Bank Match at Haywards Farm (Nr Reading) 24/5/2008

Another good day at Haywards. It is rare for anyone not to get their limit here and today was no exception.

It was a nice day, very sunny but with a slightly chilly easterly wind. The wind increased as the day progressed to give a good ripple on the water. The eastern end of the lake had a mild breeze/ripple but this increased towards the western bank making it extremely difficult to cast into the wind at this western end.

Of the dozen Iver Anglers most headed for the northern bank, partly because the wind direction favoured casting from this bank.

The first to finish was Ray Simpson. He had gone to the near south-eastern corner which fortunately at the start of the day was not too difficult for casting. As he said, right place & right time and by about 9.45am he had his four fish.

Stan, having caught three fish on a promontory on the north bank, vacated his spot to Martin and was then brave enough to try casting into the wind at the western end. It paid off and his booby on a heavy line and first cast caught his last fish and he was second to finish around 10am.

After that others started to finish, Brian, Ray Janes, Allen and by 11.00am over half had finished.

The secret was to get a good cast into the deeper water where most of the fish resided. The edges were generally quite shallow except at the far south western corner where Malcolm had staked his luck for the day. He lost a big Brown there. He never saw it himself but a non-Iver angler on the adjacent bank saw it as it streamed away from Malcolm swirling about 3 foot from this other angler’s feet. Never mind, all the fun of the day. Malcolm did catch one that weighed in at well over 4lbs.

Reg started on the point half way along the northern end. He was there with Jane, a guest for the day but hopefully a new member in the future. She had only been fishing a few times, learning fast, so the point was a good place to be, jutting out into the deeper water. It was here that by noon Reg had his four fish and Jane, with a bit of help/advice, had three. However, the wind increased in strength making the point difficult. So she moved to the quieter north eastern water. It is here that there is reputed to be a hole and is popular for Browns and today Jane pulled one out of the bag, a nice one at 3lbs 6 ozs.

By 1 pm there were only two anglers to finish, Ken & Roy, John having just finished. Roy had struggled, wrong place, wrong time, all the good spots had been taken early on. With the wind increasing and the lunch time doldrums upon them it had become much harder where they now were, near the lodge where the cars park. The fish seemed to have moved out and a long cast was required alongside the difficult wind. They persevered and they both finished around 1.35pm.

At the end it was Allen who won the day, thanks to a good rainbow that he caught in the deep water at the far end.

Name	Fish	Weight lbs	Weight Kg	Best Rainbow	Best Brown
Roy Palmer	4	11lbs 6ozs
Brian Whitty	4	12lbs 15ozs		3lbs 11ozs
Malcolm Golding	4	13lbs 10ozs		4lbs 8ozs
Ray Simpson	4	12lbs 7ozs
John Weaver	4	12lbs 4ozs
Ken Williams	4	13lbs 2ozs
Reg Renn	4	12lbs 6ozs
Stan King	4	13lbs 6ozs		3lbs 10ozs
Ray Janes	4	13lbs 6ozs		3lbs 11ozs
Allen Dixon	4	15lbs 10ozs		5lbs 3ozs
Martin Tinald	4	14lbs 3ozs		4lbs 7ozs
Guest :-
Jane Cockman	4	12lbs 6ozs			3lbs 6ozs