More Reports

 

Bob Church Classic By Paul Kitchen

 

I arrived at Rutland lodge at 8am after a phone call the previous evening from Graham Lumsden, after a late drop out and asked if I wanted to fish. Naturally I agreed after enjoying the Bob Church Open at Grafham so much last year.

Conditions we’re …….. windy to say the least! I met John Hardy, Al Haywood, and Tony Hoggart by the lodge, Al had practiced the previous day and had found fish in the main basin, but apart from that we didn’t have a lot to go on, because no one method had produced more than others. I had been drawn in a boat with Lee Bartlett from Ian Barr’s fly fishing team, after a quick discussion on who would catch each other the least he decided to take the engine – anyone who has been unfortunate enough to be drawn on the point with me on the engine knows my casting can sometimes become a little ………..lazy, so a wise choice on his part!

During the briefing we we’re told we would be fishing to four fish, then catch and release, with barbless hooks and no boobies or doubles after limit, only two browns would count in the bag, browns would not count for the 2lb bonus for C&R. However we would be allowed to roly-poly retrieve (Kitch lets out a sigh of relief!)

We headed over to the north shore with twenty or so boats with us, I took two fish on boobies in the first hour while Lee took a four himself, but with all the angling pressure the fish soon went off. We decided that if we we’re going to do well, we had to take a gamble, I’d heard there we’re fish in church bay earlier, but there wasn’t a boat near it.

We went for it and it paid off, I took six fish and Lee had caught five in just under an hour, with a few more lost fish between us. stockies rarely stay on when they jump a couple of times with barbless hooks, the best way I find to keeping them on is by not putting too much pressure on while playing them and hope they don’t jump or throw the hook – a lot easier in theory than reality. Two blobs with a nymph on the middle dropper had done it for us.  Another nine boats joined us by this time and the fish we’re again going off.

We then decided to go to sailing club, I took two fish and Lee one he could have taken more but he stopped for his lunch! The water was quite coloured and neither of us we’re happy with where we were so again we were on the move, this time back to the north shore where all the boats had now moved away from. We passed John Hardys boat in open water from carrot creek I could see him into a fish, but again there was quite a few boats near him so we kept going.

When we got down to Whitwell Creek we could see quite a few yachts around there, half of them the wrong up with heads popping out of the water looking sorry for themselves, so we decided to go to blue pipes. It was like been in a washing machine down there with the waves, but we persevered now on ten fish each. Then Lee decided to selflessly go sixteen – ten up on me. It was now 16:30, I took a fish on a dabbler on a DI 5 at the end of the drift by the dam.

We then spent our last hour by the church, we had passed Tony Hoggart who was on four fish, he later told me he had a few browns that didn’t count to his total. We passed Ian Barr who was on eight and Fred Bainbride who was on nine, so we felt pretty confident for a top ten place each; we just needed a couple more fish in the last hour to make sure.

I managed two more by the church, one on a buzzer on a DI 7 – true nymphing! The last one came to a blob, these fish made all the difference to my total weight, it later turned out you needed twelve fish or more to be in the top ten.

This was the first time I’ve fished the Bob Church classic and thoroughly enjoyed it, just like the open it’s a really well organised event and a great day out. I’d recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity to fish this event in the future.

 

  1. Sean Jones 20 fish for 39lb 12oz

  2. Peter Andrews 17 fish for 34lb 12oz

  3. Lee Bartlett 16 fish for 32lb 6oz

  4. Mark Davies 16 fish for 28lb 13oz

  5. Paul Kitchen 13fish for 26lb 12oz

  6. Michael Lowe 12 fish for 25lb 10oz

  7. Stephen Peart 12 fish for 25lb 7oz

  8. Patrick De Schutter 12 fish for 24lb 4oz

  9. Ian Barr 12 fish for 24lb 2oz

  10. Andrew Scott 12 fish for 24lb 1oz