Jake’s personal best not enough for success

BRIGHT sun and a wind that grew stronger as the day progressed made fishing difficult for the 13 contestants of the Bathampton AA-ESP sponsored junior eight-hour carp match, fished on Hunstrete’s Withy Pool.

Top of the scoresheet was 14-year-old Matt Lawrence, from Pensford, who took a superb 73-3-0 of carp from point peg 68.

The Chew Valley School year 10 pupil fished a straight lead with an 8mm banded pellet to within two metres of the island point and hooked and landed his first fish towards the end of the first hour.

He said: “I had plenty of line bites from my first cast onwards but only the occasional fish actually took the bait.

“Jake Dugan and me took fish for fish right up until the last hour when I drew ahead after netting four good carp.

“However, the match went right to the very last cast. Jake had already caught two 18 pounders and the capture of a third monster could have given him both the top weight and the best fish prize.”

The best fish of the match and second place was taken by 15-year-old Jake Dugan, who included a new personal best mirror carp in his 54-10-0 total catch.

The Bath-based carper fished a straight lead with a single kernel of sweetcorn at peg 37 and during the first hour caught two carp from the island margins at 20 metres to his left.

His second fish was an impressive 18-2-0 mirror carp that weighed-in just 2oz short of his personal best and looked like taking the biggest fish of the match honours right up until the last hour when he hooked into a second monster.

The resulting 18-15-0 mirror carp came from the middle of the bowl and beat his personal best by 11ozs.

His fourth and last fish weighed 6-6-0 and came two casts later from the same area.

Third was 15-year-old Joe Jones, from Keynsham, who fished floating dog biscuit off peg 43 and weighed-in a 4 carp catch totalling 38-14-0.

Result: 1, Matt Lawrence 73-3-0, peg 68; 2, Jake Dugan 54-10-0, peg 37; 3, Joe Jones 38-14-0, peg 43; 4, Kane Hill 31-4-0, peg 54; 5, Curtis Nash 30-12-0, peg 61; 6, Steve Wright 27-12-0, peg 47.