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The Soldier Palmers
ENGLISH FLY FISHING ASSOC (EFFA) V ARMY/NAVY
This is the second season I have fished this match and on both occasions being the team captain for the Soldier Palmers (SP) contingency of the team. I say contingency as the team breakdown is eight anglers from the SP and eight from the Navy against a 16-man team from EFFA. As always getting time on the water was very difficult and we as a team only managed to get two anglers out the day before, conditions were hard with bright sunshine and no wind all day. The two anglers were Dean Rudd and David Froggatt, who both fished hard for not a lot. The morning of the competition arrived and we all amassed at Pitsford for a 1000hrs start, the match would be fished until a lunch stop at 1300 – 1400hrs and then the match ending at 1830hrs. As always the fishing banter was good with some light hearted banter directed towards anyone who stood still for long enough. Anyway to the fishing, due to the small half of Pitsford being extremely coloured the armada of boats headed through the causeway into the big half. Boats proceeded to drop off all along the narrows and into the main bowl. I was partnered with Peter Hartley who is Anglian Waters fishing instructor, and a real gentleman. Having not met him before and on the basis that his job is teaching people to catch fish, school was open for lessons. Normally it would cost somebody £100 for a day in a boat with this guy, not only was I getting it cheap but the Army was paying me for the pleasure (I love my job). Anyway, we headed down the Narrows and as we were nearing the majority of the boats in the bowl we started to see trout just under our boat as we motored over them, at this stage Peter was still setting up and commented that I was likely to have a few in the boat before he was ready. First cast……… Fast Glass – cormorant, diawl bach, cruncher, and small booby, when the line hit the water it was a steady figure of eight back the boat. Weather……… Bright sunshine all day with 7 – 10mph wind. Had a big pull but failed to hook the fish, proceeded to recast exchanging pleasantries with Peter, second cast fish took the diawl bach. This guy is a good instructor!!!!!! As the morning went on, we had a few pulls with a few fish in the boat and as we motored in for lunch, I had four fish in the boat to Peters 2. Now one of the things I really like about this match is the lunch, its always good but more importantly, you get everyone’s int. Nothing is held back with both sides passing everything on. With a brief chat to the guys who were struggling, i.e the Navy!!!!! It was back out on the water to do the same.
As the last hour of the match came to close, we were fishing near Alex Caldwell, as he had a great last 30mins to take his bag total to a respectable seven. The last few of these fish came down to sheer effort and a lot of pulling. When we came back for the weigh – in it was obvious that as a team (inc Navy), we had not done well enough, with the EFFA having 4 limits to our 1. As an individual if you can manage eight fish during this match you are in with a real shout of winning it due to no time bonus applying, therefore as the limits were being weighed in, I knew I was in with a chance of winning. I won this match last year using almost identical tactics, so when I handed the trophy back for its redistribution I did comment that as me and my daughter had just cleaned it I was sort of hoping I was going to take it home again. As the individual winner was read out, the EFFA captain conveniently called out the wrong name, with John Mees kindly correcting him that I had actually won with a bag limit of 20lb 6oz. (6oz between success and 2nd place)!!!!!! The day was again a pleasure with some valuable experience gained from very good anglers, I look forward to trying to retain the trophy next season.
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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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The EFFA match is always fished on the first Thursday in September and for me it is one of the highlights of our fishing calendar. This is not due to the any big prize pool or your name in lights across the fishing world; it is due to spending some quality time in the presence of some real fishing gentlemen and using the opportunity to add to my fishing experience.
1400hrs and the armada went through the causeway again, however this time alot of the boats stayed up near the road due to several fish coming from here during the morning. I had been speaking to Dave Joyce and he had mentioned that he had a number of follows by the disused farm on the right as you head down to the narrows, as we were going back down that way we decided to give it 30mins. Using the same tactics, I had my last 4 fish by 1455hrs with Peter catching another 2, things then slowed down for Peter. Peter finished on 7 fish, working hard and losing a few fish during the day. As the afternoon wore on it was clear the fish had gone off a little, however it was great to see all the SP guys fishing hard and pulling out a fish or two.
