Match Report

A very still Petworth Park lake greeted the eleven anglers who fished the last match scheduled for this popular venue. Any wind we were likely to have would be in completely the opposite direction to that favoured as it would be coming from the east over the shoulders of the anglers on the roadside bank rather than in their faces from the west which is the preferred direction. It was therefore likely to be a case of those that could cast a feeder furthest were most likely to catch. In the last match here the Bream seemed to be hanging off the first (north) island so the first couple of pegs were expected to do well. Venue expert John Ritter was pegged between the bottom islands and from his position a cast straight out could also be expected to reach the Bream if they behaved as expected. Phil Tubb drew by the bottom sluice and was the source of some amusement as other anglers came along to inspect him setting up.

Pretty much as predicted the first couple of pegs produced Bream. Paul Ward in peg 1 started with a few Skimmers casting out towards the island and then Martin Jones who was in peg 2 had four decent Bream in quick succession whilst Paul was getting nothing. At which point Paul went for a walk and managed to distract Phil sufficiently for him to lose a decent Bream.
Along the roadside it was fairly quiet with only the odd fish coming out and it was even difficult to get much response from the smaller Roach and Rudd. Cody had a bit of excitement and landed a 2lb Pike that had grabbed at his gear as he was retrieving.
When he got back to his swim after his walk Paul was still struggling until the last hour when the Bream obviously moved in onto his groundbait and a string of fish during this time ensured first place with a respectable 32lb 4oz. Phil the butt of earlier jokes proved that his meticulous set up worked with 24lb 3oz for second place and that cast between the islands paid off for John Ritter who took third place with 18lb 2oz.