I must begin this blog post by remembering Mervyn Topper Haskins who recently passed away. My first recollection of Topper was before I even knew who he was, I watched him fishing a Topper crowquill and bread at Jack Whites. I sat in amazement watching and wondering how he could cast a float underarm to the far side of the river, throw a ball of groundbait next to the float and then watched him extract fish I could only dream of catching. I was about 14 I think and not match fishing, he chatted to me a bit and was very friendly. It was only a few years later I realised who I had been watching. I fished against Topper and his Bathampton squad for Silver Dace, Bristol Amalgamation and Bristol Sensas in my early match fishing days. The rivalry between "us" and "them" was fierce, and Topper to me seemed to be a big strong character who could intimidate you by this and his reputation. When my team took Bathampton on he called us the young pretenders one day, so when we finally beat Bathampton to win the South West Winter League it was a big deal for us, Topper congratulated us. I also remember drawing next to him on a match at Conham, it didn't fish great where we were but I had a 6lb+ weight on the stick float to beat him, that was the day I thought to myself I've made it. Of course it was only one match, and I had tons more to learn, but it was a massive confidence booster for me to beat a river legend at the time. What Topper achieved and added to the world of match fishing in the past is huge, he won't be forgotten.
The picture below is how I remember the great Bathampton team that Topper assembled and captained.
The funeral of Topper is at the South Bristol Crematorium Thursday 11th August 3-45PM.
Some time ago Mark Harper asked the team who would like to be considered for the Trent Feeder National, and the Division 1 National. I put my name forward for both and was selected for both. I was happy as the Trent is a river that I do like to fish, normally lol. The team drove up to Sutton on Trent on Friday and we were staying at a very nice pub in a village where we had some great food and a few beers. The team of 6 was a blend of youth and experience, Geraint Powell, Paul Isaacs, James Carty, Mark Harper, Martin Barrett and myself... OK bit light on the youth with only Geraint lol. We talked a lot of the next day, and that Newark Dyke where two sections were pegged would be tough. Mark joined a meeting and came back and told us the sections we were in, I was on the Dyke, yuk! Not too many beers then.
I was up at 6am Saturday morning, my fellow room mate Martin making me a nice cup of tea. Got to the draw and had a breakfast and then got to say hello to a few anglers I had not seen for a while. Mark then told us that last nights draw was only a mock up and would be done at the draw, he then asked me to do the draw. It was a bit of shambles it felt at the draw, and I was stood next to Tommy Pickering who was definitely getting cheesed off with things! When I got to draw I took the sheet back to the team and found out I was on the Dyke again lol.
A few of us enjoying brekky before the draw.
Martin on the munch.
I got to the river, I was on peg 8 in B section, and just down from a power station. Opposite me was a weir, but the water was flowing down the other side and so I was not thinking this would be the best. The anglers on peg 9 and 10 were locals and said it would be tough, pegs 1 to 3 were expected to get bream, we would be fishing for bites. Our team plan had been basically around going for big fish, whist we could have gone for small fish without any practice we would not be able to beat teams who had been refining it. Luck, we would need lots of it. The picture doesn't show it, but the weir sill opposite me was covered in Canada Geese!
I set up 3 feeder rods, one for a long chuck with block end feeder, this had 0.19 powerline to a size 12 XSH, an open end feeder with 0.15 to 14 N50, and finally a block ender with the holes expanded for fishing chopped worm short. As you can see no small fish set up!
This match was fished to many of the CIPS international rules, I could plumb up with a straight lead, but not use a lead in the match, hook lengths had to be minimum 50cm. We had a 10 minute prebaiting period, but the two lads below me didn't bother to prebait, I put 5 feeders in of gbait at 50m with not a lot of feed in it, and some chopped worm in short. Everything has to be fed in feeders, you cannot feed with a catapult or out of your hand. I started on the gbait line, obviously hoping for a skimmer or similar, I had no bites in 3 casts with maggots on the hook, and then I had a 1/2oz perch on a bit of worm. I had decided to give the feeder 45 mins at least, and I did just that but had not put anything else in the net. I couldn't see the anglers either side, but could see their feeders going in, and I could tell they were struggling too. What to do next, I decided to see if there were a few perch about and went out with a lobby tail on the short line. I had taps in the first two drops but nothing hooked, swapped to a dendra and caught another very small perch, I had another 4 small perch which were not going to get a lobby in there mouth. I wasn't going to get enough weight with these as it wasn't fast enough, so I went back to the gbait feeder.
Well the gbait feeder having been rested was still a non event, I even went down to lighter line and smaller hooks (going for smaller fish) and had a couple of tiny bites which weren't hooked. Time to fish for a barbel or chub on the blockend, but that never mustered a single bite all match. Despite my best efforts I only had bites and fish on the chopped worm, I did get a perch of about 8oz, and pulled out of another similar 20 mins to go. My finally tally was about 11 small perch and the 8ouncer. I wandered down to see the local lad below, he said he had 5 small fish for about 8oz and said he'd never had such a bad day! The scales came down from peg 1, and peg 1 and 2 had both had a bream and a few skimmers, but a big 3 kilo was the best of them, and not a lot after. The Ossett lad above me had 890g, he told me he lost a barbel 2nd cast, my perch went 670g, the lad below had 270g, and the next local had 850g which was mainly 1 perch, but he had also lost a barbel whilst fishing for small fish. Well it was certainly tough in my area, and 1kilo 220g was all that was needed to be 10th out of 33. I ended up 20th out of 33, so 13 people had a tougher day than me lol! My lost perch only cost me 3 or 4 points.
A quick check on the Whatsapp team chat and it seemed we had not done well so it was drive straight back home time. As a team we ended up 26th, and the team that won, Ringers (congrats), well they went with a small fish plan unless they drew on a flyer. To be fair the weights were better away from the Dyke, but not as big as normal. Here's how my team did:-
A: Martin Barrett 1kilo 750g 22nd (think the winner was on the next peg with 20 kilo, oops)
B Me 670g, 20th
C James Carty 1kilo 150g 14th (beat Alan Scotthorne off the next peg, bet perfomer today)
D Geraint Powell 3kilo 750g 21st
E Mark Harper 2kilo 460g 23rd
F Paul Isaacs 820g 32nd
I always enjoy the buzz of a National, there is the anticipation of what might be a special day, well that will have to be the same this Saturday. I hope I can avoid the Dyke this time and the team can get a better set of pegs.
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