BCAC Victory!

This weekend saw the final of the British Carp Angling Championships on RK Leisure’s Wraysbury fishery. In what turned out to be a closely fought match with a nail biting finish, Kev Hewitt and partner Mark Bartlett triumphed! This was their 18th attempt at winning the competition and excellent swim preparation and a patient approach eventually paid off – even if it was a close run thing! Well done Kev & Mark!

Read on for Kev’s first hand account of a thrilling match!

The time had arrived, it was BCAC final time and we were well prepped. Fishing alongside my best friend who I grew up and went to school with, Mark Bartlett, we couldn’t wait!

Qualifying

We got the ball rolling in the BCAC with a qualifier win at Berners Hall in Essex. We had never seen the venue before so we just turned up and fished it as we would fish a normal session. Luckily a few fish turned up and we took advantage by catching 10 fish for 174Lb, a catch that included the biggest common in the lake, the patch common at 33Lb.

Brasenose semi-final

The semi-final was on Brasenose 1 on the linear complex which is a favourite of ours. We came out second to last in the draw and had to settle for an area off the back of the wind. We knew we had a chance if the fish decided to move. With 5 hours to go in the match we were sat on 4 fish for 94Lb. We had caught the biggest mirror in the lake on the Saturday morning, it was down in weight but still pulled the scales round to 39Lb 6oz. The fish turned up on us with 5 hours to go and we were on it. In a hectic 4 hour period we made hay whilst the sun shone and put 21 fish on the bank and ended up amassing a total weight of 504Lb 15oz, leaving us nearly 200Lb clear of second place.

The Final – Wraysbury

So our path to the final had been carved out and the venue for the event was the awesome Wraysbury on the RK Leisure complex. Now I had been fishing Wraysbury on and off over the previous 16 months and had learnt a hell of a lot. My only problem is I had spent most of my time fishing small swims at close quarters, none of which would be pegged in the match. In fact when the pegging map arrived, there were only 4 pegs in the match that I had actually fished. However I had developed a solid game plan and knew exactly what was required.

The night before the match was great, most of the competitors had arrived and the atmosphere was great. It was tainted as probably the final with the best calibre of angler or all time so it was going to be a tough one to win. Not only was there some top anglers but each and every competitor are great people with many of them being good friends. Never have I seen everyone getting along so well in such a relaxed atmosphere leading up to a major event.

The morning of the draw had arrived, Bart and I had been up since before first light watching fish show in various areas of the lake and we finalised our swim choice. The worst part about the matches has to be the draw. The moment that will without doubt define the rest of the weekend and my stomach was in knots as it always is. All everyone wants is to come out as early as possible and put them self in a swim that they believe will give them a chance of winning.

4^th choice swim

As the names filtered out of the hat, our top 3 swims were soon taken and then our name was pulled. We had come 7^th out of the hat and we stepped up and chose peg 1 which was our 4^th choice of swim and one I was very happy with. Initially I had felt like there was no chance of winning from the peg but was one where we could piece together a few fish and hope for a top three finish.

I had in fact fished the swim a couple of times before, blanking once and nicking a fish on the other trip. However I knew the peg fairly well and knew that the fish like to sit in front of there at short range. We knew that there was a nice clear spot at 75 yards but it was too far out, the fish like to show at 30 – 40 yards and I had always seen them there over the time that I had been fishing Wraysbury. The only problem is I knew it was very weedy and there were no clear spots. So as we entered the swim we decided to spend the first 2 hours of the match raking 2 spots, both just 30 yards from the bank either side of the swim. We dragged a hell of a lot of weed out and caused a lot of disturbance but we had cleared 2 spots at close range.

So we fished a rod on each spot and opted to put our other two rods on the 75 yard spot. The lake itself is very weedy at the moment and we knew the match would be more than likely be lost by the person that loses the most as opposed to being won by the pair that hooks the most. We knew that the closer in that we could hook the fish, the more chance we had of landing them. We had an island in front of us at 125 yards and I knew we could probably get a few bites from fishing tight to it but chances of landing them were slim.

The plan is hatched..

So we had set a plan. One rod each at 30 yards either side of the swim and two at 75 yards. We were going to set a trap on the close in rods with 8 spombs of bait on each spot and fished a hinged stiff rig over the top, a rig I had caught loads on from the lake in the past. We baited heavier on the 75 yard spot and fished a small tuna pop up on one rod and a single grain of plastic corn on the other to match the free baits we had spombed out.

We had all the traps set and baited 3 hours into the match. Most others had taken a more stealthy approach but we wanted to get the spots sorted early so we were 100% happy with them and stick to them.

First bite

A few fish had come out early around the lake and although we knew we had ruined our swim initially, we also felt it would come good during the course of the match. We had to wait until about 6pm Friday for our first bite and that came from the spot close in to the left. We were off the mark, all be it the smallest fish I have ever seen from Wraysbury at 11lb. Still it was a start.

The night had past uneventfully for us. I had stayed up all night listening to fish showing in various areas but as the night wore on it became apparent that a few fish were starting to turn up in front of us. I felt very confident for a bite at first light. Well first light came and went and then it happened an hour later. It was another fish off the short spot down to the left, a 19Lber which shot us up into third position.

The rest of the morning was uneventful and there were the odd fish coming out all over. No one was running away with it. We had a bit of a discussion at mid day. We were half way through the match and had two bites in close to the left and nothing on the other spots. We had consistently seen a few fish showing long range tight to the island and Bart wanted to bring a rod off the 75 yard spot and launch a chod out to the island. He tied one up and presented it to me. We had a chat for a bit and I threw the rig into the back of his bivvy and decided to just sit on our hands and just do nothing, hoping our spots that we had put our faith in came good. We were on Wraysbury not Brasenose now. You simply aren’t going to be catching all of the time.

Rock Solid

Ten minutes later out of the blue the rod out the 75 yard spod went into meltdown. Yes the rod we were about to wind in but didn’t. It was a hairy battle and it weeded us solid a couple of times. Now due to the weed, fish safety is one of the most important things on Wraysbury and we were all allowed to send a bailiff out in the boat to free a fish from weed if they were to get snagged up. So we called for the boat and the bailiff did a great job of freeing the fish from the weed and we landed the fish from the bank. It turned out to be a stunning stock fish of 21Lb which shot us straight up into 2^nd place, just 2oz ahead of third place with 52Lb 9oz but more importantly just 10Lb behind first with 24 hours to go. We were well and truly in the mix and our game plan was coming together slowly.

Once our traps were set and baited we literally sat back and did nothing. That last fish had come from a rod which had been out for 22 hours. We were happy with our spots and were making no disturbances and just sitting back and fishing for a bite at a time.

An hour or so later and our close in spot to the left produced another bite, this time a 24lb mirror was on the end and we had got ourselves into the lead. We lost a fish in weed later in the afternoon before landing a 16lb stock fish from the 75 yard spot at 5pm. A lot of anglers were now on the board and fish were coming from all over.

Into First Place

We nicked another fish from the close in spot on darkness and went into the night on 104Lb which put us 24lb ahead of 2^nd place. We had a quiet night and again I stayed up all night listening for signs of fish. There were a few about. There were a few fish out through the night around the lake. In fact by early evening 11 of the 17 competitors had caught fish.

We felt like we had caught consistently and the morning period would be good for a few more fish. Our next bite came at 4am, earlier than we had anticipated and a lovely 19Lb mirror put us up onto 124lb and extended our lead to around 46Lb with 8 hours to go. At this point we were very chilled and felt we had a great chance to catch a couple more during the morning and hold the lead but for the rest of the match we never had another bite. Instead we had to sit back and watch as carnage erupted over the last 3 hours of the match. Jack Stamp and Nick Longpre had landed a 37lb original with an hour to go which put them into second place, just 1 fish behind us. Then Cliff Kemp and Karl pitcher caught a nice 20 which put into second place and within touching distance. Then my work colleague Dan Vallis and partner Liam Hodges had a mad spell where they landed 3 in an hour topped with a 30lber which shot them into 2^nd place, just 10Lb behind us with 30 minutes to go.

Physical Wreck!

I was physically a wreck. Shaking, shivering, sweating and was even sick! The pressure was immense and I have never ever felt like that before. We had fished a blinder of a match but it was pretty much out of our hands now. We felt we had very little chance of a bite and everyone else was catching. Three pairs were within 1 fish of us.

Champions at Last!

The final hooter went at mid-day and we had to wait for the confirmation to come through that we had managed to hold on to first spot and when we were congratulated as the new British Carp Angling Champions, the emotions took over and I simply couldn’t hold back to tears. I and Bart had been fishing the British Championships since the age of 14 and finally 18 years later we managed to get our hands on the trophy and the small bonus of a cheque for £20,000! Yes the money is nice but it is the title that we so dearly wanted.

I have to give a big shout out to my partner Mark Bartlett who is now currently a British champion, European champion and World Champion! Wow!

I just want to say a bit thank you to the Barlows for running such an amazing event which was enjoyed by all. To RK Leisure for providing such an incredible venue for the final, to Rupert and his team of bailiffs and the marshals’ for making the event run smoothly.

Also I would like to thank my sponsors for all of their support over the years, they have always looked after me and I appreciate that massively so thank you to CC Moore, ESP and Trakker. And a big thank you to Hinders for supporting my fishing and giving me to opportunity to achieve.

Now it is time to Pack my bags and head off to the World Championships to try and help Team England to defend their world title.

Tight lines, Kev