Angler nets four fish a minute for five hours
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Your support makes all the difference.Angler Jimmy Powell proved that little fish are sweet when he caught 1,100 in just five hours to win a contest on the flooded River Wye in Hereford and Worcester.
The 40-year-old factory stores manager landed almost four fish every minute in the tournament last Sunday. More than half the 200 anglers who had been expected to compete in the event failed to turn up because the swollen river was running so high that they despaired of catching anything.
But Mr Powell had no complaints as his keep net began to bulge with bleak - a tiny silver coloured flat fish the size of whitebait. A shoal of the fish were sheltering from the strong current behind a fallen tree trunk which was wedged against the bank at the spot where Mr Powell had been drawn to fish in the contest.
"I've never caught so many fish in my life," said the former Welsh international. "My arms and shoulder blades are still aching now - I've run half marathons and not felt that shattered.
"The river was chocolate brown and the current was so strong some tree trunks floated past me at about 30 miles an hour. All the fish were looking for a sheltered spot and they were not expecting to be caught. Most of the time I was catching eight or ten fish with each maggot. They were chewing on the bait and I just shook them off my barbless hook into the net."
Mr Powell's incredible haul only weighed 25lb 31/2oz but was sufficient to win the pounds 200 first prize in the Hereford and District Angling Association's Wye Charity Match. The chairman of the association, Ray Bryan, said: "It was an incredible achievement. Most people took one look at the river and thought that there was no way they were going to catch fish."
Even so, Mr Powell, of Victoria Park, Hereford, believes that his haul is not a record breaker. An angler called Steve Thomas - nicknamed "the bionic bleaker" - is reputed to have caught 1,800 bleak in another five- hour contest on the Wye.
All the fish in the latest tournament were put back in the river alive.
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