Rookery Waters Pidley weights hold up well
A big change of temperature at the start of the weekend saw anglers rushing for their winter clothing and at a full house at Rookery Waters it looked as if anglers were going to struggle, writes Ken Wade.
So it was something of a surprise that the weights held up quite well.
Leading the way was one of the area’s top young anglers Tom Edwards. He caught well early in the match, fishing pellet shallow, then later switched to pellet and paste down the margin to finish with a very respectable 125lb 10oz.
Pushing him all the way to the very end was Lee Marlow, who was another angler fishing pellet on the long pole but finished just short with 124lb 14oz. In third place with 106lb 8oz was Ben Townsend.
Jay Lake was the venue for the Thursday £1,000 qualifying open and a strong side wind made presentation difficult but Tony Watling made no mistake from peg 33, weighing in 118lb 2oz. Runner-up was Martyn Freeman who fished 2+2 on meat for 104lb 14oz and booked his place in the final in August. Third place went to Kevin Watkins on 99lb 10oz.
It was back to winning ways for local rod Kevin Peacock in the latest Wednesday over 60’s match on the Magpie Pool peg 12. He caught on meat, weighing in 116lb 14oz. Runner-up was John Belshaw on 101lb 4oz, followed by Roger Abbott with 99lb 6oz.
In the latest Spratt’s AC match it was Martin Parker leading the way on the Cedar Pool on the Decoy Lakes complex. He drew peg 22 and caught well, fishing sweetcorn over a bed of pellet weighing in 136lb 1oz. Mick Raby took the runner-up spot, fishing a pellet and paste approach to finish with 127lb 13oz. Then came Trevor Cousins on 97lb 11oz, catching his fish on sweetcorn.
The action is hotting up at Buttonhole Fishery. In the Tuesday evening match Les Barry took the honours with a fine 194lb net of carp, most were caught fishing shallow with pellet fishing on the long pole over to the island from peg 18, although he did have several big fish late on from the margins on meat. Andrew Carter came in second with 138lb, then came Louis Johnson with 80lb 8oz.
On Sunday it was the turn of Fenland Rods to tackle the big carp at the fishery and it was no surprise to see some very impressive weights recorded. Top rod was Peter Parlett, who took nearly all of his winning catch on the pole fishing floating baits on the surface, weighing in 159lb 15oz. Runner-up was meat expert Dave Garner. He caught all day on his favourite bait on running line, putting 137lb 4oz to the scales. In third place was Alan Golightly on 83lb 14oz. Then came Mac Campbell and Kev Lee, they sat next to each other and both weighed in a level 80lb.
Fishery boss at Townsend Lakes Colin Begbie took the top spot on the venue’s popular Kingfisher Pool on Sunday with 57lb 10oz taken from peg 10. Colin fished a small method feeder over to the island and later switched to a long pole line with pellet fished shallow. At the next peg was Alan Owen, who caught on the pole with worm and red maggot, weighing in 45lb 8oz. Then came John Whitcombe on 40lb 11oz.
