At dawn, my team-mates Eric Glanzer, Rick Baars and I were present at the Kortenhoef marina, where the rainbow trouts were already waiting for battle..
After the inspection of our gear (i tried to avoid the rules by using a Dyneema leader, which was unfortunately not accepted by the jury), it was Eric's turn to start in the first 30 minutes set. Apparently this wasn't his lucky day, because he lost his fly almost immediately on something at the bottom. He had to follow the rest of the match as a spectator from the warm and comfy marina restaurant.
The second set was for the author and partner in crime Rick. Because i was allocated to the worst spot in the marina, I chose to fish without any risk of losing my fly. It was pure luck that one trout took my nymph anyway..
Rick, allocated to a much better section, managed to land three trouts. This virtually put him in the finals, one day later.
After two more riskless sets, i was allocated to the best spot on the traject. Here i caught three trouts (one of a very reasonable size too!), before i stopped fishing, knowing i was in the finals too.
After some beers to celebrate our achievements, we drove homewards to enjoy a good night of sleep. We needed our energy for the big final!
Morning came, and we were quickly out of bed, and totally filled with coffee, on our way to Kortenhoef again..
We had to leave our tackle in the guarded room in the marina restaurant, this because we were of course not allowed to modificate our gear in any way.
We were both allocated to the lousiest corner of the track once more, and decided not to fish, to avoid the risk of losing our fly (or breaking our rod, or whatever risk you can take:-))))). Our turn was yet to come!
The last final set, we were both allocated to the hot-spot. We also caught many fish. Actually; for a while every cast brought a trout in the net!
Unfortunately we didn't make it to the top-3, but our names are in the Hall of fame now..
The winner won a holiday to Ireland, and a wildcard for the world championships reservoir fishing there.
Unfortunately i do not have any pictures of the tournament..
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