NEWS - Wales Carp Masters Heat 4 results

Heat 4 of the 2008 Wales Carp Masters took place at Celtic Lakes Resort over the weekend of 18th - 20th July.

Six pairs of carp anglers took part in Heat 4 of Wales' premier carp fishing competition, the full results of which are as follows:

The weather was once again not too kind to the 6 pairs of anglers who took part in Heat 4 of the 2008 Wales carp Masters. Despite this the winning duo of Jason Callaghan & Steve Blow from Sticky Baits produced a winning weight of just over 194lb. Steve takes up the story:

After what seemed like an age for it to come round it was finally friday morning and ready for the off on a long journey to Wales, luckily we had dragged in a friend to take care of the driving as the last thing you need before a match like this is a 4 and a half hour drive!! All bait was ready beforehand, carefully prepared as always by Jason and Kieran after weeks of deciding what we should take. I suppose it would be rude not to tell you what we took with this being a bait website so here goes, mainly we were focusing on the bloodworm range, a few kilo of 12mm and 15mm, the ever reliable bloodworm pellet and a new liquid we are trialling with our field testers to top it off. All in all we didn't really take a lot of bait as it is more pva bag work than spodding on this venue, the main thing was we were confident in what we were taking and the only worry on our minds was the draw.

After what seemed like an age we arrived at the venue around 12pm and had an hour before the draw to get our peg choices sorted for when the watercraft draw took place, this is always the nerve racking time and the next hour was spent pondering one peg over another and also discussing our chances of coming out of the hat early. One thing in our favour was the number of entrants was down from normal so the chances of a half reasonable draw was looking good. 1pm came and first name out of the hat Justin & somebody, Justin doesn't half sound like Jason when your dying to be first out but it wasn't to be, lol. Next out of the hat, the guy couldn't read the name, we just new it was somebody and Steve ( That's me I thought as I scanned the others to remember if there was another Steve there!!!) It did turn out to be us and we was as happy as we could be as our first choice swim was duly allocated to us as the first pairing had opted elsewhere. Result No.1 :)

As we arrived at the peg J showed in the 10 month lay off he has had off the bank ( tackle theft thieving scum ) he hasn't lost his skills and duly placed his sleeping bag on the side of the peg that we both would have wanted. Who was I to argue it's a team event but I made sure as you do that I got a few sly digs in about him nicking the good water. Turned out to be the start of a complete micky taking from both of us that lasted all weekend but kept us going through the harder times when your tired. All things sorted in the peg and it was ready for the off, we were in the right peg, we had the right bait, it was just down to our angling to get us through now.

It was a pretty slow start to the match, normally this water is capable of big bags of fish but it was obvious from quite early on that this was going to involve hard work and a bit of thought. Having fished the water before we didn't expect to need a marker but after 2 hours of frustration at not seeing much we decided to go for the features and not just cast at showing fish as the fish weren't showing. The margin to J's right we knew was the holding area for the fish so he concentrated along there whilst I experimented with trying to pick fish up from here, there and everywhere. Going into the night we had put around 35lb on the board and was pleased to hear that the lake was not playing ball and we were already about 20lb ahead.

Nightime produced a few fish for us but nothing like we were expecting as we picked up a couple each, I could only get into the smaller fish though and it was getting pretty frustrating but luckily J knocked a couple of low doubles onto the tally. Again everyone else had had very quiet nights so we extended the lead slightly. Early on Saturday morning was when we started to get a few more regular takes, the fish had really moved into J's far margin and a string of fish topped up by a few more pasties from me saw us stretch into a pretty good lead which got up to around the 70lb I think.

Saturday afternoon was probably the most frustrating period as the fish went quieter and when we did get a run they were off as quick as they were on, afternoon soon turned to night and it was heads down for a bit of kip as tiredness set in. A small one for me was about the only action that night but it was back to J's rods for a couple of fish in the morning just as the match was coming to a close. Final weight saw us just shy of 200lb, the way the lake fished we were more than happy with this as it sealed our place in the final, 2nd place also qualified with a weight of 150 odd lb's unfortunately the friendly welsh chaps Nathan and Andy missed out with just over 100lb.

Thanks to John and his team for great hospitality as always and we can't wait for the final, keep your eyes peeled on sky sports as coverage of the final is being televised. Big thanks to our driver aka Trapper as well, it's not an easy journey but he still managed to stay awake and keep up with the jokes. Well sorry to babble on but had to fit everything in and this was only the half of what I could have gone through as need to keep some tactics back for the final as this is on the internet after all ;)

Thanks to Steve and Sticky baits for this write up. Check out their website at: www.stickybaits.com

Andrew Brown and John Butler (fourth placed finishers) has this to say about the heat and the event:

It started on Thursday for us (bad move),not recommended to go the night before and sleep in the car. Friday started with a look at the lake for the first time and to say we where impressed would be a understatement. The venue is huge with several lakes for pleasure and big carp fishing. The specimen lake we were using for the masters was a cracker and looked a dream to fish. With plenty of pegs and features to fish too, the weather was fine and we looked forward to starting the competition. But before that we popped out to get some well needed breakfast.

Then time to meet everyone and check out the pegs we were using in the competition. We decided that peg 2 and peg 6 were the ones to get with peg 7 and 1a close 3rd and 4th. As it turned out on the draw we ended up with peg 4 as the draw did not favour us this time around, but still with confidence high we set up and waited for the start.

The Friday night produced two fish for me and unfortunately for John several fish where missed. The weather was fine with a slight breeze.

Saturday was a different ball game with very high winds and over cast weather, the fish were not playing and it was a hard days fishing. I had two more fish and John had two, he was still having problems with losing fish. Saturday night had not changed anything but I managed to have a 16.02lb which made the weekend feel a bit better.

Sunday morning and the end was close, by now we knew we had no chance of coming in the top two as they were to far in front. The horn went at 8 o'clock and that was that, we found out that we had come 4th with 73lb of fish. I must say I was surprised the weight was that much but on reflection I did have all doubles so they soon add up. The winners had 193lb of fish which is a very low amount by all accounts and just shows that the weekend was a hard weekend for all the competitors.

All in all we had a experience that would hold us in good stead for the next competition we enter. I have decided to have another go this weekend (heat 5) to see if the draw can be more favourable and give us a big catch. I'll let you know how I get on soon.

Thanks to Andrew and John from Welfihols for this write up. Check out their website at: www.welfihols.com

Congratulations to the first and second placed pairs. We look forward to welcoming you back to Celtic Lakes in August for the final.

There are still places available in the remaining two heats. We are definitely due some decent weather and with it some awesome fishing that we know Celtic Lakes is capable of producing, so if you fancy some amazing carp fishing and a chance to be crowned Wales carp Masters 2008, please visit our registration page to find out more.

Click here to register

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Heat 5 qualifying results

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Heat 1 qualifying results

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