World Champs report from Portugal
Double gold for Germany as target species change from mullet to catfish
THERE was to be no repeat of the last World Champs to be held on this Portuguese rowing course in 2006, when Drennan Team England romped to victory.
This time England finished a disappointing sixth on a venue much changed from 12 years ago as Germany took memorable gold on both the team and individual front.
Mullet dominated when England last visited, but this time it was the turn of small catfish to be the target species, and across practice and in the match itself it became plainly obvious that they weren’t in every peg or indeed in great numbers where they were.
England finished on 94 points across the weekend, some 50 behind Germany with Tri-Cast Weston Wales scoring 95 points to take seventh overall – a result that left England co-manager Mark Downes disappointed both with the result and the match itself.
He said: “Put simply, if the catfish were in your peg from the word go, you caught them. If they weren’t, no amount of feeding or trying different lines would draw them in – in that respect, it wasn’t a classic match where you catch fish and gain points by working your peg out.
“Worse was that overnight the cats moved, so a peg that produced none the day before was full of them 12 hours later.
“The fish basically found the feed from the day before and ate it. It was all very strange, and we suffered because this was happening in practice too.
“We never really got on a zone where the fish were present in numbers, so we were left unsure as to how to go about things if we did get a half-right peg.”
Made up of Alan Scotthorne, Des Shipp, William Raison, Sean Ashby, Steve Hemingray and Matt Godfrey, the team scored 40 points on day one. Normally they better that for Sunday’s match but not this time... a 54-point tally condemning them to sixth, with Steve the team’s top finisher in 15th place on 10 points.
“I think you knew within the first 15 minutes of the match if you were on for a weight or not because the cats were there, ready and waiting,” Mark continued. “If they were, you simply needed to feed them to keep them coming but if you struggled, nothing you could do would catch you more.
“I sat behind Sean on day two and he caught five cats in the first hour and then three apiece in hours two and three. Three pegs away, a French angler was getting 20-plus fish an hour.”
England’s tactics revolved around the slider or waggler for most of the match, with only a little bit of pole work. Working with co-manager Steve Sanders and coach Darran Bickerton, Mark was happy that the team’s tactics were right – they just
needed a few fish to complete the job.
“I’ve looked at our 10 draws across the weekend and worked out that only three of them were on pegs that produced from the word go, whereas Germany had eight out of their 10 that did,” he continued. “That takes nothing away from the Germans, because you still have to catch them, but I know that if we had a few more pegs on those cats we’d have got a medal. It was soul-destroying watching several pegs up catching regularly while our float didn’t move.
“To illustrate what we were up against, William on day one finished 18th in his section and on day two, the angler on his peg was fourth. “From a peg devoid of catfish it was suddenly full of them.”
“Even with all this going on, we finished sixth and it retains out number one overall World ranking – but I feel sorry for all the lads, who’ve worked all year for this match only to find themselves in such a weird situation.
“Still, we go again in Novi Sad in Serbia next year. As always, we’re truly grateful to Drennan and Sensas for their continued support,” Mark concluded.
Team result: 1 Germany, 46pts; 2 Hungary, 52; 3 Belgium, 61; 4 Italy, 64; 5 France, 74; 6 Drennan Team England, 94; 7 Tri-Cast Weston Wales, 95; 8 Portugal, 96; 9 Czech Republic, 97; 10 Spain, 104; 11 Netherlands, 105; 12 Slovenia, 109; 13 Slovakia, 123; 14 Poland, 127; 15 Croatia, 137; 16 Luxembourg, 142; 17 Sweden, 148; 18 Finland, 160; 19 Channel Islands, 172; 20 San Marino, 172; 21 USA, 176; 22 Switzerland, 178.
Individual result: 1 J Bohm, Germany, 3pts (13-480); 2 E DeVenti, Belgium, 3 (11-960); 3 R Herdlitschke, Germany, 4; 4 A Caudin, France, 5 (13-296); 5 J Falsini, Italy, 5 (11-426); 6 G Duquesne, Belgium, 6.