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The final verdict on heat 3 at the BirchHEAT 3 – The Birch, Peterstone
To be honest I would have liked to have said that myself and my fishing partner for the competition Gareth were meticulous with our preparation for this match, but we weren’t, everything seemed to be left to the last minute, may be that was a good thing as we didn’t have time to worry about what might be?
Anyway, we just about made it for the draw with a few minutes to spare. All the other competitors were there and so started the atmosphere; it was electric not knowing which pegs we were going to pull out of the hat. The usual banter was being thrown around the room and we didn’t think that we had pulled a good peg out as we had a few pegs which we thought were going to be the going swims and we missed all of them, so we had to make the most of the draw we had!
Due to the rushing around we had done that morning and the fact that the draw was not kind to us, we were not in any hurry to get our gear up to our swim, so we grabbed our bivvies and made our way up to the lake. Whilst putting up our base camp we noticed a few carp roll out in front of us, which is always a good sign.
Back at the cabin for another cuppa and a chat with the usual crew, 5 minutes turned into 30 and suddenly we realised that we had better get a move on.
There was a plan that Gareth and I had decided on before the match and we thought that we would stick to it, well until we thought that it had run its course, plus what the other anglers were catching would have a big say as well.
Once all the mountains of gear were set up and the start time fast approaching, we wished each other luck and cast our rods out on the hooter. The action was a bit slow on the first evening and into the night with only three carp caught, but we were happy Gareth caught one of them to put us on the board and into third place.
Gareth then caught his second, which put us into the lead briefly but only for about 10 minutes as one of the other lads that were off the mark caught another one and went into the lead themselves. We didn’t panic, as there was a long way to go yet.
Saturday went by pretty quietly and we were still in second place up to the evening. Up to this time we were constantly spodding one area through out the match to see what type of reaction we would have off it, by the time night came Gareth caught his third which put us in the lead, now was the time we were on edge as once we had taken the lead we felt we were there to be shot at.
But the spoded area was doing its job admirably and the carp were visiting our mat on a regular basis and by the morning we had taken a bit of a lead, so now we were setting ourselves targets to beat and the next one was to beat the match record on the venue, a couple of carp later that milestone was passed, the smiles on our faces were getting bigger and bigger by the minute as it suddenly hit us that we might win this heat.
With just an hour to go and with a healthily lead, we were just soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the whole event, when out of the blue a few of the lads grabbed me held me aloft and duly threw me into the lake!! Coming up for air I looked over and saw Gareth just jump into the lake which was met by cheers from the crowd that was now gathering.
Back to the cabin then for the formalities, the handshakes and pats on our wetbacks. Martin the fishing manager then suggested that we should all make our way out side for the official photos, but little did we realise what was in store for us!!
A couple of the guys had climbed up on the cabin roof with buckets of the most disgusting smelling water which they dumped over us to the enjoyment of the crowd.
Was it over, of course it wasn’t, as we were soon being covered in flour and being pelted with eggs, by the time everyone had run out of ammunition we looked like we were auditioning for Casper the ghost!!
The whole event was something we would not have missed for the world, plus the bonus that we will be fishing the final at Celtic Lakes for a go at the big prize.
The whole event at The Birch was very professional and the marshals were excellent, plus what can you say about the breakfast? Awesome, so a big thank you has to go out to Martin for holding a memorable heat, which neither Gareth or myself will forget in a hurry.
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