“TIME TO GET READY FOR A GLORIOUS MATCH RETURN”

LIKE many match anglers, I joined the mad scramble to fish a match before lockdown came into force, and that saw me off to the Old Hough Fishery near Sandbach for the Tuesday open.

There are fisheries where I seem to keep drawing in the same area, and Old Hough is certainly one of them. This time I drew peg 14 on Lower Benbo Lake – so that’s pegs 14, 15 and 16 in my last three visits. I wouldn’t mind, but at this time of year it’s the wrong end of the lake.

However, some new carp had been stocked and the first few hours were really good, fishing pellet to the bottom of the far shelf at 12m to them. Then I went across into the shallow water to pick off three 6lb carp before the weather turned cold and the fish cleared off! Fishing maggots kept me busy for around 10lb of silvers to see me weigh in 42lb, which got me fourth overall.

So that’s it for a month now. No matches! What will I do with myself? Well, first of all we’re lucky to still be able to go pleasure fishing, so I’m not going to whinge about matches being banned. I’ve got lots of filming and features to crack on with, so I shall still be getting out. I don’t think we’ll be missing much, as November is very hit-and-miss.

With luck, the month will fly by and we can concentrate on matches again. I’ve got a few festivals to prepare for and some silvers matches at Hampton Springs, so there’s plenty to look forward to – and plenty of time to tie rigs. The joy…

“We’re lucky to still be able to go pleasure fishing, so I’m not going to whinge”