Garbolino Club Angler of the Year - Final

Wednesday 26th June

Barston Lakes

This year we had two qualifiers representing the Sandbank in the Garbo Final, Dave Edwards and myself. We decided to travel down the day before to have a little practice and get a feel for what we needed to do the following day. 

Having fished Barston quite a bit before I decided that I wasn't going to bother with the pole and would simply fish a method feeder to the horizon and a bomb/pellet waggler line at 25-30 metres. 

Dave was going with more of an 'all bases covered' approach and wanted to fish a pole line for skimmers at 13m. This can be an absolute nightmare due to the path around the lake being a public footpath. Sometimes its a constant stream of people walking, on pushbikes and even on horses trying to get past. 

On the journey down it was decided that Dave would start on the pole and I would start on a method long and we'd both ping pellets at 25-30m and drop on that later on. 

That plan went out the window inside 10 minutes when David, like a 6 year old, couldn't wait to try and catch a fish before me and went straight out long on the method before I'd even put my seatbox on the peg. He had an early carp and a skimmer but then it went quiet. 

When I'd eventually set up, and already soaking wet from the non-stop rain, I decided there was no point us both doing the same thing so I went on the bomb line. I had a couple of fish but it was noticeable that there were lots of fish shallow and they were taking the pellets as they hit the surface. A switch to the pellet waggler was the right decision and I started to bag up with big carp. 

Dave tried the pole with little success and then joined me on the bomb/pellet waggler line and even had a couple of fish on the floating feeder. A late look down our edges produce a couple of fish around the 20lb mark. 

We went away confident that if we drew on a few fish the next day, we knew what to do and what to avoid. We also went away very, very wet. A shower and some dry clothes and we were ready to face the world again. A few pints and off to bed dreaming about big fishies.

The following morning the weather was a lot better and we were hoping for a good draw. Everyone was hoping to draw end peg 124 and when Dave opened his ticket, it ripped revealing a hundred and twenty something. He was all all excited trying to open the other half. Not easy when you have hands like monkeys feet. When he opened it it was 121, close but no cigar. I drew 28 a good area and a peg which had won a MMT qualifier earlier in the year.

Dave had a few fish early on a method at distance and then came back on the bomb line and had a few more but his peg slowed right down and his section was won from peg 124 as expected. He managed 50lb altogether but was disappointed after a promising start.  

I started long on the method too and had one carp and a skimmer before it went quiet. A switch to the bomb line saw loads of indications but the tip just wouldn't go round. I tried the pellet waggler to no avail and before I knew it two hours had passed with just 14lb clicked. A quick phone call to Dave who was opposite me revealed he was using a much longer hooklength on the bomb than I had been. I swapped over to a 2ft tail and intantly had 3 carp for 44lb. A steady run on this to the end saw me weigh 121-10. 
This was good enough for 5th place overall. I picked up £180 and a new 9ft Garbolino feeder rod. 

I was left wondering what might have been if I'd sorted it out earlier with 149-15 winning the match.

Still it was a good result and we were both very proud to have represented the club in one of the top club competitions. 

Get your names down for next year if you can, it's a great experience.