MATCH NEWS
Veterans take centre stage
THE RACE to be the 2020 Drennan Westwood Lakes Over 50s champion went right down to the wire as two anglers emerged with a perfect three section wins following three days of fish-packed action at the Lincolnshire complex.
Richard Kinnersley and Andy Lumb both returned three points, but it was Boston man Richard who won comfortably on weight with over 70lb to spare. That earned him £900, a Drennan rod and various section, lake win and superpool monies. More importantly, he took the title by seeing off the 108-strong field.
Recording 200lb-plus nets over the opening two days, the final clash saw Richard on Falcon Lake while West Yorkshire rod Andy was on Skylark.
Both anglers caught well but, with a healthy weight advantage in the bag, Richard had a safety buffer that meant Andy needed to record a massive weight to overhaul him. So after adding another 142lb to his total, Richard was waiting on Andy, knowing that his rival needed a massive weight to beat him. That never materialised.
Join Richard as he talks us through his final match on Falcon Lake, where nothing but a section win would do….
At the peg
“I wasn’t too unhappy at drawing peg 26 as the whole section is pretty fair. Next-door peg 24 was the best draw of the lot, but I felt I had a good chance of winning the section where I was.
“On Falcon I always keep things simple and at short range, trying to catch shallow at 3m and then in the margins. Fishing long to the island isn’t as quick, and you don’t catch any more fish by doing it.
“Beginning at 3m shallow with white maggots, I soon got the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Experience told me I needed to change to fishing on the bottom – I wasn’t catching fast enough to compete and couldn’t see things improving otherwise.
Changing to the deck
“On the bottom there’s more chance of a big Falcon barbel. I stayed at 3m and, still throwing maggots in by hand, I used a 4x14 rig and caught quite quickly, with lots of barbel mixed in with the F1s.
“The 3m line was good mid-match, but then it began to slow, although I was still in touch. I felt the margins were too deep to catch well, even though Mick Stamp had caught a lot of fish there off the peg the day before. I’d fed it with groundbait and did catch a few carp down the edge – on this lake a quick burst close in can give you 20lb in no time.
At the scales
“My target to win the section was around 160lb. By the end I’d caught roughly 100 fish with a good helping of those barbel, which averaged 3lb.
“It was still a nervous wait, because 140lb is easily manageable on so many pegs in the section, so to win it by 20lb was a relief and a bit of a surprise.
Waiting on the results
“With the section in the bag, I knew only Andy Lumb could beat me and news was that he’d won his section over on Skylark – but with my big weight advantage going into the final match, he needed almost 300lb to overtake me. I’d packed away by the time Andy was weighed in just shy of 200lb.
“Having been third in the same event last year, it’s great to get over the line and win it.”
“I TIPPED BACK ABOUT 40lb WITH AN HOUR STILL TO GO”
ON the fisheries I’ve been coaching or fishing matches on this past week fish have been coming into the peg but not really feeding. Frustrating or what?
Midweek saw me having a crack at making it into the Golden Reel final with a qualifier at Heronbrook. I drew peg 18 on Meadow Pool, one that always produces plenty of bites, but the carp wouldn’t settle. I tipped back about 40lb with an hour to go and sneaked off home.
Come Saturday I was off to Blundell’s Fishery with peg 57 on Trio Pool waiting. Fishing pellet at 9m to a sunken bar and then at 17m shallow to the island I was doing well, but in the margins the same thing happened as in midweek. Fish wouldn’t move into the shallow water and despite both margins plumbing up nicely, I never had a bite there!
My 142-14-0 got me second, but I was annoyed why I couldn’t catch in that final hour.
To round off the week I visited Weston Pools, where I drew peg 4 on the Weir. Chopped worm and caster got me almost every species of fish in the lake, but not enough of the big carp needed to win, and my 72lb was bang average. First, second and third were on three adjacent pegs, the fish were that tightly shoaled!
Where to go next is a bit of a puzzler. There’s a Golden Reel match at Larford and a Match This at Hayfield Lakes. Both could be shockers if I don’t draw right, but I’m leaning towards Hayfield, if only for a look at the lake ahead of the Fish O’Mania final. Qualifying would be nice as well, though!
“The fish haven’t been feeding this week”