22.11.2014
Fredrik Andersson wins Swedish Championship
A few weeks back we had got the Swedish Championship in a deep fast flowing river called Lagan in Strömsnäsbruk. This is a tricky venue due to the fast flow, its depth and a lot of rocks, stone and old driftwood on the bottom that makes feeder fishing hard. The river has got a good head of bream and roach that are the main target. I have done well here before and was really looking forward to the two day match. Leading up to the match heavy rain made the river flow even harder and as the venue is between two power stations, the flow shifted a lot.
I got pegged on the deepest part the first day, about 6m deep on the long pole. The flow was strong but not out of control. I put up my Z12 with flatfloats from 12-25gr and round float from 8-12 gr for drifting through. Elastic was yellow Cenex Reflex on the flatfloat rigs and double Cenex nr 4 on the round floats for roach. Groundbait was 2kg Canal, 2kg Sweet breams with 4kg terre de rivier. I also used the same mix without the loam for the feeder. Baits were jokers, casters and some pinkies. And bloodworms for the hook. Also I got a kilo of worms if the bream was to show in numbers.
The match started hard for everyone and only the odd roach and bleak was caught. I got a few perch and a roach before i got a bream. Then things went harder as no one could get a bite. But my neighbour to the right got a zander on the feeder and it looked like he was about to beat me until i got one more big roach the last 5 min of the match. I ended the match with 1.6kg and won my section.
After the match it was clear that it had fished harder than normal all over the river and that roach played a big part on some sections. Also I felt that I needed to make some adjustments to my rigs so i spend the night tweeking my rigs. Second day I was on the same length of the river but further down on D section. Also a hard section that was won the day before with just over 2 kg of roach.
Started the match on the long pole and after 10 min I got a bream. Then nothing, so i turned to the short pole at 6m and got the roach going but after about 25 roach things got harder and i couldn’t get a bite. Tried the feeder but nothing there either so back to the long pole. The flow was increasing so i set up a new flatfloat rig at 40gr and by steady topping up with heavy balls of groundbait with jokers and casters i started to get more bites and soon I netted a few more skimmers, a few bigger perch and some more roach. Groundbait was the same as the first day as i felt it was spot on. A lot of people sat on the feeder but on this part it is extremely snaggy and you loose a feeder just about every second cast. That is why i put my faith in the pole, it gave me a better chance to catch the fish and get a good result. It was too much gamble to fish the feeder.
My 4 kg was good for second in section and my total point over the two days was 1+2. No one got lower score than me so i won the Swedish Championship for the second time!
Happy days!
Fredrik Andersson
