Junior Inter Pro's

Well Saturday the 9th finally came round and after a couple of decent days on it over the previous weeks,
Rob was in good form on the road to G'Town as part of the Leinster Junior Team. The match was part
of the selection process to get a place on the Ireland Junior team. That team goes to Scotland in
August to compete in the Junior Celtic Cup.

Leinster Junior team

Not quite sure how it happend but I was pushed forward to draw on behalf of the team and I drew an
unexpected roadside swim for Rob. It caught us out a bit having never fished those swims before and it's prob fair to say Rob wasn't overly impressed. ON arrival though it looked OK, a bed of lillies to the right

Surely that'll hold fish...

Open water in front, a nice bit of water behind the peg to the right and a cracking over hanging
bush to the left cheered us both up no end. Perhaps this wasn't such a bad peg after all.
The match was fished under CIPS rules so, naturals only, limited to three pints and a max of 12ltrs groundbait which could include hemp and corn. With plenty of time to get set up and organised It was time to get sorted

Ready to go, time for a sambo !

11.30 came round and it's "All In".  4 hours of what will hopefully be hectic action started with a flurry of feeding swims and 26 Junior's from all round the country got down to it. After a slow 30 minutes all round the lake, it seemed G'Town was having one of it's iffy days and so it turned out. The swim with the lillies produced one Rudd !! Going shallow out in front brought a few to the net but several of those were rudd and the other were smaller than average carp. Word from around the lake was that apart from one or two swims it wasn't
exactly hectic. That kept the spirits up and meant that any kind of bonus fish could keep him in the running.
The swim behind Rob on his right seemed to be the only one producing but again they were all small and most of them were swingers. So he's catching but not putting much of a weight together.
Davy (Magic14) from FTI dropped in to see Rob and wish him well and that was really appreciated.
The swims were fed routinely and all along the over hanging bushes to the left were being left alone
with just the odd look in to it. With 30 mins to go fish were coming on a shallow line straight in front but again
only the odd one needed to be netted and by persisting on that line in the hope of a lump, the overhanging bush was not given the time it deserved and that we both agreed was a mistake. With 10 mins to go
he dropped a line on it for a look and bang, the Preston Dibber shot under and game on. After a couple of
mins, ping the hook pulled and it's lost. Straight back in and this time it's a netter.
Back in again but back in too late and it's "all out".
Dissapointment around a lot of swims is evident, with only one or two throwing up any thing half decent.
Rob had 27 fish, poor enough but not bad under the circumstances. 27 fish on G'Town should give an angler something in the region of 15 lbs so when the scales read 7lb 14ozs. you've a right to feel a bit peeved.
The day had come and gone and it's all if's and maybes, as it often is in match fishing. The final scoresheet
shows, Ulster as winners with Leinster 2nd. Has he done enough to get the much hoped for Inter national place ? Well, as is allways the case with angling, we live in hope !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scores on the doors............