Jamie and Mark drew pegs on the West Bank, Martin on the North bank and the two Andy’s (Moore & Southern) on the east bank. A quick look around 15 minutes or so in, and everyone had caught small bits, so at least there wasn’t going to anyone blanking! Then about 2 hours in, Mark’s pole elastic was at full stretch and, after a few minutes, he successfully landed the largest fish in Hunters (named Joan). To protect the fish we weighed it straight away – a very healthy 16lbs. So, from this moment on, the competition was for second place!

 

At the boat peg, Jamie was having an up and down day, landing two stunning Tench, but snapping on two other large fish, whilst trying to keep them out of the lillies. 

 

There was intermittent, gentle, rain most of the early afternoon as Mark continued to add to his haul and Martin was steadily adding some Tench to his keepnet, whilst the two Andy’s couldn’t buy a bite. However, the tides of fortune shifted when, at 2:30 Andy Southern landed a decent common carp. And that seemed to be where we were going to finish and then Andy Moore hooked a carp at 2:55. All out was called and Andy was still gently playing the fish. In-line with general UK match rules, another 15 minutes are allowed to land the fish. Andy successfully brought a beautiful Mirror Carp in within about 5 minutes and it made sense to do the weigh in straight away so as to get the fish back in the open water ASAP. 

 

So, the results were…

 

Position	Name	Weight	Peg No.
1	Mark Bowden	47lb 2oz (including Joan at 16lb)	7
2	Andy Southern	7lb 14oz	15
3	Andy Moore	7lb 5oz	17
4	Martin Syer	4lb 12oz	11
5	Jamie Adams	3lb 9oz	1