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The World Carp Championships - Part 2
Tom Maker |
 On the first morning around 7am, we started catching consistently, so we were able to get ourselves into a rhythm. Once the rods were back in the water, keep the bait going in. This seemed to be working well and by 12pm we had caught 22 carp for 66.21kg, but we still wasn’t ‘hauling’. After a quick visit from team manager Mitch, it was clear that we wasn’t putting enough bait in. "NOT ENOUGH," I said, I honestly though we had put too much in, so with no more messing around we went all out, we fired out another 500 groundbait balls over both spots and 10kg of 14mm boilies, as well as spodding 25 kg of hemp and maize over the short spot, but whilst we was putting the bait in, we caught around five fish. By around 4pm we had eventually finished, and our arms were aching. The sun was beating down on us and it was almost unbearable, however it was a match, so we had to carry on.
The marshalls come to our swim at around 5pm and weighed in 14 more fish for us, taking our score to 107.59kg which was good, but little did we know how much the night time was going to kick off for us. Around 6pm the sun just dipped behind the trees in the horizon and you could actually look at the water without polariods on and feel comfortable. By this time the bait had started to kick in and we were getting regular double hook-ups. Around 10pm we had around 20 more fish in the sacks which the marshalls came and weighed in. Shortly after dad said he was going to get a few hours sleep, so that left me to the rods. We hadn’t had a bite for around 15 minutes, so I decided to change baits: two on real maize and the other two on chopped down pineapple pop-ups. They hadn’t been in the water for 10 minutes when I had a quadruple take, landing all four fish and sacking I recast the rods and stuck a further 5kg of boilies in over the top. I was getting double runs all the time, running around like a headless chicken trying to get the rods in the water as quick as I could. It got to around 2.30am and I couldn’t cope on my own anymore, so I had to wake-up Dad. He asked how many I had caught. I replied: "I weighed in one lot of 14 fish, and have just weighed in 12 more!" He was shocked, for the remainder of the night we were constantly in the water playing and netting fish as well as filling it in with boilies to keep the fish in the swim. |
By 7am our hard work had paid off, and we had weighed in a total of 73 carp and were now on 109 fish for 332.32kg, putting us second in our section, a fair way behind the South Africans, and pretty much from then on in we constantly caught. We were catching that fast that we had a pocket full of PVA bags and a baiting needle with pop-ups already on it, so we didn’t have to venture any further than the rod pod. We were only changing the rigs if we snapped off as the hooks were staying sharp, and from 7am in the morning till the next score check we had gone from 109 fish to 143 fish for 435.90kg at 5pm.
At around 6pm our team of marshalls were walking the bank warning the teams of a storm that was on the way. I thoughr a little bit of rain will be good, but my god I have never in my life seen a storm like this one. We could see the black clouds building and the wind started to pick up, when all off a sudden the most amazing lightning was hitting trees on the far side. It was actually quite scary, we threw everything inside the bivvy and used all our pegs to hold it down, but the fishing never stopped: w were was still catching. We end up standing in the water both playing fish and the water was just below our knees with the waves breaking by our waists, the wind was that strong that the fish we had in the sacks were blowing out of the water. and these were 8lb fish! So we had to peg them down in the deeper water, as well as the fish we were constantly adding, after about an hour the 1st storm passed and we were able to weigh-in the fish all knotted up in the sacks and tidy things up and start fishing properly again. I think we weighed in a further 15 fish, a good result considering conditions, but whilst the marshalls were in our swim they told us another storm is due to hit in a few hours, so we made sure we were tidy, the bivvy was firmly in place and more boilies were put out, so for the next 2 hours I was constantly on the stick and dad was catching the fish. I put in a total of 25kg of boilies and between us we put in a further 750 balls. |
 At around 10pm the storm hit with a vengeance, we had a strong wind in our face and the lightning was striking all round us. The rods all blew off the pod and any cardbord boxes we had in the swim were long gone. Shortly after the storm arrived a car drove past tooting its horn, this was to signal the match had stopped as the conditions were to dangerous to carry on, but it would restart when the storm had finished, so we went outside, laid all rods on the floor as advised and climbed into the tent and zipped up, whilst we were in the tent we had a real tidy up, putting things away we didn’t need and keep things out we did need. This made us feel better as we were now organised and tidy and ready to restart when the storm passed. It seemed like we were in the bivvy for hours when the car drove back past us tooting to signal the restart of the match. The wind was still blowing but we got out there and resumed fishing, It didn’t take long to get the 1st bite, and we was soon hauling again.
At 7am we had obviously got on a school of better fish during the night, as we had weighed in 63 fish but from 435.90kg our score had gone up to 681.14kg, well above any other teams and a strong second behind the South Africans, as were the team with Pete and Ian second in their section and Billy and Jamie secure in fourth in A section meaning a realistic chance of team silver, but we could not give up even though it was the final day as every fish counted towards section points and the team result.
The last day turned out to be the hottest day so far, with temperatures hitting upwards of 110 degrees, but we were still catching, all the way through to the end. With 30 minutes to go, the marshalls completed our final weigh in of 32 fish taking our final tally to 244 carp for a total weight of 794.64kg, an absolutely amazing result and one I will never forget. This weight secured us an individual 4th behind all three of the South African pairs, and the other England teams had done well, with Pete and Ian coming fifth overall, second in their section and Billy and Jamie eleventh and fourth in their section to secure a team silver. We couldn’t have asked for a better result, we had done what we had set out to achieve, and did so in style. |
Once all the gear was packed away and moved under some near by trees we waited for an hour to be picked up. We were aching all over and was absolutely shattered. The most amazing thing is, we tied 200 rigs and only used 20, the Fox Arma Point SSBP hooks never let us down and stayed sharp. The only time we had to change was when they got snapped off by catfish or we got snagged on the bottom, they are absolutely superb hooks.
At around 3pm we finally got picked up and was soon loaded onto the coach making the journey back to the hotel where the closing ceremony was to be held.
The awards: first off all the individuals, South Africa third, second and first. The winning South African weight was a little under 1500kg with 400+ fish. We were never going to win. Then came the teams: Namibia in 3rd, and then us, as we walked to the stage every one was clapping and the camera flashes were going off every where. It really made you feel special, and it was then that what we had achieved hit home, once on stage the flag was risen above our heads and we all stood their with great pride. Then for the World Champion team, South Africa. A three point win has never been done before and probably never will again
Around 11pm the ceremony was drawn to a close, and it was time to retire back to the hotel room for a much needed sleep, as the following morning was the day of departure for the rest of the team, but not for dad, ,itch and myself as we was staying their for a 2-week family holiday.
At around 11am the next day, the coaches left with the rest of the teams, and that was the end of another amazing fishing experience, and one i certainly won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
Back to part 1 |
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Tom Maker
