Tom Oliver reflects on a month of highs and lows.
After a successful June I was hoping my run of luck would continue but as each week went on it soon became clear my luck had changed and things were not going to plan.

The first weekend in July saw myself and fishing partner Graham Mabey making the long drive to Birmingham after we had finished work on Thursday evening for the BCAC semi-final.  The draw started at 7am the following morning in the impressive clubhouse that looks out over the southern end of the lake. There is a lot to think about in the draw because of the way the lake is sectioned with the winner of each section going through to the final it means that it is a much more tactical decision.  We eventually got called out 18th of 28 pairs and still had a few good choices to go with and picked A4 as we thought it had a lot to offer. A4 was pegged on Barston Pegs 10 and 11 that both faced out in to the open water to the right of the island that formed the 18th green for the golf course. As there were no further pegs to our left we also had a large bay that we could fish but we knew the going area would be the open water from what we had seen on our walks.

As we were setting up in the swim head marshall and event owner Simon Beanie came around to check we were happy. We explained our plan and expressed our confidence that we had a good chance to compete and progress to the final with the water we had to fish in. It was at this point that things took a turn for the worse and basically ruined our chances from the off. Simon stated that our right-hand boundary was actually a small bush halfway down the green to our left! This meant that we could not fish the water in which our swims were located and instead had to angle all four rods in to the fishless bay to our left.

We, of course, protested this and made an official complaint but Simon put his foot down and said that was how it was going to be and we were to deal with it. As I’m sure you can imagine we were a little more than angry as we would never have picked the swim with better options still up for grabs at the time of the draw. It also meant we had to spend half an hour at the start of the match up ladders chopping down trees with hand saws just so we could even cast in to our ‘supposed water’.

Despite knowing we probably had no chance of competing we gave it our best efforts and had a couple in quick succession from the off. Tactics were simple snowman rigs comprising of size 8 Covert Barbless Muggas and 15lb Sink Skin. Cell 15mm bottom baits were tipped with 12mm red Cell pop-ups and accompanied with small mesh bags of boilies that were glugged before casting for extra attraction. We knew the tactics worked from our previous experience on the lake the problem was there were just no fish in our bay to catch and we had to sit baking in the sun watching fish show in the water we thought we could fish. It was soul destroying especially as the peg to our right were fishing bang in front of them leaving a massive area of unfished water that was being wasted. Several other competitors and marshals both past and present walked by during the event and also expressed that it was ridiculous and the normal BCAC rule is halfway between the peg markers and halfway across.

By Saturday night we were only on around 35lb in weight with the pair to our right leading the field with over 200lb regularly catching from the open water. Graham had given up the opportunity to see some old friends he rarely sees at a nearby event to be at the semi-final so on Saturday evening decided to go and see them as there was little point in two of us being there. 

Despite being burnt to a crisp and completely exhausted I battled on giving it my all until the final hooter and managed to take our weight to 74.02lb whilst Graham was absent. We finished last in the section and it was all down to the ridiculous decision over our boundary from the owner of the BCAC.

We checked the official rules once we returned and as we thought we were right as the official rule states:
“Each competitor must set up his rods and accommodation within the boundaries authorised by the officials. Competitors must not cast outside the limits of their swim, such limit to be marked by an imaginary line marking the middle distance between his and his neighbours peg marker. Any disputes as to the competitors casting outside the area must be reported immediately to the marshals. Marshals have the discretion to request that competitors re-cast their rods as and when directed and such request must be complied with.”

We felt robbed of a fair chance and made an official appeal to the BCAC which has resulted in a free team entry for next year’s event. It is not the outcome we were hoping for but it’s better than nothing and will hopefully ensure that future events do not incur these types of problems. You would presume that the owner of the event that was acting as head marshal would know his own official rules? After that I didn’t really feel like fishing the week after so decided to leave it for a week to get the buzz back and sort through the mess of tackle I had created during the comp.

The week after my heart was back in it and I was buzzing to get back down my syndicate for some ‘proper fishing’. I arrived at the lake on Friday evening and found a few fish showing in the southwest corner of the lake on the fresh wind and luckily for me the swim that fished the area was free.

I found a nice clean area amongst some weed and decided to lay a nice feast down in the hope that more fish would be arriving on the fresh wind. I laced a whole bucket of particles, pellets, Cell mixed boilies and chops on to the spot and fished with my favoured 12mm pink cell pop-up over the top. The third rod was fished to a snaggy treeline on a solid PVA bag where I had seen a few fish show whilst prepping the other spot.

I went to bed hopeful with fish regularly showing on the treeline but awoke to find my bobbins in the position they sat all those hours ago. I fired up the kettle and watched the water and started noticing fish showing and fizzing all over the swim. I decided to leave everything as it was and I was glad I did because just as I was finishing that first cuppa the middle rod was away.

After a lingering fight due to the fish becoming weeded several times I finally netted a lovely scaly mirror that weighed 24lb 2oz. I got the rod back out fairly quickly and was hopeful of another take, but the fish were showing in the weed behind the spot. I decided to put a solid bag in to the weed where they were fizzing after their shows as it was ridiculous how many were there.

I got the solid PVA bag in to position first time and continued watching the water as I fried some bacon on the Coleman. The fish continued to show and eventually the bag in the weed signalled a slow steady take. A similar battle ensued with the fish becoming weeded on several occasions but slow steady pressure soon had things moving in my direction again. A common weighing exactly 20lb was soon being returned after a few quick snaps and I was hopeful of some more action but the morning soon rolled in to the afternoon and everything was quiet once again. I topped the main spot up with a little more of my mix from Kent Particles around 4pm and got everything sorted again for the night. I kept two rods on the main baited area and one on the solid bag slightly longer and to the right. I had another good night’s sleep as the carp eluded me and everything seemed lifeless the following morning across the whole lake. I had started to slowly pack down some of my kit at around 10am and whilst doing so my left-hand rod fished on the baited area went in to meltdown.

Everything went extremely smoothly and a friend walked in to the swim just in time to slip the net under another small common that we weighed at 19.08lb. I gave it a few more hours after slipping the fish back just in case the fish was not alone but after not seeing anything else I packed up and headed home happy from catching a few.

The final weekend of July saw me once again at the syndicate lake and it was rather busy meaning I could not get where I wanted to be. It was one of those weekends where I just sat frustrated watching the fish on the other side of the lake and there was nothing I could do about it. Needless to say the weekend passed without a fish gracing the bank and I’m hoping to have a change of fortune for August. I’m hoping the fish will start looking to feed in readiness to replenish the lost weight from spawning and start to spread out a little more as the weed grows. This should make them easier to catch as they currently seem to spend their time in one or two very big groups and if you’re not on them you certainly won’t catch them!