BRITISH YOUTH CARP ANGLING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2008.

Young hopeful: Matt Outen, Oakham.

Venue: Richworth Linear Fisheries, Brasenose 1.

Eliminator: QUALIFIER 3, Wednesday 13^th August 2008.

   Hi guys, after reading various articles on the past few years’ competitions in the well-known Crafty Carper magazine, I was hungry for a portion of the action and after entering this year’s competition in June, I was raring to go! I had read that zig rigs especially score well on Brasenose 1 and so was practising like crazy upto the competition on a few local venues, concentrating on the accurate spodding of a sloppy soupy mixture of groundbait, micro pellet and hemp to create a lingering cloud in which to fish my zig rigs over (small pop-up or cut down piece of flouro foam fished in the upper layers of the water on a long mono hooklength straight from the lead). After steady success in practising, I was confident that my plan of attack would catch so long as the weather conditions were correct and the carp were cruising/feeding in the upper layers of the water.

   After speaking to John and Angela at Carp Catchers fishing shop in Market Harborough about my plans of fishing the competition, they kindly agreed to support me on my quest! John especially was a great help and a wealth of knowledge when it came to setting a game plan and tactics.

So, the big day!

0730hrs – After drawing peg 41 on the roadside bank on B1, a qualifying peg earlier in the week and with fish showing at about 60yds range in front of me I was confident that my zig rigs would score well. Setting up 2 rods on zigs and having 2 rods in reserve for bottom baits allowed me to be flexible in my approach if the conditions changed.

0900hrs – At the sound of the horn, the air was filled with spod rockets and the water was bombarded with bait. I spodded my sloppy spod soup over my 2 zigs which were about 10 feet apart at 75yds range, at first with 10 spodfuls, and then kept topping up with a spodful every 3 or 4 minutes to keep a cloud of attraction around my hookbaits.

0930hrs – I suddenly hear a rip-roaring one toner and almost jump out of my skin only to see a fellow competitor nextdoor on my right leaning into the first fish of the day. Unfortunately that fish wiped out both of my zig rigs but I allowed the fish as it would not have made any difference to me qualifying for the final. The lad from next door came over to me and thanked me for allowing the fish and tipped me off that he had caught the fish on plastic corn with a tiny PVA bag of pellet… As you can expect I put the zig rig tangled rods to one side and blasted two rods with a single grain of fake corn and a PVA bag out at about 90yds range to where I had seen a few fish rolling. Before I had even finished sinking my line and setting the bobbins my rod tip was dancing on the rests and I hooked into my first and unluckily only fish of the day.

0100hrs – Off the mark with a gorgeous simmo strain mirror carp of 9lb12oz! At this point I was in 3^rd place as I was one of three people to catch!

After 10 o’clock action all around the lake was very slow until about 3’oclock when the wind changed and the hacking wind blowing over my shoulder pushed the fish to the other side of the lake out of my range… With our section (side of the lake) not catching anymore fish, I was doubtful if I would qualify but persevered none the less trying single flouro pop-ups, and maggot approaches to try and tempt a bit from any carp that may have been passing through my swim.

1800hrs – Unfortunately my efforts were not fruitful and I ended up in 15^th place out of the 16 people that managed to catch, so all in all not a failure and I really enjoyed fishing at a different complex and meeting lots of new young carp anglers.

Last but not least, I would just like to thank john and angela for the support they have given me!

TO ANY YOUNG BUDDING HOPEFULS OUT THERE… get practising for next year, enjoy yourselves but still fish hard and the best piece of advice I can give you is to be prepared for any fishing situation, and gain as much knowledge from more experienced anglers and of the competition venue before you fish your qualifier!

All the best in fishing,

Tight lines,

Matt Outen