Alan Scotthorne has just returned from a successful Sensas Festival fished at Châteaudun in France. Here’s his in-depth account and the all-important lessons he learned.

I have always maintained that it is so important while I am involved with Drennan Team England to keep fishing some continental-type matches through the year to keep up with the changes to this style of fishing. It’s very easy to fall into a false sense of security and think that nothing changes from year to year, but I am still learning vital lessons and making small adjustments that can help once you are back on the big stage of the World Championships. That said, I also really do enjoy competing in these high standard matches and fishing against some of the top continental anglers.

The annual Sensas Festival is run over two days with one match on a series of lakes at Châteaudun close to Chartres to the west of Paris and the other day on the nearby River Loir. The event is run on points, so a section win on each day would guarantee you being in the money. With €4,000 to the winner and paying the top 15 anglers, there was a few quid up for grabs!

I had my son, Oliver, with me for company and he has been fishing really well in the past 12 months. It’s nice to travel with someone that you can bounce a few ideas off with two days practice before the matches start.

Good Fishing On The Lakes

There were four lakes to be used but time meant we could only practice on one. With skimmers dominating the catches on three of the lakes and catfish being the main species on the other lake, we decided to try one of the former lakes – and hope we would avoid the lake with catfish in!

These lakes are close to our commercial-type lakes, with good stocking levels but more natural banks and a good depth on most pegs. We both decided to feed more like we would here in England. This meant a more reserved amount of feed, rather than ‘balling in’ large amounts of groundbait like the French anglers seem to do at every opportunity. It would be interesting to see if a more reserved approach would catch well.

We both fed a similar mix of the now standard 50/50 Sensas Lake 3000 and Sensas Terre de Somme damp leam for skimmers. Oliver fed just a bag of Terre de Somme with 50ml of joker in it that he balled in on his 13m line. He then cupped in just four balls of ‘Lake and leam’ with joker, casters and dead maggots over the top. He also fed a short line for roach at 9m with six balls consisting of 200ml of joker in a mix of Sensas Gros Gardons with Salt and three pints of brown crumb with the aim to start on this line while leaving his long line to settle. These six balls were cupped in, so no big bombardment was used at the start.

I went for a more attacking option, throwing in 10 balls of Lake and leam with 200ml of joker at 12m and then accurately cupping in six balls loaded with bait. Past this, I cupped in a pot full of loose dead maggots to see if I could catch a few bonus fish, as we were told that there were also a few small carp in some of the lakes. The plan was to see if this more attacking approach was more fruitful than Oliver’s more reserved approach.

Once we started fishing the wind really increased. At times it was blowing in our faces and slightly across us it, making it difficult to get good presentation. I have been testing some prototype floats with fibre tops and wire bottoms and found that even in these difficult conditions they sat fantastically well. They are hopefully going to be in my new Drennan range of silverfish floats, so watch out for these as they will surely be a great addition to my expanding range.

To cut a long story short, we both caught well but Oliver had a much better start and by topping up with very little bait he maintained a really good catch rate. In the end the result was clear with Oliver catching 20lb-plus to my 14lb. We felt like we had learnt a good lesson for the match on these lakes as the steady approach was miles better. My maggot line was also a non-starter as I caught just three small skimmers over it, despite trying it for a good length of time through the day.

Difficult On The River

The River Loir is a small river, a bit like the Avon at Evesham, but it is very difficult fishing with 4-5kg being a brilliant weight in all sections. We decided to fish the harder section behind the tackle shop in the town, as here the bank is concrete behind the pegs and with rain forecast for a good part of the day it was better if we needed to make up any additional equipment.

Again we had two very different approaches; Oliver fishing for skimmers and myself trying to catch everything that swims to try to build a weight.

Oliver fed his long line similar to the previous day, but added Sensas Grey Leam to the Terre de Somme to make it stickier and heavier to combat the flow, not that there was much in this slow moving river. We both fed a roach line short with a similar mix to the one Oliver used the day before but again added a little weight in the form of a pint or so of Terre de River, which is a heavy clay, to give the mix a little more weight for our shorter lines.

I just potted in six balls of the roach mix long at 13m and four short at around 9m with 200ml of joker in each spot, but also added casters, dead maggots and chopped worms on the long line to hopefully snare an odd bonus bream.

This was to prove a difficult day with myself catching 2kg of small fish, skimmers and roach for the top weight on the section with a lot of the other practicing anglers really struggling for bites. Fishing small 0.6g rigs and 0.075mm Supplex Fluorocarbon to a Kamasan 22 B590 hook with a small bloodworm hook bait I could keep the bites coming.

Topping up with small balls of grey-leamed joker also brought me odd small skimmers and I must admit, although it was hard going I still enjoyed the day. Oliver spent a lot of time trying to catch a big fish or two with no reward, so it looked like this was going to be a real scratching section.

The Match – Day One

I drew the lakes and Oliver on the river, so at least we would both have some idea of what had happened on each venue for the following day. Oliver drew the top end of the section we had practiced on and I found myself on one of the skimmer lakes, so we were both reasonably happy. Once I had dropped Oliver off I was back to the lake and my section of nine pegs was all down one bank with me on one end peg and Sean Ashby on the other. I felt I was a little close to the corner of the lake but still fancied it, but I felt Sean was going to be hard to beat with a lot of room on his end peg.

I decided to just fish a long pole match, as fish rarely come in closer in corners. This would also give me a better chance to monitor when to refeed with me feeding negatively at the start. Once the pre-baiting whistle sounded I balled in just 6 balls of damp leam and potted in 4 balls of Lake and leam with 150ml of jokers, casters and dead maggots inside and then sat back to watch the rest of the section feed. With 10 minutes of pre-baiting allowed I was amazed at just how much some anglers chucked in! Would my frugal feeding work now?

I had a brilliant start compared to the anglers I could see and topping up with a small ball every 15 minutes with just a small amount of bait in it I caught roach and skimmers steady for three hours before things slowed. Dropping down to a 0.6g float from the 1g I started on, I caught odd small fish to the end of the four hours and felt I had fished a good match.

When the scales arrived I knew I was going to be second as Sean had put a brilliant 13kg on the scales. My 11.65kg was easily 2nd with just 6kg in 3rd place so we had dominated the section. Oliver had finished 3rd on the river with 2kg so we both had chance to make the top 10 if we fished well the next day. Just 2.4kg had won Oliver’s section, so knew I was probably in for a real struggle the next day…

The Match – Day Two

Next day I drew a section I had not fished before called Moncelair Amont. My Drennan Barnsley team mate, Lee Kerry, had been on the next peg the day before and had finished 5th with 2.75kg and with 5kg winning on the early pegs he felt I was at the wrong end of the section. This section was also much shallower at just 8ft compared to the section I had practiced.

Because of the depth ad water clarity I set up to just to fish a long 13m swim with floats from 0.5g up to 1g. I put up six rigs in total, all with 0.075mm  Supplex Fluorocarbon hooklengths to Kamasan 22 B590 hooks to target small fish. All these rigs were matched to the long top four sections of my Acolyte pole, so I had chance to cover all my peg on the run through but also keep the pole well away from my float in the clear water.

At the start I cupped in four large Drennan 250ml pot-size balls of our roach mix with 200ml of joker a metre and a half down my peg and settled back to watch the surrounding bombardment, wondering if this very negative approach would work again.

I did have a good start and caught small roach and a very odd small skimmer. Each time I topped up with a small ball of grey-leamed joker I seemed to catch a skimmer almost the first run through.

Below me was Eric Lubin who fished for France regularly in the past and I knew I was well ahead of him at the halfway stage. That was until he hooked a big tench on his light bloodworm rig! He played it well on such light gear and with this fish being over 2kg I knew I was now fishing for 2nd in section! That is where I finished with 4.26kg to Eric’s 5.58kg. I still wasn’t too far behind and wondered if I had maybe topped up more often I could have caught a few more skimmers to close the gap?

I didn’t know at the time but that bonus fish was to cost me 2nd overall, but I still finished a creditable 6th with 4 points. Oliver also made the top 15, finishing 12th with 5 points, so we had a few quid to share. Well done to Sean Ashby winning overall and making no mistakes after drawing end peg on the river on Day Two to end with a perfect 2 points.

What I have learnt from this weekend is that balling in bait can be devastating at the right time, but it can be beaten by carefully cupping in when the fishing is more difficult. On this occasion, caution with the amount of bait was vital and, as the old saying goes, “You can’t take out what you put in” but you can add to it. Food for thought!