Reels On Wheels Fishing Festival 2009

Reels On Wheels Fishing Festival 2009

After the huge success of this years fishing Festival we can confirm that we will be making this an annual event.

The 2009 event will be held over the weekend of the 6th and 7th of June and will broadly be run in the same way as this years event.

It will be held again at the Manderson Trust lakes between Cambridge and Huntingdon, which is a fully accessible fishery.

There will be a shorter match held on the Saturday again sponsored by The Wandering Angler this match will start at 1pm and finish at 5pm this allows plenty of time for people to get to the match without having to drive through the night. You will be fishing for the Wandering Angler ROW cup which was won this year by Jon Calli. (A huge thank you to WA for your continued support)

On the Saturday evening we will be having a BBQ which will be included in the price of the weekend and if the atmosphere is anything like this year bring your bandages as you’ll need them to repair your split sides.

Sunday morning we will be providing bacon rolls at £1 each done on the BBQ again and all weekend we will have soft drinks available for sale.

The Sunday match will start at 10am and finish at 4pm you will be competing to win the Reels On Wheels Festival cup which was won this year by Dave Few.

After the match we will hold the presentation and draw the raffle.

As well as the match cups there will be prizes for the best angler of the weekend by weight, the best angler of the weekend voted for by the competitors and a drawn pairs competition all sponsored by The Wandering Angler, there will also be a prize for the biggest fish of the weekend.

As with this years festival Mick Brown will come along on the Sunday to join in with the party atmosphere, pose for photos and chat with the competitors.

The cost will be the same as this years event at £20 for the whole weekend, to confirm your place we will again be asking for a deposit of £10. We are hoping that this years festival will be bigger than last years and for the 40 places to go quickly. The places will be reserved on a first come first served basis so if you’d like to come get your cheques etc in quickly. PM me for details of how and where to send your payments.

We will again be selling raffle tickets for everybody who would like some whether you will be attending or not, again PM me for full details of how to get yours, last year everyone who bought tickets won at least one prize so the odds are in your favour.

Email me or PM me for any info or to book your place.

Well, I'm planning on attending next years venue, as I missed this year.

So come on guys and gals put your names down for such a cracking event.

Your places are booked TT

We have already had bookings for almost half the spaces available, it seems that word of the festival has spread

So Claire , need you to tell us what you want us to bring to make it go with a bang.

Are we doing a fund raiser of some kind?

That's great news Claire......you have done a cracking job on advertising the event

All you need to bring is yourselves and your tackle, oh and any alcohol you might want , there will be a raffle etc so if you'd like tickets bring a few pounds for those, the main thing is everyone comes along has some fun and joins in.

We supply the location, and the BBQ everyone else supplies the atmosphere

cant wait

Paul, I hope you relize that I will have to out-fish you on this one

I can't take any prisioners lol

it will be fun,me ,dave and baggie are going to gang up on you

mmm that sounds like a challenge?? pmsl

Yes AC and I could do with some help here *hint hint*

We have just recieved all the information regarding the 2009 fishing festival from the Manderson Trust whose lake we are hiring.
They are now enforcing a total alcohol ban on their lakes, however as we are hiring them for a whole weekend and also providing our own liability insurance they will allow alcohol at our event, with a couple of conditions.
1. No glass of any sort to be taken onto the site
2. Anyone who overindulges and becomes unruly will be asked to leave by the trust.
We have to pay a deposit for at least the first lake now, so could those who have not paid us their deposits please do as soon as possible.
We already have well over 20 people who have said they will be coming and so far we have recieved 8 deposits. We will not be holding places without deposit so please get your deposits to us as soon as possible. We don't want anyone to miss out on a great weekend.

We have now recieved deposits for all the places at the festival so we are closing entries for the event.
All those who have expressed an interest in the festival but not paid their deposits will be put on a reserve list and contacted should a place become available. We also do this for anyone else who is interested in a place.

As it is only 6 weeks until the Festival we need to start getting final payments in from everybody who is coming.
So if you have only paid your deposit could you please get the remaining £10 to me as soon as possible PM me for details of where to send the money. For those that have paid the full amount already thank you very much and see you all soon

Well we only have 4 weeks to go untill the festival and it is about time we gave those of you who are unable to attend a chance to join in the fun, so like last year we will be selling raffle tickets to you all, the tickets will be £1 each and as well as the prizes we have listed on the ROW forum we have some more coming and a few special ones to add to the pot too so you could win something wonderful.
If you would like to purchase some tickets then please PM me for the address and payment details, good luck everyone
For those coming to the festival please don't forget to bring a few bits of change to buy yourself a few raffle tickets too

After all the preparation the Festival started for me on Thursday when I went to collect Gary (The Tidalwave) from London so he could attend the festival. We loaded the Buddy Bus and set off for the Manderson Trust on Friday morning where we set about setting up the marquee, BBQs and everything else that would be needed for the Festival weekend, some anglers (mostly trust members) arrived on the Friday drew their pegs and got themselves settled in for the weekend some of them even had some nice fish out, here is Mark with a lovely common,



As is becoming normal the Friday evening was filled with hilarity and general chat as we all prepared for the weekend.

Saturday morning the rest of the anglers started arriving and getting set up ready for the Wandering Angler match it was great to meet some new faces especially TT, unlike last year the lakes were fishing quite well and there were plenty of fish out during the four hours of the match. During the match I was called away from my peg by Nick where I found him holding down the marquee on his own, the wind had picked up and un-pegged the whole thing unfortunately the glass prizes for first and second places on Sunday got smashed so we had nothing to hand over but these will be replaced and the winners will still have a trophy to put on their mantle pieces.

The results of the match were in third place was Davy P with 14lb 7oz in second was Kev W with 14lb 11oz (Kev is making a habit of finishing second he did it in both matches last year) but the match was won by Steve E (Hipflask) with 16lb 5oz. Well done to those three, here they are receiving their prizes from Mick Brown on Sunday







After the match the BBQ was fired up and with the invaluable help of Katie and Michael we served up chicken, sausages and burgers to everyone there was plenty of food to go round and the drink and banter flowed until nearly midnight when the last of the revellers drifted off to their bivvies to get some sleep before Sundays match.

Kev P had to leave early on Saturday evening as his wife had fallen over at home, we were all glad to hear later that apart from a lot of bruises she hadn’t hurt her self too badly.

Sunday morning dawned and the weather wasn’t looking too promising but it stayed dry long enough for everyone to have sausage and bacon rolls for breakfast and get onto their pegs before the heavens opened. The rain was torrential and the wind was blowing a right hoolie but the lakes were fishing quite well again and despite the wind and rain there were no more upsets with the marquee. The results for the Sunday match were, in third place with 29lb 5oz was Jim, in second with 31lb 15oz was Seb and in first place breaking his run of seconds was Kev with 39lb 2oz Here they are receiving their prizes







There was then the matter of four other prizes to sort out, the best angler of the festival by weight, the best angler as voted for by the competitors, the drawn pairs competition and finally the booby prize. As you have probably worked out Kev won the best angler by weight with a great weight of 53lb 13oz for the whole weekend



The drawn pairs was won by Kev W and Kev P despite Kev P having to go and look after his wife after her fall so his whiskey tumbler will be posted on to him



The angler of the match as voted for by the other competitors was an overwhelming vote for one man who fished pretty much every minute of the weekend he could and produced some great results. Congratulations to Seb



The booby prize winner was a decision of the ROW committee and was unanimous, it went to an angler who despite catching nothing all weekend was always there with a smile, a helping hand and some chat it went to Gary (The Tidawave)



A huge congratulations goes out to all those who won prizes over the weekend and a thank you to all those who turned up to make the festival the huge success it was. After the festival had finished Mick even had time to have his picture taken with Nick in front of both the Buddy Bus and the Beast







Special thanks from me must go to the Wandering Angler for sponsoring the Saturday match and other prizes, Katie and her two lovely daughters for doing a great job with the selling of raffle tickets, also to Katie and Michael for the help with the BBQ, to Mick brown for taking time out of his busy schedule to spend the day with us all and to Gary for all his help loading and unloading everything I take with me to the festival also to Nick for allowing me to organize the whole event which is an honour and privilege but also for stopping me doing to much and making me delegate.

I’m sure I can speak for everyone at Reels On Wheels when I say thanks to everyone for coming and making the festival a great event and we all hope to see you at next years event over the weekend of the 5th and 6th of June at the Peterstone fishery South Wales.