FANCIED PEG 124 PRODUCES THE GOODS AS BEGGS EDGES IT
BEFORE the draw, most would have picked famed peg 124 on the Main Lake to produce the individual winner – and so it proved, as AJ Tackle’s Damien Beggs enjoyed a right old battle with James Collison, of Dersingham, on next-door peg 123.
In the end, Damien got the nod by a little under 20lb to win the match with 174-12-0 of big carp and F1s.
Despite the reputation of the peg, it is not always a nailed-on winner – but it had been in top form in the run-up to the final and Leeds-based Damien made no mistakes to win the match and the section to help his team to second place overall.
James finished with 155-6-0 and second in section, an equally important contribution as his side lifted the title.
“When you draw a peg as good as mine, there’s pressure to do it justice because so many people were saying that I’d win the match off it,” Damien said.
“I’d fished on the opposite bank in practice so I didn’t know a great deal about the peg, but speaking to a few lads who fish Barston a bit I put together a plan. That was to fish a Method feeder at long range, then move shorter, casting a small Hybrid feeder down the edge alongside the reeds.”
Kicking off on the Method at 75m with micro pellets and an Orange Wafter, Damien caught around 50lb of carp plus a couple of F1s – but at times it proved to be a bit of a waiting game for bites. All the while, however, he’d been pinging in 8mm pellets down the edge and when it came to the time to change, the peg was solid!
“I reckon it was with around two hours to go that I changed, and it was a fish almost every chuck from then on,” he explained.
“Sometimes the rod would go before I’d put it on the rest! Some of the lads behind me timed how long it took to get a bite and it was normally around a minute, so there were plenty of carp there!
“I lost a few fish too by trying to put the brakes on them rather than letting them run into open water.”
James, on next-door peg 123, went for a long-range bomb and PVA pellet bag approach combined with the Method feeder on a short 30m cast, and enjoyed a good start on the feeder before things slowed and he changed to the bag, which produced a near-20lb carp. Moving back on to the short line produced a late run of fish, but his peg wasn’t quite as good as Damien’s and he finished 19lb in arrears.
Result, individual: 1 Damien Beggs, AJ Tackle, 174-12-0; 2 James Collison, Dersingham AC, 155-6-0; 3 Nev Bailey, Stoke MG, 89-0-0; 4 Ian Dunlop, Whitemoor Lakes, 82-6-0; 5 Alan Hill, Beaufort Four, 80-12-0; 6 Jay Martin, Team Martin, 80-4-0. Section winners: A section Main Lake: Dan Simper, Dersingham AC, 77-8-0 (default); B section Main Lake: Colin Horwood, Harefield Tackle, 80-2-0; C section Main Lake: Adam Playford, Dersingham AC, 58-8-0; D section Main Lake: Lee Grimmett, AJ Tackle, 55-10-0; E section Main Lake: Nick White, Whitemoor Lakes, 75-4-0 (default); F section match Lake: Ian Burley, Trafford Tackle, 64-6-0.