Better known as the colin ambrose memorial match was fished on sunday on the aquadome and harrow waltonians stretch of the river colne, this was my first river match for some time,In fact I did wonder if a return to scraping for a few ounces or the alternative being lucky at the draw bag and having one or two big fish would be enjoyable, needless to say I drew a reasonable peg but no big fish showed so it was winkling out what I could , being plagued by bites from minnows too small to take a full maggot was a nightmare however the odd gudgeon and a few perch on chopped worm saw me weigh in 1lb 9oz for 4th in section, good results from the rest of the team resulted in a team win by one point over Harefield, Steve Groves caught his first river barbel for a fourth in section,a few more perch for John Brennan on chopped worm gave him 3rd in section and our top man Tony Corbett had two big bream, his biggest 8lb10oz and a personal best plus a few small perch for a section win and 3rd overall with 13lb 10oz, on the harrow waltonians stretch that me and John fished it was a bit of a mega walk however the preston shuttle did really make light work of the job and I arrived at the peg without a sweat on, but more to the point was I actually enjoyed the match I fished a stick float down the river,even putting a shell on the hook to see if there was a roach or two around but to no avail, however all my fish fell to pole, a couple of chucks with a maggot feeder did result in bites however connecting with fish was a problem, I daresay I will run back to the next commercial and appreciate a bagging session even more having had such a low weight on the river, but it was surprisingly enjoyable so much so that i am already looking forward to next years match something I thought I would never say about the river colne, Firstly a big thankyou to the organisers Gerrards cross, uxbridge rovers and Harrow waltonians, only sad thing was that only 11 teams contested this river title which is a bit of a shame. Great match and refreshingly different from carp puddles.
TF_simon pavey.
