--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 Association held the Christmas Shield competition at Stonar Lake and this season’s winner was Trevor Baker with 38lb 5oz comprising of nine bream.
Twenty one anglers fished in strong winds and showers until the final whistle at 3pm.
Second place went to Steve West with another great weight of 32lb 1oz, ahead of third for Trevor Hutton with 28lb 15oz which included a specimen 2lb 11oz roach.
All the competitors fished the feeder including fourth positioned Steve Mulshaw with 21lb 13oz and Dan West with 19lb 8oz for fifth.
Despite the tricky conditions there were some great weights recorded and £54 was raised for Cancer Research UK by the competitors selling bacon rolls and coffees.
The Cooke Pike Cup was held at Fordwich and Trenley lakes, with Dan Boden lifting the 2019/2020 trophy with a very fine weight of 38lb having caught nine jack (small) pike in a busy session fishing at the ‘roach pool’.
Ady Minter was also well amongst the fish and finished with five pike for 18lb. Third place went to Phoenix Minter who also won the junior match with two fish for 15lb. Phoenix’s catch included the heaviest pike of the day, a fish of 10lb 3oz.
Fourth place went to junior angler Henry Weir with another good fish of 10lb.
Fewer anglers ventured out in early November with the weather and conditions taking their toll on catches.
Despite this Fordwich Lake’s ‘faithful’ were out and the north bank and the ‘deeps’ were both fruitful with a good number of big carp being caught as is often the way this time of year when the carp are taking on plenty of food for the winter ahead.
A tremendous twenty-five carp were landed by Charley Goldsworth with five of these over 30lb and incredibly a brace of 39lb common carp.
Colin Hurst’s fine season continued with eleven more good carp including a common carp of 31lb, a 28lb common and a 26lb fully-scaled mirror. Another fully-scaled of the same weight fell to Ray Long. A fine brace was taken by Jack Warner who tussled with a 36lb common carp and a 30lb mirror in another memorable session at Fordwich Lake.
Liam Fagg had enjoyed previous success at Stour Lake and in November he hooked and safely landed a 17lb mirror carp from the water.
Local bailiff at Stonar Lake Jock White reported things were a bit quieter, but a number of good catches were taken in the first two weeks of the month. Frank West bagged twenty-five bream to 5lb 8oz, eleven carp to 14lb and also four more commons ranging from 15lb to 21lb, while Duncan Riddle’s bream to 5lb were accompanied to the bank by eleven more commons, mirrors and fully-scaled mirrors with his best a fish tipping the scales to 20lb 8oz.
Alan Ashdown caught two bream to 4lb and six carp to 12lb 7oz and then most notably, went on to land a personal-best common carp of 18lb 3oz. Thomas Trethwey coaxed three carp to 10lb and a great brace of 22lb mirrors, while Julian Holyoake’s fifteen fish to 16lb and Mick Sharpe’s two low-double commons and mirrors of 29lb 6oz and 31lb 10oz, were two more excellent hauls.
Colin Hurst spent a few chilly days and nights at Fordwich Lake to land an 18lb common carp while Trenley Lake hosted pike anglers John Glaiser and Hugh Malloy. John landed a scrappy 17lb pike and Hugh another of 16lb. Both anglers caught plenty of smaller jack pike and four more double-figure fish between them.
Despite slowing down considerably, Stonar Lake continued to produce a variety of fish for those prepared to brave the colder weather.
Mick Dyer bagged rudd to 8oz, roach to 1lb 4oz and bream to 5lb as well as carp to 15lb 3oz. Ronald Miller enjoyed his tussle with a brace of common carp to 15lb, while Brian Martin’s mixed brace included a small common of 11lb 4oz and a weightier mirror carp of 20lb 3oz
Arguably the best haul of late November fell to Nick Sargeant who finished with six bream to 6lb 8oz and a mix of eighteen common and mirror carp to 21lb 4oz. As well as bream to 4lb, Mark Madison caught perch and rudd to 8oz, while Dave Kemp banked six carp to 20lb and a 2lb tench. Jack Vickers ended his trip with four bream to 6lb and Alec Vickers his with seven small carp to 10lb and a very welcome 2lb rudd.
This season’s Ron Edwards Roach Competition was fished on the north bank of the River Stour at Grove Ferry, up and downstream of the bridge.
Seventeen anglers took part and Mick Wilson lifted the trophy with 20lb 6oz. Mick reeled in roach to 6oz throughout the competition using a stick float from his swim at the bottom end of the boats.
Second placed Steve Mulshaw fished next to the winner to land 14lb 6oz on a pole, while Ian Ritchie finished with 12lb 3oz for third taken upstream of the boards armed with a waggler float. Colin Durman was fourth with 9lb 14oz and Phoenix Minter carefully landed 1lb 2oz of roach to win the junior competition just ahead of Adam Matthews with 13oz when the final whistle sounded at 3.30pm.
The competition started at 9am and most of the competitors reported catching fish for the first hour almost at every cast while it rained. Steve West noted he hooked three to four pounds of fish in that first hour and then just a few roach for the remainder of the match when it appeared the fish spread out into smaller pockets.
Forty-five anglers from across Kent took part in this year’s Association Open Competition held on the River Stour.
The clear winner with 23lb 12oz was Dave Wells who caught bream, roach, chub and perch using worm and maggot baits. Dave drew peg E18 on the ‘boards’ upstream at Grove Ferry with his best fish a very fine 5lb bream making his keepnet that much heavier by the 4pm whistle.
Peg F17 downstream at Grove Ferry was very productive for Dave Roberts who finished his day in second place with 17lb 7oz of skimmer bream to 12oz. Dave’s swim at the ‘picnic site’ went on to produce a 1lb 8oz skimmer-bream best fish with his catch all being taken on feeder-fished worm.
Fishing at Plucks Gutter from peg A13, Peter Joiner reeled in 16lb 3oz for third spot ahead of Steve West at Grove Ferry’s picnic site (F10) with 15lb 4oz for fourth.
Henry Weir finished the match as top junior with 14oz from A12 at Plucks Gutter while the Section Winners were: A) Rab Hendry 10lb 12oz (A1); E) Barry Chapman 9lb 7oz (E7); and F) Roy Gudgeon 11lb 5oz (F16, located in the swim next to the second-place Dave Roberts).
Following the wonderful weights at the recent Wacher Cup, this year’s Blundell Cup was contested by twenty-one anglers at Trenley and Stour Lakes. The 2019 Wacher Cup was convincingly won by Steve West with 192lb 4oz ahead of Dan West with 147lb 4oz, but this time Dan had the upper hand ahead of his dad!
By the 4pm whistle, Dan West had hooked fourteen bream and one tench for a fine Blundell Cup winning weight of 47lb 2oz, all taken with feeder-fished pellets from the Trenley Lake ‘deeps’.
Steve West drew a peg on Stour Lake and his ten bream for 41lb 14oz, again taken on feeder-fished pellets, was more than enough to secure second place.
Generally, the swims drawn produce fish from the start of matches but unusually the fish didn’t ‘show’ for a couple of hours, then catches were consistent. Third position was secured by Alan Smith with 29lb 5oz of bream and rudd from Trenley ‘deeps’ while fourth placed Trevor Baker managed 19lb from Trenley, finishing with four bream and a tench.
Top junior was Phoenix Minter with 6lb 12oz. Most of the competitors reported catching fish during the rain showers or soon after them.
Spectacular weights were recorded at the Wacher Cup with Steve West lifting this season’s trophy with an incredible 192lb 4oz of bream and two tench. Twelve anglers fished the night-time competition at Trenley Lake and Stour Lake.
Steve drew last place in the ‘walk off’ but despite this apparent drawback he went on to find a secluded swim following the draw at 6.30pm, with his record-breaking catch all taken between 8pm and 8am on Sunday morning. In what is believed to be the heaviest weight ever recorded for the match, Steve fished from the Trenley ‘deeps’ and set about his marvellous catch as soon as the starting whistle was blown.
Second place went to Steve’s son (our Competition Secretary) Dan West who also broke records with his 147lb 4oz of bream taken from Stour Lake. The conditions were described as good with a light wind. A mixture of feeder-fished baits of pellets, maggots, worm and sweetcorn accounted for all the fish caught on this memorable night.
In a real family affair brothers Clive and Tony Eversfield were third and fourth. Clive, with another magnificent weight of 118lb 7oz fished from the Trenley deeps to catch his all bream haul while Tony bagged up on bream and a few tench also at Trenley to weigh in 116lb 6oz. Fifth placed Trevor Baker fished at Stour Lake and banked 63lb 10oz of bream.
The Stonar Charity Shield was won by Mick Small with a 20lb 1oz carp just ahead of second placed Brian Martin with exactly 20lb.
The competition is open to members and non members of the CDAA and the Shield is awarded for the largest fish caught over the weekend.
Dave Smissen and Liam Honey shared third spot with both men reeling in an 18lb fish.
Only two anglers fished the 2019 Goldsmith Cup for junior anglers held at Trenley Lake.
Adam Matthews was the winner with a great weight of 11lb 11oz. Adam caught a bream on his feeder-rod and went on to land several more roach and rudd using a float rod with a waggler.
Phoenix Minter was the runner up with 3lb 15oz of roach and rudd skilfully caught on a pole with well presented baits.
Thirty seven anglers fished for this season’s Baldwin Cup held at Fordwich and Stour lakes.
Fishing in Stour Lake, Mick Wilson lifted this year’s Cup with two carp for a grand total of 24lb 5oz. Steve Simmons caught the heaviest fish of the match, a fine 17lb 7oz carp, which was enough to secure second place ahead of a 16lb 6oz mirror carp landed by Charlie Goldsworth for third spot.
Sadly none of the juniors caught tench or carp with Henry Weir catching a good bream of 5lb 4oz which didn’t count in the carp and tench only overnight match.
The last competition of the season for the Bateman Cup was fished at Trenley and Stour lakes. At the 3.30pm finish Tony Eversfield was the clear winner with nineteen bream for a tremendous 89lb 8oz. Tony’s haul was taken from the first spit-swim down on the Trenley Lake side of Stour Lake.
Sixteen anglers braved the wild and windy conditions. Those fishing Trenley were generally sheltered and the anglers in Stour struggled to cast into the wind and with choppy conditions it made for a difficult competition although the end results showed that Stour Lake was the most productive.
Andy King had the best weight from Trenley Lake and caught nine bream for 39lb 9oz and second place. Association Competition Secretary Dan West struggled through the conditions at Stour Lake and hooked five bream for 25lb 10oz and third spot. Stour also hosted Anthony Lavender who was fourth with 17lb 10oz comprising of four bream.
A single bream of 4lb 15oz was enough to secure Glen Brett fifth position from Trenley Lake where Adam Matthews won the Junior Competition with 2lb 14oz of small roach. Adam fished very well to also finish sixth overall.
The Association held their annual Saunders Cup competition in February at Grove Ferry’s North Bank with the river very high and coloured following heavy rainfall.
Only nine anglers braved the conditions at the 9.30am start and the 2019 cup was lifted by Dan West with 6lb 2oz. Dan’s haul comprised one bream and twenty roach.
Second place was shared by Dan Boden and Mick Wilson with 5lb 6oz. Dan had a good bream and a few roach while Mick reeled in two big skimmer bream and some more roach.
A 2lb 9oz all-roach catch gave Steve Foreman fourth spot at the 3pm final whistle. Most of the competitors weighed fish in despite the conditions and the area of ‘slacker’ water near the sluice proved the most fruitful. No junior anglers took part in this season’s Saunders Cup.