My MaTcHES
Day 1, a Section
I primed a swim for carp, before catching small carassio quite regularly.
As we approached halfway, the carp anglers began to catch the odd fish, and I felt they were edging ahead. The small-fish anglers were right up there with me, too, a potential disaster.
Two of my team mates were in the same position, so we agreed to prepare our carp lines and have a 10-minute look for one.
Amazingly, three out of the four of us caught a carp, instantly catapulting us into the top part of the sections. I went back to small fish, but by preparing my carp line I managed another two to finish with 6.785kg to leave me second in the section. We finished with 16 points, fourth out of the 27 teams on day one.
Day 2, a Section
Again as a team we agreed to give ourselves a chance of a carp.
I had an earlier look for one because little fish alone wouldn’t be enough. My five carp and 100 small fish gave me 10.2kg and another section second. The team had once again scored 16 points. to move into third.
Day 3, D Section
It was obvious that most would be targeting carp and I decided I could start by doing likewise to give myself an early chance.
It paid off with two small ones after 15 minutes, settling me down. But it soon became clear the fish were to my right. Bigger carp were coming out constantly, and I was falling behind.
I needed to focus purely on carp but we had found that if you kept fishing in one location they became hard to catch.
So, just like we do in England, we fed a short carp line at 7m. This worked well and allowed me to rotate lines and get to seven carp by the end of the match.
Although they were small fish, they left me with 8.7kg and sixth in the section, a solid result.
The team had put together 24 points, enough for fourth overall, but Slovakia scored an incredible five points to leapfrog everyone and win the event.