Saturday 2nd March 2024.

The weather was reasonable for the latest open match, albeit it was still a tad nippy.

The match was being run as a rover over the Tench and Carp Ponds.

There were 12 hardy souls that turned out, and at the draw, there was the usual jovial banter between the lads.

Neil “Cockney” White was blessed by the draw-bag gods and pulled out 1st pick… after what seemed an eternity in deciding where to go, he eventually plumped for peg 28 on The Tench Pond.

This peg has shown some recent form and was always likely to be chosen early on at the draw.

Willy Eyre also had an early draw and opted to fish peg 12 on Tench.

Willy started on the hybrid method casting tight to the bank between pegs 13 and 14 on the dam wall.

He was soon into a nice carp of approx 7lbs, followed shortly by another one of a similar size.

Back on the flyer, (peg 28), Cockney had started on the long pole towards the tree in peg 27. He opted to use maggots on the hook and was rewarded with some Carp ranging from 4lbs to 8lbs.

Whilst Willy caught odd fish throughout the match he only ended up with 7 carp and 2 decent skimmers which totalled 55lbs.

Cockney’s peg was much more consistent with carp being caught on the long pole and method feeder. Cockney landed 15 carp, (& lost 7), plus a few silvers for his cracking winning weight of 86lbs.

The silvers match was dominated by Steve “Pully” Pulford. Pully was actually the last pick at the draw and had chosen peg 21on the Carp Pond. Pully started the match hoping the carp would feed, but it became apparent early on that it wasn’t going to happen, so he quickly decided to target the roach and skimmers.

Pully amassed a superb net of silvers totalling 31lbs 4oz, (he also had 2 baby carp that totalled 4oz!)

Result…

1st Cockney, 86lbs.

2nd Willy Eyre, 55lbs.

3rd Jon ElGreco, 31:10, peg 1 Carp.

4th Pully, 31:09.

Silvers

1st Pully, 31:05

2nd Dave Sharp, 22:08, peg 16 Carp.

3rd Robbo, 15:10, peg 9 Tench.