Grudge Match 2006

It's becoming a tradition now - to hold a 'Grudge Match' after the National Fishing week event at Barlow Fisheries, and of course there's nothing an NFA coach likes better than to beat his fellow colleagues in a fishing match - after all, he's got to show off his skills - or not - as the case may be, and there's nothing more than the Barlow Bailiffs like better than catching more fish 'than them coaches.'

So the match started at 4.30pm, to be fished for one hour only , every fish landed counted as one point, irrespective of size or species, easy stuff - just catch as many fish as you can, as quickly as you can. Pity some of the coaches had been on their pegs for eights hours and had emptied their swims - shame!

The Barlow Bailiffs had the choice of totally unfished swims, so in theory they had the advantage, but to even things up a little, there was a little shuffling of pegs by some of the coaches, all's fair in Grudge Matches!

As the whistle blew for the start of the match, I decided to fish a short pole with small dibber and a size 20, baited with a single maggot, a recipe for the small rudd - and I wasn't disappointed, immediately the float shot under and I missed my first bite - never mind, plenty more where that came from I thought, then I remembered that Roger Chapman had been coaching on this peg and had caught fish all day - was there any left for me?

Undaunted, second put-in resulted in a small rudd, great stuff - until Andrew Kennedy shouted from the bottom swim - 'Fish!' and a few seconds later - again - 'Fish!'

Now Andrew was using the latest pole set-up - a cut-down tree branch linked with 7ft of mono to a high-tec (real) matchstick float - very cutting edge and very expensive!

'Fish!' was the cry again - as his matchstick sailed away and he landed another rudd.

Next to catch was NFA coach Lewin Lawton, I watched bemused as his pole elastic stretched across the pond - eventually he landed a cracking perch of around 1lb 8oz.

'That's still only one point!' I shouted, as I scuttled around to his peg to take a photo.

Lew admires an indignant, bristling perch


By this time Andrew, George and Peter had all added to their individual totals - the match was hotting up. Young Barlow Bailiff Jonathan was voicing his catches with increasing regularity - everyone wanted to outdo their fellow competitors.

I was into a shoal of very obliging small rudd, every put-in resulted in the welcome disappearance of the dibber, it looked like I was in a winning position, until I realised that as the host, match organiser and resident coach for Barlow I should be encouraging everyone else, so enlisting the help of one of the bystanders, I handed over my pole whilst I planned to wander around, it was with a touch of amusement, I noticed the young angler using my kit could miss as many bites as I did!

I left the youngster in my swim whilst I wandered the bank, annoying and encouraging all the competitors - and for some strange reason received only verbal abuse!
Back at my swim, the dibber was stuck in some lilies, I know I said fish close to them, but not that close - oh hum!

So minus the hook-length (which was wrapped around a lily stem), I took my pole and visited each of the competitors swims, dropping my float right next to their float, the resulting comments were unprintable, well nearly: 'If you catch owt - the points go to me' or 'You'll do better than me if you manage to catch' - some of the competitors were new to the Grudge Match and didn't really understand the rules, 'what rules is that then?'

Results
Finally, time was called and the scores were totted up, each angler eager to know the final result.

Andrew Kennedy (now to be called the 'Stick Man') had caught seven fish for first place.
In the prizes and second equals with six fish was Barlow Bailiff Jonathan and NFA coach Peter Lewis.
As for myself, I caught ten fish but was disqualified for poaching and being a general nuisance - shame! Talk about biased, come on referee!


Using the latest high-tec (Shimano?) branch and match-stick, innovative angler Andrew Kennedy came out tops, and is shown here receiving first prize from fishery owner Rex Ward.




Ace angler Andrew is getting quite a fan club these days - with all the ladies calling him a 'hottie', signed photos are available from his agent, I'm told!

Here's Andrew Kennedy with the first prize and displaying the latest high-tec tree branch 'pole'.

Many thanks to everyone who participated and joined in the spirit of the occasion, I'm already looking forward to next year's event.

Until then, enjoy your fishing!

Kevin Miles
Editor