Fourth match in this year's Summer League and the second of our three coach trips took us down to Northamptonshire and Boddington Reservoir.
Twenty Two anglers made the trip and we stopped off at the A5 truck stop for brekkie before proceeding down to the venue.
The weatherman mentioned possibly patchy rain, but that never materialised as we had a nice sunny day with patchy clouds but no rain and a mild South Westerly breeze which made it a little more comfortable in the sunshine with the air temperature getting to a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius.
We had a fashion parade on the bank with some members donning some very fetching waders (Paul R and Tom), some stripped to their undies and then put overalls on (Pete), some stripped off their tops (Mike), oh what a site it was, we only needed Gok Wan!
Suffice to say those that stripped off paid the price later with sunburnt backs!
Rooster Roylance got a casual pat on the back in the pub later off 'Butch' Whiteside which brought tears to Mike's eyes . . . . should have worn suncream Mike.
Anyway, back to the fishing.
The draw was competed on the coach, three members requested early pegs to save their legs. We arrived at Boddington and we all agreed the match would fish from 11.00am until 4.00pm.
Given it's a 65 acre reservoir most people fished the rod today and depending where you were on the bank seriously affected what you caught. On balance the higher weights were caught on the higher peg numbers. Tom won with 72lb off peg 80, Phil Clare second with 66lb 2oz off peg 70 and third James Bryan with 62lb 14oz off peg 82.
We had not seen Tom for a while and he comes back and wins along with Phil Clare who we hadn't seen for quite a while and this is only one of two matches he can do this year and gets a second place!
Mike Roylance drew the Golden Peg, but with 37lb 8oz could only manage sixth place, so the curse continues and the money rolls up.
Some nice fish were caught with Pete Mahoney landing a 13lb 6oz Common and Paul Morris had a similar one over 12lbs.
Jim Bates fished like a madman all day and caught 12lb of silvers off peg 64.
After the match we loaded the coach up (feckin nightmare that was), then we went off to the Cross Tree Pub in Byfield for tea and a few beers. Thanks to Brigid the landlady and her staff for looking after us.
Colin our coach driver dragged us out of the pub at 7.30pm for the journey home. We had our usual comedians and singers on the microphone which entertained us up the M40 and the M6. Favourite song of the evening was to the tune of 'Manamana' which older members may recall was a song on the Muppet show years ago only this version was to new lyrics by Roly (Paul Rowlands) entitled 'Peppered Spam'. Don't ask, it's a long story.
Anyway that's it for this match, thanks to everyone for a great day out, fun fishing, good food and beer, and a good laugh on the way home. See you all on the next match.
Tightlines
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