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The Soldier Palmers

Army Championships 2011
By Paul Kitchen.

I arrived at Rutland lodge two days before the championships, to get a day out in a boat with Andy Croucher and to get some extra time on the water, I last fished on Rutland for the AMFC spring match in April so good practice was needed in order to get a good result. We started at the church and bounced all the way down to the Normanton bank, taking fish regularly on lures fished on a Di 5 with blobs and boobies. Andy started on nymphs with a midge tip but didn’t get anywhere near as much action as I had been getting. We headed in for some lunch and then headed up the south arm for the afternoon, again lures on a sinker we’re the order of the day, catching fish at old hall, yellow stone, immerman spinney and spud bay. We finished off the day drifting outside the lodge taking fish on lures and dabblers fished on a Di 3.
On the Friday I fished with Jim Wright. First of all we went and confirmed the areas where Andy and I had found fish the day before. All was going to plan fish caught in the same areas and drifts as the day before – happy days. We then went to look for other areas with fish and tried to catch on different methods. There wasn’t a lot happening in sailing club or at New Zealand point. We headed over to yellow stone where we found Hoggsy and Andy. They we’re also trying other methods with little success, after a quick chat myself and Jim went to have a look at Gibbets gorse but again not much happening. We then started doing long drifts across the bottom of the south arm, taking fish regularly when we hit the pods of fish.  In the afternoon we bounced around some more spots but didn’t see much until we hit V buoy. We saw these huge fish moving in the surface at speed. I quickly changed to nymphs on a midge tip and Jim to lures, we chased these fish half way across the dam, starting the engine every few casts to catch up with them, and casting to them when we could. We finally worked out they we’re big double figure bream, nice! Jim caught a zander a short time later and we finished the day there, happy with our areas and tactics for the following day.

Match day 1.
I was paired up in a boat with Col Pennington who hadn’t practiced the day before, so he was more than happy with me having the engine for the day. We headed out to the church to start with a few boats following. I had set up with a booby blob on the top dropper and a blob 12ft behind on the point, on a Di 5 sweep. Col took a fish straight away and dropped another, after a few more drifts for not much we headed up to spud bay. Almost straight away I took a fish on the edge of the coloured water, and went from nothing to seven fish by 11:45, and then for the eighth - to cut a long story short I came down with rubber hook syndrome and dropped my eighth fish seven times – bad angling I think they call it, as well as giving my friend on the point an orange blob as an earring! After Col removed it promptly realising the importance of time bonus, I carried on looking for that last elusive fish. I got my last fish at W buoy at 14:05. Col at this point was on four fish with a sore ear! He persevered changing his flies and lines regularly. With an hour to go Col wanted to go back to the church now on five fish, and went back onto lures on a sinker, but quickly realised the fish we’re going off bright scary stuff and switched to nymphs on a slow glass, a wise decision on his part and took two good fish before unfortunately losing his last just before the end, but a solid effort for a relatively new loch style angler who had not practiced.

Match Day 2.
The boat draw had been kind the previous evening and I had drawn in with Hoggsy who was in the same open team as me, Andy C and Del. So no secrets in the boat, we we’re both doing okay having got limits the previous day and we both knew provided we bagged day two we we’re in with a shout of the Championships and a place in the England final. With weather conditions being similar to the day before and the wind blowing the same spud bay was off the cards due to it being coloured up. Instead we went to the church, Tony on a fast glass and I was on nymphs. After a couple of half hearted pulls and follows to the boat, we moved down to W buoy and then the blue pipes, I dropped a couple of fish early on after changing back to lures and then watched Hoggsy catch his fish steadily. I swapped to a midge tip with daiwl bachs tied on heavy grub hooks to dig them in due to the boat drifting pretty quickly and netted my first fish just a Hoggsy finished at 14:10. I swapped positions on the boat with Tony and had a word with myself and pulled my finger out! Seven fish to go in under three hours, not impossible by any stretch.  Andy C motored over to me, he and Paul Calvert had finished near V buoy. He explained the exact drift you needed to be on, so off I went. I managed to grind five more fish out of there by four o’clock but I knew I would need my other two. I headed up towards the church where I saw Del Spry sat on his hands, finished so I stopped to see what was happening ‘there here Kitch, but there on the nymphs’ ‘Cheers mate’ I changed back to my midge tip with the daiwls. First cast I took a fish and then nothing for half an hour. I looked across Jim Wright and Paul Lee we’re both into fish, so I started the engine and got in behind them. The line went solid and the eighth fish was on, no lost fish this time and into the net it went. A quick hand shake with Tony and time check 16:50 talk about leaving it late!
Del Spry Army champion for the second time in three years, very consistent but hey that’s Del, two good bags with a healthy time bonus both days. I can’t think of a better angler to hand the trophy back to. Tony Hoggart with yet another runners up trophy for the champs – one day mate!
I don’t think I had any fingernails left when the results for the qualifiers for the England final we’re read out, but I just scraped in. In all a very enjoyable weekend with some good fishing to be had. It was also smoothly run due to all the hard work going in behind the scenes. It was also good to see some more new faces coming along, enjoying the weekend and some producing very good results.

Full Results

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