Source: Angling Trust
This was always going to be a difficult world championship; the canal was very fast and it proved impossible to stop a flat float, so running flat floats of 30-50 grams became the only way to fish. Early practise saw the team do well with catches of up to 6kg, with Nase the main target species. Sadly as the week progressed these got more difficult to catch and torrential rain saw the surrounding area totally flooded and the venue rise five feet. Team England struggled – but every team did, of course, face the same challenges and after day one it was apparent that the team had gone in with the wrong plan for the conditions.
Day one was hard and although Team England hit their target number of fish per angler and were second on fish count with 34 fish, it soon became apparent that Nase were playing second fiddle to big barbel and the teams that really attacked the venue early in the match brought more barbel into their swims and made them count.
On the second day Team England stepped up their initial feed but the river, which rose another two feet overnight, was tougher than ever and they only recorded 12 fish and failed to improve on their overall position.
Mark Downes, Drennan Team England Joint Manager said:
”This was tough, the lads did well in practise beating all around them, including the French, Polish and Croatians but it fell apart at the seams on match day, the river just turned on us and our tactics were nullified.”
Joint Manager Mark Addy added:
“You can’t win them all, we were given a lesson this weekend and we will all learn from it. When you see the best teams in the world falling down the list like they have this week you realise how difficult it is to compete on such varied waters. Italy 26th, us 16th, and the other home nations all falling short will be a lesson to us all.”
Dick Clegg, International Events Manager, Angling Trust commented:
“Mark Addy summed it up by saying ‘You can’t win them all’ and it’s certainly true especially in this case. It’s not the first time that England has fished in this area as the team did fish a world championships in Maribor on the same river Drava and there were plenty of dry nets then too. Indeed Mark Downes was included in the team as England finished second and Bob Nudd won the individual. Back in those days the river was extremely quick without any of the extra water that this team experienced and the England team had dry nets then.
When a natural venue is chosen for the World Championships these kind of weather conditions can have a devastating effect on the venue just as England had in Luddington on the river Avon and then we experienced the same in Portugal on the river Mondego in Coimbra. England’s management and team will be very disappointed after finishing down the field, but they are still the best in the world and should not be too disheartened by this result.
Next year in Slovenia I expect them to bounce back and regain their rightful place on the podium. My congratulations go to both Callum Dicks for a great result on his England debut and I must also say well done to Holland in becoming World Champions and to my mate Jan van Schendall their manager who has worked so hard since taking over the Dutch team a few years ago.”
Team Results
1st Netherlands 38 points
2nd Czech Republic 44 points
3rd Serbia 45 points
(16th England 91 points)
Individual Results
1st Goran Radovic, Serbia
2nd Stefan Altena, Netherlands
3rd Arjan Klop, Netherlands
