Team England’s foray to Serbia in search of World Champs gold was a trip quite unlike any other. It featured two lakes 30 miles apart and scores of ravenous catfish that were caught on crude tactics totally alien to the way we fish back in the UK – factors that were reflected in the final result.
Scoring 57 points, England ended in sixth spot, 10 points off a bronze medal – but, in fairness, well off the pace after a poor first day that left them in ninth spot. A strong performance on day two saw them take third on the day to climb back up the rankings, but it was a case of ‘too little, too late’ as Serbia took gold on 31.5 points from Italy on 42, the bronze going to the Czech Republic on 47.
The news was slightly better on the individual front, with World Champs debutant James Dent finishing in fourth as one of three anglers on three points. Total weight was the only thing denying him a medal as he scored 13-700, Hungarian Balasz Csoregi having 15-065 for bronze, Slovenia’s Mitja Kmetec posting 15-595 for silver and Croatian Mihael Pongrac taking the crown with 19-345.
Hard conditions in Croatia
Low water levels, leading to many anglers fishing in swims less than 1m deep, forced the organisers to split the match over two lakes almost an hour’s drive apart. Both waters needed totally different approaches despite having the same species present – carassio and catfish.
One venue responded to a Bolo rod attack, the other was more of a pole water, and it was the former that England didn’t clock on to until late in the day. A score of 33 points on day one ended any hopes of a gold medal. With the Bolo in the frame, though, Sunday was miles better and a 24-point tally was the reward. Manager Mark Downes even thought winning the second day was within England’s grasp.
“It was hard to get a clear picture of how each lake was fishing, with them being so far apart, but even so, we did well and were getting better each day,” Mark said.
“We missed a critical thing, though, and that was the Bolo on one of the lakes. We were happy with the waggler and slider, but on the final day of practice I watched a Serbian lad fishing a 12g Bolo float in 5ft of water and emptying the peg. We hadn’t taken any Bolo rods, as it wasn’t in the plan, so I scrounged a few for the first match.
“The pegs we drew on that lake on day one were poor, and Steve Hemingray was on one of the shallowest swims on the lake and struggled. A Serbian was on there on day two and he didn’t do much better, which shows what a shocker it was,” he continued.
Out comes the Bolo
“Day one was a bit of a write-off so, on Saturday night, we set up 15ft rods to fish the Bolo and were on equal terms come Sunday, with our anglers scoring a section win and a fourth,” said Mark. “With the right method from the word go, we’d have been in contention.”
“The other lake was shallow, just 1m on most pegs, and it was here that you needed to fish crudely for the catfish.”
“We hedged our bets a little to catch both cats and carassio with light rigs, but it turned out that heavy rigs – 4g in 1m of water – and big baits were best,” Mark explained. “This seemed to catch a bigger stamp of catfish, fishing two pieces of worm on size 12 or 14 hooks. We’d not considered that, and were always playing catch-up, but I think the performance on day two showed that we weren’t a bad team – we just weren’t up to speed early enough.”
Top performer was James Dent with a section second and win, Matt Godfrey scoring seven points over the weekend, William Raison 13 and Sean Ashby 20. Steve Hemingray’s day one 13 points saw him make way for Cameron Hughes on Sunday, and he went on to win his section.
“We’re a newish team with young lads, and we’re getting better and better. On the Continent, catfish are becoming the dominant species and we have to get to grips with them,” Mark revealed.
“It took us several years to win on a carassio venue – now we have to do the same with cats. That’s why we’re off to France for a few days next year to fish catfish venues and get that knowledge under our belts. You could see in the teams above us how important cats are – the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia and Serbia all did well because they all fish for cats each weekend.”
Team result: 1 Serbia, 31.5pts; 2 Italy, 42; 3 Czech Republic, 47; 4 Slovenia, 53; 5 France, 54; 6 Team England, 57; 7 Austria, 58; 8 Croatia, 59.5; 9 Slovakia, 60; 10 Hungary, 61; 11 Netherlands, 64; 12 Poland, 65; 13 Belgium, 70;
14 San Marino, 71; 15 Spain, 75.5; 16 Bulgaria, 79; 17 Portugal, 82; 18 Romania, 101; 19 Luxembourg, 102; 20 Switzerland, 104; 21 Germany, 106; 22 Ireland, 108.5; 23 Lithuania, 109.5; 24 Ukraine, 114.5; 25 Bosnia & Herzegovina, 117.5;26 Scotland, 122; 27 North Macedonia, 123.5; 28 Finland,127; 29 Montenegro, 132; 30 Wales, 136; 31 Denmark, 140;32 Channel Islands, 145; 33 Sweden, 148.
Individual result: 1 M Pongrac, Croatia, 3pts (19-345); 2 M Kmetec, Slovenia, 3 (15-595); 3 B Csoregi, Hungary, 3 (15-065); 4 J Dent, Team England, 3 (13-770); 5 N Markovic, Serbia, 4 (15-470); 6 O Pokorny, Czech Republic, 4 (14-755).