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Ladies World Championships – Jeannette Halliday
We just missed our planned ferry after getting checked twice (I must have a dodgy looking face as it was only me they put through the scanner) but we jumped straight on the next one and made Calais for midnight. To say that the next leg of the journey was a long drive would be an understatement and, after covering a total of 1150 miles with no sleep for 36 hours, we were all a tad jaded by 9pm Saturday night when we finally met up with the girls. We then had another drive up a long windy track high in the mountain above Calamonte, where we were greeted by a secluded villa and somewhere to, finally, sleep.
Sunday was spent checking out the river and starting to prepare some of the bait and sort bleak mixes and groundbait mixes (these change through the week as it becomes apparent what is working best).
Draws for the boxes for the week’s practice sessions gave us a nice even split of the match length and we set about getting ready for the Monday start in earnest.
The mornings were beautiful and down on the bank mixing groundbaits at 6am was stunning, although very bitey! The girls arrived ready to get going for 7am and also brought us a bacon or sausage sandwich, as 5:15am is a little early to be banging about in the villa. With temperatures between 42 and 45 degrees all week it was pretty hard going watching other teams practice, as we tried to get hints and clues on how they were catching to formulate a plan, but our ladies seemed to be faring well against other catches along the length. It was becoming apparent catching smaller carrassio in the 30-40g bracket could keep up with the longer pole line for the big fish if you chose to stick it out and fish all match for them.
Finally the big day arrived. Our plan was to start on a short line at four or five metres before coming in closer when the small carrassio came in numbers (which was evident by the bleak moving in). We also planned to feed a long line at 11.5 metres for the bigger carrassio and carp, having a look at intervals if needed. Each bank runner surveys a 15 peg section and relays to the team manager and their angler exactly what is happening in the section. It can be a tough job and it requires plenty of sun cream and water! Hourly fish counts and keeping a really eagle eye on any big fish caught is paramount to gauge where your angler is in the section overall, too.
All the ladies fished very well on day one but we were perhaps a little unlucky in a couple of sections with the fish leaving for a short spell. When the ladies were catching 100 fish an hour at 30-40g just half an hour with a reduced catch rate can really damage their weight and chances. I ran the bank for Helen Dagnall and she had one of these little spells which cost her in the section, so she ended up 4th.
Day two came quickly but it got off to rather unexpected start! I had been bitten by something nasty and my really wasn’t looking great – neither me nor Helen were very happy about it as I had to head off to the hospital.
I was worried that I wouldn’t make it back to the bank in time for the start of the match but I have to admit the hospital were brilliant and really looked after me. I only ended up missing the first half an hour of fishing, but I was a little sore after the rather large needle they inserted in a certain unmentionable region!
Helen won the section with 15.505 kilos, just pipping the 2nd placed Polish angler by 45grams (one little carrassio) so it shows how tight it was.
News filtered through that the team as a whole finished 4th, just missing the podium. The team fished fantastically, however, and I have to say a huge congratulations to all the girls - you should be proud of yourselves!
Poland won overall, with Spain coming in 2nd and Italy 3rd.
It was a really hard week for all involved. The effort (and time spent on the road) that goes into getting everyone and their gear there is incredible and I am proud to have been a part of it all once again!
