 The Reg Govey Challenge
This year has not been a great year for me as I broke my leg early June and was
out of action for a while, also my Dad's not well and I have spent some time with
him in the last couple of months, I haven’t really had the opportunity to
get out much so I was so looking forward to getting away.
Once a year I get away with the Boss, his dad and brother and a bunch of good
lads that have either grown-up with or have worked with each other for years.
We always try and go somewhere nice with a bit of history but inevitably this
means the fishing is always harder. We generally fish a stretch of river on the
Friday and we have a match on the Saturday to see who will get the Reg Govey Shield
for a year and a total-up on the species for another shield, we try and stay in
a nice place but you wouldn’t believe the trouble you can have trying to
book a dozen or so men into somewhere for the weekend.
In fact it's near impossible, for instance we tried to book up for a long weekend
at Docklow Pools, a well established fishery/holiday complex, the management refused
to book us in, even though we were prepared to pay for the full week and only
stay for 3 days. We offered to stump up as much deposit money as required, but
all to no avail. In our group there are two millionaires, a lord, a holiday complex
owner from Cornwall, a fishery manager and a fishery owner - and the rest have
been fishing since they were children, they are all professional men in one way
or the other and you couldn’t wish for a better bunch of people. I really
don’t understand the way some people think and do business, so what was
going to be an article on how great Docklow Pools is, has turned into an article
about The Avon at Ringwood instead.
After a lot of searching by Steve McDonald, who was responsible for booking the
fishing this year, he managed to get us booked in to a hotel in the New Forest
just outside Ringwood. On the Friday me and Darren left early doors and arrived
well ahead of the others, we had some breakfast and was at the door of Ringwood
Angling when it opened, the staff were very friendly and put us on a private stretch
known as Bistern, the stretch of water was only open for two months of the year,
so we headed to the stretch in earnest.
The land owner met us at the gate and told us where we could roam and left us
to it. We split up into two groups and settled in, but even after just five minutes
I had itchy feet, there was so much water to explore and I knew that bar three
of us, all the others would stay put, so the waders went on and I was off with
my centrepin and my Drennen 1.5tc Combo to explore the river in earnest.
I wanted to explore as much water as possible so I opted for the rolling meat
approach, I would walk for a couple of miles and drop a bit of bait in any likely
looking spots and stop off and fish them on the way back, for me this was more
of a reccie - as I have plans to come off the Kennet and spend some time on the
Avon next year.
The stretch we fished was breathtaking and has some of the most beautiful runs
I have ever seen, I wandered for hours wading in the shallows looking for fish,
just relaxing and absorbing it all in. I saw Grayling/Chub/Perch all to specimen
sizes but I couldn’t spot a Barbel anywhere, I even saw a Pike that was
well over 20lb. I decided to roll some meat along the deeper stretches and see
if there were any Barbel laying up in the deeper runs, it was hard going and everyone
was struggling to connect to anything substantial until I had a clonking take
while I was rolling some meat through a pool that was about 10ft deep and really
pushing through. Immediately I knew it wasn’t a Barbel as the fight was
completely different, a couple of minutes later my hunch was proved right as a
Rainbow of about 5lb leapt out of the water twisting and turning as it tried to
throw the hook. It took some line and was up and down the swim like a scalded
cat, after what seemed like an age the line went slack and it was all over, I
decided that a move was in order and went back to see the lads.
I settled in to my original swim were I had set up and left my bits as I didn’t
want to be unsociable. I had put some bait on the far bank earlier in the day
so I started fishing the Waggler over the far bank and letting it run on a slack
line while spraying maggots over it with two red maggots on the hook. I also put
a open-ended feeder with some damp pellet and a hair-rigged 10mm pellet wrapped
in my home-made paste.
I was catching steady on the Waggler when I hit something a bit more substantial,
I didn’t even see the fish as it shed the hook on the first run, as I was
re-baiting my hook
my centre pin played its sweet tune and I picked up the rod in a flash and struck
into thin air.
Over the next hour my tip was giving me false bites like I have never experienced
and I was tempted on more than one occasion to strike, but as I was using a hair-rig
I was waiting for the rod to arch round and the reel to sing out before I hit
it and I was sure it wouldn’t be long before it did. I packed up my other
rod and put all my bits away and sat on my rod to wait for the inevitable to happen,
time was getting on and the light wasn’t going to last long. I only had
an hour to live up to my prediction that I would have a double, because if I didn’t
I would suffer for it later in the bar. When we met up at the fishery earlier
in the morning I had said that any decent angler should have at least one good
fish during the day and added that there was only one decent fisherman amongst
us, so the pressure was on.
I recast my rod and settled back in my chair to watch my tip doing a merry dance
again for a couple of minutes and then it stopped quite abruptly which in itself
was a bit unusual, for the last hour it hadn’t stopped moving until the
feeder had emptied and if anything, it was taking longer for the feeder to empty,
because the pellets were becoming more stodgy as time went on.
Tony with a magnificent 'double'
The feeder had held its position in the current and the rod was sitting nicely
but it was still motionless, even the movement of the water didn’t register
on the tip; I sat forward because the rod wasn’t acting the way it should
have been, as you do when all is not right - and then it happened - the tip went
right round and my hand was on the rod before the reel even moved, but I had to
yield when the fish went on a hard run downstream.
After a good ten minutes of back and forth and a few hairy moments we saw the
fish for the first time and the pressure was on me, as everyone was stood behind
me. I asked Darren to net it, as I knew he wouldn’t rush it and spook it
off the hook, so another ten minutes had passed and it was in the net - a gleaming
bar of gold laying there, perfectly still and I knew it was a double and the lads
were going to hear the story over and over again that night in the bar.
We weighed the fish in the net and it went round to 11lb 8oz, now I know my net
weighs a pound and Darren knows that as well, but we weighed it in front of the
others just in case, so I settled on 10lb 8oz and was chuffed to bits, as it was
my first visit to the Avon and that made it 6 doubles from 6 different rivers
on my first visit.
If you are looking to take a trip down there, pop in to see the guys at the shop
for your tickets and some info on the 'dos and don’ts'.
5 The Bridges, West Street, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 1EA.
sales@ringwood-tackle.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 01425 475155
Opening Hours
Mon-Sat: 07.00-17.30
Sunday: 07.00-12.00
Good fishing to you all
Tony Runnalls
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