Irish Pairs Win for Wootton & Kerry
They hold off the challenge from Steve and Phil Ringer – but it’s a close call
Fermanagh, Leitrim & Cavan (62 pairs)
LAKELAND & INLAND WATERWAYS WORLD PAIRS ANGLING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018
OFTEN, this event is all over bar the shouting with a couple of days to go. Not this time!
The 2018 competition had more twists and turns than a country back road, and resulted in 2014 champion Rob Wootton and his partner Lee Kerry winning by just over four kilos from Ringer brothers Steve and Phil. What’s more, the result was in doubt until the final day’s weigh-in!
Rob and Lee totalled 175-960 over the five days to take the £10,000 top prize, a Daiwa rod and reel and Leitrim crystal trophies. Steve and Phil took 171-280 to earn £5,000, and last year’s champions Rod Scott and Michael Buchwalder finished third on 159-560.
Going into the final day, Lee and Rob were around 10kg in front of the Ringers, a weight that was perfectly capable of being clawed back, especially as the new champs were heading for a tougher rotation that could have spelt disaster.
However, Lee drew end peg 13 on Brackley Lake with Rob getting peg 9 at Bunerky. Aiming for a 20kg day, the two lads returned 16-440 (Lee) and over 8kg (Rob) which saw them eclipse that to keep Steve and Phil at arm’s length.
“Going into that final day we honestly thought our chances of winning were 50/50,” Rob said. “We knew that Steve and Phil were fishing pegs in a better rotation and would probably catch more than us, so we needed a better-than-average day. When Lee drew the end peg at Brackley I don’t think we could have asked for better and my peg was steady, so we said
20kg would mean Steve and Phil needed 30kg-plus to beat us.
“If we exceeded our target it would be a bonus, and that’s kind of how it worked out, but even at the end of the match we couldn’t be certain we’d won!”
Once again, fishing across all of the venues in use was outstanding. Some anglers were faced with waters where small roach and skimmers were allimportant while on others it was all about hybrid fishing.
Lough Erne, in particular, fished its head off throughout the week.
“We opened up on Church and Connolly’s Shore at Garradice on Monday and aimed for 20kg, but mullered that with 32kg, a great start. Day two on Lough Erne was equally good with 46kg to better our 40kg target,” Rob explained. “Even so, we looked at how Steve and Phil had performed after two days and thought that we were out of it – but this being Ireland, you just never know. There are lots of fish but some rotations have pegs that put you out of contention in terms of getting your target weight, while others can fish their heads off and you can treble what you’re aiming to catch.”
That was the case on day three, as Lee was in a hard section at Lough Scur with only a couple of pegs worth having. He duly pulled from the bag the peg that Phil Ringer had won from the day before with a mega weight on the feeder and knocked out 23kg to sit alongside 8kg from Rob and quash any panic that
may have set in.
“That was a big relief, and set us off to Lough Erne on Thursday with a spring in our step. Lee fished a blinder for 25kg from Greeny’s while I had 14kg from Killadeas to put us into that 10kg kilo lead,” Rob continued. “That meant it all boiled down to the final day and protecting that lead. We were in good shape but yes, we had doubts, of course we did – but we felt that leaving Steve and Phil 30kg to catch should just see us home.”
Tactics used by the champions varied depending on the species they were going for – if roach were important, or the fishing looked like being a little tougher, then the pole came into play but on big weight rotations with hybrids on the menu, the feeder reigned supreme.
“To win this event twice is the stuff of dreams but I couldn’t have done it without Lee – he’s in the form of his life at the moment. More importantly, he’s such a quick learner,” Rob added.
“He’s also drawn some great pegs over the week, which always helps!” Result:
1 L Kerry and R Wootton, 175-960; 2 S Ringer and P Ringer, 171-280; 3 M Buchwalder and R Scott, 159-560; 4 H Whittle and M Greene, 149-020; 5 A Wakelin and F Schuermann, 145-920; 6 T Kusters and J Koschnick, 144-150; 7 P Jackson and C Hughes, 142-280; 8 N Howell and P Hiller, 140-990; 9 D Willan and M Pollard, 140-880; 10 A Leathers and W Freeman, 138-820.