With a fantastic £2,000 prize up for grabs, Wigan & District AA saw a tremendous amount of interest in a new competition this year, the King of the Cut’.
Held on the Leeds Liverpool Canal using sections that start going out from the Saracens Head pub, this match has been a cracking competition that has seen anglers from all over the region joining in on the many qualifiers held on their Lancashire lengths of canal.
It goes without saying that a number of those anglers competing were also from within Merseyside area and many, very much stalwarts of the canal angling scene were in the fold proved by the number qualifying and also very much up for challenging on this one.
One man, who I reported on only a few weeks ago after winning the Midlands-based Canal Masters, his form certainly followed the old adage that ‘success breeds success’.
Formby man Gareth Charnock took the top honours with a new fully deserved ‘King of the Cut’ title and of course the fabulous prize money.
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It’s been a tremendous year for the Liverpool AS rod and one that has seen him recognised by many as a fully deserved winner.
Given his skills that he presents week in and week out, when it comes to what he offers when using hemp seed towards catching roach, he really is at the top of his game.
Pegged on the fancied stretch behind Shaw Hall Caravan Park, Charnock made no bones about his own personal approach as he backed up his early catch of small skimmers on caster with quality roach later on using hemp seed.
That was enough to win the match with a weight of 13lb.
Runner-up and another top quality canal man was Wigan’s Anthony Marsden.
No stranger to success either on the canal, Marsden’s similar approach within the same section saw him take a creditable 10.03.4 for second place. Sean Birchall (Wigan MG) took third place with 7.13.4.
On the club scene, the Alliance made the trip over to Culcheth’s Partridge Lakes on Sunday and that saw a good turnout again as the field all looked for valuable club points on Spey and Marsh.
Anfield’s Ian Pritchard took the top honours on the day with a catch of carp to corn for 51.11.0. Steve Cain’s 46.9.0 took second place topping Colin Pellow’s 41.8.0.
Another much-travelled club is the Mersey Dockers and after a recent trip over to the River Wye where a mixed bag of barbel and chub on that outing saw Charnock take the top honours with 18.7.0, last weekend it again saw him in the frame as the club visited Firswood Fishery near Skelmersdale.
This is a tremendous venue and it saw 107.13.0 taken by Sam Power who fished caster shallow.
Ormskirk’s Peter Foster took second place with 64.3.0 using a paste approach and Charnock took third place with a creditable 60.1.0 as he opted for a method of using worm, caster and maggot.
