PAA Predator Grandprix 2019 - Hawksbury Junction

I was nervous about this one to say the least! I had no idea if anyone I knew would be fishing and for all I knew I might be crashing an exclusive club match that didn't want any interlopers. On top of that I knew the canals were in a right state after two weeks of turbulent weather as a couple of storms had passed through. The zander should by all rights be either about spawn or on the nests and the perch had become like ghosts as they too were meant to be spawning soon. If that wasn't enough the weather was predicted to be a mixed bag through the day which for light lure fishing can make things very hard...

When I arrived into the parking area it was already buzzing with anglers all ready for a day of lure slinging, but from what I could see at first glance I might be the only non-polish competitor in attendance. That was until I spotted Ashley who I'd met a few weeks prior in the Tusses Spro warm up. I needn't have been concerned about being one of the few English lads competing as it quickly became very clear that the members from the Polish Anglers Association were a very friendly lot and welcomed us heartily, every one of them shaking hands upon arrival which would be something nice to see at other matches. It was also somewhat helpful that we knew Greg Bafia from the Tusses lure division who very helpfully translated any important info through the day. After all the greetings were done and the entrance fee was paid, the chaps in charge began paring us up ready for the off and filling us in on the rules for the match.

Having had a little wander around the venue a couple of days prior and seeing what a state the canals were in after the ever blowing gales had kept just about every molecule of sediment suspended in the water, I knew the first few hours of this match would be key. As much as I dislike the Oxford canal it seemed the best option as there was a noticeable colour difference between that and the adjacent Coventry. So with my partner in tow I lead us directly onto the Oxford and this turned out to be a great decision for me as early on I hooked and landed a good size zander which not only settled me down quickly but also put me in a great position early on.

A great start

50cm

By now a lot of the competitors who had gone down the Coventry were filtering back up and down onto the Oxford in search of comfort away from the wind and better conditions in general. This meant that most of the water myself and my partner fished would be second hand which was not ideal. Oddly though three or four spots further down the canal I targeted a snaggy narrow area only to quickly get a pluck which soon turned into a second pluck, followed by a proper hit. Luckily I had located a shoal of small zander and quickly landed two perfect match sized fish.

32cm

22cm

Much as expected things got worse as the morning wore on. Early on some fantastic fish had been caught including a rumoured 77cm zander, some decent pike and a big perch, but as soon as the first boats began chugging through, the little clarity we had soon disappeared in the clouds of silt churned up. With three zander on my score card I really wanted to try and root out some small perch and so scaled down my lures specifically to target them, focussing on potential holding spots, but the efforts was in vain as the captures all round deteriorated with the weather. In a two hour period the weather changed from sunny and very windy to raining heavily, then snowing. In a break from the weather we marched back to the most productive area where it promptly began hailing hard. Honestly this sudden influx of cold water did nothing to help the already slow fishing in my opinion.

After recovering any of the spot where I had found fish, I rolled the dice and dragged my partner off for one last foray onto the abandoned Coventry. It was a real gamble as the wind was hammering down the canal and the water was almost thick, it was that muddy, but if this decision paid off I could have scored some massive perch from one or two haunts I knew. The perch were much as they have been for a while now, conspicuous by their absence! My effort though was rewarded by a single small zed which on a match this hard proved very valuable at 22cm long.

22cm

It had been a hard match all round from what I could tell but this wasn't evident in the high spirits of all the competitors who were laughing and joking about the awful weather and generally enjoying themselves. On a hard day I was happy with the four fish I had caught, but until the sheets were in and the scores tallied up I would have to wait to see how I had done.

Total = 126cm

It wasn't until one of the officials told me to make sure I stuck around that I realised that I had actually done quite well in these terrible conditions. As the officials spoke away in Polish, Greg translated. Prizes for a previous competition were handed out and the juniors were applauded. Then after a while they got onto the top scores of the day and happily my name came out for the 2nd place position.

I was made up to finish in the top three as from what I had seen of my fellow competitors they fished really well and their cast rates are unbelievable. Not only were all the other chaps there great anglers but they made me feel very welcome and they were full of congratulations after the prizes were awarded. I will certainly not think twice before fishing another PAA event in the future should the opportunity arrive as they really were a great bunch to fish along side.

Practice sessions (GU)

I am endeavouring to keep practicing as if I were fishing Light lure matches for a couple of reasons; firstly although there are no matches yet on the horizon, I want to stay sharp for when they start and secondly it's a great way to scope out new sections of canal for potential specimen hunting trips over the closed season. With both the aforementioned reasons in mind I dropped onto a new section of the Grand Union canal over the holidays to test the waters.

Venue = Grand Union - 5hrs

It was evident from very early on that the perch were not going to play ball and I suspect the reason was the clarity. A few days of rain and the warm temps, combined with the agricultural nature of the surrounding area and still active boating population had turned the canal to the consistency of butter nut squash soup. Literally a few croutons, a swirl of yoghurt and it would have looked the part.

Total = 142cm

In retrospect I worked the smaller lures for far too long at the start of this session under the deluded impression that it was just a case of locating fish. Once it had dawned on me to fish bigger, brighter lures close to the cover, most of the session had passed. But once I made the change to fishing an 8cm Realistic shad split tail gudgeon in the gaudy yellow/pink pattern I call rhubarb and custard I was finally in contact with some fish. For all my hard work and some results by way of better quality fish, I wouldn't say I had located any focal points that would warrant a follow up specimen trip, as the fish were randomly here and there and could quite likely not be in these spots on a return trip.

LACC pairs open and a epiphany.

I was a little late deciding to enter this event and after making my mind up that I wanted to fish it I initially struggled to find a partner. It wasn't until I made an appeal to the chaps on the CRT England Facebook page that I finally found one in Ian Whittaker, and am I ever glad he stepped in. I'd met Ian previously on a Tusses match and at the CRT event and from what I had seen he was a methodical and competent, accurate lure angler with a fair bit of experience on the water. Little did I know that not only was he going to prove to be a brilliant partner but he was also going to change the way I thought about canal lure fishing all round...

The LACC pairs open is arguably becoming one of the best canal events in the country. Not only do the LACC run a superb event but it attracts loads of great lure anglers from up and down the country and this was very evident when I looked around the hordes of anglers tackling up for what was to be a very competitive event. If haven't built up a proper picture of the field of this event already I should make it clear that some of the best canal light lure anglers were there and of them many were proper specialists that do this week in and week out. This was going to be hard...very hard.

As we touched base with friends enjoying the inclusive bacon butty and cup of tea, we nattered loose plans for the day ahead. I'd located Ian getting ready and we quickly ran over our idea of what to do. Ian, having much more experience of this stretch than I, suggested we head to a section that had produced for him in the past where we could work our way along to try and locate fish.

Registration done we all stood listening to the expectations of the organizers before being released at ten second intervals. This staggered kick off was intended to stop a melee ensuing at the start of the match. The conception and realization of this were two totally different things and even under the instructions that there was to be no running, the actual fact was that there was plenty of unsavory jockeying for position as at least two thirds of the competitors were heading the same way down a narrow tow path. Eventually the hordes thinned out as anglers stopped at spots they fancied and soon enough we to came to the area where Ian thought we should begin.

The fishing for our pair went very well considering my poor start. Whether nerves or my unfamiliarity was effecting my performance I couldn't say, but initially I struggled to settle and thus switched from lure to lure and from method to method trying to get that key and settling first pluck.

The epiphany
Literally I had gone through a very large part of my go to lure fishing armoury and had not had a single dink, pluck or enquiry. Ian, on the other hand had lost one zander and landed two perch as he covered the water. It was at this point that Ian stepped in to get me dialled in for the sake of our team. As he ran through exactly what he was doing that was making all the difference and showed me it working in the clear water it was like a switch had been thrown in my mind. I am by my own admission an aggressive angler in many of the facets of my fishing and obviously to me now I was being very aggressive in how I was fishing lures. Ian on the other hand was being very subtle and this subtly was inclining fish that would not go near my aggressively fished lures to strike. The epiphany that struck me was how many opportunities I had probably missed in some amazing spots by being too aggressive and how many times had I been on fish and just assumed they wouldn't feed, when in actual fact they would have taken if it weren't for the fact I was being too aggressive!

To say the change was dramatic was an understatement. Matching the method and the way it was fished quickly brought me into the foray and in no time at all we had gone from a few fish on our score sheet to having a full quota of zander and most of the perch. With both of us working close together we quickly pinned down some shoals of small zander and worked them into a frenzy where they were chasing our lures right up to the surface and snatching them before we could recast.

By 11am we had the full quota for both the perch and zander and a rough tally had us just over two meters. Therefore we were both in agreement that as we needed to just up-grade, we should up-scale our tactics. This actually worked and intermittently as we worked along the tow path we found and caught fish here and there, upgrading our scores by a couple of centimeters. The one concern for us both was or lack of any decent sized zander. Our perch average was as we expected 25+, but the zander were a bit on the small side with most of them being around 25-30cm. If we were in a unlimited competition we would have been in heaven as we were throwing back small zander at an alarming rate as they were not big enough to improve our score.

With so many anglers battering the water senseless I suppose there had to be a point where the pressure took its toll and the latter few hours of the match the whole water seemed to shut off; it kind of makes sense with so many chaps stomping up and down the tow path, lots of yelling and coloured lures flying here there and everywhere. In the later stages we scratched a few perch here and there but our morning's scores were ultimately our best and we hoped it would be enough to get us up into the top half of the rankings.

In the end the finish was tight and the four best perch and four best zander limits did as it was probably intended and stopped any one team from running away with the lead. The top eighteen teams scored over two meters and in the end mine and Ian's team, 'Nothing to see here', placed 13th overall with some great teams above and below us.

I have thought about our performance again and again and truthfully I wouldn't change a thing about it. We caught fish and filled the quotas! I suppose our main problem was the lack of length in the zander we caught, but you can't always chose the fish you catch. We did lose a decent fish each which might have made some difference, but I reckon nether would have jumped us into a placing position.

This turned out to be a really enjoyable well run event by the LACC and one I am penciling in on next year's calendar already. If it keeps growing in popularity and size it should quickly become the premier open event in the UK for canal lure fishing and the organizers should be very happy with what they have done.

Really, I have to end this write up by thanking Ian. You were an amazing partner for this event and the thing's I learnt from fishing with you will have further reaching effects than you will ever know. You have actually changed how I perceive predators feeding and hopefully this will help me in any future competitive endeavors and certainly will help chasing specimens in the future. If ever you need a partner for anything you know how to contact me and thanks again mate.

Practice sessions (Coventry)

With little more than seven days to go before the LACC pairs match I really wanted to sharpen up. It's hard to explain this to non lure anglers but I will try my best to explain. Unlike say with float fishing where you watch a float in anticipation of some kind of movement that indicates a biting fish under it, with lure fishing and more specifically light lure fishing, you feel for the bite or hit. Now at its most savage a hit can mean the rod literally torn from your hands, but when the fish are not really in a very aggressive mood a hit can vary from a solid feeling, to a tug on the line, to the very extreme tiniest tap. As far as I can figure these tiny hits are quite often fish taking the lure into their mouth before spitting it out again, so striking at any suspicious tap can often result in a hooked fish. This is why sensitive rods and non stretch lines are vital to the capture of fish in this light lure world. But no matter how super sensitive your gear is, it means nothing if you're not dialed into hitting those tiny indications and by sharpening up I mean being on the ball and striking those tiny hits quickly enough to convert a half chance into a fish. Rather than use this practice opportunity to try and find fish I instead went to a known hotspot to try a tune up my reaction times.

Venue = Coventry canal - 4hrs

The canal when I walked down the tow path was a state and I very nearly turned tail and went to another venue as the entire surface for miles was littered with oak leaves. What stopped me was the thought if this canal was like it then any other would be as well and it could be that on the Grand union in a week's time I would have to compete with lots of leaf debris, so I pushed on and battled it out.

Total =181cm

This wasn't an easy session by any means. Literally I barely made any actual casts and in the end resorted to simply fishing under the rod tip down the edge as the floating leaves were ruining any casts I made. After covering quite a large section of canal with no results I found the fish tightly shoaled up and random section with no discernible features. I had to work very hard for 181cm of perch and small zander, though the capture of a 51cm jack pike was a very nice way to kick off the action especially on a super light 1-7gram outfit and 4lb line. The hardness of this session was almost a blessing as the lack of action really focused me on hitting every possible chance of a bite and literally I only lost one small zander and a tiny perch all morning.

Practice session (GU - Leamington Spa) - A case of cat and mouse.

With the LACC pairs open quickly approaching I was in desperate need to tune into the Grand Union canal where it was going to be held. The only problem was that competitors were asked to keep off the canal for a good period before to let the venue have a rest before it got smashed to pieces by sixty odd anglers thrashing the living hell out of it. So this in mind I opted to fish the same canal just off the match stretch so as I could try and tune into the conditions and methods ready for the upcoming match. Why it is that I have never fished this stretch of canal is beyond me as I live a very short journey away. Anyway with a short session available the weekend prior to the match I headed down to the very urban Leamington town section to try a get myself in sync with this unknown bit of water.

Venue = Grand union - Leamington Spa town sections - 3hrs

perch 22cm
perch 26cm
perch 18cm
perch 28cm
Total = 94cm

As the catch for the LACC pairs comp is only four perch and four zander I only included the four best perch that I caught. I did actually catch quite a few more though which leads me to the conclusion that the perch quota of the catch for the competition should be easy enough to fill. The zander on the other hand I feel will be the key to this match. Firstly I struggled to find them in the clear leaf filled water and the two I did encounter on this occasion were small and not that into attacking judging from the way they were just holding onto the tail of the lures.
As for what I learned about the Grand union canal in urban Leamington it pretty simple, it's clear, its lined with dog shit, it used by the local addicts to shoot up, there's loads of cool graffiti on and it's not a place to take the family for a walk after Sunday lunch.

A competitive foray #3

Match day

When I walked out the door into the dark at six in the morning I was met by the sight of sparkling cars reflecting the street lights. I knew it had been cold but this seemed a bit more than a sharp frost. Sitting there as the ice melted from the car window screen I was nervous, this was a big event I was going to and it had been playing on my mind for a few days now that this was only my third ever lure fishing match and frankly I didn't want to make a fool of myself. To sooth my nerves I just kept repeating over and over again in my head my mantra of the day 'just get something on the sheet'. Soon enough though I was speeding through the frosty countryside headed to the McDonalds on the A45 near rugby where Dave Mutton, the team captain, had called us for a team meeting and breakfast.

If I had felt a little out of my depth before I left then now I felt worse. Most of my team mates were seasoned competitors and the mix of lure branded kit indicated they did this regularly or a manufacturer had faith in them. There was me in my bobbly fishing hoody and hat looking like I was going flipping paint balling not fishing. A few of them I knew from the Tusses match a few weeks prior, a couple I knew via Facebook but for most they were all new to me, happily though we all spoke the same language of fishing. Talking about our practices and sharing snippets of knowledge served to settle me and soon enough Dave stood up and began his captains talk. He went through the does and don'ts and ultimately made it clear this was first of all a team event and thus helping out each other was paramount to the general effort, which made a lot of sense.

On the road again the sun was now rising and I was bleeding lost like an idiot! Some of the team had come half way across the country and here I was travelling through my own county lost looking for a village I have driven through hundreds of times this year alone. Soon enough I was back on track and found myself queuing to drive onto a half frozen half fallow field filling with keen rubber chuckers of various nationalities

It seemed to take ages to get ready to be set free by the CRT chaps in charge and people were getting very impatient to be off after registration. After discussing plans with many of my team mates I had just about decided on where to go. Of the three sections the match stretch could be divided into I liked the look of the middle heavily featured lock section or the more distant top section. The bottom section from the start down to the welsh road bridge held no appeal at all as I knew this section was a royal pain in the arse once the locks opened and I wanted no part of that. From what I could see there were a lot of people intending to hit the locks so I made the decision to go for space over features and head up to the top in order to have more water to fish. This in mind I never took my gear out of the car and instead lingered on the periphery of the crowds looking for my pre-assigned Bulgarian partner for the day, Svetoslav Ognyanov, whom I had already contacted via Facebook. With the initial parings officially brought together they gave the milling crowed some final instructions before they cut us all loose to fish. As we had previously agreed I headed back to my car, partner in tow, to zoom up to the top of the match stretch and get fishing...

The CRT international friendly

Venue = The Grand Union Canal bridges 18-30

The first hour was hard! The colour had dropped out of the water overnight with the cold and visibility was good, but this made the fish nervous to begin with. I had several slight enquiries early on fishing tight to features but nothing was prepared to commit. To make matters worse I saw some of the other competitors catching, which made me panicky. It wasn't till we all started spreading out along the stretch that I caught my first small perch just off the shelf which served to settle me down. All I needed was another one and a few zeds and that would do.

Quickly me and my partner developed a method of working together. I continually moved at a snail's pace working the inside hard as he picked spots he liked the look of and fished them before catching me up, either choosing a spot in front or behind of me to cast across the canal. For quite a while I felt like we were in a fishless void and was wondering if I had made a mistake coming up the top.

Pluck...I was sure something snatched at my lure then bang! I was into a fish which was straight away pulling line off my lightly set clutch. I have never been so scared of a fish coming off as I was this one. My heart was beating fast; I was fumbling with the net. This had to be a good zander I thought just before a mottled head broke the surface. At the first opportunity I salmon scooped it up and was proper on the board now with this 57cm pike...

Reports were now coming in via the whatsApp group that things were very hard all over and everyone was experiencing the same with odd fish here and there. Myself and my partner pushed on until we came across one of my Team mates, Gary Coulson, and his polish partner who were dug in hard on a spot where Gary's partner had caught two zander. Although invited to jump in quite close the spot produced nothing for us and we carried on up the stretch. Literally we covered probably half a mile before I snagged a small zander in the lea of a bridge which brought me so close to a metre of fish.

With that metre score now in sight I was working harder than ever making sure I had every chance to get another fish. After heading to the top of the match stretch and coming back again I doubled my efforts to cover the area where I'd had the small zander from, but the spot now seemed barren. With lots of other competitors all around us all the features were getting hammered. A quick chat and myself and Svetoslav agreed to work our way back to the car, stopping at any spots that had produced fish. Not long after, as my partner fished a very fishy looking reed bed feature, I hooked a second small perch tight to the edge which came up in tandem with a copy of itself. At 17cm I knew I was over the metre with this valuable little gem.

A change of tack...

On the way back up the stretch we again came across Gary and his partner who were still holding firm on the spot that had produced now three zander. As I chatted to Gary he hooked a zander on a jig in the centre of the trench. It was then that it occurred to me changing tack might bring me those few zander I now wanted so much. I'd already covered all the margin I was about to fish with the dropshot on the way down, so why not change things just a bit to see if it might work. The micro jig was moving much quicker than I had worked the dropshot and as a few boats were now chugging down the canal I opted to work the lure off the marginal shelf just on the edge of the trench and this plan worked perfectly, producing my best zander of the day by way of a very pleasing 42cm fish to top off my catch.

Having a decent length on the sheet I was mindful to get back with plenty of time to hand in my score; I was sure under the difficult conditions of the match I had done pretty well and being late back would be a stupid thing to do with a good score. Soon enough we pulled back into the field with all the other cars to find out how things had gone. With my sheet handed in and my length added up by an official and double checked by myself I was happy to confirm I had attained a little more than my target of 150cm with a satisfying 154cm. I then went about locating some team mates to try and figure how we had done. It seemed I had done well as had a few others in our team, but most of all it seemed as a team we had just about all caught fish.

I had it half in mind that I might have been in the running for the biggest fish with my 57cm pike but news of a few bigger fish soon came in. One chap had caught a 70cm zander on his first cast, rolling the dice with a humongous lure and one of my team mates was rumoured to of had a 68cm zander as well. From what I could tell only Jacob Stone had scored over a metre with 155cm, so I was chuffed to be up there with him.

After a long wait the officials finally had the results ready to announce, the team was all together and we were hopeful that we had done well. Dave, our captain, was just about ready to explode with nerves. They first announced the biggest fish was, as we suspected, the Romanian competitor with a huge 70cm zander then they quickly moved onto the individual winners. When the third place winner was called out as Daniel Everitt with 154cm I could hardly believe it was me. Then they called out Jacob Stone with 155cm was second, much to his amazement, and not long after that Richard Haines with 165cm was first. We could barely believe it at all, we had done a clean sweep of first, second and third, and better was still to come. We all thought it and a few mumbled it, we had to have won if we'd done all the top places. And when the called out that the England team had won the overall competition we all went bonkers! Dave the captain was beaming as the bottle of champagne was sprayed all over him. What a result for team England on such a hard venue in competition with some really great teams. As for me, I still can barely believe that all my hard work paid off and on my third ever lure match I was lucky enough to get my hands on some silverware!

Total Length = 154cm

Finish position = 3rd
Team finish position = England 1st with 1435 point and an average legnth per angler of 57.4cm

Me and my new friend and brilliant partner, Svetoslav Ognyanov.

Dave couldn't stop smiling after such a brilliant victory.

and neither could this lot!

Well done again chaps on a great overall performance and victory. I had a brilliant day and made loads of new friends that I hope to fish with again and again in the future.

A competitive foray #2

With a week to go till the CRT event I really wanted to get out to further sharpen my skills and try and put some theories to the test. After stewing for a few days over the performance I had put in on the match stretch along with some other performances team mates had put in on the venue as well, it was clear this was going to be a hard match. Add to that 124 other anglers all being on the same bit of water and this was starting to look like a real challenge. The best option for practice seemed for me to go and fish the same canal only just off the now out of bounds match section; hopefully it would be similar in performance and get me more in tune with the fish populations of the canal, rather than say fishing the Coventry, which is fishing much better it would seem.

Practice  for the CRT International

Venue = LACC sections Radford bottom lock - Fosse way bridge

Total Length = 230cm

Best two perch for CRT quota = 48cm
Three of the four zander for CRT quota = 76cm
Score for CRT =  124cm

First of all my hook up rate increased massively once again fishing the dropshot rig. Of thirteen fish hooked I landed eleven which worked out to be an 85% conversion rate of hits to fish. That figure just served to further boost my confidence in the change of hook pattern I had made. As explanation I should say that I changed from an Owner mosquito hook which has a beaked point, to a kamasan B420 sedge hook which is exactly the same shape as a dropshot hook apart from having a straight point instead of beaked, which I believe offers a quicker hook purchase in the bony predators mouth and less chance of skidding along before gaining purchase. Secondly, after this practice something really clicked in my mind as to what I would be looking for to do well in this up coming CRT match and that was...

2 x 25cm perch for 50cm
4 x 25cm  Zander for 100cm
0 x pike (As there are so few pike I felt it was pointless targeting them)
Total = 150cm

This I felt was an obtainable score under very hard circumstances on an already hard venue given the fish populations. But this was just a theoretical target, achieving it was another thing...