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Stan Piecha reflects on the opening round of the Drennan KO Cup.


Clint Eastwood portraying Dirty Harry in the cult movie Magnum Force tells his boss: “A good man always has to know his limitations.” Those words were going through my mind after fishing the opening round of the Drennan KO Cup.

The arena for this splendid event was Woodlands View near Droitwich, Worcs, a venue I last fished around 15 years ago. I had intended to have a practice pre-match session but the conditions were so bad on the days I could have made it I decided just to turn up on the day with a variety of bait and formulate a plan of attack on the bank.

Without blowing my own trumpet I feel I’ve been able to hold my own in top events over the years having finished first, second and third in the UK Champs, won the King of Club, a couple of 500 peggers on the Welland and Nene, the ATV Classic to name but a few. So hard would it be to merely finish in the top half of a six peg section?

The only commercial carp fishing I’ve done has been at my local Lake View complex near Melton Mowbray, Leics, a series of snake lakes containing F1’s and carp averaging 3lb and I’ve won a few matches there – mainly on pellet - so I couldn’t see Woodland View being any different. How wrong can you be!

From the moment Peter Drennan fired the shotgun to signal the start I felt as if I had been abducted by aliens and dropped on a different planet. I was so far out of my depth I should have packed a mask and snorkel.

I was still in the process of putting an expander on and sorting a couple of other things out when James Dent – the young England international on my left – slipped a 6lb carp into his net. I should have seen that as a sign to wave the white flag.

Throughout the five hour event everything I did was wrong. I fed too much, I lost a series of foul hooked lumps and when I did manage to coax the odd sucker carp fairly onto my 16’s B911 the elastic I was using was either too soft or tighten so much it ripped the hook out. The only good thing was that having drawn in a corner I was only battered on one side.

But the experience, while a tad humiliating, was well worth it because it opened my eyes to how just how skilful and on the ball top commercial anglers are. After the match I looked at young Dent’s gear and everything was spot on. I have always dismissed pulla bungs as a gimmick but I have now witnessed just how devastating and effective they are.

The other thing I learned was that the top commercial boys have a sixth sense on how to feed, how much to feed and EXACTLY when to feed. While I never stopped putting my hand in the bait tin James just cupped a few hard pellets in and then waited for his hook bait to be taken before feeding again. And that was a banded pellet on the pole – another thing that was entirely new to me.

And just to further highlight how far ahead these boys are Nathan Watson opposite me weighed in more than 100lb and I only saw him catch a handful of fish! I sat there thinking that no wonder I wasn’t catching if he was STRUGGLING. He caught a load of fish in the final hour by putting pots of maggots into the margins of his corner swim – a bait I had totally discounted.

Several stars failed to make it to the next round including reigning champion Gary Miller and Alan Scotthorne so I was in good company although they only just missed out while I was that far adrift I needed snookers.

The day certainly gave me a fantastic insight into just how much things have progressed on the commercial front and made me realise that while I am more than comfortable competing on rivers, natural stillwaters and snake lakes I have a massive amount to learn about the art of catching on venues such as Woodlands View.

There’s only one thing I can say about taking on the big boys at their own game - a good man always has to know his limitations.”

Stan Piecha