p28-32 mf 12 caerphilly

7/27/2019 P28-32 MF 12 Caerphilly

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FEATURE LEE EDWARDS

28 matchfishing December ’07

CaerphCaerph

Caerphilly Castle makes

a stunning backdrop

for our day with LeeEdwards.

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Name: Lee Edwards

Age: 32

Occupation:Carpenter

Sponsors: Preston

Innovations and sonubaits.

com, plus assistance from

Shimano and Cralusso

in internationals

Teams: Shimano Team

Wales, Preston Innovations

Thatchers

ANGLER PROFILE

VENUE PROFILEName: Caerphilly Castle Lakes

Day tickets: Available from

Tony’s Tackle, Caerphilly.Tel: 02920 885409

Directions: The venue is

easy to find – it’s right in

Caerphilly town centre and well

signposted from the A470

Match Fishing: Congratulations on your individual

bronze medal in Hungary this year, Lee! Before we talk

about that, however, can you start at the beginning

and tell us exactly how you got into match fishing?

Lee Edwards: I started here, actually, as thelocal Caerphilly And District AS club ranmatches or juniors on this lake. I had agang o mates, and we would all fsh here.

My dad used to fsh a bit, mainlysea fshing when the cod came

in, but he didn’t ever take

me out. To get me outrom under his eet

he bought me oneo those crappylittle 6t rods and Imanaged to catcha little perch on6lb line. Thatwas the start o my fshing!

illyilly We travel to thehomeland of Welshinternational LeeEdwards, fresh fromwinning his WorldIndividual bronze medal,to see what makes thisrising match star tick.

Does I t!

December ’07 matchfishing 29

Lee is as well

versed with carp

on commercials

as he is with

internationalmethods.


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FEATURE LEE EDWARDS

Later on the club had fve trips a year tothe River Wye as well, and I really enjoyedthose. Some o them were senior events,

but I still fshed them and even won onewhen I was 15. That was with 35lb o daceon the waggler and I got an award in the

weeklies or that.Fishing places like the Wye and taking

a gallon o maggots was expensive or ayoung lad, but I knew I needed the bait to

be able to compete – I had to work a milkround to aord to fsh matches. My UncleDave used to take me when he went to theWye and Lugg, and he taught me that youneeded to be aggressive with the eed to getpast the bleak.

When I was 14 I won the frst o two back-to-back Welsh Junior Nationals,which helped get me an invite to thetrials or the junior Welsh National team. Iseemed to win most o the trials but never

got asked to fsh or the team. I elt you hadto be a member o the Glamorgan squadto have a chance o getting picked. It wasdifcult travelling to those events because Iwas too young to drive and my Dad nevertook me, so I never really had a chance.

MF Do you still see or fish with any of the people who

fished those junior matches with you?

LE Only a ew, and they fsh the localmatches here at Caerphilly. I sometimesturn up to fsh and get greeted with: “Ohlook, the money’s gone today!”

I went with acouple o them

to Hillview

Lakes in Tewkesbury the other week andthe banter ended up along the lines o:“We’ve all turned into men now, ’causewe’ve all got kids!”

It’s good that they turn to me or helpwith their match fshing. I don’t mindhelping out i people ask and I think i Igive people ino on a venue I know well,

others will ‘hopeully’ do the same or mewhen I go to theirs. Sadly it doesn’t alwayswork like that! On some venues peoplereally get the hump with anglers givingaway the ‘secrets’. I don’t mind anyoneringing me or advice, though.

MF What kind of an angler would you call yourself?

LE I’m an all-rounder, quite positive when Iknow it’s right, i you know what I mean?I you know the method is right, you’ve gotto stick with it.

L E E E D W A R D

S ’ T O P T I P S

03Soaked Fin Perfect 2mm feed

pellets, 4mm expanders,

casters and corn.02

After hooking, give expanders

a quick squeeze underwater

to ensure they sink.01

Dipping your pot in the water

helps pellets stick in and not

bounce out when shipping.

06Small balls of Fin Perfect

groundbait and brown

crumb feed the slider swim.05

PR24 hooks work well for

both silvers and carp.04Preston Chiantis for big fish

and Classic 6s for silvers.


Hopefully this is the

first of many medals!


7/27/2019 P28-32 MF 12 Caerphilly


My first World Champs in 2005, in Finland, was good experience for Hungary this year.

December ’07 matchfishing 31

I enjoy fshing the long pole orskimmers, but I also really like fshing thestick oat and bolo on rivers. Fishing theslider is another method I enjoy and onethat I’ve always had to use. We fsh theslider on Cardi East Dock and Port Talbot

Dock or skimmers and eels.Some o the anglers I fsh with don’t

have any oats bigger than 2g, but I’mcomortable fshing with plenty o weightdown the line. Sometimes you need thatweight or control and fshing the slider inthose early days, and the trips to the Wye,helped me learn that lesson.

MF Has being on the international circuit with Shimano

Team Wales helped your fishing?

LE It was a real eye-opener watching theFrench and Belgians shipping their poles

back – they are so ast! There’s no doubtthat the more time you spend in the water,

the more you catch.

Getting the preparation right is asmuch about being able to cope with thehigher standard as it is about sorting outyour gear. Working with experiencedinternational team-mates Darren Frostand Andrew ‘Spud’ Murphy has helpedwith that aspect. They gave me plenty o

advice in the early days about the way thematches are fshed and the parts o it thatare dierent rom matches at home.

Tiny things like looking ater bloodwormand joker are also important. You don’twant to be fshing with poor-quality baitin such a high-pressure match, so havingthe right stu to split your joker is just onevaluable lesson I’ve learnt. We use corkdust, by the way.

From the start, I’ve elt at home fshinginternational matches. Eric Humphries(Shimano Team Wales’ manager) askedme to fsh because I’d been getting in thepapers or raming in loads o matches. His

wie, Pam, actually told him he had to tryme out!

My frst match was a Six Nations event,in France I think, and I beat the Belgianstar next to me on both days. It just wenton rom there and I fshed my frst WorldChamps in 2005, on the second day, inFinland. That was actually good experienceor Hungary this year, because it washard fshing or roach and skimmers. Ithelped me realise that you need to reallycut down the ood value o the groundbaitwhen it’s like that. Eric is convinced youshould always eed some groundbait orskimmers, but I’ve been doing really well

just using double leam (damp leam andgrey leam) and a tiny amount o joker.

The most important part o the fshingthis year was being accurate with theeeding. In Hungary, i you didn’t landyour eed within a metre o your oat, youdidn’t get a bite – it was as simple as that.Coming here to Caerphilly Castle gives me

a chance to work on that, as you can catchskimmers and some big slabs on the sliderat 40 metres, eeding ‘fsts’ o groundbait.I you can drop a ball on top o your oatevery time, you are going to get fsh.

MF What was the best part of being on the podium

this year?

LE Standing next to my hero, AlanScotthorne, was one o the best bits. When Iwas younger, I read the papers every weekto see how Alan had done at the weekend.I really thought he was the kind o angler Iwanted to be. Now I’ve had the chance tostand next to him and win a medal – but I’d

like to win gold now!

I’ve had plenty o phone calls rom someo the past Welsh masters since I got backrom Hungary. Doug Hornblow rang tooer his congratulations; he is one o thenicest blokes in Welsh fshing. Also, CliveRoberts and Clive Branson have rung up.

It is great to have my achievement

recognised, but I only scraped in really. Ilost a couple o skimmers on the secondday and or a while I was suicidal. Anyone o them would have got the team intothe medals and could have got me silver.Now I’ve had time to think about it clearly,however, I know that it was just my day.One o the skimmers I landed was just onwhen I picked up the rod and I was only40g ahead o ourth place, so it’s swingsand roundabouts, really, and you just haveto accept that what will be will be.

Lee’s worked hard to

hone his waggler skills

for international events.

“If you can drop a

ball on top of your

float every time, you

are going to get fish.”


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FEATURE LEE EDWARDS


MF How much time do you spend on preparation?LE Every Friday and Saturday I spend allday in the garage sorting the gear and bait.I spend as long as it takes to get ready,

because you don’t want anything to gowrong. I won’t go to a match on a Sundaywithout being ready or it. I don’t like toturn up hal-cocked.

Beore I travel to an internationalmatch, I spend a lot o time trying to getinormation. I have so much gear readyor every eventuality that I don’t have alot extra to do unless it’s a strange venue– spool up new line on the reels and tie upa load o hooklengths and that’s about it.

To get the ino, I talk to Eric or BobbySmithers (rom Ireland) – I certainlydon’t get anything out o the English!Fortunately, the venues come round incycles, so you always have some ideaabout a place. On Valence, we all knewhow it had fshed recently, because therewas a European Championship there in2004 and then there was a team match

just a couple o months beore the WorldChamps. I was looking orward to it

because Darren Frost had told me it would be right up my street; bagging skimmerson the long pole.

MF Was it a surprise that it was actually dominated by

rod-and-line fishing this year?

LE We’d heard a whisper rom RolandMarq (Belgium’s manager) and Bobbyabout how it was going, and ater the frstcouple o days practice it was obvious thatthey weren’t coming in on the pole line.Still, we all fsh the slider and the fxedwaggler pretty well and the result is nowhistory.

MF How far do you have to drive for your match

fishing?

LE An average drive at the weekend

is three hours to get to and rom mostvenues. Woodland View is the commercial

I fsh the most; it takes me an hour anda hal to get there. Winter Leagues andSuper Leagues or Thatchers take a similartime, apart rom the double-header we fshat Porth Reservoir, which takes me threehours to get there.

People oten say to me: “You travel along way to fsh your matches,” but onceyou’ve had to drive halway across Europea ew times it all seems easy. To get toHungary, or instance, is a 24-hour straightdrive. Thankully, we ew this year, but westill have to drive to some o them.

It’s brilliant driving back andseeing the sights. Coming back romthe Euros this year we stopped o at Lake Como and Lake Garda – itwas stunning scenery and makesthe drive easier.

MF Thanks for the insight, Lee. It certainly

sounds like you have worked hard

to get where you are, and we

reckon there are definitely

a few more medals in you

yet! It’s time to show

us what you can do

at Caerphilly Castle

Lakes, where we are

today.

The SessionLee began by feeding two lines on the long pole:

one at 11 metres straight in front for roach and

skimmers, the other alongside the marginal

bushes for carp and tench. The first swim waskicked-off with five balls of sonubaits.com Fin

Perfect Marine Fishmeal groundbait mixed 50/50

with brown crumb. The carp and tench swim was

fed with a small cup of soaked 2mm Fin Perfect

pellets and corn every cast.

Casters were the bait for the silvers, with the

Welsh star getting into a rhythm with roach, better

skimmers and some tiny perch to remind him

of his childhood. Every 10 minutes he tried the

big-fish line, often picking up two or three fish

on single corn or a 4mm expander. A couple of

‘tincas’ came in the first few hours, but they stood

no chance alongside the ravenous carp that were

hoovering up the pellets.

“We used to just catch tench on that line, butsince the club stocked some carp it’s become

much like any other water,” he observed.

Once the sun had given way to a matt-grey

blanket, Lee decided to pick up his waggler rod

to demonstrate his slider skills. His 13ft Preston

Sentient rod was matched to a Shimano Stradic

reel loaded with 0.18mm (4lb) Korum reel line. A

smooth swing fired his 12g Perfect waggler out to

40 metres and a ball of groundbait was expertly

landed next to its tip.

Working through the gamut of baits at his

disposal it took quite some time to entice a bite.

A 6mm S-Pellet hook bait was successful

and a proper old slab was the result.

“There used to be loads of these inhere, but they probably get bullied by

the carp a bit now. We caught them on

worms or corn, but I suppose with all

the carp boys firing in fishmeal, they only

want to eat pellets now.”

Hauling his nets out of the

water as the sun dipped

over the historic Welsh

market town, we were

witness to a proper

result: close to 80lb

of silvers and

carp. No wonder

the locals get

scared when

Lee comes

home!

Lee proved his

versatility with

a fine net of fish

caught on a

variety of

methods.

Wow!

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