A valiant stand as carpers take on matchmen, tough conditions and bags of bream.
On Monday April 23 at a fishery at the centre of England, the age old question of who’s better, carpers or match anglers, was answered.

On the day the result was clear, and in conditions, time and at a fishery that didn’t necessarily suit the big fish boys, it wasn’t quite the answer that the carpers had been looking for.

A valiant effort is how the fishing of the Wychwood boys can be described though, as 10 top anglers took on a formidable line-up of matchmen from the MAP stable.

The likes of Tony Smeets, Colin Davidson, Steve Barton and Roy Russell took to the bank, fishing in pairs over a 6hour battle royal at Solihull’s Barston Lakes. Allowed to fish just a single rod each, the carpers worked together, ringing the changes to find out what was working on the day to maximize catches. However, being an all species event, not just carp, once the match anglers found the bream there was no stopping them resulting in a fairly emphatic end result.

In total the Wychwood carpers weighed in 286lb of carp, with the biggest being in the high doubles. However, the match anglers did slightly better, recording a total of 639lb 7oz for their ten anglers – one man alone recording a net of 151lb.

Excuses? None, but it was always going to be tough for the carp boys over this time frame and especially once the match anglers started catching the bream.

“The MAP boys fished really well, and they’ve got some very good anglers in their ranks, but I think we held our own on the carp front,” said Wychwood marketing manager and carp competitor in the match, Nic Brown. “If it had been carp only then it would have been a very close run thing as the majority of the match anglers' weights came from the species. As it was though, once the matchmen got the Barston bream going that was all she wrote.”


Wychwood CarpersPhoebe Stuart Peg 106
Having drawn the end peg on the left hand bank 11-year-old Phoebe had a number of small carp on the method with fake corn at 60yards – despite very challenging conditions.

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