Gary's day

It was a busy MBL car park today as we hosted Sawbridgeworth on the Stort Backwater. Thankfully the rain that was predicted all week for Sunday missed us and it was a warm and sunny day. Perhaps not the best for fishing but a lot better for us anglers.

At the draw bag Tony pulled out the odd numbers for us and out came end peg 1 for me. I was a happy man. On arriving at the peg I could see the river had a little colour but next to no flow. I started off on bread punch but just could not get any signs. This was not good as it is normally a pretty instant bait. Finally I had the smallest of indications on a maggot and a little roach was in the net - at least not a blank. And so it went for the rest of the day - trying different parts of the peg and getting the odd fish but never more than a couple in the same place. I suspect there were a few pike moving around and Martin on Peg 4 had a run in with one near the end. By the end of the match my shoulders were feeling it - shipping 13m of pole for a half ounce (if I was lucky) roach was hard work. A very angry crayfish proved a bit of light relief half way through the day - it really did not want to let go of my maggot hookbait.

At the the scales my mixed bag of bits and pieces went 2lbs 9oz for second - a bit of a surprise. Sorry David - pipped by a couple of ounces again. I can see next week at Hall Farm being a grudge match ;-). Picture today is my peg waiting for the scales.

1st Steve Foster 3lbs 1oz, 2nd Gary Pickard 2lbs 9oz, 3rd David Jones 2lbs 8oz and 4th Tony Cruci 2lbs 6oz.

Bishop's Stortford won the day with 11lbs 5oz to Sawbridgeworth's 8lbs 8oz