Bluemoon Angling Thread

Our annual competition against an English Bank takes place on Friday (44th year of the competition) so I'm driving down to Northamptonshire today ready for a couple of days practice and then the big match on Friday. We are fishing Pitsford Water which is renown for its big brown trout (5lb+) at this time of year. Forecast looks ok.

As organiser, I arrange accommodation, fishing and meals for 11 other team members so hopefully that goes ok as sometimes its like herding cats. The bar and restaurant in the hotel are closed so we are forced to take our own libations so there will be a fair selection of malts no doubt. :-)

This year we will be 100% catch and release for the first time which means we use the total measurement of fish to determine who wins. Stockies will get an average length and we have 'gutters' and measures to measure the larger fish. Prizes for best rod, best boat and biggest fish.

I will update on the fishing which hopefully will be excellent.
Just to bump this and update. Well although the trip was excellent the fishing was on the tough side. We had one day of wind and sun
1633851194833.jpeg

and two days of near perfect conditions

and despite that there were many blanks and one or two anglers had double blanks. At 4.30pm on day 2 that was the position I was in but saved my second blank by taking a nice little brownie on a di5 and yellow dancer
1633851293021.jpeg
When I say ‘little’ it was probably about 2 1/2 lbs but in comparison to some of the other s that were caught it was relatively small. One or two of the guys targeted the big browns and maybe 5 or 6 were caught at 5lb and over. Absolutely beautiful fish with tails like spades and mouths that could swallow a cricket ball without effort.

The 3rd day was the match against Barclays and I had a relatively good day, netting five and beating my boat partner by one. All Rainbows to about 3lb and in stonking nick. Best rod was 9 and the Rod average of the eighteen that fished was under 3. Thankfully my team managed to retain the TW Walker trophy for the 3rd year running.

the trip itself was excellent. The hotel (Poplars in Moulton) was exceptional thanks to Susan the owner. She had prepared a sitting room just for us lot to tie flies and sample each other’s malt whisky so that and three very nice pubs in Moulton kept us entertained when we were not on the water. We will be back down again next year for the 45th match up. Rutland probably the favourite if we can get a slot but if we can’t I have my eye on a Welsh water which would be a first for us.
 
Just to bump this and update. Well although the trip was excellent the fishing was on the tough side. We had one day of wind and sun
View attachment 27808

and two days of near perfect conditions

and despite that there were many blanks and one or two anglers had double blanks. At 4.30pm on day 2 that was the position I was in but saved my second blank by taking a nice little brownie on a di5 and yellow dancer
View attachment 27809
When I say ‘little’ it was probably about 2 1/2 lbs but in comparison to some of the other s that were caught it was relatively small. One or two of the guys targeted the big browns and maybe 5 or 6 were caught at 5lb and over. Absolutely beautiful fish with tails like spades and mouths that could swallow a cricket ball without effort.

The 3rd day was the match against Barclays and I had a relatively good day, netting five and beating my boat partner by one. All Rainbows to about 3lb and in stonking nick. Best rod was 9 and the Rod average of the eighteen that fished was under 3. Thankfully my team managed to retain the TW Walker trophy for the 3rd year running.

the trip itself was excellent. The hotel (Poplars in Moulton) was exceptional thanks to Susan the owner. She had prepared a sitting room just for us lot to tie flies and sample each other’s malt whisky so that and three very nice pubs in Moulton kept us entertained when we were not on the water. We will be back down again next year for the 45th match up. Rutland probably the favourite if we can get a slot but if we can’t I have my eye on a Welsh water which would be a first for us.
You were in my old stomping grounds
 

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