Hobie Fishing Euros 2015, Lac de Lacanau, France
September 9th, Hobie GB Team mate Matt Boast and I headed off on a road trip to Lac de Lacanau on the west coast of France. 14 hours and a packet of Rowntrees sweeties later we had arrived at our destination.Pre fish day armed with a bit of information on how the lake had been fishing, and a Navionics Sonar Chart of the lake, Matt and I headed to check some of the known marks and see what else we could find. I was hunting with a Salmo Hornet which is a great fish locator, Matt was fishing closer to the bottom giving us a good chance of finding fish.
At the far end of the lake I hooked up with a perch, this was a new mark. Waypoint added to my Dragonfly, we left to try along the shore line without much luck, next fish was a small jack, once again on the Hornet, another mark on the Dragonfly. In all we managed to locate several shoals of fish, but no sign of large pike or the elusive Zander.
Over the next two days of competition Matt and I fished the new mark successfully, Matt was first into fish using dropshot, a lot were undersize, I was catching less fish, but all on the money with a ZMan 4" Streakz in Motoroil. We had our 3 perch by 8:30am. Day 2 was all change, heavy rain, and no fish to the ZMan to start so a change to dropshot, and we were done with the Perch by 8am. Finding pike was hard on both days; day 2 I found a jack, sadly 2cm short. Matt finally pulled one out of the hat on the Streakz and it was going to be a game changer for him, especially after having one of his perch disallowed on day 1 due to the mouth being away from the end of the measure, schoolboy error.
Everyone was nervous before the prize giving, only a handful of pike had been caught over the two days, but today somebody had managed a zander!
We were sure that Matt had managed a top 10 and as the winners were called out we realised that Matt had done better than originally thought. Third Place and a wild card to the Hobie Worlds in China... a good days work.
Me? Consistent fishing on both days had given me 12th place overall, I'd hoped for a top 10 but with no pike it was the best I could expect, only 4cm off a top 10 place.
Well done to Edi Brader on securing 1st place and becoming the new Hobie European Champion and of course Axel Heinlein for his second place and for catching the only zander in the comp.
Massive thank you to Raymarine Palm Navionics HobieUK SproUK for their support.
As always it was great to meet up with old friends, meet a few new ones and also shake hands with a few facebook friends, beer flowed, fish photo's and stories were shared, it was a cracking weekend.
Scandinavia next year? That's the rumour.
Over the next two days of competition Matt and I fished the new mark successfully, Matt was first into fish using dropshot, a lot were undersize, I was catching less fish, but all on the money with a ZMan 4" Streakz in Motoroil. We had our 3 perch by 8:30am. Day 2 was all change, heavy rain, and no fish to the ZMan to start so a change to dropshot, and we were done with the Perch by 8am. Finding pike was hard on both days; day 2 I found a jack, sadly 2cm short. Matt finally pulled one out of the hat on the Streakz and it was going to be a game changer for him, especially after having one of his perch disallowed on day 1 due to the mouth being away from the end of the measure, schoolboy error.
Everyone was nervous before the prize giving, only a handful of pike had been caught over the two days, but today somebody had managed a zander!
We were sure that Matt had managed a top 10 and as the winners were called out we realised that Matt had done better than originally thought. Third Place and a wild card to the Hobie Worlds in China... a good days work.
Me? Consistent fishing on both days had given me 12th place overall, I'd hoped for a top 10 but with no pike it was the best I could expect, only 4cm off a top 10 place.
Well done to Edi Brader on securing 1st place and becoming the new Hobie European Champion and of course Axel Heinlein for his second place and for catching the only zander in the comp.
Massive thank you to Raymarine Palm Navionics HobieUK SproUK for their support.
As always it was great to meet up with old friends, meet a few new ones and also shake hands with a few facebook friends, beer flowed, fish photo's and stories were shared, it was a cracking weekend.
Scandinavia next year? That's the rumour.
At the far end of the lake I hooked up with a perch, this was a new mark. Waypoint added to my Dragonfly, we left to try along the shore line without much luck, next fish was a small jack, once again on the Hornet, another mark on the Dragonfly. In all we managed to locate several shoals of fish, but no sign of large pike or the elusive Zander.
Over the next two days of competition Matt and I fished the new mark successfully, Matt was first into fish using dropshot, a lot were undersize, I was catching less fish, but all on the money with a ZMan 4" Streakz in Motoroil. We had our 3 perch by 8:30am. Day 2 was all change, heavy rain, and no fish to the ZMan to start so a change to dropshot, and we were done with the Perch by 8am. Finding pike was hard on both days; day 2 I found a jack, sadly 2cm short. Matt finally pulled one out of the hat on the Streakz and it was going to be a game changer for him, especially after having one of his perch disallowed on day 1 due to the mouth being away from the end of the measure, schoolboy error.
Everyone was nervous before the prize giving, only a handful of pike had been caught over the two days, but today somebody had managed a zander!
We were sure that Matt had managed a top 10 and as the winners were called out we realised that Matt had done better than originally thought. Third Place and a wild card to the Hobie Worlds in China... a good days work.
Me? Consistent fishing on both days had given me 12th place overall, I'd hoped for a top 10 but with no pike it was the best I could expect, only 4cm off a top 10 place.
Well done to Edi Brader on securing 1st place and becoming the new Hobie European Champion and of course Axel Heinlein for his second place and for catching the only zander in the comp.
Massive thank you to Raymarine Palm Navionics HobieUK SproUK for their support.
As always it was great to meet up with old friends, meet a few new ones and also shake hands with a few facebook friends, beer flowed, fish photo's and stories were shared, it was a cracking weekend.
Scandinavia next year? That's the rumour.
Over the next two days of competition Matt and I fished the new mark successfully, Matt was first into fish using dropshot, a lot were undersize, I was catching less fish, but all on the money with a ZMan 4" Streakz in Motoroil. We had our 3 perch by 8:30am. Day 2 was all change, heavy rain, and no fish to the ZMan to start so a change to dropshot, and we were done with the Perch by 8am. Finding pike was hard on both days; day 2 I found a jack, sadly 2cm short. Matt finally pulled one out of the hat on the Streakz and it was going to be a game changer for him, especially after having one of his perch disallowed on day 1 due to the mouth being away from the end of the measure, schoolboy error.
Everyone was nervous before the prize giving, only a handful of pike had been caught over the two days, but today somebody had managed a zander!
We were sure that Matt had managed a top 10 and as the winners were called out we realised that Matt had done better than originally thought. Third Place and a wild card to the Hobie Worlds in China... a good days work.
Me? Consistent fishing on both days had given me 12th place overall, I'd hoped for a top 10 but with no pike it was the best I could expect, only 4cm off a top 10 place.
Well done to Edi Brader on securing 1st place and becoming the new Hobie European Champion and of course Axel Heinlein for his second place and for catching the only zander in the comp.
Massive thank you to Raymarine Palm Navionics HobieUK SproUK for their support.
As always it was great to meet up with old friends, meet a few new ones and also shake hands with a few facebook friends, beer flowed, fish photo's and stories were shared, it was a cracking weekend.
Scandinavia next year? That's the rumour.
