Fishing Frenzy - Glen’s last minute catch clinches the bait!

2nd Annual Fishing Match Report - Written by G.Smith.

The 2nd annual Burmor Fishing Match took place on Sunday the 8th September on Horseshoe Lake, at Float Fish Farm near Peterborough. After the start of the match was delayed for 20 minutes, waiting for Site manager Andy Squance to set up his 25 fishing rods and numerous bags of fishing bait, it was Richard Markham, friend and fishing guest of assistant site manager Steve Woodward that started catching fish from the get-go. Richard had clearly drawn a peg (fishing spot) where the fish were ready and waiting for his bait. In contrast to his fishing buddy Steve, that had drawn a peg with no fish in it. Steve made the best of a bad peg and managed to find a few small fish and one very pretty carp to finish the day for a total of 3lb 12oz, taking 6th place. Apprentice carpenter, Luke Worsdall struggled in his first Burmor fishing match, but hopefully learnt some good fishing lessons, being sat next to the experienced angler and site manager, Jason Ebbage, currently running operations at Burmors site in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. Luke tells us that he caught a carp of around 5lb on the day but released the fish before the official weigh in. However, other eyewitnesses say that the supposed carp was in fact a 2-inch-long stickleback. Whatever Luke caught, on the day he took the wooden spoon (last place).

Battle of South Street

Within the fishing match, a personnel rivalry, being dubbed the battle of South Street started to evolve. Andy Squance being the Site manager for Burmor constructions site at South Street Peterborough, in close competition with Paul Merrington the experienced carpenter working for Andy at South Street. Long pole tactics brought Andy Squance a few nice carp and roach, but it was the feeder tactics used by Paul that found him some better-quality fish to take the South Street bragging rights. Paul weighed in with 15lb 10oz over Andys 9lb 6oz. This gave Paul and Andy 4th, and 5th spot. Travis Perkins kindly donated a Screw assortment case as a prize for 4th space. Fitting that the screw case was won by a carpenter.

Rain doesn’t stop play

After 3 hours of fishing, it was clear to everyone that the guest of the day, Richard Markham was in the lead, followed by Jason Ebbage and site manager Glen Smith, currently running things at Burmors Site in Kirton, Lincolnshire. It was then, the weather decided to play a part in Burmors fishing match, and the warm sunshine turned into an hour of torrential rain. This really slowed the fishing down for Richard, but Jason and Glen managed to still find a few fish. After an hour of rain, the sun was back out. Glen was catching regularly enough to draw level with Richard but for the next hour Jason Ebbage really showed his angling skill. Jason continuously switched fishing methods and baits to find a number of lovely carp. Two of those carp were well into double figures. This propelled Jason into the lead.

The Last Hour

With one hour left of the fishing match, Glen using float tactics, knowing he was level with Richard but well behind Jason decided to go for broke. He increased the number of free pellets he was catapulting into the lake in hopes of drawing more fish into his swim. At first this tactic didn’t seem to change anything but for the last 30 minutes of the match Glen managed to put a good run of fish together, while Jason was still finding a few fish. Jason and Glen have worked closely with each other this year, building a good working relationship, but today they were both using their angling skills to the maximum extent possible to try and take the Crown of Burmor Constructions Fishing Champion.

At 3pm the ALL IN was shouted bringing the fishing match to an end.

The Final Placings

3rd place went to Richard who weighed in 48lb 3oz.

Then it was Jasons turn to weigh in. Jason finished with an excellent total weight of 59lb 8oz. The scales were then taken to Glen’s peg where a crowd of people had gathered to see who would come out on top in the closely fished competition. The scales gave a reading of 62lb 3oz. this meant that 1 fish caught with only 5 minutes of the match remaining had put Glen in 1st place, over Jason in 2nd place.

Trophies provided by Burmor Construction were presented to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers.

The day was a complete success and enjoyed by all that attended.

Roll on next year.