(Part 1)SOUTHERN HEATS AT BEWL WATER – 27^th June.

I first represented Ouse Valley in the Benson & Hedges (now The Hardys) in 1987 and we came 4^th that year. The last time we qualified for the final was in 1986. (See OVSF web site for 1986 report by Bob Collins).

Recently we have had trouble getting a team together. Many of our old members have moved on to more ambitious clubs (i.e. Ray Burt and Hugh Frew ) because we are not that way inclined and always treat it as more of a fun day and probably enjoy it more for that reason. Other members have become disillusioned with competition fishing (myself included) and prefer not to line the organiser’s pockets. At the start of the season we only had four members willing to take part. Fortunately Martin Nock said he would like to fish for us but then we still needed another member! Luckily Bob Collins decided to take part one more time and so we were able to enter a team 2000.

The team consisted of Martyn Gray (Capt.), Art & Jenny Gibbs, Jim Bates, Martyn Nock and Bob Collins. Five of us agreed to meet for breakfast as usual in The Little Chef at 7.45, while Martin was going to meet us at Bewl.

Meanwhile Jim was having problems with his van but had arranged to get it fixed and he would be there by 9.30.

We met Martin, as arranged, signed in and told the organisers of Jim’s predicament. They assured us that it wouldn’t be a problem as long as he arrived before 10.00, otherwise we would have to drop another member so as to even up the boat pairings. That would mean we would only be fishing with four instead of six team members. Jenny kindly volunteered to drop out if this situation arose. 9.30 came and went at 9.50 the boats were out and it looked like we were fishing a four man team. But, just as in every good cowboy film the Cavalry always appear over the hill at the last moment, instead this time it was Jim’s red van and with only minutes to spare. Boats were hastily rearranged, Jim piled out with his gear and we were finally out fishing. (Chris Ogbourne drove Jim’s van back to the car park).

The day was hot with a cloudy morning and a sunny afternoon, wind light to none variable to SE. I was partnered with Lindsay Simpson fishing for the Army team and as he had been out the day before we decided to fish round in The Nose. He was using a slimeline with a short leader and a Bigeyed Booby on the point. He was soon pulling in his first of six trout but my boobies were just not big enough and just couldn’t get any interest. As Captain I knew, from my predecessor, that I didn’t have to catch, as being captain was enough in itself and it was the team who had to catch the fish.

By 4.00 o’clock I still hadn’t had a touch so out of pity Lindsay gave me a couple of different boobies to try, on condition that I kept them a secret. I then proceeded in tempting several fish but just couldn’t get them to take.

At 5.45, after several pitiful attempts and a lot of laughter I managed to get one into the boat.

We all came in at 6.00 and soon realised we had done pretty well. The results were announced. First Weald of Kent, second London Flydressers and third with 27 fish (I thought there’s only one team with 27 fish) will the captain of Ouse Valley please come forward. I looked around and it suddenly dawned on me that we had made the final. To much applause up I went, as I walked back I thought well at least I’m not captain anymore as the team had agreed that if we got through I could give that job up. So when I said "who’s captain now then " they all said that I was, oh well.

We had beaten some good local teams and pushed BBFC into fourth place (although they did go on to finish 2^nd in the International Final). It was a good job I did catch a trout after all but it was really Art’s big one that did it with a solid performance from Martin Nock. See results below: -

    Team                         Fish                 lb. oz

1. Fulling Mill WOK        48               103 15.5

2. FDG London              39                 80 1.5

3. Ouse Valley              27                 61 1

4. BEWL Bridge            28                 60 13.5

Heaviest bag

1. Ian Foreman               10                 25 12

Fulling Mill WOK

2. Norman Wells             10                 24 8

Fishing For Fun

3. Art Gibbs                     8                 22 14

OVSF

Heaviest fish                     lb. oz

1. Bill Rankin                     6 15

BBFC

2. Art Gibbs                      6  6

OVSF

3. Ian Foreman 5 11

Fulling Mill WOK

                                        No.         Heaviest

OUSE VALLEY             fish            lb. oz             lb. oz

Art Gibbs                         8                 6 6              22 14

Martin Nock                     8                 3 1              15 11

Bob Collins                      4                 2 13              8 15

Jenny Gibbs                    4                 2 1.5             7 11

Jim Bates                        2                 1 11             3 5.5

Martyn Gray                     1                 2 8.5            2 8.5

We never thought we would get through to the England Final at Rutland. I remember ringing Roland from the pub, where we were celebrating, and I couldn’t convince him that we had made it until I finally passed him over to Jenny. The other thing was that the final was only a few days away and to my surprise everyone said they could make it.

We travelled on the day, with no practice like other teams, in two cars.

Martin was to stay at Art and Jenny’s and the three go up in Martins’ car. Jim and I drove to Bobs and went up in my car. The others got there in good time but we got held up twice, once on the M25 and once on the M11. We eventually arrived with less than 45 minutes to spare but decided we had time for breakfast. I think this was the quickest English Breakfast I’ve ever eaten. It was then off to register and as Jim was last to register before, we thought it a good idea that he was last this time. The organisers commented that if we got through to The International Final he wouldn’t be allowed to register last there!

After listening to the briefing I only had a few minutes to grab my tackle, fishing tackle that is, and get down to the boats. Before I left the car park Clive, a fishing colleague of mine, said that he had been out the day before and had had success with Slime line, a short leader and a Booby. That sounds familiar I thought.

I tackled up in the boat as we motored out, as my partner Roger from John Horseys team "The Grenadiers" had the engine. He had been out the day before and wanted to fish the end of the North Arm. We stopped some three to four hundred yards out to discuss the matter, I wanted to go down the South Arm and as Rutland Water is so big whatever arm we went down we wouldn’t have time to come back and go down the other. I managed to persuade my partner that the south arm was the better option so off down the south arm we went, right down to the end in fact.

As you might have guessed by now I had put a booby on the point, yes one of Lindsay’s he had given me. I was soon getting a lot of interest but only managed to convert one into a netted trout. Roger in the mean time hadn’t had a thing so he put on a booby but only had orange ones. He soon had some follows and the trout seemed to follow his much closer and right up to the boat. Although he couldn’t convert these into fish I was sure that with a different booby that I could? For those of you that know me I always tie variants of most catching flies and Lindsay’s booby was no exception.

An Orange Fritz version was soon making its way back towards the boat and with two more trout coming to the net I thought I had cracked it.

Roger still wasn’t catching so he wanted to move so I agreed but before we could get underway his captain came past and inquired how we were doing, as he hadn’t had a touch. Roger replied that I had had three all on boobies.

We worked our way back down the arm and by now I had given Roger one of my boobies on which he had now caught.

Finally we finished up drifting from Normanton back towards the lodge and after several follows I managed to get one more into the boat before we had to go in.

I can hear you say, "why didn’t you stay where you were?" Well I’ve always maintained that we go out there to enjoy ourselves and if we do well then that’s a bonus, not that I don’t want to do well but it’s far better to have a good day and get on with your partner believe me.

This last fish followed from a long way out, it made several lunges at the fly, I pulled, I stopped, I figured of eight, I took my fly out and put it back in, waited saw it disappear and lifted, he was on. Now I felt really chuffed at catching that last trout and even more so when my partner stood up and applauded.

Now that’s what fishing with a partner is all about.

Once we had emptied the tackle out of the boat and thanked each other for a good day I made my way to the rest of the team to find out how we had faired. We had all caught and all had a smashing day, couldn’t ask for much more than that. We had again beaten some strong England teams this time and finished 5^th out of 15 entries, a good all round performance.

RESULTS

Team                                    Fish               lb. oz

1 Ospreys A                          49              105 10.5

2 ACA Masterline                 44               92 10.5

3 Rutland Kingfishers           41               79 14.5

4 Renegade FF                     35               68 8.5

5 Ouse Valley                       29               55 7.5

6 Grenadiers                          23               54 1.5

7 Sovereign                            27               52 10.5

8 Rutland Ospreys                 28               52 9.5

9 Ews Consett Invicta            26               50 13

10 Five Towns FF                  28               50 3.5

11 Hanningfield FFA              28              49 2.5

12 BRFFA                               24              48 2.5

13 Northumbrian Badgers     24              47 4.5

14 RMAA                                 22              41 1

15 Walthamstow FFC             20             39 6

Heaviest bag

1. John Horsey                         10              27 11.5

Grenadiers

2. Simon Robinson                  10              26 9.5

Ospreys A

Heaviest fish             lb. oz

1. John Horsey           4 0

Grenadiers

2. Ian Colclough         3 13

Five Towns FF

Now you might have noticed that John Horsey did rather well but then he stayed at the end of the south arm apparently!

No.    Heaviest

OUSE VALLEY           fish         lb. oz         lb. oz

Bob Collins                     7           2 11         13 0.5

Martin Nock                    5           1 15.5        9 3

Jenny Gibbs                   5           2 2.5           9 1

Martyn Gray                    4           2 10            8 11

Jim Bates                       5            2 2.5          8 2.5

Art Gibbs                        3            3 0             7 5.5

Bob was best on the day but Martin was consistent with second best bag.

The second team that day ACA Masterline won the International Final so I think we did pretty well and put our club on the map, so as to speak.

See you there next year perhaps.

Martyn Gray