Match Stick

As bad luck goes, it was the equivalent of being struck by lightning twice – in those days, more than a thousand anglers fished it. He went to his peg, as he had the previous year, and sat there forlornly for a day, then went home, packed away his many match fishing trophies, and never went match fishing again.

Illustration by Mark Williams

I’ll admit here and now, I’m no match angler. I’ve had a few goes in social events, and got a win and some section prizes, but it never has appealed to me much. An old mate of mine – a pike angler – pointed at the match anglers on the Nene once and said: “Just look at them. Grown men fishing for things I caught on a bent pin and put in a jamjar when I was five…”

To my mind, if I have to tie a size 24 I can hardly see, to line as thin as a spider’s web, I’ve lost the plot. I’m not saying there’s not skill in match fishing – tying the hook deserves some sort of prize – but where’s the pleasure? I no more understand this than I understand recognised track events like ‘running fast in a circle.’ And even athletes don’t start off with an unlucky dip in which some have to remove their shoes, some have one leg tied to the other, and some start 200 yards further forward.

I’d like to reflect that commercial fisheries have improved match fishing. They’ve certainly made size 26’s less useful. But though they’ve upped the size of the average fish – and added some that can really twang your elastic – they still have good pegs and bad. More than this, I worry that they are ‘dumbing down’ angling so that newcomers no longer know how to read a swim, fish running water or how to walk a mile.

There may be other knock-on effects; more often than not, the England Internationals are found fishing stock ponds most weekends, on the sound basis that, the more fish there are to catch, the more likely they are to win. They’ve got a living to make, after all.

But how does this prepare them for the World Championship – always fished on running water? Could this be the reason England didn’t fare well in Portugal? I’ve no idea, but it’s a possibility.

I sincerely hope that the fact that our rivers are faring slightly better these days will encourage more match organisers and anglers to get back to their roots. I well remember watching Steve Gardener fishing a stick float when he was with Dorking in the Division One National (I don’t remember the year). It was breathtaking – I had never seen more skill in my life, and the roach he caught weren’t bad.

And I admired former Angling Times editor Allan Haines, who could cast a waggler to within two inches of the far bank every time, and caught some great chub from right under the bushes to win a match or two.

But there you have it. Allan doesn’t fish these days. Guess what he does do for fun? Yep. Running fast along footpaths. Match fishing – either you get it, or you don’t.