Recent match results/event info

Gary's day

Today was going to be a bit of a mystery as we headed to Sawbridgeworth's lake for an interclub match. Pretty much all we knew was it was 7 foot max and full of big carp along with plenty of silvers. Each carp "only" counted as 5lb and it was catch and release on these.

At the draw I ended up with peg 23 and all that meant to me was it was on the far side of the lake facing into the main lake from an arm/spit. Thankfully I had a spare peg to the left as the pegging was tight on the arm.

The plan was: feeder or bomb out long; 2 pole lines at 11m - one for carp on hard pellets and one for anything swimming with expanders or dead maggot; and the margin for near the end. With 4 feet in the edge foulhooking was going to be a risk.

A try out long was pretty quiet until the tip went round after 45 mins and a lump was on. When it came off at the net I was not best pleased especially as a few fish were coming out on the far bank. Seeing my hook broken soon explained the loss so it was time for a heavier hooklength. With no more signs it was time for the long pole. There was bubbling on the anything swimming line so a few skimmers seemed on the cards. 2 hook pulls to decent fish before a carp went in the net suggested they were not skimmers.

That was it though for the long line. I tried a few times through the day - lots of bubbles but no bites. I never tried the pellet line as the sun made it impossible to see the float. I also later found I had been feeding the bomb line on an aerator when it turned on.

The far bank was still catching and now Colin on the end of the spit started landing some big carp dropping a feeder short. It was time to try the margins very early as long was not working. A few liners were encouraging and then the tip flew round and a very angry tench of just over 2lb was in the net. By this time Colin was 4 carp ahead of me. After more liners on the feeder it was time to try the pole down the edge. The float flew under and I was in with a double figure carp in the net. Every carp hooked went shooting off trying to go round the point and way too many came off. By the end I was only fishing the feeder as it gave me the best chance of landing the carp which were averaging over 10lbs. A last gasp carp that was around 20lbs saw me finish on 12 carp to Colin's 13 - almost caught him up.

Bishop's Stortford won with 473lbs 15oz to Sawbridgeworth's 257lbs 8oz. A big thank you to Sawbo for hosting us today.

Individual places TBC when I get the full weigh sheet. 1st Peter Green 9?lbs (18 carp), 2nd Mark Halverson 72lbs 30z (13 carp), 3rd Colin Hawkins 65?lbs (13 carp). Picture is my peg looking back down the arm to the main bank.

Phil's day

Good morning to all. The Weds club fished its monthly interclub match against Abbey Cross at their lake at Hunters Hall. I drew peg 5 not a peg I know but you never know. I started off on feeder with corn for the first 20 minutes then tried worm as it's known as a bream venue but still nothing so onto my pole line. I had previously baited up two swims 1 to my extreme right and another to my left at 10 meters. I used a silvers rig 4.5 lb main line with a 2.5 lb hooklengh and 18 match hook and 6 to 8 elastic and the smallest bits of sweetcorn I could find in my box for hook bait.

Got a couple bites and 4 or 5 rudd and roach as this was my plan for this rig then the float went under and struck the bite and away the float went half way across the lake. I thought I had hooked a tench but no, a carp, this was going to take a while to land it would be down to a bit of luck. I let the elastic do most of the work I got it into landing net distance then I saw it for the first time and wondered how was I going to land it. I got it in the net twice and both times it swam out so by this time it was tired and so was I and third time lucky it went in and stayed in the net. It was about 14lb common wow how lucky was I, went on to catch a couple pound of roach and rudd nothing of any size but been busy all day until the heavens opened up and killed it dead. The rain stopped just in time for weighing in and I weighed in 16lbs 10oz

1st John Carter with 38lb 11oz, 2nd Phil Whitmill with 16lbs 10oz, 3rd Ray Gibson with 14lbs 9oz (1 carp, again a common) and 4th Martin Adams with 12lbs 11oz all rudd and roach. Abbey won the day with 59 points to Stortford's 52 points well done to the team good effort. The pic is Ray Gibson who paid a quick visit to my peg before the off.

Gary's day

It was Hall Farm's large lake today after a very wet week and a couple of cold nights. Not expecting a great day I had brought maggots just to get some bites. At the draw a few fish were topping so I might have been a little pessimistic.

Out of the draw bag came peg 2; a consistently good peg so the pressure was on. With seeing a cloud of small rudd and roach near the weed bed in the middle the maggots stayed in the bag. It was going to be: 4mms long in case they came shallow (although in 3 1/2 feet of water a long shot); hard pellets on a top 6 to the left in case they wanted to feed; and micros and expanders at 6 sections to the right if it was tricky. The margins were for a lot later.

I had a steady start with a couple of smaller carp in the first 30 mins on hard pellet before trying the expander swim. A try then on the expander swim got me a couple of roach / rudd and then a carp. Bouncing between the 2 swims kept the fish coming and I had 30+lb coming up to 2 hours in. The rest of the lake was slower with Rob on peg 10 getting a few smaller carp and Phil the odd bigger fish on peg 4. A try shallow had me hook one fish that fell off at the net so it was back to the 2 pellet swims.

With a couple of hours to go it was time for the margins as Phil was getting a few bites down there. This is where the wheels fell off a bit. There were fish to the left but I just could not get a clean bite. Even 2 big grains of corn were being wafted all over the place. Dropping a method feeder in the margins got a couple of fish but way too many were coming off even on the feeder. Phil was still hooking fish but also having a nightmare with keeping them on but looked to be having a very strong finish. Rob was also an unknown after his good start. I thought I had done enough but you can never tell with carp fishing as weights can add up very quickly in the last hour.

1st Gary Pickard 121lbs 10oz, 2nd Rob Calderon 67lbs 10oz and 3rd Phil Whitmill 50lbs. Picture today is Phil with a net of chunky carp - apparently the ones that came off were even bigger.

Phil's day

Good morning to all, the Weds club fished its match on Beggar's Hall club lake this week. It was a very wet start to our day but it promised to clear up by midday and it did so not too bad. I drew peg 23 on the lake not so good - very tight for room and a not very productive but hoped I would make a day of it and catch 2 or 3 carp but that wasn't going to happen. Got a 3lb carp and a few bits but otherwise a very bad day. I haven't gone into detail but to say I tried everything and nothing was working. Total weight for my day 3lbs 6oz.

The lake was split into two halves for payout. On the low bank 1st John Carter with 50lbs 1oz, 2nd Tony Cruci with 31lbs 13oz and 3rd Rob Calderón with 31lbs 7oz. High bank 1st Rick Beeston with 48lbs 1oz, 2nd Steve Foster with 47lbs 8oz and 3rd John Todd with 47lbs 7oz. Toddy also won a golden peg by default mind you he doesn't know that until he reads this. Thanks to Rob for his help running the match. The pic is my peg for the day.

Gary's day

Today was going to be very wet with rain and thunderstorms forecast for most of the day. Thankfully we missed the most of this but it was a very wet morning. It was another roving match and, with second pick, I decided to try the far corner peg 15ish.

I went for 3 main lines: pole in front in about 9ft before it headed into the deeps; a feeder line a little further out; and an emergency maggot line shorter to the right. A quick try to the left on a method feeder found more weed than I was expecting so that quickly ruled out the left.

Tony got off to a quick start with a carp on pretty much his first cast. The rest of us had much longer to wait. A try on the long pole found a couple of reasonable rudd and baby carp on sweetcorn but it was way too slow. A go on a cage feeder had me bitted out with small rudd with the bait being attacked on the drop.

Mark over in the opposite corner then started to get a few bites but the carp knew exactly where to go and were bolting into the weeds. With the lake fishing hard it was time to get something in the net so out came a 6m whip and I spent the next hour or so catching anything I could on maggot. It was hard work with way too many very small fish. A quick try on the long pole netted me a carp of about 3lb which more than doubled my efforts. I kept swapping between whip, pole and feeder trying to find bonus fish. With an hour to go Steve to the corner on my right and Phil down the right hand bank started getting bites from carp. A last gasp small carp which I managed to get out of the weeds was going to be vital.

It was a close finish with lost fish making all the difference. 1st Gary Pickard 15lbs 3oz, 2nd Steve Foster 14lbs 7oz and 3rd Phil Whitmill 6lbs 12oz. Sorry no photo today as my phone seems to be paying up.

It was a close finish with 4 people in the running up to the last match

1st Phil Whitmill 47 points
2nd Rob Calderon 46 points
3rd Jeff Pearson 44 points