A window of opportunity was possible to fish as i received an invite from Jamie to fish Köping a water that was match fished two years ago. The weather was exceptional considering there has been few days this year with any consistent warmth.
So i made the journey and met up with the lad who was already well set up when i arrived. I chose a spot to his right and that made both of us in the middle of this match length.
The venue is now even more accessible as the whole match length allows car to your peg
From my position looking right there is room for another 8 pegs
My set up
Jamie in the 'mix' ......... looking further down the left there is room for another 8 pegs
The man, the myth, the Chelsea maniac
We fished 5 hours from 13:00 pm and we enjoyed steady return of mostly small fish on a very bright sunny day which is not always conducive to decent fishing .
After a bite less first 10 minutes then fish started to arrive and after the 5 hour period i had amassed 44 fish for just about 2.5 kilos . But it was not always 100% pole fishing as i tried repeatedly to gain a few on the feeder and only gaining two see-though skimmers.
A better fish of my catch
Mostly 'Bottle-tops' skimmers and Bjorkna but i had three 'netters' amongst the catch
'The Jamie' did much better and secured a good 5 kilos of decent stamp
It is a technical water to fish but its makes you think how best to approach it . Pole was by far the best method today but normally feeder scores well but not today . In previous visits in the last week he had connected well with some decent Bream ...........
The depths are about 3.5-4.5 metres and there is always a good colour in the canal. Best attack is worm and caster with dark leam and soil and for feeder a nice dark sweet mix .But others may choose differently.
We shall book a match for this match length and place an invite very soon .
The score was 1-0 to Chelsea (revenge for the Cup final loss against us 😂😂😂😂)
Finally the premier feeder match of the East coast event was upon us and weeks of preparing the fishing match length to an acceptable level by event organiser Mats 'Mad' Larsson (Mad=private joke) and a bit by myself.
Unfortunately the volume of anglers attending has dropped off and this maybe due to several reasons concerning finances , work status , duplicate date other matches and also last years effort to have an early extra match turned out to be a disaster with no fish in the system.
The plan would have been to have two sections based on average attendance of 18 over the last few years . The usual section from the 'boards' to the Marina entrance then a section close to the parking area known as the 'Dog section' . However due to only 8 attending it was decided to have all 8 on the Dog section . This section is box friendly so no requirement to sit out in the water due to the more solid area metres from the bank with less silt.
The weekends attendees were some of the best feeder anglers in Sweden who have competed at World / European internationals and world clubs.
DAY 1
View of this fantastic match length where the depths are just 1.25 m deep
The guys getting prepared
My swords for the battle
Bait and using two ground bait SONUBAITS mixes
So, first day i draw Peg 1 and how well will i compete against very good feeder anglers?
I set up 4 rods (2 x MATRIX Distance Horizon Pro 13' with Preston 620 reels. Also 2 x MATRIX Ethos XR-F 11-10 with MATRIX XR 3500 reels)
I found clear areas at 43m and 27m . The match started and after pre-bait the first 10 minutes was quiet for my but Marcus on next peg started with two nice Bream . It took me awhile to get my first Bream and that was the pattern of the day as i only had 7.5k to show for and last in section of 4 . I had one spell where i took 4 good fish in 20 minutes thinking now i have them but they did not continue to bite !?
I must improve my casting and get better accuracy at distance as the strong wind did cause havoc on the cast even though the wind was mostly from behind .
Marcus
Anders
Håkan - another Bream magnet
Mr Bagger - Stefan
Mats
Stefan J
Ivan
Day 1 scorecard
Day 2
Day 2 and expectancy was in the air for greater weights knowing the fish had been fed well the day before . I had time to interview the match organiser Mats Larsson before the start , his English fans will be happy to listen to him . 😂😂😂
My Peg 6
Same rods as Saturday
The usual Menu
Anders
Håkan
Stefan J
Mats
Marcus - another Bream magnet
I drew Peg 6 which previous day Mats fished . Again i found good clearance at 45m and i chose another line at 33m but i expected the long line to produce .
Marcus was to my left and Ivan to the right . As usual Marcus caught direct , he is a Bream magnet ! Then i started to catch , i had two good Bream then i lost three in next 15 minutes ! So i reset my distance and went further by about 3-5m more . But again i lost fish and in total i lost 9 bream yet i caught 11 Bream so lost fish cost me a place but that is fishing . Its incredible that you fish in such shallow water (1-1.25m deep) and lose them and mostly its on a build up of clinging weed . However after the match Mats reminded me that a swap from Cage to Window feeder could have minimized my losses. So i ended up last in section again with 15325 and i must have lost 10 kilos ........dam frustrating but again i learned something so not a total loss .
Lessons learned ;
- Change feeder to adapt to the bottom conditions
- Get more accurate in cast (however the wind was even stronger from behind again)
- maybe heavier feeder to get more accuracy
- on the day just use worm and caster and plus with sweet mix ground bait or soil
Bloody hell i need a hair cut
Ivan the terrible
The Holst - Swedish legend
FUTURE :
Due to the consistent maintenance provided by Mats L and myself the fishing places are staying open more so each year there is less to do . For me , i would like to see more matches in this area and maybe an increase of another weekend of feeder fishing or even any method however i feel feeder is certainly a winning option . But i remember years ago when it was open to any method and waggler was used to good effect . Actually i won the event back in 2009 ..... see link below;
Start of a great tournament organised by chief host Jesper Dyberg . First two days is on the river at Arboga and the last two days is on the canal at Orebro
Start of the day and Mats Larsson and Janne Stange were tidying up all the pegs - priceless work
They made a great job of any branches that could be a hinderance to the casting
Most anglers queued for their ordered bait and took delivery of some of their product orders also
Slight down stream wind was present and hopefully not too strong later on
Busy at the toy-van
Mats waiting for his bait
Start of the draw and chief organiser Jesper preparing the procedure
Pair of criminals - dont lend them any money - wanted by the Police 😂😂😂😂😂
Fred and Marcus
This draw was very well presented and it also allowed you to find out what peg you will be on tomorrow.
My draw was peg 21 down of the bottom section. Quite a decent peg and access was not difficult . I set up two pole rigs , a whip and 2 feeder rods . Beginning of the match i balled in 6 balls on the pole line then placed 5 large feeder fulls at 25m approx.
Match started and Esa on peg 23 caught direct including a bream . Janne to my right started to catch skimmers and Bjorkna . Cheffen to my left also catching well but for some reason i caught two small skimmers in the first hour !!! Oh dear what was i doing wrong ?
I started to change my feeders and moved for small window feeders and i caught better but i was well behind all the guys then in the third hour i started to catch a lot of fish and others did not catch so many? I reckon i must have put 5 kilos in the net in an hour and thoughts of doing well was all my expectancy but unfortunately in the last 90 mins they deserted me ......where is the logic in that ?
Weigh in time
Tommy Norway peg 25 - 6860
Thomas U - 8900 peg 24
Esa 'The Bream whisperer' peg 23 15800
Janne peg 22 12940
Cheffan peg 20 9600
Kjell peg 19 2880
Marcus peg 18 8020
Palle peg 17 5860
Arboga Result sheets :
Results for Orebro
Overall 4 day results
Unfortunately my chest cold got the better of me and i decided to drive back home on the Friday as i cannot risk getting ill as some 8 years a go i went down with pneumonia for a 2 month period which cost me being away from work and i was close to being submitted to hospital .
Massive congratulations to Jesper Dyberg fro a well run event which i believe will be a permanent fixture every year .
