We fished Alders last year and I was lucky enough to draw peg 3 and take the club 5 hours match record after a gruelling peg to peg battle with Alan Gardner. Big weights were expected as this is a very prolific lake with a deep(ish) dam end and  the top and sides which are (very) shallow. The pegs near the entrance are considered the best so there was some tension at the draw. Overhearing some of the other regulars at breakfast I didn’t want the dam wall and especially peg 24 they reckoned was amongst, if not, the worst on the lake.

So the draw itself saw Josh ( Mr record crucian) pull out super hot peg 3, that was going to be a hard combination to beat as Josh excels at carp bagging. Brian Lakin was on peg 38 (3rd year in a row) which is decent and Matt was on peg 35 a peg that had produced a few wins in the recent open matches. I dipped my hand in the bag and pulled out peg….24… grrr. On the plus side no pressure and with Alan G on peg 25 we could have a another peg to peg battle again. Fortunately a large tree blotted the glare from his florescent turquoise polo shirt.

As it was deep I reckoned my best chance was to fish shallow and to feed constantly and by that I mean every 5-10 seconds and try and draw the fish up in the water. Everything was ready on my narrow wobbly platform for the off and as soon as the whistle went I could see Josh playing a fish.  Within minutes virtually everyone around me was catching. It was quite a sight to see a rainbow of different coloured elastic stretching out around the lake.

I kept feeding 4mm hard pellet by hand at about 5m whist fishing just off the ledge on the bottom and getting the odd fish but slowly. After about 15 mins a few swirls appeared so out I went only a tiny dibber and started catching the odd carp. Every time I looked up Josh was playing a fish and holding his landing net in the other hand. It was pretty clear he was going to have a big weight. Would he trouble the 5 hour match record, err yep and what about the 5 ½ record set on the last match at Entire by his buddy Nick. If he kept up at that pace it looked possible.

AlanG next to me started to get the odd fish in close on corn and got a better stamp of fish than me. I kept plugging away and getting burst of fish but couldn’t keep them at close range and didn’t want to chase them out se kept resting the swim whilst coming down the edge. The fish I was getting shallow were pretty small but the fish off the bottom were bigger but I could not get them on the bottom at any speed.

My wobbly platform was causing me some issues as it flexed when I moved on my seatbox, ditching my pole roller in once and dunking my poles 5 times wasting me precious times feeling around for my lost section on the bottom of the lake.

Platform sorted it was time to get back to catching and the next couple of hours were good and I went into the 4^th hour confident but this was a bad hour for me. AlanG to my left and Steve to my right seemed to slow down as did I. Josh didn’t though ! the last hour was full on as the fish went berserk and the last 45 mins saw me put around 70lb in the net with fish after fish shallow. I wasn’t sure I’d had as much as Alan yes more fish but he’d got amongst the lumps.  Steve to my right had been catching fishing mid depth and reports were Stan had had lots and Charlie Palmer had got amongst the zoo creatures fishing meat down the edge. Matt was always going to be dangerous on any peg but had anyone got anywhere near Josh ? As the whistle went we knew we’d have the answers in some time.

The weigh-in was hard work with so many big weights. Brian first to weigh and had 121lb with Mark Jones next door on 37 adding 30lb to that with 151lb. Matt had a strong 185lb 12 oz on paste and pellet. Steve McCarthy surprised many by using maggots and only catching 4 rudd but 193lb of carp which proved it was a good decision and worth 4th place. Adele Beasley (current Ladies Champ) had a personal best weight of 154lb - but hubby Dave over on peg 5 was punching the air with delight when the scales proved that he had beaten his missus with 166lb. Come on Dave...you were on a flyer !!!

First to break the 200lb mark was Colin Rennsion who’d got some proper lumps on corn from peg 30 to record 214lb 8oz. Alan G to my left had a shade under the 160lb he estimated. I wasn’t sure I’d had more but was pleased to record 189lb 12 oz. Stan then put the next 200lb weight on the scales at 202lb 12oz. After a very slow start Stan on dam peg 18 he had found fish at 4m taking 6mm expanders, one a bung as they say, beating commercial fishery regular Ivan to his right who had 157lb. Plenty of other ton-up weights were recorded on a wide variety of baits from corn, meat, hard pellet, expander etc. Top junior was Colin Napper with 88lb. Also notable was veteran Charlie Palmer who fished a tidy match using chunks of meat tight in the margins to land 182lb, well clear of anyone else on the pump house bank...aside from super star Josh. It as clear he had won but my how much and had he done the record? After a lengthy and exhausting weighing process (six keepnets) Josh recorded an incredible 422lb 4oz of corn caught carp to add a new club record to his list of achievements.

With the superb weather, a nice breakfast and some truly excellent fishing I think we’d all like this booked again for next year !

Some Stats:

5 = number of times my pole slipped of my platform and fell into the lake for me to have to stop fishing to feel around on the bottom for it.

6 = number of nets Josh filled

6 = Tines of corn Josh used to make his record catch

20 = Weights over 100lb

30 = number of anglers fished

131 = average weight in lbs caught per angler

487 = swear words used after people being smashed up or loosing fish

2000 = number of times I fed during the match

3932 = total weight in lbs of carp landed. Plus Allan Sprake had about 10lb of rudd !