20/21/22 May - Lidkoping (Lidan) - 'The Theatre of Breams'

A coming together of some of the finest anglers from Sweden and Norway in team form for a 7 team competition consisting of 4 anglers per team .

The venue is Lidan which is part of the town of Lidköping and the town is idyllic and beautiful walks gracing the river bank surrounded by full assortment of trees.

This year we have a team in the competition called Master Baits and Tackle (derive from this title what ever you think !?)

Arrival for me was on the friday evening and we stayed at the Billys Bed and Breakfast just out of town by 8 minutes and 10 kms away. 30 beds and 14 rooms available to the vast majority of teams competing so it induced a great atmosphere as we sat and drank a beer or three and mixed the ground bait and leams in readiness for the competition .

Norwegians Niklas and Andreasz 

Jamie , Esa and Tonje (wife to Niklas and a top angler)

Jamie (just converted to Islam) praying to his DAIWA Pole God .

Esa with his new toy the BROWNING Sphere

Next morning after a superb continental breakfast we finished of our mixes ready for the first day 

Down at the venue and the teams started to gather full of expectancy 

Time for the draw and master of ceremonies Andreas Sanberg  of the SPLASH team started the proceedings with explanations of the weekends event ably supported by Shaun Keavey , Mikael Tono , Tonje and Henrik.

The sections A to D had been pre-determined 

Well what a drenching day in the rain we all had which did not help the fishing poles as a few got stuck , mine included ! Massive thanks to Andreas and Thomas for the pole joint rescue on my No 5 and No 6 joints - twice ! I have since waxed those joints. 

After the initial bombardment of the pre-bait most anglers were quickly into small bjorkna , Skimmer but then it slowed a little so topping up the peg became essential . Not the best day for me but for others they were better .

Thomas with 13465 and 2nd in section

Myself with 7330 

Jan with 3995

Finn-Erik with 7685

Mr.Splashono winner of C with 14775

Back at the B+B and it was Ibroprofen , beer , feet up and relax as i was knackered with my bad back and legs .

Out lovely host Billy fetched our orders for a chinese and Jamie had enough on his tray for everyone !!

Section 2nd place Russki also with a huge meal to consume and who ordered the Prawns in batter ?

DAY 2 

I must say that the Bed and Breakfast run by Billy Bertilsson and his lovely wife is a great place to stop and for two nights and fetching Pizza Friday and Chines Saturday the whole lot cost 1290 SEK !!!

Lovely hosts and Jamie posed also 

Day 2 on the bank 

Perfect ! Car to the peg , be it 30 metres 

Draw time , live on the bank and we are all in the same sections .

My C4 peg for the day ..........and no rain !

EXNER 8gr Butterfly 

SENSAS 4gr Jean Francois

Maurizio Schiepatti 2.5gr Sirio 

SENSAS 5gr HT18 

I had a better weight today but got the feeding all wrong and lost too many fish . Thomas put me right later  and i thank him for his honest advice .

Jan with 18250

12980

Thomas 2nd with 32890

Tommy with 13500 and a broken no7 section 

Into D section and Anssi with 25365

Russki (Ben Dover) winner of D with 33825

I thank SPLASH for allowing me to show their own team photographs

 

Norwegian International Niklas Stenguland had a poor first day but made up for it by winning his section with 42835 also the match and also the best weight of the whole competition .

Lidan a truly great and fair venue which has produced some huge weights over the weekend considering the matches are only 4 hours long !!

14th/15th May Soderhamn Bagging weekend (for some !)

Soderhamn a name synonymous with 'Bagging' ! as over the years the reputation of this venue has grown and numbers attending have increased and this is down to the skills and organising of Mattias Larsson. There are three matches run every year and for me the best is in Sept/October time but the spring match can also be very good. 

The draw was made live on the friday evening and Mattias blessed me with peg 49 which is a section i fished last year in October (without weighing as my fish were not enough to trouble the winners)  . So with that challenge i set up on the Saturday morning in a mini-section of 7 . 

Anyway , 4 hours later the suffering was over as incredibly finished last in section . I failed due to persisting for bigger fish that never came except for a sizeable lump which i foul hooked but it shrugged the hook ....... a good 1-1.5 kilo fish which would have doubled my weight . However i took 4 skimmer and a Vimmer in last 30 minutes so it saved a DNW !

 

Our section winner was Magnus with 4.460 kilos on the famous bridge peg 

RESULTS / SCORES ON DAY 1 

Well done to Metmask MD Russ to take A section with 8100 

Best weight of the day was Thomas Soderlund with 36,820 ............ALL ROACH on 4-5m whip and were caught in a 2.5 hour spell of a 4 hour match ...........STAGGERING ! 

DAY 2

So this time i was the next section on peg 46 , an end peg .......woooooo ! . Can it get any worse or am i destined for a weight ? 

In brief .........no , only two people caught in the section and i got a DNW . 

Anssi , section winner with 940 grams - two Vimmer and a Perch 

Thomas Soderland then repeated his previous days heroics by getting best weight on Sunday with 15,300 , so winning both days he was announced the champion , awesome fishing from a great bloke .

Massive thanks to Mattias Larsson who never fails to impress with great organisation skills

Well done to VESTLI tackle for supplying some of the anglers and very well done to METMASK Bait and Tackle for supplying the best quality Bait .