On of the main events on the agenda at this time of the year is always the England Youth Trials. This year, the event took place at Birmingham’s Barston Lakes, a fantastic fishing site which has recently hosted some big events in match fishing. The managers of the England teams, Steve Saunders, Mark Downes and Joe Roberts, had to pick 5 under 18’s and 5 under 21’s out of 20 trialists in each age group to compete in this years world champs. The trials are fished to full international rules, so that means loads of groundbait and no ledgering! Usually the teams consist of 6 anglers, so the reduction to 5 man teams on top of the high standard of anglers meant that it was going to be even harder to get into the team this year!
Practice Makes Perfect!
We had decided to travel down t Barston the day before the trials to have a practice and find out what worked or not. There were at least 10 other angers practicing too, so we decided to all fish in a line to try and create match conditions. The trials usually mean you will be fishing in a very typical continental way, and this year wasn’t going to be any different. We decided on a three hour practice session, which went very well. At the end of it I had caught 17 skimmers between 12oz and 2lb, as well as some roach. We were able to create a bit of a plan, but the key point was to ball-in 15 soft balls at the start with very little feed to create a cloud, and then cup in a really heavy sticky double leam mix full of joker, worm and caster. Rigs were positive to say the lake is only 4ft deep, ranging from 0.3 to 0.8g, bulked with 20 and 18 hooks. Another key point was to top up while the fish were still in the swim, if you waited until the bites faded, it would take you a long time to get the fish back. The leam mix was used to top up.
Round 1
It was another hour and a half’s drive back down to Barston on the Sunday morning for the trials. The trials consist of a three hour session in the morning, and a three hour session in the afternoon. The morning’s session saw me placed in the middle of the bank, between Danny Huxley and Harry Marsh. I was feeling OK about everything after the decent practice the day before, and planned to feed 15 proper balls at the 13m limit by hand, and then accurately cup in 4 red bally full of joker. I set up rigs from 0.3g to 0.8g, Tamas Walters, Jean Francois, and pencil floats, one of which was on an 8 elastic and 0.12 for if they arrived proper!
After the initial bombardment of everyone filling it in, things were quiet. I caught 4 roach in the first 30 minutes off the deck on a light rig with bloodworm, before hooking into my first small skimmer of the day. At this point I picked up a heavier rig laid on the deck with either a red worm or a bunch of bloodworms. It took a while but I was soon into a few skimmers around 10oz, and seemed to be doing well. Jake Marshall was fishing well a few pegs down, catching proper skimmers. the best rig was a 0.6g held as still as possible. I was crucial to top up with the heavy red balls after 2 fish of it would take 15 minutes to get the fish back. At the end of the session I felt I had done OK and had around 16 skimmers and a few roach. I weighed in 17lb, which put me third on the trial out of twenty, behind Jake Marshall who did awesome with 23lb, and Conner Barlow who had 18lb.
Round 2
On the second session I was moved down to a section that had fished really badly in the morning, on Matt Derry’s peg, where he had caught 6lb in the morning. I decided not to put as much in at the start this session, as the peg had already had a big bombardment in the morning. I decided on 7 soft balls by hand and three red balls full of snap cupped over the top. It was virtually the same depth as the other peg and I kept all the rigs the same. I was soon into some small roach, and nobody around seemed to be catching. Things then slowed for me, and Ben Taylor on he next peg started to pick up some fish. I tried to fine down to catch roach, but in the end I just sat it out for skimmers on the heavy rig. Ben fished really well on the next peg, landing a 3lb tench on light roach gear, as well as 3 or 4 skimmers. I managed three skimmers with some roach at the end for 7lb 12. Ben weighed in 12lb, a brilliant weight for the area we were in. Danny Huxley had done the business too, catching 19lb off a peg that had only had three fish of it in the morning session, and there had been skimmers caught in the pegs hat we had been the previous session.
Thankfully I had done enough to get into the team for this years world championships Belgium is the hosting country, on the renowned Gent rowing course. Skimmers and Bream are the target species. We travel out in 4 weeks time ,and will get 4 days to practice eon the venue before the weekend two day event. Out of the 5 anglers, 4 fish in the match. Between now and then its preparations all the way, I’ve got loads to get sorted and do, as well keeping fishing on the go! The other team members are Danny Huxley from Doncaster, Jake Marshal (fellow blogger and draw bag) from Surrey, Matt Derry from Birmingham and Conner Barlow from Manchester. all the team members have fished internationally before, so hopefully we can have a good crack at it, it was silver last year, and we need one better this time!
Drawbag, says the boy who draws downstream em peg in the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS hahaa
Well done to both of you lads. As i’ve said before we’ve got some quality young anglers in this country.
Well done you two, great result. Never mind some good young talented anglers in the country, we have two on this site! Hope you all do the business, looking forward to the write ups!
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Tom
