Egan hooks first place in annual shield competition

SATURDAY saw Measham AC stage their Annual Hibbert Shield Committee match on the Jubilee Pool where members looked forward to some super fishing, however, the fish had other ideas and the result was a very close call.

The winner of this event was Gerard Egan on peg 2 who fed caster and worm to the far bank and then fished caster initially to catch some nice roach. When they dried up a switch to worm and maggot brought reward in the form of perch to end with 2lbs 12ozs and the trophy. Second place went to Dave Wileman on peg 3 who really struggled for bites until towards the end of the match. Feeding groundbait and fishing pinkie or maggot over the top at 5 metres he caught the odd small perch until the last hour when he went out to 7 metres. That produced some nice roach, rudd and hybrids to give him 2lbs 10ozs. third place went to Graham Whyte on peg 1 who fed and fished pinkie and maggot to the far bank to catch a nice net of small roach, rudd and perch to end with 2lbs 2ozs.

Sunday saw Shackerstone AC stage an open match on the Gopsall Wood section of the Ashby canal where previously fish had fed well and anticipation was high. Most anglers really struggled though but the top three competitors all managed one bonus fish very early on which made such a difference.

The winner on peg 2 was Andy Morton who fed and fished bread to the far ledge and on his put-in snared a lovely bream around the 2lbs mark. That was followed by several small roach and within half an hour of starting his bites dried up.

As the last half hour began, he did manage one nice perch on worm down the track to end with 3lbs 7ozs. Second place was taken by John Gamble on peg 10 who managed a few small roach and rudd on bread from the far ledge. Switching to worm down the track saw him net perch and skimmers and again, given the match was 4 hours long, by 10am he had caught virtually all his fish and ended the last 3 hours with an odd small perch to finish with 2lbs 12ozs. Third place and just as bizarrely was Andy Smith on peg 9 who fed pinkie & worm and caught a big perch around 1.25lbs under his feet on pinkie first put-in, followed by four more smaller perch.

A switch to the track on worm produced one more perch and from 9.30am he had no more bites and ended with 2lbs 6ozs.

Sunday sees Measham AC stage their Annual Open Pairs competition, draw 7.45am at the Globe.