The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Matt’s strong finish settles a nail-biting three-day event
One of the most popular fixtures of the year is the Decoy Lakes three-day festival. It always attracts a very strong field through its gates and this season’s event was no different.
As always it was a nail-biting finish with several anglers in with a chance of taking home the coveted trophy.
Day one saw some good weights taken. Richard Bond topped the Beastie Pool with 179lb 12oz, with Stewart Bracey top on the Oak with 156lb 11oz.
Day two usually sees some upsets with good anglers struggling for section points after poor draws and that’s what happened as early front runners faded, but Matt Wiles, Tom Edwards and Lee Kendal came through almost unscathed.
City rod Kendal did all he could on the final day winning Beastie with 176lb 6oz, Edwards did the same on Oak weighing in 149lb 11oz, but festival winner turned out to the consistent Wiles, who came third in his section on Oak, so took the honours.
He ended on the same points as Kendal but over the three days had a bigger weight advantage.
Decoy 3 Day Festival (Full Result)
Day 1 Beastie: 1 R. Bond, 179lb 12oz; 2 B. Bell, 137lb 14oz; Oak Lake: 1 S. Bracey, 156lb 11oz; 2 M. Arnold, 141 lb 12 oz; Willows :1 M. Wiles ,188 lb 7 oz ;2 J. Brooks, 175lb 2oz.
Day 2 Beastie: 1 C. Williams, 278lb 7oz; 2 T. Edwards, 137lb 3oz; Willows: 1 S. Stepney, 199lb 11oz; 2 S. Godfrey, 158lb 15oz; Oak: 1 T. Dawson, 176lb 11oz; 2 R. Bond, 164lb 2oz.
Day 3 Beastie: 1 L. Kendal, 176lb 6oz; 2 S. Godfrey, 153lb. Oak: 1 T. Edwards, 149lb 11oz; 2 B. Chatterton, 110lb. Willows: 1 D. Proud, 169lb 8oz; 2 D. Pettigrew, 111lb 4oz.
Overall: 1 M. Wiles; 2 .L Kendal; 3 T. Edwards; 4 S. Bracey; 5 D. Pettigrew.
DEEPING ST JAMES AC
Evening matches usually produce a few better weights and in the Deeping St James AC once a year evening event on the club lake at Wansford the short match produced some very respectable nets.
The winner was Colin Fisher on peg 18 with 62lb 10oz. Fishing the long pole at 11 metres using worm for the first half of the match then switching to paste for a total weight of 35lb 7oz made up entirely of bream.
Second was Ron Needham on peg 19 who was fishing his first summer match this year with 54lb 15oz caught on sweetcorn and pellet, followed by Brian Johnson on peg 39 with 51lb 15oz.
COCK INN
Cock Inn had one of the best turn outs of the year fishing over at North View Fishery at Gedney Hill.
In the match and making a return to winning ways was Chris Shortland from peg 3 with 136lb 7oz. He fished to the corner of the island on the feeder with pellet.
Second was Gary Sell with 101lb 6oz using feeder fished to the island on pellet and corn. Mick Sidney came third putting 95lb 1oz to the scales. He pole fished cat meat and corn at six metres.
Entries were so high the new extension at the lake had to be used.