Supercup semi from Partridge Lakes
...and their man Lee Bennett storms to individual win
THIS year’s semi-finals were concluded with a Northern leg at a hot and still Partridge Lakes in Cheshire.
Five more teams made it through to September 17’s final, local lads Trafford Angling making their knowledge of the venue pay with a 21-point team card to win, three points clear of Patricroft AC.
Kerr’s of Ossett took third on 26 points. Fourth and fifth places went to St Helens Angling and Mosborough Tackle Box on 28.
St Helens had the advantage there, thanks to a third in section. It was also a successful day on the individual front for Trafford, as Lee Bennett made a plum draw on Canal 1 count to win the day with 158-12-0.
Scoring two section wins and two thirds along the way, Trafford ensured a good draw on paper translated into fish in the net and weights at the scales.
The former champions adopted a relatively simple approach for the five canal lakes. This involved fishing light and focusing on caster shallow to catch F1s and ide, the main target species at the fishery.
“We all fish Partridge a bit so we know what the score is, but there’s a danger when you fish a venue as an individual that you can struggle to get your head around what needs doing in a team match,” said team man Wayne Rooke.
“We agreed before the start that the aim was to get good points from whatever peg we got.
“So we forgot about trying to fish to win the section – we were always going to get pegs that you couldn’t win from in the first place.
“It was always going to be a shallow match using caster down the middle for the ide and F1s, but we also fished across to the mud line and in the edge with maggot and groundbait to try to nick the odd carp,” Wayne continued.
“Each lake has a slightly different stocking policy with more carp in some, more ide in others and more F1s on yet another and this also played a part in our stretegy. For example, Canal 4 has a lot of carp in it so I was feeding my edge early on to catch them, while on Canals 3
and 4 there are plenty of decent ide. These too played a key part.”
Trafford kept things nice and tight, fishing light lines and small hooks and only feeding little. They varied the depth down the middle between 12ins and 3ft, and with plenty of room between anglers, there was always going to be an ample chance of snaring a big carp or two in the edge.
Team result (top five qualify for the final): 1 Trafford Angling, 21pts; 2 Patricroft AC, 24; 3 Kerr’s of Ossett, 26; 4 St Helens Angling, 28 (section thirds); 5 Mosborough Tackle Box, 28; 6 Stainforth Angling Centre, 29; 7 Strayside Anglers, 33; 8 Barton Kingfishers, 38; 9 Pelham AC, 43.