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FROM THE BRITISH PIKE SQUAD 12th International Pike Championships. Great Britain vs. Ireland. 4th & 5th of October, 2003. Last weekend saw the 12th yearly Home International Pike Championships between Great Britain and Ireland held over two days on the Fens with both squads being based at Whittlesey. The first day of the competition saw the two teams of ten anglers fishing a two rod pegged down match on the beautiful lake complex at St Ives, where, due to over-bright and warm conditions only 21 fish were landed. Top weight on day one was Irish angler George Dillon with two double figure fish for 21 pounds and 8 ounces. The largest pike of the day fell to British Team member John Ward which weighed in at 15 pounds and 6 ounces. However Great Britain had the better of the day and ended the day 21 pounds 10 ounces ahead. Sunday saw the two teams fish a 1 rod roving match on the Old Bedford at Mepal. A match that has traditionally favoured the Irish who are experts at fishing the " wobble " or sink and draw method. Using a natural dead - bait and making the bait act like an injured or dying fish, anglers will cover miles of river in a day searching for feeding Pike. British Pike anglers have caught on to this method over the years and have slowly caught the Irish up on n what is without doubt one of the most skilful methods of pike angling there is. Come the start of the match, the anglers quickly dispersed with many of the British Squad disappearing up river as fast as they could walk, heading for one of the known hotspots with a few of the Irish in hot pursuit. The bulk of squad however worked their way from the middle section slowly upstream and a few pulled some Irish anglers in the opposite direction to deliberately draw them away from the known areas. Of those who were working their way up river, it was the Irish who who found the fish first, with David Denis catching 3 fish in quick succession and Pat Gorman adding 2 more. The slender lead that the British team had from day one was quickly eaten away. Just as things started to look painful for the Brits news came through that members who had gone way up river were catching and one or two decent fish had been caught by them. Just as the fish had come on the feed up river so the fish in front of the Irish went quiet. Meanwhile local angler Wayne Gorringe from Doddington was working the middle reaches of the river carefully searching out all the likely areas that pike may be laying up and was starting to amass a useful weight of fish. Wayne ended the day on 8 fish for a total of 42 pounds and 1 ounce, added to the first days fish which weighed over 3 pounds Wayne ended the two days with 45 pounds and 13 ounces. and top overall angler. This catch with other back up weights which included 2 x 30 pound bags and 3 x 20 plus bags helped Great Britain secure a win by a margin of 90 pounds and 13 ounces over the two days of competition. After 12 years of competition between the two sides, Great Britain had gained their first ever back to back victory over the Irish. The previous year was in Kiltymagh in County Mayo, Ireland last year when Britain amassed their biggest ever winning margin of 101 pounds and 2 ounces (as reported on the PAC web site last year). To beat the Irish on the wobble two years on the trot is down to exceptional team spirit and team tactics. This meant that some of the Team knew that they would have had no chance of winning top overall angler but due to their tactics managed to draw people away and assist the team in winning which was the main goal. Next year's British Pike squad will be in Ireland and the qualifier for this event is on the Friday and Sunday 17th and 19th of October. By the time this is to print (hopefully). The selection process of the the top ten from this qualifier and the two reserves will have already been secured. If anyone is interested in finding out more of how to compete fro the positions, learning the method or sponsoring the team in Ireland they can contact me, Mike Skipper, at the following address: Mike Skipper Team Manager British Pike Squad 38 Appledore Close Eastbourne East Sussex BN23 7JE or Wayne Gorringe via e-mail at: wayne@gorringe9876.fsnet.co.uk BACK TO NEWS INDEX

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