ESP Consultant Kev Hewitt had an incredible 48 hours fishing at Drayton Reservoir last weekend where him and fishing partner Mark Bartlett had been invited to attend the Korda Carp Team England trials. Read on for Kev’s account of the record breaking weekend, this is endurance carp match fishing at its very best…
To me there would be no greater achievement in angling than to represent my country on the world stage and when I received an email from Peter Holehouse inviting myself and Mark Bartlett (Bart) to England trials, we were both appreciative of the fact that we were going to get a chance to show what we are all about when it comes to match style carp angling. Something that got us even more excited was the fact that the first of three trials were going to be held on the prolific Drayton res in Daventry.
Both Bart and I spent many hours, days, weeks and months preparing for the competition where 12 pairs were battling it out to impress the selectors. We knew there was a chance it could be hectic and we knew preparation was going to be key. Between the two of us we arrived with 120 zig rigs on pole winders all tied up at 15 foot with 12Lb double strength. We were going to be pegged on the dam wall which was around 15foot deep so we knew all we had to do was cut the zig back to the depth we wanted to fish at the time. We also had over 100 solid PVA bags of pellet pre tied on leadcore leaders ready to go. When bites are coming thick and fast you simply will not have time to keep tying solid bags so we knew we had to get as many tied up as possible. For bottom fishing the mini ESP pva bags are my favored tactic as they give you a perfect tangle free presentation 100% of the time. Over the years both Bart and I have had thousands of carp on solid bags and it is without doubt the best presentation out there. All of my rigs were tied up with 4 inches of the new 20lb ESP Camo Sink Link to a size 8 super sharp Raptor Curve-Shanx. Hook bait wise I opted for a single grain of ESP buoyant sweetcorn. I used the green, yellow and pink ones, all of which are my favorite colours. A lot of the time I would normally use a small pop up hookbait but when speed fishing it is best to use plastic corn as once you have balanced the hookbait out it never loses its buoyancy and you don’t have to mess around putting a new hookbait on and balancing it out after every fish. The new flouro corn from ESP is spot on as it is available in a mixture of colours and sizes making it easy to get the right sized hookbait for any occasion.
If things got too hectic on the bags then we had 200 pva stick rigs tied up with a mixture of groundbait and pellets and we would switch to a lead clip arrangement. Stick rigs are pretty good but I don’t rate them as highly as solid bags and they will always come second to a solid. The advantage they have over the solids is that they are a lot quicker to tie up when bites are coming fast. On top of this we also had around 200 rigs tied up should the hook point go blunt it is simply a case of grabbing another rig out of the wallet.
As it happened the weather turned very hot on the day of the trials and we knew that all of the fish were going to be up in the water and zigs were going to be the way to go. During the morning of the run up to the draw then carp were going wild and showing every few seconds in the middle of the dam wall. Fortunately we drew the next peg up to where the majority of the fish were showing. We knew we were on the fish and needed to put in a good performance and had a realistic chance of winning the match.
The match kicked off and we were straight out with four zigs, and we proceeded to spod a cloudy mix over the top. My mix consisted of hemp mixed with CC Moore sweet nut cloud and also some Goo – a new product with leaves a bright flouro cloud in the water column. Just five minutes into the match and both Bart and I were into fish on the zigs. We started off fishing them at 12 foot in 14 foot of water. I use an Ejector lead clip and trim the tail rubber down to guarantee that the lead ejects keeping the fish up in the water and making them easier to get in. Speed is vital in a match like this and every little edge to gain a few seconds advantage could prove vital. I always use a 4oz lead as the heavier lead sets the hook better on zigs and also the heavier weight helps ensure the lead ejects from the clip. It is also worth noting that I was using the ESP landing net with an extender handle. The handle extends up to 8’ and enables you to get the fish into the net much quicker as they always hit the surface further out when using long zig hook links.
The match was mental for us with bites coming thick and fast on the zigs. Every time it went quiet a few spods of cloudy mix over the top got them going again. After just 6 hours we had managed to put over 100 fish on the bank for over 1,000Lb and had amassed a lead of over 400Lb. The match went on for 48 hours, during which time we ended up putting 220 carp on the bank for a total winning weight of 2,310Lb 2oz. Not only did we win the trials but we smashed the previous British record 48 hour match weight by over 500lb! All the hard work and preparation had paid off. For the record we caught all of our fish bar one on zigs. The weather was roasting, 20 degrees in March and all of the fish were sat in the upper layers. We only managed three or four fish at night with the other 216 fish coming during daylight hours. It seemed to switch off for everyone during the hours of darkness.
All of the preparation had paid off and although we only used 1 solid bag during the whole match, I am sure they will all get used over the coming weeks and months angling ahead. Fingers crossed we did enough to get invited back to the second set of trials on Wyreside fisheries in Lancashire.
Tight lines and be prepared, Kev Hewitt