 The five days of official practice, prior to the two-days of competition, gives each team a chance to sort out tackle, rigs, baits and feeding plans. However, this very large river in the south-west corner of Spain threw up a number of extra challenges. The river never use to be as wide as it is today. Year's ago, another dam was added downstream of the town, so that its banks could be stripped of the gravel present (probably used for road building). Houses within these banks were then abandoned and the area was flooded to create what we see today. That's where the first challenge came for each team.
Most of the match length has depths of between one and two metres, but it's the original riverbed that dictates which species are likely to be caught. Let me explain. Matchangler.com were able to see some pictures of what the riverbed looked like when the water was drained, which apparently happens once a year. What you then see is something which remotely resembles a moonscape. There are features such as craters, small mounds of rocks, channels of water, as well as flat barren areas but it's the features that attract the river's carp. So the rule is, if there's no feature... there's little chance of carp! And it would be these fish which could be the difference between success or failure. It was clear that each team needed to maximise it's efforts over the five-days of practice and ensure that every carp was hooked and landed. Easier said than done!
 Three types of carp: First we had the common carassio, or carassins, next their was the more prolific carp-hybrids which proved extremely powerful for their size. Then we have the true carp, as the two long barbels show hanging below the mouth. These fish were probably the ones which took off towards the middle of the river and didn't stop!!! The one here was 'tamed' by top Dutchman Jo Adriola and weighed over 5.6kgs. Needless to say it took a while for him to land it. We have more shots of this later in our Galleries section.
Unlike the carp found in UK commercial venues, the Guadiana's carp were wild and extremely powerful. They were also largely made up of 'hybrids', a sort of carp/carassio derivative. No one's quite sure what mix they were, but they were not all true carp because they didn't always have the larger barbels under the mouth, as well as being lighter in colour, according to England's Steve Gardener. These fish, averaging between one and three kilograms, had only one thought once hooked... steam into the middle of the river, towards the 'old' riverbed.
 Most competitors chose hollow-type elastic, similar to White Hydro. They were much softer than solid elastics and allowed the initial surge of a good fish to be absorbed more gradually, than if solid elastic was used. Top German Rene Bredereck with one of the few river barbel caught. While these species were present, they didn't run to any great size and a kilo fish was about the average caught.So what was the problem? Strong elastics and rigs should soon sort them out. Well, yes that's true, but this is the World Championships... and every fish has to count. As well as the wild carp, the river also held barbel, bleak, catfish and carassio (carassins). Very strong elastics would be too severe when playing a carassio, as they have soft mouths and the hook would pull out, so it was not an option. With the catfish, the strong elastic could see fish bumped off on the strike. The barbel would certainly be landed, but they rarely showed and when they did they only average just under a kilo at most. So, a happy medium had to be struck which saw many teams opt for elastics similar to white Hydro, soft yet powerful, able to absorb an initial surge.
Sometimes these choices went too soft and I have to say, that as I walked the match length during the two practice days, I was often greeted by 11/13 metres of pole pointing towards the cloudless sky with ever-stretching elastics heading towards the middle of the river. It was safe to say that on more than one occasion, these weere bottomed-out by big fish!
 Above and below: Eleven and twelve metres of pole stuck up in the air, while playing and landing fish, was a common sight in this years Championship. However, what was the plan if there were no carp in you peg? It was clear during practice that there were plenty of swims along the whole match length that fitted within this scenario. Teams like the French, who don't really do the carp-catching thing, spent a lot of the practice sessions trying to work out how to catch bleak for as much of the three hours as they could. Their theory was, that instead of waiting for a carp or carassio to turn up – which could be lost after a time-wasting battle – they could catch a weight of small fish and pick up good points. If they did need to catch a carp, they would leave it until the final 30 minutes, the time when the bigger fish seemed to appear. This was of course during the first of the each practice days session, as it mirrored the exact times of the competition. The afternoon session was nearly always carp-productive, but this didn't give a true representation of what could be expected and was therefore mainly used for setting up rigs and elastics.
 This net of bleak for England's Sean Ashby, showed that there was some merit in catching them. But when there where catfish around, the bleak would always lose out on weight!England also looked at catching small fish in each of the 'boxes' they fished over the five-days of practice. Both Mark's were keen to see what weights could be achieved and towards the end of the week Mark Downes asked the team to weigh-out a kilo of bleak and catfish, and then count how many of each fish made up the weight! This was to prove key during the weekend event, especially on day two, but that's in another report.
Most of the tactics I've mentioned have referred to pole or whip, but there was a third method, which most, if not all, of the teams had considered... the slider. With the riverbed being so uneven, there was a chance that you could strike a rich vein of carp/carassio, if you found an underwater feature between 30-35 metres out. The problem with this method however, was the feeding and on occasions, the breeze. If you weren't accurate – it was no use clipping up – you could be casting over, or short of your feed. OK, there are a few good slider anglers in the world, but it's a difficult discipline if you don't use it that often. When the breeze did get up, it made controlling the float a problem. In truth, I saw very few carp being caught this way during practice. Mostly it was catfish, and that wa a lot of effort for very little return in weight. It was much better to concentrate on them with the pole.
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One of England's strengths, the waggler, or slider in international competitions, because the weight has to be placed down the line!
One of England's strengths, the waggler, or slider in international competitions, because the weight has to be placed down the line!
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The slider, while being on of the three main methods, didn't always produce the best fish and it seemed more ideal for catfish and carassio than the larger species.
The slider, while being on of the three main methods, didn't always produce the best fish and it seemed more ideal for catfish and carassio than the larger species.
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Many continental anglers have a tendency to use 6-8 metre bolognese rods and fixed floats, rather than a specialised waggler rod and sliding float.
Many continental anglers have a tendency to use 6-8 metre bolognese rods and fixed floats, rather than a specialised waggler rod and sliding float.
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The Italians however, are expert at the slider and have developed specialist length waggler rods to punch out 20gr+ floats well over 40 metres.
The Italians however, are expert at the slider and have developed specialist length waggler rods to punch out 20gr+ floats well over 40 metres.
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By watching as many teams over the Thursday and Friday as we could, it was clear that most were catching plenty of fish late on in the first session as well as through the second period. However, as I mentioned before, the latter period was little help when it came to putting a plan together, as it was outside of the actual match times.
It was clear though that England, and the other home nations, seemed to be getting a good feel for the venue, as were the Italians, Dutch, Germans and Belgians. So what about the French? A quick chat with them on Thursday (see our video interview with Diego da Silva No.2), revealed that they were not entirely confident and were retreating back into their small-fish mode! We think the carp were already beginning to give them nightmares by then!
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