Stafford Moor weekender

Seventeen members made an early morning trek down to deepest Devon for the clubs annual weekend away. this year thanks to the great effort of Lee Waller and his good lady we were fishing the fantastic fishery that is Stafford Moor. Match Secretary Will came up with the format for the three days which was a mini festival based on points, two sections one of eight one of nine each day lowest points over the three days would win paying down to top five, also there was a superpool paying top two each day plus section winners and silvers pool each day. Very fair and giving everyone a chance of picking something up during the weekend.


DAY ONE :-   WOODPECKER

Everyone got to the fishery in good time on the friday mainly due to the fact that no one could find a cafe open for breakfast, not to worry tho as we were afforded a fantastic welcome by fishery owners Paul and Jo who went out they're way to make sure we were looked after and organised, teas and coffees were in plentiful supply and the draw was sorted for us. We were starting on woodpecker and everyone was not to fussed where they drew as there are not to many bad pegs at Stafford moor, Paul did warn us tho that the fishery was fishing hard due to a week of heavy rain that had added 8-9 inches of cold water to the lakes and the day we arrived the weather had changed to high pressure clear sky's and cold mornings so typical PSV fair really although i don't think anyone realised how hard the weekend would actually be. Most fancied a draw in the thirty's and when Dean Malin pulled out 32 it was gonna be hard to beat, Pete Uzzel had a smile on his face too drawing 36. My turn to dip my hand in and peg 3 stuck to it, recent matches it had been quiet but over the summer it had very much been a form peg.

peg 3 is very reminiscent of peg 29 on campbell lake at viaduct with a long spit on the left, the advice i was given was lead and wag to the back of peg 36 and up to the spit in the last couple of hours. On the all in i chucked the lead out and as i reached for the catapult i just caught the tip being dragged round and a very welcome 6lber made its way to the net, casting out again i waited in anticipation for it to go round again......and waited......and waited, it would be another three hours before my next fish

It seemed the same pattern around the lake with early fish caught then nothing, Steve Sewell next door on 4 had a couple of early fish on the wag and pole but from what i could see and hear it was Lee Waller down in the corner on peg one who had the best start landing five or six decent carp along his right margin, i personally think this was mainly due to the eight cans of thatchers gold he drank as we all know Lee don't do vermin!

down on 8-10 Rich Jones and Mark Radford were both struggling but they were both giving each other plenty of stick throughout the match, Over on 32 tho Dean was giving a masterclass in lead fishing taking a steady run of carp throughout the match for a very comfortable win with 129lb 8oz second place went to Lee with a cider induced 69lb, a few decent skimmers and three carp in the last hour along the spit saved me from total disaster, talking of disasters poor old Alan Healy had a match to forget on peg 16 with a big fat DNW

After the match everyone headed back to Dolton to the digs, there were seven of us in the Rams Head with the rest staying round the corner in the Royal oak. The evening turned into a very quiet affair by psv standards starting in the rams head where we were all booked in for dinner, most were happy with the food the steaks being particularly well received, apart from Keith Ray whose sirloin was wrapped in black hair! suffice to say he never payed for his meal. Also the cheese board seriously broke the trade description act although Adam Caswell enjoyed it! After the meal everyone retreated to the Royal oak for a few beers some more so than others Rich Jones having a late one and Lee carrying on enjoying the cider, the upshot of that was that Lionel Legg never slept much that night as he was sharing a room with Lee!


DAY TWO :-     TANNERS


The morning broke very chilly and those of us in the Rams head woke to a very enjoyable breakfast, what it lacked in size it made up for in quality and variety

The cookie crew getting stuck in!
 with that finished it was off to the fishery where we all received another warm welcome everyone that was apart from one who had gone back to bed after breakfast feeling shattered from lack of sleep so much so poor Lionel missed the draw, again most wanted a draw in the thirty's and Matt Woodward was happy pulling out 36 for company he had Rich Jones and Pete Uzzel on 35-34 respectively, Dean had another good draw with 3 and even Alan was happy with 9. I pulled 16 and it was not really what i was looking for and not much had come of it recently.

next to me on my left was Steve Sewell on 13 and we both agreed it would probably be a day on the silvers if we wanted a days fishing

on my right down in the jungle end peg 18 was all round nice bloke and venue regular 'rocket' Ron Hardiman and with a gentle breeze blowing in there i fancied him for a few                                      

there was plenty of time to set up and before the all in i had a wander down to peg 11 to find Dean Malin sat on Lees box giving him a few pointers on lead fishing even clipping him up to the nearest island as after doing well yesterday he was gonna have another go for the carp                                 

On the whistle Lee chucked out perfect next to the island next cast tho for some reason he dropped it slap bang in the middle of the island and lost the lot! turning round and cursing something about noddy fishing he slung the rod up the bank and reached for the pole!                                                  

The plan for my match was starting on the lead to the island i was gonna give it a hour to see if there were any carp in the area then if not drop back on my pole lines and have a day on the silvers,feeding my short lines with groundbait i started by chucking the lead to the island with pellet, the first hour came and went with not so much as a liner, looking around Ron had a few early fish on the pellet wag to his end bank and the odd lead caught fish was coming out around the lake but on the whole it was fishing very hard. Soon i came in on my pole lines and fishing natural baits dead maggot and worm head i started to get bites but unfortunately it was from tiny roach, perch and skimmers, with two and a half hours to go and going nowhere fast a change of tact was needed so i potted in some softened fours at thirteen metres and it made an immediate difference, suddenly i started catching decent skimmers on a banded 6mm also the odd carp put in an appearance which kept unsettling the skimmers and also ran me a merry dance on my light rig managing to land four before the all out.

Winner on the day was Steve Sewell on 13 who fished a very similar match to myself but landed more carp, he fished a very tidy match and recorded his first PSV win with 56lb over on peg 20 Mark Radford had a torrid match losing six or seven carp which could easily have won him the match.                                

second on peg 27 with 52lb 7oz was Keith Ray who caught most of his fish in his margins, down on 3 Dean had managed to win his section again which put him in a very strong position going into the last day but there were a clutch of anglers not far behind on five points making it all to play for. The lake had fished very hard but on the whole was a very close fishing match. Pete and Rich had everyone in stitches taking the piss out of anyone and everyone with Adam being the usual foil for much good natured banter especially as he had a nightmare losing several decent fish                    

Everyone headed back after and were looking forward to the evening, the landlady at the Oak had agreed to cook for us and after it was a certain important rugby match was being shown.           

the food really was top draw with steaks burgers and ham going down a treat coupled with some really cheap pints of  cider and lager everyone was in a decent mood, the only person not happy was Adam who had a right strop on for some reason!! after the food we settled down to watch the rugby which as we know didn't really end well much to the annoyance of keen rugby fans Pete Uz and Matt Williams. With the beer flowing it was time to take over the pool table and we actually found something Adam was good at as he took on all comers winning several games in a row, that was until the hustler Dearlove knocked him off will also won a game of killer we all took part in which was probably the best result he had all weekend!!                                                                                        

after several beers Alan was getting very friendly with the locals! it ended up being a late night for most and a cracking evening was had by all.                                                                                      

FINAL DAY :-      PINES                                                                                                                      

Another clear bright chilly morning greeted us and after another cracking breaky everyone made they're way to the fishery for the last match of the weekend. lots were riding on the final day with several anglers chasing Dean at the top and the silvers prize a three horse race between Keith Ray Julian Nurse and myself, Pines hadn't been fishing great and this lake is usually associated with cracking silver fish bags but they hadn't been showing this year and it was more dominated by bags of small carp with feature and island pegs doing particularly well, peg 24 had been doing the business and when Keith promptly drew it i knew i was gonna be up against it especially when i pulled 12 up in the bay in the deep water with every peg on that bank in it was gonna be a struggle, at least id be entertained as one side i had Adam and the other i had Alan.                                                                  

 The match itself followed the pattern of the last two days with no one really bagging and it was a case of catching odd carp here and there,my match was abit of a struggle taking six carp acouple of skimmers and tench for the best weight on my bank but not enough to compete with elsewhere on the lake, winner on the day was young Ryan Radford on peg 1 who weighed 47lb 8oz of small carp fishing tight over to the island, Ryan fished a very tidy match so well done to him, second was Keith on 24 who had a decent bag of silvers for 17lb amongst his carp finishing with 44lb 10oz his silvers were enough to take the overall silvers result so well done Keith

Overall Dean Malin managed to hold on and win out right with a great score of 5points so well done to Dean, finishing second was that man Steve Sewell who fished very well over the weekend so well done Steve.                                                                                                                                                

OVERALL POSITIONS

1. DEAN MALIN
2. STEVE SEWELL
3. RYAN RADFORD
4. KEITH RAY
5. MARK RADFORD
6. WILL DEARLOVE
7. RICH JONES
8. LEE WALLER
9. CHRIS SZAKACS
10. ADAM CASWELL
11. RON HARDIMAN
12. PETE UZZELL
13. MATT WILLIAMS
14. LIONEL LEGG
15. JULIAN NURSE
16. MATT WOODWARD
17. ALAN HEALY

so there you have it a fantastic weekend that everyone enjoyed and even tho the fishing was hard we had three good contests, plenty of laughs and a great crack was had by all!! so much so that most are keen to repeat next year. Many thx must go to Lee and his wife for organising the trip and for Will for being as efficient as ever in organising the format and payouts and also a massive thank you to Paul and Jo for making us feel very welcome at the fishery!