To cut a long story short, 21 anglers fished, 14 on Old and 7 on New. I drew Peg 16 down the narrow end of Old Lake and with too many pegs there, all the fish seemed to up sticks and head for the wider end of the lake. The three anglers around me all packed up early, including Geoff Simmons, so at least I won a pound - but as I'd drawn next to Plummers we both stubbornly refused to go home early as we both didn't want to lose a pound to the other !
After 6 hours with one carp each we were just discussing whose was the biggest when Plummers rod butt nearly hit him in the face as his method feeder was picked up by an angry carp. Being a sporting chap, I obviously hoped he wouldn't lose the fish and was very pleased to see him net a carp of about 6lb ! Next put in on the pole I hooked a decent fish which was either very big or foulhooked (or both) and with the pound side bet still to play for, I took my time playing it. Unfortunately in the time I spent playing my fish (which turned out to be 12lb and hooked in the top of the head), Plummers netted two more fish and I thought I needed another fish to overtake him.
With ten minutes of the match remaining Plummers lost another fish (I was gutted for him !) and trashed his rig then spent the final moments of the match worrying that I was going to catch another fish ! Unfortunately I didn't and lost out by 19-8-0 to 18-8-0.
Neil Osborne (AKA Nutty Neil) fished a method feeder from Peg 24 on Old Lake to win comfortably with 21 carp for 120-6-0 and can be seen here posing with runner Up Martin Jackson's fish as we didn't originally take a picture of Neil as we didn't want to scare the readers ! Martin drew Peg 1 on New Lake and after catching three fish down the edge, switched to a method feeder and had another 13 for 100-0-0. Woody also drew New Lake (Peg 6) and came third with 93lb.
Result
Neil Osborne...............Old Peg 24.............120-6-0
Martin Jackson...........New Peg 1.............100-0-0
Alan Woods.................New Peg 6...............93-12-0
Brian Wharton............Old Peg 20..............67-8-0
Donald Garnish..........Old Peg 7.................58-12-0
John Swann................New Peg 3...............55-2-0
So, all in all a very disappointing day for me with two carp in seven hours fishing - don't ask me why but I'm going back to fish the Open on Wednesday ! At least we are at Stubpond next sunday and I hope to have a better day then.
Pound WatchBeat Simmons who wimped off early but lost to Plummers again - which apparently is the 4th one in a row - mainly cos he keeps drawing all the best pegs ! Need to get Haisman back fishing the same matches as me as my funds are dwindling.
