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BYCAC 2010 - The Final
Having qualified for the final on Wednesday, I spent the whole of Thursday tying up zigs with my special little hookbaits, tying PVA bags and mixing up spod mix containing Kent Particles tiger nut groundbait, crushed hemp, evaporated milk, crushed tiger nuts, crumbed New Grange, Kent Particles Partiblend + aniseed and plenty of maggots! It was with more than a little help from my family that I managed to get organised in time! Also I had set up my leadclips with no tail rubbers to make sure that the lead would eject on the take after losing the fish in the qualifier because of the lead.

The alarm clock hadn't even beeped twice by the time I was up and getting ready to go at silly o'clock. We arrived at Brasenose at the crack of dawn, signed in and set off on a very slow circuit noting down any fish activity in front of swims on the first lap. On the second lap I started to rank the swims and after this was done I returned to the car to make the all important list of the order of swims.

Best laid plans and all that- I came out 17th and had to settle for my 15th choice of swim! My swim for the final was swim 31 that fished into the main section of the lake and with a decent cast I could pick off some fish- hopefully! It really boosted my confidence to see a few fish rolling in the slop while I was spodding during the spod/marker hour!

After what seemed an age the hooter for rods to be cast out sounded across the lake and I was casting straight away with the left hand going out on a maggot rig and the right hander on a 6ft zig- this was fishing in about 14ft of water at 120 yards again. Well I had one after about 30 seconds in the qualifier, and it didn't take much longer this time! 2 more spodfuls of the slop and the zig was off on a screaming run and I latched into the first fish of the final. I soon had the fish in the net with knocking knees, but looking into the mouth the fish was absolutely nailed- it must have wanted my special zig baits!

First fish of the final at 13lb 9oz- at least I would be in lead at some point!

After being interrogated by Ali Hamidi on my rigs and baits I got the rod back out and then switched over the other rod from the maggot rig fishing on the bottom to a zig set at 6ft. That was the end of the action all around the lake for about an hour before a few fish started to come out, I didn't get disheartened and started to play around with the depths of my zigs and kept the spod going in to try and draw the fish into my swim and ultimately into my net! I was finally rewarded with an 11lb 5oz carp just after 4pm and then a 15lber soon after to put me back up into 3rd place. After that it all seemed to go quiet and Jake Taylor on the far bank started catching and really put some space between himself and the chasing pack, but at 8pm a switch seemed to flick on in my swim and I received 2 takes in quick succession landing a 13 and my biggest so far at 19lb 7oz- which really helped me close the gap again.

This 19lb 7oz really boosted my confidence.

I kept the spod going in to try and get another take, but it seemed that Brasenose had shut up shop for the night so I tried to get some sleep for a few hours. I was up every few hours trying different depths on the zigs, maggot rigs on the bottom and solid PVA bags, but it just seemed that the fish were not in front of my swim during darkness. I set the alarm clock for 6am- ready for an early morning assault with the spod.

Well it seemed that was a good idea as within 5 seconds of the first spod sailing out to the spot, I was away! A nervous 5 minutes followed as I played the fish in knowing it may take me into first place- finally it went into the net. The fish weighed 15lb and really got me going for the day! It was no time to start resting on my laurels so I kept the spod going in and was eventually rewarded again nearly 2 hours later with a 10lb 10oz fish. The marshals came round and informed me that I was in the lead by 8lb- well that's a good way to start the day!

Only one more fish graced my net for the next few hours which was a 9lb 3oz common which was not enough to keep up with Jake Taylor who landed a brace of 20's and another fish to put a real gap between me and him. This just made me more determined so I kept the spod going in and had another take at 11:30 and just as that one was getting near the net the other rod screamed off! I managed to land both and was rewarded with mirrors of 9lb 8oz and 11lb- the swim was a bit of a mess after that but 2 rods were sent out to the spot again and not 5 minutes later I had another bite only for this one to come off soon after picking up the rod- this signalled the start of losing some fish as I lost 5 fish within a couple of hours but during this time I managed to land fish of 16lb 2oz, 14lb 2oz and 16lb 12oz which really pushed me back up the leader board and into first place again!

News then came over the radio that Jake was into another fish and promptly took the lead again! I kept the spod going and really felt I was working my swim well until my arm locked up! It was a mess at that point, Jake had a big lead and I couldn't spod at more than 50 yards, such was the pain. It was only with the encouragement of Jake Wildbore, some of the marshals and spectators that I carried on (and the pain killers!) and a bit of good luck went my way when I hooked into a decent fish that tangled round Mark Palmers' lines in the next swim- luckily it went in the net and Mark kindly let the fish count. It was my first 20 of the contest at 20lb 6oz and me and the marshals let a massive shout out across the lake!

This 20lb 6oz picked me up and I thought I was in with a chance after Jake had pulled away, again!

I was absolutely shattered by now so recast the rods on their short zigs and crashed out for an hour or so at about 9pm- but that soon turned into about 11pm when I was awoken to a screamer on a 7ft zig. The fish really powered away and there was nothing I could to stop it- typical of a big Brasenose carp. It all went solid and after a few seconds I started pumping a dead weight back towards me, I thought it had come off and was absolutely gutted. I kept the weight coming towards me, when suddenly a chunky carp surfaced 5 yards out and went straight into the net! It promptly got rid of the weed that was over its head and exploded into the side of the net. It looked a very decent fish in the net so I was ecstatic when the scales swung round to 23lb. The marshals weren't sure what this did to my position on the leaderboard, but over 40lb of fish was definitely going to help regain some ground on Jake.

My biggest fish weighing in at 23lb put me 13lb in the lead on the final morning- I just hoped I could maintain it!

I was awake every hour after that putting another few spods out and experimenting with the baits to try and nick another bite, but it wasn't to be. It was 6am when I was soon stood facing into a massive headwind, but knowing I had a 13lb lead! The feeling of pulling it back- yet again and putting a 1 fish gap between me and Jake was immense but I knew full well I was in for a fight until the end, and the howling headwind wasn't going to make it any easier.

The first spod of the day flew out and missed the clip miserably due to the headwind and I thought "here we go!" but within 5 spods I was hitting the clip again and about 30 minutes later I had a screamer and went on to land a 15lb 6oz mirror. I knew that Jake had landed a couple of fish during the morning but still had no idea where I stood so determined to continue I cast the rod out again and straight back to spodding again- no rest for the wicked! This time it took 10 minutes before one of the rods was away and a long battle began with what felt like a decent fish- and with it still not beaten the other rod started belting off. Unfortunately I panicked in the moment and managed to bump off the first fish but landed the second adding 18lb 11oz to my tally.

I then had to hopelessly watch on as Jake put on a serious display of angling to push past me and into the lead- my hopes of winning slipping away with seemingly nothing I could do about it. I was really putting everything I had left into spodding now and was still only just hitting the clip and when I cracked off with about an hour left I felt like giving up, but I tied on about the 10th spod of the final and kept on spodding. I was given a little bit of hope as my bite alarm screamed into action for the final time with 15 minutes to go, but at 10lb 13oz, it wasn't enough and the hooter went soon after.

At that moment nothing really seemed to kick in and I just collapsed on my bedchair completely knackered after all the excitement of the battle. I was then told that I had come second by only a small margin of 27lb- I was really happy but gutted. It was then that people started coming past and offering their congratulations and commiserations- but it slowly started to sink in- I had come second! Jake came round for a chat and it was just nice to be able to sit in the sun not doing much instead of thinking about how to get the next bite and spodding through the pain!

We finally packed up the mess that I had called a swim for the last 48 hours and went to pick up my trophy and prizes. It was a really amazing feeling, standing on the podium holding my trophy.

I'd just like to thank Kent Particles for supplying my bait for the championships! It really helped with the sloppy spod that those Brasenose carp really loved!

Just got to try and go 1 better next year!

Calum Kletta