Hour by Hour 2003

Tom Hoare got off the mark with a small fish whlie Shaun Truscott bagged 2 in the first hour. Rick was blank after an hour and Brummy had 1 fish in his net.

HOUR 2= Matty was happy to keep catching the smaller stuff at this stage along with Chris Barker. Brummy had a tough 2nd hour having little luck at all aswell as Shaun.

Gary was finding a few bits but not a lot. Rick finally started catching some smaller stuff near the surface. Jason bagged a big bream on sweetcorn to put him near the top of the leader board.

HOUR 3= The sun was now very hot and the smaller fish really picked up for Chris Barker and Rick as it was a fish a chuck. Bear, fishing tight to the lillies was finding very small fish in his peg.

It had gone quiet for Jason and Tom Hoare in the middle pegs however while Gary continued to struggle along.

Shaun had nothing else to show after hour 3 and Brummy got a small perch. Matty was now fishing further out and began picking up some bream up to about a pound.

HOUR 4= Jon Brummy , Tom Hoare, Jason Hoare and Shaun Truscott all looked beaten by now as the sun never let up. Gary needed a monster at this point also if he was going to feature. Bear Barker was now catching small fish every cast and was beginning to put a bit of weight in the net but only slowly.

Matty took a couple more average sized bream to boost his weight. Rick had to use his landing net for the first time as a good roach came in. Chris Barker was still catching a few in the end peg.

HOUR 5= By this stage it was a 4 horse race really. Gary couldn't get much in the final hour, and Jason had been ages without a bite by this stage.

For the minor placings, it was close between Tom, Shaun, and Jon. Rick had a bad last 45 minutes catching nothing at all. Chris Barker had made the most of a difficult peg but it didn't look enough as Bear was still going well in his peg although the fish were still very small indeed.

Matty Barker went back for the minnows in the last hour after bagging some good bream which gave him the extra 2lb he would need to win the event.