Tributes paid to fishing stalwart Keith Fretwell

by angling correspondents Roger Stocks and Stuart Lilley
Roger Stocks: 07733 092237 – Stuart Lilley 07811 923599 – email: roachpole10@aol.com

WE START this week with some sad news – Keith Fretwell, who was a lifelong fisherman and long-time member of the Worksop and DAA sadly passed away last Wednesday.
Keith was a member of the Worksop and DAA national squad for many years and represented Sheffield Amalgamated AA and latterly the Sun Inn at Tuxford.
Keith was known to many of you and although he never really took to commercial fishing he loved to fish the River Trent and local canals right to the end.
Even through long term illness he continued to visit his favourite venues, one of which was Holme Marsh, in fact only six days before his untimely death he was fishing the marsh on peg 153 and caught a superb barbel of 9lb 4oz.
To land such a fish in normal circumstances is an incredible achievement in itself, but considering his health at the time this is even more remarkable.
Keith will be remembered by many fellow anglers and was a real character and an example to us all. He will not be forgotten.
Worksop and DAA are intending to run a memorial match on Saturday 15th September on Holme Marsh and Winthorpe, which were Keith’s favourite stretches of the river.
This event will be in conjunction with the annual Holme church fundraiser with all the proceeds being donated to the church fund, which is what Keith’s wife Christine and son Steve feel he would have wanted. We will be giving further details in a future column and expect it to be a fitting tribute to one of angling’s true characters.
The annual Worksop DAA Friday evening juvenile match took place on 20th July at Sandhill lake in absolutely appalling weather conditions with squally winds bringing in heavy rain through out the competition.
The organisers of the event Garry and Doreen Butt would like to thank Worksop and DAA for the kind donation of the waters, Ken Wards Sports, Geoff Mawby of Gateford Angling Supplies and Martin Wheat for their generous support yet again of this junior event.
The under 12 winner was Ben Frost with 5lb 6oz with Devon Whitworth claiming the runners up position with 2lb 8oz and Chelsea Jeffcoate making up the frame with 1lb 15oz.
In the 15 and unders category Tommy Davenport led the field with 3lb 12oz with Jake Roberts in second place weighing 1lb 15oz and Reece Nicholson claiming third with 11oz.

CLUB RESULTS
The members of Dinnington Welfare AC visited the Weirfield stretch of the Trent last Sunday where they found the river up and coloured but with the fish feeding and the sun out.
1st Jeff Clarke 23lb 12oz peg 16 barbell/chub taken on feeder with worm or pellet; 2nd Mick Donnolly 10lb 8oz peg 38 barbell/bream feeder pellet or worm, 3rd Jack Eavson 9lb 15oz peg 32 mixed silvers taken on the waggler.
Regular contributors to the column Greyhound AC have two matches to report on this week, the first was a three and a half-hour evening match which took place at Royston on 18th July.
1st John Evans 30lb 8oz peg 4 pole fished caster and corn; 2nd Dave Robinson 29lb 8oz peg 8 pole and meat; 3rd Cliff Brailsford 26lb 12oz peg 10 pole and pellet.
The second match took place at the picturesque Swanlands at Thorne last Sunday.
1st Phil Moore 45lb peg 16 pole fished meat and corn in the margins; 2nd Cliff Brailsford 30lb peg 9 pole fished meat and corn; 3rd Tracey Dickinson 27lb 4oz peg 2 pole fished corn and worm; 4th Keith Morris 25lb 12oz peg 3.
The anglers from Jays AC of Langold made the short journey to Ranskill on Sunday where they fished the main lake at Lakeside Fisheries.
1st Paul Goulding 49lb 1oz peg 40 silver fish taken on pole fished pellet and meat; 2nd Gareth Whitfield 31lb 4oz peg 39; 3rd Kevin Fagin 29lb 12oz peg 31.
Worksop Angling Supplies Bachelors fished on the Long Island at Lodge farm last Sunday where despite ideal conditions the anglers found the fish in a fickle mood.
1st Sean Battey 37lb 14oz peg 97 pole and pellet; 2nd Raymond Ancliffe 16lb 1oz peg 102; 3rd Mark Tindle 15lb 9oz peg 81.

LAKESIDE ROUND-UP
Wednesday’s open match run under the banner of Wickersley Angling produced the best winning weight of the week on the main lake with Mick Shanks putting a mixed net of 98lb 9oz on the scales off peg 26 using pole fished luncheon meat, with over 57lb needed to make the frame.
On the strip ponds pole fished sweetcorn and pellet was the chosen method for Mark Richmond who landed over 250lb from peg 4 on the first strip, Mark netted 46 carp to 13lb 5oz.
On the carp lake Ashley Rayles had a blue ribbon day bagging eight specimens off peg 2 topped off with a 25lb 4oz common with brothers Shane and Lee Fletcher sharing 25 lumps between them to 19lb off peg 3.
Over on the trout lake Colin Jackson cast his segmented blood worm on a floating line to tempt 13 rainbows to 6lb 8oz with fellow fly caster Tom perkins landing twelve fish to 4lb on his zonkers on an intermediate line.

RIVERSIDE ROUND-UP
There are no match results this week from the Scrooby venue but the good news is that the complex is fully up and running from this week.
The Friday over 50s veterans open matches are starting again from today as are the Saturday opens and the mid-weekers, for any more information on any of these events contact John on 01302 711889.
The new café owner John Siddons had a two and a half hour stint on the main lake where he slipped his landing net under nine different species of fish in his 30lb bag fishing pellet on the top two.

DAIWA HALLCROFT ROUND-UP
Despite the appalling weather, pleasure anglers are still catching plenty of fish, both carp and bream.
Match weights have remained high, although better weather and presentation seems to produce the bigger weights.
Small expander pellet is the most consistent for plenty of bites, paste and catmeat are producing the larger carp nets. Plenty of smaller fish to be taken on maggot and caster.
Croft Pool – Pleasure weights to 50lb on pellet and corn.
Moat Pool – Big weights of carp on paste or catmeat over pellet. Skimmers and bream to 4lb on meat and pellet.
Bridge Pool – Good mixed weights of bream, silvers and carp to 80lb on pellet, corn or meat.
Reed Pool – Plenty of silvers taken on pellet and corn, bigger carp on catmeat and paste.

LODGE FARM ROUND-UP
Saturday saw a Doncaster Parkinson’s Society charity match at the Scrooby tops venue which was held on the Field Pond, which saw a strong field of 32 anglers particpate and dig deep for the raffle.
Bill the fishery proprietor donated the waters free of charge and the day and a total of £420 was raised on the day for this worthwhile cause.
1st Martin Makin 58lb 14oz peg 8 pole and pellet; 2nd Ian Temple 44lb 7oz peg 4; 3rd Mick Shanks 41lb 10oz peg 6.
Last Wednesday’s three-hour open match on Field Pond saw very respectable weights throughout the competitors.
1st Daz Godley 55lb 4oz peg 3 pole fished meat shallow; 2nd Mick Peddle 44lb 7oz peg 7 pole fished pellet; 3rd Garry Mumby 33lb 10oz peg 37 pole fished paste.
Bill tell us that the Top Pond is very clear at the moment with mainly roach and perch showing themselves in angler’s nets. Dave Northage needed just 10lb 1oz of these to win the Horseshoe/Flamingo AC match off peg 13.
He also informs us that pole fished pellet or meat shallow is his top tip for any of the four carp pools with a feeding regime of little and often.

SHERWOOD PARK ROUND-UP
1st Glen Greasley Barnsley Bait Company 90lb 10oz peg 21; 2nd Roy Butterfield Gateford Angling Supplies 79lb 3oz peg 17; 3rd Kristian Powers Sherwood Forest Fishery 67lb 15oz peg 22.
Holmedale Lake, Gateford Angling Summer Series Round Nine, 29 fished.
1st Glen Greasley Barnsley Bait Company 111lb 12oz peg 34; 2nd Steve Shepherd Worksop and DAA, 56lb, peg 8 3rd Carl Brown Sherwood Forest Fishery 51lb 14oz peg 31.
League after 9 matches – Glen Greasley 18 points, Geoff Mawby 29 points, Pete Ellis 39 points.

TOFT NEWTON ROUND-UP
Eighty-one rods caught 366 fish for a rod average of 4.5.
A much better week spoiled only by a couple of days of heavy rain. Sport has been very good even on brighter days.
Best rainbow of the week was 5lb 1oz to Mark Smith from Lincoln on a nymph and anglers have been returning a good number of fish over 3lb.
Catch and release anglers are doing well with several catching 10 plus, the best catch was 17 fish to Dave Stanford from Mansfield fishing a variety of Diawl Bach and buzzer patterns on a floating line in the north-west corner.
Fish are still holding well along the west bank around to the north-east corner. Buzzer and nymph patterns best on floating lines. Lots of buzzers and sedges coming off on warmer evenings. Boats fishing well drifting loch style with traditional wets including dunkeld, soldier palmer and silver invicta.

THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
As you can from the match results and Keith Fretwell’s exploits, the river Trent is still fishing well and this includes the Association’s tidal stretch at Normanton where Worksop’s Lee Smith on a recent trip with his cousin Craig managed to land a barbell of 8lb 13oz with another local angler Andrew Pettinger nearly losing his rod before his 10lb hook length parted.
Finally, can we please remind you that until further notice please don’t post results to our home address, if you cant e mail or ring them through can you drop them off at the Guardian office on Ryton street.