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.