Alan Glover shocked the world during the match of the year. The Rose & Crown Winter League did not expect two late catches to put Alan ahead of the competition. No one expected the overnight frost to make fishing as difficult as it had been, but Alan knew that it was time to change his tactics and gear if he was to win. What did he do differently?
• Glover decided to use a long pole from peg 16.
• The bait of choice was ground bait, caster and maggot.
This allowed Glover to reel in nearly 34 pounds of beam and roach to win the event. The runners up had some interesting tactics that they used as well. Let’s see what the pros did to land them just below Alan Glover in the event.
Second and Third Place
Russ Dowding came in a close second during the event. Seen casting from peg 24, Russ caught over 19 pounds of carp by using bomb and corn. This is the same strategy that third place Martin Pacey used from peg 9.
Interesting Switches
Let’s take a look at some of the interesting changes made throughout the event.
• Steve Hoult: Bomb and corn was Steve’s initial choice, but he later changed to pellet and a long pole. This allowed him to reel in much bigger fish during the event.
The most interesting facet to note is that none of the competitors stayed with bait that simply wasn’t yielding the most catches. Instead, the group changes poles, typically to a long pole, and bait when they were not reeling in what they deemed to be satisfactory. Bomb and corn seemed to be a fan favorite this year, but as Alan Glover proved, good old ground bait works just as well some days. Change tactics and experiment seemed to be the name of the game during what is deemed as the, “match of the year.”