The first round of the Liverpool DAA Individual League took place on Sunday, held on the popular match lengths through Maghull and Lydiate.
A series of six matches has been carefully put together by Mike Dickson who is the association match secretary. Anglers are able to drop their worst result, with only a total of five accumulative point scores counting towards a final league standing.
With a field of 36 rods taking part upon a canal that true to form within the harsh weather, it was a tough one on a few sections open to the cold wind on Sunday.
Pegged on the straight near the Maghull Community Association and admittedly in a prime position, at the very end of the match that had started at Pilling Lane Bridge, Thornton’s Paul Charnock was more than happy, given his local knowledge of this favoured area.
Although often noted for its huge shoals of bream and good numbers of tench that live here during the course of the spring and summer, with the canal being very ‘moody’ at present, who could actually forecast what could be achieved here, especially set now in the depth of winter?
Opting for a ‘bread’ approach, cupping in a good helping of liquidised bread at 10m, no sooner had the float settled with a decent sized offering of bread on the hook, it disappeared. That bite resulted in a bream of over 3lb gracing a very welcoming net.
Nearby, pegged alongside Paul Charnock to his left, last week’s open winner and another angler very much in form, was also seen to be in the mix in this one. Again, another bream was tempted by the feed going in, as Blundelsands rod John Easton also set off well, taking a good slab of 3lb himself.
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Interestingly, there was a lull as the match went on, and that saw Easton putting a few small roach and perch in the net as his neighbour watched on, as others made the most of small fish before them.
Charnock though, had other ideas, and with that swung to the right late on and opened up a peg well into open water, cupping in again.
That led to what he’d hoped for, as three bream were quickly tempted for him to weigh in a match winning catch for 10.9.0. Easton took a creditable second place with 6.2.0 followed by third place Wigan man Dave Edgerly who took 5.6.0.
Liverpool & District AA have put up a fantastic £1,000 prize money this year which will be the prize of an ‘All Winners Final’ in September. This one will see all the open match winners including those competing in the popular Wednesday matches, in with a chance to win this lovely prize plus pools on the day. Charnock will be proud for me to announce that he is the first name on the all winners list.
On the commercial scene at Downhollande, Wirral’s Alan Dewhurst took the top spot on Mescar’s Mistral Lake. Incredibly, Dewhurst also favoured a bread approach as he put a magical ‘ton’ in the net with 103lb at 16m for a win.
