The 2020 and 2021 fishing seasons were severely affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, bad weather and a fuel crisis, as a consequence we could only hold a total of three matches over the whole two years.Nonetheless our Horizon Club members are a persevering bunch, yesterday eight anglers rolled up to Barons Pond for our first match of 2022.For the first time, we ran a Species Hunt match where scoring recognised only the variety of species caught, no matter what the weight, here at Horizon the new mantra for 2022 is: ‘Size is not everything’.On the day, weather was excellent with blue skies and a light breeze, those in the sunny swims were stripped to short sleeved tee shirts, although for the three of us fishing all day in the shade, it was chilly enough for wooly jumpers.The water was cold to the tough, only to be expected as we are coming off the back end of winter, as such the carp were not in a summer style feeding frenzySmall baits were therefore order of the day with Gudgeon, Skimmer Bream, Roach, Rudd, Common Carp and Mirror Carp all seeming to fall for maggots and various pellets to 8mm, any presentation of larger baits seemed to be ignored. The top three species hunters [ John Forster, Mick Phillips and Mike Waite] all drew level on five species each.Dave G put up a valiant fight with only two species including the mighty Gudgeon (hurrah!)Claire & Richard managed just one species each, but they were both good sized carp, including largest fish of the match.So that just leaves Denis … hmm … better luck next time… nuff said!Finally the banter level was lower than the norm for Horizon matches, I think that was due to a need for deep concentration on refreshing forgotten skills and being stunned by the fact that matches have finally restarted after the troubles of our last two seasons.Treasurer of Horizon Angling Club for the Disabled.Reg charity #1072157
