Having made arrangements the previous weekend to shadow a match angler for the day I was all set to get up super early.
Armed with my camera, video camera and wooden stool I tramped across towards the river in search of my intended victim around 8.30am.
Having asked around I discovered my angler was at peg 15. Wayne Easter, is known locally as the Wayne Rooney of the angling world.
I soon discovered that he had won the match the day before with a massive 50lbs of fish – sounded promising.
I watched Wayne set up his gear and started to ask some questions. I wanted to learn as much as possible whilst respecting the fact that this was a competition requiring skill, concentration and few distractions from people like me.
Wayne was quick to say that his peg was unlikely to catch lots of fish and that he would be having a ‘lazy’ angling day having been out the previous two days. This put me at ease on the distraction front.
By 10am I was already freezing cold. The lengthy set up process (unloading and setting up gear, testing the water etc) was already complete and I had to admit defeat and head home for a sneaky hot chocolate break.
Just before 10.30 I put on 3 more layers, another pair of socks and gloves and donned my wellies to get back to the river. Much warmer and resembling Michelin man, I had to be tough and show the men that I was as resilient as them and could last the rest of the day.
10.30 was the official start time for the match and signalled by a shout out from Mike Storey (official, Scunthorpe and District Anglers Association).
I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was definitely a slow start. It wasn’t until 12.15 that we caught our first fish – a fairly small perch. Nevertheless I was very pleased that we had something and hopefully the start of many!
We chatted for some time and I was amazed by how much specialised knowledge is required by anglers as well as experience of the river and local environment. I was very impressed and quickly learnt that these men were not only anglers but necessary to monitor the health of the river ecosystem.
Much to my amazement Wayne explained that on match days anglers do not have time to eat or go to the toilet. That definitely wasn’t my plan so at around 1pm I went home for a long lunch break and to defrost again.
When I returned at 2pm Wayne had caught two more fish, yippee!
By this time the rain had started and the wind had picked up. I managed to blag myself some time under the neighbouring anglers large umbrella and then by chance the Ancholme bailiff Melvin Marshall (aka the river police) came along. He gave me the low down on his job and we went for a drive to other areas of the river in Brigg that he monitors.
This excursion definitely gave me a second wind and I think it must have been the positive vibes which enabled Wayne to catch another fish in the final half hour of the match.
At 3.30pm Mike called time (phew) and it was time to put down poles (not rods!). Everyone started to pack away their equipment while leaving their catch in the nets still in the water.
Shortly after it was the time to weigh everyone’s catch and determine the winner. The fish were hauled (well that sounds like the nets were heavy, think I mean swiftly removed) from the water and total weights were noted down before the fish were set free.
Unfortunately we had just over 2lbs on this occasion and while nobody had had a fantastic day it was definitely not enough to win.
It was time to make my exit, not only because of the cold but also because of a near miss with another angler’s pole (touching an anglers poles can make them very grumpy, but one would understand when they cost almost £2,000 each and are surprisingly delicate).
Exhausted, glowing from the fresh air and with a brain brimming with information I made it home dirty but unscathed from my very first angling experience.
Sadly I had to turn down the post match trip to the pub on this occasion, maybe next time.
