The Carp Society Adult Master Class 2010

The Carp Society Adult Master Class 2010
On the weekend of 6th, 7th, 8th August I volunteered to help out at the 2010 Adult
Master Class at Horseshoe Lake in Lechlade for the Carp Society. I had heard that
the junior event in June was a great success with around a 100 carp being caught
and many personal bests being achieved.
Preperation
I arrived at Horseshoe Lake on Thursday 5th August around 1pm; I had been looking
forward to this weekend and helping the inexperienced angler learn more within the sport.
This would be my first visit to the home of the carp society and my first thoughts were how
fantastic the place looked.
The club house is fitted with toilets, showers and a fully working kitchen and even a tackle
shop. After looking around the club house I made my way back to the car park where a few
more instructors had arrived and Tim Wagner who had organised the master class arrived
shortly after.
Tim had already been for a walk around the lake to see where the fish were and where
the best swims were to fish. He advised the instructors to take a quick look around this
picturesque lake to see if we all agreed that there were a lot of fish in Summer Bay and that
we should try and fish as many people around this area.
The pupils weren’t due to arrive until 9.30am Friday morning so the first night was left for
the instructors to fish and explore their areas for when their pupil’s arrived.
My Fishing
I was placed to fish in swim 57 and my trainee to 56. On arriving at my swim I quickly set up
my home for the weekend and went about feature finding to locate an area to present my
baits.
I had decided on fishing 2 rods on area at 39 yards to a clear area between the weed. I was
using 4 inch hook links, 1 on 16lb Grand Max Riverge fluorocarbon which has the same
diameter as normal 10lb mono and 1 on a 25lb thin braid, both were fished with snowman
rigs with 2 x 10mm baits on a size 8 curved hooks.

The bait I used was from Mistral’s Advanced range of i40 boilies, pop ups and juice, plus a
5kg bucket of their Ten pellets.
Both rigs were cast out with slack lines; I settled down after dinner looking for any carp
activity. On dark the carp activity started; they were jumping out at regular intervals and I
expected a run at any time. I didn’t have to wait long and at 2245hrs the first run came and
after a spirited fight the carp went into the net without any problems. At first I thought it
was a common however on looking more closely I began to think it was a fully scaled mirror
at 24lb, I’ll let you decide!

The carp continued showing and an hour later I was away again. This time it was a 14lb
common. I lost one at 0200hrs due to a hook pull; at this time I noticed that all the action
was coming to the same rod, the Grand Max Riverge fluorocarbon rig so after casting that
rod out again I brought the other rod in and put the same rig on it. Well that rod was only out
for around an hour when the bite alarm went into melt down.
A short while later I landed my 3rd carp of the night, weight 21lb.
I cast that rod out again and this time I didn’t have time to put the rod in the rest, the rod
was almost pulled out of my hand! Unfortunately I only had the carp on for a few seconds
when I had my 2nd hook pull of the night.
That was the end of the action so I managed to get a little rest before going to the club
house for breakfast. So the first night was a success considering that I haven’t fished
Horseshoe before.

Friday 6th August
Coaching
After breakfast Tim gave the instructors an information sheet of our pupil’s capabilities
which tells us a little about their fishing so far. At 9.30am the pupils started to arrive and
were teamed up with their relevant instructor.
My pupil was Mark Pearce from Kidlington in Oxfordshire, he had only been carp fishing for
one year. His questionnaire sheet said he wanted to gain as much information as possible
and maybe catch a personal best; his PB was 18lb. We made our way round to our swims
and spent the first 3 hours going over where to fish in Mark’s swim.
This involved leading around finding the difference between clear areas, gravel and weed.
Once we had found an area to fish to we then went through Mark’s tackle box to see what
rigs he was currently using. We changed a couple of things to make his rig more effective
however, I wanted every item in his rig to come from Mark’s own tackle box so when he
went fishing again he didn’t have to go and buy anything. We settled on 4 inch 12lb mono
hook link, size 6 hook with 2 14mm baits, a snowman rig, he then cast out his rods.
Mark’s first catch PB 19lb 12

We had a checklist from Tim of things to teach the pupils. They included Fish care, Marker
float, Casting, General Safety, Making Rigs, PVA, Spodding, Line, Floater Fishing, Playing
Fish and Photography.
While going over some of these subjects Mark had a blistering take on one of his rods, after
a short fight we landed what looked like a 20lb Mirror, once weighed it went 19lb 12 which
was still a PB for Mark so he was very happy.
Whilst getting the camera ready for taking a few photo’s Marks other rod had a blistering
take, 2 takes within minutes. Mark ran to his rod and I took care of the carp and put it back
in the net and then into the water. I went to get my landing net and netted Marks 2nd fish.
This fish was little bigger at 22lb 04 so Mark had now beaten his PB twice within minutes.
We took pictures of both fish, then cast his rods out again and waited for some action which
didn’t happen, so at 16.45hrs we brought our rods in to get to the club for 1700hrs for a
presentation on bait by James Anderson and dinner.
Mark’s second PB 22lb 04
After dinner everyone went back to their swim to fish for the night. For Mark and myself
nothing happened, a peaceful night.

Saturday 7th August
Breakfast was at 08.30hrs in the club house, everyone was then back to their swim to fish,
or they could have roamed about to do some floater fishing or stalking. Mark wanted to
go back to his swim and get some baits out there. I think the two fish he caught yesterday
had made up his mind. We gave most of the day in the swim however whilst nothing really
happened it gave us a chance to work through the checklist.
Malc preparing the spod with i40

It was back over the club house at 17.00hrs for discussion on all things carpy hosted by Tim,
Wagner. It turned out to be a rig discussion, all very interesting; everyone learnt something
including the instructors. Dinner at 1800hrs then back to the swim for the night.
The second night only produced a 16lb fully scaled for me and nothing for Mark.
Sunday 8th August
We went for breakfast as usual then back to the swims for the last few hours to fish and
pack away our gear to be at the club house for prizes and to say our goodbyes.
Tim gave away prizes to pupils that had caught the biggest and smallest fish, pupils that had
beat their PB’s etc. All prizes had been donated by Mistral Baits, Nash Tackle, Nash Bait and
Korda as well as Wychwood and TFG.
Over the weekend the Horseshoe carp really didn’t want to play ball and were very reluctant
to put in an appearance on the bank. The full lists of captures are as follows:
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Mark Pearce, peg 56,mirrors of 19.12PB and 22.04PB - (My Pupil)
Glenn Close, the springs, mirrors of 20.04 15.04 and 14.02
Iain Chapman, peg 66, mirrors of 11.04 and 9.10
Neil Coombes, peg 7, mirror of 19.12
Stuart Buchanan, big double, mirrors of 17.12 and 14.4
Martin Vaughan, the split, mirrors of 23.02 and 13.06
Karl Goldsmith, peg 2, mirrors of 22.08
Dave Radley, peg 5, mirror of 12.08
Tim Coppin, the split, mirrors of 22.05 and 35.02PB
Jason Mottershead, the lagoon, mirrors of 15.09 and 14.13
Tom Mercer, winter point, miror of 18.10
Glen Pattison, winter point, mirrors of 21.10 and 19.04
I would like to say a big thank you to the carp society for a very successful weekend.
Everyone was looked after and the food was fantastic. I hope to be invited back to the Master
class 2011.
Malc Grice, Team Mistral