Team Martin kept it well and truly in the family as the Kent side romped to victory in this second of three Supercup semi-finals, turning in a tremendous 15-point score on what turned out to be a very tricky Gold Valley complex!
Made up of dad Steve and various family members Dan, Jay, Vinnie and Tommy, plus ‘honorary Martin’ Ian Harper, the six anglers posted a section win, two seconds, two thirds and a fourth to leave the rest fishing for second place – a position that was grabbed by fellow Kent raiders Riverside AC on 28 points.
However, a lone section win from overall winner Chris Shields was all that separated them in second from third-placed Kingfisher Twin Lakes, as both teams ended on 28 points. The final two qualifying places were bagged by Petersfield DAC A and former champions Whitemoor Lakes as they tied on 30 points, a section giving Petersfield fourth.
Hopes were high for plenty of good weights across the lakes, but it never got going, especially on the Middle Lake where, after a good first few hours, the prolific stock of F1s shut up shop. On Syndicate it was a similar story, with lots of big carp cruising around but not willing to feed, so it was no surprise that Chris Shields, on the tiny Stock Pond, took top weight as he got stuck into the thousands of small F1s present.
The winners’ approach saw their two men on the Syndicate Lake, Vinnie and Jay, catch on very different methods. Jay used paste in the edge for a great last two hours to see him into third in the section, while Vinnie stuck to the pellet waggler for most of the day to score four points.
Paste again featured on the Middle Lake, where Tommy and the old man Steve caught F1s for a section second and section win respectively. Young gun Dan mugged some early carp at his peg to score a second in section, as the F1s were hard to come by.
That left Ian on the split section of the Stock and Bat Lakes, and while he looked to be up against it, being drawn on Bat, he turned in a fine performance to take third in section with the best weight on his lake – a draw that could have been a real banana skin!
Team result (top five qualify for final): 1 Team Martin, 15pts; 2 Riverside AC, 28 (section wins); 3 Kingfisher Twin Lakes, 28; 4 Petersfield DAC A, 30 (section wins); 5 Whitemoor Lakes, 30; 6 Team Revel’s Fishery, 32; 7 West Ewell AC, 35; 8 South Cerney Gold, 46; 9 Reed Thatcham AA, 47; 10 Kingfisher Spitfires, 50; 11 Watchet AC Red, 53.
Feeding switch unlocks f1s to seal the win
Before the draw, talk was of the Stock Lake producing the leading weights, but it didn’t quite work out that way.
It’s true that Chris Shields won off this small lake with 100-0-0, but after that the weights were spread over Syndicate and Middle Lakes.
Kingfisher Spitfires man Steve Carthy was second with 97-6-0 of carp off peg 113 on Syndicate Lake, fishing a combination of bomb, waggler and down the edge.
Reed Thatcham’s Isaac Ward completed the top three with 82-6-0 of carp on waggler and in the margins from nearby peg 116.
Riverside AC man Chris was on peg 4 of the Stock Lake, which is home to thousands of small F1s and the odd better carp – but, with the lake only being lightly fished, he, like the other four anglers on there, wasn’t too sure of the best tactics!
“I knew nothing about the lake, other than it was full of little F1s, so I went for an out-and-out pellet approach, using 4mm expanders on the hook and feeding micro pellets,” Deal-based Chris said.
“The water felt cold, so I thought I might not catch in the edge and put a line in at 6m into just over 4ft of water. After a quick look in the edge for no action, I quickly went out to 6m and worked out that micros weren’t right, as the fish came off bottom and were hard to catch.
“Changing to feeding a little hard ball of groundbait with a small pot was miles better and, from then on, I had a bite on almost every put-in.
“The only thing to sort out was the feeding, as sometimes a ball every two fish was best while, at other times, one after 10 fish worked,” he said. “I had over 200 little F1s plus a goldfish, which I worked out to be 80lb, but the fish clearly weighed a bit more!”
Chris fished a 4x12 float to 0.14mm line and a size 16 Super LWG hook, shotting the rig with a bulk to get the pellet straight down.
Individual result: 1 C Shields (pictured), Riverside AC, 100-0-0; 2 S Carthy, Kingfisher Spitfires, 97-6-0; 3 I Ward, Reed Thatcham AA, 85-4-0; 4 B Emery, West Ewell AC, 82-6-0; 5 P Stacey, Kingfisher Twin Lakes, 81-6-0;
6 J Foster, Petersfield DAC A, 80-4-0.