Displaying items by tag: event

The Golden Balls team strike their rods to success yet again!
That’s right anglers, it’s that time of year again for the famous golden balls charity event at Hawkhurst fish farm, Kent. 76 carp and match anglers including children from the age of 10, took to the lakes 12th-13th September to try and catch as many fish as they could in order to win the famous GB trophy and raise money for the Cancer Research UK charity.

The event included four separate matches of 1 junior match, 2 senior matches and 1 24 hour carp match over the two days. This years matches were all organised by the golden balls committee, where 12 juniors competed side by side in their match for 6 Hours. … So how did they get on?

1st     George Bolt     44lbs
2nd      Ross Macauley     42lbs 10oz   
3rd     Ash Cornish     26lb

Whilst the juniors were competing, the first senior match also made a start at 9.00 am. Dave Sage came in 1st place on Saturday’s match having a total weight of 156.9 lbs. so how did the runners up do?
1st     Dave Sage     156.9 lbs
2nd     Vic Elmer     148.0 lbs
3rd     Daren Chaston     126.12 lbs

As the sun went down, and a new day arises the second senior match got on the way. With the cloudy skys holding off the rain Paul Lamb came in fist place with the following not too far behind him:

1st     Paul Lamb     148.3 lbs
2nd     P Ollernshaw     114.14 lbs
3rd     Mark Breckall     110.4 lbs

So after these successful three matches, how were the anglers getting on in the 24 hour carp match that started on Saturday at 12pm…with the eager anglers getting their rods in and their bait scattered all round their swims, Ashley Izzard got the reel spinning catching the first fish in the match automatically taking him to the lead with a 10lb carp. But as the night drew nearer the real excitement started. The specimen lake became very popular with Daniel Warren catching a 26lb mirror and Dale Cassell catching a 29 lbs not too far behind him. So who was the lucky angler to win the famous golden balls trophy?

1st     Dale Cassell     55lb 10oz
2nd     Ashley Izzard     43lb 8oz
3rd     Frank Wheeler     31lb

Heaviest fish trophy sponsored by rigmarole also went to Dale Cassell of 29lb 2oz.

So up to the marquee for the famous raffle, presentations and grand total to be announced, all the match and carp anglers including juniors had their raffle tickets ready and braced themselves to hear that magic total they helped raise go towards Cancer Research UK. There was an overwhelming number of prizes donated for the raffle, and tombola that also took part during the day times over the weekend. The raffle wouldn't have been so successful if it wasn’t for our generous sponsors (see below). These were very much appreciated by all the golden balls team and organisers, not to mention the lucky winners who won fantastic holidays ranging from a weeks fishing holiday at Sky Lakes to a wide range of fishing equipment from Fox, Warriors and so on.

The golden balls committee along with Cancer Research UK representative Helen Waters and David and Wendy Dukes (Mayor of Tunbridge Wells) addressed the eager crowd who all took part, how much they had finally raised. The honour was left to Ben Wilkinson to announce the grand total of £17,500 as all their faces lit up with pride, from raising such an outstanding figure for the one event. What an amazing achievement and have to take our hats off to all that played a part in yet another successful weekend. Speaking to Barry Cale the founder of golden balls charity moments after said he was very thankful to everyone that took part and couldn’t believe how much they had still managed to raise with the current climate.

This is now the 4th golden balls charity event he has organised with his committee to be at the amazing grounds of Hawkhurst fisheries, Kent. Barry and his family including two daughters Stacie Hudson and Hayley Cale who also arrange their own yearly charity events based around dancing would personally like to thank everyone who played a part in the event, from people simply buying raffle tickets to our wonderful marshals Tony the tench, John Crundwell and Will Izzard. They all deserve praise for giving us their time and effort over the weekend. Not to forget our great number of sponsors and Hawkhurst fish farm for letting us use their complex. None of this could have been so successful without them, and it’s great to know all the money raised will help find a cure for the disease that effects so many of us.

Should you wish to make a donation to Cancer Research UK after being inspired by this magnificent event, you can do so by entering this link into your web browser. www.cancerresearchuk.org You can also contact them on 0207 2420200 for further details. Next years event will be taking part at the same picturesque complex of Hawkhurst fish farm 11th-12th September. If you would like to take part or would like to find out more details, please visit our new website www.gballs.webs.com or you can contact Barry cale on bnccale@hotmail.com or 07860491478. well done again to everyone and good luck for next year.

Hayley Cale
Golden Balls Secretary

The golden balls team would like to thank, in no particular order Norman Cale, Tim and Julie Sneed, Helen Waters, David and Wendy Dukes (deputy mayor of Tunbridge Wells), Tetly, Tony the tench, Trevor and Karen Dyer, Frank Wheeler, Glen Gatson, Wayne Gatson, Simon Sharp, Wendy Cale, John Crundwell, Hawkhurst fish farm, Ray Harris, Ashford Tackle, Vision Vinyls, Fresh Water Informer, Decathlon, Fox, Sky Lakes, Lake Serene, Etang Kingshaw, Spain Brothers, Venture tackle, tackle box, Kent tackle, rigmarole, smart carping, Benfleet hall lakes, Hawkhurst fish farm, strand quary café, uniform leisure, just baits, catcher baits, korda, Sparshatts, dynamite baits, crowborough tackle, any fish any where, nash tackle, acorn hire, Etang Baudy, solar tackle, CC mores, J & H lifting, rubben heaten, carp vader, tubertini, Stonnes fishery, AA Covers, fishing world of Kent.

by Ralph Dennett

Lac de Orient – France – 9th to 15th September

Sponsors – Carl (The Baitmaster) Edwards - Carple Baits & Lewington Homes Berkshire Ltd

I don’t normally fish matches but this event is something else. The whole atmosphere is charged with excited anticipation as anglers from 14 different counties come together to face the challenges of this fantastic water, all 5000+ acres of it.

Looking up towards the Dam

It all started back in January when my fishing partner Steve booked our place for this year’s event and from there the build up started. Every article we could find was read several times to glean as much info as we could and before we knew it the event was nearly upon us. Boats, engines & fish finders all needed checking, batteries charging and tackle checking. Nothing can be left to chance as the mighty Orient will punish any careless mistakes.

After a long chat with Carl (The Baitmaster) Edwards he kindly agreed to sponsor us with our bait requirements, Red Lobster Seaweed being the bait of choice, a cracking bait which we have full confidence in. This was supplemented with Carl’s excellent prepared particles namely the Maize and Hemp plus I already had some 30k of Carl’s mixed pellet - some 80+kilos to hopefully see us through the week. As promised everything arrived on the Wednesday and went straight into the freezer so that it would be in prime condition when the match started.

Everything ready, checked and double checked, Steve was picking me up around 5.00am on Friday as we were booked on the 10.00am ferry from Dover and another team from Reading Paul and Darren who were to be our travelling companions on the journey had to collect their bait on the way down. Friday arrived and I’m standing by a mountain of bait and tackle when Steve pulls into the close, with everything loaded and roped down we are on the road, meeting Paul and Darren as arranged and then heading down the motorway to Dover. After a long uneventful trip we are nearing our destination, we pass by Troyes and turn onto the N19. Shortly the Dam Wall appears and it seems to go on for ever, then as we turn off the N19 towards Mesnil-St-Pere the lake appears. Did I say lake! - inland sea is more apt, an immense daunting piece of water ... let me at it. As we pulled into the Headquarters area we realise we are the first competitors to arrive so we pick our spot and park up the motors right opposite the little Bar & Café ... well sorted. The next couple of days were to be a chill out and social before the serious fishing started on the Monday so up with the Bivvies and everything sorted, home from home.

Mesnil-St-Pere

Now that we are sorted its over to the Bar for some food and liquid refreshments where we meet up with Ross Honey and his Team. Ross is the organiser of the event, also there is Andy Chambers who is Head Marshall for this years event, a man with immense knowledge of the lake.“Buy you a drink Andy ?”, gotta pick this mans brains.

It’s now dark so suitably fed and watered we make our way back to the Bivvies, break out the kettle and sit around chatting and drinking, by about 1.30 in the morning we have been joined by a couple of lads fishing for Scotland and the beer is flowing. About an hour later about 8 Italian lads turn up and quickly join us with Salami and wine, shall we just say that a good evening was had by all.

The format for the event is to be as follows, competitors arrive over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, register at the HQ and get all boats and equipment safety checked. Sunday evening we have the welcome dinner with local dignitaries and the draw for swims. The competition starts at 3.00pm on Monday with no broken water before that time and ends at 8.00am on Saturday. This gives us a reasonable time on Monday to find our swims and get the gear to them as some are only accessible by boat. In the meantime we can have a look around get any last bits of shopping from the Intermarche and generally talk Carp. All the research we had done indicated that it normally takes a few days for the fish to get on the bait and the proven tactics are to get a good bed of bait built up and wait for the fish to move in, we also needed rough weather and big winds to get the fish moving. Several chats with Andy Chambers have confirmed our thoughts so we are feeling reasonably confident.

The Formalities Begin

Sunday evening arrives and we spruce ourselves up and put on our Carple shirts and head for the welcome meal and draw, as we enter the sports hall the clammer of 186 Carp anglers is deafening as the excitement and anticipation grows.

With the meal over the formalities begin with speeches from various people including the local Mayor followed by the local children parading all the participating countries flags.

The Draw

Then comes the draw. Paul and Darren are first up, Section 7, peg 10 not a bad draw its facing the dam.

Steve and I are next up Steve draws Section 4, peg 7, Italie Point about halfway along, not a bad draw if the weather breaks in our favour.

 

Time to get our heads down

Now the formalities are over it’s back to the bivvies to get our heads down as we want to get an early start in the morning to give ourselves time to get sorted before the off, as soon as the start is signaled it’s into the boat to do a serious reccy of our swim.

We are up and packed away by about 9am, later than we wanted, but never mind. As the boats are already inflated we take Paul and Darren’s on our motor and drop it off for them and then go on to find our swim some where along here.

Italie point - 1.5k long

It took a couple of hours to carry all the gear to our swim and with clear blue skies it was a hot sweaty job, by about 2.00pm we are all sorted rods up and baited and buckets of bait ready to go once we have found our spots. Before we know it the rocket signals we are off and a myriad of boats launch into the lake all looking for those tell tale signs on the fish finder that show up a potential feeding spot. Steve’s out in the boat thoroughly scouring our swim for features. After about 2hrs he has found what we wanted, distinct features going out to the left of our swim. The peg next to us is vacant so we ask the marshals if we are OK to fish into the vacant peg which they confirm we are. By 7.30pm our spots are baited and the rigs are out. Now we can sit back with a cold beer and relax, it’s been a very busy day, come on you fish.

Set and ready for action

Nothing showed during the first night and in the morning we learnt 2 fish had been lost, 1 about 6 pegs along from us and 1 by the dam. By the end of Tuesday 4 fish had now been lost in weed or snags, the good news is that they are all from different areas of the lake. We continue to stick to our plan and steadily build up our swim. We have seen fish on the finder and we are getting line bites so we know we have fish in the swim, but we don’t know what. It has been another warm clear day, we need the weather to break and the wind to get up, unfortunately the promised weather isn’t materialising and it continues hot.

It’s now Wednesday and it’s 8 – 0 to the Carp, so it’s still all to play for.

Early Thursday morning the first fish is landed by John Lilley’s partner, George Csonka, at 11.5kg it is a nice fish but not big by Orient standards. Still, first fish so well done guys.

Thursday night sees more action with a 22.1kg fish to Jean Pierre Becker of France, a 15.4kg fish to our travelling companions Paul and Darren, putting them in second place and a 9.3kg fish to Rob Tough and partner places them third, so things are starting to happen.

With the final day and night ahead of us there is still everything to fish for, we have fished hard for 4 nights although the results don’t show it, but that’s Carp fishing especially on waters like the Orient. The weather is showing signs of a change so hopes are high for the final night, with everything ready we sit back to wait events and talk over the week. Whatever the outcome we’ve had a great week and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Last night

As we sit chatting and watching the water everything feels right, we have done everything we can it is now in the lap of the Carp gods. Everything is still, the only sounds come from the Wild Boar searching for food in the woods behind. We turn in about 12.30, but I lay there unable to sleep.

I must have drifted off as the next thing I remember is flying out of the bivvy. The barometer has dropped and monster Carp are crashing everywhere in front of us, Steve is standing some 50 yds down the bank. When I get to his side he says that Steve Howard and his partner in the swim to our right have a big fish on, minutes later it snaps the 35lb braid like a piece of cotton, the Orient tree stumps win again. They are understandably gutted.

Tree Stumps are everywhere under the water, hiding in the weed

As fast as it had started it’s over, about 15 minutes in all, the fish just disappeared again back into the depths, the weather had changed again and so had the fishing, it looks like our chance has passed us by. In the morning we learn that the same phenomenon had occurred in several areas around the lake, although no fish were caught. One final fish was caught on the Sat morning which had Paul and Darren on edge as it was 15kg+. Eventually it was confirmed at 15.1kg so they have retained second place.

Final result, 83 pairs (166 anglers) fished their hearts out for 6 days and 5 nights and the score was Carp 25 anglers 5.

We packed up, loaded the truck and made our way back to the presentation. Although we hadn’t caught, it was great to see our friends Paul and Darren on the rostrum in 2nd place. Well done guys and congratulations to Jean Pierre Becker & Yves Hauk, the winners making it a home victory for France.

Well done to all the prize winners.

As we make our way home we are happy, we know we fished well as many others did, it simply wasn’t our turn this year. We have had a fantastic time and met some great people from all over Europe, brilliant!

A special thanks to our sponsors, Carl ( The Bait Master ) Edwards whose support and excellent baits gave us the edge we needed and to Lewington Homes Berkshire Ltd for the loan of the transport that made life a lot easier with all the gear we took.

Now to start planning for next year Lac de Madine is the venue, can’t wait.

See you on the bank somewhere!

Cheers, Ralph Dennett

Editor: Thanks to Ralph for this excellent article and good luck next year mate!!