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 4^th 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

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

September catch up

Well it has been over a month since my last post and I thought it was only right if I caught up a bit with what has been going on and it has been a good month.

On the back of the Larford match I went straight back down to my local club lake hunting a few special carp, there had been an unfortunate fish kill over the close season, but I was hoping that there would still be a few fish left to target.  I was right and on my first walk around I could see numbers of bug fat carp moving all around the lake.  I set up in a swim that had a number of fish moving within it, in one spot I counted three fish feeding with another 3 fish cruising around them so that had to have a rod put on it, unfortunately I managed to spook the fish with a clumsy cast and they didn’t reappear.  I fed a spot on a clean bottom and the second spot where I had spooked the carp but no fish were forthcoming, I even witnessed fish spooking off my rigs more than once so something needed to change. 

Although this first session ended in a blank I had learnt a lot and I knew what I needed before my return to the lake in a weeks’ time.

Roll it on a week and after a walk around the lake, I found numbers of fish in the same area as the week before so it was an easy swim choice, this time to make my bait last longer I had decided to feed just one area and I did this as soon as I moved in with 10 spombs of hemp, corn and small boilie.

I had also changed to a fluorocarbon mainline that I was fishing naked style to a lead clip, both rods on the spot it took 40 minutes for my left hand rod to ramp off and I soon had my first carp of this seasons campaign in the net, at just over 17lb I was well happy.

Unfortunately that was the end to the action on that trip after an hour as I struggled to get the fish to go back onto the spot.  I did however, suffer from line bites all night on both rods and after a quick plumb around in the morning I don’t think that I was feeding away from the weed but in it and the liners were from fish feeding or moving through the weed.  I was not a blank but I felt as though I should have had more so the following week I was back for revenge.

This time I moved swim due to there being a meteor storm that would be seen in the north so I set up on the far bank to where I had caught the week before, due to the area that I fancied being stitched I settled for a swim in  the deeper water and went about finding a spot to put the rods on.

About an hour after feeding the swim I had my first bite and a large bream was the first to fall to the trap in broad daylight, this was not a good sign but one of the other guys on the lake took pity on me and told me about a good spot in the swim. Never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I put a rod onto the new spot for the night with just a small stick on it and went to sleep under the shooting stars wishing for a chunk.

At 4am I felt as though something should have happened and since I was awake I decided to recast the left hand rod with a fresh rig and bag on, twenty minutes later I was landing a bream.  I put the rod back out and fifteen minutes later I was weighing this:

At over 20lb I was well happy but after this again no further Carp were forthcoming although a few bream did have a bit of a feeding spell on the shorter line.

I had discovered that I did not need tons of bait to catch since I had changed my boilie flavour so I had another string to my bow for the next week.

Which brings me to this entry, a week later after walking around the lake again I found some fish up the shallow end again and set up on them, I had hoped to fish in a reedy swim but there was a big snag so to save the worry I moved back into the open water.  This time I spent a bit longer plumbing up to ensure that I was nowhere near the weed and put two small pva bags on top of a gravel hump just beyond where I had caught 2 weeks before.  It was a good plan as again within an hour or so this was sat in the landing net at 16lb:

After that the carp seemed to move away from the area in which I had caught the fish so I set another trap on a gravel spot off to my right, again it didn’t take too long and soon fish number 2 was sat on the unhooking mat.

It weighed in at just over 20lb but its mouth was a mess and I was surprised that I had managed to hook it at all, it was an old injury probably from the days of bent hooks but fortunately it was not stopping the fish from feeding and it was proving the effectiveness of my rigs.

Unfortunately the weather changed that night and I should really have moved to stay on the fish as I only saw one other fish in my swim for the remainder of that stay, but who cares when you had managed two eh?

So to present day and I have not been out this weekend as I am up to something special this week, but more of that when I get back, my Vlogs can be found on my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCACf5q4fXGAZA5wI_P5Wn8w

I hope that you enjoy them.

What would I have done differently?

I need to become more active and be ready to move onto the fish when there is scope, and lighten up my gear!!  I am also going to go back to using my lighter rods as there is no need for the brutes on the lake.

Tackle used:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded changed to 16lb Fox Trans Khaki

Emergency ServicesNational,Larford

I had once again been selected to represent Fosters Team Army in what we know as the Emergency Services National, the team was myself,Gaz, Gaz, Jase and Colin with Boris chasing up after us.  We all met up nice and early and had far too much time to chat about all things fishing and after asmalldelay waiting for breakfast the draw was in full flow.

Iwas going to be sat on Speci Lake peg 32 for the day and as it tuerned out I was the end peg on the Burr bank, always nice to find out after I have walked from the main car park with my kit. AsI turned up there were loads of fish showing at about 50 yards so that would be my main line, I also decided to feed a pellet waggler line, down the edge to my right as there was noone in that dirdction and also a short line.

I was ready for the all in even after a pellet disaster, the 2mms didn't like water, and this cost me 20 minutes and £7 to rectify for sorting 4 pints of pellets.  The cure was to soak the 4mm for 1 minute, drain and then add the 2mm's dry, this made a very nice method mix.
I fed the shortline with a pot of hemp, meat and corn and then sent the methodout to an easy distance and put the line in the clip, I was only going to wait a few minutes for each chuck fot the first hour of the match.  Twenty minutes in and the tip went round with an angry carp on, by keeping the riod low I was soon netting it and sending my pre preppared feeder back out to the spot.  I picked up my catty to feed the waggler line and the tip was around again!! Carp number 2 in the net within 4 minutes was not too shabby and when the third came in just as quickly I thought that I was in for a bumper day, but as quickly as they had turned up they were gone again.  I had a brief look on the waggler and was rewarded with a carp on my deeper rig, but a dfistinct lack of any more indications and with the rain coming in it just didn'tfeel right so it was back out on the method.
 At about the 2 and a half hour mark I had another run of three carp from the method line and I am sure that by using the X-Safe feeder and getting the rig back into the water as quickly as possible was the reason for my landing three carp as others were landing the odd one.  I am pretty sure that a big group of carp were just moving uip and down the lake in front of us as people were catching in turn.
With 2 hours left I started to concentrate on the short line and the margins, this resulted in a couple of small skimmers and 2 smaller carp from the short line and one landed and two lost from down the edge, ithad been quite cold compared to recent times so that may have explaned the lack of fish down my right hand edge.
The all-out was soon upon us though and it was actually a relief, I had managed my target of ten carp and thought that they would weigh around 100lb, or so I was hoping.  I was the first in the section  to be weighed and my 3 nets came to a to total of 84lb 10oz, so my small carp were considerably smaller than I had originally thought.  I got my gear into the van just as another rain shower hit and went back along the lake to help witht he weighing in... as it turned out my weight had been enough to win the 16 peg section so in my mind it was job done, I also think it was the top weight on the lake and I had heard that the top weight off Arena was only arund 30lb so the venue had fished hard all around.
We had a burger and chips waiting for all of us in the clubhouse after the match so that we could compare our woes, and at the results it transpired that the team had done enough for 4th or 5th but it was enough for first in the money so that was a nice surprise.
Thanks to the team running it, as again it was a well run event and thankyou to the friendly stahh at Larford for another warm welcome.

What would I have done differently:

I do not think that Paste down the edge was right so I should have fished paste short, than meat and corn down the edge.  Maybe spend less time thrashing the water to a foam on  the pellet wag and I should have dropped the feeder onto the loose fed line.

Tackle used:

Pole short:

Elastic: Green Colmic hollow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 2 T175

Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 4

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Method:

Rod: Drennan 11.5ft medium feeder rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder

Pellet Waggler deep:

Rod: Drennan 12ft Acolyte Carp waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 6g Preston thin pellet wag

Pellet Waggler shallow:

Rod: Drennan 11ft Team Daiwa pellet waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 3.5g unloaded drennan crystal pellet wag

Royal Signals Championship day 2, 21/07/16

This was a case of the morning after the day before, I was off to a new lake called the Grebe where all I had heard was tales of monsters, so since I had only picked up 3 points the day before I was going to target the aforementioned monsters.

At the draw it soon became clear that some people had golden fingers as all the section winners from the day before pulled out the pegs that the other section winners had had before!!  I had peg 1 in my hand and that was received by lots of groans, by everyone else and I was told as usual that it was a flyer.

I got to my peg and discovered that it actually looked very good, I had a small bay to my right that I would be fishing on the far bank off, there was a nice margin under a tree to my right and loads of open water to my left that was alive with chunky carp.  The plan was a method to the far bank, short pole to the left, margin to the right and I also decided to fish shallow at 13m towards the open water as alot of good sized carp were cruising in the area, being helped by a pleasure angler fishing floaters in front of me.  I also set up a mugging rig as it would have been rude not to.

I had my tackle and bait sorted and ready for the all in and the match started, my day went according to plan almost with around 12 carp coming on the method, although none of them were any size. The margins were a let-down with only crucians to show on paste under the tree. I only had small fish on the short pole as well, but I did manage to mug a couple of bigger carp shallow.

Comer the all-out I reckoned that I had around 120lb of fish and since I was on scales we would find out last, Jenks had been in my section although I had only been able to watch the wrong half section because of where my peg faced, he was admitting to another good day, which to be honest was a bit of a worry.  His nets went 42.750 KG and that was a good net of fish, again he had kept it simple and it had payed off for him.  He was the best weight until we got all the way back to my peg, I was out slightly on my guesstimate though and only weighed 46Kg, so it was still enough to pip Jenks…. Sorry mate.

Overall it was not enough for me to save the two days as both Greg and Craig had perfect 2 point scores , Greg pipped it slightly on weight, then it was Jenks on 3 points, then Kev, Me, Adi and Alfie all tied on 4 points with count back and weight deciding the order.  Greg also took the team trophy with Pez so it was a good championships for him.

Thankyou DJ for running it with you capable team and well done with the last minute change of venue.  Roll on next year now so I can win the trophy for a 4^th time.

What would I do differently?

Shallow fishing was not the way to go on that lake and I spent too much time trying to make it work,that said though I did win my section and come second on the lake so it wasn’t all bad.

Tackle used:

Pole short:

Elastic: Green Clomic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H paste

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Shallow:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.2g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: JON Margin Paste 4X12

Method:

Rod: Drennan series 7 10ft carp feeder

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder

Royal Signals Championship day 1, 20/07/16

It was finally upon us and to be honest after coming second in the carp champs earlier in the year I really wanted a good showing on this to get another trophy, the weather again was forecast to be a scorcher and the section rotation saw me on Lake 4 with Pez, Jenks, Jimmy and DJ, to name a few for company.

I had drawn peg 7 which was on the opposite bank to where I had won the Corp champs a few years ago, but I had a nice breeze coming across the lake towards me at the start so I was more than happy, that and an island chuck off to my right and a nice margin at 11m to my left saw me setting up a fair bit of kit hoping for good things.

I started on the method to the island and in the first hour I managed a skimmer, crucian and a couple of carp for about 20lb so I was on course for my target weight of a ton plus.  It was however at this pointy that the wheels started to fall off as Craig on peg 13 started to catch well down his left hand edge, and I started to force things to try and keep up.  I had been feeding a pellet waggler line since the start so I had a quick look and on the second cast the float disappeared and another carp was on his way to the keepnet, as I was playing it though a large ghosty decided to start malingering in the area.  As soon as I got the first fish in the net I spotted the ghosty again and flicked my pellet wag just in front of it, it swam slowly towards where my hookbait had roughly landed and then spooked off. My pellet wag followed it at Mach 10 and it was fish on, a few minutes later 8lb of annoyed ghosty were in the keepnet.  That was it however for the pellet wag and it was back onto the method for a few more carp and bits.

It was about 2 hours in and the wind decided to change direction and start blowing strongly to my left, this had the effect of making it harder to get my method tight in under the boards on the island, and Jenks, Jimmy and Craig all started to catch quite well on a variety of tactics.

It was status quo until the last couple of hours when I started to feed the left hand edge hoping for a comeback hour, I actually though it was going to happen when after 20 minutes I had 3 fish down the edge in 15 minutes and another one that I mugged.  However the fish had other ideas and I only managed 1 fish in the last half hour of the match and not a lot more before that, again I had overfed my margin, I am starting to spot a trend.

Jenks had had a blinding last half of the match catching steady on paste around a 6mm pellet fished at 5m just in front of a small bush to the left of his swim, and he thought I hadn’t noticed, Jimmy had caught well on the method and pellet wag cast along the windward bank and Craig slowed but still had a few in the last hour from his edges.

The all out was well received and the tale of the tape was that Jenks had won the section with 47KG, Jimmy was second with 41kg, Craig had 37kg but as he was a guest his weight only counted for the pools so I was third in section with 34Kg and bits.

Well third saw me well out of it going into day 2 so it would be fishing for pools…..

What would I do differently?

The wind was wrong for the pellet wag and it took me too long to realise that, I should have saved my bait from that line and fished a positive paste line at 6-11m.  I overfed the margins again, but if the fish had turned on I would not have fed enough so that’s a tricky one.

I should have focussed on the method for longer and concentrated my feed as much as possible.

Tackle used:

Pole short:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H paste

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Method:

Rod: Drennan 11.5ft medium feeder rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder

Pellet Waggler:

Rod: Drennan 12ft Acolyte Carp waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 6g Preston thin pellet wag

Royal Signals, Masters and Clubman match, 19/07/16

This was the start of the Royal Signals Championship for me, I was paired up with Ben so the team was Ben and Ben… Fate?  We met up on the morning, I had had little to do with him on the run up to the match as I have fished with Ben in the past and am aware that he can catch fish on his day, we drew pegs 22 and 23 on the Snake as far as I can remember so once we got to the pegs it was to work.

I showed him a few things like dobbing rigs, simple bait prep and the like and I was still able to set my kit up well in time. The swims were only about 7 meters wide so I was going to concentrate my efforts down to the right hand side of the swim, I set up a method, shallow rig, deck rig across and a paste rig for down the edge.  I got Ben to set up roughly the same… ish.

  

So the clubman got to start 30 minutes before the Master, so I got Ben to start dobbing over the far bank loking for an early fish, I was expecting it to be hard so 30lb would have been a good weight between us in my opinion.  It didn’t take too long and soon Ben had his first fish on its way to the onion sack.

It was a carp at about 3lb so a good start and there were plenty of fish showing themselves along the far bank.  He had a couple more by the time I got to start and as he was doing so well I decided to follow suite and started fishing meat across the far bank.  It was obvious by the fishes reaction that they wanted to be shallow in the heat, which was starting to become oppressive, so I set up a shallow rig to fish under the far bank foliage and managed a few fish on this over the first couple of hours.

After this  time the shade in which I had been getting my bites disappeared and the only shade I had was down the lake to my right, by casting the method tight to the top bank under the trees I managed another 4 carp and I also managed to mug a couple on a mugging rig.

Going into the last couple of hours I started to feed my right hand edge with a mix of 2mm and 4mm pellet with an eye to fish paste over the top, it never really kicked off though even though I managed a couple of fish I was soon fishing meat slop up the far bank for another couple of fish in the last hour and 1 down the edge.

Ben had struggled aswell to get numbers of fish and he ended up on just over 5kg of fish, I had 14 and a half, this was enough for us to end up third pair on the lake and 8^th pair overall, so plenty of room for improvement next year.

Kev and Greg smashed it on reptile and Greg (… the clubman) had enough weight so that Kev didn’t even need to weigh in!!!

What would I do differently?

I think that the method should have been my main line of attack for the day with the far bank meat as a backup to grab the odd fish rather than the other way round, I also think I overfed my margins… wonder if I will learn from it this time?

Tackle used:

Pole Long:

Elastic: Blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 2 T175

Float: 0.3g AS4

Pole Long Shallow:

Elastic: Blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag

Float: 0.2g crystal dibber

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Method:

Rod: Drennan series 7 Carp feeder 10ft.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g small guru method feeder