McMahon close to magical mark

Carpenters Arms 2000 AC's top junior Joe McMahon picked up the Ron Gaulton Memorial Cup with a 97-9-0 catch of carp at Viaduct Fishery.

The talented 12-year-old fished a pellet waggler with an 8mm hair-rigged pellet at peg 111 and missed the magical 100lb mark by less than the weight of an average Campbell Lake carp.

Keynsham-based Paul Hurn came second at 129 on the opposite bank where he used straight lead tactics, and the same bait as the winner, to tempt a similar 83-3-0.

Neil Carter finished top of the silverfish list with 26-2-0 of tench taken from the lakeside margins of 113 with either caster, maggot or soft pellet.

Results, overall: 1, Joe McMahon (Jnr) 97-9-0, peg 111; 2, Paul Hurn 83-3-0, peg 129; 3, Rob Mills 74-0-0, peg 132; 4, Paul Swain 72-12-0, peg 121; 5, Chris Woolley 64-15-0, peg 125; 6, Neil Carter 63-1-0, peg 113. Silverfish: 1, Neil Carter 26-2-0, peg 113.

● The weight of one small carp separated Matt Challenger and Tony Portingale in the Ridgeway & District AS match, fished at Avalon Fisheries, West Hay.

Challenger fished a pellet waggler with a hair-rigged 8mmbait at peg 12 for a 32-6-0 all-carp catch, while Portingale used the same size pellet at peg seven for an almost identical 30-12-0.

The top silverfish catch fell to Don Searle, who fished worm over caster at peg 13 for 8-12-0 of skimmers, rudd and roach.

Results: 1, Matt Challenger 32-6-0. peg 12; 2, Tony Portingale 30-12-0, peg 7; 3, Roger Wright 24-4-0, peg 23; 4= Geoff Challenger (peg 19) & Pete Exley (peg 17), both 14-4-0; 6, Steve Dumbleton 9-14-0, peg 1. Silverfish: 1, Don Searle 8-12-0, peg 13.

● Bristol PSV's Craig Edmonds clinched his second win in as many matches at Staunton Court.

He poled an 8mm banded pellet shallow into the centre and corner lakeside margins of peg 10 for 190-15-0 of carp weighing into double low figures.

Edmond's travelling partner Paul Elms came second at peg three on the concrete bank where the same bait poled at 13 metres and a variety of depths came up with a similar 159-9-0 catch.

Mark Radford filled third place with 136-9-0 of carp.

Results: 1, Craig Edmonds 190-15-0, peg 10; 2, Paul Elms 159-9-0, peg 3; 3, Mark Radford 136-9-0, peg 5; 4, Ryan Jordan 126-15-0, peg 2; 5, Steve Burgess 70-10-0, peg 7.

● New member Les Williams scraped home by just 11 oz from Chris Gay to win the Warwick Arms AC match, fished on Woodlands Lake at Trinity Waters, near Bridgwater.

Williams came up with 57-13-0 of mostly carp while Gay poled paste both long and short off peg seven for a similar 57-2-0.

Results: 1, Les Williams 57-13-0, Bridge Peg; 2, Chris Gay 57-2-0, peg 7; 3, Chris Szakacs 36-13-0, peg 20; 4, Stewart Riddle 34-12-0, peg 11; 5, Chris Longmore 26-1-0, peg 6; 6, Paul Waterton 25-14-0, peg 9.

● Bristol's Rod Wootten poled a hair-rigged 8mm pellet into the lakeside margins of corner peg 24 and finished a 101-12-0 winner in the Carps AC match, fished at Landsend Fisheries.

Scott Lovell came second overall at Match 15 where a 6mm soft pellet poled into the lakeside margins tempted 11-0-0 of carp and 48-4-0 of skimmers and tench.

Results, Overall: 1, Rod Wootten 101-12-0, peg 24; 2, Scott Lovell 59-4-0, peg 15; 3, Dick Bull 44-14-0, peg 17; 4, Dave Evans 44-8-0, peg 11; 5, John Bennett 41-12-0, peg 22; 6, Steve Evans 32-4-0, peg 19. Silverfish: 1, Scott Lovell 48-4-0, peg 15