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.

 

 

Division 1 National, Gloucester Canal

Well what a difference a week makes and I was well prepared for the actual match day with feeder hooklengths, pole rigs and even a waggler rod in the bag ready to go, the Friday night saw the team meet up and get the bait and final bit sorted.  A quiet nioght this time but I still struggled to get to sleep, partially due to snoring and partially due to the nerves I get on a national as I have only ever had 1 good day on them and I have now fished 6 Div 1’s and a Div 2, still tomorrow was a new day!!

We were all at the draw in good time and parked reasonably well for a quick getaway, Gaz did the honours and passed me D5, I had no idea where this would put me but I knew that I was down from Rea bridge so in the vicinity of the cess pool of a peg that I had been sat on last week.  I was just hoping that I was closer to the bridge as there had been a few fish along there in the Individual national.  I got out of the car park easily, got to the car park without a hitch, met Gaz in the car park as he was in C section high numbers and then it started to dawn on me that I could be in the same area but I quickly ignored it and loaded up my barrow and started off to my peg.

I crossed the bridge and found the first peg I was staring at was C24, This meant that I had around thirty or so pegs until mine…. “Nah I can’t draw there twice” I thought.

As I got closer to the area that I was desperate to avoid the numbers got closer and then before I knew it I was wanting to turn around and go home.  Last week I was on 209, this week 208, the peg that Ritchie had struggled from.

After a little cry as I knew I was in for another national to forget I had to do something about the trees behind the peg as Ritch had struggled with the trees behind him, so 5 minutes and a bit of swearing soon saw me with enough room to be able to cast the tip or wag without worrying about the hooklength.

The rest of my pre match time was standard, clip up tip, mix groundbait, plumb short line, plumb long line, plumb worm line, set up wag and whip and finally prep bait and eat.

At the all-in I threw 6 balls of groundbait with no feed all over the canal with a crowd cheering me on (Grant and Ian), Sean Ashby (England International) showed me how it should be done on the next peg and we both seemed to start the match fairly similarly with feeding the various lines and then watching motionless quiver tips.

I managed a ruffe on the tip after about 20 minutes, then a couple of roach on bread on the short pole by the end of the first hour, next hour saw me try everything but the whip for 2 more roach on bread but then that died so I chucked the tip under the tree opposite, one 8oz skimmer and a missed bite on that and then the pain started as every time I looked up someone in the section would be playing a bream.

Knowing I needed a bonus I re fed my worm line at 10m in the middle of a few weed beds, put more feed in on my long pole and tried the tip again for nothing.  I went on the worm line and had a good 20-30 minutes with 3 eels and a perch for about a kilo, then it died, so I went out onto my long pole with half an hour left to go, By this time Seam on my left had 3 big skimmers/bream and the guy on my right had a 4lb+ bream as well that he snared on his short line.  The wind had picked up a bit and in the space of 5 minutes I bumped off two skimmers that I was certain were foulhooked as I picked up on them as the pole was moving the float. That was the end of the long pole and the end of my match as I had no more bites.

I ended up with 1.550kg for 13 out of 44 points,  three pegs to my left won the section with 13kg, three pegs to my right had second in section 10Kg, most people around me had a bonus of some description and I missed out on points by the narrowest of margins.

Back at the results it turned out that Scott had 8^th overall and a section win with 25Kg and that Martin had 3^rd in section with 14Kg.  The team survived in 31^st place.

What would I have done differently?

I should have fished groundbait rather than bread short and possibly started on the bread feeder.

As for that if I had sat it out for a bonus I may not have caught the roach, but 1 bream would have made a huge difference.

Barston on Wednesday, let’s see if I can’t get this out of my system by abusing some carbon!

Division 1 Practice week, Gloucester canal

Day 1 saw the team descended upon Churchill bridge I believe, it was a pleasant enough day as I was sat on an end peg but try as I might I couldn't catch one of the bream that the Gloucester Canal is famous for and I ended the day on 1.9kg for 2nd or 3^rd on the day.  I learnt a few things about the feeding on the day and I was looking forward to taking this information through the rest of the week.

Day 2 we were in the town itself on Hempstead bend to try and get some of the bigger fish, I was on pole for the first part of the day and managed a few small fish, a skimmer of a kilo and a 2.5kilo bream, ( ieven pleed out of a pound skimmer thinking it was a perch!!) the swap to the feeder was  a damp squib and I got to watch Scott and Pez bag in the last 45 minutes as the bream decided to get their heads down.  I was again 3^rd with 4.5kg.

Day 3 was the first day of selection and I was pegged next to Scott as we all trundled to Purton Bridge, I was pegged next to Scott in the middle of the section for this and all that we found was how hard the venue can actually fish, I managed 1.2kg and was pipped by Scott by a roach, this was enough for third from last on the day and I was hoping for more on the final day of selection.

We travelled to the Sims stretch for this day and I think that it was in this area where I had fished the regional national a few years ago, so I knew that it would be hard, just how hard was a shock and I limped home again 2^nd or 3^rd last with 650 grams!!  Not the best way to end the selection. 

At the  team brief that night I was told that I had squeaked it onto the team so come the next day I was part of the Army B team on the RAF challenge match and Lance drew me a peach that would be boom or bust. Peg 452 was on the end of a 150m straight that was split due to the overhead pylons so I set up a feeder and a positive pole line and prayed.  It took over two hours for my first skimmer and it was only followed by another 3 but 5lb 7oz was enough for a half section win and 8^th out of the 20 peg section that was not too bad considering at the far end of the section the bream fed and there were a few 20lb+ weights.  I had still beaten Will raison and Sean Ashby but granted I should have off that peg.

The Saturday was the Individual national and I drew crap and was home before the match finished, hopefully none of the team draw that area next week on the national but if they do I can at least tell them a few things that will work.

Regional National, Gloucester Canal, 13th May 2012

I picked Ian up at six in the morning and we made the long pilgrimage up to Gloucester for the regional national. I was drawn on peg S17 and did not expect alot when before the match I was getting told that it was one of the tougher areas.

I set up a feeder for across the far side, a waggler for catching bleak and also my pole line at 13m which consisted of a 1.5g Maver Drift float to counteract the depth and skim from the strengthening wind. It was set on 0.12mm mainline to 0.08mm bottom and a size 20 Drennan polemaster wide gape, and I had no.5 elastic through 3 sections to help set the hook and hopefully play the bream in the 18ft of water.

At the all in I fed 12 balls of Leam and Browning canal at 13m which was filled with caster, chopped worm, dead maggot and pinkie. Then I cast out a big feeder with a fishmeal based groundbait across the canal 5 times into approximately 8ft of water, I then attached a hooklength and started the day by watching the 1oz tip of my Champions Choice Stilllwater feeder pulling occasionally with line bite to keep me excited for alot of the day. It was not good however, when around halfway through  the match the tip pulled round and I thought that I had caught my 0.18mm Cenex feeder mainline on another bit of rubbish floating down the canal. But as well as the small branch that had floated into my line there was something significant kicking on the other end, after a fraught couple of minutes I was slipping the net under a decent sized bream. An hour later I missed an indication on the pole and an hour after that the all out was called, my bream went 4lb 2oz and this was enough for 3^rd in the section behind an 8lb and 16lb weights. There had been two other nets with 1 bream in but they were both 3lb something so the long boring day was full of team points but the team unfortunately had too many blow outs and we limped in almost last. Always next year as they say!