DICK's DIARY
Who is Dick I hear you ask? Well I am the secretary of the W.M.P.A.A. fishing group. That's the West Midlands Police Fishing Section. Oh dear (I can hear you say it from here!) Well, something has to pay for the fishing!! Enough said! We have an active 'match fishing' group and this involves us competing in matches all over the UK on every type of venue possible. The W.M.P.A.A. have been the winners, runners up and fourth in our own National Championships as well as having the 'National Individual Champion' during the last five years. We aren't mugs and we do consider ourselves capable of competing with almost all of those of you out there.
Last year, we had an invite to enter a team into the 'Preston Innovations' sponsored canal winter league in and around the Walsall/Pelsall/Brownhills canal system. These are areas where bloodworm and joker are allowed and as a result, the league itself attracts all the top b/j teams and others eager to compete in such a league. What chance did we have I hear you ask? We asked ourselves! Not much at all.
Experience was our aim and all we could hope to achieve. We could not compete against the majority of teams in the league. After all, I think only one of our five team members had even fished the canal itself before the league commenced (apart from the odd practice) Without doubt, all of us had only fished one bloodworm /joker match during the season (and that was the same one) so we all had a lot to learn.
To cut a long story short, we finished 12th out of 26 in the league, beat a 'Shakespeare' team off the next peg during one round, had a individual winner in the same round, beat lots of other far more experienced b/j teams and we did ourselves proud. We were nominated as team of the month in a National Angling Magazine and overall we couldn't believe our success. Was it luck or ability? We hope to find out.
This year, we have another team in the league. Due to work commitments, we cannot always get W.M.P.A.A. members so others fill in when we are short. No ringers though! We are competing under the name of talkangling.co.uk The league this year has been reduced to 20 teams so it will be even harder to do well.
Match 1 of 6 ( Wyrley & Essington canal at Pelsall)
The day before the match 'Stormin' Norman Carpenter was fishing with our 'Gary' (no he's not my brother) in the town wharf at Walsall. The word was, the match was going to be very hard. Lots of weed through the match length and probably some dry nets expected too. That's all we needed to know. A bad start is the last thing anyone needs. It doesn't help confidence or points!
Now I don't know about you, but it seems that every time I plan on a fishing match during the winter months, the weather takes a dramatic turn, and I'm not talking about for the better!! Having spent the previous night making sure all my rigs and kit were right I got up nice and early on the morning of the match to find....Yes you've guessed it...It was white over and I don't mean with just a thin film of frost. The temperatures must have been going up and down all night just like the Wolves' match attendance's because the frost on the car was almost half an inch thick. Honest!
It took a good twenty minutes with the engine running to get the worst of it off the car. Not the best start to the day. Is it only me that this happens to? It certainly feels like it. Still it was also FA cup 3rd round day and West Brom were sure to win so if the fishing was crap, I would still have something to celebrate.
The draw was at Pelsall Social Club, known to the locals as 'the scratter'I'll tell you why another day.
Gary had been and got the sandwiches although there was a sandwich van already on the car park. Everything had been planned by Barry Astbury (Pelsall Social Angling Club) Barry runs the league and does a very good job too. The only problem was, during the early hours of that morning, he couldn't walk because of gout! Sounds bloody painful to me. Anyway, he couldn't fish so was able to relax at the draw and let the match run itself. If only!!
You can picture what it was like. People walking in bleary eyed, some wide awake, others looking as though they'd only just finished off last night's session on the beer. Me, I just walk in with my slippers on.
Nevertheless, everyone's eyes were on the door to see who was next to come in. There were people like Norman Carpenter, Ian Moulton, Ricky Teale, Jim Keeling, Simon Nickless and many, many more 'names'. No different from any other top class match. Once inside it was obvious who was fishing together because nearly everyone huddled around a table to sort out the tactics for the match. Whilst I'm on the subject of slippers, most people have their own way of dressing but there was one chap there who looked just like a train driver. He was a short bloke but stocky and well built. Perched on the top of his head was a dirty old grimy peaked train driver's hat that looked far too small. He had obviously worn it for years and years and that was his trademark. He walked along as though he meant business and reminded me of Les Dawson mimicking an old granny. I wish I knew who he was. (I'll probably find out very soon, next week)
As is normal, everyone had their ears wide open trying to find out whatever they could about the match length or their own particular section from the people on the next table. It soon became apparent that those with most friends were the ones who had brought an 'ice breaker' with them. Yes, that's right, the canal was frozen over in a lot of places so an ice breaker was certainly the tool to have.
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