MATCH NEWS How Thames Festival was won
Buchwalder and Barlow take two-day silverfish festival by just a 7oz margin
WHEN you catch over 170lb of fish between two of you, you’d expect to win a two-day silverfish festival with ease. However, the Preston Innovations-backed bash at South West wonder water Upper Tamar Lakes went down to the wire as just 7oz divided the first and second pairs!
Feeder internationals Dean Barlow and Michael Buchwalder and Steve Ringer and Adam Wakelin slugged it out, ending up with totals of 171-13-0 and 171-6-0, meaning one lost fish decided it.
The sport was simply tremendous, with countless 30lb weights taken and an impressive 52-2-0 for Michael on day two proving just why Tamar is considered to be the best natural venue in the country.
“It’s always a treat to fish Tamar,” England feeder team boss Dean said. “The lake hasn’t been fished much this summer, but we know it well from the Feedermasters Final.”
“We went down the day before for a look and settled on a plan to start on the whip or short pole for roach,” Dean continued. “If we were catching decent fish quickly enough, we would carry on with the pole but if not, we would target skimmers on the feeder.”
The story of day one
“I was on peg 10 of the Cornwall Bank, which had around 5ft of water on the short pole/whip line plus a feeder chuck to around 25m out. Michael had peg 21 on the Devon Bank, which was a little deeper.”
“Kicking off on the whip with maggot, feeding a ball of groundbait each cast, I caught around 30 roach in the first 45 minutes, but I felt that they weren’t coming regularly enough. That meant a change to the feeder, using a four hole cage or a window feeder with worm on the hook. This was much better and was busy fishing from skimmers between 6oz and 1lb 8oz, with bites often coming within three minutes of casting. My 45-12-0 meant I’d easily reached my target!”
“Michael had also found the whip too slow, but when he swapped to the pole at 6m with a short line, it was miles better. He fed a ball of groundbait each chuck, fishing 1.5g rigs for speed and caught roach well. He also had two spells on the feeder, only for six or seven casts, and he caught a skimmer a chuck on this. Weighing 41-5-0 was brilliant, but Steve Ringer and Adam Wakelin had done even better and were in the lead.”
How day two panned out
“We swapped over on day two, with me on the Devon Bank and Michael on the Cornwall Bank. I’d got peg 16, which had only produced 16lb the day before. I was aiming for 30lb, but didn’t know if the peg was capable of that. Adam Wakelin had drawn Steve Ringer’s peg from the day before, so he was always going to catch a load of fish. Michael was in the quarry on the Cornwall Bank, a great area so I had no worries about him.”
“The whip was no good because of the wind and the short pole, while getting me a few bites, was never going to catch fast enough. I was soon on the feeder casting 50m where it was 30ft deep to a spot where an aerator was. This held a lot of fish and although the skimmers were on the small side, averaging 8oz each, they were quick in coming. I managed 32-10-0, a result I was happy with. It was then down to Michael on the quarry to catch a shed load!”
“We couldn’t have asked for a better result, as Michael won the whole day with a tremendous 52-2-0 of roach! His match also followed a similar route to the day before with the pole at 6m being his main line, using the feeder to rest it. As the day went on, the roach turning up on his pole line got bigger and bigger and he had some fish almost weighing 1lb!”
Too close for comfort!
“Adam Wakelin was a few pegs from me, and he’d had 49lb. Steve Ringer claimed to only have 20lb, which turned into 29lb! We won by just 7oz – that’s a tiny amount given how many fish were caught – just one big roach when you think about it!”
RESULT: 1 D Barlow, Drennan/Mainline Match and M Buchwalder, Preston Innovations, 171-13-0; 2 S Ringer, Guru and A Wakelin, Daiwa, 171-6-0; 3 G West and D Shipp, both Preston Innovations, 150-0-0; 4 D Allen and M Sisson, 130-15-0; 5 J Jones, Preston Innovations Thatcher’s & A Cranston, Preston Innovations, 128-7-0;
6 S Stenton, Cresta and N Garrett, Mosella, 125-5-0.