Young Harry beats some of the best to make big final

Murphy fished the first Feedermasters Qualifier of the year and turned in a fine display to win a place in the final.

Fishing against some of the best feeder anglers in the country, including several England internationals, he claimed his place with a zone win with a weight of 54lb 6oz.

It was far from easy though as the carp at this usually prolific venue seem to be shoaled up in several pegs and refused to move.

Thankfully for Murphy he sat on peg 11 on the Yew Pool, which is one of the better pegs at the moment.

After an hour he was fishless, without a single bite on his mid-lake line despite getting plenty of indications.

He made the decision to change to a maggot feeder which quickly accounted for a couple of fish and a foul hooked double-figure carp, which boosted his catch dramatically but upset the swim.

For the remainder of the match he had to chase fish around his swim picking up the occasional fish to finish the match and earn his place in the final at Bough Beach later in the year.

Overall winner was Nick Speed with 82lb 11oz. He drew peg 18 on the Horseshoe Pool and caught well on a small feeder all day.

Runner-up was England feeder team manager Tom Pickering with 77lb 2oz from Beastie 15, then came Steve Clarke on 68lb 2oz, Steve Freeman on 66lb 9oz and Lee Munro with 65lb 14oz

PETERBOROUGH DAA

Peterborough DAA have taken over the running of open matches on Ferry Meadows and the weekend saw the first of many being run this season.

Unfortunately it co-incided with the River Nene all but in flood which meant a lot of water pushing into Gunwade Lake, flooding the pegs close to Milton Ferry Bridge and forcing quite a few to pull out.

The match did produce some bream and that’s the good news, and I am sure it will get much better once the weather picks up.

It was great to see Graham Barry take the top spot. Some anglers have been running the venue down but he has been a staunch supporter over many years now.

He drew peg 66 and caught bream on the feeder to weigh in 37lb 2oz.

In second place, weighing in three bream for 22lb 4oz, was Nathan Gooderham, then came Phil Wood with 21lb followed by Geoff Ringer on 20lb 6oz.

CASTERWAYS

New club Casterways were at Biggin Lake on Sunday and ir produced some very respectable silver fish weights even though the water was heavily coloured.

Out in front with 16lb 11oz from peg five was Dave Norville, who caught skimmers and a bonus bream.

A couple of pegs away was runner-up Mike Smith, who had two small bream and a net of skimmers for 13lb 4oz, followed by Martin McHugh on 10lb 4oz.

TUESDAY CLUB

The latest Tuesday Club match at Stretton Lakes was won by Mike Smith from peg five. He caught 8lb 3oz of small roach on caster and maggot.

Second with 6lb 2oz was Alan Jopling from peg two and Fred Tarm on peg one came third with a weight of 4lb 2oz.