Dave Small on form to take Whisby Saturday Series

WHISBY SATURDAY SERIES

THE final match in the series took place at Laughterton at the weekend and the Trent continued to fish well below-par.

A total of 15 anglers attended what was expected to be a poor match, which proved to be the case for most of the contenders.

Barbel have dominated over the past four to five weeks and this match was no exception. Dave Small (SPRO Lincoln Whisby) drew peg 33 and offered double caster as his hook bait.

A barbel picked up his bait and after a short struggle Dave had landed his only fish of the day a barbel of 5lb 06oz.

Dave did have another bite on the day with only five minutes of the match remaining. Dave never saw the fish but it was believed to be another barbel as it took him out to the middle of the river before shedding the hook.

It was reported last week that SPRO Lincoln Whisby AC angler Malcolm (Toppy) Topliss had not caught a fish on the Trent for over 20 hours (four matches), but that changed in this match.

A cheer went up after 20 minutes of the match and after a short period of confusion it filtered down the bank side that Malcolm had caught a fish on peg 37.

It seems that Malcolm enjoyed the experience so much that he went on to catch another four fish and secured second place in the competition with 2lb 14oz.

Chris Elsom (Garbolino/Harrisons Lincs County) caught two perch on the day but left it very late in the match to do so.

Chris landed a perch of 1lb on his very last cast of the day and this was enough for third place in the match with a final weight of 1lb 03oz.

John Small (SPRO Lincoln Whisby AC) won the series with 41 points, Malc Firmstone (Garbolino Harrisons Lincs County) was runner-up with 39 points and Alan Houlton (Garbolino/Harrisons Lincs County) finished in third place with 39 points (based on count back).

Alan Houlton also won the Knockout Competition and partnered Ryan Neal to win the Pairs Competition with 57 points.

For a full round-up of angling see today's Lincolnshire Echo