Northumbria Invitational 2026 Match 4

Match number 4 in this series was held on Monday 6^th July 2026 on Lookout Lake at the Angel of the North Lakes, Birtley. The brutal weather from the previous match had taken its toll and the attendance for this match was one of the lowest in recent years. I think that a few had a very late night watching England’s world cup match against Mexico and were nursing sore heads. Despite this the weather forecast for the match was good with an overcast day predicted and a gentle breeze blowing over the backs of the majority of anglers.

In the current standings Paul Hutchinson was running away with the series being  7 points ahead of second place and also ahead on weight by almost 100lbs.

Lookout Lake can be a moody water to fish. Anglers generally hoping for an island peg but in the right conditions the winner could come from anywhere on the lake. That’s why it’s called fishing and not catching.

The draw was made at 10am and the anglers went off to their allocated pegs.

The anglers had a choice to make as to whether to target the resident carp using pellets or whether to go for the silverfish namely bream, ide and roach using maggots

The favoured island pegs had been drawn as follows;

Peg 1 was drawn by an in-form Roy McClean (Durham)

Peg 5 was drawn by Ian Nicholson (Northumbria)

Peg 13 was drawn by Vince King (Northumbria)

Peg 15 was drawn by Kevin Hood (Northumbria)

The all in was called at 11.30am.

As expected Roy on peg one caught from the off fishing bomb and pellet to a far bank reed bed picking up carp as well as ide and roach.

Paul Anderson (Durham) on peg 37 also began the match well. Paul opted to fish bomb and pellet to the island reed bed and was catching carp regularly.

All others around the lake were catching fish albeit smaller roach and ide. It looked like everyone was at least in for a reasonable days fishing.

In the final hour Paul Anderson began catching quality fish after fish from his right hand margin swim but would it be enough to catch and overtake Roy.

 

Time was called at 5.30pm and the scalesmen were despatched to weigh everyone in. The results were as follows;

1^st Roy McClean                                           Peg 1                    93lb 5oz

2^nd Paul Anderson                                       Peg 37                 83lb

3^rd Paul Hutchinson                                   Peg 20                 55lb 12oz

4^th Dave Brown                                              Peg 32                 54lb 1oz

A very well done to both Roy and Paul who fished a great match. With the exception of both weights this was a really close match for the others that fished.

 

The current standings in the Northumbria Invitational series after 4 matches are as follows;

1^st Paul Hutchinson                   8pts                      268lb 14oz

2^nd Dave Brown                             16pts                   170lb

3^rd Roy McClean                           22pts                   211lb 10oz

4^th Julian Brown                            22pts                   140lb 2oz

5^th Paul Anderson                        23pts                   160lb 2oz