It was a very cold weekend at Upper Tamar lake for the Pallatrax Carp Open pairs competition. This was the first competition of 2018 with two more to follow in July and September.

There was £3500 up for grabs for the top three finishing pairs and no one could predict which swims would do well this time around. The weather had been frankly horrendous leading up to the weekend with more than two feet of snow covering the majority of the lake at the beginning of the week!

The sun did eventually come through on the Sunday during the last few hours of fishing and it was rather pleasant during the BBQ and presentations.

The anticipation and nervousness for the draw on Friday morning was evident with some anglers arriving to get a couple of laps around the lake in the hope of spotting a few fish!

A fantastic breakfast was provided by Wendy Shore and her team in the Froghopper café at Tamar and we were all set for the draw which started at 1pm. Anglers names were drawn in turn from the draw box and they chose their swims until everyone had picked. There were 30 pairs of anglers and they were then transported to their swims either by boat or trailer.

The horn sounded at 4pm to start the competition and the first fish was lost very quickly by Roy and Greg Jones from the quarry swim.

The first landed fish and an early lead was taken by Neil Merriman and Adrian Morgan from West Bay, peg 27, on the Cornwall Bank with a 7lb 13oz common. Just minutes after Mark Thomas and Phil Haggarty caught their first from peg 33 by the dam at 5lb 11oz.

This was followed on the first night by Mike Trew and Roger Smith, peg 23, on the Cornwall Bank who had an 8lb 7oz fish and Rob Champness and Kevin Smith who were on peg 18. They landed a 6lb 15oz fish. Rob and Kevin also lost a couple of fish during the night.

It was fishing really hard, as the March competition always does! The wind changed direction a couple of times and there was a mild frost both nights and cold wind during the days.

At 6:30 am on the Saturday Mark Thomas and Phil Haggarty caught their second fish which proved very decisive. A 13.09 pristine common gave them the lead from peg 33.

Jamie Rusling and Nick White moved into contention from peg 16 on the Devon Bank, they had a 13lb 5oz common.

Saturday evening provided a couple of fish, a lovely 15lb 14oz common for Jason and Leanne McEvoy from peg 21 to move them into second and Richard Chalke and Jamie Woods from the lookout tower banked a 7lb 6oz fish.

It was all to play for and anticipation of a few more fish which would change the entire competition around.

Saturday night went without any more action until early Sunday morning when Richard Chalke and Jamie Woods managed their second fish, this time at 10lb 6oz, to move into second less than 2lbs behind Haggarty and Thomas.

With the sun now shining we thoughts a few more would be caught but how wrong I could be!

The remainder of the competition didn’t provide any bites.

With every single pair in with a chance right up until the hooter at 1pm it made for a really close competition which was well contested and enjoyed by everyone. The presentations were made during the free BBQ for competitors provided by Gary Vogel, warden for Tamar Lake.

Only 9 fish were caught and we look forward to the July competition when there will be plenty more!

It was great to have some new champions and runners up. Congratulations to Mark Thomas and Phil Haggarty for winning and Jamie Woods and Richard Chalke for finishing second. 2016 runners up Jason and Leanne McEvoy won third place.

A huge thankyou to our fantastic marshall team Terry Reid, Bob Davey, Ian Ellis, Steve Gliddon, Amy Maunder, Roger Maher and Bob Oates and to warden Gary Vogel.

Full results:

7^th – 1 fish for 6.15 in peg 18 was Rob Champness and Kevin Smith

6^th – 1 fish for 7.13 in peg 27 was Neil Merriman and Adrian Morgan

5^th – 1 fish for 8.07 in peg 23 was Mike Trew and Roger Smith

4^th – 1 fish for 13.05 in peg 16 was Jamie Rusling and Nick White

3^rd winning £500 with 1 fish for 15lb 14oz was Jason and Leanne McEvoy

2^nd wining £1000 with 2 fish for 17lb 12oz was Jamie Woods and Richard Chalke

1^st winning £2000 with 2 fish for 19lb 4oz was Mark Thomas and Phil Haggarty

Next competition: 6-8 July pairs

Entries on 01566771930

Ben Smeeth

Head of Angling