This years Spring festival saw the Jubilee Nomads and invited guests enjoy another fabulous 3 days fishing on 3 different venues, where as always the banter flowed through out the duration of the of the festival. This year we fished at the Jam Factory on Ash, Cob house on the Laurel pool and then a new venue for us, Hawthorn pool at Drakes Broughton.

We had 10 anglers fishing this year, where over the 3 matches section points determine the overall winner with three 3 man sections and a 4 man section. The format ensures a close festival, often decided on weight count back and adds fuel to the daily banter around the pools with everyone hoping not to receive a daily wooden spoon and the dredged overall wooden spoon for the last placed angler.

Andy organised the festival this year booking the venues while Rob had produced a fishy Cap for each daily wooden spoon winner to wear. This was to be worn by the daily wooden spoon winner on the next day. For the first day Phil wore the cap although he wasn’t the last placed angler from the previous festival but he was last angler fishing this time.

Day 1 – Ash pool, The Jam Factory

We had a great first day on the Ash pool at the Jammer where the far bank pegs proved to be the best side. This produced the first 3 tonne plus weights of the festival. Robin won the match with 141lb catching well early on the pellet waggler and then later on the pole to win his section. Kevin Parry and Andy Mitchell also had tonne plus weights. Kev won his section with 119lb while Andy’s 113lb 13oz was only good enough for 2nd in section and 2 points. The other section on the road side bank proved a little harder with Rob, Phil, Doug and Stu in the 4 man section. Robs 71lb 8oz just took the section from Phil who had 70lb. After the match Mark had won the Wooden spoon and Phil presented him with the fishy cap he’d worn all match to wear the following day.

Day 2 – Laurel pool, Cob House

We all met up for breakfast in the cafe at Cob House. Mark hoped for a nice day in the sun and proudly wore his fishy cap all day. He did get some strange looks from every one in the cafe while he was enjoying his breakfast though.

Day 2 was fished on a fantastic early summers day. The sun was out and Mark was glad he had his fishy cap on. This pool produced three more tonne plus weights. Andy with 104lb that won his section, Rob with 107lb and Mick who won the match with 117lb. This was dispite Mick moaning about his peg at the draw and threatening to go home as his peg was a no hoper! The other section winner was Doug with 78lb 8oz. After the match we were all able to have a pint outside the cafe where Mick was presented with his match winning cup and the daily winners cash prize. Mark extended his wooden spoon collection, adding to the one he received the previous day and looked forward to another day wearing his nice fishy cap.

So going into day 3 there were three anglers leading the standings on 3 points, Andy, Rob and Mick who all had big back up weights should it go down to weight count back. But the venue for day 3 was tricky. We had booked the Hawthorn pool at Drakes Broughton. This isn’t a venue we’d all fished before and not really a commercial venue that we were all used to. It was an unknown quantity, we had no idea how it would fish with several anglers hurrying down to local tackle shops for maggots after we left Cob House. This pool was going to be very interesting!

Day 3 – Hawthorn pool, Drakes Broughton

So the final day arrived at the Hawthorn pool and as it was an unknown venue we all walked the pool on arrival. It was a small acre size pool with a reed bed in the middle towards one end of the pool. The water was clear and with lots floating debris around this ruled out running line work. We all took our draw and we were all grateful for Kev’s van rams to get our trollies up some steps to get to the pool. We found the pool to be very deep when plumbing up, starting at around 4 foot deep in the margins before having a very steep slope after a top kit and one, down to 16 foot+ as you went further out. This was going to be a difficult pool to fish, and so it proved. The fishing wasn’t good, most struggled for bites all day fishing close in. Rob took an early lead. He was able to reach the reed bed at 16 metres and began to catch some carp. Andy was in the Robs section and began to fish out in 16 foot of water and was also catching a few. While Mick a joint leader going into the last day was catching a few from his margin. So it began to get interesting who was going to come out as the winner. Kev, Robin and Ben had also caught a couple of fish while Doug, Stu, Mark and Phil were looking at wooden spoons. The fishing was tough for all. At the end of the match everybody had caught at least a fish, some only one! There were only three anglers that put double figures on the scales. But those small carp near the reed bed that Rob could reach with his pole made the difference. Rob won the match with 26lb despite Andy’s best efforts fishing in 16 foot of water, weighing in 22lb for 2nd place. But Rob was in Andy’s section and Andy had to settle for 2 points. Mick did well again winning his section with 14lb. Phil and Doug tied on the day in last place with only one fish each weighing 2lb but you can’t share a spoon and there was no wooden spoon winner this time!

The final Standings

After the final match Rob and Mick were tied on 4 points for the festival and it was back to weight count back with Rob winning the festival with 204lb over Micks 192lb. 3rd placed was Andy on 5 points despite catching the most fish over the 3 days, weighing 239lb. Unfortunately the final overall wooden spoon winner was Stu who took home the overall spoon and the fishy cap to wear on the next festival, hopefully down in Somerset in September. But everybody wins something on a Jubilee Nomad festival and Stu went home with a pounds worth of coppers as well as his cap and spoon.

Many thanks to Andy for organising this years Spring festival this year. We all had a great time with plenty of banter over the 3 days. We go again in September down in Somerset. If you have enjoyed the read check out our other festival posts HERE