The FIPSed 7th Carnivorous Artificial Bait Boat Angling World Championships

Last year, my Dad and I were lucky enough to be selected to fish for the first ever Team England Lure Squad in the 6th Carnivorous Artificial Bait Boat Angling World Championships on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. To say it was an amazing experience is an understatement and thankfully, after the qualifiers back in May 2014, my Dad and I retained our places in the squad, along with Eric Edwards, to fish in this year's World Championships on Lac du Bourget in the French Alps. The new team members joining us this year were Dan Brackley, Rikki Cooper and Ron Dalton.

Dad, Eric and I had learned a lot from the 2013 event and we were desperate to improve on last year's performance. One of the reasons we didn't do well last year is because the team was set up very late and we didn't have time, or the funds, to get a practice trip to Lough Erne. With only two, six hour practice days allowed two days prior to the match, it's impossible to explore an allocated match area four times the size of Rutland! So, this year, earlier in September, Dad, Eric and I embarked on a 1700 mile round journey to the town of Aix-les-bains with Eric's brand new boat for three days practice. Unfortunately, we missed out on nearly a whole day as we had two tyre punctures on consecutive days, so this had to be sorted before we could head for home.

At 11 miles long and with depths of up to 450ft, Lac Bourget is the largest and deepest lake contained entirely within France, and it's probably the hardest and most unusual lake I've ever fished. Pike had to measure 50cm to count, Perch 25cm and Zander 40cm, and although we caught lots of small Perch, not one was measurable, and my Dad caught the only oversized Pike at just 50.5cm. We nicknamed this fish 'the £1000 Pike' as that was how much it cost us to go on our practice trip!

However, we came away with some valuable information for the team and we were all feeling confident for the tournament three weeks later. During the weeks leading up to the competition, we also had some great information that backed up all of our research we'd gained during our practice trip. It seemed Pike would be the target species as the Perch were too small, and from what we'd learned, Zander seem to appear out of the blue, but they're normally very big if you're lucky enough to latch in to one.

Sadly, from there, we had a catalyst of problems for the entire World Championships. Eric's bow-mount trolling motor didn't arrive in time, Rikki's trailer tyres were shredded as he was towing his boat through France, a broken outboard, a leak on a boat, a trolling motor was damaged and became unusable, a boat seat broke and worst of all, our manager, Mike Skipper, was taken very ill and admitted to hospital after the first practice day and missed out on the whole tournament.

All of these problems were incredibly soul destroying, to say the least, but it made us pull together as a team even more so, and Eric Edwards took on the role as both captain and manager.

We'd found areas in the north and south ends of the lake where we'd had action from Pike. The shoals of small, undersized Perch were huge - the structurescan on our sonar was black with them in some areas, and we found these shoals over weedbeds where the bottom dropped off from 15-25ft to 40-70ft. Some of these drop-offs were very sharp and steep, and although we came across so many fishy-looking drop-offs covered in weedbeds and shoals of Perch, the Pike were hard to come by.

The pairings that fished on day one were Dan and Ron, who headed to the north end, and my Dad and Rikki, who headed south, as my Dad had caught fish here on the practice trip. Lac Bourget certainly lived up to it's reputation of being the hardest of the French Alpine lakes, especially with very warm, flat calm conditions, with at least 34 of the world's top lure anglers and 5 teams not recording a single measurable fish on day one.

England caught two fish that were oversized, one of 59cm by Dan and one of 68cm by my Dad, which was England's biggest fish of the tournament. Both boats hadn't blanked and this boosted our points so after day one, we were placed 7th out of 16 teams.

Whilst the four selected anglers were fishing on day one, Eric and I drove around the perimeter of the lake all day with a map and binoculars, taking note of how other teams were fishing, what tactics and lures they were using and where they were based. Mike Skipper wanted each of the six team members to fish on the match days so Eric and I replaced Dan and Ron on day two, although instead of being paired with Rikki, my Dad would join Eric down the south end. We'd only seen four boats down there all day and two of those were the Russians, who were in 4th place after day one, so both Eric and my Dad felt confident of catching there.

I was to fish with Rikki up the north end of the lake as I had a good idea of what was going on up there and how to fish it, having practiced there prior to the match and observing boats there on day one.

We started in an area where we'd caught in practice, but after 45 minutes with no bites, we moved further north close to where the French Captain, Sylvain Legendre, was fishing with Gael Even. After adopting an unusual style of jigging we'd seen other boats using on day one, just 5 minutes later I got us off the mark with a Pike of 54cm caught on a 5" Berkley Flex Slim Shad. Not long after, news filtered through that Eric had caught a 60cm Pike too, so both boats hadn't blanked which was very important.

The fishing got much harder as the day progressed and although I caught another Pike on a 5" Berkley Split Belly using the jigging tactic, and Dad and Rikki also caught a Pike, all were undersized fish.

A huge thunderstorm started to approach the lake at around 2pm and the heavens opened shortly after. Then came the lightning and at 7 minutes past 3, all anglers were instructed to stop fishing, and the match was over.

Congratulations to Ukraine for winning the World Championships with 12 fish - to beat runners up, France on home soil and such a hard venue is an incredible feat. Russia came third with 8 Pike. Also, congratulations to the Irish pair Steven and Andrew Powell for catching the biggest Pike of the tournament at 117cm - what a fish! Talk about the luck of the Irish, haha!

 

Interestingly, out of all the measurable fish caught, only one was a Perch and there were no Zander caught - the rest were Pike.

England had caught eight Pike on the match days but unfortunately, only four of those were measurable and we dropped to 9th place out of 16 teams, but we've definitely improved on last year's performance. We beat last year's World Champions, Italy, as well as other top teams including Poland, South Africa, Belarus and Hungary. I'm looking forward to putting in to practice what I learned during that week here in the UK, and if I'm lucky enough to qualify, another World Championships!

It only remains now for us all to say 'Get well soon' to our manager, Mike Skipper.

Grafham's Monsters!

There's never been a better time to catch a big stripey, and with the opening of the midlands reservoirs for lure fishing in early September, it gives you a fantastic chance of latching into something special. Dad and I have fished every opening day on Grafham for lure fishing since 2006, and on the opening day this year we decided to concentrate on Perch and Zander, whilst on the second day we planned to target Pike. We had a great opening day, catching 64 fish between us - a mixture of Pike, Perch and Zander, the biggest Perch weighed 3lb 8oz.

We arrived on the second morning and it turned out to be flat calm and sunny - –not ideal conditions for Pike, so we decided to have a change of plan and continue fishing jigs and drop-shot rigs for Perch and Zander. Despite this, my first fish of the day was a Pike of around 6lb, then about 10 minutes later I had an almighty whack and hooked in to a very heavy fish. I knew straight away it was a good Pike as it started tearing off line. It was an incredible fight on my light Abu Veritas spinning rod and 1000 sized reel! We finally netted the fish and it weighed 20lb 3oz. It took a jigged Berkley Ripple Shad.

They were the only two Pike we caught that day, but we continued to catch quite a few Zander to 9lb 1oz and plenty of Perch. Later in the afternoon we returned to the same area where I'd caught my 3lb 8oz Perch the day before, and on my first cast I caught another of 3lb 2oz!

A couple of casts later, Dad hooked in to what also felt like a good Perch, which is what it turned out to be! It weighed 4lb exactly, and also took a jigged shad.

In total, over the two days, we caught 99 fish between us: 26 Zander, 70 Perch and 3 Pike. Unfortunately, we lost two fish right at the end of the day and these would have made it over 100!

Throughout the summer I've also had something else to look forward to - as from this Autumn I'm working full time for Get Hooked on Fishing on their new initiative and project called GHoF Bedfordshire. I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to restore and develop the fantastic looking Estate Lake at The Swiss Garden to its former glory, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time getting the project up and running and restocking the lake.

A few weeks ago, Get Hooked on Fishing had their last Angling Trust/GHoF 'Family Fishing' event of the year, on the Grand Union Canal at Apsley Locks in Hemel Hempstead. Since the Spring, Sarah Collins, the CEO of Get Hooked on Fishing, and Clive Copeland, Head of Participation for the Angling Trust, have helped organise many of these events up and down the country, and in the initiative's first year, hundreds of people have participated and benefited. Another 70 came along to 'have a go' at the Apsley Locks event.

The lure fishing was surprisingly hard and we only caught a couple of small Perch, but it was another brilliant day put together by the Angling Trust Anglian Regional Officer, James Lewis.

We've also had a couple of great afternoon/evening trips along my local rivers in the past month. We'd had some heavy downpours which we felt sure would freshen the rivers up, and sure enough, a couple of days later, river conditions were looking very good. We started fishing along a local stretch at around 2pm, but after around 3 hours with just one fish each, we decided to relocate to another area of the river.

Within around 20 minutes of arriving I had a good take and hooked in to a Perch that weighed 3lb 9oz, caught on a jigged Berkley Ripple Shad, rigged Texas style.

On my very next cast, just after I'd released the 3lb 9oz, I had another good take and seconds later I had another good Perch of 3lb 11oz in the net!

Dad, unfortunately, lost a good fish from the same area, but after the bites dried up, we started to leapfrog each other downstream. About an hour later, as it was getting dark, and after catching some smaller Perch, I cast tight to a big snag and hooked and landed the biggest fish of the day, weighing 3lb 12oz and measuring 48cm, so I'd caught a trio of Perch in just over an hour for a total weight of exactly 11lbs! The bigger fish were very empty and I think both the 3lb 11oz and the 3lb 12oz will probably weigh over 4lbs towards the end of the season.

As I've mentioned in other posts, Dad and I were fortunate enough to make it in to the England Lure Squad for the second year running, along with Eric Edwards. In last year's World Championships, one of the areas where we went wrong was that we never managed to get in a practice trip to Lough Erne in Ireland, mainly because of funds and the team being put together late. There are two, six hour official practice days before the World Championships begin, and it's impossible to cover a huge expanse of water like Lac Bourget in France, (where this year's Championships are being held) in such a short space of time. This year, we were determined not to let that happen again so, a couple of weeks ago, Dad, Eric and I embarked on the 1700 mile round trip to Aix-les-bains in the French Alps to practice for the Lure Fishing World Championships 2014.

Lac Bourget is a stunning looking lake and very picturesque. I can't give away too much on what we caught and what tactics worked this side of the event, but it's a fantastic venue for holding a World Championships. A big surprise is that whilst practising, we came across some cracking Chub and Tench. Both Dad and Eric caught Chub - Eric's weighed 4lb 11oz!

Eric had a big Tench follow him too that was probably around 9lbs in weight! We also saw some locals catching Whitefish - something both Dad and I would love to try and catch after the match if it was possible. We had a really good time together.

Since coming back from our practice trip I've been very busy working on GHoF Bedfordshire, trade shows and final preparation for the World Championships so there hasn't been much time for fishing. But we couldn't resist one more trip to Grafham and we're glad we did, as we had another great day boating 34 fish. I caught my biggest Perch from Grafham this year weighing 3lb 13oz, again on a jigged Berkley Ripple Shad.

Interestingly, this year we've caught lots of small Zander between 1 and 3lbs on lures, and not so many larger fish, however Dad landed a cracking Zed weighing 10lbs exactly.

With only hours to go now before we set off for France, the England team are feeling very confident we can do well and we're really looking forward to it. COME ON ENGLAND!

Soft plastics - not just for predators...

At the end of last month, my Dad and I were at the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace on the Angling Trust/Get Hooked on Fishing stand, showing different lure fishing techniques in the casting pool with Gary Palmer and John Cheyne. It was very busy all weekend (and very hot too!), and great to catch up with friends and meet so many anglers. On the Sunday afternoon, Liz Truss, the new Secretary of State for DEFRA, came over to the AT/GHoF stand to have a look around. I introduced her to lure fishing, and she decided to have a go at trying drop-shotting in the casting pool!

When the weather was at its warmest, we decided to target Chub on lures along my local rivers. On one afternoon fishing the River Lea, where temperatures topped 31°C, we both caught some nice rubber lips on Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craws and small crankbaits, however Dad also caught a Pike, Perch, Dace, Roach and a Minnow on jigged Berkley Power Maggots and other soft baits whilst targeting the Chub.

The most amount of species we've caught in one day on lures in UK rivers is seven, and with a couple of hours of light left that afternoon, we thought if we targeted certain species, we felt there was a chance Dad could beat it. We decided to try and catch a Brown Trout from a weirpool further downstream, then try for a Gudgeon!

Within minutes of arriving Dad caught a pristine Brownie of around 1lb on a small crankbait, so we both changed over to a scaled-down drop-shot rig with a short length of leader from the hook to the drop weight, in the hope we could land a Gudgeon. After catching a few Dace, Dad had an almighty whack on the drop - we thought he'd hooked another trout, but as it revealed itself through the whitewater foam, we realised it was a small Barbel! This was Dad's second Barbel he'd caught on a lure, making it a new personal best of eight species on lures from the River Lea in one afternoon!

A few days later we travelled to Gloucester, as on the 9th August, Gary Palmer organised 'Zandermania', which was a lure (and zander!) only competition along the banks of the Gloucester Canal, with an aim to raise money for the Team England Lure Squad. The team are heading out to France at the beginning of October to fish in the Lure Fishing World Championships on Lac Bourget in France. The muggy conditions made for difficult fishing, but well done to the anglers that caught Zander and won some great prizes, and Gary for organising a brilliant match. The fishing was very hard and although Dad and I weren't in the match, we managed to get a few hours fishing in!

It was great to meet up with like-minded lure anglers and a massive thank you to everyone for supporting the Team England Lure Squad!

Staying on the subject of Zander, Dad and I have had a couple more trips back to Grafham flyfishing for the zeds using our new fishfinder. The Zander fishing on Grafham hasn't been easy this year, but a couple of weeks ago we both caught our first doubles of the year. I landed one of 10lb 8oz and Dad caught a 10lb 1oz, both on the same afternoon!

The Lowrance HDS has also come in very handy on a few recent trips to Pitsford targeting Perch. Pitsford has always previously allowed lure fishing during the summer months with lures over 18cm in length, but now anglers can target Perch and Trout with much smaller lures.

We've found some huge shoals of baitfish, and we've had some action-packed trips, boating lots of stripeys to 3lb 5oz as well as plenty of jacks on a variety of different techniques.

Recently we've been trying the new Shakespeare Agility range of lure rods, which will be coming out soon - there are six in the range for all types of lure fishing. I really like the drop-shot rod, which has a white tip to help detect bites in low light levels.

The Agility drop-shot rod is also perfect for targeting coarse fish on lures. On the 17th August the Angling Trust and Get Hooked on Fishing organised a 'Family Fishing' day at Get Hooked on Fishing's complex of lakes in Ealing. Around 70 people came to have a go at fishing - my Dad and I were showing lure fishing and the participants caught Roach, Rudd, Perch and even Tench on jigged and drop-shotted Berkley Power Maggots and Honey Worms. Dad also caught two Carp!

It was great to catch up with James, GHoF Ealing's Project Manager (pictured above with my Dad), Charlie and all the other volunteers, and it was a brilliant day all round.

On Monday evening, at around 5pm, I had a phone call from Keith Arthur asking whether I'd like to film a day's lure fishing for Sky Sport's Tightlines the following day (as his Bass fishing trip off the south coast had been cancelled due to strong winds). I jumped at the opportunity so Monday night was a mad rush getting gear ready for the following day! What a great trip we had, especially for Keith who caught a new P.B Perch of 3lb 11oz!

He also caught a 'Pitsford Super Slam' - a Perch, Pike, Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout! Although I didn't manage to catch anything big during the filming, three casts after the cameras left I caught a Perch of 3lb 4oz, followed by another of 2lb 15oz, along with a few others. I've been very lucky to fish with Keith a few times now and it's always a really enjoyable day!

Just two days later I was practising on Rutland for the Lexus European Flyfishing Championships Team Final with the Pitsford Pirates, followed by two match days on the Friday and Saturday. The Pirates had managed to qualify at the Grafham heat, which was one of many held across the country, where teams contested for a place in the final. Apart from fishing in the Anglian Water Loch Style 4 Man competition with the team the week before as a practice, it was the first time I'd been trout fishing since June, but recently, Rutland has been fishing really well. The rules for the match were that you killed your first 4 fish, then release 8 after that. The fish were very high up in the water and both the practice and match days were very windy, so I fished 3 flies on either a slow glass or fast glass line and mixed up my retrieve between long strips and a fast figure of eight, and often it was just as you slowed down or hung your flies at the end of the cast the fish would take - some of them were savage! Unfortunately, the Pirates came 15th out of 21 teams, but it was a great experience and I really enjoyed the three days we had together. Congratulations to the winning team, Rio Masters (who have been runners up on three previous occasions!), and also Hanningfield for finishing second.

Now we've had a few good downpours, and temperatures are starting to cool down, predator fishing should really start to switch on, especially on rivers. Many reservoirs also open to lure fishing next month, so I'll be organising my lure selection in preparation!