Second Evesham Championship victory for Welsh ace.
Andrew ‘Spud’ Murphy has won the Evesham Championship, for the second time in four years. Drawn on peg 44, Spud caught a double figure barbel on chopped worm , plus some smaller roach and chublets on a combination of waggler and maggot and bloodworm tactics.
A delighted Spud told Match Fishing: “I am obviously over the moon to have won this title for a second time. My plan was to start off targeting roach on bloodworm, then see how the match panned out. After an hour, I had only a few small roach in the net, so it was time to try my chopped worm line – where I had bait droppered some chopped up worm and casters. Fishing a piece of worm on the hook, my rig hadn’t been in place very long at all, before the float slid away and something substantial was hooked!
The fight lasted for about 20 minutes, before the beast was finally subdued – it was well into double figures, and I thought it might prove valuable when I sipped the net under it!
I managed a few more small fish through the rest of the day, but the action was far from hectic!
I was delighted when I found out I had won – it still hasn’t really sunk in to be honest. Obviously, the trophy means the most to me, but the £3,000 winners purse will come in handy too. I have had some bad luck with my health over the last few months, so this couldn’t have come at a better time!”
Preston Innovations & Sonubaits ace, Lee Kerry finished second on the day, with 11-5-0. Lee also caught a barbel on pole fished chopped worm tactics, though his was a smaller fish around 8lb, and he added to his net with some roach and bleak on bloodworm tactics.
Sensas North ace, Johnny Freeborn was third. Jonny took the best small fish catch, managing 7-5-0 of roach, perch and bleak on bloodworm from peg two.
Result:
1 Andrew Murphy (Shakespeare Superteam) 12-15-0 (peg 44)
2 Lee Kerry (Preston Innovations/ Sonubaits) 11-5-0 (peg 7)
3 John Freeborn (Sensas North) 7-5-0 (peg 2)
4 Scott Geens (Preston Innovations/ Sonubaits) 7-1-0 (peg 48)
5 Steve Hemingray (Drennan) 6-14-0 (peg 72)
