Dan Jones (Starlets)
Fishing shallow and experimenting with the depth from the off. The Starlets backed Dan Jones soon found the correct "killing zone " as settled into a pattern of consistent heavy feeding. The best and most consistent depth was about 10-14 inches fished on the 16m line. Dan's hard work was rewarded with a fine double TON up bag of 205lb 4oz for top spot from Peg 23.
Gary Thorpe (Ton Up Baits)
Struggling for the first 3 hours the fish eventually switched on tight to bank, as is the case for a lot of matches on Peg 4. However, with feeding fish in front of him and having spent most of the first 3 hours fishless on a Golden Peg, Gary was in no mood to give up without a fight for the extra payout. Finishing with 194lb 12oz in two hours of proper fishing is testament to to Gary being favorite to cruise though to a big 400lb weight and smash the current World 5hr match record. For the record, Gary caught about 1ft deep just on the edge of the grasses and on top of the shelf. He could not get the Carp to take off the top - not that it mattered!
Amer Jawad (Essex Van Den Eynde)
Drawn on Summer Hot Spot, Amer Jawad spent the most of the match making the same mistake most anglers make when drawing Peg 8 for the first time. The far side is very very, very, very undercut (about 2m back) and holds a fantastic head of fish - they also use this as the main pass through between the two parts of the lake. The Carp seem to spook easy when a large pot of pellets is dumped in to a small area.
The better option at the moment seems to be to spray pellets well in to the overhanging grasses, this seems to give the fish confidence and bites can be unmissable on floating or very shallow rigs pushed right into the grass. Knowing Amer's abilities it's just as well no one told him until later in the match (good old Rolf!) Still 122lb is a very good weight and good enough for last place in the coin.
Next time you draw the peg, when you plumb up stick an extra section on a see how far the bank is under cut - and Rolf had it filled back in at the end of last year; just goes to show how much the Carp love digging for food.
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