Maggot finds the carp at Decoy Lakes

A disappointing practice match was soon forgotten as Preston Innovations Delcac’s Jason Collins stormed to victory at Decoy with a massive 86.200kg.
The 25-year-old medical service engineer from Chadwell St Mary, in Essex, drew on one of Decoy’s famous strip lakes – peg 21 on Oak – and soon realised he had a swim full of carp in front of him.
“In my one previous practice match I’d taken a right battering at the next peg, and I was determined not to let it happen again,” he said. “Thankfully, it didn’t!”
Starting at 5m on the pole with pellet on the hook, Jason soon caught a couple of carp before his swim died, so he moved out to 14.5m when a few more carp preceded a run of foulhooked fish.
“The fish were obviously off the bottom, so after a quick attempt on the bomb and corn for one carp and several line bites, I came back to the pole at 14.5m with maggots and shallowed up at 6ins intervals until I started hooking them in the mouth. I ended up fishing 2ft off bottom.
“After that it was plain sailing.
I fed the swim with maggots from a Kinder pot just like I would have if I’d been fishing on the deck, and caught in bursts for the rest of the match, changing where I fished slightly if I stopped catching.
I ended up with between 30 and 40 carp, averaging 6lb or so, on 0.13mm line, a 4x14 float, size 18 PR434 hook and Green Preston No10 hollow elastic.”
To show how tightly shoaled the carp were in front of Jason, Daiwa Dorking stalwart Paul Hiller at the next peg blanked!
Decoy Lakes result: 1 J Collins, Preston Innovations Delcac, 86.200kg; 2 N Crooks, Team Ossett, 81.700kg;
3 H Rushden, Maver Midlands, 54.85kg; 4 R Griffiths, Drennan North West, 49.65kg; 5 L Barrett, Woodlands Colmic, 42.25kg; 6 R Bond, Maver Image, 40.65kg.