England, 5-9 October, 2015
Part 1 - RAF Old Lags in March on Old Nene
My first Einfachstippen.com On Tour and I've organised a trip back home to England. We are driving over on Monday the 5th October and will be fishing for 4 days.
From my house it's a 3.5 hour drive to Calais, followed by a 90 minute ferry crossing and a 2 hour drive to our lodge for the week.
Roger and Theo (and me) are looking forward to the trip. Everyone has picked up their pounds from the bank and cleaned the DF20 waterproofs ready for the English weather - no, of course it never rains in England ;-)
The highlight of the week will be two days fishing with the famous rapper pictured below.
Four Times World Champion Bob Nudd MBE
Monday, 5th October
I set off at 4 am to meet up with Roger and Theo at a service station just before the Belgium border near Eindhoven. We were booked onto the 09:50 P&O ferry from Calais to Dover. The trip takes about 90 minutes and we were soon in England.
On the way to our accommodation for the week, we called in to a tackle shop to pick up some bait.
A pint of red maggots and a pint of pinkies each, together with the hemp, casters and worms we bought in Holland would be plenty for the fishing on Tuesday.
We also called in to a Post Office to buy our fishing licence for the week. An 8-Day licence costs £10.
We were staying in a lodge on a commercial fishery near March in Cambridgeshire.
Comfortable place to stay - and importantly, access to a big fridge for the bait.
Tuesday, 6th October
On Tuesday we met up with some of my old RAF Coarse Angling Team mates - Phil Foster, Martin Hallford, Mick Dcaccia and Steve Harper. First stop as always is a café for breakfast.
After breakfast we made our way to the Bypass section of the Old Nene near March.
This is a nice stretch of river. The depth is around 1.5 m and there is a slight flow.
I decided to have an easy start to the week and set up just three rigs.
A 0.75 g Drennan Carbo to fish with punch. A 0.75 g Drennan Carbo to fish with pinkie & maggot, and a 4 x 12 Preston Chianti to fish with Hemp. Should do the trick.
I cupped in my groundbait on the 11 m line and threw my punch by hand on the 8 m line - creating a cloud in the shallow water.
I caught fish steadily all day and really enjoyed the fishing; it is great to be back in England for a few days.
Martin Hallford was to my right next to the bridge. He was in a lot of back pain from a car accident he was in last year. He plodded on though and caught a few fish.
Theo was to my right, then Roger, Mick Dcaccia, Steve Harper and on the end peg, Phil Foster.
Of course as always, to make it interesting we all chipped in a pound to the winner-takes-all pot.
Every now and then I went for a walk - we all had a break now and again for a little chat.
It looked as though Steve, Mick and Phil were all on the chopped worm and going for the big fish.
Lobby tail on a big hook to strong line to get out the Tench and big Eels. Maybe I should have tried this as well.
When the scales came round, Martin Hallford on peg 1 weighed in 1 Kg - and was in a lot of pain. He was not on a good peg either, but it was a short walk to the car. Hope you are well again soon mate.
Next on peg 2 was yours truly. I weighed in 4 Kg and was happy with my days fishing.
Next to me on peg 3 was Theo. He had some nice fish including a big Skimmer.
Roger on the next peg also had a nice net of fish. Then we got to the lads on 4, 5 & 6.
Mick Dcaccia had a Tench and a few smaller fish on the worm.
I still had my nose out in front at this point but Steve and Phil had a few more fish in the net.
Steve was first to weigh in.
Steve had some nice fish in his net, most of which fell to the chopped worm.
Could Phil put enough fish on the scales to take the win and the 7 quid in the pot?
When he took out his keepnet it looked like it was going to be close - where would the scales settle?
Phil narrowly missed out with 5.92 Kg to Steve's 6.18 Kg - just 1 more decent fish would have done it.
It looks like the chopped worm was the method today. I was beaten by big fish.
Well done to Steve Harper on his win, but really, taking money off an OAP ;-)
It was a great day, and plenty of fish were caught. We will definitely be back next year.
See you all again soon.
Tight lines.
Doc
