09/05/26, Points Match, Match Lake, Orchard Lakes, New Milton.
All you gotta do is call…
Before most of the junior events, especially matches, it’s always beneficial to have a little dabble at the chosen venue beforehand. That’s exactly what Sgt Bracey and I decided to, this time at a distant Orchard Lakes (funnily enough)…
Car sharing was the order of the day to save us some liquid gold, be nice to the environment, and to deny some fat cat corporation some undeserved profits.
Well, that was the plan anyway. The reality of the situation was far removed from the plan. The plan was discarded after being urinated on by five rabid rabbits (bunnies if you’re on the rock), eaten by a disinterested goat whose droppings were ploughed into the ground by a penniless farmer…
We did, however, learn some valuable information.
The café does a great brekky.
It takes roughly 25-minutes for Jerry to limp round the entire fishery on wooden ankles.
You can get the full kit of two match anglers into a large Mercedes SUV, with space to spare.
It is possible to barrel roll a Ford Transit Connect whilst driving in a straight line.
You can fit two matches simultaneously on the match lake.
It is always best to ring in advance before travelling to Orchard Lakes.
The journey to Orchard takes about an hour for me. Longer when some donut’s van decides the today is just too much and has a quick snooze on the road at rush hour.
At least I thought it was snoozing. It turns out that the vet could do nothing for the van and it was quietly and humanely dispatched where it lay. Very sad…
Fast forward to the big day when I drove Mrs H’s brand new shiny white car to Sgt Bracey’s Puddletown Palace, where he met me on the gravel driveway, mockingly shielding his eyes from the nuclear blast brightness of South Korea’s finest pearlescent white finish.
Car loaded, we headed off to the New Forest.
It’s the first time I’ve had a travel partner for a junior event, and it was nice to have ‘Chatty Bants’ for the journey. It was even nicer on the way home to have someone to keep me awake, rather than the beep of the horn as my head hits the steering wheel.
(FYI, I don’t fall asleep at the wheel…)
All set up and pegged out, a big thanks to Nathan at Orchard who kindly gave us £55 worth of vouchers for just £30! Amazing…Thank you...
The first JJAC match looked resplendent in the early summer sunshine, and the draw was as follows:
Peg 2: Josh ‘Homework’ Roe.
Peg 4: Josiah ‘Getting mobile’ Wells-Parkes.
Peg 6: Kenzie ‘The Barbel Boy’ Toulson.
Peg 8: Harriet ‘The Ice Cream Queen’ Rowley.
Peg 10: Seth ‘New Threads’ Hopkins.
Peg 11: Jayce ‘Gotta go!’ Hardware.
Peg 12: Harry ‘Rubbish Fishing’ Cryer.
Peg 14: Austin ‘Barbel-Carp’ Scott-Kennedy.
Pegs 15 & 16: Ben & Finn for coaching.
Your ’Plethora’ of angling coaches today were:
Eric Cartman – Graham Howard.
Stan Marsh – Jerry Bracey.
Kyle Broflovski – Chris Ward.
Kenny McCormick – Jon Bass.
Peg Two:
Josh Roe:
19lbs 4ozs:
4th place, 15-points.
Josh had done his homework and done a lot of rigs too!
A rake of ‘Sky coloured’ top kits festooned his pole roost which reminded me of an over-sized grass rake. Orchard was more like the fishing that Josh has been doing lately, and I think the confidence and expectation was high.
But late spring and early summer are both difficult times of year for fishing. The water warms so rapidly as soon as the sun emerges in earnest, and the fish start to think of the funky dance of ‘lurve’ instead of eating. It was the first mildly humid day of the year, and the fish were being difficult for all the juniors at the top end of the lake.
It's probably fair to say that Josh caught less than he expected to. But that might be the same for all for us… A decent start to the 2026 campaign.
Peg Four:
Josiah Wells-Parkes:
17lbs 14ozs:
5th place, 14-points:
It was great to see Jo back at a junior event again. After a couple of seasons of ill health, I have everything crossed that Jo is on the mend now. Recent knee surgery made it tricky to sit for long periods of time, and he was often seen hobbling around, stretching his legs. Time spent away from his peg, is time not spent catching fish. But I would be pretty pleased to finish just under a pound and a half behind Josh at the end.
Once Jo is up to speed again, he could be a good bet for a championship challenge?
Peg Six:
Kenzie Toulson:
40lbs 10ozs:
2nd place, 20-points:
Kenzie is now showing as a very competent angler indeed. Some impressively accurate casting at Todber Manor not too long ago, and a series of good finishes, match wins, and trophies, has rubber stamped his place as a serious challenger to points and silverware this year. Of course, behind every successful junior is a mum who is trying to claim part of that success for themselves, and Tina is amongst the best. I’m still not sure how valid that claim is, but she definitely succeeded in turning herself into a lobster by the end of the day. She looked like she’d been nuked!
The coaches drew straws to see who would offer to apply sun cream. Sadly, Neil was the ‘winner’ but was suffering with a severe case of absence…
Good to see Kenzie utilising a variety of methods today to bag some Carps and over 20 ‘First Barbels, ever!’
Well done, Kiddo…
Peg Eight:
Harriet Rowley:
3lbs 15ozs:
7th place, 12-points.
Harriet is new to the juniors and new to match fishing. It is important to remind ourselves where we started in our match fishing careers, and that success can be measured by improvement. My first match weigh in was 1lb 8ozs on a canal in Bedfordshire. To be fair, questions were asked about whether this should be a match entry or a coaching session for Harriet. It’s good to get a taste of competition, but a few more coaching sessions would not go amiss.
Having a Café on site selling ice cream was a distraction for Harriet too! The Ice Cream Queen happily let the boys around her catch the fish whilst she enjoyed some delicious treats. Good on her I say. Fishing should be fun, not to say yummy too…
Peg Ten:
Seth Hopkins:
11lbs 10ozs:
6th place, 13-points.
Orchard is very local for Seth who was looking resplendent in his new JJAC attire. It is one of the reasons why we came here. More juniors are joining JJAC from the eastern areas of Dorset, so it is only right that we travel out this way throughout the year.
Seth has obviously fished here a lot, which can add pressure to the day if you are not careful. I don’t think Seth will object when I say that I think I’ve seen him fish better previously. But, as I have already stated, it is easy to get the feeding wrong when the water conditions are changeable. We’ve all done it, and it was Seth’s turn today.
Over feeding can either put fish off your peg or make them uncatchable. Too many fish turn the water into a frenzy of feeding, and delicate shade of muddy brown. Foul hooks, lost fish and frustration can ruin a day. But, when you set the bar as high as Seth has, it’s a long way down. I’m confident Seth will bounce back to challenge the big points again soon.
Peg Eleven:
Jayce Hardware:
3lbs 13ozs:
8th place, 11-points.
Jayce is a Carp angler at heart, and successful one too. I’m glad he finds time to come to our matches because the social side is important, and he is an asset to JJAC.
Like Seth, the water in front of Jayce was a cloudy brown colour. Fish were falling over each other to tear up the bottom of the lake to get at the food left by the feeder.
The only way to combat situations like this is to use a smaller feeder, not load the feeder for every cast, or to fish a bomb. All these ways will reduce the level of ‘easy feed’ in the water, concentrating the fish to your hook bait.
Easy in hindsight, perhaps. But a lesson learned for another time. They had to dash before the results were read out, but well done anyway…
Peg Twelve:
Harry Cryer:
25lbs 12ozs:
3rd place, 17-points.
I think Harry may have outgrown his seat box…
Harry is so tall now, he reminds me of a grasshopper when he’s fishing! With his knees all up around his ears, it cannot be comfortable for him.
Having said that he fished an absolute blinder today, and it’s good to have him back.
The wind was blowing any rubbish and detritus into one corner of the lake. In this case, right in front of Harry. But rafts of rubbish hold sheltering fish, even if they were being a bit difficult.
Harry fished with both feeder and pole to accumulate enough fish for third place on the day. Proof that things which make fishing difficult for the angler, can prove beneficial.
Well done, Harry…
Peg Fourteen:
Austin Scott-Kennedy:
47lbs 6ozs:
1st place, 25-points.
There’s no doubt about it, Austin is becoming a very rounded angler indeed. Like Harry on the adjacent peg, Austin had rafts of rubbish to deal with. But Austin used a wide range of techniques to catch fish when others were beginning to struggle. Mugging, slapping, shallow and deep, Austin chased the fish through the various layers of water to achieve the target weight that I had mentally thought could be possible for the juniors. (50% of the senior match weights).
I have set Austin some homework to learn the difference between Barbels and Carps. I can understand why one would find it tricky. The long slender muscular profile of the four whiskered Barbel, compared to the fat wobbly two whiskered Carp is easy to get wrong… (the truth is that he didn’t know which net to put the Barbel in). If we didn’t have a silverfish championship, it wouldn’t matter as much.
But we do…
So, it does…
A great start to the season for Austin who mounts his third real championship challenge in ’26.
Good job, well done…
Pegs 15 & 16: Ben, Finn, & Arthur.
Jon was assigned to the lad, whilst Jerry mostly looked after Finn. Although Jerry ended up helping another lad call Arthur.
Ben, who had been fishing with us before, had asked to have a go with his own rod. He caught some small Carps and one or two Barbels (Yes, I know the plural of fish is fish, but it’s just for fun.
Ok?).
Finn was a little more animated with his fishing. Having your dad working in Singapore means that you may have caught fish in the past that were a little larger than the F1’s in Orchard Match Lake. But, losing one of 20lbs?
Sadly, Arthur couldn’t officially join us on this occasion. But I’m sure we’ll see him again soon.
All three thoroughly nice lads…
The first match for JJAC at a new, and brilliant venue is done, and what a day it was…
I completely understand why some couldn’t make it this time, but I think the travel is well worth it to fish at a venue like this.
Outstanding…
Huge thanks to both Shaine and Nathan who could not be more helpful and generous if they tried. The juniors thoroughly enjoyed the day and very much look forward to returning very soon.
Thank you also to Mark Cannings for the technical advice...
Thanks as always to Jerry, John and Chris for their coaching expertise today. Well done gents.
The next event is at Whitemoor on the 30th of May. This event will be in the lap of the Gods with regards to spawning. If the fish do spawn, I will either relocate the event or postpone it until another day. I do not want to be fishing during a difficult time for the fish.
Thank you to everyone who travelled out to the new forest today, I hope you enjoyed your day.
You have been Bread Punched…
G…
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