Serpentine Charity All Night Fish-In

Sponsored by SAE Bait Developments

Victoria & Biddulph Angling Society were proud to offer a rare chance for 10 anglers to fish the Serpentine during the hours of darkness on the weekend of the above date. Unfortunately, 2 anglers had to drop out so 8 anglers all paid the £15.00 entry fee, all of which (£120) went to Biddulph in Bloom.

The session actually started on the 25th at 7pm, where the anglers gathered on the dam wall with myself for the all important draw for pegs. The draw was as simple as pull a number out of a hat to make it as fair as possible. Pegs 14 and 16 seemed the favourates although I personally tipped peg 11a which happened to produce the best catch :-). The draw was as follows:

Ady Mallett - Peg 24

Dan Hepworth - Peg 11a

Matt Shaw- Peg 14

Martin Gray - Peg 12

Chris Yoxall - Peg 19

Pete Brodie - Peg 22

Robert Cope - Peg 16

John Rowlands - Peg 3

The anglers also had an extra insentive that they were unaware of. Scotty at SAE Baits had thrown in 10kg of boilies for the biggest fish.

The pegs were booked from 3pm on the 26th although a couple of anglers arrived a little earlier. However, nothing happened until about 4.30pm when Dan Hepworth on peg 11a slipped his net under what proved not only to be the first fish, but also the biggest fish. The Little Linear weighed in at 23lb 12oz ultimately giving Dan the prize of 10kg of SAE bait.

Within minutes of Dan landing the Little Linear, in fact even before the photo's had been finished, Rob Cope's middle rod received a steady, bream like take. After a steady fight the fish turned out to be two scale at 20lb 14oz, caught on Rob's snowman presentation in the margin to the side of peg 16.

The two fish signalled the end of the daytime action and took the anglers into the hours of darkness. A number of stockies were caught through the night including 1 from peg 3 to John Rowlands, 2 from peg 14 to Matt Shaw (who also lost a large fish close in), 2 on peg 16 to Rob Cope, and 2 on peg 19 to Chris Yoxall.

Further to the stockies, Dan Hepworth managed another mirror of 19lb from the same close in spot that had caught the Little Linear several hours previously, and went on the also back this up with a stockie and a couple of bream.

The other notable catch was Pete Brodie around the corner on the un-fancied peg 22. He caught an 18lb mirror plus 2 stockies although anyone that sits up all night on a chair deserves a few fish.

To summerise, the night was enjoyed by everyone with a total of 14 carp gracing the banks plus a few lost fish as well. When you consider the Serpe was doing approx a couple of carp a day the anglers certainly took advantage of the chance of fishing during the night. On top of the fishing, all monies raised (£130.00) was donated to Biddulph in Bloom to help them continue their work in the area.

I do hope to run a number more in the near future but no dates have been set as yet. Having said that, the success of this event should help all parties involved to set another date very soon.

Copyright Daniel Goddard