12 September 2016

Inter Corps Carp angling Championship 2016, Wraysbury 1

After managing to come second in the Inter Corps Championships at Walthamstow earlier in the year and also by finishing in the top 10 of the Army UK, I was called up to represent the Royal Signals in the Inter Corps Carp Championships at the Wraysbury 1 complex. The team consisted of myself, the Pauls again, Chris, Deano and Nick, and lucky Chris was going to be my partner for the three days.
We had been given the South lake to fish and the truth about this lake is that although it is stuffed to the rafters with double figure carp and a few surprises, due to the size and shape not everyone would have a chance on the fish.  We needed to come out early in the draw, but as is so often the case that didn’t happen as we were last but one pair out of the hat.
This gave us a choice of two swims, the first was peg 5, in a bay that very few fish had been seen in and I had not heard of a fish coming out of and the second was peg 7, also known as the party swim and was the entry into a bay from a narrow section behind some islands.







So we decided on peg 7 especially as we had seen a few fish bubbling in that area in the morning.  We got loaded up onto the Kubota and got chauffeured to our swim to have a nice surprise as we turned up…. The fish were still bubbling.  Not wanting to spook them we tricked a small amount of loose boilies into the area straight away and then went about digging pods in and setting up rods and camp, it took a while but we were ready to get a couple of rods in each at the all-in.
What happen next was text book as we had just settled in and started to put up the bivvys when Chris’s left hand rod went into meltdown, it was a fraught fight but we soon had a low double in the net. High fives all round, we were straight on the phone to Tim to ensure that Chris got the accolade of first fish.  We secured the fish in a retainer whilst we were waiting on the scales and no sooner as the fish was comfy that my right hand rod fishing LOCKED up against some snags needed urgent attention. Again it was a bit nip and tuck through the trees and snags but Chris soon scooped another dark scaley one into the bottom of the net. We were well happy at this point as you might well guess.


Chris’s fish was just shy of 12lb and mine was 17 and a bit so it was a cracking start, both were taken on chods, anyway we soon had our rods back onto the spots and an air of normality fell so that we could get the camp set up until about 3 o’clock in the afternoon when my snag rod wanted my attention again.  Unfortunately I lost this fish due to a branch that I had pulled out with the previous fish becoming a pivot point on my line and preventing me from getting the right angle to turn the fish from the snags.
This set the president unfortunately with me having a dropped take in the early evening, and Chris loosing 2 carp to the snags in the early hours.  That was it for our action, we even got desperate on the last morning as all we needed was 1 more fish to get the team into third place overall as both of the other pairs had managed to catch of the other lakes. PVA Bags, choddies, bottom baits and even the naked carp dance were all tried in the vain hope of a bite, we even ended up with all 4 rods trying to catch a bubbler that was cruising around the swim.

Alas it was not enough though and it was all too little too late.  We as a team ended up 4th out of 10 teams so it was not all bad, all three pairs had caught fish and we were unlikely to catch the RAC who were the overall winners as they had two section wins and a section second. Ant and Mark both bagged originals as well to top it off for them.  I am looking forward to next year’s festival already and I have managed to get selected to compete in the Carp Inter Services so watch out for that one.  Finally thankyou Tim and Briggers for organising a brilliant event, and thankyou to all the staff at RK leisure for looking after us for the week, the facilities are second to none and the fishing isn’t too shabby either. I will be back.


What would I have done differently?
Looking at the swim my Back channel was good for a couple of early bites but I think the left hand rod should have been fished in front of Chris for the duration, however, hindsight is the best angler I know.

Tackle used:
Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX
Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC
Line: 16lb Fox TransKaki Flouro







10 September 2016

Army Carp fishing Final

I was lucky enough to have been selected to represent the UK Army Carpers in the Army team finals and for this it meant a trip down to the Iconic Wraysbury 1 complex near Heathrow. 
 I had been selected for the A team which consisted of myself, the Pauls, Ant, John and my partner Gav.
We all arrived on the Monday and managed to get a few laps of the North lake under our belt as this was going to be the venue for the next couple of days. Between us Gav and I had spotted several areas where there were numbers of fish and I really fancied and open water peg or an island chuck for the best chance of a couple of bites, so when we finally came out of the draw bag we decided, well I decided on peg 13.
The swim gave us a couple of islands and a bit of open water on the left hand side and on the right there was a large bay and open water area. Gav took the left and the island, I had the right and the bay, I was more than happy with this though as the night before I had been watching fish head and shoulder all night in the area and they were still there in morning.  Rupert the head bailiff was around soon after we got to the swim and gave us a few spots to try and I Gav was fishing tight to the island whilst I had a hole in the weed at 15 wraps and a gravel spot in the margin at 21 wraps down to the right.
We put a bit of bait in on the spots and settled in, unfortunately for 46 hours that was all we could do as apart from a few liners there was no action on any of our rods, we tried all over the swim with a variety of tactics and come the last morning I was fishing a PVA bag over the spodded open water spot with 2 grains of fake corn on the hair. Low and behold I had a bite and as I lifted into the rod there was weight for a split second and then nothing as the 3 oz lead and size 5 ESP Gripper failed to make good contact to the fish.
  We were gutted, as you can see from the photo, the lead had discharged and there was nothing wrong with the rig so I have no idea how it got away with it!!
Gp 9 manged to win both top pair and the group match and one of the lads managed to catch one of the originals at well over 35lb!!

What would I have done differently?
I think I became preoccupied with the gravel spot to my right and perhaps a more area based attack would have been better. But hopefully there will be next year.

Tackle used:
Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX
Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC
Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded 16lb Fox TransKaki Flouro