Drennan Team England Nations Coarse Angling Team missed out of a podium place after finishing 6th in the 65th FIPSed Nations World Coarse Fishing Championship at Montemor o Velho, Portugal from 8th – 9th September 2018. The event was held on the Montemor rowing coarse with 22 nations competing for the title of 2018 World Champions.
Mark Downes and Steve Sanders led the team assisted by Darran Bickerton and the team consisted of Alan Scotthorne, Will Raison, Steve Hemingray, Sean Ashby, Des Shipp and Matt Godfrey.
This particular venue was one where the team had won back in 2006, a rowing course that was then full of mullet, but it had changed with the venue still having mullet, but catfish were not the predominant species.
After a few days England were struggling with their practise rota putting the team on areas where the catfish were few and far between and they could not formulate a plan.
It soon became evident there were two lines of attack, 13 metre pole and 25-30 metres on the slider, but unfortunately England had wasted their slider time fishing too far out so missing valuable catching practise.
Day 1 – England drew peg 1 which was great because they had an end peg on A Section and Steve Hemingray made no mistakes by winning his section. Alan drew at the right end of E section and also won his section, giving England a shout of coming back on day 2 with their 40 point total.
Des came back 9th, Sean 11th and amazingly Will 18th, a result in itself that showed how peggy the venue was.
Day 2 – Will drew the same peg, but this time the fish were there and he came home in a brilliant 4th, Sean 18th – whilst anglers 3 pegs either side caught a fish every cast. Sean caught just 11 fish in the first three hours, Des and Steve came in 9th and Alan 14th showing once again what England were up against.
Mark Downes, Drennan Team England Manager stated “Germany ran out worthy winners and winning for the first time ever which was a great result for them and for the event in general. “
“Despite finishing 6th we still maintain our Number 1 ranking position. Next year we move to Serbia in Novi Sad, where catfish will again play a major role, but skimmers, bream and a few roach can also be caught. We have the confidence to look towards getting a podium position in the World Championship next year.”
Top 6 team results;
1st Germany 46 penalties
2nd Hungary 52 penalties
3rd Belgium 61 penalties
4th Italy 64 penalties
5th France 74 penalties
6th England 94 penalties
Top 6 individual results;
1st Johannes Bohm -Germany
2nd Eric Di Venti – Belgium
3rd Ralf Herdlitschke – Germany
4th Alexandre Caudin – France
5th Jacopo Falsini – Italy
6th Geoffrey Duquesne – Belgium
The Angling Trust and Drennan Team England would like to offer their appreciation to their sponsors Drennan International and Peter Drennan for all their continued support.
