Fly vs Jerk 7 – The Teams – CWC and Pierre Monjarret – English version

Fly vs jerk is finally here – a show we are addicted to. I cant believe that it is season 7 already! A lot of cool stuff going on this year with one new team and a new team member in one of the teams. Really cool! As always we are very interested in understanding more and especially know more who are they guys behind the face and how do they experience the competition.

A short notice to our dear readers. While conducting the interviews we realised that all teams have a lot of fans back in their home countries and huge crowd following the show so we thought “let’s go the extra mile this time” so for this Fly vs jerk series we will have posts both in Swedish for our regular readers but also in English! We will do all posts twice – happy days! So to all you guys reading this in English – welcome – let’s see how this works out 🙂

You will find the Swedish version here for a true Swedish experience:

https://fiskefuralle.wordpress.com/2016/02/12/fly-vs-jerk-7-cwc-fishing-pierre-monjarret-svensk-version/

Fly vs Jerk is has an established format that have slowly evolved during the 7 seasons. The set-up this year is the same as last year ie four teams competing for victory in this pike-fishing competition. Two teams are spin/jerk fishing and two teams are fly-fishing. One point per day for biggest pike and largest amount of pike. Total amount of points after final day of fishing is the winner. Should it come to a draw situation biggest fish during the tournament wins. The teams are:

• CWC Fishing Team: Stefan Trumstedt and Pierre Monjarret
• Storm/Shimano: Mathias Holgersson and Jesper Norell
• Vision Sweden: Niklaus Bauer and Thomas Søbirk
• Vision Finland: Pyry Granlund and Tuomas Rytkönen

We will try and give you a good introduction to all the teams. Who are they, what is their background, experience et c but also some good stories from the fishing and the inside of the anglers:  how it actually feels to be fishing for days and days under pressure with a camera in your face all the time. Since there are new teams and faces we will focus more on these guys and try to give a good introduction of them

We will start this tour with CWC Fishing team and then we will have one team per week up until the final show at the fair in Stockholm. Hope you will enjoy the ride:-)

So… Let’s get started! Team CWC consists of two anglers. Stefan Trumstedt (Sweden) and Pierre Monjarret (Ireland). We thought since Pierre is new in the show we should give him some more introduction and we enjoyed an telephone interview with this humble french guy living in Ireland.

Pierre Monjarret:

When I was going to interview I must admit I had not done my homework properly. I was (based on the very french sounding name) 100% convinced that Pierre was based in France. How wrong was I :-)? Pierre is based in Ireland and working as a guide in Irelands. If you want to know more about his home waters and the fishing he has there you can read that in the end of this post. It is some really exciting fishing going on there so I urge to check it out!

But who are you Pierre? I am 29 years old based in Ireland. I was born in France, close to Bordeaux and was living there, addicted to carp fishing and sea bass fishing until I was 19. Then I had the opportunity to go Ireland and start guiding in Lough Derg. I was the quite fed up with carp fishing but I enjoyed lure fishing and pike was and very much still is a the favourite species. I work here as a guide for Pike and Perch and I have been a part of team CWC since 2014.

And yes, I have to admit: I am addicted to big pike. I have the opportunity to go fishing quite often – over 200 days per year. I never fish for small jacks in the shallow areas. I always go for the big mamas of the deep:-)

Stefan Trumstedt:

Stefan is one of the owners of CWC fishing and he is responsible for the main part of the product design, purchase and also working with clients. He is one of the most well known predator-anglers in Sweden with main focus on pike. (Even when Trumman is fishing for perch, he ends up catching large pike LOL).

He was also one of the main drivers behind creating the jerk fishing boom in Sweden in the early 2000:s with the movie “Gäddfeber” that featured insane fishing for pike in Blekinge, an archipelago in south of Sweden. If you have not seen that movie – find it! Based in Stockholm.

So listening to your explanation of you home waters. It sounds like quite different to the fishing we have in Sweden. What kind of tactics do you normally employ?

It is about finding the fish of course and find them deep! Thats where the big ladies hang. The pike mainly feed on big baitfish like trout and bream so I like to fish big baits. Big baits = big fish. When I fish shallow I like the Buster jerk and the X-buster. I fish no smaller baits than the Buster Jerk. For the deeper fishing I tend to go for big rubber baits like Pighad and Bulldawgs. I must honestly say that the color does not make that much of a difference. It is all about presentation but I still must admit I am weak for blue baits like the blue shark.

So how was it fishing with Stefan? Was it the first time?

Yes actually it was the first time we fished together. I came to Sweden a couple of days before the contest to get the tactics right and check out some spots with Stefan. I really enjoyed fishing with Stefan, he is one of nicest guys you can meet. It’s just fun, no stress. Of course it is competition and we both very focused and he is just like me. He never gives up! But it was not the last time fishing together. Stefan is coming to fish the Lough Derg with me for a week in April. It is going to be great and fun to show him my home waters!

What did you think about competing in Fly vs Jerk

Well I like competitions. I participate every time the predator tour comes to Lough Derg. I think it is a great format. Good TV, lot of action and fun to watch. And regarding our performance I cannot say any specifics of course 🙂 but we are very happy with our performance. We had a plan laid out and we stuck to it. We went with the plan all the way. A lot of driving and changing of waters. Sometimes we went for size and sometimes for numbers. Trumman was doing all the driving and I was sleeping all the time hahaha! No regrets.

When we were on the starting line it was a very cool feeling, very excited. Not nervous or anything like that. You just want to go fishing. Then you just go.

You stop fishing when it is dark and you report at 5pm I think it was for the first two days. Honestly I cannot remember that much – I was only thinking about pike. Same goes for the camera. When you are on the boat you only think about pike and when you are driving the cameraman is in the back (and I was sleeping all the time 🙂 ) and in the end we were just too tired to care

Your impression of Sweden and pike fishing?

I really enjoyed fishing in Sweden. It was really good. The environment was very different to what I am used to. Nice scenarios around, clear water and very beautiful fish with golden spottings and white bellies. I loved it. When it comes to fishing I did not have to change tactics that much. I fished like I do at home. A fish is a fish and the pike works the same way. I was not my last time in Sweden 😉

From the FiskeFürAlle we would like to thank you Pierre. You are a great guy with a good attitude and a lot of knowledge. Looking forward to seeing your performance in the show!

//Magnus

About Pierres waters and fishing:

Pierres home base is the second largest lake in Ireland – Lough Derg – a 35 km long pike dream famous for windy conditions and big pike!

Lough Derg is a place I have come across before. I have been addicted to Matt Hayes movies and shows and he has been visiting the lake several times.

Pierre does guiding for mainly French and Italians that come here for the great fishing. And it is great – we never have ice so we can fish all year round. 2015 was a good year – I feel that I am on to the big pikes. We hade 115 pike bigger than 1 metre in my boat last year and the year before it was 100. Lough Derg is not a lake where you fish for numbers, you fish for big fish. The water is quite murky. We always have wind and the Lough is a part of the river Shannon system so there is a lot of water moving all the time.

Should want to come and fish here it is an easy task – direct flight to Dublin and the 2hours on motorway. I will take care of you. Food and tackle and of course boats. I have 2 crestliners in the water and 4 boats on trailers for riving fishing et c so well prepared for any request. If you want to know more about me you can find more at www.pierremonjarret.com