Anybody who knows me knows I’ve only been on the shore match fishing scene for about a year and half. I’ve been predominantly a boat angler, competivley fishing in Wirral small boats angling club.
Since my first shore match I’ve been hooked, no pun intended. I love everything about it; the new friends you meet, the story’s you hear, the vast knowledge you learn off the other anglers. It’s a fantastic, friendly and welcoming community that I’m proud to be part of.
The specific match I’m going to talk about today is the Otterspool 2 dayer run by English internationals Heather and Bill Lidfield and what a match it is.
It’s a 2 hook match fished over 2 days and is capped at 120 Anglers, who travel from all over the UK to compete. Now some of these anglers are the best in Uk and some even the world, so you can imagine the pressure! It’s been running every December for the last 32 years and I’ve somehow been lucky enough to get on the list the last 2 years.
The set up is basically a section of Otterspool prom, Liverpool, stretching 1.5miles and spilt into 4 zones, A through to D. In each zone there are 30 pegs. The first day your either in (A or B) and second day (C or D) or vice Versa. The reason for having zones and this format is some parts of the 1.5 mile stretch fish better than others. Each zone is essentially a mini competition in itself. If you win your zone you get 1 point, come second 2 points and so on all the way to 30.
The person with the lowest number at the end of the two days wins overall.
This years winner was Gavin Parker from Wirral and he pulled out all the stops coming 1st in his zone on day one and 2nd in his zone on day two, giving him 3 points for the win he also bagged the biggest flat fish which was a flounder of 42cm.
Second place over all went to Thomas Tate from Sunderland with 4 points.
Third place over all went to Michael Emery from the Isle of Man with 5 points.
This match is a great test of skill because no peg fishes the same. Some parts of the stretch are really shallow some are really deep and some are ridiculously snaggy. It’s all about knowing what rig and bait to use where and also what distance to fish.
Most say it’s a very Peggy fishing venue and I’d have to agree you could be pegged next to a fellow angler who is catching a fish every cast and you’re not even getting a sniff.
I did awful this time round and I’m blaming my pegs 😂😂.
Massive thanks to Heather, Bill and their team, it was absolutely superbly run and I can’t wait for next year.
Here is a link to their Facebook group if your interested in getting involved in any of the matches they run.
See below the full results of the match. Hats off to all the winners 👏
Comments