Rob's day

Hi all

At Beggar's today for the first Interclub match of the season with Saffron Walden. We had 9 on the match today to Saffron Walden’s 7 so would discount 2 of our weights. With 16 there were a few not so great pegs in today – Fred drew the odd numbers so maybe we would have the best of the draw. Luck has it I drew 18 so knew I would be on a few fish.

With the weather to be hot today, and a few fish showing on top I started on the pellet waggler – also setting up a bomb rod, method rod and a couple of edge rigs for the pole. A bite on the second cast brought a 6lb carp – a few minutes later foul hooked one in the tail – which turned out to be the really fat carp with a bent tail – now over 10lbs – bit of a struggle but somehow managed to get it in the net. No more bites on the waggler so tried the bomb over the same line – but nothing. Onto the banker line – to the right on the feeder. Another fish after about 20 mins so stayed on that having a good run a couple of hours in so at halfway had around 50lbs.

Started feeding the margins, thinking a big weight was on if they turned up there, but in the end the margins were a disappointment, a couple of fish seen on the feed, but only managed a carp of around 7lbs on the pole. Back to the feeder for a couple of more fish, but the second half of the match was not as good as the first – the temperature had dropped a bit in the afternoon – sun really hot around midday, wishing I had kept my long trousers on and not exposed my knees!

At the weigh in I had 80lbs with the rest of the bank fishing ok – Steve Foster doing well from in form peg 22 with 51lbs for third in match and Fred 48lbs for Fourth from 17. I had decided for this match to not split the banks and just pay out the top 5 so it was good to see some decent weights coming from the low bank, notably John Carter’s 64lbs from peg 12 for second in the match – maybe the best weight I’ve seen from that peg, also a 36lbs and a 27lbs from pegs 3 and 5.

Bishop Stortford won the match 58 points to 47 – thanks to Fred and his team for the help in weighing in today. Picture is Ray with a shy carp.