Garbolino’s Simon Fry Becomes Masters Feeder World Champion 2023!
World Champion tactics REVEALED!
After Simon Fry managed to win INDIVIDUAL GOLD in the recent Masters Feeder World Championships alongside Team England’s silver medal, we had to find out more! Here’s a few words from Simon talking through the tackle and tactics he used to achieve such an epic result.
PRACTICE & TACTICS!
We had a great few days’ practice, looking to fine tune tactics, bait’s, tackle etc., with all practice and match days being a complete 10-man squad effort.
The primary target fish were 4-10oz skimmers. Anything bigger was an exception and anything over 1lb a real bonus, although there were lots of much smaller fish. There were also odd carp and bigger cats to be caught right over against the far bank cover, and although these were unreliable, we still had to come up with the most effective plan to catch these, using the line as a resting line for the main skimmer lines.
We settled on a groundbait mix of 50% Sensas Sweet Fishmeal Magic Dark and 50% Leam/Soil. This was fed with joker and a few pinkies on 3 lines. The starting line on day 1 was around 10m with a 20m line down the middle and a 27-28m line at the bottom of the far shelf. These were the main skimmer lines, and the plan was to start on the near line and fish it for as long as possible, hopefully for an hour, before moving across the canal. Inevitably the far skimmer line would end up being the most productive in terms of weight.
In terms of the bites, very early on in practice there were a lot of missed bites, ragged bloodworm etc., and we quickly realised that by using tiny hooks we got much more positive bites often leading to “disgorger” fish. So we’d start on a reasonable hook like an 18s for the early better skimmer, but as soon as bites became” iffy” a swap to a fine wire 20 or even 22 would lead to much more positive bites…. Even with bigger bait like pinkie, maggot or red worm.
THE TACKLE:
• Rods on short and middle skimmer lines were prototypes of the new Essential Legend X-Light in 10’ and 11’ dependent on wind and tow conditions.
• Rods on the far skimmer line were prototypes of the new Essential Legend X-Light in 11’ and 12’ dependent on wind and tow conditions.
• Reels on all skimmer lines were Blue Match in 5500 size loaded with 0.12 Super G Braid and an 8lb mono shock leader.
• Feeders were a mix of 20-30g and cage, open plastic, or small window’s dependent on various factors such as tow, baits being fed, response times of bites, etc.
• Hook lengths used for skimmers were Supersoft in 0.09mm and 0.10mm.
• Hooks used for skimmers were Ultra Fine Red in sizes 22, 20, 18 and 16.
Regarding the far bank big fish/resting line most teams were feeding sticky mag, but we felt that because we were feeding it and leaving it, there wouldn’t be any feed there for the patrolling fish to stop over as live maggots would wriggle away or under stones etc. We opted for a mix of corn, whizzed up or chopped corn, dead maggots, plugged with joker, so there’d be plenty on the bottom to stop the patrolling fish.
WORLD CHAMPS DAY 1!
On to day 1 and I’ve had a really steady, drama-free match ending up with 4.236K of all skimmers, predominantly on the far skimmer line. This gave me 2 points, and with Tommy Pickering 3rd, and Andrew Moss 5th we were just awaiting Darren Cox Fishing’s result. He DID NOT have a drama free match. With 4 1/2 hours gone he was in 9th position and it was decided by himself, his Bank Runner, Robert Brennan and our manager Nigel Franks that he should fish for a carp for the last 1/2 an hour. With 5 minutes to go the tip has gone round and Daz was latched into a BIG Migliarino Carp.
Cool as a cucumber he netted it with just 1-minute remaining (no overtime allowed in World Champs) pushing him from 9th to 1st in section!!! What a man!!! An 8-point swing and with it England we’re tied at the top on 11 points with France! A great day 1 result for us! The hosts Italy were 3rd with 14, and Germany just back in 4th on 16 points.
All to play for on day 2, and a realistic chance of a medal for our squad!
Completely different conditions greeted us for day 2. It was milder with a gale force wind blowing straight up the canal from right to left. At times in the first half of the match the wind was as strong as I’ve ever fished in with 2 foot waves rolling up the canal and kit being blown in.
My match started slowly on D3, with just odd skimmers on my inside line. However, with this line not happening for me I took an earlier look on my far line at 28m. It was hard work in the wind and the tow was putting a huge bend in the top making bites much more difficult to see. A few times I came back with ragged bloodworm after not seeing a bite.
A swap to a longer hooklength and bigger bait (double red worm) was like flicking a switch on! I had 5 skimmers in 5 chucks on this set up and the bites were unmissable! This line was steady for the next couple of hours and I had around 2.5kg of skimmers in the net. The two end pegs D9 and 10D were way in front but I was lying around 3rd or 4th in the section with similar to the Frenchman on my right.
With 1.5 hours to go all my skimmer lines were slowing down, and this coincided with the wind completely changing and blowing off our backs. This was the turning point in the match for me. With the strong side wind, it had been impossible to accurately feed the far bank bonus/resting line, but with the wind change I could now accurately bait it up on a dinner plate! So I took my chance and put 5 bait ups (of our carp mix) right on the edge of a small bush on the far bank. With the skimmer lines all but dead by now, I had my first chuck over there with a big bunch of bloodworm tipped with a maggot.
Before I could put the rod on the rest it was ripped out of my hands and I was into a carp!! When I got this in I was right up at the top of the section tied with pegs 9 and 10, but now well ahead of the French and Italians.
Having got this carp out I now had licence to try for another but had to re-feed with a couple more bait ups. After this re-feed I was quickly into Carp number 2, which I also got in without any drama.
With both carp being big fish I knew that I’d just added 6K to my weight and was now clearly ahead in the section. That was me done with the skimmers now and I was able to focus on the far line for the remaining 40 minutes or so.
Anyway 2 smaller carp followed giving me a total weight of 12.583K, and a comfortable section win.
• Rods on the carp line were Essential Distance Feeder in 12’.
• Reel line on the carp line was Match Feeder Sinking in 0.26mm.
• Feeders for the carp line ranged from 30g-40g large caged rocket style feeders.
• Hook lengths used for carp were Super G Power in 0.20mm and 0.22mm.
• Hooks used for carp were X-Power Match in size 14. The BEST!
As a team we had tied with Germany on 30 points but beaten them to the silver medal by around 6K. I was ecstatic for us all as a group. All the hard work, dedication and effort had paid off. The individual gold for me was just the cherry on the top!
France had dominated as a team on day 2 with another 11-point score, and were crowned world Champions.
What a week it’s been, and a massive thankyou to everyone that has sent messages of support. I feel truly privileged to have been a part of this incredible squad of 10 men! Awesome! X
