News story and image courtesy of www.matchfishingmagazine.com
Jon Arthur has added the prestigious Abu Garcia Wychavon Championship title to his impressive angling CV after a single-minded approach on the Warwickshire Avon at Evesham.
Jon, editor of Pole Fishing magazine, stuck with a pole and bloodworm approach to amass a winning bag of roach totaling 8lb 4oz from Peg 29 below the venue’s famous New Bridge.
“I’ve had a brilliant day,” said the twice UK Champion. “The blustery wind and fast pace has made it really difficult to catch today and I’ve probably only had about 20 fish but they were really big and worth the wait! I lost a couple of really good roach which I thought may cost me, but other than that I’ve worked really hard for every fish. The fish were certainly there, they just seemed a bit fussy so to keep them coming I swapped and changed between five different pole rigs ranging from 0.5 grams up to 4 grams.”
All of Jon’s fish fell to bloodworm fished over an initial bombardment of nine large balls of feed. The mix – a 50/50 blend of soil with Sensas Lake, Noire and Matchblend groundbaits – was topped up with a few grains of hemp each run through, but the Shakespeare Superteam member didn’t need to try the bait on the hook.
“I’ve had some cracking fish,” continued Jon who collected £3,000 for his efforts. “One of the roach I’ve landed must have gone a pound!”
Jon’s closest challenge came from Leicester-based veteran, Pete Jayes. The hemp-fishing legend put together 8lb of roach and small hybrids from Peg 5, but was thwarted by pike trouble that cost him several fish.
Unlike the winner, Pete couldn’t get a sustained run of fish on bloodworm and fell back on his favourite hemp method to keep fish coming through to the end of the match. Just one of the better fish that the pike took would have been enough to put his name on the trophy but he had to settle for the runner-up spot and a cheque for £2,000.
In third place, collecting a cheque for £1,000 was Sensas-backed Danny Ashington. Danny netted 7lb 3oz of roach from Peg 16. Like the winner he took all his fish on bloodworm tactics.
The final two frame places went to Rich Reynolds and Dave Harpin who finished joint fourth with 5lb 13oz.
Results
•1st Jon Arthur, Pole Fishing/Shakespeare Superteam, Peg 29. 8lb 4oz
•2nd Pete Jayes, Quorn Van den Eynde, Peg 5. 8lb
•3rd Danny Ashington, Sensas/Kamasan Starlets, peg 16. 7lb 3oz
•4th= Rich Reynolds, Shakespeare Superteam, Peg 6. 5lb 13oz
•4th= Dave Harpin, Drennan/Daiwa Dorking, Peg 2. 5lb 13oz
•6th Hadrian Whittle, Kamasan Starlets. 5lb 10oz
