By Jake Marshall | No Comments
Last updated: Friday, March 21, 2008

Representing their country is every boys dream, whether it is football, rugby, hockey or even bowls. However, for one boy this dream has come true, JAKE MARSHALL who is representing his country for his second year at the sport he loves.

I have always dreamed of fishing for England and last year this dream came true when I was selected to fish for the England under 16’s side in Portugal. Although I was out practising everyday with the lads, manager Steve Saunders decided to leave me out for the matches, fished over two days, as he felt I hadn’t adapted as well to the venue as well as the others.

The team which consisted of Matt Godfrey, Matt Derry, Danny Huxley, Danny Fugler, Adam Byrom and I managed to pick up a bronze medal for our efforts. I was very upset about not getting to fish the match however I decided it wasn’t worth moping over what’s already happened and I bounced back. After all Des Shipp is one of the best anglers in the world and he’s been dropped more times than most. This is the type of attitude that I had adopted all year in preparation for my trial last month.

How He Did It . . .

I am a big believer in preparation, the few weeks leading up to the trial was absolutely jam packed with rig making, hook length tying and changing elastics. To be the best you have to be well prepared, fail to prepare, prepare to fail, and I most certainly made sure I was prepared! The amount of preparation that goes in is amazing and I am always more than willing to put in the effort if it gets me the results that I’m after. I practiced with one of my mates, Danny Huxley, on the Friday and Saturday before the trial which was to be on the Sunday.

With help from my Dad and Pete Randall we managed to devise a plan of how to fish. We ended up deciding to feed a leam and groundbait mix in a fifty-fifty ratio. We would count out 15 balls and one for luck and then add a quarter of our leamed up pint of joker to these counted out balls. We would add a few casters and make these balls up to be thrown in the pre-baiting period. We would then cup in five balls of double leam which would contain half of our pint of leamed joker.

The initial bombardment sets an area for the fish to graze over as well as an initial fish attracting splash because remember it is the summer! The five cupped balls would put a good amount of bait in one area and would help to concentrate the fish. Therefore, I knew that every time I slowly lowered my float in line with the marker where I cupped those balls, there would be a fish waiting. Over these balls I decided to loose feed caster, at least ten at a time to keep the fish on the bottom and to temp the head of bigger roach into my swim.

We decided to top up as soon as the bites slowed and this was done with the fifty-fifty mix again with just a pinch of joker this time. I decided to set up 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 Sensas Jean Francois, I would set up two of each, these would all be on 0.10mm Preston Power mainline and would have a Preston number four elastic. One of the floats would have a 0.06mm Daiwa Spectron hooklength to a size 20 Green Gamakatsu hook for bloodworm, and the other would be on 0.08 Spectron hooklength to a size 18 Kammasan B511 hook for casters.

On the first three hour trial I was put next to a boy I knew I was fishing against for my place in the squad. This made me slightly nervous as I knew I had to beat him to be guaranteed my place in the six man squad which had to contain two 14 year olds meaning two people who went last year couldn’t go this year. Now try and imagine that sort of pressure when you were dropped last year! However, with all the practising I had done I was quietly confident of beating him as I knew he hadn’t practised as much as me!

The trial fished well, better than it had done here two years previous, and I managed to catch some of the resident bigger roach on the caster. Either side of me had caught well but their fish were much smaller and towards the end I was catching big-uns really well. I weighed in 2 Kilo 500 grams and either side of me had around one kilo. I managed to beat everyone in the under 17 category that I was fishing against and I was overwhelmed, however I still had the afternoon session to deal with!It was a big confidence boost that I had done so well on the first session, but on the second trial we all got moved around and I was surprised to be put in between Danny Huxley and Matt Godfrey, one of which is a world champion! I knew we were all fishing for our places as Steve had put everyone from the team last year in a line. Once again I caught some bigger fish like last time however this time I caught them on double bloodworm and again I weighed 2 kilo 500grams which managed to beat everyone in the under 17 category except for Matt Derry who may as well of been an end-peg!

The Result

So that was it, the England trials were over for another year and it was time for the ‘moment of truth’, my stomach was doing around two hundred miles an hour! Even if I hadn’t got in I knew I had fished to the best of my ability and had a great weekend and a good laugh with all my mates. However, my name was read out along with; Matt Godfrey, Matt Derry, Adam Byrom, Connor Barlow and Rory Jones. It was an extreme shock how my best mate Danny Huxley hadn’t got in, what was supposed to be a happy moment wasn’t all it seemed as there were tears everywhere. However, everyone knows that Danny is more than capable of fishing for his country and we were all heartbroken for him. He has since bounced back and the first match he fished after the trial he won by a considerable amount!

Czech Republic Here We Come!

Once I knew I was in the team I needed to concentrate on preparing for the long week of hard practises and team meeting sahead of me. So far I have been given 48 rigs and 60 hooklengths to tie up and that’s not even half of my floats and hooks on order!
The preparation for an event like this is vast and you cannot do it without the knowledge of the venue. We knew that there were a lot of Bleak to be caught and that there are loads of bream in the river with the odd Carp. There is also a fish called Vimba which is like a Skimmer but has a big stubby nose and are known by the English as Knob-eds. Bleak weights are often recorded up to ten kilo so I know I will need some strong tackle .

With the help of our team manager Steve Saunders and some extra help from people like Steve Gardener, Des Shipp, Will Raison and my Dad, Adrian I began to piece together some rigs and hooklengths that I know I would most probably need. The next few weeks I spent tying rigs, hooklengths, changing line on reels, changing elastics, organising spare tackle and re-arranging my box and my bags for the continental style matches. I took 8-10 whips for the bleak, they range in length from 3-6 metres. I will be taking around 8 top fives, two spare poles, a 6 metre Bolognese rod and two 13 foot Preston Innovations Sentinent rods two of which can extend to 15 foot, these are in case the slider comes into play. The reason for this much tackle is so that I can cover every eventuality, and in doing so hopefully bring home the ‘Bacon’ again.
So that’s how I got into the team and how I prepare for the world champs. Next week I will be going into more depth about my preparation and will explain what tackle I needed and why.

By Jake Marshall