Northern Intersite 29th August Oaks (Maple and Poplars)

Well the big day had finally arrived! Hopefully all of Simon’s hard graft would pay off and the day would run without a hitch. We were running a £10 optional which would pay the top four and also there would be prizes for the top two teams. Section prizes of £20 per 5 men made up the rest of the prizes.

Due to the differing squad sizes it would be an impossible task to fairly peg out equal team sections and award points at the end so it was an open draw and the top 6 weights in each team would make up the final team results.

In total there were 123 pegs for us to have a go at and with all 59 individuals turning up it was great to see that no one had let the side down! Tom kindly pegged the lakes for us and put 61 pegs in, generally peg one miss one to give everyone plenty of room!

After cutting out all the individual peg numbers and folding them up they were chucked into the draw bag and we were underway! Rob Hitchens got the draw underway and started picking out his team members pegs, duly managing to pull out 7 pegs on Maple and 1 on Poplars. By the time it got to Talk Anglings draw we presumed that all the Maple pegs had gone, fortunately we had a near enough even split; and my home for the day, Maple 32. I wasn’t too down heartened as apparently there had been a few fish showing recently in this area, I’d fished peg 31 a couple of weeks previous and although catching a few fish I was blown away (quite literally) by the gale force winds! And in truth it looked like this was going to be the same story today!

My main aim today was to beat Mr Hitchens who was round on peg 36! As well as getting a good weight for the team score!

I set up numerous lines, one in the margins to my left where Woody had informed me there was a slightly deeper spot from when they were clearing the reeds out! I then had a sedge rig, a mud rig and paste rig to fish at the bottom of the slope in about 3ft of water.

Bait today I had I had 4 and 6mm expanders, some dampened micros, a plethora of hard pellets and some cat sh*t.

The all in was called at 10:30, it was nice to have a bit longer to set up! I threw a handful of hard 6mm pellets down the edge and then shipped over to my sedge line. As usual by tipping in a few micros and armed with a 4mm expander I started to get little knocks before my first fish was in the net, a small carp of maybe 10oz.

I’d love to say I went back out and repeated the process for the rest of the day but that would be lying! By swapping between lines I managed to put the very odd fish in the net but the going was extremely slow and the wind was horrendous!

I tried the paste line a few times during the match, one time just as I dropped the paste in my elastic shot out as a fish had taken it on the drop, bit peculiar I thought but landed the fish to realise I’d hooked its eye, lovely!

The wind got so strong at one point that I got my method rod out of the car, first put out and I landed it butt up against the mud, perfect! The tip slammed round and I came back with a scale! How do you foul hook on the method!?

After scrapping every possible method about 3 times the match was brought to a close! Thank you lord! I must have lost more than I caught, for no known reason! I still can’t think now why I lost so many fish?

Anyway I quickly packed up and went and weighed in Poplars where some good and also some not so good weights came out. On my return I discovered what I myself had weighed for the day……11lb 11oz, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this as I didn’t think I had 10lb!

Back to the café and a quick maths lesson gave us the results for the day:

Poplars Lake

Peg Name Team Weight
1 Musselman YF 11-0
5 The Indian YMA 27-14
7 DAZ YF 21-08
9 R Edwards TA 8-2
11 Roger Gardom TF 37-4
13 Chris Shaw TF 25-12
15 John Iddon Big Bash 4-15
17 Steve Guy Big Bash 10-13
19 Botham YMA 18-6
21 Andy Fieldhouse TA 16-10
23 Hammy YF 0-3
25 Budd Nudd YMA 38-14
26 M Bates YMA 11-7
29 S Kelly Big Bash 30-10
31 Ben Rowbotham Big Bash 2-8
33 Johnny Mac TF 26-2
35 Steph YF 47-12
37 Simon Short TA 24-2
39 Oscar YF 8-8
42 DNW
44 John O'Driscoll TF 27-12
46 Malcom YF 4-9
49 Juzzy Big Bash 15-3
50 Nodrog TF 32-4
52 Nicky Dodds TA 21-4


Maple

1 M Hill YF 2-3
3 Steve Riley TA 43-03
5 Nigel Cook TA 18-15
8 Steve YF 6-10
10 Roger Young TA 8-10
12 Barney Big Bash 14-11
14 Mich Herrington TF 19-03
16 Jonathan Broadbent TA 24-12
20 Mike Hammond Big Bash 22-08
22 Kev Allen Big Bash 16-15
24 Mick Davison YF 1-11
26 Ian Gillies TF 12-3
28 Dan Hickman YMA 16-11
30 Dean Marsh Big Bash 18-07
32 Steve L TA 11-11
34 Chris Kendall YMA 28-06
36 Rob Hitchen Big Bash 7-6
38 Ricky Roberts Big Bash 12-10
40 Paul Atton Big Bash 13-04
42 Rob Walston Big Bash 2-08
44 Ricky Barker TF 8-08
46 W Mountain Big Bash 13-6
48 Matt Bailey YMA 20-4
50 Tom Gibson YF 0-3
52 Phil Sanderson YF 0-13
54 Steve Knowles TF 17-12
56 Lee Simpson TF 28-12
58 Noddicus YMA 15-05
60 Craig Melling TA 16-10
62 Art Hilmi Big Bash 32-10
62a Steve Gerrard TF 64-0-0
64 Tony Nottger TF 29-10
65 Simon Young TA 16-10


Teams - top six weights

TF Red - 186lb 10oz
Yorkshire Match Anglers - 147lb 6oz
TF Blue - 143lb 2oz
Talk Angling Red - 117lb 14oz
Big Bash 2 - 116lb 8oz
Talk Angling Blue - 92lb 9oz
Big Bash 1 - 91lb 15oz
Yorkshire Fishing A - 64lb 4oz
Yorkshire Fishing B - 58lb 15oz

Individuals

1st Steve Gerrard 64-0
2nd Steph Armitidge 47-12
3rd Steve Riley 43-3
4th Budd Nudd 38-14

Overall a very enjoyable day in great company, just a shame the fishing was so terrible! I’m sure next year will prove to be more fruitful, although I did beat Mr Hitchens!!