Match fishing can be a game of fine margins, but at this year’s British Carp Angling Championships, the winning pair finished over a whopping 350lb ahead of second place.
It was Ashley Izzard and Tony Reynolds that romped home with the title, taking 33 fish for 566lb 2oz over the three-day event at Hampshire’s Broadlands Lake.
27-year-old Ashley is one of the event’s youngest ever winners and was ecstatic to go home with the title and a shared £20,000.
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“It was the dream match, in many ways,” he told us.
“You always hope to get a swim that’s perfect for the conditions, and we got just that in the shape of peg 1. In the build-up, we were prepared to fish boilies on the deck, but a crazy spell of hot weather before the match led to a change of plan, so we stocked up with floater fishing kit.”
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After firing out some mixers, it wasn’t long before fish were taking confidently, and after day one, the pair were around 250lb ahead. As it turned out, that’d have been enough to secure the title, but Ashley and Tony continued bagging the following day, adding an additional 300lb.
“We had to be careful not to get carried away and were cautious to leave the fish a ‘safe’ area to back into by a big bed of lilies, so they didn’t desert us completely,” Ashley explained.
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“The plan paid off, and we ended up setting a new match record for the venue. I’m so pleased to win. Loads of effort and expense has gone into this. Looking over at my dad when the final whistle went was emotional – we both had tears in our eyes!”
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