MATCH TIPS

This month we ask Chris Horn, Scotland shore home nations international medal winner and World Team manager, for his expert match fi shing tips that will help you win more matches.

Target the species you know are there -- not what you hope to catch

Chris has won gold medals at every level including as manager.

■ The percentage game – There are lots of match anglers who will go and fi sh for a dogfi sh on a venue that’s predominantly fi shing for whiting. By the time they change their tactics they are so far behind they are eff ectively out of the game already. The winning angler will have fi shed for whiting with a surprise dogfi sh coming as an added bonus – not the other way around. Fish the venue for the species that are there, not for the fi sh you are hoping to catch. There’s a massive diff erence.

■ The importance of bait – It’s critically important to consider both bait-supplied matches and those matches where you supply your own bait. Consider what bait you need for the venue you are fi shing. How much bait you will need, and are there any other baits you should be taking? Always take too much bait than too little and take the best possible quality bait you can get your hands on. Match anglers winning week-in week-out invest time and money in the weeks leading up to matches ensuring they have the best possible bait. You then need to keep the bait in the best possible condition at the match. Don’t take all your bait out at the start of the match and let it defrost on your bait table. Bait-supplied matches level the fi eld by providing all competitors with the same type and quantity of bait. You therefore must consider how you are going to get the most out of the bait you are supplied with. You need to maximise what you can do with your bait and consider when to use it to get the best possible chance of maximising your catches of fi sh, and the species, you need to target to be in with a chance of winning.

■ Know the venue – What are you going to catch? Make sure you’ve prepared rigs specifi cally designed to catch these species. Prepare more of these rigs than you need. I see match anglers bring 10 rigs to a match and lose the fi ve rigs to snags on the fi rst fi ve casts, at which point their strategy to fi sh the match falls apart. ■ What type of venue are you fi shing? Do you need a box, a beach buddy, a trolley? How are you going to maximise the time you keep your baits in the water? Over a fi ve-hour match, if rebaiting every 15 minutes takes you two minutes to do, then that’s a full 40 minutes of fi shing time without baits in the water! ■ Practice makes perfect – to paraphrase Tiger Woods, practice not to become good but for nothing to go wrong. It’s the same with fi shing. Practice to make sure your knots are tied correctly, that you’ve got the right breaking strain of line, the best possible bait, that your reels are running correctly – these are the marginal gains that will make a diff erence when it comes to match day. ■ Don’t be afraid to change tactics – if you’ve practiced then you will be well prepared to change your approach if things aren’t working. Eighty per cent of match anglers are not prepared to change their tactics because they haven’t practiced, aren’t prepared, and that’s why they don’t win matches.

If things aren;t working, be prepared to change tactics