2024 WPC Edition is Behind Us, Time for a Summary – It Was Very Good! We eliminated our Achilles’ heel, which were summer perch. We finally got to them, although last year we also thought we had, but during the competition, they showed us the middle finger. This time, the perch were very kind to us. We caught zander as always, which means good fish, although it didn’t work out too well on the second day (more on that later). The biggest challenge for us this year were good pike. During training, we were only catching 60-75 cm jacks, and unfortunately, it was no different during the competition. We know what we need to improve!
The first day started with us raced to a spot with a lot of perch and zander, only to find that the spot was empty. Netherlands – fish change spots nonstop. Anyway, we started fishing and pretty quickly lost a medium perch. This caused us to stay at that place for too long – we circled around the area for over an hour, wasting too much time. Finally, we broke away from that empty spot and started fishing place after place. Surprisingly, the ubiquitous zander were absent, and we only caught perch occasionally. We quickly filled the card with 40, 42, and 47 cm pieces. Next, we went for pike and quickly caught a 75 cm one. Lastly, we tackled the zander, which were biting great, and the three largest ones entered the card at 72, 74, and 80 cm. In total, we scored 435 points, giving us 11th place. A good start!
The second day brought extreme conditions – 9 m/s along the length of the reservoir. The waves were such that the bow was constantly jumping out of the water, making it impossible to stand on the boat, and at times we moved on all fours. Despite this, the round started even better for us. The perch were biting very well in the morning, and our three largest were 45, 47, and 49 cm. After an hour, we headed for zander. Here the serious problems began. The fish were biting, yes, but almost everything got away. We managed to reel them in a bit, and at the boat we were loosing them. Only in the evening did I realize that the cause was the strong wind and the bulging line. We simply weren’t setting the hook hard enough. This resulted in a very poor zander card with 45, 60, and 69 cm fish. It’s a pity for a few 70+ cm that got away. Additionally, we only caught a small 59 cm pike, and a larger 70+ cm one also got away. This had to affect our result, and instead of comfortably being in the top 10, we finished the second day in 25th place with 374 points. This kept us in 11th place overall but moved us away from the podium.
The third day brought even stronger wind, but it was crosswind, so it wasn’t too bad on the lee side. We had another great perch start with 52, 51, and 42 cm fish. So, we didn’t prolong it and after an hour, we were already attacking pike. Here we encountered the problem again – we were only catching 60+ cm fish, and as bycatch from the weeds, we caught several zander and upgraded the smallest perch to 48 cm. A quick decision to try upgrading zander. This time we took no prisoners, and every hooked fish was landed. This gave us a nice zander card with 73, 71, and 69 cm fish. At the end, we tried to upgrade the pike, but only got a 66 cm one plus a nice zander. This gave us 430 points and 4th place on the third day.
Ultimately, we landed in 4th place overall, just two points behind the podium. Moreover, calculations show that if only two of the many fish that got away on the second day had stayed, we would have had a sure win. We were never so close! On the other hand, our colleague Radek (from another Polish team) said wise words – it is possible that if we hadn’t messed up on the second day, we would have fished under pressure, and the third day would have gone much worse for us. Either way, we are very happy with the result, and as a bonus, we received a statuette for the largest perch at 52 cm. Next year we will fight again!
