GROUNDHOG DAY
4:56am and the alarm on my phone was angrily confirming that it was Groundhog Day once more. I needed to get out of bed and wake up the rest of the squad. I practically fell out of the cramped caravan style bedroom and, bleary eyed, looked outside; cold, rain, pitch black and strong easterly winds were already blowing leaves off the surrounding trees.
“What on earth am I doing here?” I muttered and then went up the stinky end of the accommodation, climbing over the mountain of tackle boxes and part made rig man-traps.
It was just day six of the practice week before the World Championship shore fishing competition and we were already beyond knackered. Well, I was anyway. The lads in the five man U21 squad all had the exuberance of youth and every time we made plans to fish, they were like excited puppies being shown a bone for the very first time.
THE PREPARATION
This was the culmination of a year long preparation for the Fips M Shore Fishing World Championships, being held out in Domburg, Holland. The Angling Trust selection committee had chosen both the applicants for the U21 squad as well as the Team Manager almost a year before the event took place. The five man squad were all tasked with making up over a hundred rigs in various formats, with the benefit of advice from some of the other England Team members who had previously fished out in Holland. Making up a hundred rigs is a ball-ache by any standards, but clip down rigs with a very tight tolerance and a lot of detail is next level difficult; however, that is what is required in order to compete at this standard. There were three Development Days which were predominantly team-building events and progress checks for the rigs and kit each squad member was required to accumulate. The first event was held at Pevensey in Sussex in February, which turned out to be a bitterly cold day out on the beach, culminating in a four hour fish-off for the lads. Despite all their best efforts, only one undersized bass was
