COX CROWNED FEEDERMASTERS CHAMPION 2017
Darren pips Ringer to £12,000 prize
AN ACTION-packed second day saw Darren Cox crowned the 2017 Preston Innovations Feedermasters champion.
The Garbolino UK boss totalled 67-5-0 across the two-day final at Bough Beech Reservoir to lift the trophy and pocket the £12,000 first prize by a little over 4lb from Steve Ringer.
After taking 27-13-0 on the first day, Darren enjoyed a strong day two on the dam wall, weighing 39-8-0 of bream and skimmers to take the title. Steve had 32-12-0 and 27-8-0 for his tally, with third going to Michael Buchwalder on 56-14-0.
“To win this event is tremendous,” former England feeder man Darren said. “Against such a strong field, it’s one of my best achievements. I’d practised four or five times on the reservoir since I qualified and felt that it would fish hard so I went down a relatively cautious route on day one. Day two caught me and a few of us off guard as it fished well and we needed to up our game a bit.”
Day one gave Darren peg 39 on Woody Point where he fished two feeder lines – at 25m with an eye to catching roach and at 52m, where he found around 25ft of water, the ideal depth for the bream and skimmers.
“I had seen in practice that early in the match you could catch 6oz skimmers relatively quickly before the better fish turned up, but if you were too attacking with the feed at the start, those small skimmers didn’t like it,” Darren revealed. “By taking it easy with just a few feederfuls at the start, it was miles better so I kicked off with a front-loaded cage feeder. Once the better fish began to show, I changed to a 50g window feeder to get more bait into the peg.”
Darren’s groundbait mix was a 50/50 blend of Mainline Method Mix and Thatcher’s Dark holding lots of casters, dead maggots and pinkies plus a little finely chopped worm to give off scent rather than food content. His rig consisted of braided mainline with the feeder running on a twisted loop with a 60cm hooklink of 0.16mm Garbo Line and a size 15 Kamasan B560.
“I caught 27 small skimmers in the first 90 minutes, before the better skimmers turned up and I changed to the window feeder, adding more particles into the swim. The peg got better and better with skimmers averaging 12oz, plus three 3lb bream.
“Regular casting was important as a bite normally came within 30 seconds of the feeder hitting bottom,” he explained. “The best hookbait was maggot, but two sections of worm was a good change bait for the bigger fish. I also caught quite a few fish on floating maggots up in the water.”
Day two presented peg 7 on the dam wall, and despite the sun and little ripple, the fish got their heads down. Darren’s cautious start was a little too negative as anglers around him began to catch bream early on. A change to the window feeder at 57m and 25 minutes and regular casting to get bait into the swim did the trick as the big skimmers and bream arrived, and for the next three and a bit hours, Darren had fish-a-chuck action.
“I reckoned I had 37lb so I wasn’t far off with 39-8-0. It was honestly a brilliant day, almost perfect really, but I still wasn’t sure I’d won because I had some catching up to do on Steve Ringer who’d won the match the day before and was catching well on day two. Steve Whitfield and Michael Buchwalder were doing well too so it was going to close,” Darren said. “Steve is always capable of pulling something out of the bag, and on day two, anything could have happened!”
Result: 1 D Cox, Garbolino, 67-5-0; 2 S Ringer, Daiwa/ Guru, 60-4-0; 3 M Buchwalder, Preston Innovations, 56-14-0; 4 S Whitfield, Cadence UK/Bag ‘em Baits, 5511-0; 5 B Clarke, Vespe, 52-6-0; 6 K Rowles, Devizes MG, 48-14-0; 7 A Wakelin, Ringer Baits, 44-15-0; 8 G Lambert, Sonubaits, 41-14-0; 9 P Keeley, Liverpool, 40-0-0; 10 D Barlow, Drennan, 37-0-0.