Division 1 National Practice and Match 2023

I am in  the lucky position that by representing the British Army at angling they give me time off to go and practice for big events, this is one such occasion and it was the team practice for the upcoming Division 1 National on the Gloucester Canal.  I was a bit of a last minute addition to the team after one of the guys had to drop out due to personal reasons but fortunately I have fished it before and had been doing a little bit of prep in the background just in case I got a call up.

The official practice was Tuesday and Wednesday, but I was able to travel up early on the Monday and get a few hours with Toby and Gaz, we fished around Fretherne bridge so I think it was the early 500’s.   A lot was learnt, and I was using it to get used to casting a small feeder into 12-15ft of water and playing with top 5’s.  I had a few bites on the feeder and a couple of small fish on the pole and ended up with about 8-10lb.

Day 2 saw 5 of us go to Parkend, so pegs 413-417, it was another interesting day, and I managed some skimmers on the feeder and a hoofing great big slab on a short pole roach line, we were starting to formulate a plan.

Day 3 of Practice saw us move down to Purton Lower, the home of big bream weights in the spring and were hoping for a bag up session.  I was sat on peg 818 as an end peg and due to the conditions as we were setting up I decided to focus on the feeder and also a short pole worm line as there was a lot of weed on the inside screaming tench and perch at me.

I caught a few small skimmers on the feeder, but could not really string anything together, I fed big baits on the inside and on my occasional looks I was getting a few small perch, I had 2 eels in 2 casts at one point as the canal was bubbling everywhere and I also managed a big tench on the short pole and a baby tench on the feeder so it was a good day.

I finished off with 5.525Kg (12lb 2oz ish) that was top weight from our 4 anglers, but the guys near Splatt bridge had struggled so it was obvious that if you were on a few you needed to make the most of it.

So to the big match, during the week and a half since we practiced I had been out, got some new floats for the long pole so that they were more stable in the depths and with the wind and tow, a new feeder hook length system that I topped up with lots of fresh hook lengths and plenty of pole hook lengths in case I got amongst the eels.

To be fair it was a mixed start to the match, I was drawn around Splatt bridge so moved to the central car park waiting for my peg number, I got in easily and was ready and waiting to go, the pegs were texted out by Gaz the captain and I was only a couple of hundred meters up the canal on peg 556, this was a bonus as I was away from the hard part of the section. 

I had sorted my feeder groundbait the night before and as I checked it I thought it just needed a little more water, I was massively wrong and trashed the batch buy turning it into a claggy lump of mess.  Fortunately I had spare groundbait in my swim just in case and that was quickly mixed up but that was not the best start.

Rods were clipped, pole rigs plumbed but I was having issues with a tree behind me restricting my cast, I collared the first steward I saw and got permission to move to the left of my peg marker by a meter of so and that alleviated the issue.  Strangely, my peg and the 2 to my right seemed to be in our own mini section as the next peg to my left was over 100 meters away due to boats that had been parked up on the morning, so that was a bonus.

The all in was called, I fed 5 medium feeders on the main feeder line, cupped 3 odd shaped balls of groundbait onto the pole line to try and hold them on the slope and then cast the feeder. I was getting indications on double dead red almost immediately from small fish and soon swung (Yes SWUNG) a small roach and perch to hand in 2 casts, and all was good in the world.  By the 90 minute mark I had 2 skimmers and had just lost one at the net as I couldn’t chase it with the big net head and skinny handle, this had seen the swim go quiet so I cast 5 thimes with a medium feeder to try and draw them back in and then had a look on my inside worm line that I had fed about 20 minutes earlier.

I was getting indications on half a dendrabena straight away but I could not hiyt them, I swapped to double dead red to see if it was eels but that didn’t move.  Frustrated I had a look on the groundbait line and to my surprise I had a quick run of 5 gustas, well quick compared to what I was seeing around me, I was having to fish a single pinkie to get bites and run it right on top of where the initial feed had dropped.  I tried to force this by topping it up and resting and fist cast back out on the feeder the tip settled and wrapped round, as I lifted I felt a decent fish bump off and I knew that was the end of that. I had no more indications on the feeder for the next stint apart from a couple of small perch on redworm,so I started to rotate around the swims, the gustas had gone apsrt from the very odd bite and I managed a small perch on the inside but although I was getting bites they seemed to be very small as I only hit one even leaving it for a count of 10 to see if that would help.

At one point I had cast the feeder out and was faffing around with the shotting on one of my pole rigs and having a bit of lunch, well nothing else was happening, the plan being give it a 10 minute cast to see if they worked, well at 8 minutes I had a hittable indication and this turned out to be an eel of about a pound and a nice bonus. But, that was the end of the excitement and despite moving feeder line up the shelf and working hard on both pole lines I limped home during the later stages of the match.

The scales were on me quickly and I weighed 2.250Kg (4lb 15oz ish) this was third out of the three of us as the guy on the end peg 2 to my right had snared a bream and pipped me by 700g so a pound and a half. I ended up 19^th out of the 46anglers in my section so I was more than happy with that.

The team came 22 so another great result considering the quality of the anglers and teams around you and also the bream lottery that is the Gloucester Canal. 

Thanks to all the AT team and all the stewards on the day I know this doesn’t magically happen.

What would I do different:

Try not to bump any fish off and about the only other thing I could have tried was casting the feeder to my left into the gap between me and the next peg that way, either one of the skimmers I lost would have been mega points.

Rigs used:

Feeder 1:
Rod: 3.3m Matrix XS feeder, 1oz tip.
Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012 loaded with 0.12mm Braid and 8lb sensor shock leader
Rig: Paternoster, hook lengths from 0.12-0.15 hooks 18-14 B560
Lots of different feeders were used but the best was a small cage feeder.

Feeder 2:
Rod: Drennan matchpro Medium feeder at 11’6”, 1.5oz tip.
Reel: Daiwa TDR 4012 loaded with 0.10mm Braid and 8lb sensor shock leader
Rig: Paternoster, hook lengths from 0.12-0.15 hooks 18-14 B560
Lots of different feeders were used but the best was a small cage feeder.

Pole long light:
Elastic: 5 or 6 slip
Line: 0.11mm Powerline to 0.08-0.11mm Florocarbon
Hook: 20-18 Colmic B957
Float: Dave Harrell DH11 1.5g or DH23 (DH23 was better due to the wire stem)

Pole long heavy:
Elastic: 6 slip
Line: 0.13mm Powerline to 0.08-0.11mm Florocarbon
Hook: 20-18 Colmic B957
Float: Dave Harrell DH11 3g (Used to slow or stop the bait when it was towing)

Pole worm light:
Elastic: Yellow vespe (1 meter long)
Line: 0.19mm Powerline to 0.13mm Flourocarbon
Hook: 15 or 13 B711
Float: Dependant on flow, 0.7g Frenzee pattern or 2G Drennan Trio

I also set up a whip with a waggler on it but had no bites and didn’t feel it was right.

 

 

Royal Signals Carp Angling Champs 2023

Time for something a bit different, I am going to drop in a few of my carp/speci sessions on here aswell so that you can get an idea of the mindset and tactics involved on these.

Cromwell lake near Newark was the venue, 18 acres of crystal clear water with depths going down to over 20ft, this can be a challenging venue.  The weather forecast was pretty good so that could not really be used as an excuse.

I had booked on for the night before as it meant I didn’t have to drive up at stupid o’clock in the morning, and settled in peg 13, I chucked out a couple of pva bags pushed a 45m baiting pole under a bush along the margin.  I saw a good 30 in the bay to my left but it wasn’t interested in eating and the birds managed to spook it off aswell.

On the first official day I was packed down nice and early and managed a walk around the lake, having fished it before my top choices were pegs 18, 14 and 2 as they covered some shallow water in the middle of the lake and I have always seen fish there when I have fished the lake in the past.  I had seen fish show all over the lake so the only swim I didn’t really want was peg 9.

I came out in the middle on the draw, and fortunately peg 2 was still in there, I had also been eyeing up peg 7 but fortunately went for 2 as I had fished it before.

On starting I cast a bare lead out onto the shallow water only to find that there were very few clear spots and all of the bottom seemed to be covered in silt weed, even so I started on PVA bags, but after the first recast it became obvious that these were wrong as I could not feel a nice drop, so after a few hours my plan changed completely.

I found an area were the silkweed seemed shorter and decided to put some long ronnies into it with a scattering of  bait over the top, I was feeding crushed DNA Baits S& boilie, corn and pellet using a mini skyliner spod sop that the disturbance was an absolute minimum.

I cast them out at 8pm and settled in for the night.  At about half 4 I woke up for some reason and watched the water over my spot, as I did so a fish showed, so all was good in the world. Now in my normal fishing I am usually up and watching the lake for signs before first light so that I can move onto the fish, but in these matches when you are looking for 1 or 2 bites I generally lay in bed and do it as I can only fish the water in front of me.  Anyway, I dozed off and was soon rudely awoken by my left hand rods bobbin hitting the floor,  I ran out of my bivvy in my socks and soon thought that I should have put my trainers on as the gravel was brutal…..

I was however attached to the fish, but it wasn’t doing a lot and I thought it was a tench so I walked the rod back to the bivvy, slipped my trainers on and played, well wound the fish in, as it didn’t do a lot, and I got a mighty shock when a slab of a mirror wallowed on the surface in front of me as I put the net around it.

 

First job, get 3 mini spods back out in the area to a) top up and b) spook the fish away and allow me to get the rod back out there, that went well rod reset and then Marcus and I weighed and took photos of the fish.

I tipped the scales at 30lb 5oz and was big enough to take me into the lead, my plan was sorted for the next morning and the day was spent flinging zigs out at a variety of depths and ranges hoping to mug a cruising fish, it didn’t happen.

 We all wound in for a couple of hours in the afternoon of day 2 for a BBQ and catch up, most people put some bait in before going and this seemed to kill the fishing off as only a few more fish were hooked.

In total 5 fish were landed and mine was the largest so I won the R.Sigs Carp Angling Championships for the first time with Jim as a runner up, (So the same top 2 as last year)

 

Lots of fish were hooked and lost in the weed but that is carp fishing I am afraid.

Thanks to Nick for doing most of the heavy lifting before the event and also for the team at Cromwell for looking after us for the duration of the event.

What would I do different:

I think I fed too much before going on the BBQ and this scuppered my chances on the second morning by having too much bait in the swim. I feel it was the best swim choice with what was available to me, maybe if I had moved to my left boundary, but the guys in Rosies retreat were sending their baitboat all over the place so I never really knew where they had been putting bait or rigs before I got in the swim.

Rigs used:

Rod: ESP Onyx 3.25lb

Reel: Shimaono Ultegra 14000 XTB

Mainline: 15lb ESP Syncro XT

Lead: 4oz pear

Rig: 10 inches of ESP semi stiff tungsten loaded and a Ronnie rig with a size 6 barbless Krank.

Hookbait: 12mm Pink S7 Pop Up

 

 

 

Royal Signals Championship 23 Todber Manor

Firstly, sorry for not keeping this up to date, but I am going to try and get back on the blog as I can use it for other things aswell.  Anyway back to the champs, I was a little on the back foot as I had been coaching on the run up to this, so whilst everyone else was getting their eye in I was trying not to lose mine. Day 1 Hillview peg 40, not the best peg but I had tons of room and the pegging was fair so it was a get my head down job and catch what I could.

 

I started with maggot in the margin and fished that all day, I swapped between shallow and no shot rigs as I had carp crawling up the bank all day, I was a little rusty however and a few destroyed rigs- (should have used a no float rig!!), and not keeping up with the clicker cost me dearly in the end.  I weighed in 653lb 13oz but had gone over in 3 nets so had lost out on at least 50lb, DJ smashed the lake on the day with 733lb but I feel that may have been possible from that peg if I had just done some small things better, but Hey Ho, onto day 2.

 

Day 2 Homeground, I was on peg 85 for this match, not what I wanted but I had the wind and rain in my face all day so that may have been a benefit by pushing the fish into the margin.  Plan was the same as day 1, maggots in the margin but I also added a meat line on a top kit as a resting line.  It was another good day and I barely noticed how crappy the weather was because I was catching so well throughout the day, I had a small cut out to my right and at times I was able to mug the individual fish as they were slurping the maggots off the reeds.  When they backed off for a few minutes I was able to drop on my meat line and tick over with a slightly bigger stamp of fish, although the bites were slightly slower.

I knew it had been a good day and I weighed in 508lb 9oz, I was pleasantly surprised when this was enough for a section win and with DJ having a  mid 400lb I knew it would be close for second place in the champs.

 

History will show that Greg was totally dominant with a 750lb on day 1 and 1081lb on day 2 he romped to winning the Corps Champs with a perfect score and total weight of 1830lb!!!, DJ piped me with 3 points and 1178lb to my 3 points and 1162lb.  Those nets I went over on Day 1 cost me dearly.

 

Thankyou to Greg for running the event and to all that fished, we just need to find more anglers now that want to get involved.

 

What would I do different:

Practice, I firmly believe that fishing the match before the camps would have stopped me from going over on my nets day 1 and this would have been the difference between 3^rd and 2^nd.

 

Rigs used:

Pole meat:
Elastic: Preston 17H
Line: 0.19mm Powerline to 0.17mm Powerline
Hook: 14 Kaizen
Float: 0.3g RWC Avenger

 

Pole shallow maggot:
Elastic: Preston 17H
Line: 0.19mm Powerline to 0.17mm Powerline
Hook: 14 Kaizen
Float: 0.4g Drennan inline dibber

 

Pole No float:
Elastic: Preston 17H
Line: 0.19mm Powerline to 0.17mm Powerline
Hook: 14 Kaizen
Float: none

AVB 23 Pt1