Welcome back!

This year the match organisers finally ruled that the match venues could not be pre-fished. I personally think this is a great step forward and the Ventry venue which was the last match in the series of three, fished excellent. With a fantastic record breaking number of dogfish and other species caught. Not that I or one or two others did catch a lot, but the number of blanks was very low compared to some years.

Ventry has been fished historically on the first match day and destroyed many an anglers ego and chances of winning the competition. The two other venues fished poorly, more due to the weather condition on the day and leading up to the matches.

Personally on Ventry I didn’t have a great day, but it was fantastic to see 17 year old Harvey Butler pegged next to me after a slow start finished up catching 8 dogfish and finishing 3rd in the zone . Harvey was hitting the weed beds, but for a while wasn’t catching the dogfish. I told him “you’re hitting the weed and that’s where the doggies are.” Once he started catching he had 4 dogfish in 4 casts and then a double shot!Definitely one to watch for the future!

Harvey’s dad Ben had a good result in zone C catching 8 dogfish, but with more fish being caught in that zone he finished in 6th place another good result though for the father and son pair. They finished 8th overall in the competition winning a few nice tackle prizes.

Let’s have a look at the food situation again!

When I was kindly invited to stay with the “Frank’s’ I didn’t know that we would have a resident chef Andy (mountain goat) Booth who selflessly got up that bit earlier than everyone else and made breakfast and on several occasions evening meals as well. Andy thanks for the delicious meals and the extra pounds!

I have to mention Bill Newhams wife Maz. After match 2 on Brandon I was told that Maz was preparing our supper for when we got back to our accommodation. Walking into the kitchen/diner in our bungalow, I thought I had walked into a restaurant kitchen. Maz produced an outstanding meal for 13 people that would have put a lot of eatery’s to shame. Roast potatoes, potato gratin, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrot, swede, cabbage, peas, yorkshire puddings, roast lamb, pork and crackling. To finish us off Maz had also produce two excellent fruit pies with custard, I was in heaven!

Maz a special thank you from the a lot heavier ‘Frank’s’ and myself – thank you👌!

When I was kindly invited to be accommodated in ‘The Franks Palace’ it was obviously a shock to some of the ‘southerners’ that a ‘northerner’ was to enter their abode for the week. The comments on the ‘Franks’ WhatsApp group used to keep everyone informed made me chuckle, especially about me turning up with a flat cap and a whippet. This inflammatory and baseless stereotypical discrimination of northerners is typical of the group of shandy drinking southerners I was with!

Getting back to the fishing I was lucky in that the ‘Franks’ trusted me with the knowledge of some of their secret fishing marks. Fools!!Visiting an easy fishable beach mark that turned up a good number of decent Bullhuss in daylight was a bonus. Everyone caught several huss with Gary Hazelgrove catching the longest at 96cm. Also the location of several rock marks that produced some nice pollock and wrasse.

I must say the week spent in the company of the ‘Franks’ was fantastic, the humour, generosity and camaraderie was first class. If I had turned up with no bait or gear I am sure these guys would have me sorted out in no time!

One very enjoyable experience was sharing the accommodation with Gary Falk not only a mad keen sea angler, but generally just mad!

Gary is a great fan of Ska music and it was great to hear songs from my distant youth when Gary was playing his favourite sounds, relaxing with a glass of Irish whiskey whilst fine tuning his rigs for the following days fishing.

Ska Music press link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cntvEDbagAw&list=PLhIZFdABHvq6ZGpirfvjOQdzoZ1mFYxG4

My room mate was Welshman Colin McInery. One of my worst worries was sharing a room with someone, as I can snore loudly when I’m really tired. As the week is quite demanding that was going to be every night. So when Colin started snoring like a chainsaw, requiring a service, I was quite relieved! I would like to thank Colin for putting up with my ever expanding fishing tackle that took over the room as well.

Getting back to the Cumbrian Sandeel saga!

The ‘Franks’ award of the coveted pink beret is a fantastic idea, tradition and great craic. I do think there is room for the Maryport Club lads from Cumbria to have an award for similar acts of mistakes, errors in judgement and general cockups! As we do make them with some classics in the past.

So I would like to propose to the Cumbrian members from Maryport Club that an award is instigated on similar lines to the ‘Franks’ called the ‘Dumbrian Award’!

I thought that because Cumbria has more sheep than people living in the county a sheep in some form would be a suitable award, we could maybe discuss it at a future club meeting.

This years award is then awarded to these fellas below:

In conclusion I would like to thank all the ‘Frank’s’ for a fantastic time, it was a great week in your company .

Please tap on photos to enlarge.