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Stillwater Competition Fishing: Greys Pairs 2023 Final Overview

Published: 14th September 2023 | Author: Rob Edmunds

The Greys Pairs is one of the biggest matches in the stillwater competition fishing calendar. This year the National Final was held on Llyn Brenig reservoir in Wales. 67 pairs battled it out for the £1,500 top prize. Entry to the final was by means of qualification via one of the many heats held all over the UK.

The pairs is a great way to gain an introduction into competitive fishing. You fish with your partner and you can use any fly within the fishery rules included weighted patterns. You are not restricted to international rules, like barbless hooks. It’s just an exercise in trying to catch the biggest bag of fish whilst competing against the other pairs of anglers.

Our team had 2 Pairs successfully qualify for the final: myself & Andrew Scott, and Matthew Griffiths & Albert Coales.

Congratulations to Matthew Griffiths & Albert Coales!

Practice

Practicing is essential before any stillwater competition fishing match and we fished the preceding day. To get a feel for things, we basically fished the whole reservoir on a variety of methods. We tried to identify the fish-holding areas, the size of the fish in each area and the best method to consistently catch. For us it’s just as important to rule out methods and area’s as it is to find them.

Match Plan

Each pair had a distinct “match plan.” This includes an idea of the best areas, flies, methods and the time of day that’s most productive. Even though we are all friends and part of the same team we didn’t share information. A very fine lines separate success and failure!

Andrew & I felt there were no significant concentrations of fish in any one area. We also didn’t think that a particular method worked consistently well all over the reservoir. So, we reasoned that we would fish a number of methods depending on the area of the reservoir we were fishing. It seemed likely that a “war of attrition” rather than a fast limit was in store for us.

A beautiful venue for some stillwater competition fishing.

Match Day

Match day brought perfect conditions. We had 5 to 10mph winds, cloud cover with intermittent sun and a temperature around 15 – 18c.

We started the match around Brenig’s notorious cage complex fishing a Di-3 with a 5cm Black Snake on a 12ft leader of 10.2lb Masterclass Flurocarbon. The snake has a large silhouette and unbelievable movement. We found in practice that a fast roly-poly would induce aggressive takes for the first hour or so but the fish would quickly “wise up” and go off the fly. At that point they would often follow rather than actually taking the fly.

A 5cm Barbless Black Snake.

Our first 3 drifts resulted in 2 fish to the boat and a number of follows. We didn’t feel confident and decided to make drastic changes.

Fishing Dries

We decided to fish fresh undisturbed water between the Sailing Club and the Dam rather than to stay “cage fighting” with another 20 boats! During practice we had identified resident fish feed close to the bank. Terrestrial insects blown onto the water provide a welcome food source to the hungry Brenig fish. In such shallow water often just 2 to 4ft deep “Dries” was the best method. Our set up was as follows: 7.99lb Masterclass Co-polymer leader 7ft to the top dropper, a size 12 black Popper Hopper. A further 4ft to the middle dropper a size 12 Foam Daddy and 5ft to the point another Foam Daddy. The method was simplicity itself…..2 or 3 short sharp strips to ‘ pop’ the flies and draw the fish to your cast, then hold  everything static for 20 seconds before repeating.

Over the next 4 hours we continued to work the water, mostly fishing the first 75m off the bank. Fish were picked up consistently but not in any great numbers, by 13:00hrs we had 6 fish in the boat.

Changing Water Again

We decided to venture back to the cage complex. It would give us a change of water and method and an indication if our initial move and change of tactics was the correct decision. We quickly found our team mates Matthew and Albert and probed them for information. They were on 11 and only required 3 more fish for a limit. Impressive stuff, and judging by other competitors current bags undoubtably the pair to beat.

Matthew and Albert were fishing Di-8 Booby Basher lines with a 17ft leader of 10.2lb Materclass Flurocarbon with a 7cm Cats Whisker Snake booby “roly polyed” back as fast as possible. The booby caused both huge disturbance and had the required movement to induce takes. Rather than to fish naturally this was a more “robust” method designed to cover as much water as possible and induce the fish into taking out of simple aggression.

I watched as the next 2 drifts produced the 3 required fish for Matthew and Albert and a very early limit 13:46hrs – our hearts sank a little as we knew they would take some beating as a time bonus of 2lb per hour is added to the pairs bag weight. Our only chance was to target “bigger” fish and hopefully get a little fortuitous.

Fishing Snake Boobies

On went the Di-8’s and 7cm Cats’ Whisker Snake Boobies. We decided to fish the cage complex for an hour, dropping our flies deep (25 seconds down) hopefully to find a larger fish or two. Scotty picked up a nice rainbow of around 3lb 12oz and a small brown just off the dam. Soon after I had 2 rainbows in quick succession both around the 3lb mark. By Brenig’s standards these rainbows were the larger fish we had hoped for and we now had “10 fish in the bag.”

A nice rainbow for Rob!

However boats catching fish attracts other boats to the immediate area. It was clear the fish had been knocked off the feed due to increased pressure as boat after boat followed our drift from the cage complex to the dam.

Time was running out for us as there were already a couple of boats “bagged up.” We were seemingly stuck on 10 fish…

Make or Break Time!

Again it was make or break time for us. We went back to the shallow water that had been rested and put on our dries again. Almost instantly I had a small rainbow to the foam daddy quickly followed by another around 70m out.

I slowly motored back in to the bank by the jetty Andrew was pointing out a few fish moving in the calm water by the “steel girder.” I then proceeded to catch 2 small perch, while Andrew expertly picked off the last 2 fish required for our limit. We arrived back at the boat jetty for 16:16hrs with what we knew was a good bag of fish.

As always the results were tense. Just 7 pairs from the 67 reaching their bag limits. “Time bonus” plays an important part in any match, and rightly so. Those anglers good enough to finish early deserve the additional weight added to their bag in my opinion.

Results were as follows:

Matthew and Albert were worthy winners picking up £1,500 and the Trophy.

Andrew and I managed a credible 3rd place and £750

You can see the full results below!

The competition results.

If you want to read more from Rob, check out his other articles on our blog!

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