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BYCAC 2010 - The Qualifier
It was with nerves and excitement that I arrived at Linear Fisheries Brasenose 1 for this year's British Young Carpers Angling Championships. Having read the blog from the day before I knew that zigs fished over slop were catching, but that the weather was a lot "carpier" on the Tuesday after how badly it had fished on the Monday. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and a bit of wind so it seemed zigs would be the way to go on the Wednesday.

I signed in and then sat in the car for 15 minutes worrying about the draw. The time seemed to fly past and I was soon reaching into the bucket for my peg number. To my relief I got a decent draw and was soon set up in peg 26. While setting up I saw a few fish showing at long range so I tied up 2 solid PVA bags containing a Kent Particles pink pop-up on the hook and crushed Kent Particles halibut pellets, these were then left on the rod rests ready to be cast as soon as the hooter went. I then went about mixing up my sloppy spod mix which contained Kent Particles tiger nut groundbait, evaporated milk, crushed tiger nuts, crumbed New Grange and a healthy sprinkling of maggots. I planned to leave the solid bags out for 1-2 hours in search of a bite while everyone else was markering their swims, clipping up rods and generally causing a lot of disturbance to their swim!

It was all organised and all that was left to do was anxiously watch and wait!

At 9am the hooter went for people to cast in rods and start spodding and marker float work. I cast out the solid PVA bags, one to the spot I had seen fish showing- this rod was quickly put on the floor to sink the line while I cast the other rod about 30 yards to the right onto the clip which was 120 yards, and the put it on the alarms with the line sunk. I then picked up the left hand rod and went to clip on the bobbin and the line was savagely ripped from my hands- a bite after 30 seconds, I couldn't believe it! Waders on and out I went only to be greeted by a big ball of weed with no carp attached! I quickly grabbed one of my spare rods and cast it back to the same spot hopeful of more action but after an hour on solid bags I was beginning to get edgy as it was getting increasingly warm, and a few fish were coming out from around the lake on zigs, so the right hand rod was reeled in and an 8ft zig cast to the clip at 120 yards. I then began to spod my slop over the top and was soon started to see a few fish showing in my swim but no action on the rods so at about 11am I had switched one rod to a 7ft zig and the other on a 9ft zig- both over the slop.

I was really giving it some with the spod! And it really started to work as the fish came into my swim in numbers- but catching them seemed to be a different matter!

It took about 90 minutes for my next bite which came on the zig fished at 9ft- an absolute screamer! However my other rod started beeping as well, indicating that the fish had swam through my other rod. This time I didn't bother with the waders and jumped straight into the lake and started playing the fish in. After a short fight I slipped the net under a chunky mirror and I let out a huge sigh of relief!

My first fish of the day was safely in the net and I was well on my way to getting to the final.

After we had sorted out the tangled up lines the fish was weighed in at 15lb 14oz which was a great start and probably enough to get me through by itself- but I wasn't happy with one! I quickly cast out my spare rods both with 9ft zigs attached and began spodding again and was soon into another fish- this time being bigger at 16lb 5oz.

There were now fish showing constantly in front of my swim so the confidence levels were sky high! However it took a lot longer than expected before the next bite which turned out to be a small, but stunning common weighing 9lb 3oz and while this was being weighed my other rod screamed off resulting in a 15lb 4oz mirror. It was only 10 minutes later that one of the rods was off again but after a lengthy battle a decent fish came off just under the rod tip. However this taught me that I needed to be dropping the lead on the take and my point was proven when I managed to land my next fish of 10lb 13oz with no dramas. That was the end of the action for me on the day- but with a total weight of 66lb 2oz I was very happy!

They really loved the Kent Particles tiger nut ground bait- nice and sloppy!

The final hooter sounded across Brasenose 1 at 6pm and it signalled the end of a very hard day of spodding and fish catching thankfully! I reeled my rods in, packed up the gear and made my way up to the tent to see how I had got on. It turned out that the 8 anglers had caught, the exact amount that would go through to the final, and I had come 2nd with my total- I was really happy and couldn't wait for the final- happy in the knowledge that my tactics worked!