The Stoney and Friends annual fish-in is now firmly fixed in anglers’ diaries as the event to attend each year. 138 anglers pledged to attend, a few from “up North” couldn’t make it, but come Friday 9th August, 125+ anglers were ready and waiting to angle.
For many the excitement is too much and a 10.00am check in on the Friday is just too unbearable to wait for. As a result, the Thursday night has become a “social” for those travelling from afar (and some not so far!). This means they are all bright eyed and bushy-tailed on the Friday morning – NOT!
This year was no exception. Tyke and party arrived from afar just after lunch, shortly followed by the Pompey boys, and then Mark “Werboof” Mann and Ash from Ipswich. By the time Stoney and Tug arrived at around 5.30pm the Car Park was half full and a sensible and civilised social had started. Luckily Chris and Andy had turned up earlier in the day to ensure all was kept in order!!.
The Lake Stewards had been given permission by Barney (according to Allan) to set up on the Thursday and fish if they wished in order that they would be on site and ready for the 10.00am registration (which started as normal around 6.00am!!)
Chris Isaacs and Andy Paice took advantage of this and bivvied up out of the way on the split giving them good access to the 5 lakes they were stewarding between them. During the night Chris was woken by his alarm going into overdrive and Debs poking him in the ribs. In a deep sleep-induced haze, he literally dived out of his bivvy, collided with two trees, hit the deck and then, without stopping, struck into the run whilst still spread-eagled on the floor.
The fish, obviously oblivious to the pain Chris now realised he was in, put him through his paces. It went where it wanted, when it wanted - clearly a reasonable catfish. Debs woke Andy at the third attempt who then came to join the fun. The fish was eventually ready to net and Andy did the honours, or tried to. It was then we realised a 42’ net was far too small for the monster in the water. However, with a bit of cajouling and loads of panicking from Chris, that the cat finally helped by folding itself into the mesh.
Fish landed and safely unhooked, it was time for weighing. 40lb Salters bottomed out so again panic set in. Tyke was on the lake albeit the other side so his name was called, but in vain – he had decided to get a good kip and wasn’t going to be woken. Allan was then called who kindly raced down with Tug, Smarts, a 60lb set of scales and a digital camera. A weight of 56lb was settled upon and Chris was on cloud nine – what a way to lose your catfish virginity!
5.00am appeared all too quickly and the Stoney team assembled in the car park for the 10.00am registration. By 6.30am 75% of the anglers had signed in and handed over their sponsorship money. By 10.30 all anglers were heading to their chosen swims on their allocated lake. There was an air of expectancy and excitement as conditions seemed perfect for a fish-filled social weekend.
Paul Griffin was one of the first off the mark with a 29lb 13oz Mirror from the Pads, shortly followed by a common of 20lb 2oz. The Pads also produced for a number of other anglers, with Kev West claiming the smallest at about 12lb – he did empty it of Tench though! Michael Bond also followed the Tench route on Friday but all changed on Saturday with three twenties, the largest being a 25lb Mirror. Karl “It’s too weedy to catch” Bird had a smile on his face come Sunday morning. After leaving it until Saturday evening to catch his first Carp, he ended up with five by Sunday lunchtime, the largest being 27lb 8oz and the smallest 13lb 06oz. His other fish weighed 27.6, 26.08 and 14.06.
South Lake was slow to start despite fish showing everywhere. However, by Sunday lunchtime, it had produced at least 16 fish with the largest being a 22lb 12oz Common to M. Dunn.
Paul Bepham also managed a few fish to 18lb
Sandhurst was again a slow starter with only five fish coming out up to Saturday lunchtime. This did, however, include a 31lb Carp and a few twenties. By Sunday, however, the tally was well up to double figures with the best fish being a 34lb 3oz Common to Dean Boswell.
The North Lake was surprisingly slow. Despite some extremely well known “named” anglers gracing its banks, only a couple of fish made an appearance with John Larkin catching the largest at 15lb 4oz despite the ‘casting’ difficulties he faced. Needless to say the “named” anglers blanked although this didn’t stop them “enjoying” themselves.
The Nursery was fished by 6 anglers. Despite fish showing everywhere, only one Carp of 15lb was caught. Tench and Bream did, however, make an appearance on the bank keeping the anglers happy.
The best fish from the Match Lake was a 28lb Carp to Martin “Smarts” Lewis
It also broke Chris Lee’s Catfish virginity with a 15lb beauty
Whilst the fishing was good, the social enjoyable as ever, the reason all the anglers were there was to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. With over 130 anglers purchasing tickets for the event, over £3,500 had been raised before we started. With sponsorship money pouring in on the morning, this figure had soon risen to over £16,000. Russell “Sumo” Parkin raised the most individually at £1,630 – I wish, however, we had told him this didn’t give him the right to remove his shirt whilst fishing – not what the raffle ticket sellers needed to see after breakfast on a Saturday morning!
On the subject of the raffle, the anglers present excelled themselves. Their generosity appears to have no boundaries. Nearly £3,000 was raised from ticket sales alone, a record for the event.
The event obviously closed with a final speech from John ‘Tug’ Wilson who thanked everyone for attending, for their generosity and for their generally perfect behaviour over the weekend. Tug then went on to clarify why we were all there. He asked everyone to say hello to the person on their left, then right – the purpose of this was to emphasise the fact that one in three people will be affected directly or indirectly by cancer. At present, Macmillan Cancer Support help one in four people affected by cancer. Their target is to help 100% of people affected by 2010 and it is events like Stoney and Friends that will help them achieve this target.
A presentation of a Certificate of Appreciation was then made to Mick “Barney” Barnes of Cemex. Without his and the generosity of Cemex, this event could not take place.
Everyone was then reminded of the list of sponsors that had been included in the welcome packs. Again, the generosity of our sponsors is unrivalled and still amazes us year on year. All present were asked to support our sponsors whenever possible.
Our Supporters for this event were:
CEMEX Angling. Bait-Tech. DHL Express. Yateley Angling Centre
Gardner Tackle. Richworth. Shimano. Acorn Carp Fishery.
Gold Label Tackle. Bury Hill Fisheries. Perfection Groundbaits.
Korda. Fox International. The Tackle Box. C.C Moores. Trakker.
Maver. ESP. Heathrow Bait Services. Atomic Tackle. Reel I.T
Angling Publications. David Bird Design Group. Enterpise Tackle.
Linear Fisheries. Hinders. Dynamite Baits. Nat West.
Villeroy & Boch Fine China. Carp Addict. Anglers Pardise.
Ian Chillcott. Graham Plater. Fishing Republic. SBS Tactical Bait.
Lastly the raffle took place. To emphasise the generosity of our sponsors, it took over an hour and a half to wade through all the prizes – not helped as serial numbers as well as ticket numbers had to be read out.
Finally, the Committee would like to thank everyone who attended, our sponsors for their generosity and Russell ‘Sumo’ Parkin who very kindly presented each of us with a bottle of Champagne to thank us for organising the event.
The most important thing about the weekend was the amount of money raised for Macmillan Cancer Support. On the weekend £19,008.50 was accounted for. We also know that there is at least a further £1,000+ to be sent in so £20,000 will have been raised in one weekend.
This takes to total raised to date by Stoney and Friends at over £230,000!!!
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