Lemington Lakes. Gloucestershire. Westminster Lake. October 8th, 2005.

Maggotdrowning.com

 Individual Championships 2005.

Today it was an early start as the destination was Lemington Lakes, just outside  Moreton In Marsh in Gloucestershire, the venue for this years Maggotdrowning.com Individual Match which had been organised by Vince. Thankfully the trip there went smoothly and by the time I pulled into the car park at 8am the sky looked to be promising a decent day despite the forecasts, but then Malc The Jinx Doyle had yet to arrive.
Breakfast served up by Andy and Debbie Machin who own the fishery, was a good plateful that set everyone up for the day ahead. People were arriving from all round the country promising a good turn out, new faces meeting old and friendships renewed once more which is what these matches are all about.

Nick(Neo1) had been victim of an alarm malfunction however, which resulted in Malc and Gemma arriving in the Jinxmobile just as the sun was replaced by grey clouds and the wind started to blow.

Back to the function room and 34 anglers assembled for the draw, conducted with Vince’s usual precision, curses were uttered and info sought as it became clear who would be fishing where.

Down at the lake it soon became clear that The Jinx was indeed in attendance as the sun promptly disappeared, the wind started to rise and the sky took on a more ominous shade of grey.

I had drawn peg 25 with Steve12 to my right,

and Simon(me) and MarkC to my left.

Plumbing up all I could find was 2½ft until I got to 13mtrs, where a small drop off gave me an extra foot, and this was where I decided to fish despite the wind making presentation a struggle. Having had a couple of hours practice the previous day I had decided to fish GOT BAITS 6mm expanders over GOT BAITS 4mm hard pellets to keep things simple, and just concentrate on the 1 line.

At the ALL-IN MarkC was soon off the mark with a decent Carp to meat on the straight lead that weighed 12lbs 7ozs. Ady (bigladwigan) had had a Carp of around 5lb 1st put in on corn and Steve12 had a quick couple of Skimmers on the feeder but was struggling for consistency as conditions worsened.

After about 30 minutes I had my 1st Carp of about 1½lbs but it was a real struggle presenting a bait with the wind, but slowly a few more fish found their way to the net.
I was struggling with the occasional foul hooker, but was gradually putting a weight together as I had the 13mtr line to myself as others around me chopped and changed tactics trying to find elusive fish on what was proving to be a very hard day owing to the conditions.

With a couple of hours to go The Jinx could be heard wandering the banks dishing out his own unique brand of encouragement. Steve12 decided the England football match on TV was more inviting than sitting it out as the rain started, leaving me effectively with an end peg.

Then The Jinx arrived at my peg along with the heavier rain that appeared to be following him and proceeded to give the entire lake a running commentary on my struggles. His hilarity when I pulled out of a lump finally leading me to ask him to FOXTROT OSCAR.
The last hour turned into a real trial of endurance, and with a few minutes to go I was into another decent fish that didn’t feel quite right. Softly softly was the course of action and with a couple of minutes to go a nice Mirror surfaced with the hook in its pectoral fin. I netted it and popped it into the keepnet just as the all out was called.

The weigh-in proved just how hard it had fished and with half the lake weighed in SteveW was leading with 32lbs 8ozs. When it got to MarkC it was going to be close, but as Mark put his fish on the scales he realised to his horror that 1 of his Carp that must have been around 4lbs had escaped and the scales only gave him 32lbs 4ozs.

When it came to my turn I was quietly confident and thankfully the scales backed it up, registering 47lbs 8ozs.

Back to the function room for a welcome cup of coffee, the presentations and raffle.

I have to say it was nice to see Vince looking so happy at handing me the Trophy.

On to the raffle and it was good to see the prizes shared around amongst those present, I even managed a bottle of Islay single malt to round the day off.
It had been agreed that the proceeds of the raffle would be donated to the winners charity of choice, so it was my pleasure to donate the £104.00 that was raised to The Kirsty Appeal (Francis House Hospice).

I would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Vince who put a lot of effort into organising the match, Malc, Gemma & Dirk for their help on the day, Andy and Debbie Machin and their staff for looking after us at their cracking venue, that we didn’t see at its best due to the conditions on the day.

Finally to all The Maggotdrowners that attended, Thanks for coming, hopefully we can do it again next year in better weather.

RESULTS.

1st	Peter(Mugger)Morton	47lbs 08ozs
2nd	Steve Wilson	32lbs 08ozs
3rd	Mark(mark c adroit)Causer	32lbs 04ozs
4th	Nick(Monkey)Watkins-Price	28lbs 06ozs
5th	Nick(Neo1)Williams	25lbs 12ozs
6th	Bobby (BobbyG)	21lbs 08ozs
7th	Dirk(The Dangler)Williams	16lbs 14ozs
8th	Darren (Badatfishing)	15lbs 12ozs
9th	Richard(Brigg-Ric)Tuxford	15lbs 02ozs
10th	Ian(fish4alarf)Venn	13lbs 05ozs
11th	Dave(Red Leader)Webster	11lbs 12ozs
12th	Vince(vg1037)Gould	11lbs 08ozs
13th	Lee (LG)	10lbs 08ozs
14th	Midge(Midge99)Milnes	10lbs 04ozs
15th	Matt(Bricktop)Schofield	9lbs 10ozs
16th	Dave(Dave The Fish)Collier	9lbs 00ozs
17th	Malc(The Jinx)Doyle	7lbs 00ozs
18th	Andy(Andy222)Felton	6lbs 04ozs
19th	Keith(Gandhi)Ashby	6lbs 00ozs
20th	JMCLincoln	5lbs 14ozs
21st	Adrian(bigladwigan)Wood	5lbs 12ozs
22nd	Dave(Cleggy)Senior	5lbs 10ozs
23rd	Nick(Slimcatcher)Bryan	4lbs 02ozs
24th	Sue(Nora)Senior	8ozs
	Matt Nutt	DNW
	Steve12	DNW
	Simon(Me)Rowley	DNW
	Colin(The Pike)Sharrard	DNW
	John(Arkwright)Anderson	DNW
	Martin O (Muskrat)	DNW
	Roy(Royst)Ravenhill	DNW
	Benno	DNW
	Nick(Big Sedge)Sedgwick	DNW
	Barry(Barrie44)Walker	DNW