It’s a fair trek for me to get to Manor Farm, so it was an early start, 5-30a.m. but already the temperature was in the twenties and the air-con was on. My job for the day was to walk around the lakes being used for the Carping4Heroes match and talk/demonstrate floater tactics. Normally I would welcome hot settled weather for floater fishing but you can have too much of a good thing, and with possibly 30 degrees forecast I was a little concerned that I was in for a bit of a sweaty day.
Arriving just before nine I made contact with organiser Simon Bangert and found the refreshment area. I watched the draw, got my instructions and spent the day visiting the swims from Simon’s list. It certainly was hot, and the fish didn’t like it, they were on the top all over the lakes I visited but consistent feeding was difficult to find, so in most cases it was working hard for the odd take, but hopefully I manged to pass on a few floater tricks and dodges.
Late afternoon and it was time to pause the match, for a Barbi and Question and Answer session in the main marquee. This to me is always the most impressive part of these Carping4Heroes events. The atmosphere is so positive, the mix of civilians, serving members of the armed forces and injured servicemen is so supportive, I always feel honoured to be part of it. Ian Chilcott and myself did our best to answer a wide range of questions and then, after a huge raffle, for the anglers it was back to the match. For me it was the long journey home and air-con on maximum.
It had been hot, very hot, but I wasn’t bothered, tired yes, but being part of such a superb event was a pleasure. I’m sure the competitors would have caught overnight and I understand that over £14,000 was raised over the weekend.
Congratulations to organiser Simon Bangert and his team of helpers on another brilliant Carping4Heroes event!