On Sun 13 Oct I fished in an England rivers qualifier to try and make the 2014 National Final. The venue was the Lower River Itchen at Southampton. In this match you fish one 4 hour session and I was drawn to fish in the morning. Lindsay and I had put a good days practice in and were confident we knew where the larger pods of Grayling were. As I stepped off for my session, it became apparent that most anglers knew those areas too! I started my 4 hours in amongst 5 other anglers spread over no more than 300 metres of riverbank. I hooked a fish first cast - and spilled it at the net; Bad Angling Graham! I then netted a Grayling after 10 minutes and any nerves were calmed. It was just steady away after that, nowt spectacular, i just kept to my game plan and the spots where i knew fish were lying, ps not the same lying that us anglers are prone to do ;) In the morning, anglers had caught good numbers of fish, Cameron Craigs 19, Lindsay Simpson 16, me 15 and Dave Drake 14. When the afternoon catches were totalled up, then my morning 3rd place just pipped the afternoon 3rd, putting me in 5th overall. With 26 anglers entered in total then im reasonably confident of making the final next year. My pal Lindsay got third overall and is definitely there next year - Good Angling Buddy. Many thanks to Andrew Green for organising this Qualifier
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 12:31:10 +0000