WHITTLE WINS A CLOSELY FOUGHT AVON TUSSLE
Manor Angling (Thurs) Warks Avon, Twyford (59 pegs)
THIS first open run by Manor Angling produced some great weights, and none better so than the winning 68-8-8 taken by river ace Hadrian Whittle.
The Daiwa/Advantage Baits rod found the bream at peg 19 on the straight to get the nod by one fish from Daiwa Gordon League’s John Curtis on 66-7-0 from peg 9.
It was the start of a great
opening week on the rivers for Hadrian, as a few days later he booked his spot in the RiverFest final on the Trent.
“I hadn’t been on that bit of river for years and back then, the peg I drew was never one you’d want, but on arrival it looked lovely,” Hadrian said.
“Several lines went in on the pole and waggler and I first caught on the long pole with maggot over groundbait, snaring a couple of hybrids and a small skimmer. Then a bream rolled across by the far-bank trees, but I hadn’t set a feeder rod up. I soon did, though!
“A dozen feederfuls of bait went in quickly, but I went back on the pole to let it settle. I nicked a couple of bream so I was confident they had to be on that feeder line,” he continued. “Once on the tip with worm and maggot, I had a great rest of the match, landing seven more bream, a big tench and around 25 smaller skimmers. At the scales, John Curtis was leading with 66lb. Luckily, my fish went 68-8-8, enough to take the top spot!” RESULT: 1 H Whittle, Daiwa/Advantage Baits, 68-8-8; 2 J Curtis, Daiwa Gordon League, 66-7-0; 3 P Morris, Cadence Bait-Tech Superteam, 57-3-8; 4 G Smith, Sensas Smithy’s, 37-12-0; 5 S Appleton, Manor Angling, 36-3-8;
6 T Chalk, Sensas Manor Angling, 31-0-0.