--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 in spring like conditions at Trenley Lake and at Stour Lake’s south bank. The temperature rose to fifteen degrees and with no wind and a little overcast, conditions were good.
This season’s cup was lifted by Andy King with a great 37lb 14oz total from Stour Lake that included eight good sized bream taken on his feeder rod.
Fishing from the Trenley Lake shallows on the south bank, Dan West feeder-fished worm to weigh in 24lb 8oz for second. Dan’s tally included seven bream and a few rudd.
Tony Eversfield secured 21lb and third spot, ahead of another fine weight of 17lb 12oz caught by Mick Wilson for fourth.
The Association’s Saunders Cup was fished just before the weather improved and the biting easterly wind made for very difficult conditions with several of the seventeen competitors packing up and going home before the match was over.
Those who did persist caught on average two to four pounds of fish, but all agreed the fishing was hard.
This season’s match was fished at Grove Lake and the clear winner was Clive Eversfield who landed 13lb 8oz of roach and rudd with float and pole tackle.
Alan Caine reeled in 9lb 8oz for second ahead of Steve West with 6lb 5oz. Fourth place went to Andy King with 5lb 3oz.
The most successful baits were single maggot and bread punch which produced good quality roach and rudd.
Our Christmas Shield was fished again this year at Cottington lakes in Deal.
Nineteen competitors enjoyed a great day on Black Lake in ideal conditions with Alan Smith lifting this season’s Shield hooking a fine weight of 25lb 1oz of skimmer bream and roach.
Steve West weighed in 20lb 5oz of similar fish for second just ahead of his son Dan West with 18lb 12oz. Andy King’s 17lb 7oz was another great total and secured him fourth. The junior competition was won by Hanna Boden with 6oz.
Pellet baits fished over a bed of groundbait were the favoured tactics employed by all the top weights. The lake had been fishing rather hard of late and clearly improved in time for the match.
The ever popular final competition of the year was well supported and the raffle prizes from Blean Angling in Canterbury were well received.
This season’s Cooke Pike Cup was held in atrocious conditions at Fordwich and Trenley lakes. Only four adults and one junior braved the immediate aftermath of Storm Angus with wet and windy weather persisting throughout the day.
Unfortunately junior angler Henry Weir did not weigh in this year and could not emulate his junior and senior match win last season when he banked six fish for a splendid total of 27lb 2oz.
Two of the adults also didn’t weigh in but the first and second placed anglers both caught three fish each. John Hosking was the clear winner with a total weight of 22lb 8oz. John’s best fish was 12lb 12oz. Second placed Steve Matthews banked smaller jack pike for a total of 12lb 12oz.
Congratulations to all those who took part and to our Bailiff Jon Weir who helped throughout the day.
The annual Match Group Cup (which is open to all Association members) was fished at Grove Ferry on the River Stour, upstream and ‘E’ section.
At the 3pm whistle Mark Taylor was the clear winner with 24lb 8oz of fish, nearly ten pounds ahead of second placed Andy King with 14lb 10oz.
All the anglers had a great day with a real mixed bag of fish. Our Competition Secretary Dan West reported quality skimmer bream, roach, chub and perch all coming to the net.
Third position was taken by match-expert Glenn Brett who finished with 13lb 7oz ahead of Mike Brett with 12lb 14oz and fourth.
This season’s Ron Edwards Roach Competition was fished at Plucks Gutter.
Mark Taylor lifted this year’s trophy with 16lb 5oz of roach ahead of Glenn Brett with 11lb 2oz. Third placed Bob Allcott landed 8lb 14oz while just two ounces split third and fourth when Dan West hooked 4lb 12oz and Andy King 4lb 10oz. Top junior was Hanna Boden with 15oz.
In comparison last year’s match was won by Brian Malyn with a tremendous 23lb 11oz of roach in his keep-net. Mark Taylor’s 23lb 2oz was another fantastic all-roach weight that secured him second place in 2015.
This season’s Open Competition was fished on the River Stour in near perfect conditions with the tide coming up and the weather set fair all day.
Forty one anglers fished sections E and F at Grove Ferry and section A at Plucks Gutter. Members and non-members of the Association enjoyed lots of fish with Kevin Dyer lifting this year’s trophy with 23lb 11oz from peg E11. The second placed angler Tony Crossley was also fishing at Grove Ferry but drew a peg on F section and finished with another great weight of 16lb 11oz taken from F9.
The third and fourth placed anglers drew pegs at Plucks Gutter, with Howard Henbest weighing in 15lb 12oz and Barry Chapman 14lb 9oz from pegs A5 and A15 respectively. Mark Taylor’s 11lb 5oz earned him fifth position fishing from F11 at Grove Ferry.
Section winners this year were Colin Ottaway from A7 with 11lb 4oz, Jason Lay from E6 with 8lb 6oz and Jim Miles fishing in peg F10 with 10lb 12oz.
CDAA member and match-regular Hanna Boden was the top junior with 7lb 5oz from peg A3 and ‘Foreman’s Four’ finished as the winners of the team of four event weighing in 52lb 6oz and including Steve Foreman, Barry Chapman, Jason Lay and Kevin Dyer, ahead of Open regular competitors Tonbridge A with 31lb 4oz.
Approximately 240lb of fish was caught giving a most respectful average of approximately 6lb per angler. At the close of what turned out to be a tremendous day for all those who took part, Association committee members Dan West and Brian Mankelow thanked the Grove Ferry Boat Club for their kind hospitality again this year.
This year’s Association Blundell Cup was contested at Trenley and Stour Lakes between 9am and 4pm by thirteen members but no juniors.
The midsummer sun and warm conditions made fishing particularly hard work. Jason Hart’s efforts resulted in a total of 23lb 1oz of mainly bream, which gave him first place. Jason caught the fish from the Trenley Shallows using feeder fish tactics.
Close behind was Andy King with a still very respectable net of fish at 22lb.
There was a bigger gap between second and third, with Colin Durman’s 16lb 7oz taking third, and fourth place was taken by 11lb 14oz caught by Steve West.
Only a few ounces separated the top two weights at this year’s night time Wacher Cup.
Andy King was this season’s winner with 60lb 8oz just inching ahead of Colin Durman with another good weight of 59lb 1oz.
Ellis Titheridge came third with 50lb and Dan Boden fourth with 13lb 2oz. Steve Foreman weighed in 8lb 10oz for fifth and Steve West finished with 8lb 3oz for sixth, in real contrast to his winning weight in last year’s Wacher Cup of 137lb 8oz.
This year’s Stonar Charity Shield was fished from Friday to Sunday at Stonar Lake. The competition is open to members and non members of the Association and this year’s donations were in aid of the ‘Caring for Connor’ charity.
The largest fish caught over the weekend wins the match and this year Dave Abbatt won with a mirror carp of 20lb 4oz caught from the Beaches swim alongside his fishing partner George Hof. George finished in joint second place with an 18lb common carp sharing the second position with Adam Maxted who also landed an 18lb common carp. Adam fished alongside Ricky Jarman on a swim on the road bank.
Twelve pairs and one single angler fished over the three day match in very windy conditions. Lots of bream were caught throughout the match.
Match organiser Brian Allen confirmed just over £2,000 had been raised at the time of the match for this very worthwhile cause with further monies due to be collected.
Only two juniors fished in this season’s Goldsmith Cup at Trenley Lake. When the whistle went at 1pm, Isabella Johnson won the closely fought competition with 5lb 13oz just ahead of Hanna Boden with 5lb 6oz.
Both girls had a great time and fished very well. Isabella and Hanna both went home with excellent prizes generously donated by Blean Angling based in Tyler Hill Road, Blean.
This season’s all-night Baldwin Cup for carp and tench was won by Garry Johnson with a 7lb 3oz Carp, from Fordwich.
Garry is a new member of the Association and was thrilled to have won, especially with a relatively small carp. Unusually no other competitors weighed in.
Last year’s winner Ellis Titheridge fished on Trenley Lake which was out-of-bounds for this season’s match, so his tench landed were not counted.