Dennes Farm
16.4.23
Darren’s 20lb 4oz Carp from Dennes Today.
A warm spring day awaited those anglers competing at the always popular Dennes Farm, (Pip’s), near Ockley, Surrey, on Sunday. The winner can come from any peg at this normally prolific carp water, so those taking part know that they are always in with a chance from wherever they draw.
We’ve all heard the expression, “you’ve drawn the aquarium” and Mike Newland thought he had when, early in the match in two consecutive casts, he landed a Goldfish of around a pound and a three pound plus red and white Koi carp, but no instant win for Mike, he eventually finished 5th with 65lb 8oz.
As unusual as Mike’s two fish were, the outstanding fish of the day went to Darren Trevatt who, after a good tussle, landed a superb 20lb 4oz pole caught carp.
Despite breaking his net while landing a fish, it didn’t put the eventual winner, Steve Parkin, off his stride who put an excellent weight of exactly 101lb on the scales. Steve caught the odd fish steadily on feeder and pole through the first part of the match, but it was the switch to fishing meat and corn against near side reeds and feeding heavily, that saw him boost his winning weight by over 50lb in the last two hours.
Second on the day from Malloy Point, was Danny Kirk with 89lb 15oz which included a specimen of 11lb 5oz. Fishing for only the second time on this water, Danny had a slow start on the feeder with only two fish in the first 90 minutes, but with a change of tactics he soon found fish at 8m down the track feeding 4mm pellets with a hard pellet on the hook. Later in the match, Carp cruising on the surface tempted Danny to do a bit of “slapping” but, after only a couple of fish, he moved back to fishing on the bottom where his swim just got stronger until the final whistle.
It was a close run thing for the next three places which were separated by only 11oz. It was Ian Farmer, drawn on Poulton’s Point for the second match in a row, who managed to sneak into 3 rd spot only 8oz ahead of Mark “Lofty” Haines. Despite Mark’s late charge of edge caught fish, he couldn’t quite catch Ian who caught the odd fish on the pole throughout the match, all falling to 10mm meat barring one Sturgeon on paste.
1st S. Parkin 101lb 0oz
2nd D. Kirk 89lb 15oz
3rd I. Farmer 66lb 03oz
4th M. Haines 65lb 11oz