During the first Angling Times Maver Pairs qualifier of 2008, a match which saw 5,004lb of carp landed by the 60 competitors and an average of 83lb per man, Bristol match ace Des amassed the colossal bag from end peg 8 on the Match Lake.

Des in action

The weight falls just 6lb short of the venue record despite the Preston Innovations man starting cautiously, fishing Sonubaits.com pellet on the bottom. But a whirlwind last two hours saw him catching a fish a cast just 4ins deep!
“Sport at Larford has been a bit slow to pick up this year with the changeable weather so nobody really knew what to expect. There was a South-Westerly wind and it was really blowing, so I set up some up-in-the-water rigs just in case. And after an hour I needed them!” said Des.
Initially feeding via a CAD pot on his pole at 11.5m and fishing a 4mm Sonu expander pellet on the hook on the deck, Des also regularly loosefed 4mm hard pellets over the top to try and bring fish shallow. He eventually started getting line bites and picked up one of his up-in-the-water rigs set 12ins deep. He never looked back, shallowing up to 4ins in the last few hours and finishing up with an estimated 180 to 200 F1 carp for his record-rattling haul.
“I didn’t realise just how close I was to the venue record but it was a brilliant day’s fishing all the same - they just kept coming,” said Des, who qualified for the prestigious pairs final once again with his partner Steve Mayo.

Thanks to the Angling Times for details and pics

For more on Des go to weblog

Article By: Ed