England 2016
There were several problems with the England trip for 2016, so it wasn't as successful as it should have been. Those that know why, know. Life happens.
The highlight of the trip was an excellent match against the RAF Old Lags.
Einfachstippen.com v RAF Old Lags - 5.10.2016
For me, this is the highlight of the week. A match against some of my old RAF team mates on the Middle Level Drain near Kings Lynn.
Me, and my 5 German friends v the RAF Old lags. But don't let the Old Lags label fool you. Despite being retired from active service these days, these are some of the RAF's finest anglers.
It would be great to win, but the result is just a part of the whole experience of our week's fishing holiday in England.
Practice
The match was on the Wednesday, so we went to the Middle Level for a practice on Tuesday.
It didn't take us all very long to realise that it was going to be a hard match. Plenty of fish had been caught in previous weeks, but now the venue had just switched off.
We found that we could catch a few small fish at 4 m on small worms and pinkies/squats, so our plan was to fish for the small fish and go out to 13 m every now and again to try for a bonus fish.
The Match
We will fish alternate pegs - one team on odd numbers the other team on even numbers.
The winning team will be the one with the highest aggregate weight.
Everyone will contribute to the team result - we need to whittle out every ounce we can until the final whistle.
We met up at a cafe for breakfast and did the draw. We drew the even numbered pegs, and I got peg 12.
The Old Lags had 7 anglers, so I agreed with Phil Foster to let the Old Lags drop their worst result - I had to give them a chance! They even had both end pegs!
I might have been too kind - but it is a friendly match after all.
I stuck to our team plan at the start, and went for the small fish at 4 m. The wind was strong, and I was perched up on top of the bank a good 5 feet above the water, which made holding 13 m very difficult.
I decided to fish at 10.5 m but this put me on top of the shelf - so it could be a problem catching a bonus Bream.
After the first hour I'd had 12 small fish for about 4 oz - not that good but everyone was struggling to catch, so the small fish tactic was working so far.
Every now and then I had a look on the 10.5 m line, but there was nothing there.
About 30 minutes from the end, I had a bite on the 10.5 m line and when I lifted the pole the No. 5 section snapped into two pieces - great!
I managed to get the top sections back, but was a bit gutted. I must have damaged the section at some time and it just decided to give out in the strong wind.
By the end of the match I had managed to get out 28 small fish, mostly Perch. Unfortunately, I was sandwiched between two single Bream.
Mick Dcaccia on peg 13 had a Bream and Steve Metcalfe on peg 11 also had a Bream.
Eric Gloger fished a great match to catch 1 lb 4 oz of small fish on the inside line, and managed to pick up 20 Quid for third place overall.
It was great fun, and I look forward to the next match with Einfachstippen and the RAF Old Lags.
The result:
Eric Gloger beat Spike Milligan
Ingo Becker beat Steve Harper
Roger Lickfeldt drew with Phil Foster
Bruno Funk was beaten by John Summerson
Theo Brüning beat Mick Dixon
And I was stuffed on both sides by Steve Metcalfe and Mick Dcaccia - it took two of 'em!
I can't complain about the result. Had we fished for points we would have won, but as the match was on weight - our team were well and truly beaten by the two Bream.
