George Glen

1995 was a generally successful year for me in match fishing, and I wrote an article for the S.F.C.A. magazine that I’ve reproduced here for nostalgia purposes!

‘THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS’
– by George Glen

I have never experienced so many match fishing highs and lows in one season as I did in 1995. I don’t think I, or many of my friends, have caught so many fish in matches for a very long time either. The waters we fish have promised much for the last few years but have never really delivered up till now.

We used to describe the quality of our match fishing as at best ‘interesting’, and at worst ‘rubbish’ (to be polite). Now I can look back on some ‘real’ matches that I’m sure were also a lot of fun for all of us. To talk through each match of the year would – a) take 10 pages to do justice, and – b) be very, very boring! Maybe if I tell you about some of the more ‘interesting’ and ‘remarkable’ things that happened, some lessons could be learned by all, not just by die-hard matchmen.

EARLY SEASON

With that in mind then I’d like to therefore gloss over most of the Spring and early Summer spent on the banks of the lovely Forth & Clyde Canal. I must have fished 9 or 10 matches there from April to July and it tells a story that only 2 or 3 occasions stick in my mind, the rest is a blur, best forgotten!

I walked the bank during the first big open match of the season, the Federation Open at Glasgow Bridge. I’ll never forget the looks on the faces of the anglers around Huntly Carlisle when they watched the fluorescent green tip of his ledger rod bend into another tench or perch in between showering pinkies in all over the place. Waggler on a ledger rod! I’ll also long remember the faces of Huntly and the other South Queensferry guys as he walked off with that trophy and then did the same in the Monklands Festival. Just goes to show, these early season matches can be won by anyone, so give them a go, you never know your luck.

Daiwa JB Angling anglers dominated much of the early fishing at Glasgow Bridge, they seem to have the place sussed, but our Browning team got their own back in the second league match at Banknock to Kelvinhead. During a practice session we established that perch were the only real target and that the best place to catch them was close to the bank, just past the marginal weed, to your right or left.

Rab Crossan worked out the killer tactic of using whips, rather than poles, to avoid scaring the fish in the crystal clear water. This should have been obvious to everyone really, but all the rest still had Glasgow Bridge in their minds, used 6-8m poles, scared off their fish, and we cleaned up. Don’t assume methods that work on one venue are automatically right for another venue!

Back at Glasgow Bridge for the 3^rd league match we though we could just edge the match going into the last half-hour. Jim Brown put a stop to that with a great last gasp burst of skimmers. He caught them right on the inside when he filled it in after a boat had destroyed most people’s swims, including mine. Goes to show, keep calm, think right up to the end and matches can be turned in the last 15 minutes.

AWAY FROM THE CANAL

It was a great relief to me that Strathclyde Park started to fish again in July after the worrying fish deaths in the Spring. The South Queensferry organised Heartclic charity match there saw me draw a no chance peg so I was privileged to walk along and watch an amazing match. When was the last time Bream dominated a match at the Park? Big Bream too, some over 6lb.

Most of the guys to the right of the tree had one or two but Stephen McCaveny showed just why he is the most talented angler to come along in years by taking 5 for about 25lb. He went for them from the start, fished very positively with balls of groundbait and an open-end feeder, but didn’t make the mistake of going out too far. Many of the competitors had never caught a decent Bream before let alone a 6lb one – happy faced all round.

I enjoyed winning the Scottish National on the Park. I drew on the wrong bank, which obviously turned out to be the right bank. Early in the summer the roach shoals are always on the move so I had to take all of my fish, as fast as I could on a 4m whip, in two one hour bursts.

DOWNS AND UPS

A huge ‘down’ came next followed by a huge ‘up’. The World Championships venue, the Saimaa Canal in Finland, was hard but fair. It was also very ‘interesting’, mainly Ruffe in very deep water. What wasn’t ‘interesting’ was our poor performance and diabolical result. We didn’t know how to work the place out, and still don’t know to this day!

The John Smiths Team Championships was a total contrast. Fished at Evesham, the Wembley of match fishing, the event had a good feel about it. It felt even better when we came 4^th against the best teams in England. We had some great performances from Ian Donaldson, Steve McCaveny and Rab Crossan but Ronnie MacLeod and I missed out on the Gudgeon potential in the lower sections, otherwise we could have come at least second.

The Home International at Strathclyde Park was another tough lesson as again we overlooked the Gudgeon potential on the boating pond. We had big bags of Roach and Perch in practice and thought our only chance to beat England was to attack and take better fish. We did well on the Tower but were left behind on the boating pond. Second may seem OK but we were gutted.

‘INTERESTING’

A week later at the All Scotland Open I was still licking my wounds. It turned out to be my most ‘interesting’ match of the season. In practice the Roach did not seem to want groundbait. Tam Campbell and John McGarrell had caught well on long pole and loose-fed pinkie. Come the day there was a maggot shortage so we all had no more than 2 pints each!

I drew to the right of the tree and started on Gudgeon having learned a hard lesson, and took about 4lb in the first hour and a half. All the time I was looking around for signs of Roach or Perch. They started to catch Roach on the waggler along to my right so I kept feeding out and watching their catch rate.

After 90 minutes I could stand it no more and went out on the waggler. I got bites but was missing too many and was catching much slower than the guys to my right. Jim Brown was bagging, fishing about 6ft deep. I needed to pull fish through to me and calm them down to get better bites.

I didn’t have enough maggot to last 5 hours but I had to put it in anyway, shit or bust. I also blasted in groundbait over the back to pull in fish from all round. Eventually, with 2 hours to go, I started connecting regularly with bites. The fish had enough feed to calm them down, they all could get a mouthful so they stopped rushing about and I hit most bites. I bagged up for an hour and a half and won comfortably with 20lb.

This shows that though Roach may be wary of groundbait on a pole or short waggler line, they are happier with it the further you go from the bank, don’t just ignore it. Also – sometimes you have to go OTT and feed all over the place – just to pull fish through to you. Our waters are now starting to respond to attacking anglers – Great!

LEAGUE FINAL

In the final Summer League match we were 3 points and 5 kilos behind Daiwa and looking beaten. I thought I had drawn the wrong end of my section, Ronnie MacLeod, who was at the other end of that section, agreed and was laughing at me stuck in the corner. I had a big wind in my face and was being pounded by rain and waves. Nigel Foulds at the next peg was getting washed over and I was not happy since I didn’t catch for 45 minutes. I expected only Gudgeon but then caught small perch. With nothing to lose I started lashing in maggot on a 9.5m pole line and piling in joker in leam.

Bigger perch soon came and I ended up on 1.5gm float to hold against the wind. With big worm on the hook I bagged up on perch and weighed in over 25lb. Nigel chipped in to help with a handy double figures to take second in the section, once he stopped shivering and started fishing. Thanks Nige! We won the match by 3 points, tied the league, won the league on overall weight by 48kg to 47kg, with Rab Crossan taking the individual title. Which was nice! A great day was followed by a great night. Though I was driving, the rest of us got very, very drunk!

WINTER TIME

We usually expect a downturn in sport with the onset of Winter but not so in 1995. Three of the Winter matches were also very ‘interesting’! A MacLeods Tackle Sweep on the Clyde at Swanston Street in Glasgow was well attended because the river was fishing well. I drew a fairly shallow peg that was spot on that day and won the day with 21lb of Roach and Dace. I was trying all the time to sort out the better Roach by slowing the float down and running the pole float steadily over my groundbait. This may not have been the best tactic looking back.

Jimmy Fullerton put in a great performance just two pegs above me by fishing closer in and catching many more small fish for just under 20lb. Before the weather turns very cold this may well be a better tactic during the late Summer and Autumn. The week after, the weather did turn colder. My ‘slowed down’ Roach based tactics were right and I won with 6lb odds. Running the float down the peg outside your groundbait may pick up some Dace but does not seem so effective. That match made it 4 wins in a row for me – which was nice!

The SFCA Winter league was the best ever. Two of the league matches were thought provoking. The second leg was held on Strathclyde Park which was very coloured after heavy rain. Chris Paton and I practised and he discovered that he could catch best by feeding chopped worm with worm on the hook. Catching Roach, by the way! Not what you’d expect. That is the way the match turned out. A fascinating affair with fair catches all around, worm being particularly successful.

You have to give the fish something to home in on in very coloured water. Normal groundbait smells and additives did not seem to work as well in this case as the smell of chopped worms. Also, bites were very slow. The fish were cold and were hardly moving the float. In this situation you have to keep the float moving very gently yourself. A bite is often indicated when you drag the float under as if in a snag – the fish just lies still with the bait. That was ‘interesting’ enough to keep up talking about it for weeks.

The last leg of the league saw a lot of practising taking place. It became clear that, though there seemed to be fish all around, you would get a few quick bites, then nothing. MacLeod came up with the answer – using damp leam with only a little groundbait and a few pinkies in an open ended feeder. The fish seemed to run away from a lot of feed. Pressing the leam in hard also helped hit the tricky bites, acting as a kind of bolt rig. There’s still a lot to learn abut the way these fish behave in different conditions.

A NEW YEAR

The 1995 season was a lot of fun and prospects for 1996 look very good. The changes in the Summer League set-up should ensure bigger attendances and an even better atmosphere. The ‘crack’ is great at the big matches and the friendly aspects of the competition are really coming to the fore. If you have thought about match fishing but have been unsure before, come along and try it, talk to me or most of the guys around and they will give you all the help and advice you need.

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The 1993 World Championships in Portugal was probably my favourite event, naturally when you do well and come 5th overall individually and the Scotland team did well too. I wrote an article for the S.F.C.A. magazine which I’ve reproduced below for nostalgia purposes!

SO FAR FOR SO NEAR
– by George Glen

It’s a long way to Portugal but wouldn’t we all love to be fishing every day in a beautiful foreign country in the sun? Seems a long way removed from scratching away in the Scottish Leagues but George Glen learned some relevant lessons at the 1993 World Championships and tells the story of his match …….

Lesson number one is that you should prepare the best you can for anything that is important to you. I was having a very hard time at work during the lead up to the 1993 World Championships on the River Sorraia near Lisbon in Portugal. This meant I did not put in the time I wanted to practising waggler fishing before travelling for our official practice so I was feeling less than sharp on the method. I was also hardly in the right frame of mind, stressed up about work of all things!

Missed Bites

The River Sorraia looked like match fishing paradise. Comfortable sandy beach like banks, warm and sunny and the promise of carp and barbel. Initial practise session were far from paradise while we suffered from hundreds of missed bites on the waggler whatever we did. We soon caught on after we watched other teams ignore bites on the float and wait for the rod tip to pull round – we called them runners! We set-up our rods in rests at a 45 degree angle just like quiver tipping. The trick was to ignore the float going under until the rod tip went round and grab the rod before the reel handle started battering round against your knee!

Our practise digs were fine (i.e. cheap and cheerful) the main problem for me being Ronnie MacLeods socks which I just had to throw out of our third floor window to save my sense of smell! I did very badly in early practise sessions by my standards. Ian Donaldson was showing us up and Steve McCaveny was also doing very well. I was trying to use a Reddicat for my Stickymag which was hopeless, only when I changed to a Superking did I get any accuracy, then I managed to get some confidence back by the final days practice. My Stickymag was also never mixed quite right until I got used to it.

We ran out of bait to practise with near the end – you needed at least a gallon per 3 hr session, preferably 2 galls! Sticky maggot at 40 yds + range was the main method to work, we could rarely catch well inside where the fish seemed too smart. We developed a theory that there was a ‘checkpoint’ barrier down the middle of the river, fish crossing from the near side to the far side had to leave their brains behind at customs!

Ready for the match

During the rest days on Thursday and Friday I felt really happy about the match, the main methods seemed pretty straightforward – big waggler with sticky maggot at range, and loose feed with a light waggler set shallow. I was happy with my tackle set-up, the Daiwa Amorphous Heavy rod was perfect for the barbel and carp coupled with the Browning 8010 reel.

I felt I had it worked out in my mind as a simple uncomplicated job.

The opening ceremony was on Thursday, and afterwards Alasdair Keir named the team and I was relieved to be in! I felt sorry for Chris Robinson he had worked very hard and wasn’t far away. I spent literally all day Friday tying hooks, cutting back pole tips, fitting monster elastic and making up 5 rods pre-assembled.

The big picture!

On the first day I was drawn on peg D7, I didn’t know much about the area but I thought it was the better end of the section. Mickey Thill of the USA was on right and a Spaniard on my left, Sorti of Italy was my main challenge on peg 4. It still takes me a long time to get set-up for a World Champs, 5 rods take some checking out but a lot of time is needed to mix up correctly 16 pints of sticky maggots all into one Sensas pail.

I don’t know quite what made me go for it so much in the 5 minute pre-baiting, I saw the guys around put in some groundbait, some loose feed and some sticky but not enough I thought, so I just kept on piling in great lumps of sticky at 35-40 yds probably 3-4 pints straight away. First put-in on a 7g rig I got a runner from an 8oz barbel and for the next hour I had regular bites and runs and put small barbel in the net quite steadily.

Lost fish

Then a very fast run saw me play a good 2 lb barbel in for a few minutes only for the hook to pull out right in front of my waiting landing net. Quite a crowd was in the area, probably because of the Italian. ‘Ahhhhhh’ sighed the crowd. ‘Oh bother’ I muttered quietly! I heard an Irish voice behind me speak into a walkie-talkie ‘George Glen just lost a big barbel in D section, would have put him first, probably still second to the Italian’. Better keep going then, I thought, I’m doing OK.

It definitely got harder from then on. Mickey Thill went on the pole and bloodworm and started to get me worried with a string of small 2-4 oz barbel, but the odd fish I did get were much bigger so I plugged away, though I did have a couple of small fish come off as well.

Superb team result

In the end I came 4th in the section with 2.310 Kg and I was very pleased as the team had fished superbly to come 3rd. We enjoyed ourselves back at the hotel in Lisbon, the lads were really buzzing and that swimming pool felt fantastic especially since I had worn shorts and had burned my knees to a crisp! It still took me until 1:30am to re-make all my rods, only 4 this time I was totally confused with 5! Also I decided to set up much bigger floats, 10 and 12g. I had trouble keeping the float on line properly against the wind with 7g and I was convinced that even heavier feeding along with a bigger float to help sink the line would be a real improvement. The whole approach reminded me of the recent World Club Championships on the Ostellato Canal and I decided to put the lessons learned the hard way there (I was hammered into 19th place in my section both days!) to good use.

The second day

I got on the bus in the morning with the bib for peg C1. I had no time to think about that peg when I was told I had to give it back again! 15 mins later I was back in the bus with the bib for C26 in my hand, a re-draw changed everything around. I was glad, 6 pegs above the bridge, not close enough to win I thought but a lot better than 1!

With the U.S.A. on one side again and Channel Islands the other I thought my ploy of feeding heavily in the pre-baiting could catch them out and draw the fish up from the bridge area. An easy lob out with the 12g rig to 35yds was followed by pouch after pouch of the biggest lumps of Stickymag I could handle! I was going like a windmill, getting some funny looks and they got worse when the reel handle started banging against my knee. A decent fish had hooked itself on my bare hook! I tried to reel it in fast while trying to explain to my steward but it smashed me with no trouble. I just left the float out and kept feeding.

On the whistle I put on a new hook (Katsuichi size 18 to 0.14 Milo Krepton) set 7ft deep in 5 ft of water with 5 no. 8s down, armed it with two red maggots and launched the float well past my feed, the intention being to sink the line and still be able to twitch the float back into the fish. Rod on the rests, ball of sticky, rod goes round, fish on, magic! Decent barbel, 8-10 oz, came steadily and my main problem was that I was so busy playing fish I could hardly keep enough feed going in!

Spot the float

Or I thought that was the main problem. After 30 mins I stopped being able to see my float – cast out, can’t see my float, run, fish! Oh well – cast out , can’t see my float, run, fish, same again? I looked at my float, the peacock was all broken. Oh Dear! I put a bigger, 14g float on and carried on catching. Can’t see my float again, run, fish!

Cast out, same again, run, fish. What’s going on – float smashed up again, I’d been semi legering for the last 20 minutes! All my biggest floats that I had to hand were now broken. I picked up another Amorphous Heavy rod with a 10g float and got stuck in again.

Good fish

After an hour I heard I was doing well and things seemed so smooth and easy I just knew I was going to keep bagging. So it turned out and a fair crowd gathered since I was spending very little time without a decent barbel on the hook. Half-way through I was twitching the float back when the rod tip stayed round. Hmm, put some more feed in, tip still round – a snag?

On lifting the rod up it felt dead until I pulled, it pulled back! More than just pulling this thing ran like a train straight for the far bank. No problem, just let it run – uh-oh no line left, all 80 yds out! I had to stop it so I let it get to the last turn of line on the spool then leaned in to it, gulp! It stopped and the handle corks creaked. In practice Chris Robinson played a 7 1/2 lb carp for 90 minutes until he bored it into the net. I didn’t have 90 minutes left so I decided to show it who was boss and if it was going to come off it was better after 5 minutes than 50.

Playing method

Playing these fish needs a special technique if they are not to be disqualified for going outside your narrow little zone. Letting them go with no resistance on the first run allows them to charge straight away from you and not to kite left or right. Then you bury the rod tip under the surface to hide the direction of the line, then slowly reel them in gradually turning the rod over from left to right and back so that they zig-zig their way towards you.

Well that’s how this one came in, but very, very slowly! After 10 minutes my arm was aching but it was in front of me and after a couple of looks at me at the surface, the crowd went Oooohhhh, and I managed to fit the landing net around it. Only when I unhooked the fish did I realise that half the photographers in Portugal were gathered around wanting me to wave a near 4lb barbel at them, so I did!

The rest of the match was a bit harder but I was still catching the fastest and the fish I was getting were all sizeable. I was really enjoying playing to the crowd – it’s easy to show off when you’ve got the match sewn up.

All out

At the end I knew my 6.430 Kg would easily be top weight but at the same time I was upset to hear that the rest of the team had struggled. At the results presentation the team was feeling a bit down having dropped to 8th place. I found out I was 5th Individual and was quite happy but a bit disappointed. As it turned out I was only 1oz behind 3rd in section on day 1. The lost big barbel or any of the small fish lost would have got me 2nd overall individual and the silver medal.

The lesson here is that there is a very fine line between success and failure at every level of this sport. I feel that one more day of practise or even a bit more preparation at home would have assured me of a medal and who knows, even to be World Champion! Such chances don’t come along every year and I won’t miss out again through lack of preparation.

Anyway we all enjoyed the whole experience, especially me though I will always think back to what might have been but, like the Murphy’s, I’m not bitter!