Articles

Joe Carass Recounts the recent second round of the UK Champs, could he capitalise on a good first round?


Following the good start that I made to the UK Champs I was understandably quite excited at the prospect of the second round. It was to be held at Viaduct Fishery, which is somewhere that I have only fished once and that was for a feature in the middle of winter.

Luckily though my job puts me in contact with most of the big names in the sport. I didn’t want to go the venue un prepared so several calls were made. I also managed to book a feature with Maver Match This champion Andy Power who is the resident venue expert.

This worked for me in the first round and it was the ideal opportunity to watch the master at work! I must admit that Andy was unbelievable to watch and it was easy to see just why he does so well on the venue. What it did though was help me realise that a few simple lines were needed but I would have to be extremely busy! After a night of several pints of Guiness and a bite to eat with Lee Kerry and Jon Arthur it was clear in my mind what I wanted to do.  

Come the big day and we arrived at the venue a couple of hours early, which gave us the chance to have a long wander around the fishery. I saw Peg 90 on Cary Lake and mentioned to Lee and Jon that this would do for me!

At the draw queue I went in about 10th and sure enough Peg 90 was in my hand! I really can’t believe my luck! I quite literally ran to it. This peg is in a corner of Cary and with a nice ripple blowing into the corner I really fancied it. A quick chat to Andy Power on the phone and he said I had a great chance. Funnily enough Lee Kerry drew more or less opposite me so at least we could have a bit of banter along the way.

Many of the regulars fish this peg with a bomb and a waggler towards a big tree up the bank. However with the wind was only gentle and I much preferred my chances of fishing the long pole into the corner. This was 19metres away and I found a nice 3ft tight to the bank. I intended to fish 8mm meat to this bank and hope that there would be a lot of carp there!

I knew a waggler swim would be needed so I readied a pellet wag and a bomb for the same line, which I fished straight out in front of me. I also fed a long pole meat line in open water and a five-metre line with meat again. I didn’t want to fish them all but though it would be best to feed several areas and hopefully cancel a few out as the day went on.

Come the all in, I fed my pole lines and then fired two 8mm pellets onto my waggler line. I cast out my waggler that was set 15 inches deep and it buried instantly! The fish was clearly big as my 13ft Tri-Cast waggler rod took an alarming bend. After a brief tussle a large mirror of about 12lb was in my net, the perfect start.

Before I knew it I had four carp in my net for about 35-40lb and all was going well. It wasn’t easy and you needed to constantly work hard for the next bite. It was great fishing though and before I knew where I was two hours had passed. I kept feeding my margin line with big pots of meat and after the two-hour mark decided to have a look. I hooked two fish straight away that tested my Orange BazooKarp elastic to its limit but sadly it was far from solid. At this point I had seven carp, which seemed to be quite good as Lee had similar.

With two hours to go I was really working hard on the waggler, I kept feeding my margin line but just felt that for some reason it wasn’t going to happen as the two fish that I had caught there had only been small. The waggler was really hard going but it was very rewarding, as I knew that if I just kept plugging away I would get a bite eventually.

With just half an hour to go I decided for another look on the Margin swim. I landed another carp instantly but they just were not there in any numbers. Really I should have come off it and fished for the last 10 minutes on the waggler but I really felt that I could catch one more on the pole. With just a minute to go the float buried, by this time we were sat in a torrential downpour, and I just had to hang on for dear life. Unfortunately the carp snagged me and took the lot! I was gutted and didn’t have enough time to catch another. I had a horrible feeling that fish would cost me the section win but only the scales would tell me so.

Lee weighed in before me but was in a different section, he had an almost identical catch to me and weighed 126lb. I was next to weigh and my 124lb was looking quite good right around until Andy Kinder on Peg 80. I had to actually lift Andy’s fish out for him as he had a bad back and to add insult to injury he went and beat me, as his total was 132lb! The lost fish on the whistle may have cost me but I was happy and disappointed at the same time. I feel you need to make the most of your chances in a competition such as this and I know deep down that this was my chance for a second win.

Nevertheless coming away from Viaduct with a total of 3 points was as much as I could have hoped for given my lack of knowledge on the venue. I am now lying third overall behind Marc Rodger and Simon Fry and with to rounds to go all is to play for in the hunt for the UK Champs!

Follow Joe on Twitter @carassjoe