I Qualified for Barston Masters

 

 

 

I Qualified for Barston Masters

 

The Prep

This year, I more or less avoided matches. I felt like I couldn't dedicate as much time as I would have liked, so I didn't want to fish without being fully confident. However, I still love the buzz and pressure of a competition, so I fished a few club matches and two Feeder Master qualifiers, where I did poorly since I wasn't prepared at all. Anyway, while scrolling through Facebook, I saw someone selling a Barston Masters qualifier ticket and, without giving it much thought, I bought it.

Thankfully, in the past few weeks, I had the chance to fish a bit, so my casting was quite dialled in,I had confidence in my methods so my confidence was high. Before the match, I checked a few match reports from the lake to get an idea of which areas are good and to gather overall info about the place, as I hadn't fished it since last year. I also saw some Facebook posts from people who had fished there recently, and it was clear how I had to approach it.

A day before the match, I went to practice at one of my local fisheries where the fishing and the fish size are similar to Barston. I wanted to test some new hooks and make sure all my gear was ready to go. That turned out to be a good decision, as those hooks, despite being made out of a thick wire gauge, bent quite easily with the bigger carp, even without much pressure.

Except for the hook problem, the practice day went great. I fished two swims—one on the catapult line around 35 meters and another at 21.5 wraps, or approximately 65 meters. I started on the long line, getting plenty of bites from the start. While fishing the long line, I kept pinging my short line with 11mm pellets. After about an hour, I switched to the short line, managing to pick up a few nice carp as well.

After 3 hours of fishing, I had around 15 carp, which was enough to boost my confidence and confirm that my baits and techniques were on point. I went home early enough to stop by the tackle shop. With the help of the staff there, I managed to get some similar-shaped hooks of superior quality. Getting home early also gave me plenty of time to tie the new hooks and prep everything for the match.

 

The Match

The morning came, and it was match day. I was very excited and quite confident; the only thing that could hold me back was the draw. While waiting, I had the chance to chat with several people who spend much more time fishing matches than I do, so their insights were highly appreciated.

At the draw, I somehow ended up among the last few anglers to draw, and the peg I got was definitely one I didn't fancy. I drew peg number 91, which is on the opposite side of the lake from where I was hoping to be. A match win was out of the question, but looking at the section, it was quite fair, with a chance to qualify at least. The winner of the 10-peg section goes into the final.

When I got to my peg, I finished my prep in less than an hour, as I had all my bait sorted from home. I just had to set up my box, plumb up my swim, and clip up my rods. With around an hour to go until the start, I had a walk around the section, chatting with the fellow anglers, who were a great bunch of people. Among them, three were compatriots of mine, and as we had just met, there were plenty of things we had in common, having grown up in similar settings.

The “ALL-IN!!!” was shouted, and I started baiting up my long line with a few big bait-up feeders loaded with pellets and some corn. While doing that, I started catapulting pellets on my short line between casts.

I had my first cast on the long line, with no sign in the first 10 minutes. On my second cast, the tip went round, and I landed a beautiful ghostie around 5-6lb. Knowing that the area wasn’t great, I was happy to catch anything, and that fish gave me a lot of hope. With the next cast, I had another fish, quite small but very welcomed. In the next hour, bites slowed down, and I only managed another carp and a bream. I tried alternating between the long and short lines, but with no success, just another bream and a small crap in the next 3 hours. During all this time, I kept catapulting pellets on my short line, hoping that the fish would stop there at some point. Another hour passed with just one more carp and a bream from the long line.

I didn’t have a great weight at that time, but no one in the section did either, so I knew I had a chance to get to the final. In the last half hour, as I wasn’t getting any indications on the long line, I switched back to the shorter line. Not long after, the tip went round, and I landed a carp around 10lb. I was over the moon with that; it gave me much hope for the section win. So I cast back, and again, another carp. Not as big, but I was just happy to get bites. In the last 20 minutes, two more came, and as soon as I put the last one in the keep net, I heard the finish whistle.

The person to my right said he had around 20lb, and I knew I had more than that. As I’m very bad at estimating fish weight, I thought I had around 35lb. I was quite uncertain if I had enough, as I kept hearing people pulling fish further on my left-hand side. When the scales came, I was told that the biggest weight so far was 24lb. To my surprise, I weighed in at over 54lb, which was much more than I imagined I had.

The weight was quite low for the lake’s standard, but my plan was to get as much as I could from my peg. This worked well, and I managed to qualify, which was my first aim. I also managed to take the section with more than double the weight of the person who got second in the section, which boosted my confidence a lot for future matches.

 

In conclusion this match was a great experience overall. The fishing part was quite demanding, which made the result much more fulfilling. Besides the fishing, I had the chance to meet some great people and make new friends. Now, I'm eager to get to the final, and hopefully, I'll be able to draw a good peg.