Wychavon Parish Games Angling Match 2015

The Wychavon Parish games were started in 1978 and as far as I know are unique. 35 Parishes enter competing in over 15 different types of event from bell-boating to petanque(boules), darts to cross-country. Each year there are over 1000 participants with trophies awarded for first and second place in each discipline and an overall trophy for the winning parish.
This weekend was the angling(the only match fishing I do). Teams of three from each village fishing in three different sections on the Avon in Evesham. Points are awarded in each section, first place one point, second two etc. and the team with the lowest points is the ultimate winner. Last year (with the same team, myself, Ady and Don) we finished second, this time we wanted to go one better!

I drew peg nineteen a bland featureless section of uniform depth and with nothing in the margins, this was going to be tough I thought to myself. And so it proved. It took me an hour to catch my first fish a Dace of minute proportions, I followed this up with a minnow. Thankfully those fishing either side of me were struggling too.
And then the sun came out. Halfway through and I had about half an ounce in the net. There were fish in front of me topping every now and then so I decided to shallow up and cast to the ripples resulting in an instant bite. The instigators of the rings were Bleak. I managed to get several more bites landing about ten of them, bumping off several and losing a few to finish the match with a meagre paltry three and half ounces. However this was enough to beat the anglers either side of me and quite a few in my section.

Ady and Don had fared better in their respective sections and we finished the match in joint first place. In the event of a tie the total team weight is taken into account and sadly we were pushed down into second place. Ady had lost a two pound Chub which could have made all the difference, If I had landed two more Bleak to get to four ounces then that would have made the difference too.

Match fishing can be a highly frustrating sport!!

Next year, next year!!!