February is the month for the annual Roach Club "match". It is a gathering of the Roach Club members to fish the Dorset Stour just outside Wimborne for the increasingly scarce roach. The club was formed by Trevor Harrop to help restore the roach to the middle region of the Hampshire Avon where the decline has been dramatic (for details please see the links page). The purpose of the match is purely a social winter gathering and the person who catches the largest roach wins the least covetted trophy in christendom, an offcast from a car boot sale held together with glue. This shows how seriously it is taken, although some of the anglers attending are excellent and make me look a novice. We started at about 11 ish and fish until 5 ish. This was a tough day, and by 3.30pm the total catch was one small dace of about 2" in length. Then the fish came on the feed as the sun went down and most of us caught fish, the best being 1lb 4oz. I managed 4 roach with my best being 6-8oz. As I am not used to fising such slow rivers, I was pleased with my effort, particularly as I was using maggot on a 16 hook rahter than my normal size 8. At the conclusion, we all went to the local to discuss the day in time honoured style.
As this was such a long way from North Devon, Sandy and I stopped in Poole overnight and called in to see Chris Yates on the next morning. Chris had just taken delivery of the special edition "Out of the Blue" leatherbound and limited to 50 (These are available through our books for sale page). Chris also has agreed to be a Trustee of Angling Heritage (This can also be seen through our menu) and after signing the documents and a few cups of tea with biscuits, we returned home leaving Chris to head off for a frisbee match with his friend who had just called in.