There was a time I helped out my mate Stu as a regional organiser for the Carp Society for the Chiltern region , he did the booking of speakers , and then we run the meetings in a church social club . We got fantastic support , always over 100 , and well over 200 for Rod Hutchingson . I loved helping out on the door , selling the raffle tickets , and meeting other carp anglers . It was because of this the the "Almost Famous Five " ended up doing some shows , with me doing the talk on our local waters , and Martin Clarke doing the second half talk on the big fish from around the country. The Almost Famous Five was bit of a laugh with the name a play on Maylins Famous Five who were banned from Savay , who the five of us were good friends with . It was through the Carp Society that I become good friends with Alan Atkins who run the next region to us based in Stevenage , who also run the junior fishing side of things , with get together weekends , and a big conference just for the kids . I thought that the syndicate that me and Stu were in would make a great venue for one of theses weekends for the kids , I wrote to the owners who gave us permission , and some top carp anglers like Andy Little , Zennon Bojko , and Tim Paisly gave up their time to give the kids a great weekend . We showed everyone to their swims chosen as best we could to suit everyone , with Tim and his wife in the willows , a really good swim with lots of room , and advice from us as to where to fish as best we could . Stu had caught a mid thirty from this swim showing Tim where the gravel hump was , explains to pull over the bumpy gravel into the silt where they fed , and popped a marker float up on the spot . The weekend went well , lots of fish being caught , with Andy Little losing a obviously big fish on a floater , although in the follow up write up in a carp mag Tim did think that the lack of action in his swim was down to people not finding the gravel in his swim properly for him ?! , ah well , the silt spot was lost on him some how ! .
It was also at this time some of the earliest big carp matches started up , and with Horseshoe lake the venue me , Stu , and Desperate Dan ( Gary Bearman ) decided to have a go . We were backed by Big Carp magazine ( Rob Maylin ) with a donation , tee shirts etc . In the lead up to the match I had some problems with my brand new to the general market Fox buzzers !. They had a production fault , I was really annoyed after paying out a lot of money for them . But to be fair to the company after explaining to them about the carp match Mr Fox himself sent me his own buzzers to use until replacements arrived , good service . We all went to the HQ in the carpark for the draw with lots of the best carp anglers , we drew the far end of the Whitney bank , up in the 40's , people saying not a great area but as it was the end peg in a one of my favoured areas I was happy . Funny , Tim Paisly was pegged dead opposite , and I took the opertunity to send a bait bag full of GRAVEL around to him with one of the stewards , and a note inside saying " this is what gravel looks like ", my little comeback !.
Our swim
We all fished hard all day , very little caught was caught around the lake , but I was very confident of action on my margin rods in the dark . At sometime in the night my right hand rod blasted off , a fierce take ripping line from the bait runner . I had put the rods out in the water to get a good line angle to the spots , and I woke to find myself up to my knees in water with the rod being pulled hard . After some moments where the fish got weeded , and some where it gave it the beans , I somehow managed to bundle it in the net with the fish between me and my buzzers !. At a couple of ounces under 20lb I was well chuffed , and knew it would be a good fish to beat . The match drew near to it close with people telling me I was still winning with the biggest fish when I herd a buzzer on the entrance to summer bay , and when the fish went in the net a northen lad punched the air landing the biggest fish in the lake at mid twentys , the best way to get beat .
Turbo powered carp .
After my little tickle in the ribs about Tim Paisly , it has to be said that his vision for a different style of Junior Fish-ins was fantastic , turning it into the Carp School with a more structured weekend of picking skills from anglers who specialised in different areas , and tatics , something he , and the CS should be proud of . So there you go , second in my only , and one the of the biggest carp matches , with a awesome looking beast of a fish , happy with that ! .
Hatter
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