Big matches Walterland Masters result
Ringer holds England’s end up in prestige Euro match
THE Daiwa Walterland Masters event in Hungary has been a happy hunting ground for Steve Ringer in recent years.
Previously the Daiwa/Guru star racked up wins in both the main two-day event and the one-off feeder match – and he returned from this year’s clash with more silverware for the cabinet!
That came thanks to third place in the feeder match against some illustrious company on the Szeged rowing course, where Steve was joined by fellow Daiwa men William Raison, Cameron Hughes, Martin Greene and Dave McAuley plus the Preston Innovations quartet of Des Shipp, Lee Kerry, Mick Vials and Andy Power. Their aim? To take on the best Europe had to offer.
And while the two-day team match didn’t go the way they wanted, the feeder match was more successful, with a third for Steve, fourth for Lee, seventh for Des and eighth spot for Mick. Austria’s Sebastian Handler won it and Hungarian Attila Erdei took second overall.
“Last year the venue held more carassio than carp, but this time around it was different, with carp the dominant species,” Steve said.
“The plan of attack was not too dissimilar to last year, fishing at
16m which is where six days of bait had been going in during practice and on the two days of the pole match.
“Fishing further out didn’t seem to be much use, as there weren’t as many fish and the pegging was tight. Getting a carp in from long range was going to be trickier than from closer in.”
Fishing a small three-hole cage feeder packed with heavy leam and lots of particles including corn, hemp, dead maggots and joker, the starting hookbait was bloodworm before a change to maggots when the carp arrived.
This worked well, as after drawing fancied peg 99 Steve finished with 36 carp and carassio for 31-020, still more than 6kg behind the winner.
“Baiting up took place at 16m with four litres of groundbait and loads of particles, but it was apparent that the carp wouldn’t feed on top of this bait. Instead they would hang around the edges,” he continued. “That meant lots of liners, a good thing as they showed you that fish were in the area. You tended to get next to no activity in the swim and then a burst of liners, as many as 15 in 10 minutes, when the fish were there.
“This was the time to catch them by moving back from the 16m line by just 75cm to the edge of the feed and casting around,” Steve added.
“My draw was exactly where I wanted to be and, looking back, the winner attacked his peg more with groundbait and worm as opposed to leam and particles.
“He said it was a bit of a gamble but it worked for him because he caught more carp.”