Welsh Carp Championship Round 2 Qualifier - Lamby Lake, Cardiff. South Wales

by Martyn Russ

Once again the weekend approached and the guys prepared for another long session fishing one of the premier fishing lakes in south Wales, Lamby Lake in Cardiff. Again this round was to be fished over the 48 hours, non stop, building and accumulative weight of Carp in pairs. The pegs would be drawn at lunch time on the Friday so it was fair for all anglers and they would then fish through the nights till Sunday lunch time when the winner of this round would be announced.

Just like the start of the competition, during the first round at the Birch Syndicate, the weather had taken a sudden change from being lovely and warm with lots of sunshine to wet and windy making the start of a difficult session for all the anglers. The weather didn't seem to settle at all during the weekend and even changed back to sunny for a short period of time but was soon warm, wet and windy once again as the competition rolled into day 2.

It wasn't long before results were coming in and anglers had begun catching carp with some lovely specimens being landed. Lamby lake is a great water to fish but by no means an easy venue. Its a large open body of water with no features out in open water and lots of reeds and not much tree coverage around the outside of the lake. This mean most of the anglers were targeting the margins to begin with and this resulted in fish being caught. By the end of the first half of the match a leader had started to show but the other anglers were close behind making it difficult for anyone to maintain their lead.

Results at lamby lake after 24 hours

Rhy Lloyd & Richard Wainfur 79lb 8oz

Ross & Spencer Partridge 41lb 10oz

David Barrow & Kev Farrow 28lb 14oz

Alex Parry & Ryan Green 19lb 12oz

Henry Griffths & Steven Phillips 18lb 2oz

Daniel Townsend & Paul Stone 18lb 2oz

Lamby lake is a venue with a good head of carp in the mid to upper 30's with loads of smaller carp in the 20's but with the weather constantly chopping and changing during the competition it mean that fishing wasn't going to be easy and every fish would have to be worked for and earned. This didn't stop the anglers as they continued to catch and as you can see, from the first results to come in, the lead was no way secure as only a couple of fish could change everything.

So as they started the final leg of the qualifier the standings were:

Ross & Spencer Partridge 105lb 2oz

Rhys Lloyd & Richard Wainfur 79lb 8oz

David Barrow & Kev Farrow 43lb 6oz

Henry Griffths & Steven Phillips 41lb 8oz

Daniel Townsend & Paul Stone 37lb 2oz

Alex Parry & Ryan Green 19lb 12oz

Chris Verren & Mathew Vassallo 19lb

As the anglers started into the remaining few hours of the competition only a few had been catching and increasing the important weight totals. it looked like the weather had taken its toll on the fishing and the anglers were really having to chase those bites. Lamby isn't an easy venue to fish by no means but these anglers knew what they were doing but even the carp gods couldn't control the weather and this made the fish feed less and not many were coming out but at least they were still catching. it wasn't long before the weekend had past and the second round qualifier was over with another group of lads set to go through to the grand final which is set to be an amazing event and i can't wait.

Final Results of the Lamby Lake Qualifier 2016

Ross & Spencer Partridge 105lb 2oz

Rhys Lloyd & Richard Wainfur 98lb 12oz

Daniel Townsend & Paul Stone 65lb 2oz

David Barrow & Kev Farrow 56lb

Henry Griffths & Steven Phillips 41lb 8oz

Alex Parry & Ryan Green 19lb 12oz

Chris Verren & Mathew Vasselo 19lb

Wet Nets & Tight Lines 

Start of the Welsh Carp Championship 2016 at The Birch Syndicate Lake in Newport, South Wales

By Martyn Russ (Club F.A.W.)

As spring breaks and the weather improves it marks the beginning of the Welsh Carp Championship sponsored by Fox and many other big Tackle companies including Pro Baits UK who was also one of the hosts for the first round of the qualifiers being held at The Birch Syndicate water in Newport, South Wales. The competition is done over a few different venues to make it fair for the anglers who, if they are quick to register, get the pick of venue to take part on. If they are then successful they will then qualify for the final. This year they will be held over 7 different venues with each match lasting 48 hours with pairs of anglers competing for the largest accumulative weight of carp.

The Birch Syndicate Lake and Swim Layout
Qualifiers

The Birch Syndicate 6-8 May 2016

Lamby Lake 20-22 May 2016

The Fendrod 17-19 June 2016

White Springs 24-26 June 2016

Cefn Mably Lakes 1-3rd July 2016

The Wharf 15-17 July 2016

The Final

The Fendrod 9-11 September 2016

Once again the beginning of the WCC was an amazing event hosted at Peterstone Lakes, home of the Birch Syndicate on the private syndicate lake. The anglers didn't take long to start landing the fish and building those important weight totals. The weather was a little difficult shifting from windy overcast conditions back to bright sun and then again wind and rain, it just didn't seem to settle down for the entire weekend. This didn't put the anglers off as those weights were building fast with only a few failing to get on the score board. 

 Round 1 : Birch Results:

After the first 24 hours the scores were:

1st. Luke Hayes /Mike Robb 119lb. 3oz

2nd. Carl Shaw/ Wayne Aguis. 73 lb 9 oz

3rd Paul Davis /Steve larvo. 73 lb 9 oz

4th. Mathew and Gareth Gronow 51 lb 6 oz

5th Harry Wakling /Andrew Tucker 20lb 12oz

After the first day the leaders started to show and were building the weights quickly making the lead even more difficult to chase. A few of the anglers were doing well despite the difficult conditions and erratic weather changes and even the last year winners found it difficult but were managing to get on the score board and start chasing the leader. The birch contains quite a head of fish with some absolute beautiful specimens up in the high 30's so each angler was in with a good chance to build a good score and the leader was in now way a sure thing as it could all change during the next 24 hours.

Hour and a half left of the comp and

1st Luke and Mike 222lb 15oz

2nd Carl and Wayne. 150lb 14oz

3rd. Paul and Steve. 73lb 9oz

4th. Mathew and Gareth 51lb 6oz

5th. Harry and Andrew. 20lb 12oz

All other pegs have not caught

The second day was turning out to be a blinder of a session as the anglers who had managed to get on the score board were all catching well and building the important weights . They were not making it easy for the leaders as they were chasing hard and making sure this was a close competition. With just an hour left of the competition it started to look a sure thing for the leaders Luke Hayes and Mike Robb with an impressive weight of carp at 222 lb with the closest chaser at only 150 lb meaning they would have to catch 3 of the biggest fish in the lake within the last hour, possible on a good day but by no means an easy task. The competition , despite the difficult weather, had turned out to be an amazing event with the leader taking a huge leap ahead of the chasing group. The other pegs that didn't catch just proved that the conditions were not easy and the weather was also making the fishing hard but those that caught managed to catch some amazing specimens.

Final Results

Luke Hayes & Mike Robb 222lb 15oz

Karl Shaw & Wayne Aguis 150lb 14oz

Paul Davis & Steven Lavinaro 73lb 9oz

Matthew & Gareth Gronow 51lb 6oz

Harry Wakeling & Andrew Tucker 20lb 12oz

I for one can't wait for the second round being held at Lamby Lake Syndicate Water this coming weekend and the final is going to be an amazing competition if the first qualifier is anything to go by. 

 Good Luck Lads, Tight Lines from Club FAW.

First Session on New Water - Lamby Lake , Cardiff. South Wales

By Martyn Russ

 With a heatwave hitting the UK and the weather forecast looking great for the entire weekend we decided it was the right time to visit the new venue that we had joined this year. As specimen anglers we are always on the look out for chasing the larger fish and a chance to join one of the local syndicate waters with carp in the high 30's meant that myself and Club FAW's co-owner Brian Chandler joined the syndicate down at Lamby Lake in South Wales. The venue is closed all through April so as soon as March approached we prepared our gear and booked the days we wanted to fish and off we went. Due to both of us having to sort out personal things to clear the time for fishing we ended up making a late start and didn't get down the lake till around 10 am the morning of Friday 13 th March 2016. We had planned on fishing right through till Sunday evening around 8 pm and we were both really looking forwards to the session. Upon arrival i was the first to unload whilst Brian returned to get his gear so i was the one to choose the swims that we were going to fish. As i started walking around the lake i noticed fish topping in the dead centre of the lake at its deepest point so decided on the two swims at that point known as the Morning Swim to the locals.

As Brian was a keen margin fisherman and one swim having better access to the margin than the other i decided to take the swim with the cast to open water and the area that the fish were showing leaving the margin swim for Brian to fish. We both set up our rods and picked or areas to target. Both of us opting for one rod on a pop up and the other fishing bottom baits we cast our rods out and started the long wait and work to get our swims going. For the first day we didn't put out to much bait as we wanted to get to know the area before we committed to a full on baiting session and it wan't long before Brian was into his first carp of the session (not known at the time it was the only one). 2 hours after casting his rods out, the margin rod he set out with a pink pop up just in front of the reeds shot off and the alarm screamed into action. Brian jumped up and grabbed the rod and struck into his fish and to his surprise a huge head of a carp popped up and he was shocked, in his words "blimey she's big", not knowing the exact size he carefully played the fish into the entrance of the swim guiding it carefully away from the reeds. I was the one lucky enough to land the fish for him and saw straight away that it was a huge common carp with amazing scale pattern. You could see it was very heavy when Brian lifted the net to take the carp over to the cradle to unhook it and I saw the strain on his face as he struggled to get her over. 

After Brian removed the carp and ensured no damage was done to the mouth of the fish he then allowed me to secure it in the weigh sling and I lifted the carp up on the scales. At first Brian said its 15 lb , both of us looked at each other in surprise and said no way the scales don't lie, that's got to be the biggest 15 lb'er i have ever seen. Brian had not realised he was actually looking at the Kilos so ran to his bivvy and grabbed the digital scales to make sure. It was at that time, when weighing it for the second time, I realised he had broken the 30 lb mark with an amazing 32 lb 5 oz fish on the bank, this smashed his personal best by a long shot as he was stuck at 19 lb for a couple of years. You could see immediately he was over the moon and couldn't stop shaking with excitement as i carried the lump back to the waters edge after Brian had given it a small thank you kiss on the head and i released her back into the lake. It was such a pleasure to be there at the moment that Brian had caught a new personal best and one of such size and beauty. The fish is a known carp called peanut and it wasn't long before the news was buzzing around the lake,.

The lake had only been open for the new season a couple of weeks and was completely packed with no spare swims available for new anglers turning up during the weekend. The weather was so hot it was actually melting us on the bank and this makes the fish become lethargic so i was shocked that he caught so quickly. The amount of anglers on the lake also meant that the angling pressure was immense and  the fish tend to hide away when there are lots of anglers and lines in the water. I myself wasn't so lucky during this trip as i managed to bump one off in the early hours after experiencing a very strange bite indication and then just before we packed up early to leave because the weather was so hot and we couldn't take the heat any more i managed to hook into a big pike around the 10 lb mark that turned and bit clean through the leader after playing it all the way into the bank. We tried everything we could to get the fish feeding and catch a few more but the weather was just against us and the amount of anglers was crazy. We only saw a couple coming out here and there and had to give in, in the end. Even though we didn't get many fish on the bank we had an amazing weekend fishing at Lamby and it was just great that my fishing partner got a new PB and a fish of a life time. Now we are members of this syndicate i can't wait for our next fishing adventure and hopefully we will back back down the lake very soon.

Brian's NEW PB 32 lb 5 oz Common called Peanut

Wet Nets & Tight Lines

Junior Welsh Carp Championship - Round 2 Qualifier

by Martyn Russ

 Once again the boys all drew their pegs and settled in for the two day competition at Peterstone Lakes in Newport, South Wales. Home of the Birch Carp Syndicate and Pro Baits UK the competition was again set to be an interesting one with many amazing young anglers showing off their skills and fish care during the competition.

 

 This time round the weather was a little more forgiving but the fishing was a little harder but the lads did their best to get those carp feeding and soon started landing them on the bank and started to build those important weights. By the end of the first day the competition had started to take shape with a few taking an early lead and one grabbing the lead but there was still everything to play for as only one fish between the top 5 competitors. There was a couple of lads yet to get on the scoring table but there was plenty of time left and the fish were continuing to play ball.

Dan 23lb 4

Matteo 15lb 8

Jacob 13lb 8

Ethan 12lb 6

Ben 12lb

Sheldon 4lb 8

Iauan, Jake, Connor, Cade yet to score

The second half of the competition turned out to be an exciting one as soon the early leaders were soon to be over taken and the anglers started to show their skills and started to rack up the weights quickly with some beautiful carp being landed. Again all the lads did extremely well and showed just how good an angler they were. There was only a few that didnt manage to get onto the scoreboard but at the end of the day they all enjoyed themselves and the final looks like its going to be a good one.

 

The Final result for the 2nd qualifier for the Welsh Junior Carp Championships are as follows - 

1st - Jacob 46lb 8

2nd - Dan 29lb 8

3rd - Sheldon 26lb

4th - Matteo 22lb 8

5th - Ethan 17lb 6

All qualify for the final

Congratulations lads

6th - Ben 16lb 12

7th - Jake 5lb 8

8th - 10th - Iauan, Connor, Cade failed to score.

Well Done to all the Competitors its great to see so many new quality anglers coming into the sport. The final is set to be a great event and i for one can't wait.

Good Luck Lads, Wet Nets & Tight Lines