Easter Festival Saturday Day 1 2011
Click on the picture for an expanded view of the lake.
Today saw the start of the 2011 Easter Festival and an eager 24 anglers were hoping to be crowned Festival champion after the next three days of hard competition. Apart from a strong attendance of open regular anglers there was also two times champions { Matt Smith } who was again looking for another chance of victory.
The festival is fished over three days and each angler draws his section on day one and then fishes in rotation the next two over the next two days ie if you draw B section one day one you then fish C on day two and A on day Three.
A Section comprised of pegs 34,36,38,40,2,4,6,7
B Section comprised of Pegs 8,9,10,13,28,29,31,32
C Section comprised of pegs 14,15,17,18,22,23,25,26
The winner of each section gets 1 points assending up to 8 point for last place in section but you have to catch a fish and weigh in to get points, so the winner at the end of the festival is the angler that has the least points and in the event of anglers tied on the same points the winner is decided on weight.
John tells me the story of the day was the anglers were greeted to a really warm day with no breeze and the fish could be seen cruising on the top especially in the small lake. As the match started both Jon Walker and Liam Bough were in to fish early in the match in C section with Liam’s swim dying towards the end and he ended up 3 fish short of a section win as Jon managed to keep the fish coming till the end. Also in this section was RTG team mates Mick Lane and Phil Powell who were on a peg to peg battle on 14 and 15 and after 5 hours Mick ended the victor with 100-00 to Phil’s 78-08.
In B section it was much harder with Geoff Edwards catching as many fish as he was losing on peg 8 but still ended up well clear of 2nd place Steve Waters on peg 13 who was having a close match with Ernie Malyon on 31 and only 5 lb seperated the two even though Ernie only had 3 fish for 49-08. For the rest of the anglers it was tough although very close in the end as there was only 30lb between 2nd and 8th.
The main action came from A section as it had some of the top carp match anglers from the south competing in it, and coming out on top was Derek Hammond who is one of Rolfslake’s current form angler as he won the midweek open and has had other victories down the lake this year. Derek was fishing peg 4 on the motorway bank which has had indiffernt form this year but Derek sorted it out today and put a double ton weight on the board for victory on the day overall. There was a very close battle for second between Geoff Warmington and Dave Whiteman on pegs 40 and 2 which had seen a lot of fish cruising in this area and after 5 hours Geoff came out on top by just 8 ounces with both anglers putting big weights together Geoff’s 184-08 to Daves 184-00. There were also 4 other ton weights in this really productive section which always gets better as the festival goes to days two and three, so watch out to see if the top weight of 300lb can be broken in this festival.
In this match today there was 2083lb of fish caught with A section providing 1158lb B section providing 375lb and C section providing 550lb at an average of 86.7lb per angler so take a bow Rolfslake for giving up your fish to the travelling anglers.
Roll on day 2.
Results.
24 Fishing.
A Section.
| Place | Angler | Peg | Weight | Points |
| 1st | Derek Hammond | 4 | 225-08 | 1 |
| 2nd | Geoff Warmington | 2 | 184-08 | 2 |
| 3rd | Dave Whiteman | 40 | 184-00 | 3 |
| 4th | Mark Malin | 6 | 144-00 | 4 |
| 5th | Pat Pritchard | 34 | 136-04 | 5 |
| 6th | Matt Smith | 36 | 130-00 | 6 |
| 7th | Andy Johnstone | 38 | 98-08 | 7 |
| 8th | Colin Wedgebrow | 7 | 57-00 | 8 |
B Section.
| Place | Angler | Peg | Weight | Points |
| 1st | Geoff Edwards | 8 | 124-12 | 1 |
| 2nd | Steve Waters | 13 | 54-08 | 2 |
| 3rd | Ernie Malyon | 31 | 49-08 | 3 |
| 4th | Clive Pritchard | 10 | 35-08 | 4 |
| 5th | Johnny Broadbent | 9 | 33-08 | 5 |
| 6th | Chris Telling | 32 | 30-00 | 6 |
| 7th | Frank Hardie | 28 | 26-08 | 7 |
| 8th | John Hague | 29 | 24-00 | 8 |
C Section.
| Place | Angler | Peg | Weight | Points |
| 1st | Jon Walker | 18 | 158-00 | 1 |
| 2nd | Liam Bough | 22 | 139-08 | 2 |
| 3rd | Mick Lane | 14 | 100-00 | 3 |
| 4th | Phil Powells | 15 | 78-08 | 4 |
| 5th | Mick Hughes | 26 | 46-08 | 5 |
| 6th | Paul Newbury | 23 | 15-00 | 6 |
| 7th | Paul Glenfield | 17 | 14-08 | 7 |
| 8th | Mick Chapell | 25 | DNW | – |
Top 6 after day 1.
| Place | Angler | Weight | Points | Sponsor |
| 1st | Derek Hammond | 225-00 | 1 | Banbury Gunsmiths |
| 2nd | Jon Walker | 158-00 | 1 | Walker Floats |
| 3rd | Geoff Edwards | 124-12 | 1 | Reading Angling Centre |
| 4th | Geoff Warmington | 184-08 | 2 | Rolfslake |
| 5th | Liam Bough | 139-08 | 2 | Rolfslake |
| 6th | Steve Waters | 54-08 | 2 | Frenzee |
Come back tomorrow to see the results from day two .
My website partner Simon will be taking up the reporting Duties for days 2 and the final day as i am off on travels again so please be patient as he will do all he can to get the results to you as they come in { thanks Si }.
Thanks for reading Simon, Eddie and John.
