LAUNCESTON duo Nigel Woods and Rich Ford were the winners of the second Mainline Baits Carp Open pairs event which took place at Upper Tamar Lake from July 5-7.

Thirty-three pairs saw the competition at full capacity and the anticipation at the draw was fantastic!

Anglers chose their swims, collected a Mainline goody bag and were transported to their pegs. Fishing began at 4pm on the Friday and ended after 45 hours at 1pm on the Sunday.

Woods and Ford (Launceston) scooped the top prize of £2,000 with four carp for 63lbs from peg 31 on the Cornwall Bank. Their catch included a cracking mirror carp of 24lb 7oz.

There was a terrific tussle for second with the O’Connors, Barry and Benn (London), fighting it out with Dave Bellew and Steve Lovell (Somerset). Both pairs caught three carp and only five ounces separated them at the finish with Barry and Benn coming out on top to win the £1,000 second prize. Dave and Steve settled for the £500 third spot.

Largest fish winning 2kg of Mainline spod and PVA mix was youngster Tristan Cooper who had a cracking 19lb 10oz mirror. Smallest fish, again winning 2kg of Mainline spod and PVA mix was Rob Jewell with a common of 8lb 6oz. 

Head of angling at South West Lakes Trust, Ben Smeeth, said: “What was great about the weekend was the competition was very close and every pair were in with a shout of being in the prize money right up until the final hour or so!

“We’d also like to say a massive thank you to Mainline Baits for their sponsorship.”

Section winners winning 5kg of Mainline freezer baits boilies were:

Toby Green and Danny Moore, Lee Watts and Dean Compton, Peter Higman and Ricky Lawrence and Scott and Tristan Cooper.