[Dave Roberts]

Well what a day that was!!

I’m still buzzing and the text emails and phone calls I’ve had have been smashing.

Firstly I feel I should write a little about me as I’m not a high profile angler and many of you won’t know me.

I’m 33 years old and live in Hereford and have been fishing since I was 4 years old. I spent my youth fishing mainly on the Rivers Wye and Lugg in an era where commercials hadn’t really started taking over.

I won plenty of junior matches and was always described as promising by the senior anglers. I started open match and team fishing properly with Hatton Graduates in the early nineties and had reasonable success. The trouble was growing up!

I managed to avoid the long ‘lay off’ from fishing whilst I went to try and drink the world dry which so many youngsters experience. I still went fishing every Sunday, but in reality my kit was awful and under financed. I still used to do well locally and have always been a good team performer but I really wasn’t fulfilling my potential and was woefully inconsistent.

In 2001 at the age of 25 I met my now wife Lou and something changed. With a lot of blokes this again means a lay off from fishing but for me it bought a new attitude of wanting to fulfil potential. I set about becoming a better angler and in 2002 won the ‘Wye championships’. Being a Herefordian this was a dream come true and although I was still not as consistent as I could have been I was getting better and it was a fine reward for the work I’d started to put in.

The next thing was commercials. I just didn’t get it. I was one who always rubbished commercial fishing. I remember taking a battering at woodlands view by a bloke fishing a piece of corn a foot deep without moving it. He just waited for a bite and there would be a lump on the end. It flew in the face of everything I’ve ever learned and I just didn’t get it. If there wasn’t a match on a river or canal I wouldn’t go fishing but I now realised that if I wanted to fish (and compete) in big matches then I’d have to start learning.

Over the past 5 or six years I have put a lot of time into commercials whilst still maintaining my winter River campaign. I want to be an all round angler. I love natural venues more than anything but that’s not enough for me anymore. I have spent a lot of time on local small commercials learning different skills and then taking them to bigger venues/matches. Slowly but surely I’ve got a few results and have started competed as well as being brutally honest about my performances. I try not to come up with excuses because it annoys me when other anglers do it.

A month ago at the Woodlands View fisho I drew a reasonable peg on High pool. On my pool I had Matt Hall (Next Peg), Steve Hemmingray, Richie Hull, Danny Ashington, Phil Ringer amongst some other very good anglers. After 2 hours I was at least 35lb behind Matt Hall, it was getting embarrassing, But then I started catching. Slowly but surely I clawed it back and ended up beating Matt by 16lb. Matt is a top bloke and I told him honestly after how much beating him meant to me. I won the lake by 1oz and finished 4th overall. On another day could have qualified. I had no regrets because I knew I’d fished a blinder but something changed that day. I now new that given the opportunity I could qualify for a Fisho Final. I had a new confidence which led me to win 5 matches on the trot followed by a 4th. So I was on a high going to cudmore yesterday.

I arrived at the fishery yesterday having never even seen Cudmore. It’s a massive complex but general chat before the match pointed towards Tara lake being the place to draw. I was one of the last few to draw but whilst stood in the draw Steve Jackson came up to his mate and told him that red tags were Taras (at cudmore the peg numbers are on little colour coded key Tags). I put my hand in the bag and pulled out 2 by mistake. One black one green. I dropped the green one straight back in the bag. (I don’t know where green would have put me but looking back I ‘m glad I dropped it). To my amazement the black one said ‘Tara 3’ on it. So Much for Jackos theory! I was chuffed but it didn’t sound a stand out draw. I showed Bodge and he thought it sounded ok. I then spoke to a regular and he put me right on how to fish it. I don’t know this mans name but I will find out as I owe him big time.

When I got to the peg it looked lovely. I was out on a point and had an island at about 22 metres which screamed method feeder and also had plenty of open water.

The plan was a simple one. Fisho matches are unique in that you are fishing for an out and out win. In a team match I’d have set up for every eventuality but this was simple. If I didn’t catch on method feeder I’d catch on paste and pellet and if I didn’t catch on that I wouldn’t qualify!

I set up 2 standard Method feeder rods. The 2nd was just if I trashed the first. I mixed up some cudmore crushed pellet as groundbait and used hair rigged boilies as bait.

I set up 3 pole rigs which consisted of....

A paste rig using a 4x16 KC paste float on 0.17 powerline with a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook. The float was shotted to the bottom of the bristle with a bulk a 15 inches from the hook. Elastic was a Preston 13h set soft with a pulla bung. This rig was used in conjunction with a cable tie. I’m not a fan of super soft paste and prefer this way of shipping the bait out.

A pellet rig for fishing with expanders on the deck. The float was a preston PB19 on 0.15 powerline to size 2 Tubertini 175. Shotting was a spread bulk and this was again coupled with a 13h elastic with a pulla bung.

The final rig was a standard dibber shallow rig for lassoing 6mm pellets. I didn’t expect to catch on this and as it turned out I didn’t.

At the all in I cupped a big pot of 4mm pellets and paste on a line at 11m. I’d been told to fish 13m but the wind was coming across me and it was starting to rain persistently. I planned to feed this line with 4mm pellets with a catapult. This is something I have been doing successfully on local venues for a while now. I find that spreading the bait out a bit encourages more fish into the peg before they home in on the paste hookbaits.

I spent 45 biteless minutes on the method before eventually the tip pulled round and I was into a smallish fish which came as far as the net before shedding the hook. I took this as a positive sign but I was itching to have a go on the paste. My feeling was that if I had a look on the pole and didn’t catch I could set myself up for an out and out method approach for the remainder of the match.

After no more bites on the feeder I put it up the bank and shipped out a piece of paste. I’d been catapulting small amounts of pellet over the pole line but as the float settled down I put a big pouch right on top of it. After 30 seconds the float twitched a bit and then I had one of those classic paste bites where the float goes under so fast it makes you jump! A fish of about 3lbs was soon in the net and my mood was lifted as the weather deteriorated. 4 more followed in fairly quick succession before I experienced my first quiet spell. I couldn’t get a bite but felt there were still fish in the peg so I stopped feeding all together. This bought 2 smaller samples but I now felt the bigger fish were not coming in to the noise of the pellets landing so I picked up the catty and started feeding again. This turned out to be my best spell as I put another 7 fish in the net in an hour or so. I lost 2 or 3 fish during this period which may have been foul hooked but I knew the next bite was never far away so it wasn’t too much of a problem. Towards the end of this spell I could feel the peg going and different feeding wasn’t making a difference. At this stage I switched over to my pellet rig with a 6mm expander on which caught me 2 quick fish before the swim died again. After trying a few more things it was apparent the whole lake had switched off. No one was really catching.


With an hour and a half to go I re fed with half a cup of pellet and went back on the method. I never had a touch on this and decided to fish paste for the last hour. It was so frustrating because I’d been bagging in comparison to the rest of the lake and it had just gone. I hooked three fish in the last half hour. Two were foul hookers which came off and one was hooked properly which I got in with 10 minutes to go.

I ended the match with 16 carp. I was very disappointed because I’d been catching so well and it had all gone wrong.

When the scales came I was hoping my fish would go 60lb to at least put me up there. I weighed 59lb 2oz and it just didn’t sound enough. I laughed at the cameraman when he asked if I thought it would be enough!

As the scales went around the lake it soon became apparent I had won the lake despite the eventual runner up weighing 58lb 4oz and telling the cameraman that he had more than me??

I set about packing away very slowly. There was no one around so I just had my own thoughts to contend with. What if it has fished terrible all over? What if I have won……don’t be stupid Robbo!!

As I walked back up to the Café the first person I saw was bodge who said ‘I think you’ve done it mate!’. My heart started going mad and despite me not knowing who or what had weighed in I started talking utter gibberish saying things like ‘Suez hasn’t weighed in yet and they were catching on there’. I just didn’t want to be let down. I then spent the longest half hour of my life in the café drinking tea. I kept expecting someone to come through the door saying they’ve had 60lb somewhere. But it didn’t happen. No one confirmed I’d won but no one said I hadn’t. I didn’t want to ask.

Because they don’t pay default sections in Fisho matches I knew as they read out the section winners that if none of those beat my weight I had won. As the last section was read out at 18lb I knew I’d won…….WOW!

People were shaking my hand and congratulating me. As they announced me as the winner I was trying to be all cool in front of the cameras but I just couldn’t stop grinning!

I feel very lucky. I drew a flyer. No ifs, no butts, it was a flyer. I didn’t fish a perfect match but it was enough. In hindsight I’d have done things differently but I suppose the key thing was making the most of it while the fish were feeding.

I then had to do my interview for sky sports with the lovely Lauren. It can’t be easy for a young women trying to do her job in an atmosphere of smelly fisherman (especially with the mad scoucer trying to chat her up!) but I thought she was great. Her pink wellies were awful though and if I win the final I’ll buy her a new pair.

My phone was red hot by this stage and I just wanted to get home to Lou but I didn’t think I was safe to drive so I went and walked around the Arena for a while before floating home.

I haven’t had chance to really think about the final yet. As much as I believe in my own ability I didn’t think this would happen yet. I always felt that my best chance would be in another 3 or 4 years time. I know now that I can beat the big boys but I’m going to be up against it. Of those already qualified there are already about 7 finals between them. I have no idea about how I’ll handle the pressure. There’s a lot of money involved and as such I have to put the practice in and take it seriously but the main thing I’m going to keep reminding myself is to enjoy it, because it may never happen again!

[duffman]

What a teriffic bit of writing ! All the very best in the final Dave.

[welshmagic]

Excellent read mate and a massive congratulations! If you can win a 130 pegger than a piddly little 16 pegger should be a doddle! Good luck in the final,I'll be rooting for you

[JMCLincoln]

Dave.
That is a really good read, I take my hat off to you , winning the match and then being able to write about it like that is class.

[carpkid1]

well done mate

I can feel me sticking a couple of quid on you in fianl mate but all the best in fianl and enjoy and win!!!!

[Snooty Fox]

Probably the most honest and forthright write up I've read in a long time !

Best of luck to you in the final Dave

[Baz Walters]

Excellent read,all the best for the final mate.

[Jadstar70]

Absaloutely top drawer
Thanks for sharing that with us Dave, its shaping up to be a great final, and its nice to see people there that most of us can identify with, the very best of luck to you.

Paste see, for you non beleivers, tis the anser.....

[carpysteve]

Well done Dave and congratulations on your win and the very best of luck in the final.

The write up was excellent and an enjoyable read to boot.

Regards Steve

[winkledean]

well done dave