A long summer of team fishing drew to a close with the two-day SonuBaits Feedermasters Superleague Final at Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire. Ten teams of four battled it out for the £3,000 prize and the title – and, on recent form, it was only going to go one way, which it did!
Sweeping all before them were the powerful Ringer Baits Dragon Energy quartet of Phil and Steve Ringer, Rob Wootton and Adam Wakelin, who scored an incredible 12 points over the weekend to win by a mile. Preston Innovations were closest to them on 28 points, third going to Team GSF with 38.
That dominance was also shown in the individual stakes, where Ringers’ men took four of the top five places, headed by captain Phil with a perfect two points. Scoring six points on day one, the champs laid down a serious marker for the rest of the match, and they didn’t let up on the Sunday, posting another 12 points to make it all over bar the shouting.
Saturday’s match saw Phil win his section with 15-4-0, Rob doing the same on 11-7-0 and Steve and Adam both taking second with 13-0-0 and 11-12-0 respectively. Twenty-four hours later, Phil weighed in another 15-4-0 bag to win his section, Steve taking 17-6-0 to the scales for his section win, Adam’s 12-9-0 giving him a single point and only Rob struggling – if you can call it that – with third in section on 9-8-0.
The win means the team have completed a hat-trick of titles this summer, winning the three events they set out to bag six months ago – the Feeder National, the Superleague final and top place in the Superleague table after the four rounds – something that’s left captain Phil beaming.
“At the turn of the year, we sat down and identified these three events as the ones to win – I call them three arrows to land in the bullseye!” he said.
“That meant working hard, putting in the practice and pulling together as a team – and it’s been brilliant. To have a National medal in the cabinet, to have won the Superleague four times now and to have a crack at the World Club Feeder Champs in Ireland next spring is out of this world. We just can’t wait to get cracking at it now!”
Doing without the bream
Rudyard, though, was not going to be easy to master. With plenty of small fish but also bream that could upset the applecart, the champs put the time in on the practice open match and the two practice days, working out a small-fish approach that many of the other teams in the final appeared not to have cottoned on to.
“After practice, we’d decided that the bream weren’t worth fishing for as they were few and far between. This being a shallow lake, we’d found that two lines using small window feeders with chopped worm slop in them caught roach and perch,” Phil revealed.
“Setting a target of 10lb per man, roughly 120 fish, we were confident in using an approach that we actually fished in a team match at Arrow Valley Lake a few years ago for small skimmers. By mincing the worms finely with a little Ringers sweet fishmeal groundbait, we’d create a cloud as the feeder went down, aiming to get bites within 30 seconds of the feeder landing.”
A worm head was the best bait, fished on size 16 hooks to 0.12mm fluorocarbon hooklengths and braid mainline. The two lines went in at 35m and 15m, regardless of where the anglers drew.
“The plan was to begin at 35m, where we felt we’d catch well for two hours before it faded. Then it was time to think about the short line where, again, two hours was about all you got out of it before it died,” he explained. “So long as we were coming back with a fish each cast when the fishing was good, we were on course.”
“After day one and that terrific score, the talk was of changing nothing and catching enough, not necessarily to win the match again on Sunday, but more to score enough points to keep the chasing teams at arm’s length. I can’t believe we scored six points again!” Phil added.
Ringer Baits Dragon Energy scorecard
Day one:
Phil Ringer: 15-4-0 – 1 point
Steve Ringer: 13-0-0 – 2 points
Adam Wakelin: 11-12-0 – 2 points
Rob Wootton: 11-7-0 – 1 point
Day two:
Phil Ringer: 15-4-0 – 1 point
Steve Ringer: 17-6-0 – 1 point
Adam Wakelin: 12-9-0 - 1 point
Rob Wootton: 9-8-0 – 3 points
Team result: 1 Ringer Baits Dragon Energy, 12pts; 2 Preston Innovations, 28; 3 Team GSF, 38; 4 Drennan Barnsley Blacks, 41 (superior weight); 5 Dambusters, 41; 6 NuFish North, 44; 7 Graphite Feeder Team, 47; 8 Mainline DGG, 55; 9 Bag ‘Em Baits Pendle & Burnley, 64; 10 Dynamite Derby, 67.
Ringers’ Strength in depth!
Although there was no individual prize, the overall top five across the weekend reinforced the dominance of the Ringer Baits side, as four or their men featured in it. Only Will Freeman stood in the way of it being a Ringers whitewash!
Skipper Phil Ringer led the way with two section wins, brother Steve taking second on a superior weight after tying with Adam Wakelin on three points. Will and Rob Wootton both returned four points, weight again seeing Will into fourth.
On day one, Phil drew peg 17 in B section and winkled out 15-4-0 of mainly roach, plus the odd perch and little skimmer. Sunday put him on peg 20 of the same section, from where he took the same weight again – 15-4-0 of roach, perch and a dozen skimmers – ending up as the only angler to record a perfect two points.
“On both days I fished exactly the same, as that’s the method we’d worked out, starting long and moving in close once that line died,” Phil said.
“I didn’t quite get to the target of 100 fish on day one, but the stamp of roach was good on that short line. It was more of the same on Sunday, only with a lot more bites! The top five just show how right our plan was. It’s rare in team fishing to be so dominant, especially on a natural venue like Rudyard.”
Individual result:1 P Ringer, Ringer Baits Dragon Energy, 2pts; 2 S Ringer, Ringer Baits Dragon Energy, 3 (superior weight); 3 A Wakelin, Ringer Baits Dragon Energy, 3; 4 W Freeman, Preston Innovations, 4 (superior weight); 5 R Wootton, Ringer Baits Dragon Energy, 4.