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Episode 5 - ' The World Championships' - 9/12/01
Picture it if you can … take the best anglers in the world, bring them together in one of Europe's most beautiful cities, throw in a huge wild river and shout all in. What do you get? The best match the world has ever seen ... well nearly!!!
| The River Seine in Paris was to be this year's World Championship venue and it promised to be a cracker. A month prior to the event, Team Daiwa Scotland manager George Glen had been to Paris on a spying mission and he quickly assembled the squad to bring us up to speed with what he had found. To put it simply there were two main targets - big fish or small fish. The river contained quality roach of 12oz to 1lb+ as well as bream of 2-4lb and these were to be the fish which would be winning sections and ultimately medals. However, there were also a few bleak there and although they didn't seem to be around in great numbers they would be important as a back up in harder sections. |
It was a big river, which flowed hard, and at around four metres deep it would be challenging to say the least. Because of the nature of the banks the sections were split so it wasn't one long continuous match length as is normally the case for these events and just getting to your section was stressful in Paris traffic. However, logistically at least, we were well organised and things were to go smoothly for us.
Practice
We arrived on Saturday and had a quick look round after finding our digs and found a tackle shop to stock up on floats, big winders etc. We spent Sunday setting up some rigs to get us started on an area away from the match length.
Official practice sessions are all formally organised and begin on Monday. The sections are split up into zones of 6 pegs and each is given a number. Each team is then allocated a number from all 5 sections to fish in each day. What this means is that you get a chance to fish in all sections before the match on Saturday allowing you to build a picture of the venue in your mind and prepare your tactics in advance.
We quickly realised that this river did not hold a lot of fish. A couple of lost big fish and a smattering of bleak were all we had to show for two 3-hour practice sessions on E section on Monday. Bites were few and far between for us and we weren't the only ones. Reports were that only pockets of fish showed and most teams were struggling. This was to be the way it would continue for the rest of the week with blanks not uncommon. You wanted to be near a bridge or on an end peg to be guaranteed fish; pegs in the middle of sections weren't so good and usually struggled.
As the week went on it became clear that one quality fish would be enough in most sections to get you a top ten place and if that failed a bleak could be caught to knock off the blank. Every day some of the team would catch odd roach and bream so this at least was helping us understand how these fish could be caught.
 Friday Practice - D section |
In terms of tackle a picture was starting to appear and I settled on three different float types. Firstly, there were the flat floats ranging from 4-30g that allowed you to present your bait either dead still in the flow or at a slow pace. The French, and in particular Diego DaSilva are masters at this type of fishing and I'd thoroughly recommend you read Diego's article in the Declic Peche section of Matchangler.com. As if to prove my point he finished in the medals in Paris. |
Secondly there were the large round floats between 4-10g. These were used for running your bait at the pace of the flow. And finally, small round floats (0.75 -2g) for bleak fishing, again fished at pace. Terminal tackle was balanced to the float size and target species (i.e. heavier lines and bigger hooks on floats 1 & 2 for Roach/Bream and lighter gear on float 3 for the bleak).
| As always feeding is crucial and especially at this level. We felt that the bigger fish wanted something with plenty of particles in it. It also had to be relatively active but sticky and heavy to get in down in the flow. We were experimenting all week with different mixes provided for us by Sensas. Although you are trying to get a base mix right for the team, individuals have preferences and you also have to adapt to the section or conditions. So not all the team uses the same mix as we have the freedom to go with your own feeling which I think is important. My big fish mix consisted of 40% Gros Gardon (big roach) 20% River 20% Fine Carp and 20% Terre de Riviere (heavy leam). For the bleak it was 50% light leam, 25% Lake and 25% surface. |
We felt that because of quality of the roach and bream you wanted to feed more big bloodworm in the mix than joker. So we would ball it on 13-14 metres for the big fish with around quarter kilo of joker and half a kilo of bloodworm in the mix and use our lighter feed either on that line or inside it to catch bleak up in the water.
DAY 1
I found out on Friday night that I'd drawn B section and wasn't too disappointed by this. I'd caught a bream there on Wednesday and watched the Italians empty the bottom pegs by the bridge that afternoon so I knew some fish were around. All I needed now was a high or a low number to put me near the bridges and Rab Crossan delivered with 33 (37 was upstream end peg against the bridge). There was a good chance of decent points I thought.
There were lots of spectators around the bridge so the atmosphere was brilliant and I was loving it even before the all in. However, most were behind peg 26 where Diego Da Silva was setting up his 10 top kits (the crowd were a little biased as you would expect !)
My plan was to go for big fish at least for the first hour then play it by ear. You could expect to catch quite quickly after feeding so if nothing happened after my initial bombardment I planned to go in with 10 balls at a time at around 45 minute intervals to encourage any fish in the area to move on to it and have a go. After an hour I had nothing but wasn't too worried as only a handful of fish had been caught.
Team captain Rab Crossan came up the bank and we had a chat about what to do next. I knew that a decent fish could come at any time so I had to keep looking for that to happen but I was starting to think about the bleak. Rab confirmed before he left that there were a few anglers at the bottom of the section with one each so bleak were there. Also, there was no one around me feeding for them and I'd been putting in the odd ball of light stuff at 11 metres so I could have them all to myself. So I had a run through with the light rig missing a bite first chuck on joker. 10 minutes later and I'd missed another bite and then got one in. What a relief it was and I could now relax and fish it the way I saw it. Rab came back and urged me to step up the bleak feed as he felt sure I could pull more in from downstream. That's what I did and for the next half hour I caught odd fish before feeding my main line again and going in for big fish.
I had a choice to make at the half-way stage of the match - either keep going for bleak or go back on the big fish line. I had 7 or 8 bleak so every angler with a quality fish was beating me but I was ahead of all those on one bleak. I decided to have a look over the main line every half-hour as this could put me in the top five if it came off. I'd then spend the rest of the time on bleak thinking that if I could catch enough of them I may even be able to beat those with one roach. So that's what I did and ended up with 15 bleak for 130g and 14th in the section.
I was pleased with this result as the 13 anglers who had beaten me had bonus fish and I was the best of the rest with bleak only. Also the section had recorded 16 blanks and I was thankful I wasn't in that group. Back at base camp we had five weighers but no bonus fish. Bonus fish were essential as they put you in the top ten in just about every section so despite being only one of a dozen teams with all men weighing in, we were still 21st from 37 teams … disappointing.
Diego won my section (I knew this even before the end, as there was a cup final style roar every time he hooked and then netted a fish). Shock of the day was Yugoslavia's second place result behind overnight leaders Italy (who had looked brilliant all week) and in front of hosts France and then England.
DAY 2
What can I say about day two? I drew the same section, peg nine this time and felt confident of another repeat performance. Sadly it wasn't to be and I ended up blanking. I felt that I hadn't done much wrong and fished hard for the 3 hours looking for one bite that would catapult me from nowhere to the top ten but it just didn't come. I was gutted at the end and felt it was a terrible way to end what had been a good week and was sorry to have let the rest of the team down. But I felt I had been unfortunate and wasn't the only one to suffer a blank in what had been a tough section.
My result didn't help the team who again failed to come up with those precious bonus fish and we slipped to 24th overall. However, as with the Six Nations we learned a hell of a lot and we will benefit from our lessons and experiences in the future I'm sure.
The tables turned at the top after Sunday's match with England storming back with a great performance to steal gold from France. Italy slipped to 3rd but were consoled by Umberto Ballabeni's individual gold medal. Poland's Piotr Lorenc was runner up and that man Da Silva was third. A magnificent line up of winners in a magnificent city.
Full results and other information from Paris are available on the International pages in this website - click here.
Final Chapter
This is the last instalment of Davies Diary so I hope you have enjoyed the ups and the downs of the matches I've fished this year. I don't know about you but I'm already thinking of next years league, and am looking forward to a few decent winter matches in the meantime. So Good luck with your own fishing next year and tight lines.
Davie
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