Match Blog 2007/2008
The 2006/2007 club champion and Healey Dell "venue expert" was John McFarland (left). If you require any information on baits, methods etc. Johnny Mac is the man to ask and can often be found at Healey Dell as he is one of our bailiffs.
John won the first evening sweepstake with 26lb of silvers.
The second sweep was also won by John with 28lb, Pete Mottram was 2nd on 26-11 and Simon Newsham had 26-01 for 3rd place.
Half a dozen anglers braved the weather for the three hour sweepstake on Thursday (5th July 2007) evening at Healey Dell, the venue continued to show terrific form and once again Johnny Mac proved he is the man to beat with 26lb, mainly ide with one big skimmer and a couple of small tench. Mick Pettit and Pete Fitton were 2nd and 3rd respectively, both with 20 pound + .
Micks net included a lovely common carp of around 10lb.
The (12th July 2007) knockup at Healey Dell saw eight anglers through the draw. Pete Mottram caught skimmers and tench in the margins of peg 27 on pellet and paste for a match winning 21-09. John Billington was runner-up from peg 23 with 15-14 and Mick Pettit made up the frame with an agonisingly close 15-13. All anglers bar one weighed in double figures.
Nine anglers went through the draw for the (19th July 2007) evening rover, making it the best turnout yet. Johnny Mac chose his favourite peg 4 and made it 4 wins out of 5 with a 27-11 mixed bag of ide and roach caught shallow on caster with pellet doing the damage for skimmers and tench down the edge. Peg 15 produced 16-13 to give Simon Newsham 2nd place with Pete Mottram only a pound behind on peg 29 for 3rd.
Top spot in the (26th July 2007) 3 hour evening match was taken by Simon Newsham with a weight of 20-15. As with most of these evening sprints the winning method was caster fished shallow (1' to 2') for ide and roach at about nine metres on peg 4. Sweepstake organiser Chris Lett had 15-04 of pellet caught tench and skimmers in the margins of peg 27 to give him 2nd place with 3rd going to Daz Wright using similar methods on peg 25 for 14-13.
17-12 was enough to give Mick Pettit the win in the eight peg Healey Dell rover this week (2nd August 2007). Opting for peg 19, Mick alternated between corn and pellet presented on top of the shelf to catch skimmers, small tench and a single bream. 2nd place went to Simon Newsham with 12-09 from peg 27 and Chaz Dowsing, fishing his first ever match came 3rd from peg 14 with a very creditable 12-00 of ide, roach and small tench.
Mick Pettit made it two on the bounce in this weeks (9th August 2007) evening match. Choosing his favoured peg 19, Mick caught the majority of his 21-01 winning weight of skimmers and tench at around eight metres at full depth on corn or pellet. Pete Mottram was runner up with 18-12 of mainly tench and skimmers, most of which was caught in the last hour on pellet from the right hand margin of peg 29. Third place went to Simon Newsham with 16-09 from the margins of peg 6, tench and skimmers were the main weight builders with paste accounting for most of the fish.
Simon Newsham took his second win of the series in the sweepstake on Thursday (16th August 2007) with 15-06 of tench and skimmers from both the left and right hand margins of peg 6 on pellet and paste. Chris Lett had a similar net to take the runner up spot with a very close 14-08 on pellet from peg 27. Improving his result with every match, newcomer Joey Porter took 3rd place with a 9-04 mixed net from peg 2.
Next week (23rd August 2007) will be the last match in the evening series due to fading light.
Only 4 anglers competed in the last of this seasons evening sweepstakes. Simon Newsham recorded the lowest winning weight of the series with 14-04, a predominantly tench catch taken on meat at 14.5 metres from the back of the large lily bed to the left of peg 29. Only 4 ounces separated the remaining 3 anglers, Joey Porter (Peg 2) and John McFarland (Peg 4) both caught silvers up in the water on maggot or caster for 10-03 and 10-01 respectively. Pete Mottram caught tench on pellet and paste from peg 27 for 9-15.