1st May - Varnan , Kristinemam , nr Karlstad - Mikaels match

 Södertâlje to Kristineham was a 2hr 15 mins journey for me with a start of 05:30am . I reached the venue and was impressed of the layout with all pegs able to fish from the 'boards' so everybody was even . I packed the trolley at the free car park and walked a150 metres to the draw on a nice level concrete path .

Russ was soon selling his excellent bait and other goodies like out MATRIX with sales being enormous as the word has got about the quality of the goods . Also there was EXNER and DRENNAN plus lots of SENSAS , MOVARDI , LORPIO ground baits plus a large assortment of pellets .

Taxi ! .....anyone ?

I must say the venue looks great and this picture is of B section .

Looking down towards C section 

What a venue ! Cars were possible to park there and the pegs were just 20-30 metres away - how good is that !

Time for that all important draw 

Organiser Gruppen Fuherer Mikael Nymantz of the Pantzar troops Battalion of the MetMask Regiment now dictated the pegging and draw - the anglers all pensive and ready for that magical peg .

Mikael giving his orders ..........which must be obeyed at all times !

One by one according to the list that they entered the competition at they drew their peg.

I found myself on A5 an end peg next to a noisy footbridge that later supported kids on bikes and scooters and even a brass band and marching flag followers. 

I set up four rigs ;

1 - Top 5 Maurizio schiepatti  DRACO 1.5gr to 18 Sensas 3405

2 - Top 5 Maurizio schiepatti  DRACO 1.25gr to 20 Sensas 3405

3 - Top 5 MAS SM 0.6gr to 18 Sensas 6110

4 - 6m whip to EXNER Frida 2gr to 16 Trabucco 121XB

The venue was deeper closer to about 1.6/1.8 m depth and far side got shallower up the slope . The water was very clear and masses of tiny Bleak plagued the surface not even big enough to be hooked ! 

There was the usual pre-bait to this 4 hour match and the bombs went in by all  . I chose to cup in 5 balls of leam/black gb with some dead reds on my 11m line in two places then two bars left and right at 5-6m .

Match started and it was nothing for 10 minutes but then Mikael Nyman to my left took two roach and a skimmer all in quick succession . He had 5 fish after 30 minutes before i took a small perch then a skimmer then it got harder . It wasn't till the last hour i caught two more perch and a late skimmer to get 2nd in section with just 1070 . Mikael had 1840 to win the section. The sections thereafter fish much better with weight of 3-7 kilos , different world !

Nice Bream 

Overall winner was Russki Hopkins with over 7 kilos 

The winners and runners up envelopes then distributed.

RESULTS 

Great match and excellent company , a great bunch of guys and hope to see them again soon at Karlstad in September . Well done organiser Mikael Nyman for a well organised competition .