Army Angling Federation Group 3 match 2 Old Nene Benwick 23/11/2011

Well today saw me taking part in my first group match for the Army Angling Federation Group 3. Having moved from down south and fishing in group 2 for around 3 years it was nice to have a change and try and tackle some of the venues back up here in the midlands.

After missing the first match due to work commitments I couldn’t wait to get on the bank for this one which was to take place on the Old Nene at Benwick. Having not fished a river/drain for some time it was nice to get back to a spot of river fishing (some thing I enjoy around this time of year)

After a good half and a half drive (and a stop at the local truckers stop for a fry up) we got there with plenty of time to try and find out how it has been fishing from some of the lads that had fished it a couple of days ago.

Today saw me fishing in the Engineers A 3 man team due to them being a man down.

Looking at the river you could clearly see there was very little colour in the water and no flow what so ever. So the plan of action was to fish it like I would a canal.

With the team captain drawing I was to fish peg 24 (one of the furthest pegs down river)

On arriving at my peg I took 5 minutes out just to have a look at the water and see if I could see anything. One thing I did notice was the amount of small fish that kept bubbling and jumping on the surface meaning there were pike in the swim. Looking down the stretch you could see it happening everywhere. Looks like there were plenty of fish in the stretch but also pike too! So I decided not to bother with the punched crumb as I didn’t want to draw all the small fish in on that line as well as the pike so this was a no go.

Getting my box settled on the bank and in the water I decided to fish 10 meters out at 11 o’clock and at 2 o’clock dragging my plummet around the swim to see if there were any weed banks to the left or right and on the way back in as I didn’t want to have to mess around with the fish getting hooked and making a run for the weed.

For these 2 swims tackle wise I used Browning Cenex number 5 elastic (light enough on the strike but soft enough not to bump the smallest of fish off, plus I could get them in quick without a pike going for the fish.

Line choice as always was Browning Cenex 0.10mm main line to a 8inch 0.08mm hook length finished off with a B511 size 22 hook. Float choice was a Tubertini Concorde silver float. 4x12 and 4x14 with a spread out shotting pattern of number 10 shot.

Bait for this line consisted of 1 part Browning Champion’s Choice Gardons and 2 parts Browning Champion’s Choice Black Magic. Both ground baits sieved through a flour sieve to take out the larger particles then mixed with each other dry before adding water and mixing the ground bait the night before to make it inert.  As for the groundbait it’s something that I have full confidence in with the Browning Champion’s Choice range and its some thing that I tend to use more of when fishing for silver fish as I feel that it draws them in and keeps them there for a period of time.

The groundbait also contained a handful of pinkies as that’s what I planned to fish on the hook.

I also set up another line at 4 meters at about 2 o’clock to see if I could mugg a few bonus fish like Tench and perch which are known to stay close in. For this line I fished a double number 6 on a pulla bung as I wanted to hook the fish not lose it should it be a good size fish and not spend too much time playing it on lighter elastic. Line choice again Browning Cenex 0.12mm main line to a 0.10mm 6 inch size 18 B611 hook. Shotting pattern was positive with a bulk of shot 14 inches from the hook with 2 droppers as I wanted the bait to hit bottom in the target area as soon as possible. Bait for this line was to be finely chopped worm and caster with a small piece of worm on the hook.

After the all in was called it was off to work feeding both 10 meter lines with three small golf ball sized groundbait balls last ball containing some pinkie. The bonus line was fed with chopped worm and caster and then it was of to work on the 10 meter lines.

Plan was to catch as many fish off one before re-feeding and moving over to the other and catching on that hopping to move between the 2 all match and have a look at the bonus line for 5 minutes every hour.

The first hour saw me land about 40 fish in the 1-2oz bracket but at the same time had watched the lad on the next peg land a nice sized perch. Alternating between the 2 lines paid off as I put a steady run of small pinkie fish into the net which at the time saw me beating both pegs either side of me. Then three quarters through the match it went dead and I felt that I could be in trouble and needed to connect with the fish once again. I re-fed both lines and went over my 4 meter line to see if any bigger fish had moved in. With the float settling in it wasn’t long before the float shot under and a nice sized perch of -7oz was in the net after another 2 perch no more bites came. So back to the pinkie lines for the last half hour by now the lad to the right had started catching a good stamp of fish on his hemp line (why didn’t I set one up!!)  I felt that this match was slowing slipping away from me now as I could see further down the stretch that other anglers were catching on hemp. With me still going steady on the pinkie line I just couldn’t compete with the sized fish being caught on hemp.

With the all out being called I knew I had blown it and I was just interested to see where I finished within my section with the lad to the left having a nice perch and the lad to the right catching a better stamp of fish on hemp.

With the scales coming round I managed to put 2.010Kg of pinkie fish onto the scales (not too bad). Having followed the scales down the bank I was slipping slowing down the positions ending up 5^th overall and 3^rd in sections so things weren’t to bad and a result I can clearly see where I went wrong.

Looking back I wished I had set up a hemp line as I might have been able to land a few better stamp fish as the overall top 5 were very close.

Full results below taken from Match Fishing Magazine

The 23 anglers who attended the third AAF group 3 match were met with a cold, clear River Nene at Benwick. An overnight drop in temperature had taken an adverse effect on the fishing and small roach were the mainstay of weights, with anglers mainly catching on punch, pinkie or maggot. A few persevered with hemp and these were rewarded later on in the match. EOD team captain Russ Compton alternated with punch and pinkie before a late switch to hemp saw some better fish grace his net, his weight of 2.740kg was well ahead of team mate Gaz Arnold who fished similar tactics for 2.450Kg and his own section win. The EOD’s third angler, Tony Dale, managed a second in section and this saw them clear team winners on the day, 3 points clear of 5 Trg Regt RLC.

Top 5 anglers and weights:
1: Russ Crompton (EOD) Weight: 2.740Kg
2: Gaz Arnold (EOD) Weight: 2.450Kg
3: Paul Hallybone (5 Trg Regt RLC) Weight: 2.250Kg
4: Boris Kilner (5 Trg Regt RLC) Weight: 2.020Kg
5: Chris Glover (Engineers A, Browning) Weight: 2.010Kg