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The Soldier Palmers
AMFC GROUP 4 ROUND 3 MATCH REPORT – EYEBROOK – SATURDAY 25 JUNE 2011 OVERALL RESULT 1: England Police (37 fish – 93lbs 9oz) Rod average: 4.0 SOLDIER PALMERS RESULT 1: Paul Kitchen (8 fish – 1350 finish – 23lbs 13oz inc. time bonus) MATCH REPORT Round 3 of the AMFC Group 4 competition took place at Eyebrook on Saturday 25 June, involving the Soldier Palmers, England Police, East Midlands and Invicta teams. The Army team consisted of Jim Wright (captain), Clark Colman, David Froggart, Paul Kitchen, Colin Pennington and Brian Perryman. Unlike the other teams, we hadn’t been able to practice as a full squad owing to work commitments, so it was a case of reading the water and gathering as much intel as possible on the morning itself. With trout feeding high in the water column around the boat pontoon and draw-off tower, it was hoped that floating and midge tip lines with buzzers and nymphs would get us among them, but by the time the klaxon sounded at 1000 and the boats motored out to their preferred drifts, the wind had picked up, rendering top-of-the-water line control more challenging. Initially most anglers headed for the northern half of the reservoir between The Point and Stoke Dry End, but a few opted to start fishing closer to the lodge given the early fish activity there. On my first and second drifts (from The Bell towards Harrison’s Corner) I spotted a rival team member take two very early fish in quick succession on pulling tactics, so switched to a Greys Platinum intermediate (fast glass) and immediately landed one on my favourite Tequila Blob placed 8ft from the fly line on the top dropper. On the next drift I dropped another lively rainbow which took a Rutland Blob (dark sunburst) on the point, 10ft from the dropper. Drifting nearer the dam wall, Col got into a couple of fish using the fast glass intermediate and two blobs that had brought him success during the Army Fly Fishing Championships the previous weekend. Team captain Jim’s opening gambit of a slow intermediate and three Diawl Bachs behind a blob attractor met with no success, but changing to a midge tip and three nymphs brought a trout on the first cast. Leading the team forward by 1200 were Kitch and Brian. After a fruitless half hour with a midge tip and nymphs presented washing line style, Kitch had switched to a Di-3 Sweep with a Tequila Booby on the dropper and a Sunburst Blob 12ft below on the point. This was a sound move which accounted for 4 fish by midday, all of which were caught near the dam. During overcast spells, popping the booby through the surface produced many follows, but solid hook-ups only happened when the fly was allowed to sink a little deeper. When the sun came out, Kitch let his flies sink for a few seconds before slowly fishing them back to the boat, where most takes tended to come to the blob on the hang, with the booby acting as an indicator. Brian, meanwhile, had persevered with his midge tip and blobs combination, controlling the depth of the flies well in the quickening wind to put himself well on the road to a limit bag. With an armada of boats congregating in the open water between Three Trees and the dam, catch rates had slowed significantly by 1200. A number of fish had been caught high in the water at the beginning of the match, but as the increased angling pressure forced the fish down, it was wise to bug out in search of less pressured areas. Some boats headed for the bay between Old Road and Sam’s Dyke, while others relocated once again north of The Island. It wasn’t long before the first of two Soldier Palmers who bagged up was finished for the day. After continued success with the midge tip, Brian was done by 1240. Hot on his heels was Kitch, who finished at 1350 after changing to a Sixth Sense Di-3, which helped to hold his flies lower in the increasing wind. The remaining Soldier Palmers found the afternoon more difficult. Motoring back to the lodge, Kitch passed on his successful tactics to Col, who fished hard with them without getting a fish as far as the net. Drifting across from The Point towards Pollard’s Jump, I transferred my blob leader to a Sixth Sense Di-7 and searched the depths in the hope of contacting one of the bigger fish that are known to frequent this area. A good overwintered rainbow of 3lbs-plus soon hammered the Tequila Blob in open water and fought like a demon all the way to the net despite the nasty pike scars along its flanks. Unfortunately this was the last of the action for me on the day. Despite targeting one or two feeding fish in the calmer, gradually shelving water of Mucky Bay, only two half-hearted pulls on a Damsel were forthcoming. Col had also moved around in search of less pressured water, taking two more fish and dropping others. After his initial success with the Midge Tip, a lengthy lean spell for Jim had seen him change back and forth from dries to blobs, boobies, nymphs and lures, on everything from a floating line down to a Di-3. Such perseverance led to fish being contacted again in the last hour, and although hooking them and landing them proved difficult, our captain did get one more fish as far as the net. Towards the end of the match, Sam’s Dyke and the dam area once again became the scene of increased boat activity as anglers struggled to put some last-minute fish in their bags. By the time the 1800 klaxon sounded, they had well and truly switched off. Some important lessons were learned from this match. None of them will be new to team members but they might be worth reiterating all the same: 1. Throughout the day the fish tended to remain in small pods at specific points around the reservoir, rising and falling in the water column in response to application and relaxation of angling pressure. Continuing on a long drift after a trout was landed tended to produce little in the way of results, suggesting that once fish are contacted we should stick with them. Kitch found that if a fish was played out, landed and dispatched very quickly, and the flies put straight back into the water, he could take another almost immediately before the boat drifted away from the pod. Then, giving the fish a wide berth while motoring back up, and getting right back on the same drift as soon as possible, would bring continued success. 2. If fish are sitting in the top few feet of the water column on a windy day, then Midge Tip, Intermediate or Di-3 lines are all worth trying. With fly line and leader beneath the surface, line drift can be more easily compensated for and takes tend to be more direct. The key here is line control, employing a retrieve that moves the flies in a manner attractive to the fish, and which also holds them at the required depth. This is easier said than done, and inevitably boils down to experimentation on the day. Kitch and Brian evidently managed this better than the rest of us! 3. The combination of a booby on the dropper and a blob some 10-12ft below on the point carries a number of advantages: a. It allows the two flies to be fished at different depths depending on the sink rate of the fly line and the rate/pattern of retrieve employed. Kitch further exploited this earlier in the match by using a Di-3 Sweep as opposed to a straight Di-3. b. During the retrieve the booby fishes with a very attractive lift-and-drop motion that varied according to the length and speed of the pulls. This also causes the point fly (in this case a blob) to flutter up and down in a more subtle, highly attractive manner. The further the point fly is from the booby, the more subtle its movement when stripped back is. This would be very difficult to replicate using any other leader-fly-retrieve combination. Used in conjunction with the hang method (see below) it proved highly effective for Kitch. c. As well as being a fish catcher/attractor in its own right, the booby can also serve as an invaluable indicator for fishing on the hang – Kitch used this to his advantage throughout the day. As the booby comes into sight on the lift, hang the flies and watch the booby like a hawk. If it does anything out of the ordinary, strike – a fish may well have taken the blob on the point. If nothing happens after a few seconds, lift it a little further up towards the surface and wait again. Takes can come at any point. This was a tough but enjoyable match where, if you weren’t back at the lodge early, you’d be faced with a real grinder all the way to the finish, ringing the changes throughout and persevering for a fish here and a fish there. Although we were beaten down to second place by a very strong England Police team who had practised in advance, the ever-reliable Kitch and Brian did us proud with their limit bags and myself, David, Col and Jim persevered right to the end. Our determination to put more fish in the boat didn’t waver, and as Kitch has rightly pointed out in Match Admin, that never-say-die attitude went some way towards making up for a lack of practice. So if we can combine the two at Grafham for Round 4, we can surely look forward to seeing the Soldier Palmers top the leaderboard again!
Clark Colman |
news
Four of our members are involved in International events this year. Congratulations to Andy Croucher, Paul Kitchen (England) and Jock Kettles (Scotland) on their Loch Style Caps. Also for the first time in the club's history we have a member of the English National Rivers team in our ranks, well done Graham Lumsden. |
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