Hi Tony, we're back to good habits with a nice fish to start the episode!
Tony: yes, it's a nice fish, but in fact, you can't see everything on the screen. It's really a nice area. We are in a small cove with dead wood everywhere and it is not our first fish in reality. Just before we make two catfish and that's why we see us announcing "Silurid" and have a doubt on the identity of the fish.
It is a really nice zone to fish and besides, we made 2 or 3 very correct fish among the small catfish present on zone.
A lot of linear fishing and not much vertical fishing?
Tony: so on Alcantara, it is not very easy to fish vertically, because there are very few plateaus and we are rather prospecting down the ridges. So, you fish better in linear along the drop-offs in 12-13 m of water than trying to set up a vertical fishing. The configuration of the spots does not necessarily lend itself to this type of fishing.
The other teams have adopted the same strategy!
Tony: yes, because I think he is looking for volume on small fish. You can see that Abu Garcia is on a spot in the middle of nowhere. I guess they are on a plateau or a shoal and they found active fish on it. So in linear, it allows to bring in fishes faster and to be efficient.
You're talking about Abu Garcia and they're off to a great start too!
Tony: yes, they are in the right place at the right time! This proves again the quality of this team. They know where they are going and they find the fish right away. They are not there by chance and it shows once again that they have prepared well for the competition and that they are excellent fishermen. I think they want to make the point of the number, because they know they can get it on this day. In two hours they are already at 7 or 8 fish, so they are taking a good option!
You had explained that the Black Minnow in 140 and 160 were more productive, but I notice that in this episode the Mud Digger is back?
Tony: yes for vertical fishing only. It is an excellent lure for this type of fishing, because it reacts to the slightest animation and raises a little bit of substrate. It swam a little bit and again we don't see everything, but we caught a few with it. We are on a plateau where we found the fish with the echo-sounder and we decide to fish them in vertical. But they are small pikeperches unfortunately.
You have a nice Top 5, but it might be a little bit too little to go to the end of the day!
Tony: but yes! We have a very nice daytime Top Five! But we all know that at night the sizes will go up. We play with the rules and we know what we are exposed to, but it is true that if everyone fished during the day, I think we would take points.
But that's the game, you can see that in Holland, their big sessions are done at night. We can see that Nays is in trouble during the day this season.
Batavian nights are excellent for big fish and they concentrate their fishing on this period. The paradox is that in Finland this is not the case. The nights are very cool and the reactions are very different, the pike perch seem to be stalled.
On the day fishing, we notice indeed that you are not ridiculous, in terms of sizes and quantity. You are even often in front of it! Are the big fish really more active at night?
Tony: so we never tried it because it's forbidden, but I think that in Spain fat people eat more at night too.
Afterwards, you have to understand that Spain is a sector where there are less big fish, on the one hand because the population of fish is young, but especially because the prey is mainly made up of bleak. And these fish are very fast, I think that the big ones have difficulty in feeding for the blow.
But in Alcantara, there are also very big fish and 90-95 cm there are, but I think that indeed, they must feed at night, because it must be easier to surprise their prey.
Moreover in prefishing we make a fish of 87 cm. We do it in linear precisely at the end of the day just before the night. This confirms my theory.
I am very surprised by BKK's strategy, did you also try this type of approach last year on Orellana?
Tony: not at all! Notches work very well for pike fishing, but in very specific contexts. I will take out notches when there is a marked activity and very early in the morning or evening.
For example, when they are hunting between two waters, you can choose a cranck that swims at 3 or 4 m and present his lure at the right water height.
I don't practice it often, because it works very well, but in a very specific time frame in the end.
We'll see you next week in Berlin for the final. What is your prediction for the final scores?
Tony: i'm putting a bill on Abu Garcia, despite the fact that Nays took 2 points on the first day. I think there is going to be a big battle on the last episode, as Quantum may also be in ambush on the last day. They are very good fishermen and they are in their backyard!
What we do know is that we won't win! (Laughs) We are quite happy anyway, because we did our best despite the conditions and we are not ridiculous!
To answer your question, I would put 5 points for Abu Garcia and 4 for Nays, or 4 points for both of them, because I can see Westin or Quantum pulling out a last minute big fish.
I can't see Nays going to win the point in vertical on the last day, because Abu Garcia are real vertical people and they seem to have plenty of fallback points if it goes wrong.
