Earl Of Harrington Charity Fancy Dress Match

On the evening of 16 June, I went down to Stenson Bubble and had a really pleasant session catching Silvers until dusk.

The weather was perfect on 24 June at Allestree Lake for the Annual Earl of Harrington's Charity Fancy Dress Match. This year I dressed as a cat burglar, complete with swagbag and toy cat...get it? Cat burglar!

I drew a peg on the dam not far from where I fished last year's match, and I was hoping to catch more than the one Perch I caught last year.

After throwing out a few balls of groundbait, I set up and float-fished red maggots, and it wasn't long before I was catching small Perch. I lost a few fish and forgot I had a keep net a few times and put some fish back in the lake!

By early afternoon I'd caught a good few Perch and some Roach, and then it went quiet. After an hour or so of not catching anything and changing swims, I hooked into a good fish. It wasn't until the fish was near the net that I realised I'd caught a Tench that later weighed in at 3.7lb, and I came 4th, which surprised me. I'm looking forward to next year and hoping to do even better.