Marlow's The Man!
Leicester's Pete tops the Division Two National.
To catch 100lb from a natural venue in England is an achievement; to win a National Championship with over 50 kilos of bream is nothing short of incredible – but this is exactly what Pete Marlow achieved in Saturday's Division Two National on the Great Ouse.
In the team stakes, it was Devizes Angling Association that topped a strong field, with a 243-point score – beating Garbolino Blackhorse and Maver Bait Tech by just a single point. The team, made up of G Williamson, N Baker, K Rowles, A McTiffin, J Carty, N Franks, A Carter, R Guy, D Clapton and R Kepner averaged 24 points out of a possible 33.
Adam Carter, Team Captain for Devizes AA said “All of the team practiced 2-3 times in the month building up to the National, but given the distance we didn’t think practicing any earlier than this would be of benefit as venues can change too much. The first practices showed how hard the venue could be and although we found a few fish nothing was consistent. Further practices helped come up with the plan for the match. We fished the whip between 2 and 5m with ‘slop and squatt’ to try and avoid blanks. A pole line at 11-13m was meant to be the main line for roach, hybrids and skimmers, but practices had shown this line didn’t always produce. We also had a 7-8m line for eels or tench and a feeder line across.
We all knew that we might need a combination of all these lines for good points, but in some cases we might have to rely just on the whip line. The plan was to put a fish in the net before doing anything else so this meant trying the whip line first. We then had a look for something on the feeder for 20 minutes before trying the pole line. If the pole line didn’t produce we were back on the whip rig scratching for bites and occasionally trying the other lines.”
“We’re obviously really pleased to have won. We thought a top 10 promotion place was possible, but when we heard only 4 teams would be promoted this task got harder. Having done a quick tally after the match we thought we had done well but, a couple of people only looked at their place on one board not both, so when we heard how many points fourth place had we thought we had missed out. To go from that to hearing we had won surprised everyone in the team and everyone probably noticed that by all the cheering! We've definitely improved as a team over the last couple of years and this is a great reward... it certainly makes all the miles accumulated practicing worthwhile.”
For the individual winner, Pete, groundbait feeder proved the key tactic. Throwing just short of the far-bank lillies, Pete had his first 4lb slab after just half an hour. Fishing a groundbait mix of brown crumb and Marakyu Luxus, laced with chopped worms, casters and micro pellets, the more Pete fed the stronger his peg became. As the end of the match approached, his peg was stronger than ever, and he took a further nine fish in the last hour of the match. It was a similar story for Grimsby-based Nigel Grindle, who took second spot with 35-600 and Paul Ripley who took third spot from the pegs next to Pete, sharing his shoal of bream.
Anglers were quick to praise the Angling Trust on a well-run match – though some teams were left disappointed when it was announced at the presentation that only four teams were promoted – normally eight would have been moved up to the first division. The move is in keeping with the Trust's plans to get the same number of teams in each division. The four teams moving up to Division One were confirmed as: Devizes AA, Garbolino Blackhorse, Maver Bait Tech and Pelham Piscatorials.
To catch 100lb from a natural venue in England is an achievement; to win a National Championship with over 50 kilos of bream is nothing short of incredible – but this is exactly what Pete Marlow achieved in Saturday's Division Two National on the Great Ouse.
In the team stakes, it was Devizes Angling Association that topped a strong field, with a 243-point score – beating Garbolino Blackhorse and Maver Bait Tech by just a single point. The team, made up of G Williamson, N Baker, K Rowles, A McTiffin, J Carty, N Franks, A Carter, R Guy, D Clapton and R Kepner averaged 24 points out of a possible 33.
Adam Carter, Team Captain for Devizes AA said “All of the team practiced 2-3 times in the month building up to the National, but given the distance we didn’t think practicing any earlier than this would be of benefit as venues can change too much. The first practices showed how hard the venue could be and although we found a few fish nothing was consistent. Further practices helped come up with the plan for the match. We fished the whip between 2 and 5m with ‘slop and squatt’ to try and avoid blanks. A pole line at 11-13m was meant to be the main line for roach, hybrids and skimmers, but practices had shown this line didn’t always produce. We also had a 7-8m line for eels or tench and a feeder line across.
We all knew that we might need a combination of all these lines for good points, but in some cases we might have to rely just on the whip line. The plan was to put a fish in the net before doing anything else so this meant trying the whip line first. We then had a look for something on the feeder for 20 minutes before trying the pole line. If the pole line didn’t produce we were back on the whip rig scratching for bites and occasionally trying the other lines.”
“We’re obviously really pleased to have won. We thought a top 10 promotion place was possible, but when we heard only 4 teams would be promoted this task got harder. Having done a quick tally after the match we thought we had done well but, a couple of people only looked at their place on one board not both, so when we heard how many points fourth place had we thought we had missed out. To go from that to hearing we had won surprised everyone in the team and everyone probably noticed that by all the cheering! We've definitely improved as a team over the last couple of years and this is a great reward... it certainly makes all the miles accumulated practicing worthwhile.”
For the individual winner, Pete, groundbait feeder proved the key tactic. Throwing just short of the far-bank lillies, Pete had his first 4lb slab after just half an hour. Fishing a groundbait mix of brown crumb and Marakyu Luxus, laced with chopped worms, casters and micro pellets, the more Pete fed the stronger his peg became. As the end of the match approached, his peg was stronger than ever, and he took a further nine fish in the last hour of the match. It was a similar story for Grimsby-based Nigel Grindle, who took second spot with 35-600 and Paul Ripley who took third spot from the pegs next to Pete, sharing his shoal of bream.
Anglers were quick to praise the Angling Trust on a well-run match – though some teams were left disappointed when it was announced at the presentation that only four teams were promoted – normally eight would have been moved up to the first division. The move is in keeping with the Trust's plans to get the same number of teams in each division. The four teams moving up to Division One were confirmed as: Devizes AA, Garbolino Blackhorse, Maver Bait Tech and Pelham Piscatorials.
- Log in or register to post comments
LATEST VIDEO
| Gear Reviews |  |
Articles | |
More Links Shop | |
Subscriptions | |
Resources |
