Sell-out King’s Lynn AA Open Match

Mac Collett swings in a waggler-caught roach on his way to a match winning 20:14 net (click for bigger picture)

Drawn around 10 pegs down from Hilgay Bridge, he saw off a 60-strong field which included four-times world champion and England legend Bob Nudd, top matchman Mark Pollard and England manager Mark Downes.

While most opted to pole fish a third of the way across the channel, Collett got into a different rhythm, trotting a waggler down the flow.

Third placed Steve Hanstead nets a slab in the last 15 minutes (click for bigger picture)

Incredibly, no-one else followed suit as the Harleston-based Nisa Waveney man caught steadily off the bottom almost throughout the match, to put 20lbs 14oz on the scales.

Afterwards, he said all had gone to plan apart from some pike trouble in the third hour when a jack snatched a roach off the end and things went quiet for a while.

Steve Hanstead with the three bream and a few bits which made up his third-placed 18:07 (click for bigger picture)

Asked why he was the only angler on the entire match length who hadn’t set a pole up, he joked: “I’m an old age pensioner – I’m too tired to fish a pole.”

The roach were slow to get into the mood, with many struggling to string bites together for the first half of the match. The channel was pulling off and clumps of floating weed weren’t helping the cause.

Mark Pollard, pegged close to Collett, put an 18lbs 13oz net of redfins together with some classy pole fishing and pin point feeding to come second.

On the other side of the bridge, former world champ Bob Nudd MBE worked hard for 12lbs 3oz after a mediocre draw.

Sean Cullen, from King’s Lynn, with a fine 3lbs 12oz perch (click for bigger picture)

With two empty swims to his right, the roach were flitting in and out of his peg, as he tweaked his feeding and battled to keep them in front of him.

Third-placed Steve Hanstead, from Walpole Cross Keys, went all out to win sitting it out on the feeder and chopped worm.

He managed three of the Cut-Off’s legendary slabs, around 5lbs each and a few bits for 18lbs 7oz, but went home knowing a lost bream of similar stamp had cost him the match.

Londoner Andy Mead could also justly complain that Lady Luck wasn’t quite on his side, despite some fine roach in his fourth-placed 17lbs 12oz net.

Mark Pollard, who put in a polished performance, coming second with 18:13 (click for bigger picture)

“I only really caught for two hours,” he admitted after weighing in. “But I’ll come again – I like this place.”

Nearby it was the same story, as local rivals Lewis Murawski and Adam Playford slugged it out on adjacent pegs for 16lbs 7oz and 14lbs 14oz respectively on pole and maggot, after an almost biteless first two hours.

At the other end of the match length, England manager Mark Downes struggled for a bite for the first three, before the roach started playing ball and 12lbs 4oz of them saw things his way.

Four-times world champion Bob Nudd battles to make the most of a bad draw above Hilgay Bridge (click for bigger picture)

Elsewhere, Sean Cullen might have been out of the money but he shrugged off the ribbing from the next peg when a 3lbs 12oz perch took a shine to his single maggot and put up a feisty scrap.

“I had to put another section on to turn it,” he said. “I was fishing at 12 metres, it bottomed the elastic out at 14.”

Chinese takeaway boss Dave Lee also endured his share of the leg pulling, with cries he was feeding his secret recipe chow mein from up the bank every time he reached for his landing net in the first half of the match.

He was shaking his head wondering what went wrong for the second, as his swim died on its feet, after dishing up 13lbs 10oz.