MoreSpiders, henceforth known as Spiders, took the cup with a late run of fish at a bright and breezy Press Manor. A poor performance by pre-match favourite Bryan Baron allowed the North West trout ace to win a close contest. “The result was hanging by a thread, but I kept plugging away and won a nail biting contest.” Was the somewhat worrying quote from the winner of this fly only competition. Here is the story of an exciting day out Oop North…..
The atmosphere in the car park at Press Manor was electric, but sadly lacking in flat caps and whippets, as the competitors gathered for the annual trout day. Rumours abounded as it emerged that one of the pre-match favourites Graham ‘Trout Pout’ Marsden had failed to show and that two time winner Gary ‘Trout Pellet’ Knowles had succumbed to a pre-match attack of flatulence. Rumours that Trout Pout had been discovered in a Castleford love nest with Deanos’ mum and Auntie Kathleen caused a buzz of excited conversation, but will only be confirmed following the publication of exclusive pictures in next week’s Sunday Sport.
As usual we were warmly welcomed by Bernie, the fishery owner and treated to a hot cuppa and a rundown of the best methods. A stern warning was issued to Headmaster Hinchley when, after one of Bernie’s alsations paid a close interest in his bag, a search revealed a selection of trout pellets superglued to size 14 hooks. Claims that these were ultra realistic tyings by a top Ribble fly angler were treated with the contempt that they deserved. An excited crowd then gathered around Kevin Perkins’ car as the TickleTackle supremo revealed the latest top of the range HEG branded gear. Unfortunately one of the more observant onlookers noticed the arrival of Neil Maidment who apparently had been fishing from the early hours of the morning, sussing out the best swims and no doubt hiding trout in the margins at various points around the lake. Only quick intervention from Bernie prevented him being lynched with a WF7F fly line from one of the trees in the car park. At half past eight a Le Mans start saw a mad gallop for the better/more sheltered swims, which was won by Lord Paul’s ‘man’ who was clad for the occasion in his England athletics vest and a pair of running spikes. After a few minor scuffles it all settled down and quiet descended over the lake, broken only by the voice of MoreSpiders who appeared to having trouble teaching the finer points of fly fishing to Posh Paul, who was apparently a very slow learner. I started in one of the gaps in the trees on the west bank, but after a close encounter with one of them I decided to brave the wind on the dam wall. This proved to be a good choice as I hooked and lost a fish immediately, the successful method being a black buzzer fished at about 8ft under an indicator (or a pike bung in the words of Mr Baron). Another lost fish and an inspection of the point fly revealed that I’d been fishing a guaranteed ‘catch and release’ system as the hook had opened out in its encounter with the tree.
The commotion attracted attention and I was joined on the dam by Chavender and Maidment. As the water was gin clear and the fish were taking close in I was fishing sitting down on one of the platforms, a technique that was copied by my neighbours, prompting the loud comment from Headmaster Hinchley that it “looked like proper match now.” Once I’d replaced my point fly with a ‘skinny’ diawl bach I began to catch fish at regular intervals, one of which was my first blue trout. By the lunchtime interval I was leading the match with 4 fish closely followed by Neil Maidment and Wobbly Face with 3 fish each. Headmaster Hinchley claimed 4 fish, but as one was a foul hooked gudgeon and the others appeared to have been caught on ledgered trout pellet, he was disqualified. Bryan Baron had unfortunately been losing fish steadily all morning on a prototype ‘half strength’ leader donated to him by TickleTackle. We headed off to the Three Horseshoes for a pint and some of their excellent fish and chips, leaving Spiders behind to “give Posh Paul a few more tips” or so he claims.
The afternoon session got off to a slow start and after a fruitless hour on the dam wall I moved off to east bank of the lake to see if I could winkle out a few fish. A quick fish saw me edge further out into the lead, before it all went quiet again. Luckily I was now fishing next to Kevin Perkins and I used the opportunity to negotiate an exclusive deal with TickleTackle, so expect to see me in the weeklies shortly, peering out over the back of an obese carp caught from a swim in the next county after a 3 month stint using one of their exclusive bait helicopters, with full night flying capability. As the afternoon wore on I saw my narrow lead disappear as Wobbly Face (as per Ed), henceforth known as WFAPE, started to catch on the dry fly, much to the approval of Lord Paul, who, it had to be said, was struggling to apply the concept of upstream Dray Flay to a lake. A few more fish to WFAPE saw me resign myself to another trophy-less year, but it emerged that the match had been won by Spiders who’d been catching steadily at the eastern end of the dam and ended up with 9 fish. Back at the car park Mr Baron handed over the trophy to Spiders to a smattering of applause and a lot of light hearted banter, before we all set off home to plot our tactics for next year. I was slightly miffed to see that several other cars were sporting the Tickle Tackle HEG sticker so no doubt Mr Perkins had made a handsome profit from the trip.
Many thanks to Chavender, who kindly volunteered to record catches and mediate in disputes.
Press Manor Day catch and release tickets are a bargain at £ 11 and a 3 fish ticket (followed by catch and release) is £ 18.50.
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