Friday evening
saw the first party of organisers/helpers
arriving at Wraysbury One with a view to
getting everything organised for the Sunday
fish-in. An hour or two of discussion on
where to set everything up ensued, with
a few beers consumed to help the process.
By 22.00hrs with the temperature rapidly
plummeting into minus figures, the draw
of warm sleeping bags (in cars!!!) became
too strong and we all turned in for the
night.
Early Saturday morning
arrived without too much incidence (other
than Chris advising us that he had found
that the rear opening tail-hatch on his
4X4 to be anything but supportive when leaning
against it from the inside and trying to
relieve himself over the top in the middle
of the night rather than get out into the
cold – luckily he managed to avoid
the puddle when he fell out of the door!!!),
other than a light sprinkling of snow.
A mug of tea later
and the intrepid organisers where on their
way to Kingsmead for a few hours Piking
before returning to Wraysbury to finish
the setting up in the afternoon. On arrival
we were soon joined by the intrepid Pompey
duo Graham and Brian. Kingsmead was yet
again kind to Chris who was first into a
monster Pike of about 3lb!!!! after only
half an hour. Eugene, not to be out-done
and proving his nickname of Jona was now
unfounded, was next in with a fish of around
12lb. Shortly after this, Mike arrived after
dropping his girl of at the nursery, closely
followed by Allan (daytimedave).
Two hours later, and
no further fish resulted in the band of
merry helpers deciding it was time to call
it a day and head back to Wraysbury to sort
out base camp. Allan Stone had left us an
hour earlier to let the “Happy Chippie”
into Wraysbury One, so we were quietly hoping
most of the hard work would have taken place.
On the way back, and
much to our surprise, the cars took on a
mind of their own and before we knew what
was happening, we were sitting in the warmth
of the “Percy” with beers in
front of us. This coincided with a phone
call advising that Tug had turned up with
the tent (base camp) and that it had already
been set up. One beer turned into two etc
and a pleasant hour or two passed.
Eventually, sense
was seen (although not by Andy), and we
headed back to camp. Everything was then
organised for the Sunday morning onslaught
of anglers. Whilst this was going on, there
was a steady stream of anglers arriving
who were turning up for the Saturday Night
Social.
Andy and Chris, “relaxed”
after their afternoons activities in the
“Percy”, decided to ‘help’
the “cheerful chippie” with
cooking supper – much merriment followed
for everyone other than the “chippie”!!.
With the Saturday
Night Social under way Brian was woken from
his forty winks by Graham (not a sight I’d
want to wake up to!) and he joined us in
the tent. “Tent” doesn’t
really do it justice. It was a 12X12 that
Tug had kindly borrowed from the RAF (with
permission) that was big enough to sit most
of us. That is until someone bright spark
(Andy) decided that to warm it up we should
light a disposable barbeque inside. (off
the ground to comply with RMC regulations
on no fires)
Safety wise, this
wasn’t a problem as the BBQ was very
small, and the tent very high. However,
the disposable BBQ was so small it didn’t
give off much heat. It then became a mission
for the pyromaniacs around us to find enough
wood to build the BBQ into a mini bonfire
(sorry, bigger BBQ!) – again not a
problem if the wood they found had been
dry. However, how much dry wood do you find
around lakes in the middle of winter –
none! as they were to prove as the tent
instantly filled with choking smoke. The
first time they did this it was quite amusing,
by the fifth time, not quite so much!!
Sadly, two of our
guests had to leave at about 21.00hrs due
to family problems (luckily it turned out
to be OK in the end). This is only mentioned
as they had set their bivvy up for the night
some hours earlier. Due to the apparent
emergency of the situation, it was all hands
to the pump in getting them packed up and
on their way. If only someone had filmed
what had ensued it would have been worthy
of its own whole show of “you’ve
been framed”.
A few people by this
stage were extremely relaxed (to the point
where their legs were obviously asleep whilst
the rest of their body wasn’t!!).
Leaning over to pull out tent pegs that
were fighting back became a mission for
Chris (and some others to be honest). The
only way to stop the pegs pulling him over,
was for him to crawl around the tent –
or over it!. Eventually everything was packed
away and our guests were on their way.
Bed for some followed
shortly after this (I didn’t have
too much of a choice as my legs were already
asleep!!!) so I’m afraid the rest
of the evenings social will have to go un-reported.
05.00 Sunday morning
came around far too early. A quick tea later
and it was action stations. The computer
was fired up for registration, car park
marshall’s kitted out in day-glow
vests (very fetching) dispersed, the happy
chippie woken up and ‘kicked’
into cooking mode and then the gates were
open.
Despite everyone knowing
the gates don’t open until 06.00 it
never ceases to amaze me how many people
are waiting outside and who stream in at
05.30. Our apologies go to the residents
of Wraysbury who put up with this each year.
By 06.30 the vast
majority of anglers had signed in, and had
headed off for their respective lakes. Dawn
was breaking and the sun was trying to shine
through. Over the next hour, and a bacon
butty or two, various latecomers turned
up and signed in. By 09.00 only 10 anglers
hadn’t turned up which wasn’t
bad in view of the weather conditions. This
meant we had just over 100 anglers fishing
on the two lakes.
With signing in duties
passed to Stoney (it was about time he did
something) it was time for everybody’s
favourite job – walking round the
lakes selling raffle tickets. Hippy, Tug,
Mike Lyddon, DaytimeDave, Andy et al who
had been on Car Park Marshalling duties
had ‘surprisingly’ not returned
to base camp – only to later be found
fishing. This left us with a choice –
Allan or Chris to walk the lakes. Allan
being the main man obviously needed to man
base camp in case someone had any questions
for him, or in case someone turned up with
a camera to take a photo of him!!. In addition,
at his age the walk round the lakes may
have been a bit too much.
So off I went in bright
sunshine to start at Wraysbury Two. 5 minutes
later and I’m getting out of the car
in the village car park to be greeted by
a Snow Blizzard. My apologies to those people
thinking a Yeti was approaching them!!!
Two hours later, and
Wraysbury Two had been circumnavigated –
sadly not one fish was reported caught during
my travels. On arriving back at the car
my phone went off and on answering I was
informed by Andy that my wife had turned
up and dropped the kids off – only
two hours early!!!
A quick dash back
to Wraysbury One was therefore called for
in order to save those present from my two
little terrors. On arrival, I find the wife
still there and the “cheerful chippie”
trying on his charms – sadly unsuccessfully
as I’d happily sell her on for the
right price!!!
3 packets of crisps
each and a fizzy drink later and it’s
time to walk Wraysbury One selling tickets.
The kids had been warned to be quiet when
approaching anglers and give them there
due, they weren’t too bad. It’s
just a shame I didn’t warn them not
to throw sticks and stones in!!! –
sorry to the angler in the sunken barge
swim!!
Fishing wise, only
3 Pike were caught that I am aware of, one
of 3lb, 9lb and 13lb, the later two falling
to lures. A number of missed runs were also
reported!. The lact of fish however did
not detract from the event. As with all
our events, the anglers turn up to firstly
raise money for Macmillan and secondly for
the social, with the fishing just being
an added bonus.
Raffles tickets sold,
it was time to sort out the raffle prizes.
Forgetting I was shouting out the ticket
numbers, I suggested that rather than put
together big bags of prizes, we should have
more smaller bags so everyone had a better
chance of winning – next year will
be different!
A quick thank to all
attending was given, and unhooking mats
were presented to the six paying junior
attendees to encourage them to continue
with their hobby and not forget fish welfare
– shame my kids couldn’t understand
that they were under 16 but hadn’t
bought a ticket as I’m now the worst
dad on earth!
The raffle then got
underway. 1hr later and we were still going
strong with plenty of prizes left much to
my voce box’s annoyance. Sadly we
then had a slight diversion as one of our
elder guests was overcome by the excitement
(it must have been the atmosphere of anticipation
I generated ) and keeled over. His family
with him however reacted very quickly and
managed to stop him landing on one of my
lads and his raffle prizes.
Joking aside, I am
pleased to say Allan visited them in Ashford
Hospital after the event and all reports
suggested he was making a good recovery.
All our thoughts are with you and we hope
you are soon well enough to grace the banks
again.
The raffle continued
until the last prize had gone, approximately
1 1/2hrs after we had started. This shows
how many prizes we had, and in this respect
our thanks again go out to every company
that donated prizes to us.
Finally, I am pleased
to advise that we raised £1,859 from
the event. Well done to everyone involved,
and thank you for your ongoing support and
generosity at our events.
Chris
Treasurer
Stoney and Friends
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