It was up with the Larks this morning to make my way through to Orchill Fishery to run Ayrstrike 15. Gus informed me that there wasn't many in for it so it would be a simple task. Not many in for it, 'Aye Right' When I sat down and and got things organised it was established that there would be 19 fishing on the day. That was a lot of money to collect in, permits to be paid for, cards to be marked up etc etc. A big thankyou to Stef Hunter, Drew McClusky and Tony Ball for assisting by sorting out the Pegs and numbering them.
When Councillor Jones arrived at the fishery I thought he had been out on the razzle the night before in the manner that he was walking. As he got closer I saw that both the inside legs of his jeans were soaking wet. That just confirmed that he had been on the razzle. Jim caught me looking at him and right away he volunteered " look at my Jeans Tommy, you would think I had wet myself " (thought, emmmm bit of a mind reader) " I opened a can of "Irn Bru" (got to admit the Councilor is quick thinking and good, selects a yellow staining liquid ) " After opening it I put it between my legs " ( Whatever floats your boat Jim,is it not meant to quench your thirst ) " A dear jumped over a fence and ran right in front of my car, I hit the brakes and " ( Say no more Jim, might as well said it was Lord Lucan riding Shergar )
The morning saw some light showers of rain as we approached the draw. The draw was made at 9-30am and Andrew and Elizabeth gave permision for the competitors to take their cars up to the New Coarse Pond, think they took pity on the likes of Jim Brown, George Yardley Old John and myself. A point for all to note when fishing Orchill is that Andrew insists on all anglers using two nets when fishing competitions. The talk all week was that 40 / 50lbs would be required to win at Orchill today. What people didn't rekon on was the temp falling to 3 degrees overnight then not getting much above 6 degree's during match hours.
The draw made it was everyone to their pegs. Everyone had their strategy for on the day. Whilst settting up umbrellas were in constant use. The rain stopped just prior to the all in and there was only one further small shower during the match which was so insignificant most people ignored it.
Fish were being caught from the All-In, most were small and they were plentiful unless your name is Martin ( Caught 1 but had 4 bites, are you reading this 'A' Team. The match had been pegged round the outer aspect of the new pond. Everytime I looked up and about I saw a pleasure angler catching big fish. in the section I was fishing in which included myself, Brian Docherty, Mark Lyons and George Yardley Snr. during the full match there were no large fish caught. The biggest was a 3lb Carp that was caught by Mark. That said all 4 of us were very busy with small Carp, small Tench etc, a great 5 hours fishing with always something happening.
Round the back it turned out to be real peggy with some areas that didn't even have much small fish. There were a number of good sized carp caught and one enormous Orange coloured Orfe ( can be seen in Drew's net ) As per normal when match anglers are sitting in a row with nets in the fish back off and it was no different today. I think we all expected a lot more weight wise at the venue but when you look at the weights the top 6 made double figures.
The only visitor during the match was the Pellet Millionaire who was requested to do the honours with the weigh-in. Everyone appeared to enjoy their day out and the Ayrstrike experience. Congratulations go to Mark lyon's who at last after many miles of hitching lift's, staying with granny, embarrased on his own water finaly made 'The Smug Club' For those who are interested in the guestimating of weights mark even managed to outdo Del-Boy today, he estimated that he had 14lbs, only 10 lbs light kid.
Next ' The Final '
" Dont lead me into temptation... ill make my own way there "
by Tommy L » Sat May 17, 2008 7:07 pm 
I had just short of 10lb but had about 40 fish for it, great fun 
