THE BRITISH CARP ANGLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS - BARSTON LAKE 7-9 August 2009
report courtesy of British Carp Angling Championship. see report on BCAC website
It
was billed as the Clash of the Titans and what a clash it turned out to be as
the former and reigning British Champions lined up to do battle for the largest
honour match carp angling has ever seen. Barston Lake near Coventry was chosen
as the host venue due to the numbers of fish present and also the evenness of
the pegging, but even the organisers could not have predicted the incredible
display that was to unfold here as Barston put itself into the big league of
carp match venues that have produced winning weights of over 1000lbs in
competition conditions.
There was no question of the talent of the line up. These lads have proven themselves as successful big fish anglers outside of the BCAC and also as champion competition anglers within the BCAC, but to win the Champion of Champions they had to stand up and be counted doing something that is outside their usual comfort zone.
Rather than the usual watercraft draw the lads were put into an out of the bag draw so the pressure was off and the evening before the competition was spent having a meal and enjoying the fine hospitality of The Lake at Barston restaurant. With the draw out of the way it was Bryan Jarrett and Dave Gawthorn who were first to trouble the scorers with a mirror of 4lbs taken on zigs over spod slop from peg 5 in the middle of the match stretch. In peg 7, Kev Reynolds and Andy Maker had hatched a plan to split the tactics in their swim. Kev would go in heavy on the large boilies fed little and often and Andy would run with the proven spod slop / zig combo. It started slow, but with a couple of hours on the clock the boilie bed started paying off and a string of doubles were landed by Reynolds. Meanwhile next door but one the Jarrett / Gawthorn zig and spod combo was producing bites with some fish landed , but 3 or 4 fish falling off as they kited into their other lines.
To win on a venue like this you have to be very quick to sort out your tactics, and with 4 hours on the clock there was a two horse race developing as Reynolds / Maker and Jarrett / Gawthorn jockeyed for first place. The boilies were winning, but only just as Jarrett / Gawthorn had landed more fish but Reynolds / Makers were bigger. Sat in between them was Jon Finch and Ian Poole. Finchy was fishing the zigs and he couldn’t keep up with Jarrett / Gawthorn, but an inspired move changing to a bigger spod created a larger cloud in the water and proved to do the trick as he started to catch up.
Elsewhere around the pond things were somewhat quieter. The fish were showing but not feeding and some of the lads were struggling to come to terms with how to get the bigger fish to feed. By 6pm it was clear that boilies were winning but it was only Reynolds that was persevering with this tactic, the rest of the field opting for bits and zigs. Reynolds / Maker were just in the lead with 5 fish for 58.04 ahead of Jarrett / Gawthorn whose 7 fish catch totalled 44.01. Other than that it was just the odd fish on the board.
As the sun dipped down Barston went mad as between 6 pm and 9pm Reynolds / Maker added an incredible 122lbs to their score to make a total of 180.11, most of them doubles to 18lbs 09oz. Jarret / Gawthorn added another 6 fish to give them 85.05 and in third place it was Finch / Poole on 29.03. The rest of the field would now have to play catch up in a big way. The boilie approach was clearly the way forward for the bigger fish so Maker changed over to boilies from the spod / zig combo to bring 4 effective rods into play for himself and Reynolds. Dusk saw a spurt from Mike Winstone and Tim Fromant who put 22lbs on the bank in 15 minutes to take fourth place and by the 9 o clock score check all of the teams bar one were on the board.
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Multiple captures were the norm for the winners as they dominated the match from 3 hours in. The night saw varying amounts of success for the teams. Everyone had caught fish by dawn and Fromant / Winstone upped their lot to 53.15 to hold 4th place. Pooley / Finchy (73.00) were closing on 2nd placed Jarret / Gawthorn (99.13) who had a night of mixed fortunes as some came in and others fell off. It was Reynolds / Maker who were once again setting the world alight and with 30kg of boilies put out by hand / throwing stick the lads were rightly shattered as they had not slept, but they had managed to increase their total to an incredible 434.08 (41 fish) by the 6am score check. Kev’s arm was at breaking point from stick abuse, so Andy took over, celebrating his 43rd birthday in style by leading the event. The awesome hauling could not continue at this pace and so it proved as the sun came up and the temperature rose. With clear skies and sun forecast everyone was expecting a slow down. Poole / Finch kept on with the zigs / spods and managed to overtake Jarett / Gawthorn amassing 110.02 by the mid way stage. It was nowhere near enough to challenge the leaders , but the Reynolds / Maker action had slowed a little and they ended up at halfway on 469.15. The big question now was whether the front runners had peaked, and if so could any of the other lads produce a moment of genius to catch them up. The answer was no, but although they were not catching as many through the afternoon they were still pulling away from everyone else. By tea another 124lbs had been added to their totals and Reynolds / Maker now sat on 595.13, some 430lbs ahead of Finch / Poole whose 165.11. Under normal competition performances this would be a very creditable weight but this weekend was simply not enough.
In the middle of the match stretch Keith Napier (1999 Champion with Andy Murray) was fishing on his own in an area of the lake were few fish were showing and even less were feeding. He valiantly battled on but the odds were stacked against him and it proved too much of an uphill struggle to challenge the leader board. Back with the front runners Barston was proving itself as a lake where effort equals reward. Jarrett / Gawthorn dug deep and with a spurt of activity managed to catch 14 fish between 6pm and 9pm to increase to 245.10. This was too much for Poole / Finch to equal and they slipped into third with 192.12. It was still only the leaders that were fishing the boilies, everyone else opting for zigs and bags, and their Sat evening check told a story of hectic action. The evening session now saw them on 702.11, and with 15 hours left on the clock, and despite having had no sleep, the lads looked at the possibility they may put Barston into the very exclusive 1000lb club. Thorpe Lea, Drayton and Elphicks have achieved this accolade in official carp competitions in the past, and Barston was looking like it could join them. That figure was surpassed somewhere between 1 and 2am on Sunday as the lads at the front kept hauling and hauling. Winners are competitive, and the fact that they were 850lbs or so ahead of second place was still not enough for them to sit back and they ploughed on for honour. By 7am they had amassed an incredible 1134.15 (114 fish) and were literally shattered. All eyes were now on the battle for second and Poole / Finch (247.01) emerged at dawn just behind Jarret / Gawthorn (271.00). A one hour mad spell during the late evening the night before had given the Swindon pairing the edge on the Gloucester haulers. The scrap raged right to the end with Jarret / Gawthorn emerging victorious on 300.14 against Poole / Finch’s 263.04. Take out Reynolds / Makers amazing haul and this was a fair and even match. Add in their incredible weight and it made the event something special. With a final tally of 1204lbs 10oz Kevin Reynolds and Andy Maker made history, not just by becoming the BCAC Champion of Champions, but by doing it in such an impressive way. Their tactical choices, attention to detail, effort levels, competitiveness, will to win and sheer stamina make them very very worthy winners indeed.
It’s well known that effort equals reward, and the effort the lads put in was far and away above the call of duty. They actually won the match at around midnight on Friday, and have been handsomely rewarded with a title that no one can take away from them, and one which holds a massive amount of credibility, that of Champion of Champions. The Results
When and where they won:
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It
would take a miracle for the front runners to lose their place now and the
big battle between the rest of the teams was for honour not glory as
skirmishes developed around the pond. There were clearly a lot of fish at
the north end but at the fountain end, usually the favourite area on the
this lake, things were a bit tougher going. In peg 1 Lee Jackson and Gary
Peet (65.03)were locked in a scrap with double British Champs Will and Dan
O Flynn (75.03). WInstone / Fromant were battling away in peg 3 with the
help of the BCAC equivalent of the Barmy Army (Andy Chambers, his mates and
a few cans of cider) behind them, and had amassed 129.02, almost all on the
zigs. 
