Essex Air Ambulance Adult 24 Hour Carp Match 2016 - Braxted Res

Under dark clouds and a brisk breeze the match got under way, and with all the talk of the previous match at Blunts Mere where the pellet waggler was the successful method, few of the teams felt this may be the way to fish this match. Pellet and spod mix were constantly cast out, which kept the local ducks happy.

Team Torrix  ( Ed Marsh & Andy Lyon ) got off to a flyer with 3 fish for 53lb in the first hour fishing on the far bank, match peg 7 and on match peg 2 Team BWB ( Mike Bridger & Lee Kennett ) had 2 fish for 21lb.

Midway through the afternoon and fish were coming out regularly and on match peg 4Team Cheque Book Charlie`s ( Gareth Spary & Robert Gemson ) started to amass a good weight.

Unfortunately a couple of teams lost either a few fish or the odd bigger fish, time would tell if this would prove costly.

Things went quiet during the early evening with some teams struggling to get a bite but, bucking the trend were DT Baits ( Kris Garrett & Paul Bocking )  who caught majority of their fish which pushed them from last  to 3^rd place

As there is no night fishing allowed on the Braxted complex water no one knew how it would fish, however this venue had held the carp match twice before in the past few years and going on past experience not much was caught. So it proved, as catches were few and far between and some of the marshals actually got some sleep.

The morning progressed and the fish seemed to switch on and all of a sudden with each fish caught, got you either in to the final 5 positions or pushed out of contention. At one stage on the far bank between match pegs 6-9 only 13lb separated the teams.

Back on match peg 4 Cheque Book Charlie`s were up to 150lb and way out in front.

In a frantic last hour teams that had struggled, started to catch and hoped for storming finish that would  propel them up the leader board, teams who had started well couldn't buy a bite which cost them dear. 

In the end it was Team Cheque Book Charlie`s that took the honours.

Various methods were used with pellet waggler and zig rigs proving popular and accounting for majority of the fish.

Largest fish went 20lb 06oz on peg 9 by The Cannons

Average weight 14lb approx 

As ever I would like to thank our sponsors DT Baits and Specimen Angling for their support and the prizes that were donated, they are very much appreciated.

Thanks to Tom from DT Baits who bought along extra prizes and bags of boilees for the competitors and Kit Speakman for allowing us to fish on the lake over night.

The event wouldn't be able to go ahead without the help of the Marshalls who give up their time to help.

Gary Squirrell, Mark Jones, Ken Safill, Daniel Spurgeon, Nigel Peckham, Phil Watts, Lee Chamberlain and Lee Goodchild.

Thank you GentlemenMr Roger Corrie from the Essex Air Ambulance was in attendance to collect a cheque for £2000 for last years event.

And finally £340 was raised from the raffle, so a big thank you to everyone

Ian Stokes

Chairman