2021 - SODERHAMN 2nd and 3rd OCTOBER

Mattias Larsson again superbly organises this great event and as the years  have gone by it is a really top bagging fest match with huge popularity where you must get your name down early. Since 2011 the last time i fished here the pegging has changed and the match has extended out from the main narrows to the harbour area with sections either side .The 'Narrows' now fishes on the 'town' side with a section of Ladies on the opposite side further upstream .

I arrived at the main car park to engage Metmask for my bait !?

Further down the area was METEBUTIKEN doing a roaring trade with their shop and ordered bait supply .

Nice to see so many anglers also shopping for Metmask bait.

DAY 1

After getting some of my bait i then decided to go to my peg 21 . Great looking peg and an end peg which is a nice advantage to have when i am short of some essentials but to have the end peg allows me to draw fish to what fish food selection i have .

 

Nice view of the sections on the other side 

Set up and ready to go as i have some recent form to enlarge on - i am really up for this match under the circumstances. 

The match started very slowly for at least 30 minutes i did not see anyone catch ? Then gradually on the other side a few anglers were netting large Bream . Then on peg 22 next to me Andreszi from Norway took two quick Bream on the pole so i came off the feeder and placed my rig on my pre-baited area and a fish immediately was hooked . I then took two more but Andreszi took two more and we both ended up on 5 fish only however they were large fish and strangely there was no back up fish like Roach , Perch , Skimmer , Bjorkna , Ide , Vimma , just Big Bream !

Weigh in time : 

Phil Ackerley Peg 21 - 8960 - sorry about the fish on the deck as it just jumped out when photo being taken , sorry !

Andreszi peg 22 - 8040

Good friend Jonas Berglund - peg 23 3040 

Thomas Soderlund - peg 24 3500 - unlucky pal , you cannot be great every match 😁

Jonathan Leader peg 26 3720

Kent Persson - peg 27 10020 - section winner , great angling 

Leif Persson - peg 28 6620

Niklas Strenguland - peg 29 9560

DAY 2 

View of sections out towards the harbour area 

My section , the 50's 

This section had a low weight winner on Day 1 , i think of about 1.5 kilos so could it happen again or are the fish there ?  I pre-baited with 10 small balls of just black gb /leam and a few pinkies . I then dropped one pot of chopped worm in the middle of the feed. Everyone else also pre balled their laced joker balls. 

Immediately Jesper got into a bream and others did also , they are here !!! I then had a fish , good size about a kilo followed by another of similar size. Tommy Strengulsund also had a couple then it slowed down for most except for Niklas and Jesper near the bridge who continued to take a steady amount of Bream .

With three in my net my target was to get at least 3rd place however my bites became rare and i could not compete with the red balls of joker being  placed by the rest of the field . I had one more fish on , the largest of the day , foul hooked . I slipped it in the net and just as i started to move it towards me the thing took of and pulled the hook , lost fish . I took a  Perch and lost another Bream - match over for me as the joker Boys were 'creaming it' . With an hour to go and a long journey to South Stockholm (Sodertalje) i packed and by end of the match my gear was loaded in a crowded , packed car. I emptied my net of 4 fish (approx. 4 kilos ) I said my goodbyes to the guys and went to the station to get Carola with suitcase . 

Bitterly disappointed as i honestly knew i could compete but i was let down.

I look forward to next years match and i will not be short of bait !!!