11/07/2021
When a friend asked me to take part in a charity fishing match for Great Ormond Street Hospital that he was hosting, I jumped at the chance and signed up. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks after paying, another friend planned a trip up to London for his 18th birthday which was the same weekend as the match. Due to covid restrictions not easing on the 21st of June, the trip to London was cancelled and the charity match was back on! To make it more entertaining and to raise as much money as possible, I decided to do the whole match dressed as Pikachu.
In the month leading up to the match, I had had nothing but bad luck. I hadn’t caught a carp in over a month. I had lost 4 fish in a row on 3 different sessions, the first couple took me into some snags and snapped me up while just a couple days before the match, I had lost a stunning upper double mirror at the net due to weed. To say I had lost my confidence would be an understatement.
With all preparations made on the Friday, it was up early on Saturday to make the 40 minute journey to the venue, Newlands Hall fishery. I’d fished there once before, but blanked. I arrived a little late so didn’t make the walkaround before the swim draw. I drew swim 1 and didn’t know what to expect. It did mean one thing however, it was only a short walk from the car park with what must have been the most loaded barrow I’ve ever pushed.
Once arriving in my swim, I was met with fizzing and fish cruising on the surface right in front of me. I was confident of a bite but we still had over an hour before it was time to put the rods in. I set up the bivvy and prepared my rods, eagerly waiting for 9 o’clock to arrive.
Although it was a 2 rod match, I had brought 6 rods with me to cover any situation which arose. I started the day with one rod on the method feeder and one rod fishing a Ronnie rig with a small pink pop-up. Due to my swim being in the corner, I had a good set of marginal snags on my left as well as an overhanging tree to my right. I had a small amount of open water in front of me however I could only cast about 35 yards out before entering someone else’s water.
9 AM arrived and the rod went out. I dropped my method feeder under the overhanging bush to my right and used my baiting pole to ship out my Ronnie rig to the snags on my left. I had a feeling the fish were going to be hungry, so I put quite a few boilies, some pellet and some sweetcorn in the spoon too. I set my rod down before sitting back after the manic hour setting up.
Beeeeep. My rod tip swung round after just 5 minutes in the water. It was fish on. Although I was fishing locked up, the fish had taken me into the snags. I could still feel it on, but the line was grating against the submerged branches. The rod locked up and I wasn’t sure weather the fish had escaped me leaving my hook embedded into a branch or, it was still on. I allowed the line to go slack for 5 minutes but there was no movement. I assumed that the fish had spat the hook and pulled for a break.
This was now the 5th fish in a row that I had lost and I was devastated. I wasted no time in getting the rod rigged back up and on the spot. This time, I dropped it about a foot away from where I had previously dropped it. I hoped that this would stop the fish from reaching the snags.
Half an hour later, my rod ripped off again. I put my rod tip straight under the water, this helps to bring carp away from snags as they feel less threatened being pulled under the water than up, out of it. I played the fish for a couple of minutes and it was ready to be netted. I fumbled around for the net and must have applied too much pressure. My line went slack and the fish splashed it’s way back into the depths.
I was seething. Why was this happening to me? What was I doing wrong? I was loosing confidence rapidly. I’m not a religious person but I was so desperate that I had a little pray to the ‘Carp Gods’ asking for a little luck and forgiveness.
I re-did the rod again, shipping it out with the baiting pole to the same spot as before. The fish seemed hungry, I had received 2 bites within an hour of each other. I decided to keep piling the bait in, so put a spoonful of bait out before placing my rig out with more bait.
Meanwhile, I hadn’t received much activity on the method feeder. I had been casting it under the tree to my right mainly, however after a few hours without any action I decided to move it around a bit and have a few pub chucks. I swapped the hookbait from a wafter to some sweetcorn but still hadn’t caught anything.
After a couple of hours just receiving liners, I decided to rebait. I wasn’t too happy when the rig went out in the first place, the line got caught around the pole and I wasn’t sure weather the rig had been moved slightly. I reeled in and put the rod back out. It only took 10 minutes for the rod to wrap around. The result was a stunning mirror and I was finally off the mark.
I had also noticed many fish cruising around on the surface. I reeled in my feeder rod and tried to trip one up using some white bread and a breadbomb. It’s surprising how far you can cast with just freelined bread loading in a breadbomb. You can easily manage 30 yards. I had a couple of fish come up and nose my bread but they were obviously wary. I noticed that most of the fish on the surface were good double figure fish too. The fish seemed to have spooked off so I put my feeder back out for a little while.
All of a sudden, I noticed a large set of lips on the surface gulping down some dog mixers which had drifted over from an adjacent swim. I quickly reeled in my feeder but it was snagged up. It was in the margin but there were no obvious snags. I was in a rush and didn’t have the time to try and free it. I pulled for a break. My bread rod was already set up, but the bread had been on for a good 45 minutes. I decided to leave the slightly soggy, half dried bread on and flicked it out where I’d last seen the fish come up. 30 seconds later and my bread had been engulfed. I struck and it was fish on. The fight lasted a good 10 minutes and the fish was taking lots of line. I gave a shout to the guy who was fishing in the next swim and he helped me to net the fish. Eventually it was in the net and mine.
I gave Paul, who was hosting the competition a call and he came round to witness the weighing and take some photos for me. It weighed in at 18 lb 8oz and was the biggest fish of the match so far. There was going to be a prize for biggest fish of the match, as well as 3 prizes for most fish caught. The prize for biggest fish was a 60 minute tattoo session which I had no interest in, so I had won some pride more than anything. It seemed my words with the ‘Carp Gods’ had paid off.
I slipped the fish back and sat back for a minute, looking back over the pictures. It was a stunning half linear mirror. I decided to call it quits on the feeder rod and replace it with a Ronnie rig and white pop-up. I hooked on a pva mesh bag and placed it under the overhanging tree to my right.
It had been a little while since I had caught from the left hand snags too. I decided it was time to re-do that rod too. My rod was on the bank sticks, bail arm open and alarm off. I was bringing my baiting pole in when I noticed line splaying off my spool. In panic, I dropped the baiting pole to pick up the rod for fear of the fish running into the snags. The fish was on but I heard an almighty crack. The end section of my baiting pole had snapped in half. I managed to land the fish which was a battered old common but I was gutted about the baiting pole.
I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to catch as many without the help of my baiting pole. I scattered a good amount of bait around the spot instead. Although I wouldn’t be able to keep with the tight baiting approach which I would have preferred, the fish were obviously in the area and I was hoping it wouldn’t make too much difference. Around the lake, not many fish were being caught, there was an obvious lull in the action. I took this time to eat some late lunch and enjoy the stunning wildlife.
If you enjoy your birdwatching while you fishing, then Newlands is great. I spotted a kingfisher, long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, wrens, bats and all sorts of other fantastic birds while I was there.
The time was nearing 5 o’clock and a few people had started catching. I decided to trickle a few more boilies over the spot and re-cast my rod. It didn’t take long for another bite to come. The result was a pristine little common. It was my fourth fish from 6 runs, all of which had come from the left hand snag.
I got the rod straight back out and just 15 minutes later, I landed my 5th of the session. It was looking like it would be a productive evening.
Thanks for reading the first part of this blog. I was hoping to fit it all into one, but I’m afraid of it becoming the Lord of the Rings. The second part should be out next week, most likely on Friday. You don’t want to miss it because I had a crazy night with no sleep and managed to overtake the leader.
This blog is a continuation from my previous post, if you haven’t I‘d suggest checking it out before reading ahead. If not then here’s some background. The other week, I took part in a carp fishing match raising money for Great Ormond Street. Going into the evening, I had caught 5 carp including the biggest of the match so far at 18lbs 8oz. Oh, and to spice things up a tad I was doing the whole thing dressed as Pikachu.
After landing my fifth fish of the session, it took another hour for the spot to produce another bite. The winning tactic was a 12mm yellow pop-up on a Ronnie rig. As far as I knew, this fish took me into the lead. The last I’d heard is that someone else was on five fish a couple of hours previous. Of course, a lot can happen in a couple of hours, but I was quietly confident.
It was now around half past six and my tummy was starting to rumble. I got the stove on and started to fry my burgers. Just five minutes later I received a savage bite from the left hand margin. The rod tip bent around, and I thought I was in. I lifted the rod and reeled however there was nothing on the end. The fish had obviously spat the hook.
I finished off cooking before re-casting my right hand rod. It hadn’t produced anything all day so I decided to move it around the swim to try and find a few fish. Just as I was casting it out, I received a bite on my left hand rod to the snags. This produced my seventh fish of the session which was another small common.
A little after an hour later, my left hand rod ripped into action again. I managed to get the fish away from the snags and it was charging all around my swim. It headed down towards my left hand margin however I wasn’t worried as there were no obvious snags. The rod locked up and it seemed the fish had become snagged. I could still feel it on and didn’t want to risk snapping up or a tethered fish.
Although the lake rules state no wading, I weighed up my options and decided to head in. The margins were between three and four foot deep so there wasn’t a risk of my waders flooding. I managed to find my rig however unfortunately whatever was on the end had escaped me. I also found the snag which the fish had taken me around. It was a large branch. It was full of line, rigs and leads including my method feeder rig which I lost earlier in the day. I must have cast right on top of it.
I decided it would be best to remove the branch from the lake so that’s what I did. I had a feeling that it may kill off my swim for a little while, but I thought I was acting within the best interests of the lake and fish for the future.
About half an hour after losing the fish, I had finished removing the branch and my bait was finally back in the water and fishing. The next hours fishing was uneventful. I decided to swap my right hand rod from a Ronnie rig to a solid bag.
The change obviously paid off because after 20 minutes, my rod was nearly pulled off my rod rest. It was my eight fish from twelve bites but more importantly for me, it was my first fish on the bottom and away from the snags. I was worried about fishing close to the snags at night whilst I was sleeping so it gave me some confidence of night-time bites in open water.
It was now around ten o’clock and I’d just heard that someone else was on 14 fish. The match was going to be a numbers game, so I had some catching up to do. Although I was already quite tired due to going out the night before, I really wanted to win this match so decided to stay up and catch as many as I could. Staying up and sitting next to the rods would mean I could continue fishing the productive snags to my left and I planned to re-cast my right hand rod every half an hour with a fresh PVA bag.
I decided to get a couple of hours sleep so moved the left hand rod and got my head down. My next bite and ninth fish woke me up at about quarter to 11. It was a small common but that didn’t matter because it was all about number of carp.
I managed a little more sleep before being woken up again an hour and a half later. After this fish, I decided to stay wake. I had run out of solid bags so started to use PVA mesh bags instead. This obviously made little difference to the fish because I caught three more between quarter past one and quarter past two. They were a small common, a mirror around 7 lb and the biggest fish was around 13 1/2lb, this one was caught on the right hand rod in open water.
I could hear fish jumping out slightly further down the bank than I was, I couldn’t however hear anyone else’s alarms going off. I was now on 13 fish, just 1 behind Stuart who was leading on 14 going into the night.
The rest of the night remained quiet. I didn’t catch another fish until 4:40 the next morning. I had spotted some swirling almost under my feet. The previous night I had put some bait in the margins, and something had obviously moved and was feeding on it. After having my rig in the water for 20 minutes, it was away with another lower double common. This ruined this spot since it was so close to my rods.
Fortunately, there was another spot slightly further down the bank which I had been baiting up all the previous day. I noticed some fizzing on that spot and lowered my rig on top. I threw a handful of pellet over the top to keep the fish interested. It only took 10 minutes for another bite. I did this again and caught yet another fish, taking my total to 16.
I caught my fourth fish in an hour when my left hand rod towards the snags bent round and I was into my 17th fish, a small common.
I was absolutely knackered, I’d had about an hours sleep but it was all worth it because I’d found out that Stuart who was leading going into the night hadn’t caught anything all night and was still on 14 fish. Although things were looking positive, there was one downside. It appeared the fish had started spawning again. Apparently, they had spawned a couple of weeks prior to our visit however obviously, some hadn’t finished and conditions were perfect for them to start again.
The fishing suddenly died right off, and I struggled from 6 till 10. The match was meant to finish at 12 and I had 2 hours to cement my lead. I swapped one rod over to the float after seeing some fish feeding in the margins. I fished a worm over some pellet and after half an hour, my float dipped under. I’d caught a bloody eel! I had one worm left, and an hour and a half. I watched my float like a hawk and by quarter to eleven, I had another bite. I struck into the fish and watched my float disappear under the water. I never saw it again because the fish had snapped me up.
I had heard bite alarms going off around the lake, everyone’s except mine. On closer inspection with my binoculars, I could see Stuart hauling them in down the bank. I needed to act fast!
I re-did my rod toward the left hand snag and threw a few more boilies over it. I also put some more bait down my right hand margin. Just 15 minutes later, I was in. It was my 18th fish but only a small common. Just 15 minutes after that fish, I had another bite brining my total to 19. There was just 20 minutes left of the match and I watched Stuart’s swim with my binoculars as if I was an FBI agent. I didn’t see him land any more fish, but I wasn’t sure I’d done enough either.
Midday arrived and the match came to an end. Had I done enough?
Paul came around to let me know the result. I had won! It was quite emotional to be honest, I never expected to win, I was in an average swim without much water or an island. Many of the contestants came around to congratulate me whilst I was packing up and Paul brought round my prizes. I had won several things including some bait, a gift voucher, and a head torch. The prizes didn’t matter to me, we had raised an enormous amount of money for Great Ormond Street, and I’d had some mega fun doing so.
Thanks to Paul for running the competition and thanks to everyone who competed for such a great time. Here’s to next year?
joerc.uk 
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