Chorley & District SAC Open, River Ribble, 22nd June 2008

A few of us are going up to fish this match and we will suss out the venue while we are there. Might be a good club venue. Further details of the match in latest edition of sea angler, match planner. More venue details in edition 426 of sea angler

Dont think this rain will help us! Got it on good advice to take brandling, apparently good for when lots of fresh water coming down the river. Going to take maggots too! Will post report on monday.

i use to fish the ribble years ago up around ribchester and balderstone we caught big flounder most of the time on garden worms especially after heavey rains just thought id let you all know it might help

thanks dave, got a load of brandlings to try.

Well, we fished what was supposed to be a summer open in horrendous conditions. All started okay, we got there ,drew our pegs paid our fees and got to our pegs.I started off with multi tip match rod and a light 3oz lead but it was no good in the increasing wind. Swiched over to a heavier rod and lead and pulled in 3 fish in 2 cast. THATS when the fun started! My beach shelter blew over and and my gear was strewn everywhere; the tide ,pushed on by storm force winds, flooded the fishing area. we all ended up fishing tight against the trees.FUN AND GAMES! Anyway back to the fishing, it was tough, but we managed to do okay.
Final Scores
Ste Trish 6 fish 1st in zone(£35) 4th overall, qualified for SAMF masters final( might even get some Penn points!)
(Les Trish 4 fish 2nd in zone
Mark Allanson 4 fish 2nd in zone
Phil Foster 1 fish ( Phil was in a tough area and did well to catch)
51 fished and there were quite a few blanks
OVERALL winner was Ian Brooks from the NWASAC personal members. Well done Ian.
A big THANKS to Phil for the transport

yes what a match worst ive fished for ages (worse than dinas)
would be a good venue for us if we can find a better way of getting down the slope.
didnt provide as many fish as expected, few fish lost in the grass on way in and lots of missed bites from small eels, not a nice day with trees, logs, dead sheep and a fridge floating down river but hey could've been worse, it could've rained and that would've been final straw.
big thanks to phil for the transport

Given the time of year, our Penn Sea League Open Match was yesterday fished by 51 anglers in the most challenging wind conditions I've seen in 15 years involved in either taking part or in running the match. At least it didn,t rain! That said, we had a south westerly gale blowing full bore throughout most of the match. As luck had it, we fished a medium 8.4 metre ( 28 ft ) falling tide with high water due at 14:32 hrs. We also fished the higher number pegs 36 to 100 all on the flood plane extending upto 300 yards down river past the remains of the old wooden jetty.

I knew by 13:00 hrs with the making tide lapping the riverbank grass that we were in for a flooding. In no time at all the estuary flood plane was up to the bollocks ( probably the waist in Heather Lindfield's case) in tide. One or two beach buddies/brollies were lost and a few anglers managed to accidentally step into the upto 2 feet deep narrow gullies which criss-cross the mark - this meant, with the 2 to 3 feet of excess flood tide we experienced, an up to the armpits immersion for some . Thankfully there were no real casualties other than lost dignity and we had one of our members, Mick Salmon, a qualified first aider on hand should need arise. I managed to speak with one or two of the 'baptised' later in the match when the ebb dropped off and they each took it all in good part. That's fishing.

Anyway to business. 51 anglers fished in 3 zones of 17 anglers each.

Zone 1, the lower number pegs from 36 to 57, produced 3 anglers scoring over 100 points including 1st and 2nd places in the match. It also produced the two longest flounders of 41 centimetres each and the heaviest Eel of 1 lb 3 oz ( both individual fish results being poor for the mark at this time of year).

Zone 2 ( pegs 58 to 78 ) also produced 3 anglers with in excess of 100 points with Syd Wisdom the eventual zone winner on 149 points ( he also dropped an eel on the retrieve).

Zone 3 (pegs 79 to 100 ) fished best with 4 anglers breaking 100 points including the 3rd place winner Ian Rutter.

Individual results were:

1st place - Ian Brookes of Liverpool on peg 51 - 217 points from 4 Flounder & 3 Eel.

Winning £225.

2nd place - Mike Flynn of Llanfair PG, Anglesey on peg 53 - 187 points from 6 Flounder.

Winning £145.

3rd place - Ian Rutter of Blackpool on peg 90 - 175 points from 7 Flounder.

Winning £85.

Mike Flynn managed to drop a good Eel at a cost of 40 points which would have put him on level terms with the eventual winner. That's fishing!

Zone winners: Each £35.

Zone 1: Dave Wilson of Blackpool on peg 46 - 160 points from 5 Flounder.

Zone 2: Syd Wisdom of Tarleton on peg 75 - 149 points from 4 Flounder & 1 Eel

Zone 3: Steve Trish of Liverpool on peg 86 - 170 points from 4 Eel & 2 Flounder.

The Heaviest Eel prize of £65 went to Alex Wisdom of Tarleton ( Syd's nephew) on end peg 36 for a 1 lb 3 oz fish.

The Longest Flatfish prize of £65 was split between match organiser Bill Hodgson of Bolton on peg 64 and the match wnner Ian Brookes of Liverpool on peg 51 each with a 41cm Flounder.

The only SAMF qualifier was Steve Trish of 5 Parkfield Avenue, Bootle, Liverpool, L30 1PG.

The furthest travelled anglers were Mike Flynn from Anglesey ( 2nd place) and Jim Wallace from Ardrossan, Scotland on peg 87 who just missed out on a Zone 3 win with 169 points to his neighbor Steve Trish on peg 86.

The day was an experience. I and a few other diehards just stood by our tripods in the tide stream throughout the match with a bucket of crab each and a determination to continue to fish and cast into the teeth of the gale. At least I got a bit of a result as opposed to two of the lads Jim Henney and Ian Griffiths who both copped for a soaking by stepping into a gully.

Thanks for forwarding the report Heather. Bill Hodgson(chorley DSAC) the organiser was very apologetic but no-one controls the weather I've just washed all the mud and sh*te off my rods and reels. Even though the weather was terrible I cant complain , i had my best result for a good while

well done ste well deserved on sutch a trying day m8 . well done to the rest of the lads as well

Thanks JAGS , we have had a few tough matches recently but things will pick up Can't fish the rock channel match tomorrow so good luck to you ,dad and everyone else who is going. I had some great fishing there last year, i'm gutted i can't go See you at Deganwy next weekend.