Simple Match Fishing Forum

WHAT A RIVER !!!!!!
just got back from France one minute your fishing a 1000 pegger and the next your at home ,we had a great few days and the fishing in practice was unbelievable bream to 5lb on 40gram flat floats then the next minute bream on 10gram flatties
1000 pegs was a problem and locating all the sections as some were up to 40 kms from the draw ,still i think everyone managed to get there for the matches
organising such a event must be mind blowing and later i'll put some photo's up.the river Somme had depths to 7mtrs fast and in parts tidal :Like i say we had caught some good weights both practice days yet the match was disappointing with two lads drawing a bad area only to be a few pegs away from the same pegs the next day [not sure how that works]we have not got a river like it here and for the small journey across to France its well worth going again .we left France [the presentation that's another story] at 6.30pm on Sunday night and walked in the house at 11.45pm how goods that
the atmosfear to this match was unbelievable with 17 different counties competing TACKLE you have never seen so much theses lads have specialised vans kitted out just for there tackle :oand G/B SENSAS BUCKETS i must of seen 20,000 of them i also saw 18 pallets of tackle they gave away
as for the English lads its always great meeting up and having a few beers dodge and the boys [ nice tracksuits ]starlets for introducing us to the Irish bar
mark one another great bunch of lads
well done as well to starlets for 10th overall and the best European team winners a great outfit and having three teams in the competition practice and sorting the venue out must of helped and was rewarded
we took two young lads with us and both were just gob smacked with the whole few days just a shame the match couldn't of been better for them :-/still the experiences they had was well worth it and both returned with a lot more gear then they took
right i need a holiday after that week so i'm off this time i better take the wife and kids ::) ::) ::)if i get timei'l put the photos up before

ps talk about steep banks the french know how to make the most of them they tie rope to a stake and lower there tackle and stands down !! it had to be seen to believe it
and the other memorable part for me was the second was driving down the sections at 6.30am on the last day in the dark and just seeing how many anglers had already arrivied and setting up in torch light

Amazing Joff

lloydy it takes fishing to the next level ,you will never see matches run like that in this country
on the Friday night all the french and Europeans could of had a meal which most did proper entertainment live band and chatted all night
if some said to would you rather fish once every 4 weeks and go to France i would seriously think about it

this the farmhouse we stayed in plenty of room for us fishermen

even a bait shed



enough room in the yard for loading



so everything loaded of we headed to B section for our first practice, here are some of the flat floats we used as this section was top six deep and really pulling through




after the four hour session we had a talk about what we had found out and at this point both the end pegs hadn't really caught


i had caught afew and ended up with 7 bream to 4lb and i lost three




so i decisided to help yong harry as he had never used a flat float before mark and myself re-introduced another load of G/B this time rock hard re-set him up with a bigger flatty and within minutes harry was catching and ended the day with the most fish

the next day we headed off to the low numbers in C section the banks are really steep but like i said the french get around this by lowering themselves down on ropes

again catching fish was not a problem
just getting them out of the fast flow







on the friday some dodgy spectators came down looking worest for ware still they scrubbed up nicely later

this was at the draw as this took place on friday afternoon and went on into the evening where about 800 anglers and familys had a meal



so on the whole a good time was had by all


shame about the match as the wind had got up really bad on the tidal i ended up 3rd in my 16 peg section with two bream for 2kg 500g :-/it was a long wait for them
and again the second day


the tidal was filling up for most of the match and the bream are hard to come by ,but the last hour it went off like a train but the bream didn't feed i weighed 760g enough for 5 points a real shame as the river is full of fish it had gone a lot colder so whether that had anything to do with it
to be fair i could of caught a few more little fish as could the lads but when you've caught those bream it was hard not to fish all out for them on the second day

someone told me the whole match stretched 78km from end to end

what i'm i going to do with theses now

well the two young lads had the time of there lifes and i don't think they will ever see a match like it again


chuffed as punch young aaron

what i'm i going to do with theses now

Answers on a postcard

bill i'l send you acouple so you bash the moaners around the head with them

Thanks for the report and pictures Joffie - very informative and what an experience 

TK there is also a lot of history over there as well mate countryside is lovely as well

Nic photos there, but can't help noticing in one of the pictures, the chap fishing has got the biggest float ever.

No 14 down i think.

Our converted barn digs was miles better than joffs outhouse digs by the looks of things !


     

Sensas Challenge Final 2011!

The team embarked upon the journey at around 2AM Friday for the long journey to Abbeville in North France.  The team selected to fish the final was Chris Gorrell, John Brogden, Ian Morrison and Tony Weightman.  We were fortunate to also have the support of other team members to with Lee Murphy, Roger Gardom, Dave Mc Manus, John Harrison and Gavin Platt flying the flag.  This was a team effort and their support was a massive bonus over the three days.

Upon arrival we had a chat with French legend Jean Desque who talked us through the format of the event and about the considerable amounts of bream and roach that were to be caught!  We`ve all fished big matches before and were a little sceptical about these presumed big weights – more of that later.

Sensas had put lots of effort into pegging and directing anglers to the sections, the entire match length stemmed some 40KM.  So that gives you some idea of the scale of this match.  As we arrived early it gave us plenty of time to look at some of the sections.  Off we set to C section, which was one of the non-tidal reaches.  Immediately we saw a wide river with lots of pace, plenty of anglers from all over Europe were practicing and setting up rigs.

We then ventured a further 20KM upstream to D section (my section for the weekend) and saw the mighty Will Raison and Gary Pook practicing.  They quickly pointed out that this section was very weedy and this made fishing difficult.  Roach were there to be caught, but the bream shoals were somewhat scarce!

A and B section were downstream and were tidal stretches and were much easier to navigate.  The time flew and we made our way back to the draw.  Sensas had set up a marquee the size of two football pitches for this event.  Anglers gathered from all over Europe.  The draw was a little frantic, as you would expect with over 1000 anglers fishing.  I made the draw and we set about getting to the digs.

We had booked a large converted barn 20KM from Abbeville in a place called Gueschart!  The barn was perfect – five separate rooms, large car park, kitchen and a massive lounge were we gathered, all be it very tired to discuss the Saturday match and how we were going to approach it!  Ian safely navigated us during the three days and all the lads had confidence with his methodical approach to driving making sure we all kept in convoy and nobody got left behind!

The lads were all equipped with round bodied floats ranging from 3gm up to 10gm and flat floats up to 40gm!!! Groundbait mixes were basically 50-50 Sensas River and Gros Gardons, bulked with varying amounts of Terre de Riviere leam.  Hookbaits were bloodworm, caster, maggots and Dendrabena worms. 

The lads were left to decide how much joker and other baits were to be fed at the start in the initial balls.  We all opted to ball in around 12 and then cup in 2-3 feed rich balls in the killing zone.

The amount of tackle many of these continental anglers had on show was massive.  They left nothing to chance.  It was interesting how much respect they had for the English anglers, when they walked past they glanced at rigs and often watched every move we made, some anglers seemed amazed at the Dacron connectors I was using – many could speak good English and were keen to talk to us. 

Fortunately for us young David Mc Manus speaks excellent French and was able to interpret for us.  He got us out of some difficult situations over the three days (thanks Dave!)
I had actually drawn five pegs away from where we had seen Raison practicing earlier that day and hoped my peg did not contain too much weed which could prove costly.  However on arrival it seemed clear and running the rigs through confirmed this.

Around ten minutes before the balling in period I went to add a little more water to the groundbait and mix it with the drill.  However my French counterpart on the next peg began shouting, “non, non, non! Non Drille!” I was unaware that drills were banned once your bait had been checked by the officials.  I apologised “sorry pal” and set about “boshing” some in, then went to feed some balls with the cup.

That left three minutes until the whistle went.  I took me around an hour to get a bite, when a small roach greeted the net.  The next three hours were difficult to say the least, I managed 11 more roach for about a kilo.  Dave and Gav my runners for the day informed me that there was fifteen minutes left.  I had two roach on the 3gm rig, then went in again and hooked something much better.  It turned out to be a bream about 1.5kg and was nervously played into the net just before the all out! 

That fish was worth mega points and catapulted me up to fourth in my section.

The angler to my right landed one which was of a similar size – unfortunately he landed his 10 seconds after the whistle and this has to be returned! Phew!

Elsewhere John had landed a bream and a perch on a big flat float for fourth also! Ian landed one perch for good points.  Over in C section and Tony Weightman faced a nightmare on a fast flowing peg and was unable to muster a single bite!

The talk that night was would the fishing get any better on the sunday? Deep down I feared the worst and felt it would be another gripper!  To cut a long story short, we had three catchers, with one perch a piece. 

I endured a dry net along over half the other anglers in my section! Gutted was an understatement!  In the end we ended up in 81st place out of total of 260 teams this was a fair result given our lack of knowledge of the river and the tactics required. 

Just two fish instead of our two blanks would have seen us finish much higher – but that`s fishing!
The atmosphere and event more than made up for the fishing, over both days the entire team caught 2 bream, 12 roach and 4 perch!  That illustrated just how challenging things were!  John ended up best performer over both days with 6 points – great result mate!

We really enjoyed the entire event, the banter was endless, and all the lads would jump at the opportunity to compete again! One of the lads even commented on the event being like a school trip, only more funny! 

We never quite found answers to everything and a few issues still need clarifying!
1. What on earth did we eat on Friday night?
2. How many cans of lager did one of our members consume over the weekend?
3. What materials was the “den” built out of on the Saturday?
4. Why did two team members decide to go to Paris on Sunday?
5. Why did the navigator go to the closed entrance on the toll road?

We must thank Danny Ashington (Starlets), Paul Hughes (Saints), Joffmeister (Leicester Sensas) and Mark Downes (Starlets) for their help and advice during the weeks before and of course during the event itself!  John and his dad did us proud with some cracking bloodworm, and of course Graham and Ian at the shop for sorting out the gear and bait!
Au revoir!
      

Brilliant Chris ........ well done mate



Err , i know the answer to number 5 ......... i always get my own back

Well done lads, sounds like you had a great time. You gotta take your hat off to sensas

I wonder if Tipton will get an invite to the VDE final in Belgium.

I wonder if Tipton will get an invite to the VDE final in Belgium.

What difference will that make to you Leopold?

You'll probably somewhere else then