Jon Arthur was flying the flag for Drennan in Round One of the prestigious UK Championship. Here’s how he got on…
The UK Champs is always one of the highlights of the year for me as I’ve been privileged enough to win it twice. There’s always a bit of a travelling carnival feel to it all and the fact that it’s filmed by Rob Hughes and his team for Sky TV has certainly added a nice new dimension to things. I think this shows just how widely regarded this event is. Nigel Harrhy does a sterling job running it and it was also nice to see Old Ghost step in as the sponsor this year.
For Round One I travelled down with my mate and ex partner in crime, Tom Scholey (who I must add is doing a grand job as new editor of Pole Fishing magazine). To say his poor little blue van was well packed would be an understatement. An extra trailer wouldn’t have gone amiss – but you have to take the kitchen sink to these matches and it’s well over two hours home if we forgot anything!
Viaduct – A Special Venue
Round One was at Viaduct fishery in deepest Somerset – a beautiful, established fishery full of old and wise carp that grow big… very big! There’s no place for 0.12mm hooklengths here. One of the lakes is nicknamed Scary Cary for a very good reason. There are countless ‘doubles’ and more than a few 20s swimming about. I once had just 18 fish for 255lb on Spring Pool. As I said, it’s a very special venue!
Despite Spring Pool owing me no favours, it is more of a specimen/pleasure lake and usually the toughest on the day. With two sections of 10 anglers crammed onto there no one wanted to draw there in the morning. As I dipped my hand into the draw bag of fate I was praying for Campbell, Lodge or Cary. Out came Peg 8 on Spring. Not where I wanted to be!
The chance of framing was now out of the question so all my focus had to be winning that all-important 10-man section. All four rounds count in this competition, so a top three finish in each section keeps you well in the race. I would settle for a section win over the £1,000 match winner’s cheque any day… although both would obviously be nice!
The Peg
I heaved my overloaded barrow of gear to my peg and discovered I was in a corner with no island chuck. That suited me, as it was one less thing to set up. I had about 16 metres of open water in front to fish before it encroached on Peg 6 and a lovely looking margin to my right with an overhanging willow in the corner and a daunting looking lily bed between that and myself. The front of these lilies was 13 metres away but a full 16 metres put me in the middle of them, where I could see a couple of ‘doubles’ taking shade from the sun.
I knew the weather would play a massive part. With strong sunshine and little wind after a couple of wet days and chilly nights I felt the fish would be moody. They were showing signs of spawning on some of the other lakes, too.
Other than those couple of dark shapes in the corner I couldn’t see any other fish in front of me yet. However, there were plenty of dark shapes in front of Peg 1 when I walked by and Simon Fry had unfortunately drawn there. He’s a bit good in this event, but I didn’t fancy his chances of stopping many 20lbers charging under the bridge to his right!
Darren Cox was to my left and had an overhanging willow tree on the island in front of him to cast to. There were plenty of dark shapes sulking around there, although my gut feeling was that they wouldn’t hang around for long once the match started. The last angler in our section was Mark Pollard and with Leigh Hogkinson on Peg 5 it certainly looked tough on paper.
The Plan
My plan was fairly simple. I plumbed up a short-pole meat swim and a long-pole meat swim, where there was only about two inches difference in depth. I then had two short margin swims, left and right, that I would attack, plus a much longer edge swim to my right that I would feed much more cautiously. On such a hot day I had a feeling they wouldn’t want piles of bait boshed in. However, if they did, I had those shorter attacking swims primed where I could perhaps do some damage!
As a back-up, I also had some softened 4mm pellets, plus chopped worm and fishmeal for the silvers. I shall keep this bit short as, despite this lake having a massive head of skimmers, they switched off on our side of the lake and all I caught was one rudd and two perch on these baits!
Dob Dob Dob
My plan was to just drip in four or five cubes of meat at five metres at the start and nowhere else. I’d then pick up a dobbing rig to hopefully mug any ‘ dark shapes’ that swam past. In my experience, these cruising carp tend to be much bigger than the bottom-dwellers so they’d give me a good start ‘if’ I could catch one or two.
My dobbing gear was fairly simple. It consisted of a 0.3g Crystal Dibber on 0.20mm Drennan Fly Leader fluorocarbon main line to a 0.18mm Supplex hooklength. My hook was a size 16 Kamasan B911 Extra Strong with a hair-rigged Pushstop bait spike so I could mount a 6-8mm cube of meat. I had a good 5ft of line above the float and all the shot under the stem so I could deftly flick a bait in front of a carp’s nose in the hope that one would take it.
I managed three carp on this. One carp after 5 minutes, which was about 17-18lb and then another double and a very angry ghostie. It was so frustrating as I really love this tactic, but there simply wasn’t many fish swimming by most of the day.
When I reverted to ‘normal’ tactics I only managed one carp on the short pole and one on the long pole. Both came off! With the edges being next to useless I had no option other than to dangle a cube of meat right into the lion’s den with 16 metres of Acolyte Carp and red Bungee elastic. I finally spotted a fish sulking under the pads that looked a good 15lb-plus. As soon as I hooked it the swim erupted and it bolted deeper into the lilies. I hoped the weight of the fish combined with the extra abrasion resistance of fluorocarbon line would help cut through the stalks, but despite me getting the upper hand and heaving the fish towards me, it threw the hook into a pad inches under the surface, leaving me no option than to walk down the edge to try and free it. Not ideal!
Edge Assault
The longer the day wore on the more I felt these big old warriors were aware of our every move. It was red hot and they just wanted to sulk and sunbathe. They were simply not having it! Other than a rudd and two perch, I probably went the best part of three hours without a fish. It was the same story for everyone else I could see. Si Fry had about five carp and was easily doing best, while a few pegs had three. My paltry three carp was actually pretty good by the sounds of it!
The positive close-in edge swims were binned in favour of the longer swim towards the lilies. Here I just dripped in eight cubes of meat and waited… and waited… and waited. Finally, my float moved sideways as a carp spooked and a large torpedo bolted away. A few more cubes and nothing again, so I tried feeding just a tiny amount of groundbait to hopefully add some extra attraction. Three more times a massive carp bolted off as soon as it sniffed my hair-rigged meat hook bait. I knew I needed to make a change!
With just over 30 minutes to go and no silver fish troubles I decided to try feeding dead red maggots instead. About 30 were duly plopped in, plus the tiniest amount of groundbait. I then impaled four dead reds onto a size 14 Drennan Margin Carp hook and waited.
Yet again, another carp bolted off… but this time it was followed by pink Carp Bungee elastic! It’s amazing how gingerly you play fish when you’re catching so little but I eventually netted a 9lb common. These fish never give up and every single one I caught did an alligator-like death roll in the landing net!
Shipping back out and another five-minute wait saw me attached to another fish. This one went absolutely mental and kept going on huge surging runs. I knew something wasn’t quite right and when I eventually slipped the net underneath it I realised it was a 9lb mirror hooked just under the chin. I quickly shipped back out before the final hooter sounded. The swim was definitely worth another. Oh well, just five fish in five hours. What a long and frustrating day!
Weighing In
Simon Fry was the first to weigh in my 10 pegs and his seven carp went 77lb on the scales. No one could top that, so it was all to play for 2nd spot. The next three weights were awful with a DNW, a 3lb and a 15lb. I think that shows just how hard it was on this lake! Leigh Hodgkinson then weighed five carp for 47lb 4oz and 8lb 12oz of silvers for a 56lb 4oz total. My five carp went 56lb 3oz… but my ‘huge’ silverfish net gave me an extra 10oz to just pip him by 9oz! Leigh was understandably gutted and as I’ve been ounced many a time this year I knew how he felt. For me, it was nice to finally be the right side of the scalesman’s needle. I tried to cheer Leigh up by saying it was my 20+ years experience of canal fishing that earned me those all-important silvers. I’m not sure he agreed!
As the scales continued, Darren Cox’s four carp went 42lb, which just left Mark Pollard’s five carp to weigh. They went a whopping 69lb and combined with 2lb of silvers (again, canal experience coming to the fore!) he was a well-deserved second.
I was relieved to cling onto a section 3rd in such difficult conditions.
The Result
Elsewhere, the lakes all fished as expected with five 200lb-plus weights. In-form Jason Le Bosquet won from the ‘monk’ swim on Cary with 249lb and it sounded like ‘meat and mugging’ was indeed the way to go for the most successful anglers, so I hadn’t got things too wrong.
My travelling pal Tom also managed a section 3rd with 145lb on Cary so we left feeling reasonably happy with our days – despite the knowledge that just one more fish could have been even better for us both.
After the presentation we just had time for some of Somerton’s finest fish and chips before setting off. I could probably write another blog on our road trip home, but let’s just say it was ‘eventful’ and gone midnight when we finally got back…
After two frustrating starts in the last two years of this event it’s great to go into Round Two still in contention. Next up, Lindholme Lakes!