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IGFA Corporate
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The World Carp Championships - Part 1
Tom Maker |
 Fox consultant and England Team member, Tom Maker, reports from the 2008 World Champs in South Africa.
With the World Championships just around the corner it was time to my dad (fellow Team England member, Andy Maker) and I to start getting our gear ready, not that we could take all that much due to aeroplane baggage allowance. All we could take was a rod tube (32kg), sports allowance (32kg) and twp hand luggage bags, which are normally used for our Fox Stratos 12000 MAG reels.
We already knew a lot about the lake we were to fish, and what to expect when would be fishing as my dad and a few members of the team had been there in May for a practise match against two African teams. We had to make sure we were well prepared and organised. Our two main concerns were making enough rigs and having enough rods and reels to cope with the constant action. We expected it to be one rod in, and another straight back out.
The fish are not hard to catch and have fairly soft mouths, so for hooks we went with the trusty size 8 Fox Arma Point SSC and tied a few rigs with size 7 Fox Arma Point SSBP, just in case we needed a hook with a wider gape. Our rigs (all 200 of them!) were constructed from 25lb Fox Cortex with a small piece of silicone on the hook and a small piece over the eye finished off with a figure of eight knot for the speed links. Believe me, these took me hours to make. To save time after snap offs or a loss of tackle we were going to be using leadcore leaders, which were also going to be attached by a figure of eight loop for strength. Leads were just 3oz Fox Tri Bombs, fished on a lead clip.
As we were only going to be fishing short range we opted to use light rods, 2.75lb Fox Euro Warriors combined with Fox Stratos MAGs and 15lb Soft Steel Camo mainline. We also took plenty of PVA for sticks, and plenty of little baits for the hook. In total we took 12 rods, eight for fishing and 4 spod rods together with 12 reels. These were packed and ready with around a week to go, so we didn’t have to worry about them again until we arrived in South Africa. All other tackle such as tackle boxes, PVA, leads, buzzers etc were all packed into a large Evolution holdall and that was our sports allowance weighing just under the allowed 32kg - believe me, it was full! |
The day of the flight finally came, so with the car loaded we were dropped off at the airport where we met with the rest of the England team (Ian Huntington, Pete Holehouse, Billy Flowers and Jamie Londors) as well as team Manager Mitch Smith, sponsor Terry Asseter from H.S Works and team reserve Dave Greenland. Our flight was due to depart at around 7pm and we would land in South Africa’s Tambo International airport the following morning at 7am.
The flight took for what seems like a life time, but when we finally arrived, we were greeted by scorching sun and little wind and it was only 7am in the morning. Once we collected our gear and cases we made the three hour coach journey to our hotel were we would be staying for the few days leading up to the match. At the hotel we unloaded all of our luggage and took it to our rooms and went straight to the bar for a much needed drink.
After a good night’s sleep we had a whole day to get things ready for the match. One big job that needed to be done was to tie PVA sticks which took us around 6 hours. Between four of us we tied just under 1400 and used a total of 25kg of Hinders Nutz Multi Mix, 6 bottles of Nutz Glug as well as various other flavours and dips for extra attractions. When all the PVA sticks were made they were split between dad, Billy, Jamie and myself. These were then placed into a carp sack and were left hanging in our hotel wardrobes, smelling the place out, until we left.
Around 5pm all teams and countries were called to the main conference room for the Grand Opening Ceremony. This involved a meal, speeches from the South African minister for sport and various people within the FIPS organisation, as well as an introduction of each team and individuals within the team on the stage. To stand in front of a crowd of almost 700 was a true honour and made me proud to be in the team. It also felt proud knowing the fact that I was the youngest angler to ever take part in the history of the event. |
 Once the event was over (around 11pm) it was time to hit the pillow as we had to be awake at 5am for the three hour-long journey to the mighty impressive 66,000 acre Bleomhoff Dam.
The morning of the match finally arrived and before we knew it we were on the coaches and on our way. To save time getting to the lake we had a police escort, which saved stopping at traffic lights and various other jams. We arrived at the lake at around 8.30am, and at a first glimpse it was massive. I could only just see the other side. There was a strong wind blowing and I remember saying to one of the South African team members: "Is it always this windy?" He replied: "This is nothing, you wait if we get a storm." I thought to myself, "my god" the waves were already about 2ft high, and this was ‘calm’.,
Anyway, once the initial viewing of the lake was over it was time to collect the bait we had arranged in advance. There was bait like I had never seen before. Between dad and myself we had 3,000 pre-made 40mm groundbait balls, 60kg of banana boilies, 50kg of maize and 25kg of hemp with the opportunity to bring more into the swim at the halfway point. If we was to put half this out we would have done well, there was a mountain of the stuff.
Shortly after we got to the lake, the manager from every team was called to the draw. It is done in sections - A, B and C - with numbers 1-15. There were 15 different combinations and each team was at random given their pegs. We drew peg B6, a fairly good area of the lake, Billy and Jamie drew A2, another good peg, and Pete and Ian drew C12 another good swim, so the team spirit was on a high. Once all the draw and such like was over it was time to head off to our swims and set up in time for the 1.30pm start. We got dropped of in our swim around 10.30pm by which time the sun was well in the sky and absolutely scorching hot. We soon went about setting-up the bivvy, which the South Africans had provided. It was huge, at least a 6-man. Once up, we started putting the gear and the mass of bait inside to keep it out the sun. To save bending down for every run we had a large high pod in the centre of the swim that took all 4 rods, as well as racks down the side of the swim to hold spare rods. All the swims in the match are 10m-square, and you cannot do any angling out side this tape, not even cast outside it. |
Baiting has to start at the start of the match at 1.30pm, so we made sure we got everything set-up before then, so we could spend more time baiting up rather than still sorting out tackle, as the more bait you put in, the more you caught. We decided to fire out 750 groundbait balls and 20kg of boilies, and believe with a catapult and stick this took a fair amount of time, after an hour we had the initial bait out on one spot, with the match now under way and all four rods fishing it didn’t take long to get the 1st bite, and at just over 2kg we were off the mark. The remainder of the day was spent organising the swim, as well as still firing in the bait ready for the onslaught over the next few days.
At around 4pm anager Mitch come into the swim to see if everything was ok, which it was. Whilst he was there he saw a fish jump around 20 yards out, and jokingly said to my dad: “come on, try and catch that” to which my dad cast a bait and caught it! Another fish over 1.5kg, as anything under didn’t count. With the fish in the sack Dad recast the rod to the same spot and put some bait around it, he soon started catching a few, and it was then that we sussed out that if we baited two spots, one short and one far, we would attract more fish into the swim, making them easier to catch, and we would both be catching, so we proceeded to ‘pult out 500 balls over the short spot as well as spod 15kg of maize in close. Under F.I.P.P.S rules you cannot bait up by means of anything else other than a throwing stick after 6.30pm right the way through till 9am.
I slept around five hours on the first night, which is normally the quiet night, but dad had stayed awake and managed 14 fish for a little under 39kg, which was a result, but as soon as day broke dad started to catch fish under 1.5kg from the short spot but fish over 1.5kg on the long spot. But at the same time he was still baiting both areas, which turned out to be a good move, as the little fish stay in the margins, whilst the bigger fish stay in the deeper water further out, so we kept baiting short even though we wasn’t fishing there, purely to keep the smaller fish occupied.
Part two |
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Tom Maker
