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| FROM THE BRITISH PIKE SQUAD 2004, 13th International Pike Championship's - Ireland v Great Britain The beginning of October saw annual International pike championships between Ireland and Great Britain take place for the first time at County Roscommon. With both squads receiving a warm welcome from the locals from Roscommon town we were set to enjoy the atmosphere and camaraderie that has grown up between the two nations over the past 13 years since the inaugural meeting between the two back in 1992 at Mullingar. The
British squad arrived in Ireland on the Thursday to be greeted to some fantastic
Irish weather for the time of year, yes it was raining - and with some real attitude!
In fact there had been a prolonged period over the previous few weeks of heavy
rain, and reports on the rivers condition showed that the river was only just
fining down after flooding. Not ideal conditions for fishing! A leisurely drive
saw us arrive at the hotel in mid-afternoon and so we settled down with one of
the Irish lads for a few beers and good hearted banter and a smashing evening
meal. That evening saw the entire Irish squad arrive at the hotel and meet up with us for a few beers and some great banter. With many new faces on the Irish squad this year, it was a chance for all of us to make many new friendships. Indeed many of the two sides stewards shared more than just a few beers together, with some staying out of their beds until just an hour or two before breakfast. Brave souls indeed with a long day ahead of us. The first day of the International was to be a sit down pegged match on a stretch the Irish called the "Deep bends" on the River Suck. Some of the areas fished had depths to over 35ft deep. Conditions made this a very trying day for competitors on both sides, with gale force winds and non-stop driving rain. This meant that even with a 2oz lead most competitors could not reach the areas that were known to be hot spots. I myself stood behind young Carl Melbourne for most of the day and at times whilst up to the chest in water it felt like we were fishing an ocean. The day had also been an indoctrination of fire for our first ever female qualifier; Sue Waller who was also situated on a very windy bend. At the end of the day Ireland held a lead over Great Britain by 40lbs. A weight that was still within reach of Team GB. The
second day saw the anglers fishing the much-preferred one-rod roving match. Due
to the excessive rain from the previous few days though the Suck was running high
and tearing through. However, both Teams started well with anglers at both ends
of the Match length catching a few fish. Most of the fish were coming from the
near bank although some of the bigger bends and pools were being fished on both
the wobble and float with both methods taking fish. At the end of the day the
Irish had managed to maintain and further their lead, with a total lead of just
over 60 pounds ahead of the British Squad; but with just one fish more than the
British. Unfortunately for us, we were unable to make it three wins on the trot,
but there is always next year to get the cup back into British hands. The Sunday saw totally changed conditions. NO RAIN. However, due to the amount of rain we did have on the Friday the River had risen and was absolutely gushing through which meant a very hard day for most competitors. The smaller chocolate brown drain situated alongside the main river was to be the main provider, as this produced most fish on the day. In total 54 fish for a total weight of 275 pounds and 12 ounces were caught, with 17 anglers blanking on the day. The result of this was a change of the look at the top of the Leader board, with myself Wayne Gorringe having over 30lbs of fish on the day, Bob Belcher 21lbs and three others taking over 17lbs of fish each. Therefore, the team that will be representing Great Britain against the Irish squad, which will be staged at Loughborough in Britain next year will be as follows:
2005 British Pike Squad Reserves
are: Chris
Tingley and Chris Puddefoot both caught the same number of fish and for the same
weight, but Chris Tingley had the heaviest fish of the pair and therefore went
through to the team. Although the weather cost a lot of people the chance to catch fish, it was nice to hear the many new faces saying how much they enjoyed the weekend. We are hopefully looking to launch our own web site in the near future which will enable more anglers to find out about the BPS, see how and what we are doing, and hopefully gain an official sponsor. This will help us to promote this branch of pike angling throughout Britain, and give many other pike anglers the chance of representing their nation in competition against the Irish; and hopefully other nations shortly. Anyone interested in trying their luck for the International in Ireland in two years time should come along to the qualifier or get in touch with any of the email addresses provided below. waynegorringe9876.fsnet.co.uk mike.skipper@btinternet.com frankscott22@hotmail.com soarvalley.pac@ntlworld.com Full results of the International can be found here (pdf file). |
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