| It was that time of year again when the Fishing magic lads got together for the annual charity fish-in. This year the event was held at CEMEX Blue Pool in Burghfield.
Seven anglers joined up to fish the event, which turned out to be a fantastic couple of days fishing for all. No one blanked and there were more than a handful of personal bests including a cracking 25lb 12oz Mirror carp as well as a few other 20’s. The Contenders The seven anglers included myself, Richard Farrow, who helped organise the event, Alan, Barry, John, Martin and Sascha. Everyone managed to find the venue although Martin and Sascha travelled the furthest having to make a 4-hour journey. It was all worth it though as the catches and the money raised for charity would suggest. The Reason We were there to fish for the James Farrow Memorial Trophy on behalf of two charities. The First being the East Anglian Air Ambulance, and secondly, Second Chance which is a charity dedicated to helping children.James Farrow is the son of Richard and Di Farrow and sadly passed away whilst carp fishing on one of his favourite waters at Snetterton just hours after catching his first 20lber weighing 22lbs. James is remembered today by a plaque in his favourite swim at Snetterton.  The Lake As there weren’t that many of us, there was not a problem picking swims. Everyone seemed to be happy with their choice and settled down quite comfortably. Apart from Richard who mentioned he felt a bit cramped in his swim. This could have been due to his massive one-man bivvy that he had set up. This thing was huge! It certainly looked like a two-man bivvy to everyone else! The lake looked good with fish topping everywhere and a slight but infrequent breeze on the water on the Monday. I was fishing peg 2 and could see fish jumping and rolling about 75-80 yards away next to an over hanging tree. Needless to say, this is where my bait went. In a way, I was glad the lake wasn’t full with anglers as I certainly wouldn’t be able to cast where I was casting if there was someone in peg 22 to the right. The Fishing I opened up the fishing tally with a nicely coloured mirror carp weighing in at 13lb 10oz. Just as I was returning the fish, I saw that Barry had hooked into something and promptly made my way to his swim. He brought to the net another mirror of exactly 12lb. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, everyone was catching something; including myself, who had caught a few more including a cracking fish of 19lb The First night fell and everyone settled down to rest. Bite alarms were going all night with Sascha seeing most of the action. Unfortunately, most of the runs ended up as lost fish as his hook links were breaking. We put this down to sharp stones on the lakebed at first but then Sascha lost a fish due to his lead core parting so reckoned it could be something else.  The night progressed with both Alan and Martin catching decent fish. Richard and I were both plagued with liners all night. Not a good thing when you’re trying to get to sleep. Up and down all night we were, poking our heads out of our sleeping quarters to check the rods. Richard was even using back-leads and still getting liners! The first morning broke and everyone was up for breakfast. The smell of the various stoves going was enough to make anyone’s mouth water with sausages, bacon and eggs the order of the day.  Part way through breakfast, my rod screams off again, after a long tussle trying to get it to come free of a snag, I land another mirror that broke the 20lb barrier weighing in at 20lb 10oz. You can imagine I had rather a big smile on my face, not that you’d know from the photo! God i look a mess!!  More reports came in that morning about other fish caught that night with the biggest being Barry’s 24lb Common carp. The first common of the fish-in! Alan, also had a fish that night which broke his personal best; a mirror of 14lb. Little did he know the best was yet to come… There were no more fish during that morning and everyone had already made a great start to the 2-day session. I had caught six fish already, Barry was on five, Richard on one, Alan on one, Martin on one and Sascha was also on about six I think as well as having many losses throughout the night! So with a great start to the fish-in, it was 10 o’clock and time to start the match! Yes, that’s right, we had all caught these fish before the match had started! Typical! As soon as Richard gave the orders to start, in went the rods and we were away. Except the fish must have heard there was a match on and suddenly weren’t hungry anymore! There were no more fish for anyone all day until the afternoon at around 2:30 – 3:00. Within the space of an hour, four fish were caught. All double figure fish too, which was a good sign. Interestingly, it was at about this time the day before that the fish came on the feed and people started catching. People catching were, Barry, closely followed by Richard with a fish of 11 and a half pounds. Alan came next with a monster fish of 25lb 12oz. With this he took the lead and everyone else had some catching up to do. Especially as we were going for the biggest fish to win and considering the lake record is just above 31lb, there were not many more fish above the 25lb mark to target! John was next with the fourth twenty that was a touch under 23lb. He had fun wrestling that one, as it just wouldn’t stay still! Evening came again and everyone began tucking into their food. My rod went again and I promptly struck into it. Now, the other 6 fish I had caught prior to this had always either stopped or turned when I struck or slowed right down. However, this one was having none of it and started to head towards Alan’s swim, about 150yards away! It then kited to the left and tried doing laps of the lake. I couldn’t pull on it any harder and there was a huge bend in my rod, but yet it was still going away from me! After a while I managed to get it turned and started making it come towards my bank, although instead of it coming towards my swim, it decided to come in via Richards swim, who quickly had to stop spodding. It made it to the margins and managed to find a snag, a few shakes of the head and it bumped itself off. Leaving me a bit peeved to put it politely! I had Alan quaking in his boots who swiftly came round to my swim to take a look at the fish, but it was too late. He said to me that he felt his biggest fish might have been under pressure with the one I had on! I cast back out to the same spot and five minutes later I had another fish on. I managed to land this one and it went 14lb. There were fish caught all through the night with one of the highlights being Richards haul of four personal bests in that one night. It started with a 16lber, and then progressed to 17lb, and then 19lb 1oz. In the early hours of the morning, I had a screamer, which I lost due to my hook length parting. Richard wondered over and informed me that he’d had another fish during the night, a new personal best of 19lb 8oz! Well-done Richard!  There were many more fish caught during the night with everyone catching one or two. I had another weighing 14lb 10oz and Sascha had yet more lost fish. Must have been Cakey’s PVA rigs! (maybe you didn’t tie them properly Cakey?!?) Everybody had lost a fish or two due to hook links parting, (apart from Richard some how!!) the cause of this was down to mussels on the lakebed after Sascha and martin dragged in snapped line with a number of Zebra mussels attached to it! Unfortunately, Martin blanked during the match but had caught before it started. Alan and Barry had more fish during the night, as did John. None of them though weighed more than Alan’s afternoon fish of 25lb 12oz and this became the winning fish come morning. Everyone who caught had double figure fish with Sascha catching the only single figure carp weighing around 3lbs. John and Alan both caught tench. The Result In total, during the whole fish-in, 36 carp were caught, as were 2 tench. Five twenties were caught with Alan’s being the biggest and the match winner at 25lb 12oz. Everyone came together around the front bank and it was time to hand out the trophies. The prize for the biggest fish was a beautiful trophy with a carp on it that was awarded to Alan for catching the biggest fish. Alan was also awarded the James Farrow Memorial Trophy, which he also won for catching the biggest fish.  With prize giving, and photos out of the way, it was time for the auction. There were two main items going for sale here. The first being a 48-hour ticket for two people to fish Linear Fisheries in Oxford. These tickets went to Sascha and Martin. Next up was the Nash Profile Special, which I managed to snap up! With all of this out of the way, it was time to pack up and go home for most people. Martin and Sascha decided to stay the day just to make the most of it. Everyone commented on how much fun they’d had and how much they enjoyed the fishing and everyone’s company. It was a great day and it was nice to finally put names to faces. I had a great two days fishing with very nice and friendly people and I can’t wait until next year when hopefully there will be a much bigger turn out. Catch Report Here are the records of everyones catches:
* (M) = Fish caught in the Match Many thanks to Richard and those people who helped in the organising of this event. Also, many thanks to Ian Welch and the kind people at CEMEX angling for the use of Blue Pool. I had an amazing time fishing and meeting everbody and i hope to take part again next year. I also hope i will get to meet more of the FISHINGmagic crew! Jonny
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