This was our second and final chance to try and qualify for the Team Championship Match on the Warks Avon at Evesham on the 29th August. On the first qualifier we just missed out by a couple of points.
12 Teams of 5 fishing today with the top 6 going through to the final (6 qualified from the first match plus the top 4 Teams from last years final so there will be 16 Teams fishing on 29th August).
Todays Teams.........
Diawa Gordon League
Burt Baits
Alcester Sports
Cadence North West
Diawa Trentmen
Colmic A4
Sensas Smithy's
Evesham Youth
Manor Leisure
Sensas Allens Tackle
IFFERS Match Group
Sensas Nomads
We had one change in the Team today from the last qualifier. Kev Ellaby couldn't fish so in stepped Chris Smith.
Our Sensas Nomads Team was ...
Clive Branson, Terry Parrott, Chris Smith, Russell Millward and myself.
I was up at Evesham just before 08:00 waiting for Spoons to open as were a few other anglers. There was a Riverfest Match further upstream and some of the Drennan Oxford lads who had already qualified for the Evesham Team Match were there.
During breakfast I had a quick chat with Paul Passmore (Drennan Oxford) who does well at Evesham and asked if I was fishing the Team Match. The Saturday match was dire and Paul said it would be unlikely to catch on the hemp but wished me good luck.
I was down at Hampton Ferry by 08:30 and surprised to find that we were the last but one to register. The Team draw is done in order of registration.
The draw got underway just before 09:00, fishing would be 11:30 - 16:30.
When it was our turn I went up and picked an envelope with the 5 discs inside with the peg numbers on them. With the discs upside down I picked one out in turn for each of the Team in the order they were written on the Team Sheet.
Clive 53 (which won Saturdays match)
Me 22 (immediately below the bridge and not a bad peg)
Terry 88 (end peg)
Chris 69 (in the deeps)
Russell 41
It was a decent draw to be honest and after a Team chat off we went to our pegs.
I have never had the same peg in any of the Evesham matches and today was no exception. 21 the upstream side of the bridge was free as was 23 below me so plenty of room. Based on my knowledge of the peg it can throw up a few perch.
My 12 man section went from peg 1 to 22 so it was important to do well.
As you can see I was literally on the bridge.
Tackle shop set up to cover all options.......
1 gram rig to fish over worm down the side 6 metres out.
0.3 and 0.4 gram hemp rigs to fish 11 and 13 metres were most of the flow was.
Shallow and full depth wanglers.
Maggot feeder.
It was very shallow across and I had to come out from the far bank about 2 metres to clear the weed were it was about 3.5 foot deep. The inside line depth was the same.
At 11 and 13 metres it was about 4 foot.
It was warm but showery fine rain now and then sometimes becoming heavy. It did look as if it put a tinge of colour in the water but soon dropped out.
At the start I bait dropped in some finely chopped worm on the inside and then feed some hemp down the middle and maggots across.
I was expecting the worm line to produce bites immediately (well it has done every match I've fished here) but it didn't. Not a bite after 20 minutes, couldn't believe it!
I had still been pinging hemp in as well as maggots across.
I had a couple of chucks with the waggler but only caught chub minnows. Fry were being chased right across were I was fishing with the waggler so guessed it was perch. A guy had 9lb of them recently from this peg.
I picked up the maggot feeder and first cast had a good bite. It felt a good fish, a jack pike which in turn bit me off. I decided to leave that line for now.
About 35 minutes of the match had gone now and although a little early I had a look with the 0.3 gram hemp rig at 11 metres about 10 inches off the bottom. The float sailed away and I connected with a small roach, only about an ounce but a good sign.
I have been practicing and researching hemp fishing as I don't do enough of it. It has been getting better and I have been using Kamasan B511 hooks. Another thing I have been trying is hair rigged hemp. Sir Bob Nudd has a great little video on Youtube concerning how to do it.
I tied about 30 grains for the match.
Anyway back to the fishing ......
I was getting a bite most run downs with the hemp but not hitting them so put on a hair rigged grain. Boom, started to hit them more often and they started to get bigger.
I was doing reasonably well but without the aid of a bank runner it was impossible to know how everyone else in the section was doing. I was thinking of looking across again with the waggler or maggot feeder but that old saying .... "don't come away from feeding fish" sprung to mind.
Unless the bites completely dried up I decided to stick with the hemp given the previous days weights.
Well the line did get better and I had a few decent roach, I netted most of them as a lost ounce here and there could cost me.
They did back off the 11 metre line but by putting on another section I had them back. Altering the depth also kept fish coming.
The flow changed throughout the session from being steady to almost still. When there was a bit more flow I let the rig run at the same pace. When it was slower I held back which seemed to work.
During the match I actually caught on the small loop of cotton when it pulled through the grain. The most fish I had on a single hair rigged grain was about 4 or 5.
30 minutes from the end I trashed the 0.3 gram rig and ran out of grains, picked up the 0.4 gram rig, pushed the hook into a grain conventional style and caught straight away!
I didn't know how much I had but thought it was more than 4lbs.
It didn't take the scales long to come down which suggested there hadn't been much caught above me.
I was the last to weigh in the section and the best weight above me was 5lb 7oz from peg 1.
My roach went 6lb 4oz, so chuffed, maximum points for the team (I won the section in the last Team qualifier as well).
I drove back up the road to Hampton Ferry and the first one of the team I met was Russell who congratulated me as the results were coming in and the board marked up.
Russell apologised as he had weighed 14oz to come last in his Section.
Clive arrived next and said well done to me as well, he was halfway in his Section.
Chris came up saying he was second in his Section and also said he thought Terry had won his with 6lb odd.
Chris caught on the hemp late.
Terry finally arrived and said he had 6lb 14oz which was second in the Section, Clive Feddery had 8lb plus above him.
The Team sheet looked like this......
53 Clive 2lb 2oz 6 points
22 Me 6lb 4oz 12 points
88 Terry 6lb 14oz 11 points
69 Chris 4lb 2oz 11 points
41 Russell 14oz 1 point
Total 20lb 4oz 41 points
Alcester Sports won the day and we ended up 2nd on weight after 3 Teams tied on 41 points. A great result for us.
We had lots of envelops as well amassing £355 in cash which we divided among us.
I can't fish Evesham this Wednesday but will probably go up Sunday as you need to keep in touch with this challenging venue which really needs some rain.
Apart from cleaning up my kit today and tying rigs I have been cooking more hemp as well as hair rigging some more grains.Looks like it's going to be a busy month.
Looking forward to the final as are the rest of the guys.
Well done Ivan, great angling there on the hemp
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