European Championship 2016

The Netherlands, Almere

The Championship

I had qualified to the WC but turned it down for the EC in The Netherlands. I fished it at the WC 2009 and it was my first Championship. The result 2009 was not good at all and i wanted a second chance to fish it.

The venue of the Championship 2016 is Laage Vart, a canal about 40-50m in withe.

At 2009 the Championship was fished in September and there were roach and odd big bream to be caught. This year we had the possibility to send one of our team members to the 6- Nation competition that were held a couple of weeks before the EC.

From that information it was clear that it was not as much small fish as in September.

Practice Week

After the draw for the practice week we started of with Box E.

We fished 2 lines one short and a 13m for bream. Started to fish the short and to my surprise there were some fish in the area. It was mainly perch and roach. One big bream was caught in our box this day.

The next day we were in Box C,

Sens we did catch more roach the first day we decided to target the roach to see if we could sort out how to catch them.

This day we did catch more roach but the wight were very low. We did catch some fish the first hour. No breams this day but tomorrow were in Box A 1 and there were bream in the area.

Box A

We knew there had been bream caught in this box the day before. And when we where tackling up our gear we saw several breams rolling in the water.

Still we started on our short line for small fish and we did catch the first hour. I switched to my 13m line one hour in sens one of my team mates caught a big bream.

After 5 min i get my first bit and it is a big bream, playing it a while but end up loosing it.

Out with some more food. The feed was the local sold black earth filed with worms, casters and jokers. Just after 10min i get a nother bite and this time i get the fish in the net and it is a big bream around 2.5kg. Notised the bream responded wery well on the feed and i had to cup in frequently to get them back in on the feed again.

The bite keeps on coming and i catch 5 and loos 5 as well. It was a good day to test out the gear to know what elastic and hook to use on these big breams.

It was back to reality as the next day we were on Box B.

We still worked on our tactic for the roach and we did catch more roach this day then before and a tacktick was tacking form for the competition.

And for the last day of practice we were on Box D and we all fished with the same roach groundbait to see how it would work.

And the highest wight of the day were 1,7kg of manly roach and a tacktick was in place for the small fish and for the big bream we were using earth as a transport agent for the baits.

Competition days

Saturday

Knew i was going to sit on C-section after the section draw from yesterday.

Got the info that i was going to sit on C1 and a end peg was the fact.

When tackling up the gear i saw several breams rolling in the water and i knew the possibility to catch one was big.

I fished 3 lines, 6m, 9m and 13m. The 6m line were more a backup line that was feed with dark leeam and jokers for perch. And the 9m was feed with a roch groundbait with jokers and dead pinkis and some loose ones in the cup. For the 13m line i used the black earth same as i used at practice laced with chopped worm, casters, dead pinkis and some bloodworms.

When it was time for the all in i cuped 4 balls on the 6m line, 6 on the 9m and 9 on 13m.

Started to fish the 9m line and started to catch roach and perch straight away.

Had a good run the first hour and as agreed i went out on the 13m line after an hour to see if any bream showed up.

Got my first bit after 10 min and sense i fished with 20cm on the bottom the bites were not mistaken to be bream when the float pops out of the water and when you strike you feel the fish 1m up in the water.

It was one of the strong and wild ones that i played for 5min before losing it.

Just to get the head up and get back at it.

Knew there were more out there.

Cuped in an new ball of feed to get some new bream back in to my peg.

Had my next bite after 30min and this time i got it in the net and it was a nice 2,5 kg bream. Started to cup 2 balls in the same cup a couple of times to get some more feed in at one time.

It worked very well sens i landed 2 more big 2,5kg breams the next hour. The last 45min was slow with some odd small fish.

Ended up catching 3 out of 4 breams and 29 small fish for a wight of 8,392 grams.

A sectionwin was a fact, yeeees!!!!

Sunday

Ended up on B-sektion and peg 23.

Not the place i hoped fore. My team mate was on peg 22 the day before and the fishing was hard. The person on peg 23 did catch a bream so it was possible.

Same tactics this day but with more focus on the bream.

When tackling up my gear i did see some bream rolling in the area and the hope was back.

So i cuped in 10 balls on the 13m line with 1dl chopped worm, 0,5dl dead pinkis and casters and 1dl bloodworms.. A bit more then the day before sens i noticed it was necessary to be able to hold the bream on the peg.

Started on the 9m line and did catch some small fish straight away. After 10min my neighbor to the right hooks a bream and lands it. I go out on my 13m line to see if i have any breams as well but dont catch anything for 10m so i go back to my 9m line. I do catch a fue fish but the line has gone dead. So i cup in some dark leeam and joker to get in some perch to the peg.

Trying the 13m line again but still no bream, cup a ball and back to the 9m line.

Getting some bites but miss them sens it is micro perch, after 6 mist bites i go back out to the 13m line 1,5h in to the competition. Get my first bite and it is a classic bream bit with the float just pooping up. Hook it and land it in 5min a good feeling to get the first one in the neet. Unfortunate my neighbor to my right also catches one at the same time. So he has 2 bream in his net now. As i hear from my bankrunner there are a couple more that has 2 buy this time.

I start to cup 2 balls at a time every 20min to get in some new fish. After 30min i have a bream rolling 10cm from my road tip. They are here but not feeding right know. After 10 minits i get a nother classic bream bit but when i strike its nothing there, noooo.

Keep feeding and it takes another 30 min to get my 3red bite and this time i nail it.

This one do i land with in 2 min sens i upgraded the rig, elastic and hook. Sens i am fishing 20cm on the deck and caught most of the bream on a piece of worm and caster yesterday.

When it remains 20min i discuss with my bankrunner if we should try to cup a soft squeezed ball that will start to brake up on the way down. We agree and i cup in a ball.

After 10min i get a slow sinking bite and strike and it is a nother bream.

It only takes a couple of minits to land it and yeeeeesssss another bream in the net.

Nothing hapens for the last minits and i now know i will get in at the top of the section.

Had 4 bites on the 13m line and got 3 of them.

When the weigh in gets to me i weigh in 6086g and 400g after the highest wight so far on my section.

I know the last couple of persons have caught some bream as well so i am not certain if i will beat them. My bankrunner comes back and says i am 2:end on my section.

I now have 1+2 and a good wight. Will it be enough.