Last October, whilst lure fishing a Midlands reservoir, I caught my largest ever UK fish - a pike of 29lbs exactly, pictured above. We entered this fish into the Young Angler of the Month competition on Keith Arthur's Tightlines show, broadcast on Sky Sports. The fish won me the competition and yesterday I was invited, along with the other 11 YAOTM winners for 2009, to fish with the Drennan Team England at Barston Lake near Solihull. The team recently won the World Championship. We began our day with a full English breakfast in the restaurant of Barston Lakes before a greeting from Keith who paired us up with our coach for the day.
There were many other angling stars there other than Keith and the Team. Keith had brought his Sky TV crew along with him to film the event, which we think will be broadcast in the evening of Friday 13th August on Tightlines, Sky Sports 3. Nigel Botherway, Martin Bowler and Dave Elliott fished and Gary Barclay from Drennan did a fantastic job on the event management. They all made us feel very welcome. I've been very privileged to meet Keith four or five times now and we've become good friends with him. I can't believe his knowledge, he is like a walking fishing encyclopaedia.
I was teamed up with Will Raison who is the current World Champion at Match fishing and we were soon fishing at peg 118 (not easy to forget, although none of us had a moustache!) We fished the day with the pole, something I have done very little of - probably the closest I've done to this type of fishing is with a whip for Roach, Dace and Bleak on the River Lea. However, it didn't take me long to pick up and soon we were catching a steady amount of Bream, Roach, Carp and F1's some to about 3lbs plus a nice rudd too. (After lunch my Dad could resist it no longer so I had to pass him the pole to fish with whilst I went and fished with Martin Bowler. I got it back later though!) All the other winners were catching fish too. One of the other winners who was carp fishing with Nigel Botherway and Dave Elliott had carp up to 19lbs. Everybody was having a great day.
Will gave me tips on how he fishes pellets (what we were using as bait), other aspects of match fishing and using the pole. Although I'm quite shy, Keith interviewed me, Will and the other winners with the Sky TV camera which was a great experience. My Mum, Dad and I also had a good conversation with Martin Bowler who was targeting the carp in the lake. Martin is a really nice guy and as I'm really interested in taking pictures and writing articles he also gave me great advice - he was the perfect guy to talk to and very informative.
By the end of the day we'd caught a great bag of fish. Will reckoned the bag was getting on for 90 - 100lbs. Thanks for a great day Will!
I also would like to thank the rest of the England Team, Keith, Martin, Nigel Botherway, Nigel from Barston Lakes and the Sky Team too, who made it a fantastic day out and one I certainly won't ever forget!
Below is a picture of my Mum with her favourite man (after me and my Dad of course!)
Last October, whilst lure fishing a Midlands reservoir, I caught my largest ever UK fish - a pike of 29lbs exactly, pictured above. We entered this fish into the Young Angler of the Month competition on Keith Arthur's Tightlines show, broadcast on Sky Sports. The fish won me the competition and yesterday I was invited, along with the other 11 YAOTM winners for 2009, to fish with the Drennan Team England at Barston Lake near Solihull. The team recently won the World Championship. We began our day with a full English breakfast in the restaurant of Barston Lakes before a greeting from Keith who paired us up with our coach for the day.
There were many other angling stars there other than Keith and the Team. Keith had brought his Sky TV crew along with him to film the event, which we think will be broadcast in the evening of Friday 13th August on Tightlines, Sky Sports 3. Nigel Botherway, Martin Bowler and Dave Elliott fished and Gary Barclay from Drennan did a fantastic job on the event management. They all made us feel very welcome. I've been very privileged to meet Keith four or five times now and we've become good friends with him. I can't believe his knowledge, he is like a walking fishing encyclopaedia.
I was teamed up with Will Raison who is the current World Champion at Match fishing and we were soon fishing at peg 118 (not easy to forget, although none of us had a moustache!) We fished the day with the pole, something I have done very little of - probably the closest I've done to this type of fishing is with a whip for Roach, Dace and Bleak on the River Lea. However, it didn't take me long to pick up and soon we were catching a steady amount of Bream, Roach, Carp and F1's some to about 3lbs plus a nice rudd too. (After lunch my Dad could resist it no longer so I had to pass him the pole to fish with whilst I went and fished with Martin Bowler. I got it back later though!) All the other winners were catching fish too. One of the other winners who was carp fishing with Nigel Botherway and Dave Elliott had carp up to 19lbs. Everybody was having a great day.
Will gave me tips on how he fishes pellets (what we were using as bait), other aspects of match fishing and using the pole. Although I'm quite shy, Keith interviewed me, Will and the other winners with the Sky TV camera which was a great experience. My Mum, Dad and I also had a good conversation with Martin Bowler who was targeting the carp in the lake. Martin is a really nice guy and as I'm really interested in taking pictures and writing articles he also gave me great advice - he was the perfect guy to talk to and very informative.
By the end of the day we'd caught a great bag of fish. Will reckoned the bag was getting on for 90 - 100lbs. Thanks for a great day Will!
I also would like to thank the rest of the England Team, Keith, Martin, Nigel Botherway, Nigel from Barston Lakes and the Sky Team too, who made it a fantastic day out and one I certainly won't ever forget!
Below is a picture of my Mum with her favourite man (after me and my Dad of course!)
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