--MANDATORY NOTE TO ALL ANGLERS--
Due to a local outbreak of K.H.V. no keepnets to be used on any still waters. Dip tanks are in place on all stillwaters. Nets, mats and slings MUST be dipped (FULLY immersed) for a minimum of 15 minutes. Keep nets are allowed on the River Stour (only) from the start of the river season.
The last competition of the season for the Bateman Cup was fished at Trenley Lake with match-regular Mick Fell hooking five bream and two roach for a convincing winning weight of 22lb.
Mick, like all the competitors, fished from the Trenley ‘Deeps’ with a feeder rod.
A cold, although not a frosty start, gave way to a generally bright day and quite pleasant angling conditions in the sunshine with a north-westerly wind behind the competitors.
Second placed Steve West hooked three bream, four smaller skimmer-bream and two roach for 16lb 8oz ahead of Brian Malyn with 12lb 12oz and third position.
Brian was unable to emulate his win in February’s Saunders Cup but it was enough to beat Anthony Lavender into fourth with his hard earned 12lb 2oz. Trevor Baker weighed in 9lb 1oz for fifth.
Maggot baits and feeders loaded with groundbait were the most productive tactics on the day. No tench were landed and fewer than normal small roach were taken, with the bigger fish only feeding in the ongoing chilly conditions.
In contrast to last season’s Saunders Cup winning weight of 17lb 12oz landed by Dan West, only three anglers out of the twelve competitors weighed in a few fish this year at Minster’s Brook Lake.
A windy and cold day made for difficult conditions and with just three perch and one tench to his name, Brian Malyn fished well to win with 3lb 13oz.
Steve West landed a 2lb 11oz perch and a small roach for second place with 2lb 12oz, while a single roach was good enough for P.Aylward with 1oz and third.
The 2015 Christmas Shield was fished at Cottington lakes in Deal. The draw was made at 8am in the cafe and fishing on Black Lake was held between 9am and 3pm after breakfast was enjoyed by the sixteen competitors.
The match was decisively won by Steve West with 20lb 15oz.
Steve last won the Shield in 2012, and this season he used pellet baits on a pole to catch his winning tally ahead of second placed Steve Foreman with 19lb 3oz and Trevor Lee with 13lb 14oz for third.
Dan West couldn’t emulate his Shield wins in 2013 and 2014 settling this year for fourth having landed 12lb 11oz.
Match organiser Dan swapped over from the pole to his feeder rod with maggot baits to skilfully catch a few more fish.
All the top placed anglers reported catching skimmer bream to 2lb, with most taken on the pole with pellet.
A chilly, damp and generally typical December day didn’t put off Hanna Boden who continued her super season with another junior competition win with 2lb 7oz.
A clear day with light wind and a maximum chilly temperature of just five degrees gave all this season’s competitors the true feeling of a winter’s day of fishing when they set out to win the 2015 Cooke Pike Cup.
Nothing else went to script with the senior anglers clearly beaten by our junior members on a remarkable day at Fordwich and Trenley lakes.
Junior angler Henry Weir hooked and landed six fish for a splendid total of 27lb 2oz and was the overall match winner ahead of second placed Richard Bacchus with three jack pike for a second place weight of 16lb 5oz.
Richard had won the Cooke Pike Cup for the previous three years and he noted the fishing was tougher than in previous years and although there were plenty of fish showing there were few bites and the sudden drop in temperature the night before was likely to blame.
John Hosking and Wayne Wellard have both reported some splendid weights in past year’s pike competitions and this season John caught two fish for 12lb and third position.
Lucy Matthews also banked two fish for 10lb 6oz and this gave the delighted junior second place in the junior match and a most impressive fourth in the overall competition.
Wayne’s two fish tipped the scales to 7lb 4oz and gave him fifth place.
The Match Group Cup (which is open to all Association members) was fished at Grove Ferry upstream and ‘E’ section between 9.30am and 3pm.
Trevor Baker lifted the Cup with a skilfully caught 14lb 11oz ahead of match organiser Andy King who finished with 13lb 14oz.
Another good weight of 12lb 12oz from Jim Presley gave him third while all the other competitors weighed in fish on a mild but blustery day with occasional rain showers.
Hanna Boden won the junior competition and her excellent weight of 7lb 13oz was also more than enough to finish fifth in the overall match.
Last season the Match Group Cup was fished at Brook Lake in Minster due to the flooding at that time in the Stour Valley. An all skimmer-bream bag of 24lb 13oz gave Dan West the winning weight in 2014.
This season’s Ron Edwards Roach Cup competition was held at Brook Lake, Minster. The weather was sunny and unseasonably warm all day after a foggy and damp 8am draw.
By the whistle at 3.30pm, Brian Malyn was the winner with a tremendous 23lb 11oz of roach in his keep-net.
Mark Taylor’s 23lb 2oz was another fantastic all-roach weight that secured second place and third was Andy King with 18lb 12oz, narrowly ahead of 18lb 10oz hooked by Trevor Baker for fourth.
The twenty one competitors were bathed in sunshine and preferred to pole-fish with light tackle to hopefully avoid the numerous carp bites that would ordinarily be welcome.
Fifth placed Dan West bagged 14lb 4oz of roach and noted his seven carp, each typically 6lb or so in weight, took five minutes to land which is good fun but not during a roach-only match! Dan lost many more carp early on in the scrap.
Junior member Hanna Boden continued her fine 2015/2016 season with another top-junior weight of 4lb 14oz of roach.
Maggots and casters were the baits of choice and relatively small amounts of loose fed hemp and caster kept the roach feeding and the carp at bay.
Thirty three anglers from across Kent fished this season’s Open Competition on the River Stour at Grove Ferry and Plucks Gutter.
The competition for members and non-members of the Association was won by Pat Newman with 13lb 15oz from Plucks Gutter.
Pat from Sevenoaks caught three weighty bream including a fish of 3lb and numerous smaller, skimmer bream and perch. Plucks Gutter also provided the second and third placed anglers with their fish, with Tony Crosby landing 13lb 5oz and Ian Ritchie 12lb 2oz.
Phil Hayward hooked 10lb 12oz for fourth and fifth place went to Roger Trusk with20lb 6oz. Roger and Phil both fished at Grove Ferry.
Rain hampered the conditions from midday and the Stour was already quite coloured, but the conditions clearly suited junior match winner Hanna Boden who caught not only the top junior weight of 8lb 2oz but also the winning weight in that section upstream at Grove Ferry, beating a number of considerably older and more experienced anglers.
‘Tonbridge A’ were the winning Team of Four hooking 36lb 14oz.
Fourteen of our members contested this year’s Association Blundell Cup on Sunday 16th August at Trenley and Stour Lakes.
Using feeder and a pole, Trevor Baker lifted the 2015 Cup with 59lb 12oz of fish narrowly beating Trevor Lee who finished with 59lb 5oz all taken with a float and corn bait.
Both top weights were taken from the Trenley south bank known as the ‘shallows’.
Third placed Jim Presley landed 21lb 8oz and top junior was Hannah Boden with 16lb 1oz.
Eighteen anglers fished the night time Wacher Cup at Trenley Lake.
The top three weights were all from the ‘shallows’ or south bank and the best of these was taken by Steve West with an incredible 137lb 8oz for a well deserved first place.
Steve took all his fish with a feeder rod and dead maggot and pellet baits.
Continuing with the splendid weights Ellis Titheridge landed 107lb 6oz for second and third with 98lb 8oz was Andy Minter.
Trevor Baker weighed in 61lb for fourth, just ahead of Glen Brett with 60lb and Dan West with 49lb 8oz.
All of the weights were in real contrast to last year’s best bags taken from the same location but in difficult angling conditions. Mark Cleary was the 2014 Wacher Cup winner with exactly 19lb of fish.
The Stonar Charity Shield was fished from Friday to Sunday and was hailed a great success with over fifty fish caught from Stonar Lake.
The competition held this year in aid of the ‘Caring for Connor’ charity was won by Philip Coombs and Colin Barker who landed twenty one fish between them with their 20lb 8oz carp the heaviest fish taken from the river bank at Stonar.
The winning duo bagged the Brian Mills framed drawing and the trophies.
Dave McCready and Jeff Davies caught a 16lb carp for second place and third went to Steve Brumell and John Sutton with another carp of 15lb.
The winner of the junior match was Jack Phillips with a lively 11lb 2oz carp, again taken from the river bank, and second placed Henry Weir continued his fine season with a fish of 9lb 2oz.
The Goldsmith Cup for junior anglers was fished at Trenley Lake north bank.
The very wet weather that drastically cooled the air temperature that morning did thankfully lessen for the weigh in when Charlotte Bacchus tipped her keep-net out for a splendid match winning total of 10lb 8oz. Charlotte landed all her small fish with the aid of a pole.
Lucy Johnson used the same approach to catch 7lb 4oz of more small fish for second place although Lucy did weigh in a fantastic 1lb 2oz rudd to boost her tally.
Pole fishing gave Hannah Boden third with 4lb 13oz, again small fish, while fourth placed Alfie Richards landed 3lb 7oz that included two skimmer bream of about a 1lb each and the remainder small fish caught on a pole. Fishing with a sliding-float, Grace Wild hooked 1lb 1oz for fifth that included a splendid conditioned 12oz roach.
Match organiser Brian Mankelow thanked Dan West of Blean Angling for his most generous donation of prizes for the juniors that took part.
This season’s all-night Baldwin Cup for carp and tench was won by Ellis Titheridge with an impressive 46lb of tench. The best of Ellis’ haul was a 6lb 8oz fish taken from the top end of Trenley Lake.
Stuart White opted for carp and fished at Fordwich Lake for a splendid mirror of 21lb 14oz and second place.
Forty two anglers fished the match including four juniors but unfortunately none of the juniors weighed in.
The following two placed anglers also fished for carp at Fordwich and Darren Offen hooked a 11lb 10oz common carp for third and Ady Minter another common of 11lb 1oz for fourth position.