Our final match of 2013 and our final match in this year's Winter League and was it close, yes it was!
Twenty two anglers made the short trip to Meadow View in Lymn. Including Alex one of our Juniors and former member, blast from the past and previous Club Secretary Joe Worsley, great to see you all.
As this was our Fur & Feather match we had organised a carvery at Walton Arms pub for 4pm, so our start time was brought forward to accomodate, so the match fished it's usual five hours from 9.30am until 2.30pm. Alan and James organised the pegging, the draw was completed and Alan also drew Golden Peg today and as one of the main contenders for this year's Winter League trophy made things a little edgy. Going into this match James Bryan had a five point lead over Alan but it wasn't a done deal and anything could happen, we were down to the wire!
Weather today was a mild 12 degree's, the sun made an appearance causing glare for a few anglers and a few rain showers also had an effect, fortunately they were of short duration.
One highlight of the day i missed was Paul Roby falling off his chair and ended up on the floor on his back with his legs kicking in the air, sounds like an impression of an upturned cockroach. After the laughter died down fishing resumed.
The match finally drew to a close, we all knew who the likely match winner was but know one could call the League winner.
Mick Astbury put in an awesome performance to claim the match win with 101lb 9oz, Phil Clare 2nd with 44lb 14oz and Kev Smith 3rd with 35lb 8oz.
Golden Peg saw Alan cursed as he ended the day in 6th place. Was 6th place enough to win the Winter League???
The maths was completed and both Alan and James tied the league on 33 points, so the decision as usual was taken on total weight for all Winter matches. Alan had a total weight of 96lb 0oz, James had a total weight of 101lb 9oz. So James Bryan is our Winter League winner for 2013 by a margin of only 5lb 9oz.
We also had a battle for biggest fish, Phil had a 12lb 8oz Carp, then Mick our match winner had a 13lb 10oz bruiser and finally John Bryan pipped them all with his only catch of the day a 14lb 2oz beast. Will this be beaten, we have until September 2014 and ten more matches to find out.
Congratulation to all twenty six anglers who have supported our Winter League matches this year, as we say, can't do it without you. It's a long break now until our Spring League starts on 12th April 2014 at High Heye's Fishery.
We hope you all have a safe and pleasant Christmas, and look forward to seeing you all in 2014.

That's it for now, see you on a match soon...

......Tightlines.....