Forty eight anglers including 11 of our juniors attended the draw at Fordwich Car Park on Saturday evening before the all-night carp and tench only match was fished in very warm and muggy conditions from 8pm to 8am on Sunday morning.

Richard Bacchus lifted the cup this year with three carp and a tench for an impressive winning weight of 49lb 6oz. Richard’s haul were landed from the Fordwich Lake ‘deeps’.

Anglers have to choose between the fewer but more weighty carp or the smaller but more prolific tench and it was for the latter that Stuart Davidson fished. His efforts at Stour Lake were well rewarded with five good tench for 21lb 7oz and second place.

Third place this year went to Karl Shopland whose specimen common carp of 20lb 2oz was the best fish of the night and put up a good fight before he carefully slipped his landing net under.

The not so common, common carp were in fact making a number of appearances on the banks and Mark Plank hooked one of 19lb to finish fourth. Glenn Brett opted for tench and his three good fish for 11lb gave him fifth position.

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The Blundell Cup was contested on Stour and Trenley lakes with the weather warm and a little too bright for angling, especially when what little cloud disappeared in the afternoon.

First place was easily secured by Trevor Baker with 71lb 6oz consisting of sixteen bream landed in the shade of the island at the far end of the Trenley ‘deeps’. Feeder fished corn accounted for this great total.

Tony Eversfield bagged four bream and four tench for 30.5lb using hair rigged corn and meat baits while Glenn Brett’s 27lb 7oz were also taken from Trenley but this net-full were all 4”-5” roach landed with pole fished maggot. Ian Morkunas feeder fished to land two tench for 7lb and then pole fished to land another 18.5lb of roach for a great combined total of 25.5lb and fourth place.

Top Junior was Tom Branton with 8.5lb landed with a pole from the Trenley ‘deeps’ and despite there being no fish caught from Stour Lake’s south bank by anglers with feeder rigs, second placed junior Matthew Dryden hooked 6lb 1oz with a pole to also finish with the best weight taken from Stour that day.

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The weather remained windy but fair for the Association’s Goldsmith Cup for junior members which was fished from the north bank (deeps) at Trenley Lake.

At the 1pm final whistle, ten year old Matthew Dryden had reeled in an impressive total of 8lb 5oz of small roach to lift this year’s cup. Matthew used a pole and maggots as bait.

Eleven year old Callum Kennelly chose to fish with a waggler float with maggots and reeled in 2lb 3oz of small roach to finish in second place.

Wayne Wellard’s 1lb 15oz of small roach were taken with the aid of a pole and gave him third just ahead of fourth placed Liam Kennelly who like his twin brother also targeted roach. Liam’s 1lb 2.5oz were all taken high up in the water.

At the end of the competition match organiser Brian Mankelow thanked Blean Angling of Clocktower Parade, Tyler Hill Road, Blean, who once again provided the excellent prizes

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The night competition for the Wacher Cup was fished from Saturday evening at 8pm to 8am on Sunday morning at Trenley and Stour Lakes. The competitors spent a productive night with generally good conditions and only a few light showers and wind making things a little tricky at times.

With an impressive 101lb 8oz of bream and tench (a total of 25 fish), Trevor Baker lifted this year’s Cup from his swim on the south bank of Stour Lake. Feeder-fished worm was Trevor’s winning formulae. Max Daniels secured second place with another great bream/tench haul of 63lb 6oz. Max fished in the swim next to the winner.

Fishing on the other side of the winner, Tim Fagg proved the fish were feeding well in that area of Stour Lake when he reeled in 55lb 2oz more tench and bream to finish third.

Last season Dan West and Michael Brett were fishing in the junior competitions but now the two youngsters qualify for the seniors and both rose to the challenge by finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Dan landed 40lb from the Trenley ‘deeps’ and Michael 23lb 12oz. Daniel’s father Steve West landed 22lb 12oz to finish in sixth position. All of the above fish were landed using sweetcorn, maggot or worm baits.

Top junior was Matthew Dryden with 6lb 12oz who narrowly beat second placed Wayne Wellard’s 6lb 9oz. Most of their fish were caught using whips during the daylight hours

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Thirty five anglers took part in this year’s Open Competition at Grove Ferry and Plucks Gutter. The competitors fished between 10am to 4pm and despite the heavy rain on the Saturday night the river was in a reasonably good condition with the tide running out all day and the water a good colour.

The convincing winner with an impressive 28lb 12oz was Kevin Dyer. Kevin fished from peg A3 upstream of the bridge at Plucks Gutter and landed skimmer bream, roach, chub, dace and perch all with pole-fished maggot. The adjacent swim at peg A4 provided Dave Cosgrove with 17lb 1oz of roach and second place, all caught with maggot baits and a stick float on a traditional rod and line.

Amongst the blustery weather there were occasional bright conditions and showers but that didn’t deter Jon Parks who had travelled up from his Bexhill-On-Sea home to reel in 108 fish for third place with 16lb 9oz. Jon’s tally included roach and skimmers and were landed with maggots and casters fished with a pole from peg F13, downstream at Grove Ferry. Fourth placed Dave Roberts also had a long journey from his home in Tonbridge. His 16lb mixed bag included skimmers, roach, dace, gudgeon and perch. Dave used a rod and line and fished from peg F3 downstream at Grove Ferry.

The same venue gave junior Tom Branton his top-junior weight of 3lb 3.5oz. Tom fished well all-day from peg F6. Team ‘Lou’ won the hotly contested team-of-four event with an impressive combined weight of 70lb 4oz.

It was agreed that the anglers all had a good day and plenty of fish were caught. The day was made most memorable by the excellent prize-sponsorship from Steve Mulshaw of Sandwich Bait and Tackle. The Grove Ferry Boat Club provided the event headquarters and thanks were once again given this year to their kind hospitality throughout the day.

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Sixty two anglers fished the charity event at Stonar Lake from Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime to catch numerous big carp and more importantly raise over £4,000 for Demelza House Children’s Hospice.

After several weeks of poor weather the conditions were ideal although the temperatures dropped considerably over Friday night.

The competition was to catch the heaviest fish and Mark Plank’s 19lb 2oz common carp caught early in the match at 9pm Friday evening led for a few hours until approximately 5am on Saturday morning when David Mills reeled in a splendid 23lb 2oz mirror carp that held the title for almost 24 hours. Kevin Colville caught a fine 23lb 12oz mirror at 3am Sunday morning and this finished as the top fish and earned Kevin a well-deserved first place.

Close behind David Mills and Mark Plank was Bob Stead who finished fourth with his eighteen pound common carp. A 13.5lb mirror gave Bill Randall fifth and sixth was Barry Parker with a 7.5lb carp.

Third placed Mark Plank fished with his son Hayden and Hayden’s 7lb 6oz carp was enough to earn him seventh overall in the match.

In the junior competition top boy was Jack Warner who fished well to catch a 6.5lb carp and his sister Ellie Warner finished well with a 5lb carp to earn her the top girl prize.

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We held our annual Roach Competition in perfect conditions at Plucks Gutter on the Stour. The mist cleared by mid morning to leave hot and sunny conditions with an incredible 21 degrees Celsius noted at 4pm as the competitors left the car park.

The six hour match was won by river expert Dick Callaway with 11lb 15oz of roach caught with a 5 metre pole. Dick only had to use his landing net once as the fish were generally small. He fished from one of the swims furthest from the bridge.

In a very close match, Glen Brett could have secured the honours with a handful more fish but had to settle with second place but still with an impressive total of 11lb 13oz caught with a rod from the first section up from the bridge.

The competitors caught steadily throughout the match – the river ran ‘up’ for the first 3.5 hours and then the tide turned and it ran down for the remaining 2.5 hours.

Third place went to match organiser Brian Mankelow. Brian’s total of 11lb 9.8oz was landed on rod and line and provided three very close weights for the top three honours. Brian fished near to the winner. Fourth place went to Martin Hendy who hooked 10lb 13oz of roach. The winner of the junior match was Tom Branton who fished with a pole to land a most notable weight of 6lb 3oz.

Single red maggot was the favoured bait by all the anglers. Numerous other species of fish were landed in the all-roach match (these didn’t of course count in the weights) and these included skimmer bream, rudd, dace, gudgeon, perch and chub.

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A windy and bright day accompanied thirteen anglers who fished for this season’s Match Group Cup on the river at Grove Ferry. Only a few short, sharp showers broke up the day but didn’t dampen the spirits of the competitors who landed a good number of fish.

The match was won by Association Vice-Chairman Brian Mankelow with 17lb 9oz. Brian drew one of the favoured swims behind the Inn. The tide ran up for the first one-and-a-half hours and he caught well then and for the next hour when the river was running down.

Brian reported catching between 12lb and 13lb in this first two-and-a-half hours and then bites were less frequent, however his hemp feed and maggot baits fished with a stick float led to the impressive total that included skimmer bream to 1.5lb and a good number of roach.

Tony Eversfield fished from the ‘boards’ with a whip and maggot to reel in 15lb 1oz for second place and in similar style, also from the ‘boards’ Mick Fell bagged 11lb 10oz for third place.

In fourth position Stour regular Dick Callaway also fished with a whip to weigh in 10lb 14oz from his peg at the end of the boats, near to the wide bend in the river. Tom Branton won the junior match from Peg 4 amongst the boats. Catching steadily all day, Tom landed a fine weight of 3lb 15oz of mostly roach.

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A cold start to the Cooke Pike Cup including snow showers didn’t dampen the spirits of those who took part. At the 3pm final whistle Steve Matthews recorded an impressive 42lb 2oz of pike to win. His haul included seven fish, the best a jack of 7lb 9oz. Steve landed his fish from the corner of the Fordwich Lake ‘deeps’ an area that has given him previous successes in the same competition.

Second placed John Hosking chose to fish from the Trenley Lake ‘deeps’ and although he caught fewer fish, his five pike to 10.5lb gave him a good total of 37lb 5oz.

Junior anglers fished very well during the match and fish of 9lb 10oz and 3lb 10oz secured junior James Rintol third from the roach pool in Fordwich Lake while Wayne Wellard, another junior, finished fourth with another lively jack of 7.5lb, also from Fordwich Lake.

Lee Reynold’s 7lb 5oz fish gave him fifth and in sixth was junior angler Loran Matthews with a 6lb 12oz pike caught from Fordwich Lake.

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Cold conditions greeted the sixteen anglers who took part in this year’s Christmas Competition fished at Cottington Lakes, Deal.

The competitors fished at Black Lake and the match was convincingly won by Steve West with 16lb 5oz. Steve drew a favoured swim but his skill in hooking skimmer bream, roach and perch throughout the day with maggot and pellet baits, ensured he won easily.

With 5lb 14oz John Branton finished in second place. Having fed groundbait John hooked his fish with red maggot baits beneath a waggler float.

Pole fishing gave Ian Morkunas 5lb 6.5oz of small roach and third. Close behind with 5lb 4.5oz, Dan West also pole fished to catch skimmer bream and roach.

The cold wind put pay to any chance of reasonable angling conditions but junior Tom Branton persevered all day and emulated his father’s success with 1lb of fish to win the junior match.

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The Bateman Cup was fished in ideal conditions and after a great match Clive Eversfield lifted the Cup with 34lb 12oz.  

Fourteen anglers including two juniors fished on Trenley Lake and the south bank of Stour Lake between 9.30am and 3.30pm.  

Clive fished on Stour Lake and landed nine good bream using a feeder rod. Second placed Andy King with six bream weighed in 21lb 8oz and Mick Fell bagged three more for third with 14lb 2oz.

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