The Black Country Carpers Present

An Evening with Iain ‘Ting Tong’ Macmillan

Report by Carl Sharp for UKMA 2011

It was time for The Black Country Carpers Winter Show to take centre stage once again at Sedgley’s Beacon Centre for the Blind, located just on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, with all proceeds from the show being kindly donated to Beacon Centre for the Blind, ECHO and Help For Hero’s. This time round they had secured Nash / Shimano Consultant, and all round funny guy Iain ‘Ting Tong’ Macmillan, for his latest carping exploits from around the UK angling circuit.

To start proceeding of you had the Shimano trade stands with their impressive range of clothing, rods, landing nets and reels for you to hold and play with. The Shimano lads had also brought along their new Technium mainline along with a line breaking strain tester, in which you were more than welcome to bring a sample of your favourite mainline and put to the test. Does the breaking strain on your spool really give you the breaking strain you think..? Interesting results!

Also in attendance were Coventry Carp Leads showing of their high quality range of carp leads that were available to buy on the night. Black Country Baits main man Keith Winwood was there to explain and offer you his latest creations including his much talked about KP mix. Last but not least was Mike Nixon of NXN Customs, a newly formed company offering custom bobbins and chains, as well as new carbon bank sticks that they are hoping to release to the general public very soon.

 
It was finally time for the main event with 80+ like minded carp anglers ready to listen, and the first half saw Iain talking about his productive season spent on the daunting Essex Manor. It started off slow for the Tong, but in his amusing charismatic style painted the picture of how he finally got to grips with the ultra hard venue, and the rewards that eventually came his way. Iain displayed some stunning photos and his new found love of chod fishing was put across to the crowd in his charismatic style, as he eloquently highlighted that the Chod isn’t just a ‘chuck it and chance it’ style of fishing.

Second half of the show gave Iain a chance to demonstrate why he is in such a privileged position within the angling industry, illustrating his numerous captured from the famous Wellington Country Park a few years back. Iain continued to explain to the audience that he wasn’t exactly a gifted angler, and needed to work at his fishing. Ian admirably displayed a modest front at all times, even when every fish captured shown during the talk from the Wellington complex was in excess of 30lb, with a few 40lb stunners thrown in for good measure.

The night was then capped off with a very impressive raffle, with a huge selection of prizes from many top brand names including Nash Tackle, Shimano, JRC, Custom Angling Solutions, Diem to name but a few. Another successful night had been exceptionally well organised and put together by the team at the Black Country Carpers so I for one would like to say a massive well done to Roy Butwell, Nick Winwood and not forgetting the star of the show Iain Macmillan for a cracking nights entertainment.