Gold Valley Lakes. Syndicate Lake. July 20th, 2002.

Gary Hamilton’s Kid’s Fishing Day.

For the 2nd year running I had the privilege of travelling down to Ash to help out at a kids fishing match at Gold Valley. This is organised by Gary Hamilton who is the Team Captain of Fox Match Banstead. It’s a fun day out, more than a serious match with the emphasis being on making sure that the kids have a good time and catch a few fish, the proceeds of which are donated to a charity of the owner, John Raison’s choice.

Arriving nice and early it was straight into the clubhouse for a full English breakfast to set us up for the day, then into the tackle shop to collect the bait.
Then it was back into the clubhouse for “The Draw”.
Now at this point we had all forgotten to allow for the enthusiasm of a group of youngsters, and by the time everyone had drawn and Gary got up to announce the rules etc, he was speaking to an empty clubhouse as the cavalry charged off to Syndicate Lake.

Syndicate Lake…..

At least we had plenty of time to set up, as the all in was at 10·15am.
Fishing with me was young Patrick Corneille 6½, and the idea was to keep it simple, just a feeder rod and a 6 mtr pole.
It was a gorgeous day, real t-shirt and shorts stuff and to start off it was straight out on the feeder to try and get an early Carp.

“Come on tip,go round”

Well !!!!!!! The best laid plans and all that . This turned out to be the day that the fish didn’t want to play, but we soldiered on, and after about an hour the tip sailed round resulting in not the expected Carp, but a Bream of about 1lb. Still we were off the mark and it was soon followed by it’s twin brother! At least we were catching, some others were not so fortunate.
15 minutes till the lunchtime break and BINGO!!! Mr Carp decides to try and take Patrick for a swim, but after a dogged tug-o-war Patrick wins with a nice 5½lb common nestling in the net. 

Next came the civilised part, all back to the clubhouse for a spot of lunch & a cold beer before the start of the 3-7 shift.

Patrick wanted to try the pole in the afternoon, first put in on the 6 mtr line and CRASH-BANG-WALLOP, Patrick was briefly connected to a real lump until the hookhold gave way.
Try as we might for another, the only fish to oblige for the rest of the session were a few hungry Roach & Perch.
Then with a ½hr to go the heavens suddenly decided to open and soak everyone, but it couldn’t dampen the kids enthusiasm come the weigh-in.

“What does it weigh?”

Young Talen couldn’t lift his net,so enlisted some help..

and he got his Dad and Gary to help show off his biggest Carp

So with the weigh-in completed, it was back to the car park for the results and Presentations.

1st	Talen Hamilton	38lbs06ozs
2nd	Rachel O’Leary	23lbs 08ozs
3rd	Joe O’Leary	21lbs 08ozs
4th	Charlie Shephard	21lbs 05ozs
5th	Robbie Clampitt	15lbs 10ozs
6th	Cameron	15lbs 08ozs
7th	Mike O’Leary	12lbs 15ozs
8th	Roxanne Finch	11lbs 12ozs
9th	Patrick Corneille	11lbs 08ozs
10th	Kenso (Belgium)	11lbs 02ozs
11th	Abbey Tingley	11lbs 00ozs
12th	Cloe Tingley	5lbs 08ozs

All the children received a reel & goody bag of tackle, with the 1st & 2nd getting landing nets and bait waiters to go with everything else. But the biggest prize of all were the smiles on everyone's faces at the end of the day.

Thanks again to Gary Hamilton for organising the whole thing, and rest assured I’ll be there to do it all again next year if needed.