Romanian Angling Club UK spring predator race - Hawksbury junction

I was really looking forward to this match being put on by the Romanian Angling Club. Along with the Polish anglers I see regularly on the local lure circuit, the Romanians are brilliant lure anglers and therefore there is so much you can learn from fishing with and against them. Knowing how good they are I suspected that this match was going to a really competitive event but once again all the people involved were the most friendly bunch I have had the pleasure of fishing with.

My only concern was the late start of the match as I knew from previous visits that Hawksbury junction is getting very busy and once that boat traffic started thumping the fishing would only get harder. Luckily with all the rules covered and everyone registered the organizers let us off early and anglers shot off in every conceivable direction.

With competitors lining the banks as far as the eye could see my early priority was to try and find some space in which to fish. It was on my way to find said space that I happened on my friend Ian Whittaker, who was in the process of landing a large section of plywood that was easily over the 15cm limit but sadly not on the capture list for the day.

I had it in mind to try and get the pike box ticked as I theorized that that my best chance to do this was early on whilst the canal still had some clarity. For once I did the right thing and not long in I hooked a big pike which held deep in the deep water before turning and powering off, where upon my line parted. Knowing they were about, I quickly tackle up again and began searching; luckily I found a nice 51cm jack hiding under some lily pads. One cast of my J.M Soft baits grubby shads and it attacked.

From then on though things were very tough. As I expected the sheer volume of anglers was making things harder but by working some cover I routed out a pair of under sized perch which were both only just under the 15cm size limit. With the canal quickly coloured I began targeting known zander spots and a few in I hooked a nice little zander of 29cm.

With the hard work done I figured my best bet was to scale down and try to bag a perch over the size limit. If I could just get one I would get the 50cm bonus and then any other captures would be extras. I don't think I have ever worked so hard for a single small perch in my entire life. I switched to fishing the dropshot and micro lures down the edge and after a couple of timid attacks and walking an entire length of canal I found just what I was looking for hiding close to my own feet.

Total = 95cm + 50cm multi species bonus 145cm

After waiting round for the all the sheets to be handed in, the chaps from the club began calling out the winners. How gutted was I to miss out on 3rd place by a mere 2cm. I could have kicked myself as I spent the last hour fishing bigger lures whereas had I stuck with the dropshot I feel sure I could have scratched at least one more perch to push me into the top three. Oh well hind sight is a fine thing, but everyone including myself had a great time and its a match I will certainly look to fish in the future. Well done to the Romanian Angling Club UK for organizing such a great event.

Tusses Spro Freestyle League round 2 (Lure Witches)

The second round of the Tusses Spro Freestyle was soon upon us and considering I had made the decision that I couldn't commit to fishing as part of a dedicated team, I was still fishing. At the end of the first match where I had filled in for Greg Bafia on the Realistic Shad team I was recruited to fill in for Bethan Sedgewick Miles on the Lure Witches team fishing with Joanna Davies, AKA Asia. I have met Asia here and there on a couple of other matches but had never fished with her as a partner though she seemed over the moon to have someone along to help her compete on this unfamiliar venue. Saying that, my experience of this stretch was limited to a single practice session where the canal became very murky quickly once the boats began moving.

After meeting up with Asia in the Pub car park and discussing a rough plan of action we were keen to get going. With Asia pulling the number two card out at registration we were buoyed up with our early position and once the off was sounded we went with our plan to do a decent walk out to an area which had fished well in practice, then work our way back and things went very well indeed!

After missing a couple of early fish Asia scored first with a small perch to take away the early jitters. After getting hit hard and my lure losing its tail to a good pike, I too put some points on paper with a nice sized zander from exactly the same spot.

With more competitors now flooding past us we actually went against the tide and began moving back along the stretch; running a lure close to the edge I found a bonus baby pike which although diminutive added vital species bonus points.

Our next flurry of action came when Asia hooked a very nice perch close to some cover whilst we were touching base with my good friends, Dave Mutton and Ian Whittaker, from Specimen fishing UK team who had just had a small zander. A few moments after releasing Asia's perch I nabbed us another small zander before Asia lost a similar one.

By late morning things were dire all round. The boat had churned up the silt and any early clarity was long gone. Add to that the now hot sun and most people were struggling. The news on the grapevine was that a couple of teams were building up some better lengths targeting small fish for our part we agreed to just grind it out and push on back towards the start. Somewhere in amongst the thousands of casts we made, Asia hooked and landed a computer tower and I heaved out an old portable TV both of which validated our excellent knot tying skills.

With an hour to go we headed down into the other half of the stretch to fish water that we were convinced had already been thrashed senseless. Knowing what had already been chucked at any fish in the area, I opted for a big change and began casting a creature bait tight into any cover I could find and BOOM! My gamble paid off when I hooked a powerful and very angry zander which turned out to be our biggest fish of the day, much to Asia's joy.

Total 205cm  + 3 x species bonus @ 25cm per species = 280cm

1st Place = 'No Wasps Here' Steve Wilson/Derek Holmes (435cm)

2nd Place = 'Lures and Oatcakes' Chris Milllward/Mark carter (306cm)

3rd Place 'Lure Witches' Joanna Davies/Daniel Everitt (280cm)

Biggest pike = Silviu Stoica (56cm)

Biggest Zander = Daniel Everitt (55cm)

Biggest Perch = Stenescu Cristian/Greg Bafia (38cm)

Well what can I say... A third place finish and the biggest zander of the match for me was a great result. We scooped some prizes and our brilliant performance gave the Lure Witches team a fantastic 30 points towards their overall score. I think everyone who fished it would agree it wasn't an easy match, but all those who take part in these league matches seems to have a great time and there is a great vibe on the bank. I suppose all that remains to say is...
"Who needs a substitute for round three"