ANGLING CHAMPS
Zac Brown adds new title to his angling CV
CRESTA/GAMAKATSU UK ANGLING CHAMPIONSHIPS (WEDS) Barston Lakes (80 pegs) WITH the Maver Mega Match This title under his belt, Zac Brown can now add the UK Champs crown to that CV after a nervy final round at Barston.
Going into the match, the Preston Innovations man was sitting on top with five points, just one in front of a host of anglers a point further behind.
And having drawn in the section with flyer peg 124 in it, there was always a chance that he would be fishing for second in section at best. He had to hope that those anglers just behind him didn’t win their sections and take the event to overall weight.
That didn’t happen, and Zac’s second off peg 122 behind section winner Oliver Scotthorne on 124 was enough to see him home on seven points, Mike McMillan emerging as second overall after winning his section to finish on eight points overall.
After scoring a section win in the opening leg at Gold Valley, another win at The Glebe and then a third at Hayfield, Zac’s Barston campaign began by fishing the bomb with PVA bags and pellet at range, but although it produced a few early carp, sport soon died.
Changing to the pole with pellet to try and catch some skimmers, Zac instead latched into carp and F1s plus a few bream to claw his way back into contention in the section. With second an absolute must, he tipped 96-4-0 on to the scales to get there, Oliver on peg 124 winning with 145-6-0.
On the individual front, new Preston Innovations signing Jimmy Brooks carried on his fine run of summer form, bagging 174-11-0 for victory off peg 23 on the river bank, where he fished Hybrid feeder and wafters or pellet to land big carp and some chunky F1s,
Andy Power followed in second with 162-8-0 from peg 100 on the golf course bank. He, too, took carp on Method feeder and pellet but the bulk of his weight was
made up of quality skimmers on pellet and corn fished at 13m. Result: 1 J Brooks, Preston Innovations, 174-11-0; 2 A Power, Preston Innovations, 162-8-0; 3 M McMillan, Garbolino/Bait-Tech, 162-4-0; 4 O Scotthorne, Halkon Hunt, 145-6-0; 5 M Fox, Maver Midlands, 139-5-0; 6 J Binder, Northants, 134-1-0.
Overall result: 1 Z Brown, Preston Innovations, 7pts; 2 M McMillan, Garbo/Bait-Tech, 8 (259-256); 3 R Small, Marukyu, 8 (146-083); 4 J Brooks, Preston Innovations, 9; 5 S Rothery, Lindholme, 10 (199-042); 6 M Rodger, Mosella/ Marukyu, 10 (198-192).