Oswestry anglers take the bait for online fishing
Almost 300 anglers cast their virtual rods after an Oswestry fishing village set up online matches.
Weston Pools organised the matches to give anglers their fishing fix while lockdown continues, but they had a headache to deal with last week due to having more anglers than pegs.
Venue manager, Darren Humphreys said: “What started off as an idea to keep some of our regular anglers entertained has gained massive popularity lately - last Sunday's match had 298 anglers on it, which wouldn't be a problem if we had enough pegs!
"We ended up having two virtual events running simultaneously, the venue fished well too, with weights in excess of 220lb needed to win.
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"The matches have been great to be honest, giving rise to loads of banter from the anglers on social media, and providing a welcome escape from the grim times we are in at the minute.”
Anglers are invited to register to fish on the Weston Pools Facebook page, and Darren then acquires weights for each competitor for each hour of the event from a random online generator. At the end of the match, the highest weight wins.
“It has made a nice change, as we have had some really unexpected results," said Darren.
"Anglers who usually do well at the venue have been made to look very average to be honest, Kristian Jones for example, has put in some particularly dull performances!”
For next week, the venue has something even more spectacular up its sleeve.
Darren added: “We have a free to enter Weston Tri-Cast Fjuka Spring Festival next week, with prizes for the top twenty! We will open registration on our Weston Pools Facebook page on Monday, and the festival will be Wednesday/ Thursday/Friday.”
“The top twenty will all receive a bag of Fjuka bait and a Tri-Cast cap, and the winner will receive a Weston Pools polo shirt too!”
