The year that was 2014........Part 1.

Well I wish all my readers a Happy New Year and hope you all stay healthy and enjoy the coming 12 months.

So I am just about to give you all a quick overview of the last 12 months on the bank, how my match fishing went and ending with what I am hoping to look forward to in 2015.

January, February and March
The year started off by mostly fishing the Avalon Teams of 3 series, my Woolavy Wanderers had began the series well enough and were towards the top of the pile. Myself, James Withers and Paul Wharton had all picked up some money in several rounds, but as the series went on things got tougher and my side drifted down the table to somewhere more 'realistic'. It was an enjoyable though and the winning side were The Sedges (Jamie Cook, Phil & Keith Clapp). My best individual result was a 3rd overall.
In the meantime I fished a match, my 1st and only match in fact, at Summerhayes. I dnw'd on a tough day on Sellicks.

My Sellicks peg at Summerhayes

Other notable matches came in the form of a 3rd placed finish at Lands End, mostly perch and F1's caught on prawns, plus the odd bonus carp in my 47lb net. This qualified me for the Silvers Winners Final with Pawlett Legion AC..
A February match on Shiplate's Main Lake with Clevedon AC was enjoyable and went to plan, catching 13lb+ of skimmers on soft pellet and added 3 margin caught carp to this, securing 2nd spot in the match. Shiplate Main Lake is one of my favourite venues.
Pawlett club also had a match on the Bridgwater/Taunton canal, where I didn't weigh but it was won with over 66lb of mostly tench.
March ended with a PSV match on Plantation's Main lake, where an enjoyable, but sort of frustrating day saw me string a run of edge caught lumps boost my pellet waggler caught bag to 66lb 8oz to secure 2nd spot but take the 1st money prize by default.
Here's my post of the match Plantation PSV Match, March 2014.

April, May and June
The month of April started off with a week at White Acres for the Dynamite Baits Festival, my 1st ever experience of such an event. Myself and Withers were in the caravan next to Keiron Rich, and plenty of 'names' were fishing as well as a good influx of Somerset based anglers including Dan White, Jamie Parkhouse and Ben Hagg to name a few.
I could go into loads of details of the week, but simply I found it a massive learning curve and learned loads throughout the week, especially with F1 fishing and the need to catch silvers in quiet spells.
I did manage a pick-up during the week, at what I thought may be my strong card, Porth Reservoir.
You can read the daily updates from the drop downs on the right hand side of this page.
I do hope to get onto a festival in 2015.
On returning from the festival I had a few matches over the following weeks, starting with a Clevedon match on Trinity Waters' Woodland lake, only half a dozen of us fished but we averaged over 82lb per man with myself taking the honours with 117lb+ and my 1st Clevedon match win.
I then picked up section money during the Pawlett Silver's match at Sedges before a few blow outs at the same venue.
A trip to Larford Lakes for a Fishomania qualifier was a new experience for me and I did ok from a not-so-great area, just missing out on a pick-up due to an angler bagging a last gasp munter from his margin. A similar story at Viaduct for the MMT and Fisho qualifiers, drawing non-competitive pegs hindered further progress in the competitions.
May began with a Clevedon match at Avalon, I drew peg 1 and true to form I didn't trouble the opposite end of the lake where the warm wind was heading.
I redeemed myself on Shiplate's Westpool during a blind pairs match with the same club, 2nd on the day and 1st on the lake was how it ended with myself and partner Adie Baker securing 3 points, though we lost out on weight!! Here's how.....
An MFS 2-day event followed, with me winning my section from peg 86 on Cary on the 1st day with 142lb 3oz. The 1st day was won with nearly 300lb by Dan White from peg 110 on Campbell.
The 2nd day gave me a nice 90lb bag from Campbell, but that would never compete with the top 5 catching over 180lb each on the 2nd day
The last 2 matches of the month were PSV matches at Trinity Woodlands and Landsend Match + Speci lakes. The 2 matches gave me good draws and I somehow managed to convert them into successive wins.
June was a busy month with plenty of matches including a MMT match at Viaduct, but I didn't draw any good at that match, but did get suntanned feet!!

Sun Tanned Feet.......

The rest of the month saw me not pick up at Sedges, Viaduct and Trinity (Pawlett all winners final) as well as on Hawthorns lake at Shiplate.  My draws were not the best, maybe my luck had run out in the previous couple weeks?
My last match of the month gave me an envelope at Avalon, with PSV, where the defaulted 3rd place money helped top up my holiday funds.


So that was the first 6 months of the year briefly covered.

Lee