There was a cold wind blowing and the weather had a decidedly autumnal touch to it on Saturday. We had also had a lot of rain during the week which had taken the colour out of the river and the colourometer read 2′ 6″ instead of the 8 -10 inches it had read throughout the summer. That meant that the skimmers would be a lot harder to find than they had been and roach would be making up at least some of the framing weights. The only reason why they would not make up all the weights was the big flood tide that would be running in all day. There were 57 anglers who fished the match.

And so it proved to be, whilst the top weight was mostly skimmers, Tim Nash on peg 93 with 28lb 11oz there were loads of roach caught including equal second placed angler John Taylor who had an all roach and pole caught of 27lb 10oz with fish from 2oz to nearly a pound. Doug Botley also had 27lb 10oz but on the feeder with 11lb of skimmers and 16lb of roach. Brian Gooch had 24lb 4oz of mainly roach and a few skimmers on the tip for fourth. Brian Weavers had 23lb 11oz for 5th. 6th was Peter Dade with 23lb 10oz.

All in all it was a very close match again with quite a few 20lb weights and only 4 weights below 10lb and 2 DNW’s. The section winners were not all 20lb weights this last week but given the time of the year and with a neap ebb tide nearly all day next week I expect it to be a roach bonanza on the pole. Just hope that there isn’t too much wind.