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First And Second Place For English Teams, And Individual Victory For Alex Bones
English feeder teams have taken first and second place in the Van Den Eydne Matrix International Feeder Fishing Challenge, on Belgium’s Gent to Terneuzon Canal.

Captain of the winning England Green Team, Match Fishing Editor Alex Bones, also lead from the front – taking individual victory with a perfect two-point score.

His team, made up of Rob Wootton (who finished second overall), Grant Albutt, Adam Rooney and Adam Wakelin, had just 15 points after the first day –  leaving the other squads with everything to do if they wanted to beat them.

Alex explained: “England team manager, Tommy Pickering left it to each of the three teams to formulate their own tactics – and fortunately, I think we got things pretty much right.  

"The fishing was extremely hard but, interestingly, there was a plethora of different species to target, including roach, skimmers, rockfish, perch, and zander! When you struck into a bite, you were never quite sure what was going to be on the end, I even caught a crab one day!

"There were definitely things to be worked out, though, and the key was timing. We worked out that there were certain windows in the day when bites would materialise, and the key was making sure that lines were primed, so that we could make the most of these ‘catching windows’ when they arose. With the fishing being so hard, bloodworm and joker also played a key part in our attack.

"I would say, without question, that captaining the team to victory is my biggest angling achievement to date, and to take individual glory on the top of that is just phenomenal.”

Preston Innovations England Feeder Team Manager, Tommy Pickering, added: “I am over the moon with the way that the event has gone for us – full credit to all 15 of the lads, they have all performed brilliantly. I didn’t fish myself this weekend, and took the opportunity to walk the bank and watch the anglers – and I couldn’t have been more impressed with what I saw.

"Back when the feeder team was in its infancy, I expected to be fishing in the team myself until I was 80 – as I couldn’t see where any good anglers to replace the initial squad that I put out were going to come from. This weekend, I have well and truly had to eat my words. The lads have all proved that they are adapting to the international way of fishing.

"Pleasingly, there is also lots of competition between the teams – which keeps people on their toes, and stops anglers from resting on their laurels.

"Stand out performances for me came from Alex Bones, who won the event individually, and section winners, Mick Vials and Glenn Lawrence – with the three of them also doing a great job captaining the three teams.

"All in all it was an awesome collective performance, though, and I couldn’t be more happy with the way that things are going.”

Anglers present were:

England Blue (Second Place)
Mick Vials, Darren Cox, Steve Ringer, Phil Ringer, Dean Barlow.

England Green (First Place)
Alex Bones, Rob Wootton, Adam Rooney, Grant Albutt, Adam Wakelin.

England Black (Seventh Place)
Glenn Lawrence, Nick Speed, Wayne Bartholomew, Will Freeman, Eddie Brydon.