennan, 36-5-0;
2 C Ryall, Copthorne DAS, 35-8-0; 3 M Nowicki, Garbolino Blackmore Vale MG, 35-6-0; 4 P Lawton, Tubertini, 31-9-0; 5 F Brown, South East MG, 29-00; 6 J Driscoll, Monk Lakes, 26-12-0. Overall result: 1 B Nesbit, NuFish, 10pts (59-8-0); 2 G Miller, Maver/Bait-Tech, 10 (52-14-0);
3 N Howell, Daiwa, 9 (47-5-0); 4 R James, Banstead, 9 (41-4-0); 5 P Wrighting, Guru/Mainline Match, 9 (36-7-0); 6 G Pook, Drennan Oxford, 9 (31-7-0).