English Cod Festival
River Mersey – 9th & 10th December 2006
This was EFSA England’s first visit to fish for Cod in the Mersey . The organisation had been a bit of a nightmare with many of the hotels being booked as Liverpool were at home. We eventually found a HQ hotel in Birkenhead in which most of us stayed. A big thank you to Rod Adamson and Tony Parry for all there help in sorting out accommodation and organising the bait.
The weather conditions were really against us with force 7-8 North-westerly winds on the Saturday which delayed the start to 11am but at least it gave us 4 hours fishing.
Fishing proved hard with the amount of fresh water in the Mersey keeping the fish in the deeper shipping channels. After the first day Neil Cottington had a well-deserved lead after fishing in difficult conditions.
Thanks to Rod for the tour of Liverpool on Saturday Night and I’m sure the “Angels” photo will turn up somewhere!
The following day was a 6 am start with the conditions much better. It was good to see some of the boats catching plenty of cod with the top boat catching 42 amongst 6 anglers.
The day 2 winner was Ash (where’s my Fags) Currier who caught 13 cod for 489pts.
If the conditions had of been better, I’m sure we would have seen double the amount of cod that were actually caught.
The overall winner was Ash Currier who had a great score of 604 – nearly 200 pts ahead of second place – so well done Ash in becoming our 2006 English Cod Champion.
It was a great weekend and I would like to return again, but get the HQ booked early on the Liverpool Dock Side and make it bait supplied competition.
The only disappointing thing was the lack of support from some of the members from the Northwest who have been very vocal in the past for not holding events up North!
Individuals:
1st Ashley Currier 604
2nd Colin Orme Thomas 425
3rd Steve Brumby 396
4th Martin Bobbett 372
5th Chirs Pucher 360
6th Dave Roberts 326
7th Brian Moss 297
8th Andy Selby 291
9th Kev Preston 290
10th John O’Leary 287
11th Neil Cottington 254
12th Billy Cann 254
13th Richard Russell 238
14th Kim Bowden 224
15th Mark Done 198
16th John Fisell 188
17th Mike Smith 180
18th Harry Stewart 179
19th Neil Bryant 149
20th Glyn Darlow 121
21st Jimmy Bond 97
22nd Steve Smith 86
23rd Nev Key 83
24th Roger Whiting 82
25th Colin Searles 81
26th Mark Smith 78
27th Ken Smith 52
28th Rod Adamson 20
29th Stuart Clee 0
30th Dave Polehill DNF
31st Dave Shay DNF
2 Man Open:
1st Martin Bobbett & Ashley Currier 976
2nd Steve Brumby & Dave Roberts 722
3rd Chris Pucher & Kim Bowden 584
4 Man Open:
1st Neil Bryant, Jimmy Bond, Martin Bobbett, Ashley Currier 1222
2nd Billy Cann, Brian Moss, Steve Brumby, Steve Smith 1033
3rd Rod Adamson, Colin Orme Thomas, Mark Done, Kev Preston 933
Executive Drawn 4 Man:
1st Chris Pucher, Colin Orme Thomas, Ashley Currier, Kev Preston 1679
2nd Steve Brumby, Harry Stewart, Brian Moss, Rod Adamson 892
3rd Richard Russell, Glyn Darlow, Kim Bowden, Andy Selby 874
Life Members:
1st Chris Pucher 360
2nd Andy Selby 291
3rd John O’Leary 287
Frank Klugman Trophy – Longest Cod
Andy Selby – 66cm
Day 1 Winner Neil Cottington 146
Day 2 Winner Ashley Currier 489
Top Boat
Olivia Jeanne