John Ferguson reports:

A lovely calm morning welcomed anglers to the 2017 Fur & Feather, where, unlike in previous years when most of us would be waiting for the gates to open, this year saw a more leisurely approach with competitors arriving throughout the morning in the knowledge that the fishing had been good for the last few months. As it happened though, the fishing was hard at the start, with everyone (apart from Tony Fox) fishing DI lines down deep.

   Andrew Smith, fishing along the Causeway into No5, was the first to bag up on a DI7 and Boobies on a two foot leader. His job was then to tour the lakes asking for our estimates on the ‘Guess the Total Weight’ sweep.

   Meanwhile, Harry Fox and Michael Heritage were fishing the West bank of No4 when a fish broke the surface between them, chasing fry. With both of them quick to cover it, Harry was the one rewarded with a fantastic near-five pound fish. Tony Fox, Frank Daley and Barry Shedden were also fishing No4 and steadily building up their 4-fish bags.

   Back on No5, John O’Regan, all by himself on the Houses Bank, also bagged up by mid-morning, to be joined by Kevin Blackwell, John Ferguson and Vince King, who landed a 4-11-0 cracker with just fifteen minutes to go.

   As we’d expected, the weigh-in was very close with most people getting their 4-fish bags and a lot of very close scores. As it was, Harry just pipped John by a quarter of a pound, who was himself just a couple of ounces in front of Vinnie.

   This is an event that really brings the club together, so it was great to see club President Sid Gardiner walking round the reservoirs, and Mike Sternfeldt in the pub later, enjoying the festive cheer!