Hendre Fishing Lake is a stunning coarse fishing lake situated at the bottom of St. Mellons just on the edge of Cardiff before entering Newport ,not far from the coast. This lake was originally dug to alleviate the flooding in the surrounding housing estates and areas. Hendre Fishing Lake is one of the best "Carp Runs" waters in South Wales, Its holds a good head of double figure carp to 30 lb+ along with other fresh water species in high numbers such as Bream, Roach, Tench, Perch Rudd & Pike along with some visiting species such as Chub. Now under management by Jason Massay, a Nash sponsored angler, this lake offers superb coarse angling for the novice and pro angler alike. It was decided this year they would hold a local carp fishing competition for all the season ticket holders and then any open spaces in the competition would be offered to any angler who wished to enter. 
The competition was to be done in 3 rounds total. The first 2 being qualifying rounds where 12 anglers would take each other on and only the top 5 go through to the final round. Each angler would be drawn from the hat in turn and then they would have to choose the swim they wish to fish during the competition. This mean not only luck was playing a part but also some watercraft, as knowing your swim would be a great advantage. Once the swims were selected the anglers would then have 30 hours non stop fishing to get as many carp as they can.
The first 2 rounds were in July , one on the first weekend and one on the last weekend of the month with the final planned for the middle of August.
First Semi final 6-7th July draw 8 am
1 Kieron Carmichael
2 Nigel Lancastle
3 Michael Cleaver
4 Jason Turner
5 Stuart Hutchison
6 Carl Scott
7 Chris Weston
8 George Rauch
9 Shaun Harrington
10 Joshua Hancock
11 Kelvin Smith
12 Chris Robinson
We have been having some extreme weather this year with temperatures jumping to the high 20;s very quickly and sudden downpours and thunderstorms in between. This meant the fishing would be very interesting and every angler was in with a shot at winning the competition. The first weekend of July arrived and the anglers were set. Straight from the off the Leaders soon started to show and by the end of day one the competition was very close with a battle going on for the leading position, who was building a big weight of fish very quickly, and another for the bottom positions all chasing to qualify. Kieron took an early lead from the back of the island peg 12 and managed to keep going into the evening with the car park bank chasing him very close and managing to take the lead in the first day. A battle for top position ran Into the second day where we saw a switch in the weather and a change in the wind direction, this mixed things up a bit , the back of the island swim started slowing down and bites were hard to come by. Carl Scott, on the railway bank, which is one of the favoured pegs for the competition, started taking a lead and was driving the carp into a frenzy fishing on the top feeding biscuits and using bread on the hook. 
This turned out to be the winning method on the second day with all anglers trying their hardest to get those last minuet bites coming into the last hour with a very close battle between the trailing anglers all fighting for that last qualifying place but Kelvin Smith managed to pinch the last position on the day despite watching one fish get away from him after landing it and leaving it in the net to rest he continued to re-cast his rod on the spot only to watch the carp jump from his net and get away.
Competition Results Semi Final 1
1st Carl Scott
2nd Shaun Harrington
3rd Michael Cleaver
4th Keiron Carmichael
5th Kelvin Smith
Second Semi final 27-28th July draw 8 am
1 Martyn Russ
2 Mitchell Marchant
3 Luke Martin
4 Gemma Phillips
5 Martyn O’Connell
6 Jordan Hitchings
7 Carl Campbell
8 Dan Walker
9 Dafyn Lewis
10 Cj Decroo
11 Thomas Evans
12 Jordan Miles
After watching the first competition and seeing the angling for myself I have to admit i was quite nervous as I myself was entered into round 2 of the competition. and i saw some brilliant angling by the guys and i knew round 2 would be no exception. The second round day came and we all met up in the carp park of the lake to await our names to be drawn and then pick our swims. I had 2 in mind the back of the island, as it performed so well in the last comp, and the railway bank swim on the top near the centre sluice gates. Shockingly i was the first name to be drawn and i think it took me by surprise as with out thinking i shouted swim number 2. This is the one closest to the point of the island on the railway bank and a swim i knew very well. More names were drawn out and everyone chose their pegs and it wasn't long before we made our way around and started to set up. We had roughly 45 minuets to get everything ready to go when the horn sounded and time to get the rods in.
The horn was blown and everyone started casting out their rods, except me as i hadn't heard the horn. It wasn't until i heard one of the bailiffs shout rods in i knew it had started. I cast the one rod out towards the corner of the island to a spot that fished very well and the other i placed towards the point, an area where the bank juts out into the main bed of water in the no fishing zone. I then proceeded to bait up with 5 spomb full of bait over each area, This was the largest size spomb so it would be a good amount of bait getting down on the spots. The idea was to wait for a bite and then place another 2 over each rod after each fish. The first person to catch was around the back of the island and it wasn't long before he was showing us the way. My swim had remained quiet for the first half of day one with only a few liners. Peg 1 , the peg next to me being fished by Gemma Philips, was starting to get some action. as she had her first bite but managed to loose it as it dived under her other line causing a twister and the fish manage to get free. It wasn't long before she managed the second bite and finally landed a carp. 
Gemma continued to catch next to me, she was fishing short just off the bank towards to no fish zone and this was doing the trick for her. She continued to get the bites into the afternoon where i finally managed to sneak out a bite and managed to land myself a lovely 15 lb carp. Finally off the mark i thought so i placed more bait over the spots and waited. As it turned out this wasn't a good thing to do as i think the carp were backing away from the baited areas and only feeding towards the back as singles seemed to be the winning formula. I didn't manage to get any more bites during the competition and just like round 1 the leaders soon took control of the competition and built a good lead leaving the rest of the anglers battling again for position and to qualify.
The weather had been very strange during the competition from extreme heat to blasting winds and pouring rain. The anglers were all fishing hard and did their best to manage to pull out the fish that did get caught. Mitchel Marchant decided to stay awake right through the night working his swim on the surface during the early hours and due to his hard work he was rewarded with a couple of fish securing his place in the final. There also seemed to be a small battle going on at the end for the last qualifying position which ended up in a tie between Gemma and Thomas who both managed to get through to the final due to thier score being all tied up.
Competition Results Semi Final 2
1st Dafyn Lewis
2nd Jordan Hitchings
3rd Mitchell Marchant
4th Gemma Phillips
5th Thomas Evans
The Final - August 17th & 18th
Carl Scott
Shaun Harrington
Michael Cleaver
Keiron Carmichael
Kelvin Smith
Dafyn Lewis
Jordan Hitchings
Mitchell Marchant
Gemma Phillips
Thomas Evans
The weekend came and it was time for all the anglers to take on the final round of the singles carp competition on Hendre Lake. After watching the first 2 rounds I was sure we were in for an active competition and some great angling. The anglers drew their pegs and chose their swims at 8 in the morning and set up ready for the sound of the horn at 9 am to signify the start. The weather was a bit strange with some strong winds and mixing from strong sun to overcast within minuets. The strong wind would surely make casting interesting especially along the railway bank where you are open to the full force of the elements and the wind would also effect how the lake would fish. 
It wasn't long before we started to see a pattern emerge with the back of the island peg 12 catching early in the match and managed an early lead with only the odd fish coming out to the other anglers. The strong wind seemed to have forced the fish to stay at the back of the wind meaning they would be behind the back of the island and down in the no fishing zone. This meant peg 12 could take advantage of this and build a big lead very quickly. The anglers on the railway bank were struggling for bites and really having to work hard to get their fish. As the evening drew in on day one there was a change in the weather and a change of fortune for some anglers and it wasn't long before Peg 1 started chasing the leader. 
By day 2 we could see there had been a bit of action in the early hours for some of the anglers and Peg 1 managed a huge run of fish through out the night and into the morning which was enough to catch peg 12 who was continuing to lead until the end of day one. Peg 1 managed to pull away and increase his lead continuing to catch every now and again to build the lead but peg 12 continued to chase him right to the end but Peg 1 managed to hold his lead by landing a couple more carp in the closing afternoon making sure he couldn't be caught.
In the meantime a small little comp was going on for the final 3rd position with Mitchel and Kelvin being very close but Kelvin managed to take the position with a nice little capture in the closing hours.Even Kieran managed to grab one last fish during the closing hours, It had turned out to be a very interesting competition and I for one really enjoyed it. There was some very good angling going on and all the competitors did themselves proud. When the final horn blew it was clear to see that Peg 1 had taken the comp with Peg 12 being close behind him and Kelvin on peg 3 came in 3rd position. Jason and the bailiff team worked very hard during the competition and i really hope Jason decides to now keep this comp running each year.
Final results:
1st Place : Jordan Hitchings
2nd Place: Dafyn Lewis
3rd Place: Kelvin Smith
