Weston Pools’ picturesque Canal Pool hosted this year’s Angling Trust Anglers with Disabilities National Championship and the 16 anglers competing had plenty of space. The conditions were favourable, being warm and overcast and plenty of fish were caught.

Wayne Panting from Pershore was crowned a worthy National Champion, after weighing a superb 48.080Kg of carp and F1s from peg 18. This was nearly 15kg ahead of the chasing pack and really highlights some excellent angling. Wayne’s winning tactics were mainly short pole and pellet and he caught a decent proportion of his catch late on, as the fish built confidence with regular feeding.

Second place for the second year running was England International, Elliott Fay from Kingsteignton, who thought he was out of the running after drawing what appeared to be a tricky peg 13. With both an aerator and a fence close behind him, Elliott did really well to put 34.580Kg on the scales and take the runner up spot. Fishing 6mm and 8mm pellet down the edge, Elliott caught carp to 7lb and lost several large fish, thought to be barbel, during the day.

Sixteen-year-old Ethan Etherington from Midhurst fished this event for the first time and had a great start to his National career after securing third place, with a creditable 30.440Kg from peg 2. Most of Ethan’s fish were big F1s caught up in the water on pellet at 13m.

The Angling Trust would like to thank Mike and his team at Weston Pools for some cracking fishing and Andre Grandjean for hosting the national. A final and important thank you to all the anglers and their assistants, who make this event a huge success year on year.

Results

1st Wayne Panting 48.080Kg
2nd Elliott Fay 34.580Kg
3rd Ethan Etherington 30.440Kg
4th Kenny Brockhouse 29.200Kg
5th Paul Logan 24.490Kg
6th Richard Green 23.810Kg