Eggy Ferry Weekend Away 2016
This year 17 of
Eggy Ferry’s finest (plus Nicky Harrop) made their way down to the midlands for
one day on Barston’s main lake and two days at the Midlands Mecca known as
Tunnel Barn Farm.
Day One –
Friday 9th September - Barston
Arrangements
had been made to meet at the Toby Carvery in Knowle (about 5 miles from
Barston) at 8am to start the weekend with an ‘All You Can Eat’ (they hadn’t met
Pato!) breakfast for a fiver. Surprisingly
all the members who agreed to meet there actually turned up on time if not a
little early. We were eagerly waiting for the doors to open when a member of
staff came out and appologised profusely as breakfast wouldn’t be served until
half an hour later than usual at 8.30am. Blind panic amongst the ranks followed
until Tony Wilson (one of our few compos-mentis members) suggested having
breakfast in the Club House at Barston instead. OK it might be a bit more
expensive than the Carvery but what the
hell, these trips are only once a year. The aforementioned Harrop volunteered to lead
the party there as he had Barston dialled in on his Satnav. Foolishly some of the party followed him all
the way into Solihull, which was odd given that Solihull is 10 miles north of
Knowle but Barston is 5 miles east! The final straw came when his Satnav
directed him to a disabled parking space in the local Solihull Morrison’s (I
always thought that disabled spaces were for physically rather than mentally
disabled people!) We eventually found ourselves driving back past the Carvery
about 10 minutes after the 8.30 breakfast had started!!!!!!! If only we’d just
waited in the car park.
Finally
arriving at Barston a quick but filling breakfast was followed by the day one
draw. Format for the weekend was 3
sections of 6 each day with top 3 in section getting paid out. So 50% of the crew picked up dosh each day.
The weather won
day one with a howling gale blowing across the lake. Presentation on the pole
was terrible but some still caught whilst others stuck to the feeder or
bomb. First on the day was Gary Brislen
with a brilliant 99lb of mainly F1s at 25m on the bomb and big pellet. Second
was Tony Wilson with an equally impressive 90lb of carp and big skimmers on
paste short. Third was Colin Cook with
80lb including some right munters on worm in the margin.
(All weights
are rounded up or down to the nearest pound)
Sections
A 1st Tony Wilson 80lb
2nd Dennis Jones 48lb
3rd Chris Rowe 46lb
B 1st Gary Brislen 99lb
2nd Colin Cook 80lb
3rd Andy Lawton 66lb
C 1st Lee Pickup 55lb
2nd Jamie Pickup 47lb
3rd Kenny Pickup 35lb (a Pickup Whitewash
that one!!)
The hotel was the excellent Holiday Inn in Kenilworth and the
evening entertainment involved a rather good Indian meal across the road. Even
the regulars quickly realised what a prick Nick Harrop can be and they started
pounding him with left over Naan breads. Unfortunately none of them hit him
hard enough to knock any sense into him.
‘Who threw that fucking Naan bread?’
Neil Patterson displays the dining manners learned at the Lucy
Clayton Finishing School for Young Ladies.
Day 2 – Saturday 10th September – Tunnel Barn, Jenny’s
A mahoosive breakfast in Tunnel’s new conservatory dining room was
followed by the draw, pegging being kindly sorted for us by Les in the tackle
shop. Many suffered a slow start as the
lake didn’t respond to the usual corn and hemp on the deck tactics and the
refusal of the massive head of F1s to feed shallow on caster or maggot. Eventually people started to sort it out and
fish started getting caught all over. Unusually for him Tony Wilson was
struggling and in a hissy fit went back to his car to ring his wife for advice.
She told him to man-up and not to ring again when she was busy paying the
milkman. Due to the slow start weights were not up to Jenny’s usual high
standards but when a load of hungover idiots like us turn up, what do you
expect? Pato was on speed dial to the
Samaritans after 3 hours and still trying to tie a noose of 0.25mm line between
his neck and the nearest (very strong) tree at the weigh in. The soft shite came third in section, picked
up some coin, and cheered up a bit.
Sections
A 1st Colin Cook 96lb
2nd Dennis Jones 58lb
3rd Neil Patterson 43lb
B 1st Nicky Harrop 83lb (Jesus wept.)
2nd John Edwards 75lb
3rd Andy Lawton 49lb
C 1st Chris Rowe 80lb
2nd Jamie Pickup 71lb
3rd Derek Warren 51lb
Entertainment that night consisted of a meal in a local Chinese.
Again great quality and washed down with lashings of Tsingchau lager.
Day 3 – Sunday 11th September – Tunnel Barn, Canal
Yet another good breakfast at the fishery was followed by the draw
with Les again kindly pegging the lake for us.
Well what can I say? Personally I’ve fished this lake 6 or 7 times and
never done less than 60lb even when I’ve totally fucked it up (which is quite
often). This year the lake was well out of sorts compared to it’s usual
brilliant form and everybody struggled including the 4 or 5 of us who (sort of)
knew the lake. Top weight on the day was day was 45lb which normally you’d have
chucked back after 3 hours because you’re 50lb behind and gone home. We blamed it on the
Match Fishing Subscriber Classic mob who had been on it the day before....’cos
no way was it down our incompetence.....
Sections
A 1st Tony Wilson 25lb
2nd Eric Hayes 20lb
3rd Derek Warren 17lb
B 1st Lee Pickup 21lb
2nd Kenny Pickup 16lb
3rd Dave Lynch 13lb
C 1st Jamie Pickup 80lb
2nd Gary Brislen 71lb
3rd Les Thompson 20lb
Sadly Missed
This year saw the inaugural competition for the Ian
‘Yozza‘ Hughes memorial trophy. Ian
tragically died on the bank at the Garbolino Club Angler of the Year Qualifier
earlier this year at Lindholme Lakes. Many of you northwest anglers who read
this blog but are not club members will remember Ian. He was a brilliant angler who didn’t suffer
fools gladly. You either loved him or hated him (usually ‘cos he beat you using
just a top two kit!) Most people, including me, loved him. He’d more often than
not beat most people with his usual half pint of stale pellets and pint of half
dead maggots/black casters while they
had 4 pints of fresh casters and a kilo of worm.
The format for the weekend was 1 point for a section win, 2 for second, etc etc.
Well done to Jamie Pickup as the first of many future winners of this esteemed trophy. Jamie won with 5 points (1 first and 2 seconds ) with a tie for second between Colin Cook and Tony Wilson on 6 points each, nail biting stuff indeed.
Yozza . RIP mate.
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