The Angling Trust’s newly elected team represented England in the 6th FIPSed World Carnivorous Boat Fishing with Lures Championship on Northern Irelands Loch Erne from 12th – 13th October.
The Angling Trust Team England Lure squad always knew this would prove an exceptionally stern challenge for them, and so it proved. After two days of practice and much deliberation the pairs chosen to fish the two days of the Championship were Gary & Sam Edmonds (father and son) and Eric Edwards & Gary Palmer. Missing out due to the tactical considerations were Matthew Netherton & Evaldas Skablauskas.
At the end of the first day hopes were high as Angling Trust Team England held 6th place after an intense day of competition, with both boat pairs catching pike and perch, though a fair few were undersized and did not count. Just one or two more scoring pike would have seen the team easily placed much higher. Gary & Sam Edmonds had fared best and were lying in 5th place individually.
Day 2, and the strong current that had been flowing out to sea on the prior days on the water had suddenly ceased. The pockets of prey fish England had previously located were gone with the pike and perch as well. Not reacting quickly to this change of conditions, Angling Trust Team England continued to fish larger lures for the pike. Each boat pair caught scoring sized pike, but also far too many undersized fish. Combined with this the team suffered from the additional loss of a few decent sized pike where the trebles failed to set properly, costing them dearly.
At the end of two days of super intense competition, England had finished in 12th out of the 14 nations taking part. The early favourites of mighty Russia, being pipped at the post by a jubilant Italian team that performed well over both days.
Mike Skipper, Angling Trust Team England Manager stated “Yes we have regrets, but they are few and are mainly due to the few mistakes we made, and from the subtleties in equipment and end tackle that the vastly more experienced sides employed. Unfortunately on day 2 we didn’t react quickly enough to the change of conditions continuing to fish larger lures for pike, and we should have down-sized and moved to finer wire gauge hooks. A move many other nations cottoned onto early.”
“These are all things we will learn from, giving greater consideration to these areas in our future planning for next year. Looking back at our efforts over the entire Championships I as the Team Manager could not have asked for more effort from a team that gelled so well, worked so hard and displayed such passion and pride on representing the Angling Trust and England. The attitude displayed by the squad matched those of any of the other participating nations, and bodes well for the future of the sport of lure angling for the future.”
Final Team Classifications:
1st Italy 27 points
2nd Russia 36 points
3rd Romania 44 points
4th Belarus 47 points
5th Lithuania 50 points
6th Ukraine 54 points
7th Ireland 58 points
8th Latvia 58 points
9th South Africa 64 points
10th Poland 66 points
11th Hungary 66 points
12th England 75 points
13th France 80 points
14th Czech Republic 89 points
Top 4 Individual Pairs Classification:
1st Janas Prialgauskas/Vladas Valukonis – Lithuania – 5 points
2nd Alexey Shanin/Alexander Panchekhin – Russia – 7 points
3rd Jacek Gorny/Tomasz Kurman – Ireland – 10 points
4th Nicola Panareo/Marcelo Sivero – Italy – 12 points
