‘A HUNDRED FISH, THEN WE STOPPED’

A 48-HOUR match at Linear Fisheries began with two competitors receiving bites within 15 seconds and ended with three pairs breaking the previous venue competition record.

By the time the two British Carp Angling Championship semi-finals on Brasenose One and Two had been decided, 566 carp weighing a total of 11,217lb had been caught.

In all, 27 pairs toughed it out in the heat and eight qualified for the final. The match was fished in sections rather than on overall weight, but Wayne Mansford and Ryan Need blitzed the field with 100 fish for 2,135lb 15oz.

Reigning champions Kev Hewitt and Mark Bartlett, fishing diagonally opposite Wayne and Ryan on B1, also qualified with 66 fish for 1,415lb 6oz.

A third pair on the same lake, Jack Meyer and Lewis Swift, also broke the 1,000lb mark with 57 fish for 1,114lb 7oz.

The biggest haul on neighbouring Brasenose Two fell to Sean Dulson and Lee Simms, who caught 40 fish for 762lb.

Most of the fish fell to zig and surface tactics during the day, but plenty were caught off the bottom at night.

Event organiser Dave Barlow told Carpfeed: “Two of the pairs – Wayne Mansford and Ryan Need, and Kev Hewitt and Mark Bartlett – had bites within 15 seconds of the hooter and it pretty much continued like that over the weekend.

“There was one point where in an hour and a half Wayne and Ryan had 14 fish to be weighed.”

Wayne told Carpfeed: “It was an incredible weekend by anyone’s standards. Last year we set a Linear match record of 1,089lb and three of us went over that weight this weekend.”

Wayne and Ryan didn’t eat from Friday evening until the end of the match, and only fished with two or three rods between them for much of the event.

“We got into a routine, and it felt like we could flick a switch and fish hard when we wanted to,” said Wayne. “When we Spombed, the action would come. After five or six Spombs, it was just relentless again.

“We set ourselves a target of 2,000lb and when we got to 100 fish we stopped fishing.”

Kev Hewitt added: “We had to work at it, but everything we turned to brought results.”

THIS great-looking 26lb 5oz Lincolnshire common fell to Shane Hiatt over a big bed of Mainline Link boilies and a slip D rig over the top.

DAVE Light found a shallow ledge on Pepper Lake at Cottington, in Kent, and caught this 37lb 4oz mirror on Mainline boilies and a Ronnie rig.

THIS cracking 32lb 8oz mirror, known as Big El, gave Aston Groves a new personal best from the All Alone swim at Orchid Lake in Oxfordshire. PB

ASH Bailey took a new surface pb in the shape of this striking 37lb 4oz mirror caught on a trimmed-down CC Moore pop-up over dog biscuits. PB