Julie Abbott looks back at a frustrating weekend for her and the England Ladies team at the 2014 World Championship, held on the River Sorria in Coruche, Portugal.

It wasn’t such a good week for me in Portugal. I struggled during the practice week and only just made the team, then I drew A Section on the first day where you needed to catch carassio. I worked to the team plan but we hadn’t caught much at 11.5 metres in practice, so sod’s law says that everyone in my section caught those carassio at 11.5 metres! I played catch up all match and finished 10th from 13 and was gutted. The temperature was high 30s as well and stupidly hot, burning my hands on my pole!

We started on 2.5m whips for all things, including small barbel and the odd sunfish while others went for bleak. I had 56 fish in the first hour but then those around me went on their 6m or 11.5m lines and started to catch barbel and carassio, so I had to follow suit.

We had a groundbait mix for the 6m line but not a carp-type one for 11.5m swim, so I fed stickymag heavily, but it just wasn’t right. All the top weights in the match came from my section and although I caught over 2kg it wasn’t enough.

We fished 0.12mm main lines to 0.10mm Fluorocarbon hooklengths and B520 hooks in a size 20.

I also caught some barbel on a 20g waggler, fished overdepth to a size 22 B520 and 0.12mm Fluorocarbon hooklength. You used the float as a marker to feed stickymag to (green and orange Revolution Catys were great for this!) and watched the rod tip like you would feeder fishing. Even small 4oz barbel pulled the rod right round – and in one instance almost off the rest! I caught some decent barbel on this but it wasn’t enough to pull back the deficit. As a team we finished 7th on Day One with 33 points.

On the second day we had a mix for the 11.5m line and changed who started on what method depending on their section. We had a much better day and scored 19 points for 3rd on the day, but sadly not enough to overtake all of the teams above us. We therefore had to settle for 4th overall, just out off the medals.

Italy won both days and clearly had the venue sorted, so well done to them on a great match!

Result:
1st Italy, 26 points
2nd France, 40 points
3rd Portugal, 45 points
4th England, 52 points

Angling Trust England Ladies Squad:
Julie Abbott, Emma Pickering, Wendy Locker, Samantha Sim, Helen Dagnall, Jeannette Halliday, Abbie Kendall, Dave Brooks (Manager), Joe Roberts (Coach)