Drennan Team England’s last visit to Merida in Spain two years ago saw us crowned World Champions. We felt confident about targeting Carp, Catfish and Bleak on the venue as we travelled out to the European Championships last month, but not having achieved a medal in either of the main events last year, we really wanted one this time round.
The team for the Europeans was slightly different to the World Championship squad, with Steve Hemingray in for Stu Conroy. I was to be his travelling companion and although it felt unusual not to be driving, the pressure was off me on that front ! The venue is always closed two weeks before the event but we had been shown a place on the river out of town that was perfect to practise all the disciplines we needed, just to get our eye and make sure all our gear was up to scratch.
Steve started on the slider and I set about Bleak fishing as it’s one of my weaker skills. One adjustment I needed to make came to light very quickly: my no 4 elastic was sticking slightly to the pole sides, wasn’t as smooth as it should be and I was bumping odd fish. So that evening I cut back the tip section by about 8inches. This had the desired affect and I could use a soft set 4 without it hanging out of the pole, which is really important when catching more than 100 Bleak an hour.
After a day on the Slider with my fantastic 14ft Drennan Matchpro Float rods and a good session on the pole for Carp, we were ready for the start of official practice on Monday. The Sunday before is always spent hook tying, rig making and generally checking everything is ready for Monday. I don’t think any of the squad tried the pool at the hotel despite the temperatures pushing 40 degrees. So much for a day of rest !
Mark Downes and Mark Addy arrived that evening so Monday was to be the test day to see if things had changed much from two years ago. Although there were only 23 teams competing as opposed to 40 in the World Championships, all of our main rivals were still present: Italy who were runners up two years ago, Hungary, Holland, Belgium and of course Spain would all be major contenders.
Monday on any venue after it’s rested for two weeks is always a slow start, but we had drawn the end box in A section where there were loads of Bleak. The end three pegs caught well on Slider and later on the pole, and Sean Ashby caught 50pound on the end peg for a great start. I struggled a little as the fish never really moved through from pegs 1, 2 and 3 but at least it looked as though we were in for a good week when the fish shifted onto the bait.
On Tuesday we moved up to C section. The two Marks put us on a one hour Bleak practice and Do What You Want From There ! The Bleak were big and we all caught well, but after the hour was up, Mark let three change and three stay Bleaking. I chose the slider and it was slow at first but eventually, I started to catch Carrassio very well. There hadn’t been so many of these fish two years before, but a lot of Catfish seemed to be missing this time, so as the week progressed, tactics could obviously be different, especially if these fish moved onto the pole line. Willy Raison won this practice session with a brilliant 23 kilos, mostly on the slider. My 15 kilos were good enough for third and with just short of 10 kilos being last, it looked as though we could be in for some big weights later in the week.
The next day, Wednesday, saw us on B section. Plumbing these six pegs, you couldn’t believe the difference from one end to the other. Myself and Steve had 6ft on the pole and 7ft on slider, but Des Shipp on peg six had about 12ft of depth on both pole and waggler.
Personally I hate this scenario, because it’s so difficult to prove anything. There can either be more fish on the shallows or more fish in the deeper water, as it seemed there were today. Or did we just feed wrong in the shallower pegs ? At least there was a vast amount of Bleak present as Will crashed out 400 hundred plus for 13kilos, a great weight superseded by Des with 16 kilos on the slider . Bleak were going to play a big part but to win sections Carp and Carassio were going to be the main species as the Carp were starting to show in just odd ones but would get stronger by the weekend. We heard through the grapevine that A section was starting to lift off with some 30kilo weights of Carp on the pole but disappointingly, we wouldn’t return to this section having been there the first day.
Thursday proved tricky with only 9 Kilos top weight and only two fish on the pole. I think we were all a little disappointed as we knew we needed to catch more on the pole because come the weekend it would be the major method in the last two hours of the match.
For the final day’s practice we were next to the Italians. It would be interesting to see how we fared against them as we had heard that they had caught well earlier in the week. We were confident that we had got the Bleak fishing right: fishing about seven meters with short lines and elastic, feeding Sensas Surface on its own with no Tracix Cloud Dye seemed bang on. The slider was also good for us, with a very aggressive 30 balls of Sensas Fine Carp and Terre de Riviere loaded with chopped worms, dead maggots and casters delivered via a catapult. This worked very well and allowed us to feed sparingly afterwards for odd Carp and Carrassio.
Now we had just the Friday to perfect the pole line. Again with all pegs in the box being different on the bottom, it was going to be tough to come up with a plan, especially at the end of the session. The top weight for us and also for the Italians had come from just cupping in bait on the long pole line.
The meeting that evening was long drawn out because as it was difficult to formulate a plan. We all felt we needed another day on the pole to get it dead right. The Italians had caught well fishing on the drop with corn and Simone next to Steve Gardener had top weight with close to 20kilos. Unfortunately, we had not had chance to practice this as our approach involved feeding Terre de Riviere with Worms and Corn for the carp and fishing Worms on the hook.
Match day came all too soon and sat on peg 11 right in the middle of C section, next to the Italian angler, is not what I would have picked. At least I would be able to keep my eye on him !
After feeding all my lines I settled down into a Bleak session as did the Italian next door but it was slow going. It was much warmer and the sun was very strong so the Bleak had gone deeper and were more difficult to catch. One hour in, I had 80 but my rival Italian had a slight lead with 90 plus fish, so I changed to slider. Again it was slow to start and I was wondering if I had made the right decision to come off Bleak when I hooked a Carp. After a tense battle, a 4lb fish was in the net and I could settle into the match.
Feeding carefully with 50%/50% mix of Terre de Riviere and Sensas Fine Carp with plenty of bait, I caught odd Carrassio and another Carp. For the last hour, a change to the pole added four more Carp to my total. The Italian on the next peg had a tough time, staying with Bleak too long, missing the fish on the Waggler and then struggling on the pole with just one Carp. So it was a case of just how many points we could pinch on the Italian team.
As it turned out, I was fourth in the 23 peg section with 15kilos and he was 19th with just over 6kilos. Sean had a difficult day, finishing 13th and pegged next to Simone who won the section. Will’s was also next to an Italian and his second in section lost just one point. Des was 4th in another section won by Italy and Mister Consistent Steve G was 3rd. When all the points were tallied up, the Italians had still beaten us by two points in total: 29 to our 31.
Again the meeting that evening was a long one because we weren’t altogether sure whether we needed to change anything for the second day’s match. In the end we decide to just cup the pole line a little more aggressively but change little else. Steve Hemingray stepped in for Sean for the second day and I drew another middle order on peg 17 in D section with the Italian Simone on peg 20. I felt I was in for a rough ride, especially when I plumbed up on the pole line to find a very rocky and uneven bottom.
For me, the match was similar to the day before, catching Bleak for one hour, then a change to waggler for two carp and just one Carrassio and then onto the pole line and some early fish, so with one hour to go I was looking good. That’s when the wheels fell off.
Whatever I did in the last hour, I couldn’t find any more fish when all around seemed to be catching. A change to Sticky Mag on the drop didn’t work and I slipped down in the section. What I didn’t know was that apart from Will, who was emptying the lake on the slider in B section, all of us on the pole line were having the same problem. We had to conclude that not having balled it as all the other teams did, we just didn’t have enough bait in our pegs come the last hour, when the Carp rocked up !
I was 12th, Stevie 12th, Des 9th, Steve Hemingray 5th for a 40 point total. Italy stole the show with a 16 point total on the second day, and we hung on to a silver medal, mainly thanks to a brilliant section win from William and a match win on the day with 30kilos.
We were a little disappointed but silver is still a good result. Serbia finished third, 9points behind us which is great for them as an up-and-coming team. Italy fished brilliant and deserved to win as they did in the football that evening.
Bring on the World Champs and let’s see if we can get back in the groove !