On a weekend when many anglers predicted that cold rainwater entering the Warwickshire Avon would have a detrimental effect on the fishing, the match record for the Evesham length fell twice!
The first man to break it was Leigh Gardner, a face all too familiar on the winners podium at Evesham. Drawn on fancied peg one, Lee caught 23 bream to 6lb on a groundbait feeder for a 84-12-0 total. He told Match Fishing: “Fate, is a very strange thing, just a few days prior to the match, I was saying how I couldn’t see Brian Pollard’s old record being broken, and low and behold I went and did it!”
“I couldn’t have asked for a better draw, peg one has always been a form peg here at Evesham, and when there is extra water in the river it is particularly good. My plan of attack was to fish two lines – one with a pole feeder at five metres, and the other on the rod and line cast around sixteen metres from the bank, slightly downstream. I balled in groundbait on both lines at the start, using a mix that consists purely of ground up halibut pellets – making it particularly rich in protein.
It wasn’t long before my tip rattled around, and the first bream of the day fell to my single worm hookbait. I never felt the need to fish the pole line, as the tip just kept going around for the rest of the day! Frustratingly, I did have a bad last half hour, as a bream foul hooked in the dorsal fin took me a long time to get in, and no doubt spooked other feeding fish in the process. Still, I was delighted when I put 84-12-0 on the scales – a weight that I never thought I would see in my lifetime.”
Leigh Gardner
One angler who didn’t have such an enjoyable opening day to the season was Sheffield rod Nick Crouch. Being used to fishing primarily on commercials, trying his hand at river for the first time was a real voyage into the unknown for him. “I must admit to being a little glum after my first river fishing experience” he recalled. “Although I come to the festival weekend every year to spectate, I had never actually fished a river myself, and was talked into giving the Evesham qualifiers a try by my two mates, Tom Scholey and Matt Godfrey. After shelling out around £1,200 on all the tackle I was told I may need, I was none too impressed when my first match at the venue yielded just one tiny perch!”
Nicks luck was set to change however, and when his hand went into the drawbag for a second time, he managed to pull out the peg that Leigh had broken the record of the day before!
“I can’t thank Leigh enough for the advice that he gave me on the morning of the match, he told me exactly how he approached the peg the day before, and his advice proved absolutely spot on!” Nick applauded.
Come the weigh in, Nick’s thoughts on river fishing couldn’t have been further away from those that he was harbouring the previous day, as he dropped 22 bream on the scales for 86-8-0. This was not only enough to win the match, but also to beat Leigh’s weight by 1-12-0 and set a new venue record!
Although obviously disappointed to see his record last for just 24 hours, Leigh was the first to congratulate Nick on his success. “He has obviously fished the peg brilliantly, and considering his lack of river fishing experience, his result is particularly remarkable” he commented.
Nick Crouch
