My first visit to Barston
As some of you will know I have been raising funds through various activities for Birmingham Childrens Hospital.
After positive feedback from auctioning a fishing day out with star anglers on ebay and internet forums, I spoke to Tony Keeling from Anglers Mail and asked him if he knew of anyone foolish enough to pay to spend a day with him. He said it was doubtful, but we decided to try anyway because my dad always says ‘there’s one born every day.’ This proved to be correct when Mr Paul Law from UK Trades Ltd put the highest bid in, gaining a day out with Tony.
As Tony is senile, decrepit etc., he required a chauffeur for the day and I volunteered. The wife was not happy as she said I would never get home because we would be talking about fishing all night. We headed for Barston Lake, Tony was giving directions with the aid of a 1950’s A-Z, so of course we got lost. When we eventually arrived we were greeted by Paul who had driven up from Essex for the day. We then met the owner of the venue who gave us a brief history of the place and told us how he had worked hard on improvements to make the facilities as attractive as they are today. Nigel suggested that we go on pegs 113 to 117 on the big lake, I was a little sceptical at first due to stories of fish deaths and poor returns in the super league final. But I had been reliably informed by Simon Nickless from Saints that the only problem during the super league final was that the fish were spawning, which excused the poor return on that day.
Our fears were expelled very soon after starting fishing when skimmers, carp, tench and roach succumbed to our pellet tactics on every cast. I don’t want to give too much away as Tony will be covering this in Anglers Mail shortly but I had my best silver fish weight in England.
The only downside from a personal point of view is that due to team commitments I won’t be able to fish the Barston Bowl on the 13th July.
Thank you to Nigel for being a fantastic host and a big thanks to Tony and Paul for making this day happen.
Fantastic fishing.
Beautiful surroundings.
Excellent company.
£520 raised for Birmingham Childrens Hospital.
Overall, a great day.
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Another year in the Championship.....
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